Rear-View Murder: A Gemma Stone Cozy Mystery (3 page)

It occurred to her that this was an engagement ring. She’d never seen one quite like this but Holly had taught her a lot about precious stones and jewelry design over the past year. This was exquisite and probably quite expensive. Maybe even an original piece. She tucked it safely in the pocket of her jeans, knowing that when Holly saw it she would be able to tell her more.

But first, she had to finish cleaning out this trunk. Making a face, Gemma tugged at the next garment. It was a little more difficult to pull out, almost as if it was wedged under something. Finally, it came loose with a ripping sound and she quickly tossed it into the dumpster.

Then she turned back to the car, wondering just how much stuff was in there and why it was all still in the trunk. Buddy obviously didn’t clean the car inside and...

A hand.

Gemma blinked, looked again. The hand was still there, almost as if it was reaching for her.

G
emma simply stood there staring at the hand for a moment, sure she really wasn’t seeing this. The hand was mostly bones that looked like withered twigs but the fingers were splayed as if they’d been pushing against this pile of garments for a long, long time. She decided it must be a joke. Maybe a mannequin or just a dummy hand. Knowing Buddy, he probably put it in there just to scare her.

But she couldn’t bring herself to touch it. In fact, she couldn’t bring herself to touch another thing in the trunk of this car.

Taking little side steps, Gemma made it to the front of her car, opened the door and snatched her phone off the console. With shaking fingers, she dialed Nick’s number.

“Hey, sweetie,” he answered on the first ring. “Still out joy riding...?”

“Nick, I need you to come here right now,” Gemma said, her voice low and shaky as she returned to where the trunk lid remained open. “I’m at Martin’s, over on Richmond Avenue.”

Hearing his voice gave her enough courage to pull some of the smelly fabric away from the hand, but she jerked her fingers away when she realized there was an arm, or what was left of an arm, attached to the hand.

“I’m on my way,” Nick said, all playfulness gone from his voice.

“I’m behind the store next to the dumpsters,” Gemma told him, shivering despite the warm afternoon temperature and trying not to cry. “Please hurry.”

While she waited, Gemma paced back and forth behind the car hugging herself, stopping occasionally to peer into the shadows of the trunk. The dank, rotten smell hovered over the car like a cloud.

Nick arrived moments later, his SUV sliding to a stop just inches from her car. “What is it?” he asked, running toward her, his face clouded with worry. “What’s wrong?”

Gemma simply pointed.

Nick looked into the trunk, stepped forward, and then looked even closer. “Holy...,” he muttered.

“It’s a hand,” Gemma whispered, hoping that maybe he would tell her she was wrong. “Is it real?”

“Yes,” he answered, without looking up. Reaching inside, he moved some of the fabric around.

When he looked at her again, she knew he wasn’t going to tell her anything good.

“It’s a whole body, baby. I’m calling 911.”

“Oh, Nick,” Gemma whimpered, tucking herself in underneath one of his arms while he spoke into his cell. “Oh, Nick.”

By the time the police cars began arriving, Nick had led Gemma away from her little blue car. One officer began draping crime scene tape around the area while another walked around writing in a little notebook and taking pictures with his cell.

A big, black car arrived and an older man dressed in a suit got out. He talked with the police officers who had arrived earlier and then looked inside the trunk. Using what looked like a pencil, he lifted some of the fabric, talked to the officers some more. One of them nodded in Gemma’s direction and he turned to look at them.

“Nick,” he said coming toward them with his hand outstretched.

As a local reporter, Nick seemed to know almost everyone in their small community and was especially close with police, firemen and EMTs.

“Detective Temple,” Nick said and the men shook hands.

The detective had thick gray hair that the breeze ruffled slightly. But it was those deep blue eyes with the lines fanning out on each side that Gemma recognized. He was one of the detectives who came to the house that horrible, horrible stormy night to tell her that both of her parents had died in a car accident. They would need her to identify the bodies. The memory of that night plus the current events made her feel weak and light headed, almost as if she had somehow stepped into a nightmare.

Nick nodded at Gemma. “This is my... This is Gemma Stone. She owns the car.”

“Ma’am,” the detective said quietly. It was obvious he recognized Gemma as well but all he said was, “Let’s step over here out of the way.”

Gemma saw them placing her groceries on the ground outside the car. She knew she would never be able to use them.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Detective Temple asked, his tone quiet, tender.

“I just bought this car today,” Gemma began, watching a uniformed officer go through her groceries. “It had a funny smell, but Buddy said it had just been closed up for so long...”

“Buddy over at Harper’s?” the detective asked, glancing at Nick.

Nick nodded.

“The trunk wouldn’t open so I kicked it. When I got it open, I saw it was full of old coats and blankets and stuff. I decided that was what was making it smell so bad, so I came back here to get rid of them. That’s when I found the...,” Gemma swallowed hard. “That’s when I saw the...”

“It’s okay,” the older man said, gently brushing his fingertips against her upper arm. “You hadn’t looked in the trunk before today?”

Gemma shook her head and tried to stop trembling. “No, sir. I just picked it up this morning and I drove around...”

“Where did you go?” His voice was still as gentle as the look in his eyes.

“I went over to Holly’s house to show her the car...”

“Holly?”

“Holly Blake, my best friend.”

The detective nodded. He pulled out his glasses and a small notebook and began scribbling notes.

“And then where did you go?”

“I just drove around up to Harrisonburg and then back here to the store,” Gemma finished. She was suddenly exhausted.

“Did you leave the car unattended for any length of time?”

Gemma shook her head. “Only while I was in the store here.”

“You took the interstate to Harrisonburg?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, I think I’ve got it from here.”

A van arrived with the words County Coroner stenciled on the side. Gemma watched while a tall, thin man climbed out. He was accompanied by a young woman. They went to her car and slowly removed the last of the garments from the trunk while a nearby police officer placed them in separate bags. They also retrieved the garments she’d placed in the dumpster earlier.

When the young woman returned with a gurney and a body bag, Gemma wanted to look away but found that she couldn’t. As it turned out, it wasn’t necessary. Their bodies blocked her view so that all she could see was them moving carefully, working together to lift what looked like nothing more than a small bundle from the trunk of her car. The sound of that body bag being zipped up was one of the worst sounds she’d ever heard.

“Nick, I’m sure you’re going to want to get this story for the paper,” Detective Temple was saying. “Could I get you to hold off on it until tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Nick said.

“I’m going to have to pay a visit to Buddy, get some paperwork on this car, some background. Why don’t the two of you come to see me tomorrow morning? Say about ten?” He looked from one of them to the other. They both nodded. “I may have some more questions but I’ll definitely have some answers for you then or at least have an idea of how to proceed.”

“Thank you, sir,” Nick said and the men shook hands again.

“Please tell them to take good care of her,” Gemma said as the coroner’s van drove away.

“They won’t hurt the car, honey,” Nick explained.

“We’ll have to impound it for a while until...” Detective Temple began.

Gemma shook her head vigorously, cutting both men short. “The girl. The girl that was in the trunk. Please take care of her.”

“We will,” Detective Temple promised. “We will.”

Gemma sat in Nick’s vehicle, arms crossed in front of her, shivering uncontrollably. She watched him gather her groceries, watched law enforcement and other personnel working on the scene, feeling as if she were in a dream.

“I’m so cold,” she said to Nick when he climbed back in the car.

Reaching into the back seat, he grabbed a jacket and placed it around her shoulders. It carried Nick’s familiar clean crisp scent, calming Gemma somewhat.

“Let’s get you home,” he said, put the SUV in gear and headed for Gemma’s house. As he drove, he called Holly to let her know what had happened.

“Tell her to please come,” Gemma whispered.

Nick did as Gemma requested, ended the call and nodded. “She’ll meet us there.”

Gemma shivered again and pulled the jacket closer around her. The young woman in her trunk - and Gemma was sure she had been a young woman - had been a daughter, a sister, maybe a wife. Death had destroyed yet another family and it made her angry.

Holly was waiting on the front porch when they arrived.

“I’ll get your things out of the car. You go inside,” Nick said to her, speaking as gently as the detective had earlier.

Gemma nodded and climbed out of the car on shaking legs. She felt as if she’d aged a hundred years since she left the house that morning, full of high hopes for the future and excited about her new car. She made it all the way to where Holly waited before she burst into tears.

“Come on inside, honey,” Holly said, taking the keys and unlocking the door.

“I’m so cold,” Gemma whispered between sobs.

Holly grabbed a quilt folded on the end of the sofa and wrapped it tightly around Gemma. Then she sat down and held her, rocking back and forth slightly. How many nights had they sat like this after the death of her parents? Gemma had no idea, she just knew that Holly had been there for her as long as she needed her best friend.

Nick joined them, kneeling on the floor at Gemma’s feet. “I put the groceries away and put water on for some tea. Thought it might warm her up.”

“Good idea,” Holly said. “What happened?”

“Gemma took the car for a drive up to Harrisonburg, came back to town and went to the grocery store. Evidently the trunk wouldn’t open...”

“It looked like someone had tried to pry it open,” Gemma told them. “There were scratches on the lock and dents.”

“So she kicked it. I guess that got it open, but it was full of stuff,” Nick continued.

“Stinky stuff,” Holly said. “That car smelled really bad.”

Nick nodded. “Buddy said it had been sitting for a while. It was a repo. Anyway, she drove around to the back of the store to throw the things into a dumpster and that’s when she uncovered a...the...” His voice faltered.

“Hand,” Gemma said, struggling to focus on their conversation. “There was a human hand sticking up out of the old coats and blankets.”

Holly suddenly looked ill.

“She called me and I looked at it closer. That’s when I realized there was a body in the trunk and called 911,” Nick finished.

A high pitched whistling sound came from the kitchen, startling all of them and Nick dashed off to silence it.

“She’d been in there a long time,” Gemma told Holly. “Her family is probably looking for her.”

“I’m sure they’ll be able to find out who she is through DNA or dental records or something,” Holly assured her, a worried look on her face.

Nick returned with a steaming mug of tea and offered it to her. “Honey and lemon - just the way you like it,” he said.

“Thank you,” Gemma said, taking it in both hands. After a few careful sips, warmth began to spread through her body, making her feel better. By the time the cup was empty, she had stopped shivering and began to relax. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten a thing all day.

Holly and Nick exchanged glances.

“Listen, why don’t I whip up some of my special Nick Leonard spaghetti,” Nick suggested. “Holly, call Mitch and tell him to come over for dinner and bring a bottle of wine.”

“You got it,” Holly said.

Gemma forced a smile. Yes, a small dinner party with her best friends was exactly what she needed to take her mind off of the day’s unhappy events. Her tummy growled again and Nick kissed her cheek.

“Hope you bought stuff for salad,” Nick said.

Gemma nodded. “I did. Let me help with dinner.”

“You don’t have to...”

“No, I need to be busy. I can at least chop veggies,” Gemma said, rising to her feet.

As she predicted, doing something with her hands really did make her feel better. Mitch arrived with wine and when they were all seated at the table, Nick made a small toast.

“To best friends,” he said.

“To best friends,” they all echoed. Gemma took a moment to just be thankful for her little makeshift family.

All through the evening, despite the good conversation, the laughter, great food and the wine, the memory of the girl in the trunk of her car did not stray far from Gemma’s thoughts.

It was nearly midnight when Holly and Mitch left. Gemma stood on the porch and watched them holding hands, not letting go until the last minute when they had to get into separate vehicles. They kissed briefly, Holly giggled and then they were gone.

“Mitch will follow Holly home and make sure she’s safe,” Nick said, coming up behind her on the porch.

Gemma jumped at the sound of his voice and then leaned back into his arms. “Sorry, I guess I’m a little bit nervous.”

“You’re probably exhausted as well,” Nick said, hugging her and kissing the top of her head. “Come on inside.”

“I really appreciate you coming down there today when I called,” Gemma said as Nick led her through the house.

“I’m just happy you called me and not Buddy,” Nick said as he switched off one light after another.