Jonathan shook his head. “I knew you were stubborn, Meredith, but this? This is beyond the pale. If what you’re saying is true, this Rochester guy is more dangerous than anyone you’ve dealt with. I suggest you stay away.”
“I can’t,” I said. “I’m the only one that can get rid of him for good, remember? Besides, Kane will be there to protect me. I don’t need you to worry about me, all right?”
“Just talk to Sarah, okay? She’s worried about you. And it’s not good for her to worry so much in her condition.”
With that, Jonathan left me alone in my office, managing to make me feel a little worse about myself. Usually, his disapproving comments didn’t bother me. In fact, they kind of lit a fire under me to dig in my heels and do things my way even more. But now that he was pulling Sarah into it? I couldn’t help but feel at least a little bad.
I needed to talk to my cousin. I needed to talk to her right now.
I met Sarah at Sammy’s Bar & Grill for her lunch break. As soon as I saw her enter the establishment, I asked her if she was okay.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, taking a seat across from me. “I’m more worried about you.”
“I’m guessing Jonathan told you?”
“No. I saw it with my own eyes. There was a clip of you in a room with that guy who killed his girlfriend. What were you thinking? He could have hurt you.”
“Kane was right there, with a gun, but I bet that part wasn’t in the video?”
Sarah shook her head.
I cursed myself for not seeing the whole broadcast before I went and had a word with Rachel. If I had known there was an actual video clip...
“But what were you thinking?”
I explained the whole thing to her. About how Nathan wasn’t really himself.
“Yeah, I remember Rachel and that other guy saying something like that. But I thought they were just making stuff up, to be honest. Gran is worried about you, too.”
Getting home later was certainly going to be fun.
“You guys don’t have to worry about me,” I said. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself. God knows I’ve said as much to Gran on multiple occasions.”
“I know,” Sarah said. She touched her growing belly then. “But I can’t stop myself from worrying, you know?”
“I promise to be careful, and Kane will be there every step of the way, but I have to see this through. For Rebecca’s sake.”
“Is she here now?” Sarah asked, looking around nervously.
“Not right now,” I said. “She’s keeping an eye out all around town, in case someone suspicious hangs around.”
“That’s awful,” Sarah said. “So that monster could potentially be anyone and we wouldn’t even know until he actually did something?”
I nodded. “But I doubt he’s that powerful. Though he’s certainly had plenty of time to practice.”
Gregory had called me back while I waited for Sarah to show up. Apparently, Rochester Bailey had died in a strange car accident way back in the mid-eighties. I wondered if the vengeful spirit of one of his victims had anything to do with it.
Sarah looked around. She stared at Danny behind the bar. Then she shook her head.
“I’ll keep my eyes open for anyone acting strangely,” she said. “But I’ll try not to let it drive me crazy.”
“That’s a good way to go about it,” I said and smiled. “You have more important things to worry about. Save you worry for stuff that actually matters.”
“You matter, Meredith,” she said. “Never forget that. No matter what happens, you’ll always be my family.”
“You know what I meant. You have a family of your own on the way. Leave the ghosts to me, okay?”
“Deal,” Sarah said.
Just then our orders arrived and we gladly dug in. Danny was still himself. For now, anyway.
Back at my office, I waited for Kane to come. He said he’d be over any minute now, with some big news. I’d already told him the info that Gregory had shared with me.
A few minutes later, he was in my office with some printouts in his hand. He dropped them on the desk in front of me.
“What’s this?” I asked as I examined them.
It appeared to be everything one would want to know about one Rochester Bailey. There was even a timeline of important dates and events from birth to death.
“You really went all out, didn’t you?” I joked.
Kane smiled. “I am a PI. It’s my job to be thorough. So what do you think? Is there something in there we can use against him?”
There was too much info there just to glance at it. It was time to do a thorough read through everything. I took out a paper pad and a pen and placed them right next to the printouts.
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said with a smile. “Some coffees wouldn’t hurt right about now.”
While Kane went to the coffee shop that was right across the street, I started reading over everything he had brought to me.
If there was something in there I could use to put a stop to that monster’s reign of terror, I wasn’t going to rest until I found it.
Nineteen
By the time I was done taking notes, I knew more about Rochester Bailey than I cared to know. Apparently, he was in the military for a time as well. When he came back home, he joined the police force. There was nothing on his record to indicate that he was a serial killing psychopath. So he was good at hiding it, that was for sure.
“Anything in there we can use against him?” Kane said, finishing the last of his coffee. I’d already finished my second cup a while back. It was getting dark outside.
Before I could answer, Rebecca made an appearance.
“Find anything out there?” I asked her.
It took Kane a second or two to realize that I was not talking to him.
Rebecca shook her ghostly head. “Everything is as it should be. For now, at least.”
“So you didn’t run into his ghost either?”
Rebecca practically shuddered at the suggestion. “No,” was all she said.
I told her quickly what we’d been doing for the past couple of hours.
“I think he’s too far gone,” I concluded about our subject. “Or he was always evil, dead or alive. The best we can hope for is to trap him somehow before he hurts anyone else.”
“That didn’t work out too well last time,” Kane reminded me.
“My mistake was not tying Nathan down,” I said. “I won’t make that mistake again. If Rochester was in his spirit form, that wouldn’t have been an issue. But now that he knows what I plan to do and how I’m going about it, it will be that much harder to catch him off-guard again.”
“Are you suggesting we wait for him to come to us? To wait until he kills his next victim?” Kane immediately caught himself. He looked around the room, searching for someone he couldn’t see.
“She’s behind you, to your right,” I said helpfully.
He turned around. “I’m sorry, Rebecca.”
“She says it’s fine,” I told him, though the look on her face when he said “next victim” was anything but.
“To answer your question,” I said, “there’s nothing else we can do. Not right now at least. I’ll try to see if maybe we can get something that belonged to this Rochester guy. Maybe then Chloe can tune in and tell us where he is.”
“Did Callie call you?” Kane asked.
I had sent that hairbrush in the mail a few days ago now. “No. But I’ll check on the package. I have the tracking number right here.”
I put the number into the computer and saw that the package was at a sorting facility not too far from where Callie resided.
“It should get to her tomorrow,” I said. “For some reason, the mail is being extra slow these days.”
“How exactly can we even get something that belonged to Rochester Bailey?” Kane asked the obvious question.
“According to these printouts, he was related to Nathan Grant. He was his maternal uncle
. I wonder if Nathan can get me in contact with his family?”
Kane raised an eyebrow. Rebecca didn’t look too convinced, either.
“I know it’s a long shot, but I have to try something. Sure, what Rachel and Mike did will make it harder, but I can’t just sit here. But all that will have to wait until tomorrow. I just hope Rochester Bailey is till roaming the ether looking for a body to snatch.”
“What about Nathan? Do you think he’s safe?” Kane asked. “I don’t think they’ll let him keep packets of salt on him.”
“He’s locked up. I doubt Rochester Bailey wants to experience that,” I said. “Either way, he won’t be able to hurt anyone behind bars.”
That night, Kane decided to come home with me once again. It was safer this way in case the dead serial killer decided he wanted revenge. Of course, when we closed the door behind us, Gran was already waiting for me. She said she wanted to have a word.
Kane excused himself while we went to the kitchen. Tea and cookies were already on the table. I sat down, took a sip of my tea and a tentative bite of a delicious-looking cookie. It had raspberry filling on top and it was still warm.
“These are really good,” I said.
Gran didn’t smile. “You know we’re not here to talk about cookies,” she said.
“I’m guessing you saw the news?”
She shook her head. “I had to find out from my customers.”
“I’m sorry if I caused you any embarrassment, Gran, but that’s who I am. I can’t change the fact that I see dead people everywhere.” I took another bite of the cookie. It was good.
“You know very well that I don’t care what gossip the busybodies of this town get into. I never have. I’m worried about your safety, Millie,” she said, looking genuinely worried.
“Don’t call me that,” I reminded her about her nickname for me that I hated. “Besides, haven’t we already been through this? It’s my job, Gran.”
“I can understand talking to dead people but you were talking to a real-life killer. A man who had no qualms about killing his girlfriend.”
“I had like ten people with me,” I said in my defense. Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. “Plus, Kane was there. With a gun. Nothing would have happened. Besides, Nathan was possessed. That’s why I confronted him in the first place. We wouldn’t have broken in if he wasn’t. I was just there to talk to his dead girlfriend.”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about. You broke into the house of a possible killer and you thought nothing of it. What if you had been wrong? You could be in jail for trespassing now, and since you were in another town, Jonathan wouldn’t be able to bail you out.”
“I don’t need Jonathan’s help,” I was quick to point out. “I don’t need anyone’s help.”
Gran shook her head again. “Just promise me you’ll be more careful next time. Please?”
I sighed. “Of course,” I said. “Despite what it might look like on the outside, I do not have a death wish. But I think you and Sarah need to accept that this is my job. I can’t just let this happen and do nothing about it. I have to get to the bottom of this. For Rebecca’s sake, at least.”
“I’m sure Rebecca would prefer it if you stayed alive,” Gran said.
Rebecca was in the room with us, of course, listening to every word.
“She agrees with you,” I said to Gran. “And she said she’ll always have my back, no matter what.”
“I’m glad,” she said.
I finished the cookie. Then I ate more cookies so that I could finish the tea.
All in all, not a bad price to pay in order to have that conversation.
The next day, I was on the phone with Nathan. I had lied to the operator and told her that I was his lawyer.
“Who is this?” Nathan asked as soon as he answered.
“It’s Meredith,” I said. “From the other night?”
“How could I ever forget?” He said. “But thank you for finally getting rid of him.”
“That’s the thing. I think I’m going to need your help in order to get rid of him for good.”
“If I’m able, I’ll help you in any way,” he said. “Ironically, I haven’t felt this free in a long time. I have you to thank for that.”
“Don’t mention it,” I said. The guy was in jail, on his way to prison, because of me. Because of what his uncle had done. “I was wondering if you could get me anything that belonged to your uncle.”
“My mom might know about it. I’ll tell her to give you anything she has. Will that do?”
I told him my number so he could share it with his mother.
“Yes, that sounds great. Thank you, Nathan. Hang in there, okay?”
I hung up the phone. Now all I had to do was wait. I was in my office while Rebecca was about, looking for any suspicious-looking people. Then I saw a familiar van pull up in front of my office. Sadly, it wasn’t Kane’s.
I braced myself as Rachel and Mike came into my office. Apparently, Chloe and Jacob had enough sense to keep their distance.
“What’s on today’s agenda?” Rachel asked as soon as she came in.
“Nothing that involves cameras,” I said. “Besides, there won’t be anything worthy of your show anyway. This part is the grunt work no one wants to talk about, much less watch on TV.”
“Grunt work is the worst, isn’t it?” Rachel said, turning to Mike.
He nodded absentmindedly. He was looking at something on his phone.
“Come on, Mike,” Rachel said. “Share with the class.”
“Oh, sorry,” Mike said, suddenly back in the room with us. “I just wanted to show Meredith something.”
I motioned for him to come over and show me whatever it was.
“We caught some interesting anomalies on some of the footage we shot during the exorcism,” he said.
“It wasn’t really an exorcism,” I corrected him. “He left willingly because he knew the alternative was going to be worse. I still wish I had thought ahead and tied Nathan down or something.”
“It was a weird night,” Mike said. “I don’t think any of us were thinking clearly.”
“You can say that again,” Rachel agreed. “If you’d told me that I’d be breaking into some killer’s house to exorcise an evil spirit from him, I’d look at you like you were crazy. And I’m a ghost hunter!”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It was a strange night for me too. Believe it or not, most of the time I don’t do stuff like that either.”
“You could have fooled me,” Rachel said. “You seemed pretty competent to me.”
Mike put play on the video and handed me his phone. I put it closer to my face so I could see it better.
Mike was right. There was something strange going on in the recording. I was there, of course, and so was Nathan. Kane was thankfully out of shot. Mike was on the screen as well, so this must have been what Rachel’s camera had picked up.
Most of it looked pretty standard, except when Nathan got up and then when he dropped to the ground especially. The lights flickered. But then there was what looked like a shadow extending out of Nathan and out of the house. In all the commotion, even I didn’t remember seeing that.
“This is great,” I said. “It should be good for ratings. If I sign that release form, that is.”
That last part was for Rachel.
“We’ll send the final edit for your approval,” she reassured me.
“Is this how he looked to you? Rochester Bailey’s ghost?” Mike asked me.
I shook my head. “I didn’t get a close look. I was kind of distracted by the cold wind and the flickering lights.”
Mike looked disappointed.
“We’re still working on the audio recordings,” he said. “There’s some interesting stuff there but nothing definitive yet.”
“I’m glad you guys got some useful stuff, but I was serious when I told Rachel that going to the local news was not a good idea. God knows that I’ve had some in
teresting conversations since.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Mike said, looking more than a bit sheepish. “We were just excited, you know?”
“Where’s Chloe?” I asked them.
“Back at the inn,” Rachel said. “Why?”
“Because I might need her soon. If everything goes as planned, I might come into possession of something that belonged to Rochester Bailey. I was thinking she could use her gift to possibly track down where he is right now.”
Rachel perked up almost immediately. “I’m sure she’ll be up for it,” she said. “It sounds like something that’s worth recording.”
I sighed. “Fine, you can tape it,” I said. “Just make sure to hold it back from the media. I don’t need a media frenzy around this case right now. Though…”
“What are you thinking?” Mike asked after I didn’t say anything.
“I’m thinking that maybe we should use the media to our advantage. Maybe we can warn people about Rochester Bailey without actually mentioning him at all.”
“How exactly do you plan on doing that?” Rachel asked.
“By using my words very carefully,” I said.
I had already gotten multiple phone calls from the local media. I had put their numbers on my ignore list one by one, but now I thought that maybe I had been hasty. Maybe talking to the media was the best thing for the case right now. I just needed to figure out how exactly to go about it.
Twenty
I called one of the local reporters back and set up an interview. I told them that it would be very enlightening. Little did they know what that actually meant.
Sometime after that, I got a phone call from an unknown number. I almost ignored it because I thought it would be another station trying to get me to appear on their program, but then I remembered that Nathan had promised to give my number to his mother. Was it possible he’d already done it? There was only one way to find out.
“Hello?” I said.
“Is this Meredith Good?” A woman’s voice said. She sounded older. Probably in her fifties or sixties.
“Speaking. And who is this?”
“It’s Hannah Grant, Nathan’s mother,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m even doing this…”
Ghostly Endings (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 5) Page 13