Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,102
her direction. Ben said Annie always knew everything. No one ever quite knew how.
“We lived together for a while. I loved him once. I can’t believe he’s dead.” Fresh tears welled. Sage went into the bathroom and brought out a box of Kleenex. Claire grabbed a tissue and blew her nose.
“Are you sure you can handle this?” Sage asked.
Claire rose shakily to her feet. “Michael’s dead. I don’t really have any choice.”
Twenty-Nine
“We got a problem.” Trace walked out of his glass-enclosed office just as Ben was leaving for the day.
“What is it?” He needed to get home. Mrs. McKenzie would have supper ready for him and Sam. He didn’t like to make them wait.
“Mark Sayers just called.” Sayers was a detective friend of Trace’s. “You know that journalist you mentioned? Claire’s old boyfriend, Michael Sullivan? They found him dead this morning in an abandoned warehouse.”
“Jesus. Does Claire know?”
“Detectives just left her house. She’s on her way to the morgue to ID the body. The thing is, Ben, according to Sayers, the guy wasn’t just killed, he was tortured. This is going to be really rough on her.”
Ben didn’t hesitate. She might not want to marry him, but right now she needed him, and he was going be there, whether she liked it or not. He headed for the door. “I’m on my way.”
* * *
Inside the Harris County Forensic Science building, Claire left Sage and Annie in the hall and walked woodenly beside Detective Castillo through the door leading into the refrigeration area of the morgue. Rows of stainless steel boxes held the remains of dozens of people. One of them was Michael.
Her throat closed up. Of all the endings she had ever imagined, she wouldn’t have guessed she’d be standing in front of a refrigerated box preparing to say a final farewell to the man she had once hoped to marry.
“Are you ready?” Detective Castillo asked.
Claire moistened her lips and nodded. A man in a white lab coat grabbed the handle, opened the stainless steel door and wheeled out a metal table. A white sheet was draped over the body, covering it from head to toe.
She moved closer, stared down at the outline of the man who had been so vibrant in life and now lay so silent.
Castillo stood beside her. “I need to warn you, Ms. Chastain, Michael’s death wasn’t easy.”
She looked up at him, her breath coming shallow and fast, not quite sure what he meant. Castillo nodded, and the black-haired lab tech pulled back the sheet.
“Oh, my God!” She almost didn’t recognize Michael’s battered face, his cheekbones smashed, cigarette burns on his forehead, one of his ears missing. There were bruises on his neck, more burn marks on his chest. She whirled away from the grisly sight, took a stumbling step backward, turned and felt hard arms go around her.
“It’s all right, angel. I’ve got you. You’re okay.”
She swallowed, couldn’t speak. Ben. She clung to him, slid her arms around his neck and just hung on. She was shaking. Ben pressed her tighter against him.
“It’s...it’s Michael,” she said. “Oh, Ben.”
He looked over her shoulder, down at the man on the cold steel table. “It’s Sullivan,” he said to the detectives, followed by the rustle of fabric as the lab tech pulled the sheet back up over Michael’s battered and tortured body. “Let’s go.”
She let Ben take charge, let him guide her out the door, passing Sage and Annie in the hall.
“I’ll take care of her,” he said, and as fractured as she felt, as raw and grief-stricken, she knew a moment of relief. Ben was there. Everything would be all right.
As he led her toward the door, Detective Castillo caught up with them. “Hold up a minute, Ben. I know how hard this is on her, but we need to ask her some questions.”
“Tomorrow, Castillo.” The detective was head of the gang division. Ben seemed to know him, had probably worked with him before.
“Now would be better,” the detective said as Ben urged her forward.
Claire took a deep breath and stopped. She looked into the detective’s face. “I want you to find the men who did this. I’ll help any way I can.”
Castillo nodded, led them into an interview room and closed the door. Ben sat down next to Claire. He reached over and took hold of her hand. “You sure you can handle this?”