Chapter Text
“Hello.” The voice on the phone was too bright and energetic for 2:23 a.m. But it always seemed to be, whatever the time of day or night. Detective Swan was certainly not bright and energetic. With a well-past-5-o'clock shadow, a crooked tie, and socks that could stand on their own, he felt precisely like the time it was.
“We could use your help again,” he grumbled into the phone as he ducked under the yellow tape. He stepped outside the ring of portable lamps. As his eyes readjusted to the world outside the unnatural glow of the lights, he gave the voice on his phone a quick overview of the scene they illuminated.
“I can be there before sunrise.”
Detective Swan looked down at his watch. He knew the state park where he and his team were set up was at least a couple of hours out of the Twin Cities, but he had doubted the Doctor before, and he had always been proven wrong.
“You sure? Wouldn’t it be all the same for you to wait until we get her back to the morgue?” the detective asked.
“I’d love to see the body as you found it,” the voice continued. “If you can keep your guys at bay a little while longer, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He stuffed his phone back in the inner pocket of his jacket. He paused for a moment, listening to the low murmuring and radio crackles behind him. He’d been on his way out, ending a long day in a series of long days, when he’d been called out to the woods of the local state park. Because he was already in motion, he was one of the first on the scene. A hiker and his dog were returning to the trailhead around dusk when the dog bolted into the bush. The hiker had given chase before stumbling on a gruesome scene just steps off the trail.
A hand landed firmly on his shoulder, breaking his trance.
“Charlie, there you are,” boomed Jason, Charlie’s partner. “Sorry for just getting here now,” he continued. “I had Ellie when I got the call. I had to get a hold of the ex and shuttle her over there before making my way out here. Did I tell you she got this new friend? Well, they went and got a place way out there, damn near Stone Lake. I’d be having a fit, dropping my daughter off in the middle of nowhere with this guy if I hadn’t run the background check myself.”
Detective Jason Myers sported tightly cut blonde hair and a square jaw. He had broad shoulders and a broader smile. He had a naturally warm face that made people feel comfortable, which he often used to his advantage in his work.
“But seriously,” he continued, “if I spent any more time on that old highway, I’d think I was back on traffic duty. Shit, if I knew splitting up was this much work, I’d maybe have tried a little harder to make it work. But you know how that is, right, Charlie?”
Charlie gave a noncommittal mutter of affirmation. Sometimes he wondered if Jason had secretly hoped to be a standup instead of a cop. He could see him in the spotlight, working his good ole boy routine, a routine Charlie thought felt a little too forced at times. The man was roughly a decade his junior and was constantly razzing him about the “old days” of the force. While Jason’s demeanor would have been grating on anyone else, something about his wide smile and twinkling eyes made you feel like you were in on the joke.
“But the good news,” Jason grinned, “I brought coffee.”
Charlie grabbed the warm paper cup, which sported the distinctive logo of the Lion & Lamb, the only late-night coffee shop in the tri-county area. The warm caffeine seemed to pour straight into his bloodstream. Already, he felt more awake and ready for what was about to come.
“Okay,” Jason said, subtly switching off his country boy routine. “What do we have here?”
“We have a female victim, in her late teens or early 20s,” Charlie said. “Her attire suggests that she was out hiking when she ran into whatever did that to her. No wallet, but we have a couple of uniforms checking out the various trailheads in the area to see if we can find a car. From there, hopefully, we can get an ID. Techs are saying it looks like an animal attack, but something about that isn’t quite sitting with me.”
Jason grunted as he feverishly wrote in his small, leatherbound notebook. For all his quirks, Jason was a good cop. Charlie respected that about him. After all, how could he not relate to putting the job above everything else in his life? He knew firsthand the wake of destruction this calling left behind a person.
“The victim seems to have suffered major blunt force traumas and lacerations, there, there, and there.” The pair stood over the body, as Charlie pointed to a pattern of four jagged lines across the woman’s thigh, torso, and shoulder. Her hands are also pretty mangled. Looks like she tried to defend herself. But the techs say that’s not what killed her.”
“Well, if I had to wager,” said Jason, peering over his notebook, “I’d put money on that laceration on her thigh knicking her femoral artery.” The man peered over the slashed leggings and pool of blood.
Charlie nodded. “Or it’s at least what got the job done fastest.”
“I’m not questioning you here, Charlie, but this looks a lot like an animal did this.” Again, Charlie nodded. He was all too well aware of the reports of a big bear in the area. “What makes you so sure this wasn’t the case?” asked Jason.
“Well, I’m not sure about anything, especially this early,” said Charlie. “It’s just something about this that seems off. It’s almost,” he paused a beat, “too perfect. Like if you imagined a mauling, this is what you’d see. I’ve never known an animal to kill in such a neatly chaotic way before.”
“You’ve had a lot of animal perps before?” said Jason, a smug smile creeping across his face. A telltale sign that a bit was coming. “You like one of those cops in that animal city movie Ellie loves. The one with that bunny cop.”
“Strong words from a man who’s never been west of Omaha. You forget I'm from out west. We have a lot of big game out there. I’ve seen what happens when people and livestock run on the wrong side of lions and bears; heck, I’ve even heard stories of what a moose can do from some of my old colleagues who worked in real rural areas. So, yeah, I’d like to think I have some experience with animal attacks.”
They both squinted at the woman on the forest floor in silence. Jason silently reset from the rare rebuke.
“I called in the Doc from the big city,” said Charlie.
“Ah, not that guy,” groaned Jason. “You know he gives me the willies. Something about his eyes.”
“Come on,” said Charlie, “You’re just happy to call this an animal attack and crawl back into bed and sleep soundly, so sure there isn’t someone out there behind this?”
Jason paused before sighing. “This wouldn't be the first time a scene was trying a little too hard to sell us a story. But man, why do you have to call that guy? Aren’t there any other weirdos that like to look at dead bodies around?”
“The guy is one of the best medical examiners in the country,” said Charlie. “We’re lucky to have him so close.” And lucky he seems to have a special interest in our small town. Charlie didn’t understand why this bigshot forensics guy seemed to make time for him and the happenings of the town of Spooner, but he certainly didn’t look this gift horse in the mouth.
“Well, shit. At least give me time to get another coffee in me before I have to see this guy at the morgue.”
This time, Charlie smirked. “Now it's my turn for the good news. He wants to meet us out here.”
“Oh, for God's sake.” Jason mimed, a little too well, storming off, kicking at debris as he went. “You realize it's a good mile and change back to the vehicle. We're all stuck out here.”
And with that, a half-dozen heads snapped to Charlie. The techs groaned as they dropped their preparations to move the body and found various places to camp out around their sliver of artificial day in the seas of darkness, swatting at bugs as they settled in.
Charlie took the grumbling and dirty looks in stride. His job was to solve this case, and he knew the certainly odd, but brilliant, man was his best bet at doing that job right.
The crew eventually gave up their complaints and settled in for the wait. In the absence of the sounds of work, the night started its own symphony. Chirps, hums, and occasional bird calls filled the air. While the conversation quietly ebbed and flowed, Charlie stood a silent vigil over the girl.
In this still moment, he couldn’t help but notice the details that showed how young this woman really was. Under the blood spatters, he saw the freckles dotting her face. He noted how thin her wrists looked and the chipped polish on her nails.
The polish on his daughter’s nails had been chipped in the same way the last time he’d seen her. It was the final day of what he’d just come to realize was his last summer with her. He watched her chew her nails the entire way to MSP airport. She had been quiet this summer, not that this was anything new. He found that the older she got, the less he knew how to relate to her.
It seemed that when he’d left their family home behind in Washington, he’d not just left behind more than the old tree house, fairy garden, and the markings on the wall that showed her growth. He’d left behind the heart of their relationship. The first summer she’d come to visit him in Wisconsin, she was 13. Instead of the little girl he loved so dearly sitting across the breakfast table from him each morning, there was a young woman, who, no matter how deeply he loved, he never quite felt he could connect with, not in the ways he’d known how to.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise that she didn’t want to come back to spend her summer before college with him. The summer she should have been soaking up the final moments with her high school friends, maybe even finding that awkward and intense first love with some clueless boy. She was leaving for college in the fall. Dartmouth. He couldn’t be prouder of her. And he wanted all those memories for her as well. But it was different when he overheard her in the spare room that never really was her’s. He stopped when he heard her on the phone.
“Mom, I’ll land around 3:40. Be sure to set an alarm on your phone.” His heart hurt to know all the ways she’d have to grow up too soon. “Yes, I will. Yes, I did.” He almost turned to go load her suitcases into the car when he heard it.
“Mom, I really should come back next year.” He froze. “I know it’s my senior summer or whatever, but Mom, I can’t let Charlie down.” Hearing his name stung. “You know I want to stay in Arizona, but Mom, he was already talking about what we could do next year, and he just seems so alone here. I know, Mom, I know.” It seemed Renee, his ex, had performed her normal maneuver of taking over a conversation, and Charlie had silently backed away from the door as Bella let out a string of mmhms, yes, and I know.
Not long after, she’d come down the stairs. “Dad!” she called. “Have you seen my bag?”
“Already loaded it.” He replied.
Then they sat in the departures drop-off lane. Silently waiting for the other to take the initiative to begin their goodbyes.
“Thanks, Dad…” she began.
“Look, Bella,” Charlie said. “You know I had a great time with you this summer and love all our time together. I was thinking. Next summer, it’s a big summer. And if you wanted to spend that time with your friends before you head off to college, well, I would miss you, but I’d hate for you to miss out on that time. It’s, it’s a very special time.” He thought back to his own senior summer when a bright, captivating road tripper had blown through his life like a typhoon.
When he finished, he realized his knuckles were white around the steering wheel. He turned to Bella. Her face showed equal parts relief and something else Charlie had a hard time reading; was it disappointment?
“Maybe you could come out for spring break, instead? And I’ll come down for graduation. We’ll get plenty of time together,” he tried.
“Well, spring break, I have that senior service trip to Costa Rica, Dad.” Charlie nodded, remembering her telling him about it. They were going to build houses for orphans, or maybe feral beach dogs, he couldn’t quite remember. “But I appreciate that.” She gave him a half-hearted smile. “We’ll figure it out.”
They hadn’t. There was always a conflict or a case. He remembered the month of unanswered calls and texts after he had to miss her graduation to testify in court.
Then she packed and went to college. Suddenly, her life was even bigger than he could imagine. And the man she barely knew in a small house in rural Wisconsin was just a sliver of her story.
And now this woman lay in the grass and earth in the woods. Who was missing her? What loose threads did she leave behind?
He caught himself pulling out his phone. He pulled up the last message he’d sent to Bella, which sat read and unreplied to. He flicked over to a photo-sharing app, an app he’d only joined to see snippets of her life. She popped up right away because she was the only account he followed. She was kicking off the new semester in the library with aesthetic angles of coffee at study tables and avant-garde portraits of her and her friends around campus. Something in his chest relaxed, although he felt a slight twinge when he noticed a tall, blonde boy standing a bit too close in a few of the photos.
He glanced up to the horizon, seeing if any traces of dawn were visible.
“Yo, when is your man getting here?” a tech called from the fringes of the scene. But Charlie didn’t need to reply.
Something in the air had shifted. With the change of the wind, so did the energy, as if something sweet had come in on the breeze. He noticed the techs seemed to exhale and relax, while Jason suddenly became more agitated. Charlie landed somewhere happily in the middle. A pleasant buzz spread across his skin, as if he’d had an extra beer at Riley’s. A sense of calm washed over him, like coming home after a hard day. But it was paired with a tingle of excitement, like static electricity. As if some part deep within was warning him. Some part screaming that danger was just out of sight.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting.” The hair on the back of Charlie’s neck stood up. He turned to find himself looking into the golden eyes of Dr. Carlisle Cullen.