Grim Reaper 01 - Embrace the Grim Reaper

shrugged. “If it was a great hiding place…”
    Casey stood. “Well, then, we’d better look.” She hesitated, then held out a hand.
    He took it and pulled himself to his feet. “What if it hadn’t been me?”
    She swallowed, not liking to think of Karl Willems or Chief Reardon discovering her crouched behind Ellen’s bed. “I don’t know.”
    He nodded. “Come on, then.”
    Working by regular light was much easier than by a thin flashlight beam. Riskier, too, but she figured Eric wouldn’t be getting in trouble for going through his old girlfriend’s house.
    Each taking a side of the older child’s room, they went through the stash of clothes, toys, and books. Nothing. Casey reached just a little farther, into the back corner of the closet. Her hand wrapped around a carrying case. She brought it out and unzipped the cover.
    “Look at this, Eric. From when we were kids.” A Walkman, complete with the foam-covered earphones that never stayed on.
    Eric gave a small grin. “Yeah, that was Hunter’s. He won it at his grandmother’s Christmas bingo.”
    Casey waited for more explanation.
    “Ellen’s mom gathers garage sale type stuff, or things she gets from the local thrift store, or Dollar Store. The cousins—there are six of them, counting Ellen’s two—play Bingo, and when they get a bingo they can pick something from the pile. Hunter picked the CD player, but stopped using it when he got an iPod for his birthday. I guess…I guess Ellen never bothered to get rid of it.”
    Casey looked down at the player. It sure brought back memories. Saving her baby-sitting money until she had enough to buy her own, the pride she felt leaving the store. The first time she dropped it, and from then on it would skip… She popped the player open, somehow expecting to see a CD of one of her old favorites from her youth. The Cars, or Huey Lewis and the News.
    “Eric.” Her voice sounded strangely calm.
    She held up the CD player, showing him the contents. The CD-Rom, a generic one from the store, had no title. Nothing scribbled on it in black sharpie. But it wasn’t a regular CD, and if Hunter had a bootleg music CD, he most likely would’ve made sure he knew what was on it.
    “Eric?”
    He and Casey both jerked up at the sound. Someone else was in the house.
    Casey took the CD from the player and shoved the Walkman into its carrying case, tossing it back into the corner of the closet. She closed the door and nodded to Eric.
    He left the room. “Yeah?”
    “I saw your car out there.”
    It was a man’s voice, and Casey thought she recognized it.
    “What are you doing here so late at night, son?”
    Great. It really was the chief of police. Casey looked around for a CD cover, but finding nothing shoved the CD itself into the waistband at the back of her pants, pulling her shirt over it.
    “Just looking around, Denny. I couldn’t sleep.”
    “Uh-huh.” It was quiet for a few moments before Casey heard movement toward Hunter’s room. Chief Reardon filled the doorway—as much as a guy his size could fill it—and regarded Casey with a mixture of surprise and resignation. “And what are you doing here?”
    “Keeping me company.” Eric pushed gently past the chief and came to stand beside Casey. “It’s not easy coming here, you know.”
    “Yeah. I know.” He put his hands on his hips and looked around the room. “And the reason you’re in Hunter’s room?”
    “He wanted me to get something. Mail it to him.” Eric’s voice was surprisingly even.
    “Really? And what was that?”
    “His Pokemon game.” Eric snatched the game disk from the desktop. “He took his GameBoy, but left this by mistake.”
    Casey tried to look unconcerned, and prayed desperately that Hunter really had taken his GameBoy, and it wasn’t sitting in full view on the desk.
    “I see. So you’re about done here, then?” The chief kept his eyes on Casey as he talked, the message in them clear.
    “We’re done,” Eric said. “Thanks for checking in.”
    “Neighbors called. Said someone was over here looking around. They thought it strange that the person didn’t turn on the lights, but seemed to be going around with just a flashlight.”
    Casey looked steadily at the chief.
    “Well, as you can see,” Eric said. “We’ve got the lights full on.”
    “Yes. But it makes me wonder who else might’ve been here.”
    Eric made a non-committal noise. “That is curious.” He turned to Casey. “Well, shall we go?