YOU BETTER RUN (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 11) Read online

  THEN:

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Tom Hudson stopped chewing. His wife, Raina, looked at him anxiously.

  “I’m sorry to just drop it on you like this,” she added. “But I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer.”

  Raina bit her lip, waiting for his answer. How was he going to react? Was he happy? She couldn’t quite read his facial expression. His eyes seemed frozen almost, and his lips weren’t moving.

  Come on, for crying out loud. Say something!

  Raina reached over and grabbed his hand, then smiled softly. “I mean, this is what we wanted, right? This is what both of us wanted?”

  Tom was still frozen, but then something happened. His shoulders came down, his eyes eased up, and was that… a smile on his lips?

  “That’s… that’s truly… amazing,” he said.

  Phew.

  Raina sighed and let the relief rush over her. She didn’t know why she had suddenly been so nervous to tell him. They had, after all, been trying to get pregnant for six months now, so there was no reason Tom wouldn’t be happy. Maybe she was just worried that he had changed his mind?

  She shook her head and felt happiness spread inside her. It didn’t matter. She had misjudged him—misinterpreted his facial expression. It was all in her head. She always did this. She was always overthinking everything. It was exhausting. She had to start getting better at this type of stuff. It was going to drive them all nuts—especially now that the child was coming. There was so much to overthink.

  “I’m so glad you feel that way,” she said.

  Tom laughed. “Wait. Did you think… that I wasn’t happy?”

  She shook her head. “No… no, I was just….”

  Tom tilted his head and grabbed Raina’s other hand in his. “Sweetie. I’m beyond excited. I thought you knew I wanted this baby as much as you do?”

  She smiled and sighed softly. “I know you do. I know.”

  “Good,” he said. “Now, we need to celebrate this. This is fantastic news. Waitress? Can we have the dessert card? This calls for a big piece of chocolate cake.”

  Raina laughed lightly. Tom always wanted to celebrate with chocolate cake. It was the same when they had bought the house and the sale finally came through. Then, he brought home a huge chocolate cake for them to share.

  “I’m gonna be fat if we keep this up,” she had said. “I almost hope we won’t have a lot to celebrate in the future.”

  But tonight, they did have something to celebrate. Something huge.

  “Let’s have two pieces of the chocolate lava cake,” Tom said and pointed at the menu.

  “Of course, sir,” the waitress said with a smile and left.

  “This is so exciting.” He grabbed her hands between his again. “Names. We need to think about names. When are you due?”

  “In six months,” she said.

  “Oh, wow. Then we have a lot of work to do. We need to decorate the nursery. We need to get a changing table, a crib, the full Monty.”

  She sighed and looked into his eyes. “And we need to tell our families.”

  He paused, then looked away.

  “Where is that waitress with our cake?”

  “Tom, honey,” she said and tried to get his attention. “Look at me.”

  He did, but she could tell it was hard for him.

  “I know you don’t have any contact with your parents, but don’t you think now is the time to try and rebuild that connection? I want our child to have grandparents, and they deserve to know, even if you don’t get along with them.”

  He pulled his hands out of hers.

  “I’m sorry, honey, but that will never happen.”

  The chocolate cake landed on the table in front of them.

  “Really?” she asked. “Don’t you want them to know they will be grandparents?”

  “Let’s not talk more about this,” he said. “Eat your cake.”

  “But…?”

  He slammed his fist into the table, and Raina jumped. “Don’t, just don’t. I don’t want you to mention this to me ever again. Do you hear me?”

  Raina swallowed. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at them, and she lowered her gaze.

  “O-of course. If that’s how you want it.”

  “It is,” he said with a small angry snort. Then he regained his composure. “Now, let’s eat cake.”

  Chapter 3

  “Why don’t you pick up your phone?”

  Matt stormed past me into the house.

  “We’ve been trying like crazy to get ahold of you.”

  “I’m sorry if I am not constantly available,” I said and closed the door behind him. “But I was, in fact, having a very serious conversation with my oldest daughter, and now she is pissed at me. She needed me, Matt, so this better be important.”

  He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

  “It is.”

  I threw out my arms. “What is it then? Spit it out.”

  “They found a body. A young girl,” he said. “Down in one of the rich houses in Snug Harbor. She was in the pool.”

  “Oh, dear,” I said. “How old?”

  “Nineteen or twenty. There was a party there last night—a bunch of college kids on spring break. One of the kids grew up in the house, and her mom was out of town. She invited a handful of her friends down for the week, had a party, and invited a bunch of her old friends from the area.”

  “I see, okay. That is serious and important. But why me?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t been down there yet. Chief Annie told me to get you as fast as possible.”

  “Now? I can’t just… Angel is sleeping.”

  “Isn’t Olivia home?” he asked. “She can look after her for a few hours, right?”

  I exhaled. I had been using my oldest as a babysitter a lot lately. I would probably have to start paying her soon.

  “Please?” Matt said, folding his hands.

  “All right, I’ll ask her,” I said. “But it’s Ollie now, in case you talk to her. She changed it.”

  He looked puzzled. “Ollie? Why?”

  “It’s a whole thing,” I said. “Don’t let me get started. Apparently, her pronouns are they and them instead of her and she. I’ve already messed it up several times, and I am sure I will again.”

  “Oh… wow,” he said. “I will try and remember that.”

  I walked to the stairs, then turned to look at him. “Do you mind if Alexander Huxley tags along?”

  He wrinkled his forehead. “That journalist? I didn’t know he was here? Didn’t he go back to Washington?”

  “No, he chose to stay.”

  “But Eva Rae, we can’t have a journalist snooping around a crime scene. Why would you even suggest that?”

  “He’s kind of… writing a book about me. He has asked to look over my shoulder while I work. He told me that I would be able to censor anything he writes, so he won’t publish anything we don’t want out to the public. We signed a contract on that and everything. He just wants to write about me.”

  Matt made a face.

  “Really? Why?”

  I paused. “You don’t think I am interesting enough to write a book about?”

  He looked flustered. “No, no, that’s not why. I just… wondered why he wanted to so badly.”

  I sent him a glare. I couldn’t let Matt know that I was into Alexander, and we had been on a few dates. It was too early to tell if it would become anything. I was definitely interested, but it could still go many ways at this point. I knew Matt would be hurt if he found out I was seeing someone. Matt had known me since preschool, and we had loved each other always and even had a child together. But the timing just wasn’t right for us. We couldn’t figure things out enough to stay together, even though the love was still there.

  It was complicated.

  “Well, I will have you know that he finds me very fascinating, or… at least my work, so that isn’t that strange. Now, stay here while I talk to
Olivia… OLLIE… sorry. Oh, boy. It’s gonna take some time to get used to. Give me a minute.”

  Chapter 4

  Just keep breathing. Just keep breathing.

  She realized she sounded a little like that confused fish in Finding Nemo, which her daughter used to love watching, but all she could do was repeat this in her mind. She needed to remain calm, no matter how much the world was on fire around her.

  She had to answer all the questions slung at her and keep her head high, even though she was terrified.

  Susan Kellam crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked down at her daughter, Meg, sitting on the couch. Her best friend, Abbi, was right next to her, holding her while she was crying helplessly. Young people were sitting everywhere, sobbing or staring blankly into the air. The police had asked them all to stay for questioning. There were at least twenty young people, most of them faces Susan didn’t know. This was going to take all day.

  “What on earth were you thinking?” Susan said with a light snort. “Having a party while I wasn’t home.”

  “I… thought it would be okay,” Meg said with a wail.

  “I go away for one lousy weekend, and this is what I come home to? A destroyed house? A body in the pool?”

  “I feel awful,” Meg said. “I feel so terrible. It’s so surreal; I can’t even… I don’t know how to…?”

  “Yeah, well, you really did it this time, young lady. I can’t believe you. I come home thinking I can spend the day with my daughter before she goes back to school. I even bought you a present and thought maybe we could go out for brunch or something. And what do I see when driving up the street? Police cars—ten of them, with blinking lights and everything, turning our nice neighborhood into a war zone. What will the neighbors say? And now they have completely taken over my house, walking around with their dirty shoes on my carpet. And don’t think I don’t see the way they look at me—like I am a bad mother whose daughter is completely out of control. Most of these kids here aren’t even old enough to drink, Meg. You are not old enough to drink.”

  “I’m sorry,” Meg said and hid her face between her hands. “I feel so terrible. It wasn’t supposed to be this big. Just me and some friends, but then more showed up and soon….”

  “And that’s why you don’t have a party,” Susan snapped. “Because it gets out of control.”

  Silence filled the living room, where they were waiting for whatever would come next. Susan looked out the window at the activity by the pool. The body was still there, and the sight made her shiver. Someone was photographing it before it was put in a body bag. Susan felt how her breath got caught in the back of her throat.

  “But… Mom…?”

  Susan looked down at her daughter. Two officers walked past the living room, their radios scratching, their shoes leaving black marks on Susan’s white carpet. She closed her eyes briefly.

  Just keep breathing.

  “Mom?”

  “Yes, Meg? What is it?”

  Meg swallowed hard. “W-who… who is she?”

  “Who is who?”

  She stared out the window. “The girl in the pool. Who is she?”

  Susan made a face. “How am I supposed to know? I just got here and was told they had pulled a body out of the pool, then to wait here for questioning. Was she one of your little friends?”

  Meg shook her head. “I don’t know her.”

  “So, she was one of the uninvited guests, I guess. One of those that made sure things went out of control.”

  “But… Mom?”

  Susan turned her head fast and glared at her daughter. Her daughter looked away, ashamed.

  “What?” Susan asked.

  Meg shook her head. “Nothing.”

  Susan exhaled deeply just as the door opened and someone walked in.

  Chapter 5

  “Make sure you stay in the back and don’t get in the way. And please don’t touch anything.”

  Matt looked at Alexander while narrowing his eyes. He wasn’t even trying to hide that he didn’t want him there, which was evident on the entire car ride there. Matt kept exhaling, annoyed, and shaking his head every time Alexander opened his mouth to speak. Even when he just asked me for a piece of gum, Matt shook his head with a tsk-tsk.

  Alexander put up his hands and pulled back, resigned. Matt sent him a look to make sure he understood how serious he was and that he was the one in charge here. He was the man.

  “Eva Rae!”

  Chief Annie spotted me from where she was standing. She was talking to an officer who was showing her some paperwork.

  “This has to wait,” she said and put her hand on his shoulder. She used the other to wave at me.

  “Eva Rae, so glad you’re here.”

  She rushed to me and grabbed me in a firm hug. Chief Annie was freakishly strong for a woman of her size, and her hug pushed out all the air from my lungs.

  “How’s the baby?” she asked when letting me go. “Matt says she’s walking now?”

  I tilted my head. “Well, not quite yet, but we’re getting there.”

  I sent Matt a look, and he smiled, excusing himself. He liked to brag about our kid, I got that, but the fact was that Angel wasn’t walking yet. She was still crawling and, every now and then, getting up on her feet by holding onto something.

  It was his first baby. He had one other son, Elijah, but he didn’t know him as a young child because the mom never told him he was a father. I forgave him for exaggerating.

  “Oh, well, but I bet she’s adorable still. You need to bring her down here soon, so we can all see how big she has gotten.”

  “What have you got for me?” I asked, trying to get to the point. “I hear it was a young girl in the pool?”

  “Yes, come with me,” Chief Annie said, and I followed her to the sliding glass doors leading to the pool area. It was crawling with techs in their body suits, and I put on a pair of plastic shoes and gloves. We walked to the poolside. It was so humid that I began to sweat almost immediately. Even for March, it was hotter than usual.

  “Young woman, we think she’s around nineteen maybe twenty years of age, was pulled out of the pool by young party-goers at eight twenty-five in the morning. Showed no sign of life, no pulse from the second they got her on dry ground,” Annie said, walking so fast I could barely keep up with her. Her big golden belt buckle shone in the sunlight. She stopped at the body bag, then knelt next to it. She asked one of the forensics if it was okay, then opened it when he nodded.

  My stomach turned when seeing the young girl’s face come into the light. She was just a few years older than my Olivia… Ollie, sorry. Her skin was pale and so delicate, almost seemingly paper-thin. Her blonde hair surrounded her face like a halo. The color had left her cheeks and lips, which told me she had been dead for quite some time. But it was always difficult with a body submerged in water to tell exactly when death occurred or even secure much evidence.

  I looked at her chest and abdomen. “She’s been stabbed several times; do we have the weapon?”

  Annie shook her head. “We haven’t found anything. At least not yet, but we will keep looking.”

  I exhaled and felt sadness creep over me. This girl was someone’s daughter.

  “So… who is she?”

  Annie looked up at me.

  “That’s why we need you. We don’t know who she is.”

  “But… I just walked past a girl in the living room who looked exactly like her?” I asked. “I assumed it was a sister, maybe even a twin?”

  Annie stood to her feet and placed both hands at her sides. “That’s what’s so strange. They look exactly the same, yet the mother claims she only has one child. I already asked.”

  Chapter 6

  THEN:

  “Wait a minute….”

  They weren’t the kind of words you’d want to come out of your doctor’s mouth when doing your baby's first ultrasound, and immediately it had Raina’s heart racing. Her mind became filled with all kind
s of awful scenarios.

  “W-what’s wrong, Doctor?” she asked, clutching Tom’s hand harder in hers.

  “Give me a second to be certain,” he said and stared at the small monitor.

  Raina felt anxious. Tom tried to calm her down by caressing her hand. The gel on her stomach felt clammy and cold, and she couldn’t stand the wait. What was going on? Why couldn’t he just tell her? Was it so bad he couldn’t say it to her face? Was the baby sick? Did it have too many fingers, or was it deformed in any way?

  “Doctor Fabler?” Tom finally said. “Is something wrong with our baby? You’re getting us kind of worried here.”

  “There it is… ah… no, wait, yes… there, see…?”

  “What are we looking at?” Tom asked, worry in his voice. It was combined with a slight annoyance.

  Raina struggled to breathe. Fear had gotten a grip on her. “Please, Doctor Fabler, what…?”

  “Look,” he said, interrupting her, then pointed. “It’s right there. That little moving area right there. How amazing. How absolutely miraculously amazing.”

  “W…what is?”

  “Right there,” he said and pointed again.

  Then he turned to look at her, and his mouth curved into a huge smile. “It’s another heartbeat.”

  “Another heartbeat… but…?” she asked, looking confused at Tom. “Does that mean…?”

  Doctor Fabler threw out his hands. “Twins. You’re having twins.”

  Raina’s breath got caught in her throat. She looked at Tom, worried about his reaction, then back at the doctor, her mouth open and eyes wide.

  “Say that again?”

  “Twins,” he said. “It’s so wonderful. I have twins at home. Two boys. They’re a hoot. You have a lot to look forward to.”

  Raina swallowed. She looked at Tom. Twins? How were they supposed to handle two babies? One was okay, and she felt like she could do that, but two? How did that even work? How would she breastfeed if they were hungry at the same time? Would they wake each other up? Wouldn’t it just be double the hassle? Tom worked so much; would she be able to take care of two children at once?