“How are you doin’?” Agatha asked as Ness approached her desk. “Hanging in there,” Ness smiled and opened the box of donuts so Agatha could grab one before anyone else.
“Oh! Thank you darlin’! My taste buds thank you, but my waistline does not,” Agatha laughed as she grabbed one from the box. Ness smiled and headed toward the deputies’ desks. She spotted Wyatt sitting behind his, obviously tackling a mound of backlogged paperwork.
“Hey, Wyatt,” Ness said and sat down. “Ness? What are you doing here?” he asked. “Just checking up on my favorite brother,” she smiled and placed the box of donuts on his desk.
Wyatt frowned, “I’m your only brother. And, why?” “Haven’t been here in a while and I thought I’d pop in.” “Mm-hmm,” Wyatt narrowed his eyes at Ness.
“Okay fine. I wanted to find out if you heard anything about any deaths in Chicago in the past few days.”
“There have been a few cases, but nothing of interest. Besides, CPD doesn’t openly discuss cases with us unless it’s pertinent to our area. Why do you ask?” “It’s nothing, but please just forget that I asked,” Ness touched his hand.
“Ness, what’s going on?” Wyatt leaned forward. “It’s nothing, really,” she covered his hand with hers. “I’m just going to pop in to see Dad, so grab a few of those donuts before he devours the rest,” she smiled. Wyatt grabbed three donuts from the box as Ness got up from his desk and walked to the Sheriff’s office. She knocked on the door.
“Enter,” she heard a booming voice answer. “Hey, Dad,” she said as she popped her head in. “Ness! Well, this is a pleasant surprise!” he said as he rose from his desk and walked round to embrace her. “I was quite worried about you last night when you didn’t come home, but I was glad to see your car in the driveway this morning. Where were you anyway?” he asked, returning to his desk.
“Just went for a drive. I needed to clear my head.” Ness placed the box of donuts on his desk. “Don’t eat all of this by yourself. You might become a diabetic,” Ness winked at her dad. “I’ll try my best, but I’m not promising anything,” Heck laughed.
“I’m going out again tonight, Dad, so don’t wait up. The busier I stay, the less I dwell on the memories of the past,” Ness looked as sincere as she could. “All right, honey. Just be safe. And let me know if you need me.”
“I will. Thanks a lot, Dad,” Ness left the Sheriff’s office and waved goodbye to Wyatt as she left the department. Her best option was to drive back to Chicago and find out what happened to Martin’s body. After all, a dead man couldn’t just get up and walk away.
5
Ness parked her car nearby to Eddie’s Bar and sat for a few moments. It was just before lunchtime, and many people would be heading out of their offices to grab something to eat. Regardless, she had to make her way back into that alleyway. She exited her Civic and crossed the street. Eddie’s Bar was open and obviously rather busy because of the lunchtime rush, so she went around back. She walked several yards into the alley until she reached the dumpster where she found the beer bottle . . . but there was nothing on the other side of the dumpster. There was no body, no blood, and no sign of a struggle. Ness stood still, just staring at the ground, trying to find any sign of what occurred.
“How is this possible?” she whispered to herself. She knew that the rain from the previous night would have washed away a large portion of the blood, but that didn’t explain the lack of Martin’s body.
“Are you sure he was dead when you left here?” a voice popped up in Ness’ head. “Shit. He wasn’t breathing, but I didn’t check his pulse. What if he wasn’t dead and is lying in a hospital bed somewhere?” Ness could feel the increase in her heart rate as thoughts flooded her mind. Ness looked all around the alleyway. In the daylight, she could see that this place was much more secluded than she first realized. There were no CCTV cameras, and the view from the street was completely blocked. At least she had that working in her favor.
She bent down to the ground to try and see if she could spot any blood from the night before. She sniffed the air: it smelled like a freshly treated swimming pool. But she couldn’t see any blood spatter, even underneath the dumpster itself. Completely perplexed and questioning her own sanity, Ness walked into Eddie’s Bar and sat down on one of the stools. There were several more staff members working today, and Ness looked around to see if she could spot Eddie, but he was nowhere to be seen. She watched all of the patrons being served, and many of them were diving into one of the cheeseburgers that Ness had. She could see why this place was thriving the way that it was.
“What can I get you, Ness?” Eddie’s deep voice brought her out of her daze. “Oh, I wasn’t sure if you were here today,” Ness answered. “I’m here most days. I’m glad to see you again after what happened last night,” Ness gulped. “What do you mean?” she stammered.
“Those guys seemed to upset you pretty badly. I didn’t think that you’d want to come back here for a while.”
“Oh. No, it wasn’t that bad,” Ness
