Under Dust Painted Skies
Chapter TenWhen Zac woke next, Remy was still in his arms and the sun was up. The only remnants of the early morning storms were some residual rain from the nearby trees that remained on the outside of the window. When he glanced at the clock on the bedside table, he was floored to find that it was well after nine. It was, without a doubt, the longest he'd slept through the night without any nightmares.
Remy seemed to wake with him, and rather than seem sheepish and awkward as Zac half expected, she smiled, squeezed his side before sliding out of the bed and headed to the bathroom. When she reemerged, she suggested breakfast and they made their way downstairs.
Despite her show of normality and peacefulness in relation to him, Remy still seemed a little jumpy, so Zac manned the stove and prepared a meal of bacon and eggs while Remy made a call to Alec to make sure he got Luca off to school.
"Why did you take her to Alec's?" Zac wondered once she was off the phone. "Didn't he just have her last weekend?"
"I was nervous after yesterday," she admitted. "Cline really creeped me out, and I didn't want Luca to be in the middle of it; besides, Alec's always complaining about not seeing her enough."
"And Alec got her off to school okay?"
"So he said," Remy nodded. "He's picking her up too."
"He didn't have to work?" Zac had only met Alec in passing before he moved out and knew next to nothing about his current career path, assuming he had one. Each time Zac had met him and from the things Remy had let slip about Alec, he wasn't the most dependable man nor did he have the best work ethic.
"No, he's working at Lowe's now," she offered, filling in the current job blank. "It's not a set schedule."
Zac merely nodded and returned to preparing their breakfast. When it was done, they ate together in relative silence while Zac waited for the other shoe to drop. He knew they'd have to discuss the kiss, and he had no idea what Remy might have to say about it.
Though it seemed slightly brought on by the right circumstance, it didn't feel like something that was done because of high emotions. Zac wanted to kiss Remy, and he'd enjoyed kissing Remy. If he thought he might feel guilty by the light of day, that was not the case at all.
He felt next no worry over it, which was strange for him. Even when he and Kate first started seeing each other and the few girls he'd gone out with before that, he'd always felt uncertain of himself. Of course, a huge part of that was likely teenage insecurity, but kissing and holding Remy had felt almost as natural as breathing.
For Remy's part, aside from being anxious over Luca's absence and last night's scare, she did not seem to be fretting over their shared kiss either. In fact, once they'd finished breakfast, she had gathered their dirty dishes and pressed a kiss to his temple on her way to the sink.
Zac loathed to admit how incredibly good such a simple gesture felt, but he could not stop the smile from spreading across his face.
It was only after breakfast was over, the dishes were stowed away in the dishwasher and they were seated together on the sofa that they really began to discuss what they should do now.
"Maybe I should have called the police," Remy commented.
Zac glanced out the window, trying to gather his thoughts for a moment, before he relayed his worries the night before when he heard her moving around downstairs.
"Oh, God, Zac! I'm so sorry," she apologized. "I didn't even stop to think about it scaring you."
"It's okay," he soothed, rubbing her shoulder. "You were upset. I get it."
"I see what you mean about worrying over calling the police over for nothing, though," she nodded. "Although, their presence might have spooked Cline."
"I think it only would have made him skip town," Zac admitted. "I think that's probably what he did the last time there was a close call on getting caught. That's probably when he changed his identity."
Remy nodded in agreement, but she still seemed agitated. "I just wish there was something we could do," she sighed.
Zac considered it a moment before he spoke. "Maybe there is."
Remy raised her eyebrows and inclined her head with interest, waiting to hear his suggestion.
"We may not have anything solid, but we could definitely get everything we know down on paper," he explained. "As much as I hate the idea of being laughed off by the police, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll listen. I think, if anything, the background check alone might make the police curious enough at least talk to the guy, but I think we should get our ducks in a row and have our facts ready to lay out for them."
Remy seemed to agree with this point, but she still seemed restless. Zac knew this came from her typical desire to act instead of just talk, but she seemed to understand that they needed to tread carefully. And so they set to work, sifting through all of the information Zac had gathered, hoping to find something in there to convince the police to take a serious look at Ted Cline.
--
It was surprising how much information Zac had gathered. They had to take their research project to Zac's office to print off several pages, and while Zac printed off his research, Remy began to outline the key points of their case. There were a lot of pieces, and Zac was pleased with how impressed Remy seemed to be by his investigative skills, but even that couldn't overshadow the fact that it was all circumstantial evidence.
The suggestion was made once again to just go to police with what Zac had seen, but it was extinguished just as quickly when Zac reminded Remy of his own brothers' reactions. He even went so far as to remind her of her own doubts about the validity of his accusation.
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, Zac," she said sincerely, squeezing his shoulder and kissing his cheek, before returning to the multitude of printouts.
They stopped for lunch a little later than usual, and Remy made a quick call to check in with Luca. Zac suspected this was mostly just to make sure her father hadn't forgotten to pick her up from school or feed her. All seemed well, though, and a lunch of soup and sandwiches were shared in front of the television.
By then, they both became aware that they were still lounging about in pajamas. As luck would have it, Remy had an extra set of clothing in the utility room, likely left over from a day of cleaning or washing up Luca after an afternoon of painting.
Zac offered her his bathroom to shower while he took the one downstairs. They both reemerged in the office around the same time, and the sight of Remy freshly showered, sporting damp hair and a makeup free face, sent a pleasant tingle up his spine.
Taylor is so going to gloat when he finds out he was right, Zac noted, but he couldn't feel too upset about it. Opening his mind and accepting that he did have feelings that went beyond friendship for Remy was not at all as scary as he might have thought.
He was relieved that he could still be with Remy and think of Kate without feeling guilty. He realized that Taylor had been right. Kate wouldn't have wanted him to stop living and be alone forever. She would have wanted him to happy, and despite his other issues, he already knew that Remy made him happy. And as far as he was concerned, Luca hung the moon. He loved that little girl more than anything else, so that definitely would not be a problem.
As soon as he realized what he was thinking, though, Zac began to backpedal. He and Remy hadn't even talked about any of this, so why was he just assuming that it meant they'd be in a relationship? It wasn't as if he could take her out on nice dates or help her with the day-to-day chores, aside from cooking and cleaning.
These thoughts dampened his mood slightly, but rather than dwell on it, he decided to focus on the task at hand. Finding some way of nailing Ted Cline was definitely more important right now. For all he knew, the man could come and kill him in his sleep, and he'd have worried about where things were going with Remy needlessly.
Some time in the late afternoon, Remy remembered that she hadn't yet collected the mail. Her nerves seemed better controlled, but he still watched from the kitchen window as she went to collect their respective mail.
Their street was quiet, as was usual for the early afternoon, but as Remy was walking back up the walk toward the house, the front door across the street swung open. Remy must have heard it because she paused on her way up the path to look over her shoulder as Ted Cline stepped outside, toting along a couple of suitcases.
Zac focused on Cline, bracing himself for some unknown move, but the man paid no mind to anything around him as he turned and locked up the front door behind him. He glanced back to Remy just in time to see her scurrying back up the walkway until she disappeared out of sight. A moment later, he heard the front locks being unsealed. With Remy safely at the front door, making her way inside, Zac returned his gaze to Ted Cline.
He gathered his things and made his way to his car. Zac noted it was a bit odd that, despite having a sizable garage attached the house, the man never seemed to park his car inside. He realized with a start that he hadn't thought to ask Remy about what she did or didn't see inside the garage. They had both been too shaken by being caught and Cline's subsequent words to even touch on the topic that had originated the stupid trip across the street.
Zac kept his eyes on Cline as he listened to Remy reenter the house. The locks were fastened back into place, and then he listened to the hurried tread of Remy's feet on the floor as she made her way into the kitchen.
"Do you think he's running?" Remy asked as she stopped just behind him in front of the window.
Zac frowned and shook his head slowly. "I don't think so," he said slowly.
"Why not?"
"He's only got a couple of suitcases," Zac pointed out as he watched Cline wheel his bags down the walkway to the trunk of his car. "I think if he were skipping town that he'd take more than that with him. Besides, if he were going to bolt, I doubt he would have stuck around to warn you that he knew I'd been checking up on him first."
They were quiet for several seconds as they watched Cline load his items into the trunk and then close it firmly. "Would it be horrible of me to say I wished that he were skedaddling out of town with his tail between his legs?" Remy asked.
"Why would I think that's horrible?"
"Because I want him to leave and be someone else's problem," she admitted as she stepped up closer to Zac and wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his back.
"I don't think that's horrible," Zac answered. "But what if we're not the first neighbors that suspected something and hoped the same thing and let him get away without telling anyone their suspicions? Think of how many more women he might get away with killing if we don't keep pursuing this."
"See, that's why I feel like a wretched person," Remy sighed. "But you're right."
"You're not a wretched person," Zac reassured her, squeezing the hands she'd clasped low on his belly, as they watched Cline back his car out of his driveway. "This is intense. It's easier to want to wash your hands of it. I understand."
"Well, since we're not going to do that, I guess we need to keep on trucking," Remy replied.
"Speaking of, I never thought to ask in all of the chaos yesterday, did you see anything in the garage when you were snooping?"
"No," Remy replied. Her morose tone mirrored his own disappointment - not that he'd actually expected a serial killer to leave his trophies out in plain sight.
"Why do you think he doesn't park in the garage?" Zac wondered.
Remy didn't answer immediately. Zac figured the oddity was probably only just now occurring to her. "I have no idea. His garage wasn't cluttered or anything. He had plenty of room to park inside."
"Huh."
"What do you think that means?"
"I don't know. Maybe nothing," Zac shrugged, squinting out the window as if waiting for some sort of an answer to materialize before him.
"I could go back for another look," Remy suggested after a long pause.
"No," Zac said firmly. She didn't answer, so Zac grabbed her hands and pried them away from his middle and turned around to face her. He met her eyes and repeated, "No, Remy. You're not going back over there."
"But he just left," she argued, "so we know he's not going to come back right away. If ever."
"If you didn't see anything yesterday, then I'm sure you're not going to see anything now," Zac maintained. "And if there was something to see yesterday, he probably moved it."
Remy pouted, like she wanted to argue, but she simply sighed, "Then I guess we should get back to our notes."
--
Zac knew the inaction was making Remy restless. They'd returned to their task of making notes on everything Zac had discovered during his online search. He even managed to find a few more women who fit the profile. During his initial search online, he'd found close to a dozen each year in each city Ted Cline had lived in. By the end of the day, their list of potential victims was well over fifty.
"If this is just five years worth of victims . . ." Remy commented as their online search began to wind down. Zac waited a moment, expecting her to go on, but it seemed she couldn't. He understood her thought, though.
If he'd killed at least fifty women in the span of the last five years, then how many women had he killed altogether? It was hard telling when he might have started. Zac was by no means an expert on serial killers, but he'd watched a few shows on them during his sleepless nights. Most of them started off by killing small animals when they were young before advancing to humans. Ted Cline was in his late forties. Even if Zac were being lenient and assumed Cline had waited to start killing until he was at old as thirty, that was still over fifteen years worth of victims. The idea made Zac's stomach churn unpleasantly.
"I'd say we should eat since we missed dinner time some hours ago, but I'm really not hungry," Remy commented, as if reading his mind.
"I know," he nodded in agreement.
"Let's watch some TV," she finally suggested. Zac started to argue, but Remy quickly cut him off. "We need a break from all this."
Zac relented and followed her lead into the living room. They settled on the sofa, watching some inane comedy on cable. Even though neither of them was particularly interested, the distance seemed to help their appetite's reemerge.
"Pizza?" Remy suggested when the episode they were watching was over.
Zac nodded his agreement, and Remy went to retrieve the phone. She didn't bother to ask what kind he wanted. They always ordered the same thing - a large hand-tossed with pepperoni, mushroom, and extra cheese with a side of cheese sticks and cinnamon sticks. They'd eat half of it tonight and likely eat the rest for lunch. It was almost a routine.
The pizza arrived within twenty minutes. Remy met the delivery boy at the door with the money, and they sat on the floor, watching some show called White Collar that neither of them had watched before, as they ate.
Despite the stress of the situation, the rest of their evening was fairly easy going, and when Zac began to yawn repeatedly, Remy decided that it was about time to call it a night.
"I should probably head home," she sighed.
"You're not staying again?" Zac asked, speaking before his brain could send the message to his mouth to shut up. Even though he wasn't typically prone to blushing like a schoolboy, he felt his face grow hot.
However, Remy seemed slightly relieved at the offer. She did hesitate a moment, though, before simply asking, "You don't mind?"
"No, of course not," Zac said quickly.
Remy smiled and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."
He shrugged as she stood. "I'll stay, but I want to run home for a few things."
"What do you need?" Zac asked. Then he felt like he was being intrusive. He could think of a number of things a woman might need but wouldn't want to name. "Never mind," he quickly waved off.
Remy smiled down at him and patted him affectionately on the head. "I'll be back in a few."
Zac nodded as she headed for the door. After a moment, he stood and made his way to the kitchen window. He went on the pretense of throwing away their trash, but he mostly wanted to keep an eye on Remy. He expected to see her cross in front of the window. Since the sun had set long ago, it took him a moment for his eyes to adjust, and when he didn't immediately see her figure in the darkness, his heart began to pound, but just as quickly it slowed when he finally spotted her.
However, instead of crossing to the left toward her house, she was at the end of the yard in front of his house. "What is she . . ." he asked aloud, but the rest of the words stuck in his throat as he watched her jog across the street toward Ted Cline's house.
He gaped for a moment, trying to make sense of her actions, but as she ran to the side of the garage and stood there for a moment, he growled in frustration. What the fuck did she think she was doing?
He watched as she repeated her actions from the previous day, standing on her toes and looking through the window. This seemed to ease his anxiety slightly. Maybe she's just taking another look in case she missed something, he reasoned. After peeking into the first window for several seconds, she moved to the next window farther back and repeated the action.
When she lowered her feet back to the ground and stepped away from the window, Zac sighed a breath of relief. He watched and waited for her to turn and head back toward the house; possibly, she'd carry on her original path to her house to collect her nightclothes, but as the seconds ticked by and she remained rooted in place, the uneasiness began to build back up.
"She's insane," he muttered to himself, wishing he could gain her attention and call her back to the house. The words seemed to click in his mind and with a steadiness that seemed out of place, given his nerves, he moved to the living room to grab his phone. He pressed the number two button and brought the phone to his ear, waiting for Remy to answer so he could command her back to the house.
He jumped when the sound of "Toxic" by Britney Spears began fill the room. He frowned, looking around as he tried to figure out where the music was coming from. He followed the sound as the phone rang against his ear until he stumbled upon Remy's purse, which was lying on the floor next to the recliner. He hesitated for only a second before he opened and found the source of the noise: Remy's cell phone.
"Son of a bitch," he growled as the realization hit him that she'd left the house without her phone, making her virtually unreachable, despite being separated by nothing more than a pane of glass, thick walls and a grassy lawn. He was also mildly annoyed by her choice in ringtone for him - what the hell was she trying to say? he wondered - but clearly her poor choice in music and weird subliminal messages, if that's what they were, were not the important issue at hand.
Frustrated, he threw her phone back into her purse and let the bag land on the floor with a thud as he snapped his phone shut and stuffed it none too gently into his pocket. He made his way back to the kitchen and squinted into the darkness.
He didn't see her immediately. His stomach lurched in panic, but as before, his eyes adjusted enough for him to make out her shape in the darkness. However, something about it seemed wrong. She seemed too tall or something. Then he realized that she was climbing into the window.
"How the hell," he muttered, but shook his head unable to go on. He didn't want to know how she'd gotten the window open in the minutes he'd left the room. All he knew was that this was lunacy. What was she thinking?
Then he remembered her earlier urge to go back for another look. Apparently, she still hadn't spotted anything through the window and was taking the initiative to go inside and see what she could find. "I liked the meek, scared Remy better," he muttered to himself.
Helpless, all he could do was wait and watch, and watch and wait he did. He glanced at the microwave for the time. It was 9:27 now. He had no idea why he bothered to keep track of the time. It wasn't as if he could go after her after a certain amount of time passed.
Instead of focusing on the paralyzing fear for her safety, Zac began to mentally prepare what he would say to her when she got back. As worried as he was, anger was the more prominent emotion right now. Didn't she have any idea how stupid she was being? She was an adult, a mother. What if she were to get caught or hurt? Had she left her phone behind on purpose so that Zac would not be able to call and demand she return to his house? Had she even planned to go to her house at all? Or was that just a ploy to walk out the front door without any argument from Zac?
He pulled nervously at his hair as his eyes scanned the area she had disappeared through, willing her to climb back out through the window.
There was a part of him, that despite his anger with her sheer stupidity, that couldn't help but wonder if maybe she would be able to find something. He knew, of course, that it wasn't as if they could really do much about it if she did - not without implicating herself in a crime. But still. Just the thought that maybe there was solid evidence across the street seemed to sharpen his resolve and bring him around to the idea of going to the police with what they knew.
He glanced at the clock again. 9:39. That was well over ten minutes. Surely that was enough time to scout around. Where was she?
He scanned the darkness, and the shadows seemed to taunt him, making him think he saw her shape, but the harder he looked the more obvious it became she was not there. He scrubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Why did Remy have to choose tonight of all nights to be so reckless? Why couldn't she have just stayed? They could have been cuddled up in bed once again. They possibly could have ended the night with a few kisses. It would have been nice, comfortable and safe.
He growled, anger surging up in him once again, but the anger gave way to fear as the glow of light appeared on the street from a set of headlights. The car was moving slowly. Much slower than most people drove through the neighborhood. He willed it to be someone just passing by, but as the black sedan came into view, a violent tremor seemed to quake up Zac's spine. He felt paralyzed as he watched the car pull into Ted Cline's drive.
Air ceased to exist. Or maybe Zac's lungs stopped working. Either way, he could not breathe. Nor could he blink or look away as the car came to a stop and was turned off. The lights were extinguished and once again blackness blanketed the street.
Zac's eyes were adjusted, though, and so it was easy to see as Cline pushed open the door and stepped out of the vehicle. He shut the door with a thud that was muted by the distance. Somewhere in the back of Zac's mind, his brain was still working and all he could think was: I hope Remy heard that. Please let Remy have heard that.