Chapter 3: Southern BBQ
Audra's stomach growled as she got behind the wheel of her car. She looked at the time and noted that it was nearly a quarter to two in the afternoon. She'd hopped an immediate flight out of Savannah to get to Specter not thirty minutes after waking up to the call of this latest murder. She needed food and rest and decided that she should find both, in that order.
As she drove through town, the unmistakable aroma of barbecue guided Audra to a hole in the wall with the moniker Bishop's. She pulled into a parking spot and hopped out of her car. She stepped into the diner/bar/café and felt the daggers of local, loyal patron stares on her. She made a note to find the time to buy clothes that would fit in. Walking pass them in her Prada suit with silk shirt and red-soled Manolos, Audra realized she may have felt less conspicuous in a paper bag. Her heels clicked on the tile-patterned linoleum as she walked to a table and took a seat, hiding behind the one-sided plastic menu.
A specter waitress whom Audra was sure had been a high school cheerleader, what with her winning smile and pumped up attitude over barbecue, came to take her order.
"Hey, you here about Gwyn?" she asked right out. Although her skin was opaque and slightly translucent, her voice was steady and normal with a slightly high pitch and Southern twang. Audra lost a little of her appetite. It unnerved her how many young specters were in the small town. She wanted to think of them as old people who'd had their time on Earth and needed to move on.
"You knew her, Ashley?" Audra asked, looking at her name tag.
"Everyone knows everyone," came the reply. "Awful shame, she was so nice. Helped me every time I needed to find a book. She was smart you know. She went up to the college on a scholarship and everything."
Audra nodded.
"So, may I take your order?"
"Salad and water with lemon," she ordered and felt the disapproval of her neighboring patrons. "And… the baby back rib special with a slice of the sweet potato pie," she finished.
"Great choice. Put some meat on them bones." Ashley winked before making a show of phasing out that annoyed Audra.
Audra tried to relax and push away her discomfort with the town's specter presence. She thought about how ironic it was that specters had chosen Specter as a place of refuge. She wondered, if it had been named anything else, would they have chosen it just the same? Most specters had a reputation for sticking to big cities and towns, concentrating in metropolitan areas where they could manifest, look normal, and try to blend in.
When the first report of a suspected specter murder came through from Boston, she had been playing second fiddle on an international knock-off and smuggling case. The suspected specter had been thought to be from somewhere in Europe. It was fairly certain that the specter behind it all was only intent on getting attention and jerking the FBI around.
When her boss, Assistant Director Jonathan Cordero, caught wind of the murder case, he immediately pulled her into his office. He always seemed to have a soft spot for her, probably because he was the one to investigate her sister's attempted murder when Audra was just fourteen.
She remembered the somber and almost haunted look that Cordero had as a Special Agent at the time, understanding it thoroughly as the flashback took her over once more.
She turned on her sister's bedroom light to find her hanging in mid-air, clawing at the burned flesh around her throat. Suddenly, whatever held her up, let go and she fell back onto the bed.
"Water?" Ashley was suddenly in front of Audra and she rejoined the present, clearing her throat.
"Thank you," Audra said, accepting the cup of water and drinking it quickly. Ashley phased out again.
Audra switched to remembering the line of questioning from Cordero and the rounds of suspects that had led nowhere. Oddly enough, he was the one to come and find her just before her college graduation and recruit her into the FBI.
She never thought much about why until the first victim in Boston appeared. When Cordero took note of the similarities in the Boston case and her sister's, specifically the crushed windpipe and strange burning around her throat, he sent Audra alone on the first flight out of New York to investigate.
It only seemed like a strange and creepy coincidence that the murder was in the same town as her sister, Kendra. She wasn't sure if she were going to take the time to visit her or just fly in and out, until she walked into the crime scene and took one look at the remains of Amanda Price.
A creepy chill ran over her, the crime scene reminding her of the scene she'd walked into all those years ago. Audra remembered then with vivid clarity that she had gone to visit her big sister for the weekend while her husband was away on business. Kendra was eight months pregnant, nearly ready to pop, and Audra was supposed to be on hand in case of an emergency.
Audra had been up later than usual watching television when she heard a crash from Kendra's room. She'd run and opened the door, immediately calling 9-1-1 and doing her best to pump her sister's chest until the paramedics came. Cordero had assured her that she'd done the right thing, that she'd saved her sister and unborn niece that night.
Before Audra left Boston for New York, she had stopped by the Seeds of Grace long-term care hospital to visit her sister. She hadn't been in nearly five months and felt a stab of guilt as she entered her sister's room and took a seat by her bed. She was greeted only by the periodic beep of the machines attached to her sister.
She lifted Kendra's hand into her own and clinched her teeth against the flood of emotions that overtook her as she let the tears fall. Kendra could breathe on her own and her heart was as strong as any woman in her late thirties, but the attack on her life that night had left her in a coma.
Kendra's face, though pale and thin, looked as if she were merely in a peaceful sleep. Audra took in her hair; still dark but dull with the lack of regimented care Kendra had given it. Her lips were pale and dry and her body had grown painfully thin, fingers stiff and cold. Audra had tried to will her sister to wake up, giving her hand a slight squeeze, hoping she'd react in some way. But she'd remained still, nothing on the monitors suggesting that she was even aware of Audra.
Audra hadn't been sure what an appropriate length of time to visit would have been. She'd stayed for thirty minutes, said a seemingly useless prayer, and caught her flight back home.
Audra was pulled back from her deep reverie to the present, looking up automatically at the sound of Bishop's door opening. She sat up in her seat as she caught sight of Ethan. He searched the room and when his eyes landed on her he smiled.
As he walked toward her, Audra took note of the appreciative smiles other women sent his way. He took a seat across from her and phantom cheerleader waitress showed up with a pitcher of water, a glass, and a complimentary basket of bread rolls.
"Hey Sheriff," she gushed. "Can I get anything for you?"
"I already ate," he said. "But thanks for the water and rolls," he casually dismissed her, missing the crestfallen disappointment on her face as she faded out.
"Sheriff?" Audra asked, unable to hide her bewildered confusion. She had heard of his retirement in the American South less than six months after his transfer but had no idea that he was presiding sheriff over the Mayberry/Sleepy Hollow that was Specter.
"Long story," he said.
"I bet," she replied. "You called in the case?"
"I did."
"Did you know I would be working this?" Audra swallowed.
"I didn't until you were on your way. I thought the southern office would send someone," he said with a heavy sigh that Audra was not sure how to interpret.
"Don't worry, I saw at least twenty ghosts today and didn't start a riot."
"I appreciate that," Ethan said. "I know how you feel about them."
"Do you? It's been a while, I could have changed."
"Somehow I doubt it," Ethan countered.
A long silence passed between them and Audra tried to remember the last time they'd spoken. He had been telling her something about not wanting to ruin her career before it even started, that they were both lucky Cordero had let the affair between them slide on the condition that one of them transferred. Audra had had no intention of going anywhere and expected to have to fight, but Ethan hadn't. She had never been sure how to take the ease with which he left.
"Why are you here?" she finally blurted out.
He smiled and looked at her in a way that only he knew how in order to defuse her natural skepticism. "You want me to leave?" he asked.
"No," she said, maybe a little too quickly. "It's just, I don't believe in coincidences Ethan. You should remember that much about me."
They looked at each other and Ethan nodded. "We'll talk after lunch." He lifted an eyebrow and Audra realized he didn't want to talk amongst listening citizens.
"Sure," she said, understanding. "How have you been?"
"Miss me?" His smile broadened as Audra blushed.
Her salad arrived, saving her from having to answer or lie to him. She had missed him. Even two years later the water under their bridge hadn't truly settled but specter trouble never stopped. With the serial killings she was always just busy enough not to think about it.
"Wow," he said eyeing the salad and water. "I thought you looked a little thin."
Audra smiled. She had lost a little bit of her baby fat in the two years since his departure and did a mental checklist of the physical changes to her person. Her dark hair was not relaxed any more but natural and longer with auburn highlights that set fire to her hair in the sun. She'd taken up swimming as a hobby since her apartment featured an indoor swimming pool. This accounted for her slender, well-toned figure. Her usually peanut complexion, touched by the southern sun of Charlotte and then Savannah, had darkened in the last several days to a faint copper red.
Ethan looked into her dark-green eyes and nodded.
"You look good," he commented.
"Thank you," she said, unwilling to betray her raw feelings for him. "You look okay."
He smiled and laughed making his dimples deepen in amusement. "Where are you staying?" he asked.
"I haven't found a place yet."
"You can stay at my place." His look was unmistakable.
"I have to get my own room," she replied curtly.
"You can get one, but you don't have to sleep there," he said. That was the Ethan she'd remembered. He never cared much for interpersonal regulations. It's what had gotten them both in trouble. Even though her body's automatic response was to jump at the proposition, she smiled politely and shook her head. "I wouldn't mind going by your office and telling you about the other victims," she offered. "Maybe you can help me find a connection."
"Of course," Ethan said as the waitress came with her baby back rib special and slice of pie. She smiled, slightly embarrassed.
"Can I get that to go and the check, please?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone