Before He Longs

And while that day was still two and a half months away, it felt much closer than that when Mackenzie stood in the gardens adjacent to the Meridian House. The day was perfect and everything about the place seemed to have been recently touched up and landscaped.

I’d marry him right here tomorrow if I could, she thought. As a rule, Mackenzie typically didn’t give in to overly girly impulses but something about the idea of getting married here made her feel a certain way—somewhere between romantic and absolutely geeking out. She loved the old-world feel of the place, the simple warm charm and the gardens.

As she stood and took the place in, Ellington approached her from behind and placed his arms around her waist. “So…yeah, this is the place.”

“Yeah, it is,” she said. “We need to tell your father thank you. Again. Or maybe just un-invite your mother so he will show up.”

“It might be a bit too late for that,” Ellington said. “Especially since that’s her, walking up the sidewalk to our right.”

Mackenzie looked in that direction and saw an older woman whom the years had been kind to. She was wearing black sunglasses that made her look exceptionally young and sophisticated in a way that was nearly annoying. When she spotted Mackenzie and Ellington standing in between two large beds of flowers and shrubs, she waved with a little too much enthusiasm.

“She looks sweet,” Mackenzie said.

“So do candy bars. But have enough of them and they’ll rot your teeth.”

Mackenzie couldn’t help but snicker at this, biting it down as Ellington’s mother joined them.

“I’m hoping you’re Mackenzie,” she said.

“I am,” Mackenzie said, unsure of how to take the joke.

“Of course you are, dear,” she said. She gave Mackenzie a lazy hug and a bright smile. “And I’m Frances Ellington…but only because it’s too much of a hassle to get my last name changed.”

“Hello, Mother,” Ellington said, stepping in to hug her.

“Son. My oh my, how on earth did you two manage to nail this place down? It’s positively gorgeous!”

“I’ve worked in DC long enough to make friends with the right people,” Ellington lied.

Mackenzie cringed inside. She absolutely understood why he felt the need to lie, but also felt at odds with being part of such a huge one involving her mother-in-law-to-be at this stage of their relationship.

“But not people that could help expedite the paperwork and legal ramifications of your divorce, I take it?”

It was a comment made with a bit of a sarcastic tone, meant to be a joke. But Mackenzie had interrogated enough people and knew enough about behaviors and facial twitches to know when someone was simply being cruel. Maybe it was a joke, but there was also some truth and bitterness to it.

Ellington, though, took in stride. “Nope. Haven’t made friends like that. But you know, Mom, I’d really rather focus on today. On Mackenzie—a woman who isn’t going to run me through the mud like the first wife you seem to be hung up on.”

My God, this is terrible, Mackenzie thought.

She had to make a decision right there and then, and she knew it might affect her future mother-in-law’s opinion of her, but she could deal with that later. She was about to make a comment, to excuse herself so that Ellington and his mother could have this tense conversation in private.

But then her phone rang. She checked it and saw McGrath’s name. She took it as the opportunity she needed, holding the phone close to her and stating: “So sorry, but I need to take this.”

Ellington gave her a skeptical look as she walked a bit further down the sidewalk. She answered the call as she hid herself behind some elaborate rose bushes.

“This is Agent White,” she answered.

“White, I need you to come in. You and Ellington both, I think. There’s a case I need to stick you two on ASAP.”

“Are you in the office right now? On a Sunday?”

“I wasn’t. But this call brought me here. When can the two of you be here?”

She grinned and looked to Ellington, still bickering with his mother. “Oh, I think we can make it pretty quickly,” she said.

Chapter Four

Being Sunday, there was no one at the desk in the small waiting area outside of McGrath’s office. In fact, his office door was standing open when Mackenzie and Ellington arrived. Mackenzie knocked on the door before entering anyway, knowing what a stickler McGrath could be when it came to privacy.

“Come on in,” McGrath called out.

When they entered, they found McGrath behind his desk, rummaging through several folders. Papers were strewn everywhere and his desk looked to be in a mild state of chaos. Seeing a usually tidy McGrath in such a state made Mackenzie wonder just what sort of case had managed to fluster him this much.

“I appreciate you coming so quickly,” McGrath said. “I know you’re using most of your free time to plan the wedding.”

“Hey, you tore me away from my mother,” Ellington said. “I’ll tackle whatever case you throw at me.”

“That’s good to hear,” McGrath said, selecting a pile of paper-clipped papers from the clutter on his desk and tossing it to him. “Ellington, when you first started as a field agent, I had you working cleanup in a case in Salem, Oregon. A deal with the storage units. You remember it?”

“I do, actually. Five bodies, all turned up dead in storage units. No killer was ever found. It was assumed that when the FBI got involved, he got scared and stopped.”

“That’s the one. There’s been an ongoing search for the guy but it’s come up with nothing. And it’s been the better part of eight years.”

“Did someone finally find him?” Ellington asked. He was looking through the papers McGrath had handed him. Mackenzie caught a peek as well and saw a few reports and details from the Oregon murders.

“No. But bodies have started to show up in storage units again. This time in Seattle. One was found last week, which could be ruled as coincidence. But a second was found yesterday. The body had been dead for a while—at least four days from the looks of it.”

“So then it’s fairly safe to say that the cases in Seattle are no longer being considered isolated incidents?” Mackenzie speculated.

“That’s right. So the case is yours, White.” McGrath then turned to Ellington. “I don’t know about sending you, though. I’d like to because you two manage to work well together despite the relationship. But this close to the wedding…”

“It’s your call, sir,” Ellington said. Mackenzie was rather surprised by how flippant he was being about the call. “But I do think my history with the Oregon case could benefit Macken—Agent White. Plus, two heads and all of that…”

McGrath contemplated it for a moment, looking back and forth between the two of them. “I’ll allow it, but this might very well be the final case the two of you are partnered on. I already have enough people uneasy with an engaged couple working together. Once you’re married, you can forget about it.”

Mackenzie understood this and even thought it was a good idea in principle. She nodded along with McGrath’s explanation as she took the papers from Ellington’s hand. She didn’t take the time to read them right there, not wanting to appear rude. But she scanned them just enough to get the gist.

Five bodies had been discovered in storage units in 2009, all found within a span of ten days. One of the bodies seemed to have been killed rather recently while one had been killed so long before its discovery that the flesh had started to rot from its bones. Three suspects had been brought in but were ultimately cleared thanks to alibis and a lack of any real evidence.

“Of course, we’re also not prepared to say there’s a direct link between the two, right?” she asked.

“No, not yet,” McGrath said. “But that’s one of the things I’d like you to figure out. Look for connections while trying to find this guy.”

“Anything else?” Ellington asked.

“No. Transportation is being handled as we speak, but you should be in the air within four hours. I’d really like this wrapped up before this maniac can net another five people like he did before.”

“I thought we weren’t saying there’s a direct link,” Mackenzie said.