Perry - Encountered to Death

The Jamie Brodie Mysteries:

Cited to Death

Hoarded to Death

Burdened to Death

Researched to Death

Encountered to Death

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products

of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or

individuals - living or dead - is entirely coincidental.

2014 Meg Perry. All rights reserved.

Cover photo by Chris Gebhardt.

Cover design by October Design Co.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to:

Stephanie at October Design Co.

The writing group: Becca, Bryan, Maggie, Michael, Michael, Michelle, and Trey, for the brainstorming at the beginning and the commentary at the end.

Dustin, who read the whole thing and made excellent suggestions.

Chris, for the Dr. Who reference and the New Mexico stories. Oh, and for the reading and editing.

Most of all, thank you to my readers! Yall are the best.

Near Alamogordo, New Mexico

Thursday, August 8

There goes one!

Dude .

It was 1:00 in the morning. Brandon Garth and Cooper Wayne were sitting on lawn chairs in the bed of Brandons truck. Brandon had brought the excellent weed and Cooper had brought the munchies. They were parked in a remote corner of Coopers grandfathers ranch. If the old man knew they were out here, hed have them arrested but hed never know.

Brandon and Cooper worked on the ranch ten hours a day, Sunday through Wednesday. It was their Wednesday night end-of-the-work-week routine to come out here, look at the sky, think deep thoughts, and get totally baked. They were more than halfway there, passing the blunt and the bag of Double Stuf Oreos back and forth. They were watching for meteors, blissfully unaware that they were a couple of days early for the Perseids. One or two or maybe three, they couldnt really remember random meteors had obligingly appeared. It was a good night. It was an awesome night.

As they watched, another fireball appeared in the sky. Brandon leaned forward in awe. Holy shit . Thats a fuckin big one.

Cooper agreed. Dude . He tipped his head, considering the sight. Are they supposed to drop straight down like that?

Dunno. A small neuron in the back of Brandons frontal cortex was telling him that something wasnt quite right. Its movin kinda slow.

Probly cause its so fuckin big .

Maybe. Brandon popped another Oreo in his mouth.

Its awful fuckin close .

Brandon mumbled around the Oreo. Nah. Thas jus an opical illuzhin.

As they watched, the ball of fire blossomed outward in a whoosh then disappeared. Cooper braced for impact but nothing happened. There wasnt a sound. Dude. That was fuckin awesome .

Brandon agreed. Dude .

Alamogordo, New Mexico

Thursday, August 8

Steve Ferguson pulled into the parking lot of his building and drove to the back, to the spaces partially shaded by the scraggly row of trees just beyond. He was the first one there. The workday didnt officially begin for another hour, but Steve liked to get an early start. As team leader, he wanted to set the example. The rest of his team the A-team, they jokingly called themselves should be there within the half hour.

As Steve got out of his car, Darren Speich pulled into the lot. Darren was his closest friend at work also divorced, also childless, also an expat Californian. He parked in the spot next to Steves and got out of the car. Steve said, Hey.

Hey. Ready for your vacation?

Completely. Steve was taking the coming week off. His brother Pete, Petes boyfriend Jamie, and Jamies nephew Colin were arriving on Sunday, and Steve wanted to show them the sights. He was ready for a break from work. Theyd been putting in long hours on their current project.

Steve waited as Darren lifted a small cooler out of his car then walked with him toward the building. It sat squat in the early morning sun, its white concrete block rising two stories into the air, the lobby attached to the building like an enclosed front porch. Steves team occupied the second floor. The first floor beyond the lobby consisted of a small IT office and a huge room full of servers. The work the A-team did required a lot of computing power.

Steve leaned forward, looked into the retinal scanner, and typed his PIN into the keypad. He heard the lock disengage and pulled the door open, stepping into the lobby. He turned to pull the door closed so that Darren could repeat the entry process, at the same time registering that something was off. The lobby was usually a cool, dim place. This morning it was warmer and brighter than usual and something smelled bad . He turned back to the lobby.

Steve said, Oh, fuck , at the same time Darren came through the door and breathed, Sweet Jesus . There was blood and glass everywhere.

There was a hole in the skylight.

And there was a bloody mess what was left of a body scattered all over the lobby.

The body, missing its right leg, was in a tangled heap on the floor under the skylight. The right leg was on top of the receptionists desk and there were some organs Steve thought it looked like a liver, maybe some intestines against the far wall. The guys head was crushed. It wouldnt be possible to identify him from his face.

Darren said faintly, I think Im gonna be sick.

Lets get out of here. Steve pushed his way back out the door and took several deep breaths before he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911.

The voice of the dispatcher sounded in Steves ear. Otero County 911, what is your emergency?

Steve gave the details. The dispatcher asked him if he could check for a pulse.

No, I cant. His hes clearly dead.

Okay, sir. The sheriffs on his way.

Los Angeles, California

Thursday, August 8

"She's dead, Jim."

"Ha. Funny."

"Okay, how about this?" My mechanic, Mitch, affected a terrible Scottish accent. "Captain! I cannae change the laws of physics!"

Behind me, my brother Kevin snickered. I groaned. "Mitch. C'mon. You know Im more of a Picard man. There's nothing you can do?"

"Nope." Mitch patted the hood of my old VW Beetle. "The engine, drive train and transmission are all shot. It would cost you more to replace them than the car's worth."

I couldn't believe this. Mitch had taken care of my Beetle for years. It had been Kevin's car before it was mine. He'd bought it for five hundred bucks when he'd begun college in 1997. It had been a sweet deal. He'd charged me the same when he sold it to me seven years ago. It had still been a sweet deal then.

I couldn't believe it was gone.

Kevin put his hand on my shoulder. He probably felt as bad about this as I did. "Is it worth anything for scrap?"

"Yeah. I can probably use the body at some point. I'll give you $500 for it."

At least I'd broken even. I gave the Beetle one more pat on the hood and took my $500. Kevin and I walked out of the garage into the hazy LA sunshine. He said, "Have you thought about what you want to do?"

"No! Up until ten minutes ago, I thought Mitch would be able to fix it. He's always fixed it before."

"Yeah - multiple system failure this time, though." Kevin smiled at me sympathetically. "At least you've got a week to think about it."

My boyfriend Pete and I were taking a week of vacation, our first real vacation together in the 14 months of our relationship, the first time wed been able to get days off together. I'd wanted to get my car fixed before we left. Last night it had refused to start when we tried to go to the Y, and Id had it towed. Now, when we got back from vacation, I wouldn't have a car at all.

Crap.

Theoretically, Pete and I could get along with one car. I rode the bus daily from our townhouse in Santa Monica to my job as a librarian at UCLA, and Pete walked to work at Santa Monica College where he was faculty in the psychology department. Whenever we went anywhere, we usually did it together but I wasn't sure we were at a point in our relationship where we were ready to share a car. There were times where we both needed wheels. And the Jeep was his car. I wasnt going to bring it up.