Becoming Forever (Waking Forever Series) (2 page)

Ash took several steps toward the body, and crouched down on her haunches. “Are those bite marks?”

Amanda, who had been writing down the bathroom’s dimensions on her CSI report nodded. “They are, but until I get the saliva analysis back, I’m putting source of the bites as inconclusive.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Cris stood in the doorway.

Clutching her wooden clipboard against her chest, Amanda sighed. “It means, detective, that we can’t assume they’re human. In fact -” the woman knelt down near the body, careful not to touch Ash. “The bite marks are irregular, and like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

Pointing at a particularly pronounced bite near where Paul’s neck and shoulder met, Amanda continued. “The puncture marks where I would expect the incisors to be are inordinately deep, almost as if -”

“The incisors were elongated?” Ash looked at Amanda.

Amanda
nodded her head. “Yes. But if my initial measurements are accurate, the elongation would mean the perpetrator’s incisors would extend beyond the normal human bite radius by nearly a full inch. I’m thinking some type of prosthetic.”

“You mean someone was wearing dentures when they did this?” Cris shook his head. “That’s fucked up.”

Amanda stood up. “Actually, it’s not unheard of. There was a series of vicious murders during the seventies in the northeast Brazilian state of Para where the perpetrator – who was never apprehended - ate chunks of his victims, and it’s assumed wore a metal dental plate that left a bite pattern similar to what a vampire would leave.”

Looking away from the body and at Ash and Cris’ shocked expressions, Amanda cleared her throat. “Not that vampires exist, but if they did the plate would mimic -” Amanda bit the inside of her lower lip
and went back to filling out her report. “Anyway - no sign of forced entry, wallet and other valuables are still on site.”

Cris walked over to the towel rack where a blue bath towel was neatly folded. “Is that blood?

Amanda glanced at the towel. “Yes. We think the assailant showered over the corpse, dried off and then left.”

Ash shuddered. “Then there should be DNA, hair, skin - all over his body?”

Amanda looked at the body. “You would think, but so far we haven’t found so much as a follicle. Not even under the nails.” She made a note on her report. “His nails are shredded though, like he was scratching at something very hard.”

Ash looked at the investigator. “Was he in a box or closet at some point?”

Amanda shrugged. “Not that we can tell.”

Ash shook her head and sighed. Looking at Cris who was
crouched down next to the body. “Does that make sense to you?”

Cris stood up, and frowned. “It’s unreal.”

“Who’s the M.E., Amanda?” Ash continued to look at her partner. She could see from the confused expression on his face that he wasn’t able to make any more sense of this grotesque scene than she was.

Amanda pulled her iPhone out of the pocket of her jacket. “Ah, it’s Dr
. Atman.”

Ash chewed on the inside of her cheek nervously. She had first met D
r. Emma Atman nearly three years ago at what had been one of the worst times in Ash’s life.

Chapter 2

Ash sprinted through the parking lot of the South Texas Medical Center toward the red, irradiated emergency room sign. She slowed down long enough to allow the automated glass doors to slide open, and then ran down the seemingly endless
linoleum tiled hallway. The harsh fluorescent lighting cast a yellowish hue, and made the walls and floor seem surreal.

Glancing side-to-side
, Ash didn’t see her father or brothers in either waiting area. An African American woman who appeared to be at least eighty sat behind a crescent shaped, elevated wooden desk, her face lighted by the computer monitor she stared intently at. Ash took a deep breath before speaking. “Elizabeth Haines? I was told she arrived by ambulance.”

The elderly woman glanced up at Ash, and then back at her monitor. “Let me see.” Ash fought the urge to turn t
he monitor, grab the keyboard and perform the search herself.

“Yes. She’s in bay three. You’ll need a pass to go back.” The woman slowly turned to her left and began sorting through a stack of name tag stickers. “I can print
one for you if you have an identification, and then -”

Ash sighed, unclipped her detective
’s badge and photo ID from her belt, and thrust the badge in front of the octogenarian’s face. “Is this sufficient?”

Before the woman could respond, Ash was briskly walking down the hallway into the emergency room itself. Rounding a corner
, she saw her brother Jason and his wife Katy sitting in narrow chairs against the far wall. Nurses and doctors bustled back and forth.

“Jason. What’s going on?” Ash
crouched down on her haunches in front of her brother and sister-in-law.

Jason shook his head. “I don’t know. We just got here, and they told us she was in with the doctors.”

“Where’s Dad?” Ash stood up and sat next to Jason.

Katy leaned across her husband and took Ash’s hand. “The station nurse said he was back with her.”

Ash looked toward where Katy had gestured and saw James Haines coming around the corner. James’ face was red and his eyes swollen. His usually broad shoulders sagged and his head hung. Without a word, Ash knew her mother was dead.

Jason and Katy
stood in unison, and walked toward James. Ash hesitated. She wanted a few more seconds of hope. Hope that her mother wasn’t dead. Hope that her father wasn’t alone. She watched from what seemed like a hundred feet away, as Jason put his arm around their father’s shoulders and Katy took James’ hand in hers. Ash forced her feet to move through what felt like quicksand, and clutched her father’s other hand.

“What’s happened?” Ash whispered.

James looked up for the first time, his grey eyes filling with tears. “She’s - she’s gone.”

Katy cried out first, and then Jason gasped. Ash felt a wave of heat surge through her body
. The room began to get very hot, and seemed to close in on her. She grabbed her brother’s shoulder to stop the spinning sensation.

“How?” Jason managed through tears.

James shook his head and stared off in the distance. “I had just left for a few minutes, and she was on the floor - I can’t.” James’ chest heaved as he took a deep breath. “She was dead when the ambulance arrived. They have to do an autopsy.” He covered his face with his hands as the sobs ensued.

Ash realized she was crying too, and wiped at her face. “Autopsy? Why?”

James sighed. “They said it’s standard when the death is unaccompanied.” James bit at his lower lip. “I - I had just gone to Starbucks to get her morning coffee.” James looked toward the chairs his daughter, son and daughter-in-law had just vacated. “I need to sit.”

Ash and Katy sat on either side of her father. Jason knelt in front of him, resting a reassuring hand on his father’s knee. Jason cleared his throat and looked at Ash. “Has someone called Michael?”

Katy responded. “I called him when I was driving over.”

As if on cue, Michael
rounded the corner. “Dad. What’s happened?” He stood behind Jason, and looked anxiously between his father and Ash. James could only shake his head.

Ash stood and hugged her younger brother
, whose hazel eyes had already begun to fill with tears. “Mom’s dead.”

Michael leaned away from Ash, his hands on her shoulders. “What? I can’t believe that.”

Jason stood and turned to face Michael. “I know. She’s so healthy and -” Jason’s voice broke and he pulled Michael to him, both men now crying.

Ash sat back down and putting her arm around her father’s shoulders, pulled him to her. “I love you
. We’ll get through this, Dad.”

James looked up at his only daughter, and without saying a word, pulled her to him. “I can’t believe I’ve lost her.”

Ash wrapped her arms around her father. His broad shoulders shook as he cried, his tears soaking through Ash’s thin t-shirt. She had no words, and thought she must be in a type of shock. She had spoken with her mother a few days ago about organizing a bar-b-que at her parents’ house over the weekend. Her mother had been her usual enthusiastic and energetic self.

Elizabeth Haines had raised three children, and
had deftly managed the emotional ups and downs of being married to a firefighter. Ash had always hoped for a relationship like her parents’. They were completely devoted to one another, but still entirely their own people. Her mother was active in her church and growing up, had always been involved in her children’s school activities and sports. Ash couldn’t remember a soccer game or track meet her mother wasn’t at. Always cheering her on. Congratulating her for a victory, or consoling her in defeat.

James and Elizabeth Haines had raised their children to be independent and entirely their own people. So, w
hen Ash was twenty and sat both her parents down to tell them she was a lesbian, she was completely confident their reaction would be positive and supportive.

“We’ve suspected for a
while, sweetie.” Elizabeth had sat a cup of black tea down in front of her daughter, and smiled reassuringly at Ash.

“How long is awhile?” Ash stirred a teaspoon of sugar into her tea.

James and Elizabeth looked at each other, and then James spoke. “We figured you were gay when you and your friend Carla became so close.”

Ash and Carla had been close, but they had never acknowledged feelings beyond friendship for one another
. When Carla got pregnant during their senior year, the two girls had drifted apart. Carla was overwhelmed by the enormous responsibilities she was taking on, and Ash let her go because - if she was honest with herself - the reality of Carla having sex with a man had left Ash feeling rejected.

Ash took a sip of her tea.
“Ironically, Carla and I never -” Ash looked hesitantly at her parents. “We were just friends.”

Elizabeth sat down at the small breakfast table adjacent to their galley style kitchen. “Oh, well
, we assumed.”

Ash chuckled. “You assumed, but never asked
?”

Elizabeth shook her head and looked at her husband. “That was for you to share in your own time. We have a strict policy to never interfere in our children’s romantic
endeavors.”

Ash nearly choked on her tea. “What? You and dad were awful to
Michael’s girlfriend Tanya a few years ago.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Well
, dear, she was a bitch.”

Ash laughed. “Mother!”

Elizabeth grinned. “What? What did I say?” She looked at her husband who sat across the table shaking his head. “Well, she was.”

Ash got up and walked around the table. She knelt between her parents, and rested her arms on the back of their chairs. “I love you both. You’re wonderful, and I’m lucky.”

James turned to face Ash, and put his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “We’re the lucky ones.”

The three stood, and hugged. Ash remembered thinking how differently that exchange could have gone had her parents not been so encouraging. She knew people who had lost their families when they came out, and she never took for granted the  acceptance she found with her own.

Sitting now in the emergency room, Ash’s arms were wrapped around her father because of a very different, far more dire circumstance. Leaning back so she could see his face, Ash managed to speak through her own tears. “I promise, we’ll get through this.” She was only vaguely aware of Katy handing her and James a tissue.

“Mr. Haines?” A tall, portly man in his late fifties, dressed in a lab coat stood just outside the semi-circle the family had formed around James and Ash. “I’m Dr
. Freeman. We talked briefly when they brought Elizabeth in.”

James looked up, and wiped at his eyes with the tissue. “Yes.” Standing, James took Ash’s hand and put his arm around Michael. “These are our children
. Ash, Michael, Jason and his wife Katy.”

Dr
. Freeman nodded and smiled. “I am very sorry for your loss. I know the suddenness of it only adds to your grief.”

Ash wiped at her nose
with a tissue, and squeezed her father’s hand. “What happened?”

“We think, given your mother’s condition when she was brought in
, that she had an aneurysm.” The doctor hesitated. “She more than likely died instantly.”

A sob caught in the back of Ash’s throat, and she leaned into her father. Jason put his arm around her as he continued to hold Katy at his side. He cleared his throat. “
So she wasn’t in pain?”

The doctor shook his head. “More than likely
, no.” Looking at James, the doctor continued. “State law dictates an autopsy be performed, since she was in the home alone at the time of death. That should take about three days, and then she can be released for services.”

Ash had dealt with enough ER doctors in her work to know Dr
. Freeman was one of the better ones. The fact he wasn’t referring to her mother as ‘the body’ put him well above some of his counterparts.