Those Who Came Before Read online

  “But won’t the smoke hurt us if there’s something wrong with it? We’ll breathe it in.”

  “It’s fine. It’s an ordinary tree, a tree that will keep us warm and help cook our dinner. Let’s get those tents set up.”

  I was keen to change the subject, and not simply because I wanted firewood. There was something about the tree that bothered me too, but that was silly. As I dragged the nylon tent sacks out of my truck and handed them to the women, I couldn’t stop thinking about the pain that had spread through my fingers like flames.

  The thought of going near that tree again gave me the creeps, but I knew I was being ridiculous.

  It was only a tree.

  Still, I hoped Dan wouldn’t need my help.

  Chapter Two

  Not even a bonfire could thaw the ice surrounding my girlfriend.

  We had the accouterments of an awesome evening: great food, a roaring campfire, cold beer, but none of it was working. We ate in stony silence. Somehow, the bitterness between Jessica and me had infected Kira and Dan.

  The four of us stared into the flames, unable to think of anything safe to talk about. Thankfully, the hotly contested tree burned like any other. I’d kicked things off with the DO NOT BURN TREES FOR FIREWOOD sign, but only Dan appeared to appreciate my sense of humor.

  “I think I’m going to bed.” Kira stood up and stretched. “I’d like to say it’s been fun, but it really hasn’t been.”

  Jessica leapt to her feet as if she’d been waiting for her cue. “Me too.”

  “I’ll be right in, babe. Just going to finish my beer.” Jess and I may have had our differences, but if there’s one thing we did well, it was makeup sex. That and the beer would go a long way toward making this trip tolerable.

  “Get in whenever you want. I’m staying with Kira tonight.”

  “What?” I’d known she was pissed, but she’d never been that mad before.

  “Yeah, what?” Dan sounded as happy about the situation as I was.

  “My girl needs some space and I told her it would be okay. The two of you can bunk together. It’ll give you some time to bond.”

  I heard the snicker in Kira’s voice and didn’t appreciate it. This wasn’t what I’d had in mind. Fuck.

  With a slither of nylon and the finality of the tent zipper closing, they were gone. From time to time, we could hear giggling. Their foul mood had disappeared as soon as they’d ditched us.

  There went my fleeting attraction to Kira. Bitches, I thought, sipping my lukewarm beer. Who needs them?

  After a few minutes, Dan broke the silence.

  “Well, this sucks.”

  I burst out laughing. “Yeah, it does. Why did we come here again?”

  “Beats me. I certainly wasn’t planning on curling up in a tent with you. Not that you’re not cute. You’re just not my type.”

  “I understand. I’m not looking for any Brokeback moments myself.”

  Dan tipped his bottle at me. “That’s a relief.”

  “You did a great job with that tree. A little appreciation would have been nice.” To my surprise and relief, Dan hadn’t needed my help a bit. The man was a machine.

  “And you did a great job with the fire.” He nudged a charred log into the flames with his foot, setting off an explosion of sparks.

  “Thanks.” I hadn’t expected Jessica and Kira to rave over my Boy Scout skills, but they hadn’t even acknowledged our hard work. If it hadn’t been for us, they would have been reduced to eating cold SpaghettiOs out of a can. There was still plenty of tree left over for the elusive birds and squirrels, assuming they wanted any.

  “I know it’s a pain, but what would you think of leaving early?” Dan asked.

  “Like the second we get up? I think that’s a grand idea.” There were lots of things I could do with a long weekend that would be more enjoyable than this camping trip. Grout my tile, for instance.

  After draining the rest of his beer, Dan tossed the bottle into the fire. “I’m going to brush my teeth and turn in. The faster I go to sleep, the faster it’ll be morning and we can get the hell out of here.”

  I’d been tempted to forego the teeth brushing in favor of crawling into the tent and crashing. The smoke from the campfire made my head spin, or maybe that was the beer. All I wanted was to go to bed, but I didn’t want to gross out my new roommate. Sleeping side by side in a two-man tent was already going to test our friendship.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “Nah, someone should stay with the girls. I’ll be back in ten.”

  As soon as Dan left, the air felt colder. I shivered, zipping my fleece closed. Usually I could stare at a fire for hours, but even that had lost its appeal. Banking it so it wouldn’t become a blazing inferno while we slept, I was careful not to touch the logs with anything other than the sole of my boot.

  Reese.

  I spun around, startled, as someone breathed my name against my neck. Goose bumps sprouted along my spine. When I saw no one was there, I rolled my eyes.

  “Very funny, ladies.”

  There was no answer, not that I’d expected one.

  A chill crept into my feet, traveling up my legs and making me feel like it was winter instead of fall. As I stamped my feet to warm them, I wondered what was taking Dan so damn long. Surely it had been more than ten minutes?

  You’re not welcome here.

  This time I looked over my shoulder as fast as I could, but I was too slow. Nothing greeted me but darkness.

  “Okay, knock it off. I’m not in the mood to play games.”

  “Then tell Dan to stop playing with you,” Kira called from the tent, inciting new giggles from Jessica.

  Shit. Both women were in the tent? Then maybe Dan – nah, if Dan were trying to freak me out, he wouldn’t breathe against my neck. That was a little too…Brokeback.

  At that moment, the man himself came crashing through the bush, making me jump.

  “Sorry, did I scare you?”

  “No more than usual.”

  “The womenfolk are okay?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  He grinned and handed me the Maglite. “Better than the alternative. Can’t live with ’em, but can’t live without ’em, right? I’m going to bed. It’s all yours.”

  I was tempted to ask him to go with me, even though he’d think I was crazy. What the hell was I worried about, and why was I jumping at shadows?

  For Christ’s sake, Reese, get a hold of yourself. You’re too old to be afraid of the dark.

  Even so, I tucked Dan’s flashlight into my back pocket. Better safe than sorry.

  * * *

  I woke up gasping, unable to catch my breath.

  Drip…drip…drip.

  The tent was an oven. How long had the sun been up? I was suffocating in a nylon prison, my sleeping bag having acquired a stranglehold on my neck during the night.

  Drip…drip…drip.

  Great. The tent was leaking. It must have rained. The campsite was eerily quiet. Why didn’t anyone wake me?

  Drip…drip…drip.

  Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I studied the nylon ceiling. Dan had committed the ultimate sin of camping. His tent was dark blue, almost black. No wonder it felt like I’d been cooked alive.

  It was stained too. Great patches of something dark dotted the ceiling and the walls. Some of them were still moist, and that was where the dripping sound was coming from.

  Drip…drip…drip.

  Liquid spattered on my nose, and I shot upright, wrestling with the sleeping bag. Panic squeezed my chest when the zipper stuck, but in a few seconds I was able to work it free.

  As I wiped the water off my face, I caught a glimpse of my hand. It was red. Bright red.

  That isn’t water.

  I patted my head and face, sear
ching for a wound. Sometime during the night, something must have cut me. It was too much blood for a mosquito bite.

  Shaken, I crawled out of my sleeping bag, desperate to join the others. I couldn’t find anything wrong, and I wasn’t in pain, but they would see the injury, whatever it was. Maybe they knew what had happened, but why had they left me alone?

  My nose was always stuffy in the morning, but by now it had cleared enough that I could smell my own blood. Thick and heavy, with the sour tang of old pennies. Inexplicably, my mouth watered. My stomach churned.

  It was then I noticed the other sleeping bag. Dan must have had an uneasy night too – his mummy bag was wrapped around him. Only a tuft of dark hair peeked out the top. At least he hadn’t abandoned me. I was grateful I’d kept the keys to the truck in my pocket. I wouldn’t have put it past the girls to drive back to the city and leave us stranded.

  “Dan,” I whispered. “Dan, something’s wrong with me. I think I’m hurt.”

  He didn’t move. Odd. Hadn’t he joked the night before about being a light sleeper?

  I stared at him, watching for the slightest movement, but he was completely still. The silence grew more ominous.

  “Dan?”

  Reaching out to touch his arm, I stopped. What if he wanted to sleep in? What if he got pissed at me for waking him?

  As I continued to study my roommate, a chill came over me in spite of the heat.

  I can’t see him breathe.

  “Dan!” Grabbing him by the shoulder, I shook him. To my shock, he tumbled out of his sleeping bag.

  Or at least, what was left of him did.

  As I knelt there in horror, too stunned to move or call for help, the severed head of Dan McGraw rolled over to rest against my knee. His eyes were huge and terrified. Vocal cords trailed out of his neck like the tentacles of a jellyfish.

  A spot of blood bloomed on the leg of my jeans where Dan’s head touched me, as if what had happened to him was contagious. Trembling, I kicked him away. His head wobbled across the tent and came to a rest against the far wall. His dark eyes stared at me, accusing.

  You’re not welcome here.

  I screamed.

  Drip…drip…drip.

  Chapter Three

  Maria Greyeyes sized up the young man sitting across from her. Even though she’d turned the heat up twice, he was still shaking. He pulled the foil blanket tighter around him before clutching the cup of steaming coffee she’d given him. They’d been in her office for an hour, and he’d yet to drink a drop. She just kept bringing him a fresh cup whenever the one he was holding cooled off.

  “What was your relationship with Ms. McCaffrey?”

  He flinched, and Maria suspected he was visualizing the last time he’d seen his girlfriend.

  “I told you – I was dating her.”

  “For how long?” She kept her tone casual. She didn’t think this kid had it in him to tear his girlfriend and her friends apart, but no one had suspected Ted Bundy was slaughtering women on his days off from the crisis hotline, either. You never knew. Maria would never forget the face of an angelic ten-year-old boy who’d sobbed uncontrollably after his mother committed suicide. No matter what the evidence had indicated, she’d believed him, right until the moment he’d confessed to shooting his mother. She’d vowed that day to never again be fooled by appearances.

  “About three months.”

  “You seem very upset for three months.”

  The young man gaped at her, his eyes widening as if she’d hit him. Shadows stood out on his pale face. He could play the wounded victim with her, but he couldn’t fake the pallor of his skin. Still, maybe he was human enough to be horrified by what he’d done.

  “You were out there – you saw…what they…what they did to her. Even if I’d never seen her before in my life I’d be devastated.”

  Maria leaned forward in her chair. Her mind, trained for years to catch subtleties most people never noticed, had sounded an alarm. “Who are they, Reese?”

  He lowered his gaze to the table, bringing a hand up to shield his forehead, as if the weak glow of the fluorescents hurt his eyes. “I don’t know.”

  “But you said ‘they’. You must know something. There’s no evidence of two assailants at the scene.”

  There wasn’t evidence of anyone at the scene except Reese and his friends, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Not yet, in any case. However, to commit such a crime on one’s own would require superhuman strength. Had Reese gotten his friend Dan to help, and then killed the young man to keep him silent?

  She didn’t believe it. Maria had witnessed a lot of terrible things in her twelve years as an investigator, but she’d never experienced a crime scene that rivaled this one in terms of sheer violence. Even with keeping the Ted Bundy factor in mind, she couldn’t picture this man being capable of the level of bloodthirsty frenzy these murders had required.

  “Did you have a good relationship?”

  Reese looked at her in surprise, but glanced away as quickly. “It was all right.”

  She’d talked to him for an hour now, and this was the one time Maria had seen him appear guilty. “This will go better for you if you tell me the truth.”

  “If I tell you the truth, you’ll think I did it.”

  “Not necessarily, but if you lie to me about this, I’ll wonder what else you’re hiding.”

  He chewed on the skin of one of his fingers for a moment. Nervous habit. It obviously wasn’t a new one, because the skin around each of his nails was ragged. “Okay, maybe we weren’t getting along so well.”

  “You’re going to have to give me more than that, Reese.” She kept her voice soft, hoping she could get the information she needed without lawyers getting involved. As soon as a lawyer was in the mix, he’d never talk to her so directly again.

  “She – she wasn’t always an easy person to like. I mean, I’m not blaming her for everything. I did some stuff that pushed her buttons too. But she’s a hard woman sometimes.”

  Not anymore. Maria forced herself not to think of the torture the young woman must have gone through. She had to focus on the task at hand. Later that evening, when she was home and the smell of the blood had been washed from her hair, then she could mourn the victims. Right now, the best thing she could do was find the person who’d killed her.

  “Why did you stay with her if you weren’t getting along?”

  He shrugged, and she saw the briefest hint of color come into his cheeks. “You know.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t.”

  “We were—” Reese blew out a frustrated breath. “Geez, do I have to say it? We were pretty compatible in the sack.”

  Maria had to concentrate on taking deep breaths of her own. Her fingers tightened, but she forced them to relax. It was all she could do not to smack him. That poor young woman had been savaged, and it turned out she’d spent her last hours with someone who only valued her for what she could do for him in bed.

  “I realize that sounds bad,” he said, making her wonder if her disgust had been obvious. “But I’m not a total creep. I was going to break up with her after the camping trip.”

  “Why wait? Why not do it before?”

  “I’d thought about it. But she was so excited about the trip. It was supposed to be our last bit of fun before we had to grow up and get real.” His voice trailed off, and she knew the reality of the situation had begun to sink in. “Shit.”

  “You recently graduated?”

  “Yeah, in June. We met at college – or, rather, I met Jessica and she introduced me to Dan and Kira. They were her friends.” The color drained from his face again. “Kira – did you find her? Is she—?”

  “I’m sorry,” Maria said, softened by his obvious distress. “She didn’t make it.”

  She didn’t make it. That was one way of putting it. Once
she got over the shock of seeing Jessica McCaffrey’s body, Maria had thought it was the worst thing she’d ever witness in her career.

  She’d been wrong.

  “Shit,” Reese said again, his voice breaking. He curled his upper body into a fetal position, fingers tearing at his hair, clawing at his scalp. “This is so fucked up.” His body shook with sobs.

  “I’m sorry.” This time she meant it. She was pretty sure by now that this kid wasn’t her killer. His despair and shock were too real. Maria couldn’t help but notice the news of the other girl’s death had affected him much more than what had happened to his girlfriend.

  Once again her heart went out to Jessica. Men were such shits sometimes. Especially young men.

  As she waited for him to calm down, Maria refilled Reese’s coffee cup and got some water for herself. She could barely choke it down, but her mouth felt coated with ash. She needed something.

  “Can I call my parents?” Reese lifted his tear-streaked face. “I need to talk to my parents.”

  “We already called them. They’re on their way. I have a few more questions.”

  He nodded, but she noticed how he slumped in his chair, resigned. She didn’t blame him. She was the investigator and she didn’t want to talk about it, either.

  “What was going on with Kira, Reese?”

  His head shot up. Now she had his attention. “What do you mean? Nothing was going on. She was with Dan.”

  “I find it interesting that your biggest outpouring of emotion was when you found out she was dead. Not when we discussed your own girlfriend, but when you heard about Kira.”

  “I’m messed up about all of them.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched, and Maria knew she’d hit a nerve.

  “Put yourself in my place. How would you feel if you went camping with your friends, and the next morning everyone was dead? And not just dead, but—” He shook his head. “They were my friends, and someone ripped them apart. Fucking ripped them apart. How do you think I feel?”

  “That brings up another question. How did you not hear anything? There must have been a lot of noise. There would have been screaming….”