No News is Bad News

By Maureen Milliken

A grisly discovery in the woods of Redimere, Maine, resurrects an old case of Police Chief Pete Novotny's involving a missing boy, but it's just one of the ghosts that haunts the town in the second of the Bernie O'Dea mystery series.

As Pete struggles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nevermore Mystery Press
• Release date: Jan 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798989451531

Maureen Milliken

Maureen always wanted to be two things: a journalist and a mystery writer. She's lucky to be both. Her debut mystery novel, Cold Hard News, set in her home state of Maine, combines her love for the area with her love for journalism. And lots of murder, of course.Maureen is a newspaper editor and columnist and blogs at maureenmilliken.comShe lives in central Maine with her loyal hound, Emma, and her equally loyal cat, Binti.

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CHAPTER 1

REDIMERE, MAINE

Saturday, November 7

2009

Guy Gagne was ready to give up and head home when he saw the blood. There was just a little on some leaves. It looked fresh, though it was drying fast in the crisp morning air.

Guy was deer hunting and his first thought was deer, wounded, maybe now dead. But he’d seen enough in the Maine woods in his seventy years to know it could be something else entirely, something less innocent than a wounded deer during hunting season. Later, when the police asked, he couldn’t put his finger on it, but when he saw the blood, something told him he had to find out what it was.

The silver-dollar size drops were close together, then got farther apart, smaller, the way they do when something that’s bleeding is fleeing. The deer—had to be what it was—had stayed on the tote road Guy had been crossing all morning. His heart pounded as he followed the trail. He was excited, tingly, weak in the knees—the way he felt when he jumped a deer. It wasn’t really the same. Either he’d find one dead or worse, wounded, and he’d have to put it down. Or he’d find something else.

The drops had gotten smaller, hard to see on the dried leaves in the dim light of the woods. Dim light of my old eyes, he admitted. He thought he’d lost it, was almost ready to give up, when he saw a drop where the weedy brush at the trailside was crushed, a copper spot on a green frond, then more beyond, in the woods. That next one was dark and thick. Not a dollop at all, more like it was poured from a gravy boat.

A crow beyond the brush gave a sharp warning caw, circled around. There were three or four, circling, diving. He pushed broken branches aside, sidestepping the tacky puddle of blood. A woodpecker’s rattle echoed somewhere.

A few feet off the trail, the crows dive-bombed and hopped around a couple mounds, bright red, some with traces of brown or gray. He let out his breath, let go, for just a second, of that fear that this was something else. The crows were attacking a fresh deer gut pile picked over and scattered by critters, but new enough to still be mostly intact. That’s all it was.

Guy had been out since six-thirty, just after sunrise, and hadn’t heard shots out this way or triumphant shouts. Hadn’t seen a group of happy hunters loading their trophy into a truck. But, like his eyes, his ears weren’t what they used to be. The leaves were disturbed, he could see that now, two parallel lines in the spongy ground that could be drag marks. The feeling was back. Yeah, drag marks, but not like the ones from when you dragged a deer.

There was more blood, broken branches. Now that he looked closely, it was everywhere.

Someone had field-dressed the deer and dragged it out of the trees. That’s what Guy kept telling himself, even though the mounds of gut, the blood, the drag marks, weren’t right.

Guy had seen plenty of gut piles from deer of all sizes in the decades he’d been hunting. There was a sameness to them. This one was different, smaller. There was something else different, small and shriveled, centered on top, like it had been placed there on purpose. More gray than pink.

Guy hadn’t only been hunting for most of his life, but he was a Maine guide. He wrote about hunting in his newspaper column. He was probably more of an expert on hunting and everything that came with it than anyone else in town. Still, it took a minute of staring, more than a minute, to figure out what he was looking at. It finally registered. It didn’t belong to a deer. It was pathetically, obviously human.

Guy fumbled for his cellphone—stupid, he thought, even as he did, it won’t work back here—the full force of what he was looking at connecting with his brain, then his stomach.

He plunged back to the trail, only slowing to vomit, the coffee and eggs he’d had hours earlier soaking his camouflage pants. He barely noticed. All he wanted was to get to fresh air and to unsee what he had just seen.

·····

A few hours earlier, around the time Guy Gagne was drinking the coffee and eggs he’d later lose all over his camouflage pants, Bernadette O’Dea awoke with a start. She’d been sleeping in fits and pieces, uncomfortable in someone else’s bed, not quite drunk enough to not care where she was. Pretty sure she’d made a huge mistake.

Pete was breathing heavily beside her. He’d been like that for hours as she watched the red numbers of the digital clock tick away, willing oblivion, but even more urgently willing morning to come so she could leave. Neither felt like it was going to happen. She watched Pete, on his side, facing her. His brow furrowed, even in sleep. Bernie wished she could turn back the clock, erase what had happened. They’d been drunk. The entire event was over before she even got started, too fast for her to really enjoy it or fully partake. She’d known from the start it was a bad idea. Bad bad idea.

Afterwards, as he’d pulled her close and wrapped himself around her, he’d murmured, This isn’t finished, just give me a couple minutes. Then he fell asleep.

Now, a couple hours later, he still slept, uneasily, as she watched, waiting for morning. Would it be rude to leave? She wasn’t sure, but it seemed like it would. She had to get up early, had a lot of work to do.

Pete, she whispered.

The skin of his shoulders and chest was deathly pale in the moonlight coming through the window, contrasting with the tan on his lower arms, even the one that had been in a sling and cast for the past few months. Farmer’s tan, they used to call it when she was a kid. The dark jagged scar on his triceps was angrier looking now than when she’d first seen it earlier that night. She touched the scar, running her finger along it, feeling a surge of compassion despite her regret. The scar felt just like she’d thought it would, crusty and thick against the surprisingly soft skin of his inner arm, his triceps rock hard underneath.

He said something.

What? Bernie jerked her hand away.

His breathing was more rapid. He said something again, with more urgency.

Wake up, she said, but not loudly, not sure if she should wake him. The boyfriend she’d lived with before she moved back to Maine used to fall asleep with the assurance of a grizzly lumbering off for hibernation. He never talked in his sleep or seemed bothered by dreams, just snored steadily until it was time to get up. This was new to her.

Pete shouted now. No, no, oh no. An urgent plea.

Pete, wake up, she said, putting her hand on his chest and shaking him.

He sat up, gasping for breath, fully awake and covered with sweat that hadn’t been there a moment earlier.

Are you okay? she asked.

He looked bewildered, terrified, but it faded to a grimace in seconds. Sorry. He untangled his legs from the sheet and hurried into the bathroom, where the sound of running water seconds later didn’t mask the sound of him throwing up.

Guess we’re done with the romantic portion of our program, she said, though not loud enough for him to hear. She looked around the floor for her clothes. Time to go.

She was balancing on one leg, trying to put a sock on, when he came back into the room after several long minutes punctuated by flushing and running water.

Are you leaving? he asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

She swayed on one foot, then hopped to regain her balance, as she looked up. I have a long day coming up and should get some sleep. I’d just as soon go home now. Under the cover of darkness. She tried a smile. No sense in everyone in Redimere seeing me. She was over-explaining, she knew, to cover up the awkwardness. It was only making it worse, as usual.

While she talked, he pulled the edge of the sheet over his lap.

She sat down next to him to put her shoes on.

I could drive you home later, he said.

I could use the walk. You left your car at the bar, anyway.

His hair stuck to his temples in wet tendrils, like he’d splashed water on his face. She took his hand, and he turned it over and intertwined his fingers with hers.

Are you okay? she asked.

Yeah.

You had a bad dream.

I had a lot to drink.

It seemed like more than that.

He shrugged. She kissed him. A chaste kiss on the lips. It tasted like peppermint toothpaste. His grip on her hand tightened, but other than that he didn’t move.

She waited for him to say more, but when it became clear he wasn’t going to, she pulled her hand out of his and stood up.

Sorry. I gotta go.

She left him sitting on the bed.

·····

The crisp, cold air as she walked home did nothing to clear her head of the embarrassment, confusion, and regret. Still, it was a relief just to be out of Pete’s apartment. There was a dim glow in the east, but it was still dark. So quiet. Too early for the hunters. She was glad. She wasn’t wearing orange and everyone in Maine knows what that can mean, even when you’re in town. Your fault if you get shot. There were a dozen court cases over the years to prove it. The crisp air stung her face. It felt good. A light sheen of frost covered the leaves and browning November grass. She loved this time of morning. It reminded her of when she used to deliver papers in Augusta as a kid. She’d felt like she was the only person awake in the world. Early morning in fall back then had smelled like wood smoke, decaying leaves, the paper mill, a hint of skunk. There was no paper mill in Redimere anymore, but she swore the sulphury wet cardboard odor hung in the mist.

She knew that in a couple hours, when the sun began to come up, the second it was legally possible, gunfire would punctuate the morning. Like being in a war zone. The sound of gunfire, off in the distance, I’m getting used to it now… She sang the Talking Heads song as she made her way up the hill. Life During Wartime had been going through her head long before hunting season started the week before. Emotional war had been declared months ago. Add the encounter with Pete to the list. Bad idea. Bad bad bad. The song taunted her: No time for dancing, or lovey-dovey, I ain’t got time for that now…

She’d only had a few one-night stands in her life. They were all awkward. The sex was never great because of the drunkenness. Anyway, she liked to like a guy before she slept with him. At least Pete had that going for him. She liked him a lot. Too much, maybe. Redimere was too small a town. As the owner and editor of the local newspaper, the Peaks Weekly Watcher, Bernie knew a relationship with the police chief would compromise her as a journalist. She didn’t do complicated well. Especially not now. Too much going on to deal with someone else’s feelings, the uncertainty and complexity of being with someone. I ain’t got time for that now…

He’d been so intense. That’s what was really bugging her. He’d whispered something and she hoped she’d heard it wrong, or that he’d forget he said it. They’d been through a lot together, but whatever he was feeling now would wear off and he’d realize she was who she was, not whoever was causing all that intensity. She’d end up constantly worried about how he really felt, and sooner or later it would become painfully clear. Ultimately they wouldn’t even be friends anymore. She could see the rise and fall of the relationship in one depressing trajectory. Things were better the way they had been, avoiding the whole exhausting, heartbreaking dance.

She’d spelled that out to her friend Carol several times over the past months. Carol had said Bernie was overthinking it, especially since she and Pete weren’t in a relationship. Well, now they’d had sex, and even though it lasted about two minutes, Bernie figured that gave her the right.

She turned up her driveway, so lost in thought that at first it didn’t register that her usually placid dog was barking in the house and there was a figure on her front stoop. Hadn’t she left the porch light on when she’d come home to eat lunch and walk the dog in the late afternoon, when darkness was already creeping into the day? She couldn’t remember. It was a lifetime ago. In the dark, all she saw was a silhouette, hunkered. She had an irrational thought it was Pete, and her heart soared and sank at the same time.

Good morning, Bernie.

It was one of the last people she would expect to see on her porch in Redimere, Maine, at four-thirty in the morning.

Salvatore, what the hell are you doing here? She was happy, but confused.

Is that any way to greet your baby brother? She gave him a hug as he added, Taking the walk of shame? How eighties of you.

It’s not what it looks like, she said, even though as she said it, she realized it was exactly what it looked like and that last time she’d done it she’d been more than twenty years younger, with her bra stuffed in her jacket pocket. And felt way more proud of herself than she did right now.

Sure, he said. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.

You want coffee? He smelled like cigarettes, pot, and alcohol.

I’m beat. Can I just crash in your guest room?

Don’t we need to talk about why you’re here? My guest room is full of boxes and has no furniture. It’ll be the couch.

That works. Can we talk in the morning? Or afternoon?

I have to spend the day at the office. I have a mountain of work to catch up on.

Night then?

She let out Dubya, whose joy at meeting a new person made his I have to go out dance a jerky spin, which got even more frantic and happy as Bernie and Sal laughed at him.

When did you get a dog?

Recently. She got a pillow and blanket from the closet, in no more mood to talk than he was.

You never mentioned it.

We haven’t talked much, remember? You’re busy. I’m busy. Cellphone, voicemail, blah blah blah.

And you named him after Bush? Does Mom know?

I didn’t name him. Long story. She was too exhausted to get into it.

Sal settled on the couch as she opened the door for Dubya. The dog did a more subdued happy dance, then launched onto the couch with his too-short legs, snuggling against her brother. Just like a Jack London story, Sal said. She could see in the glow of the pellet stove his eyes were closed, his hand on Dubya’s head.

Goodnight, little brother and dog.

Night, big sister. Thanks.

Bernie thought she’d fall asleep right away, her usual insomnia beaten by the long day and alcohol, if not the brief, unsatisfactory sex. But the night with Pete had become a monster in her head, regret gripping her and not letting go. Another monster kept it company. Why was her little brother, a professor of art history at an upstate New York university, and presumably well into the school year, asleep on her couch?

·····

Pete didn’t blame Bernie for taking off like a shot. What a disaster. There was no sense going back to bed after she left. He stood under the shower until the water ran cold, watching dawn break through the bathroom window. He wished he could enjoy the luxury of showering with his cast off, no fiddling with plastic bags that leaked, trying to wash with one hand, the cast always in his way. His arm and shoulder ached, his ribs still hurt from where they’d been broken. He’d been told they’d take months to heal. Well, it’d been months, so what was keeping them? What hurt the most, though, was that look of unhappiness, maybe even pity, in Bernie’s eyes as she dressed to go.

Pete put on his uniform and went into the kitchen. He was wide awake, and sober enough at least to see the note on the table, scribbled on the pad Pete used for his grocery list, next to a dirty plate and empty beer bottle.

Hi Loser. I see you still are one LOL I was on the couch when you got home didn’t want to interrupt so I left. Seems like a nice girl Someone should warn her what a loser you are. Need to talk. I got news for you. JP

Damn. Benji Reeves. In his apartment, no less. Pete wasn’t entirely surprised, but it still shook him. He knew he’d locked the door when he left for the bar. He always did. He’d lived in the city all his life until he’d moved to Redimere the year before, and he couldn’t get over the naïve Maine practice of not locking up. He tried to remember if it was still locked when he got home with Bernie. He’d been in a hurry to get in, but he must’ve unlocked the door. He hadn’t turned on the lights, too anxious to get to the bedroom. There could have been an elephant in the living room as he led Bernie through, a whole fucking circus. He wouldn’t have noticed.

He thought he’d seen Reeves a week or so ago, walking down Ridge Road with that familiar slouch, in a too-big hoody. But Dawna was driving the cruiser, Pete riding shotgun, and he’d let it go. He wouldn’t have been able to explain why he’d wanted her to stop or turn around. How could he not sense Reeves was here last night? Over the years he’d convinced himself he could smell the guy’s soulless aura anywhere. He knew why. All he could see was Bernie, her big brown eyes, the way she shivered when he touched her. The way she melted against him.

All the time, Reeves had been there, watching. He wondered how long he’d sat in the living room after they came in. He’d like to find him and kick the shit out of him.

Pete glanced at the boxes stacked in the living room, half full of his belongings. Wondering if Reeves had gone through his stuff. It didn’t look like it, though, the flaps still meticulously taped, like he’d left them. He’d been slowly trying to move. He was going to pick up the pace now that he could use his arm again. Though as far as Reeves went that didn’t matter. He could just as easily show up at his new place.

He knew, too, that his other demons would be moving with him, as tightly packed in his psyche as his dishes and books were in their boxes. His nightmares had returned over the summer, a terrifying mix of dumpsters, bodies, fire. The nonsensical, yet just as terrifying, ducks—dreams that he thought he’d put behind him in the first months he’d lived here. The Donovan family and Reeves were there, too. It left him exhausted. Disgusted with himself. The old familiar blasts of terror had returned, too. They shot through him, sometimes just for seconds. Sometimes they left a trail of nausea and panic. Most weren’t that bad. When he saw Reeves last week he was hit with a bad one. He wondered, as he tried to hide it from Dawna, if that guy he’d seen slouching down the street was just his imagination playing tricks. A quick waking nightmare. Of course, it hadn’t been. That would’ve been too easy. Anyway, he’d already known, deep down in his soul, that the guy would show up again.

Pete knew one way or another, he had to deal with it.

CHAPTER 2

PHILADELPHIA

Tuesday, August 12

2003

Six years earlier

The kid’s body hadn’t been in the dumpster for long, but the hot day had done its work. It was already bloating, already stunk, mixing with the summer smell of full dumpster as Pete dropped into the soft pile of garbage next to it, one of his shoes sinking into something, wetness seeping over the top into his sock.

Before he’d gone in, he asked Sid, How about you do it this time? He tried to make it sound casual. His panic was ridiculous, he knew, and he tried hard to keep his partner from seeing it. But he still didn’t want to go into the dumpster.

Can’t, man. You know that, since my back surgery. Don’t know why I have to keep reminding you.

As Pete had pulled himself up and swung over the greasy metal top, a flash of terror, a yellow and white blur, tinged pink and deeper red, almost knocked him back off. It was there for a second and gone, pushed away as he dropped into the cooking stew of garbage. Pushed it way back as he got to work on the latest body.

Back at the station, Pete and Sid started the process of trying to figure out who the kid was. No ID—what kid that age carried ID? One shoe missing, the other a sad impossibly large size 13 basketball sneaker. Blue and white basketball shorts. Sleeveless 76ers T-shirt.

Pete booted up the computer and started checking missing kids while Sid called downstairs to find out if anyone’s child had disappeared in the last few days. It looked to Pete like the kid had been dead several hours, maybe a day. Hard to tell in this heat, especially when the body was surrounded by the metal walls of a dumpster.

About thirteen or fourteen, maybe one-hundred-twenty pounds, five-foot-four, skinny kid, Sid was saying to someone on the phone. Caucasian, dark blond, light brown. Eye color, can’t really say, wait for forensics. No, they were full of blood. Looked like the kid’s neck was broke and someone beat him around the head.

When Sid got off the phone, Pete said, Look at this. He slid over so Sid could read his computer screen.

MISSING: JP Donovan. DOB 11-13-90. Height 5’ 5’’, weight 125. Hair light brown, eyes hazel. Last seen, Philadelphia, August 7, 2003. Identifying jewelry or tattoos: a cross on a gold chain worn around the neck.

There were two photos of the kid, one close-up of the cross.

Weird cross, Sid said. Our kid didn’t have one.

It’s a Celtic cross. Irish, Pete said. That’s a pretty elaborate one. Wonder if those are real stones? Emeralds? Too bad the description doesn’t say.

Maybe a robbery.

Yep.

·····

The Donovans lived in a worn down townhouse that had been split into apartments. It was in an equally worn-down neighborhood. A woman answered their knock, her look of annoyance changing to a smile as she took in Pete.

We’re the ones who called about JP Donovan, Pete said, showing his badge. Are you his mother?

I’m JP’s sister, Cheryl. Annoyed.

Nice to meet you.

His older sister, she added.

No shit. She was probably around thirty, but the kind of thirty he saw a lot on the job. Smoker’s wrinkles around her mouth, circles under her eyes. Hair too teased and makeup too thick in an effort to distract from the damage inflicted by poverty, stress, and substance abuse. He knew he was supposed to make some complimentary remark about how young she looked or some shit, but he knew it would come off as phony as it was, so he didn’t.

Cheryl waited a beat, then led them into the apartment. Sit down anywhere.

The room was cluttered, grimy feeling, the carpet stained and needing to be vacuumed. It all hit Pete in dizzying high definition. He took a deep breath. Sid took the lone chair, so Pete sat on the couch.

Ma! Cheryl yelled down a hallway before sitting next to Pete. As she leaned over to pick up a can of soda from the coffee table, she moved closer, their thighs almost touching. He could smell cigarettes, sweat, a cloying fruity smell, too thick to be shampoo or the gum she chomped with ferocity, even as she drank the soda.

Ma’s in the kitchen making you coffee. She got all nervous when you called, so I figured she could keep busy and take her mind off it. Cheryl giggled and picked one of those subscription cards that are always falling out of magazines scattered among the crap on the coffee table. She folded it, refolded it. Just gave up smoking. Shitty time to give up smoking.

Sid nodded. I know what you mean. Gave it up eighteen years ago when I had my first kid. Went to smell her head one night and smelled cigarette smoke. Stopped right then. I still reach for a cigarette when I’m stressed out, only there’s not one there.

I don’t smoke around my kids. Cheryl gave a shaky smile, but there was defensiveness behind it. She was skinny, twitchy. If she wasn’t a drug user now, she’d recently quit that, too. Pete caught himself. They were here to talk to her about a body that could be her murdered brother, and he was being a judgmental asshole.

When can we ID JP? she asked as the mother came in, a heavier, older Cheryl. She was carrying a tray, four mugs on it, spoons sticking out. It clattered as she set it down on the coffee table.

That picture they showed us, it was hard to tell, so they said we need to see the body, Cheryl said.

I didn’t know what everybody wanted, so I just put cream and sugar in all of them, the mother—Linda—said, her voice quavering.

She sat down on the other side of Pete, forcing him closer to Cheryl. Why the living fuck wasn’t there another chair in the room? He didn’t like to interview people when he couldn’t look at them full-on. He’d have to turn to watch Cheryl speak, turn the other way to watch Linda. On top of it, he was hemmed it. He pushed down a small rise of panic. He looked at Sid, who shrugged his eyebrows. Whatcha gonna do?

They’re going to check JP’s dentals, we’re just having trouble tracking them down, Linda said. The dentist shut down, and we don’t know what he did with the records. So we can’t tell if it’s him. Someone stole his chain. She started crying.

Ma, it’s okay. Maybe it wasn’t him. We can hope, Cheryl said. He always wore that chain with a Celtic cross. She pronounced it like the basketball team. Ma’s dad brought it from Ireland. A family heirloom. Worth some money.

Celtic, Pete said, the correct pronunciation, the C sounding like K.

What? Cheryl said.

Sid shot Pete a look, then turned to Cheryl. He always wore it?

Yeah, she said. Even swimming and to bed and in the shower. He loved it. Called it his good luck charm. He didn’t have it on in the picture they showed us. Maybe someone killed him to steal it.

That picture was awful, Linda said softly.

Cheryl reached around Pete to squeeze her mother’s shoulder, her arm brushing across his back.

We took care of JP, she said, defensive again. He went to the dentist. That dentist moved and we can’t find him.

It’s okay, Pete said, trying to wiggle forward without being obvious. Why don’t you tell us about him? He took a sip of coffee. Instant. Way too much sugar.

He’s my baby, Linda said. I thought I was done having kids, years before, then he came along. Seventeen years after I had this one, my first. She smiled sadly at Cheryl. He was my little miracle baby. My miracle boy.

Pete and Sid exchanged glances—Pete knew Sid well enough to know he was thinking something like yeah, a miracle performed by Saint Vodka. Pete brought his mug to his lips, made what he hoped sounded like a sympathetic murmur.

I can’t say no to him, Linda said. He just gives me that look, and I can’t say no. He’s a devil, but in a good way. A good boy. Just has a lot of energy. That devilish little smile. Her voice trailed off.

Cheryl rubbed Linda’s back, her forearm brushing Pete’s shoulders. He squirmed forward some more. He could feel her looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He stared down at his coffee.

That’s right, Ma. He’s a good boy. Cheryl’s face, turned toward her mother, was inches from Pete’s. He could feel her breath, smell it. The hand that had been patting her mother moved to his shoulder. He got in trouble, ran away a lot. That’s why no one was looking for him. We called it in, they said they’d look, but nothing. We was gonna make some posters, have a visual. You know, with candles and all that. Some people were going to come over this afternoon to help, you know, with the visual, when we got that call.

Vigil. Pete bit it back. He got up and went to the fireplace mantel. Picked up a photo. This is JP? he asked, hoping it would seem like why he left the couch. It was the same photo as on the missing poster, but clear, not the bad fax reproduction.

Sid wiggled his eyebrows at him again. He’d seen where Cheryl’s hand had been. Pete pretended he didn’t notice, stared at the photo. A school picture, typical, with the kid’s shirt buttoned all the way up to the top, bad home haircut slicked down for the