Mackenzie White 10-Before He Longs Read online

  “You know, you’re supposed to make me want to meet this woman,” Mackenzie said.

  “I know. And she’s lovely most of the time. But she can be…well, a bitch when she wants to be.”

  Mackenzie got up and wrapped her arms around him. “That’s her right as a woman. We all have it, you know.”

  “Oh, I know,” he said with a smile and kissed her on the lips. “So…you ready for this?”

  “I’ve put away killers. I’ve been in some high-octane chases and have stared down the barrels of countless guns. So…no. No, I’m not ready. This scares me.”

  “Then we’ll be scared together.”

  They left the apartment in the casual way they had been doing ever since they had moved in together. For all intents and purposes, Mackenzie already felt like she was married to the man. She knew everything about him. She had gotten used to his light snoring and even his tendency toward ’80s glam metal. She was starting to truly love the little touches of gray he was already getting along the base of his temples.

  She’d been through hell with Ellington, encountering some of her tougher cases with him by her side. So surely they’d be able to tackle marriage together—temperamental in-laws and all.

  “I have to ask,” Mackenzie said as they got into his car. “Do you feel any lighter now that the divorce is final? Can you feel the space where that monkey used to be on your back?”

  “It does feel lighter,” he said. “But that was a pretty heavy monkey.”

  “Should we have invited her to the wedding? Seems your mom might have appreciated that.”

  “One of these days, I’ll find you funny. I promise.”

  “I hope so,” Mackenzie said. “It’ll be a long life together if you keep missing my comedic genius.”

  He reached out and took her hand, beaming at her as if they were a couple who had just fallen in love. He drove them toward the venue where she was pretty sure they were getting married, both of them so happy that they could practically see the future, bright and shining just ahead of them.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Quinn Tuck had one simple dream: to sell the contents of some of these abandoned storage units to some schmuck like the ones he saw on that show Storage Wars. There was decent money in what he did; he brought home almost six grand every month on the storage units he maintained. And after knocking the mortgage on his house out last year, he’d been able to save just enough to be able to take his wife to Paris—something she hadn’t shut up about since they’d started dating twenty-five years ago.

  Really, he’d love to sell the whole place and just move away somewhere. Maybe somewhere in Wyoming, a place no one ever yearned for but was still fairly scenic and inexpensive. But his wife would never go for that—although she’d probably be happy if he got out of the storage unit business.

  First of all, most of the clients were pretentious dicks. They were, after all, the types of people who had so many belongings that they had to rent extra space to store it all in. And second of all, she wouldn’t miss the random calls on a Saturday from finicky unit owners, complaining of some of the dumbest things. This morning’s call had come from an older woman who rented two units. She’d been taking things out of one of her units and claimed to have smelled something awful coming from one of the units near hers.

  Usually, Quinn would say he’d check it out but do nothing. But this was a tricky situation. He’d had a similar complaint two years ago. He waited three days to check it out only to find that a raccoon had somehow managed to get into one of the units but not get back out. When Quinn found it, it had bloated and swollen up, dead for at least a week.

  And that’s why he was pulling his truck into the lot of his primary unit space on a Saturday morning instead of sleeping in and trying to coax some mid-morning sex out of his wife with promises of that Paris trip. This storage unit complex was his smaller one. It was an outdoor complex with fifty-four units in all. The rent for these was on the lower end and all but nine of them were rented out.

  Quinn got out of his truck and walked out among the units. Each square of units contained six storage spaces, all the same size. He walked to the third block of units and realized that the woman who had called this morning had not been overdramatic. He could smell something wretched as well and the storage unit in question was still two whole units away. He took out his keyring and started cycling through them all until he came to the one for Unit 35.

  By the time he got to the door of the unit, he was nearly afraid to open it. Something smell bad. He started to wonder if someone, somehow, had accidentally trapped their dog inside without knowing it. And somehow, no one had heard it barking and whimpering to get out. It was an image that stripped away all of Quinn’s thoughts of getting freaky with his wife on a Saturday morning.

  Wincing from the smell, Quinn inserted the key into the lock of Unit 35. When the lock popped open, Quinn removed it from the latch and then rolled the accordion-style door up.

  The odor hit him so strongly that he took two heavy steps back, fearing he might actually puke. He held his hand to his mouth and nose, taking one small step forward.

  But that’s the only step he took. He saw what the smell was coming from by simply standing outside of the unit.

  There was a body on the floor of the unit. It was up close to the front, a few feet away from the stacked things in the back—small lockers, cardboard boxes, and milk crates filled with a little of everything.

  The body was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties. Quinn could not see any clear wounds on her, but there was a fair amount of blood puddled around her. It had gone beyond wet or sticky, having dried on the concrete floor.

  She was pale as a sheet and her eyes were wide and unblinking. For a moment, Quinn thought she was staring right at him.

  He felt a little cry rise up in his throat. Backing away before it could escape, Quinn dug his phone out of his pocket and called 911. He wasn’t even sure if that was who you called for something like this but it was all he could think to do.

  As the phone rang and the dispatcher answered, Quinn tried to back away but found himself unable to take his eyes off of the grisly sight, his gaze locked with that of the dead woman in the unit.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Neither Mackenzie nor Ellington wanted a big wedding. Ellington claimed he had gotten all of the wedding nonsense out of his system with his first marriage but wanted to make sure Mackenzie got everything she wanted. Her own tastes were simple. She would have been perfectly happy in a basic church. No bells, no whistles, no fabricated elegance.

  But then Ellington’s father had called them shortly after they had gotten engaged. His father, who had never really been part of Ellington’s life, congratulated him but also informed him that he’d be unable to attend any wedding that Ellington’s mother was at. He did, however, compensate for his future absence by connecting with a very wealthy friend in DC and booking the Meridian House for them. It was an almost obscene gift but it had also put an end to the question of when to marry. As it turned out, that answer was four months after the engagement, thanks to Ellington’s father booking a particular date: September 5th.

  And while that day was still two and a half months away, it felt much closer than that when Mackenzie stood in the gardens adjacent to the Meridian House. The day was perfect and everything about the place seemed to have been recently touched up and landscaped.

  I’d marry him right here tomorrow if I could, she thought. As a rule, Mackenzie typically didn’t give in to overly girly impulses but something about the idea of getting married here made her feel a certain way—somewhere between romantic and absolutely geeking out. She loved the old-world feel of the place, the simple warm charm and the gardens.

  As she stood and took the place in, Ellington approached her from behind and placed his arms around her waist. “So…yeah, this is the place.”

  “Yeah, it is,” she said. “We need to tell your father thank you. Again. Or maybe ju
st un-invite your mother so he will show up.”

  “It might be a bit too late for that,” Ellington said. “Especially since that’s her, walking up the sidewalk to our right.”

  Mackenzie looked in that direction and saw an older woman whom the years had been kind to. She was wearing black sunglasses that made her look exceptionally young and sophisticated in a way that was nearly annoying. When she spotted Mackenzie and Ellington standing in between two large beds of flowers and shrubs, she waved with a little too much enthusiasm.

  “She looks sweet,” Mackenzie said.

  “So do candy bars. But have enough of them and they’ll rot your teeth.”

  Mackenzie couldn’t help but snicker at this, biting it down as Ellington’s mother joined them.

  “I’m hoping you’re Mackenzie,” she said.

  “I am,” Mackenzie said, unsure of how to take the joke.

  “Of course you are, dear,” she said. She gave Mackenzie a lazy hug and a bright smile. “And I’m Frances Ellington…but only because it’s too much of a hassle to get my last name changed.”

  “Hello, Mother,” Ellington said, stepping in to hug her.

  “Son. My oh my, how on earth did you two manage to nail this place down? It’s positively gorgeous!”

  “I’ve worked in DC long enough to make friends with the right people,” Ellington lied.

  Mackenzie cringed inside. She absolutely understood why he felt the need to lie, but also felt at odds with being part of such a huge one involving her mother-in-law-to-be at this stage of their relationship.

  “But not people that could help expedite the paperwork and legal ramifications of your divorce, I take it?”

  It was a comment made with a bit of a sarcastic tone, meant to be a joke. But Mackenzie had interrogated enough people and knew enough about behaviors and facial twitches to know when someone was simply being cruel. Maybe it was a joke, but there was also some truth and bitterness to it.

  Ellington, though, took in stride. “Nope. Haven’t made friends like that. But you know, Mom, I’d really rather focus on today. On Mackenzie—a woman who isn’t going to run me through the mud like the first wife you seem to be hung up on.”

  My God, this is terrible, Mackenzie thought.

  She had to make a decision right there and then, and she knew it might affect her future mother-in-law’s opinion of her, but she could deal with that later. She was about to make a comment, to excuse herself so that Ellington and his mother could have this tense conversation in private.

  But then her phone rang. She checked it and saw McGrath’s name. She took it as the opportunity she needed, holding the phone close to her and stating: “So sorry, but I need to take this.”

  Ellington gave her a skeptical look as she walked a bit further down the sidewalk. She answered the call as she hid herself behind some elaborate rose bushes.

  “This is Agent White,” she answered.

  “White, I need you to come in. You and Ellington both, I think. There’s a case I need to stick you two on ASAP.”

  “Are you in the office right now? On a Sunday?”

  “I wasn’t. But this call brought me here. When can the two of you be here?”

  She grinned and looked to Ellington, still bickering with his mother. “Oh, I think we can make it pretty quickly,” she said.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Being Sunday, there was no one at the desk in the small waiting area outside of McGrath’s office. In fact, his office door was standing open when Mackenzie and Ellington arrived. Mackenzie knocked on the door before entering anyway, knowing what a stickler McGrath could be when it came to privacy.

  “Come on in,” McGrath called out.

  When they entered, they found McGrath behind his desk, rummaging through several folders. Papers were strewn everywhere and his desk looked to be in a mild state of chaos. Seeing a usually tidy McGrath in such a state made Mackenzie wonder just what sort of case had managed to fluster him this much.

  “I appreciate you coming so quickly,” McGrath said. “I know you’re using most of your free time to plan the wedding.”

  “Hey, you tore me away from my mother,” Ellington said. “I’ll tackle whatever case you throw at me.”

  “That’s good to hear,” McGrath said, selecting a pile of paper-clipped papers from the clutter on his desk and tossing it to him. “Ellington, when you first started as a field agent, I had you working cleanup in a case in Salem, Oregon. A deal with the storage units. You remember it?”

  “I do, actually. Five bodies, all turned up dead in storage units. No killer was ever found. It was assumed that when the FBI got involved, he got scared and stopped.”

  “That’s the one. There’s been an ongoing search for the guy but it’s come up with nothing. And it’s been the better part of eight years.”

  “Did someone finally find him?” Ellington asked. He was looking through the papers McGrath had handed him. Mackenzie caught a peek as well and saw a few reports and details from the Oregon murders.

  “No. But bodies have started to show up in storage units again. This time in Seattle. One was found last week, which could be ruled as coincidence. But a second was found yesterday. The body had been dead for a while—at least four days from the looks of it.”

  “So then it’s fairly safe to say that the cases in Seattle are no longer being considered isolated incidents?” Mackenzie speculated.

  “That’s right. So the case is yours, White.” McGrath then turned to Ellington. “I don’t know about sending you, though. I’d like to because you two manage to work well together despite the relationship. But this close to the wedding…”

  “It’s your call, sir,” Ellington said. Mackenzie was rather surprised by how flippant he was being about the call. “But I do think my history with the Oregon case could benefit Macken—Agent White. Plus, two heads and all of that…”

  McGrath contemplated it for a moment, looking back and forth between the two of them. “I’ll allow it, but this might very well be the final case the two of you are partnered on. I already have enough people uneasy with an engaged couple working together. Once you’re married, you can forget about it.”

  Mackenzie understood this and even thought it was a good idea in principle. She nodded along with McGrath’s explanation as she took the papers from Ellington’s hand. She didn’t take the time to read them right there, not wanting to appear rude. But she scanned them just enough to get the gist.

  Five bodies had been discovered in storage units in 2009, all found within a span of ten days. One of the bodies seemed to have been killed rather recently while one had been killed so long before its discovery that the flesh had started to rot from its bones. Three suspects had been brought in but were ultimately cleared thanks to alibis and a lack of any real evidence.

  “Of course, we’re also not prepared to say there’s a direct link between the two, right?” she asked.

  “No, not yet,” McGrath said. “But that’s one of the things I’d like you to figure out. Look for connections while trying to find this guy.”

  “Anything else?” Ellington asked.

  “No. Transportation is being handled as we speak, but you should be in the air within four hours. I’d really like this wrapped up before this maniac can net another five people like he did before.”

  “I thought we weren’t saying there’s a direct link,” Mackenzie said.

  “Not officially, no,” McGrath said. And then, as if unable to help himself, he smirked and turned to Ellington. “You get to live with that sort of scrutiny for the rest of your life?”

  “Oh yeah,” Ellington said. “And I look forward to it.”

  ***

  They were halfway back to his apartment before Ellington bothered calling his mother. He explained that they had been called away and asked if she would like to try to get together sometime after they got back. Mackenzie listened closely, barely able to hear his mother’s reply. She said something about the peril
s of a romantic couple working together and living together. Ellington cut her off before she could really get going.

  When he ended the call, Ellington tossed his phone on the floorboard and sighed. “So, Mom sends her best.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “But the thing she said about husband and wife also working together…you prepared for that?”

  “You heard McGrath,” she said. “That won’t happen after we’re married.”

  “I know. But still. We’ll be in the same building, hearing about each other’s cases. There are days where I think that would be awesome…but others when I wonder just how weird it could get.”

  “Why? You afraid I’m going to eventually overshadow you?”

  “Oh, you already have,” he said with a smile. “You just refuse to acknowledge it.”

  As they rushed to the apartment and then through the chore of packing, the reality of the situation hit her for the first time. This could be the last case she and Ellington ever worked on together. She was sure that they would look back on their cases together fondly when they got older, almost as a sort of inside joke. But for now, with the wedding still looming and two dead bodies waiting on the other side of the country, it was felt daunting—like the end of something special.

  I guess we’ll just have to go out with a bang, she thought as she packed her bag. She peeked over at Ellington, also packing a bag for the trip, and smiled. Sure, they were about to head into a potentially dangerous case and lives were likely on the line, but she couldn’t wait to get on the road with him one more time…perhaps one last time.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  They arrived in Seattle with two crime scenes to visit: the location of the first victim, discovered eight days ago, and the location of the second victim, discovered just the day before. Mackenzie had never visited Seattle before so she was almost disappointed to see that one of the city’s stereotypes appeared to very much be true: it was drizzling rain when they landed at the airport. The drizzle held up until they were in their rental car and then grew to a steady pour as they headed out to Seattle Storage Solution, the location of the most recently discovered body.