by L. T. Ryan
“Ramirez, hang on a minute.” Harris pointed to the cameraman about to get out of his car. “You stay there. Don’t you dare move.”
“Detective Harris, the people have a right to—”
Harris cut him off. “You’re on private property,” Harris interrupted. “And you’re interrupting an active police investigation.”
“Is the owner of this house a suspect?”
Harris ignored the reporter and turned to Ramirez. “How do you know Ms. Campbell?”
The man stuttered over his words and nothing came out. The reporter was quiet.
“I will find out one way or another, so you might as well come clean and save some of your dignity in the process.”
“We’re dating.” Ramirez turned to Ms. Campbell and gave her a withering look. “Were dating.”
The reporter looked scandalized. “Are you serious?”
It was Ramirez’s turn to ignore her. “Detective Harris, I swear I didn’t do any of this on purpose. I was worried about her. She’s always going out on her own trying to get a story and I wanted to scare her.”
“What did you tell her?” Harris placed herself in front of Campbell so Ramirez couldn’t look to her for suggestions.
Ramirez ran a hand down his face. “I told her the killer was cutting women open and pulling their hearts out of their chests. She promised not to say anything.”
“She lied.”
“I was trying to keep her safe.” Ramirez looked back over at his girlfriend with a pained look on his face. “And she used me.”
Ms. Campbell reached for him. “Charlie—"
Ramirez turned his back on her. “I think she’s been using the Find My Phone feature to track where I’m going during the day. That’s why she showed up to the last crime scene before anyone else. And how she figured out where I was today.” Ramirez took a huge gulp of air. His face darkened. “I swear, I had no idea until today.”
“David, do you mind checking Ramirez’s phone? Send one of the other officers back to the precinct with him. Let the Chief know. We’ll see how she wants to handle it.”
Ramirez hung his head and followed David back to the house, handing his phone over in the process.
Harris turned her attention back to the reporter. Her cameraman was still half out of the van, but he kept a steady gaze on the detective. He didn’t dare move until she gave him permission.
“Is all of that true?” Harris asked.
“More or less.” Campbell didn’t sound remorseful. “It’s not a crime to do my job.”
“It’s a crime to do your job poorly,” Harris said. “And it’s definitely a crime to go through someone else’s phone and track them when that person is a police officer working on a highly-sensitive case.”
Ms. Campbell looked over at her cameraman who shrugged his shoulders.
“Let the record show that I could make your life a living hell,” Harris continued. “Your boss, Mr. Sinclair? He and my father were pretty good friends back in the day. I guarantee you that Bill is more worried about staying on my good side than he is about staying on yours.”
For the first time, Campbell looked worried. “I was trying—”
“To do your job. Yes. I know.” Harris put her hands on her hips. “I’m going to give you some insider information, off the record. And it will stay off the record, do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“That stunt you pulled the other day. You know, when you released information about how those women were killed, you remember that?”
Campbell’s jaw was set. “Yes, ma’am.”
“That was sensitive information that we could’ve used to corner a suspect. But since you chose to make it public knowledge, you took one of our tools away. It could’ve been your fault that we might’ve missed out on catching this guy.”
“I—”
“I’m not done.” Harris took a step forward and Cassie saw the reporter shrink back. “This is the part that stays off the record. Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“This isn’t over yet and if you report on what you saw here today, you will, without a doubt, be charged with an accessory. Am I clear?”
The reporter gulped. “Crystal, ma’am.”
Harris turned to the cameraman. “That goes for you, too.”
“Yes, ma’am.” His voice cracked halfway through.
“Get in your van, drive away, and go home. I will be calling your boss to let him know you crossed the line, but that I am interested in giving you an exclusive when this is over.”
“An exclusive? Why would you do that?”
“It’s a peace offering,” Harris said. “I don’t need enemies in the media, and something tells me you’re going to be around for a while. If you can sit tight for a few more days, I promise I’ll give you a story worth telling.”
“I appreciate that, Detective.”
Harris looked at the reporter for a long moment. “Can I give you a word of advice, Ms. Campbell?” When she nodded, Harris continued. “You’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
“I’ve heard that.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. You’re good at your job. I think you have a promising career ahead of yourself. You’re going to make enemies throughout your life. Make sure it’s worth the trouble.”
Campbell nodded her head and got back into the van. Her cameraman slammed his own door shut and performed a K turn and drove back the way they came.
Cassie waved her hand in front of her face to clear the exhaust and dirt that kicked up in the van’s wake. “Do you think that’ll work?”
“For a while, maybe.” Harris watched them go. “But not forever. She’s smart. She’s tough. She’ll do what she needs to in order to get a story. If she sees me as a willing source, she’ll behave.”
“How hard was it not to cuff her just to see the look on her face?”
Harris threw her head back, laughing. “So hard! I thought about doing it, like, three times.”
The pair of them turned back to the house. “What are you going to do with Ramirez?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t know. I kind of hope Chief goes easy on him. I think he had no idea. But there needs to be consequences to his actions, otherwise he’ll keep making mistakes.”
Cassie opened her mouth to agree with Detective Harris, but movement out of the corner of her eye made her turn as she was about to step through the entrance to Langford’s house. It took her a moment to figure out what she was looking at, but as soon as she did, a lump formed in her throat.
The ghost of the little boy who had spent months standing in the corner of her bedroom stood at the corner of the house, staring at her as though he had a million things to say.
But before Cassie could comprehend what was going on, her phone buzzed in her pocket. When she pulled it out, she had no idea who she expected the caller to be, but she wasn’t prepared to see her sister Laura calling her for the first time in months.
And by the time she looked back up, the boy’s figure vanished into the ether.
Thirty-Four
“Cassie, you ready to go?”
Harris was impatient, and it took Cassie’s brain a minute to catch up with everything that was going on. She was experiencing sensory overload.
“My sister’s calling.” Cassie held up her phone as evidence. “She doesn’t call unless it’s an emergency. Can I meet you inside?”
“Make it quick,” Harris said.
Cassie nodded and hit the answer button on her phone. “Hello?”
Her sister’s laughter filled the other end of the line, but it sounded off. “Why do you sound like you don’t know who’s calling you? Doesn’t your phone have caller ID?”
“Yes.” Cassie rolled her eyes and started walking to the corner of the house where she had seen the little boy’s ghost. “I wasn’t expecting a call from you. Is everything okay?”
“That’s how you know we don’t talk enough,
” Laura said. “Why does something have to be wrong?”
Cassie could still tell this wasn’t a normal phone call, but she decided to play along. “You’re right. I’m sorry. How are you?”
“Pretty good, all things considered. California is so expensive.”
Cassie laughed. “You say that every time.”
“And I’ll keep saying it until it’s not.”
“Good luck with that one,” Cassie said. She searched the phone for something—anything—that she could pull from her memory about what was going on in her sister’s life. “Are you still seeing Alan?”
Laura sighed heavily. “No. He was a good guy, but boring as all hell.”
“Boring is good sometimes. Don’t take it for granted.”
“I’m saving boring for my thirties, like you. I want fun and excitement!”
“Just not too much fun and excitement.”
“Of course, you would say that.” Laura’s tone rolled her eyes for her. “What about you? Are you leading a boring life?”
“Never.” Cassie laughed at the idea. She had been dreaming about a boring life for a while, but the concept was too far-fetched. “But the museum’s going well.”
“Still helping the police with their investigations?”
Cassie sighed. Her sister knew more than her parents did, but she didn’t know the complete story. As far as Laura knew, she was a bit of an amateur detective. Cassie wasn’t sure if Laura thought it was because of her run-ins with Novak or because she had a strange talent for solving murders. Either way, Cassie was sure her sister had no idea the spirit world was involved.
“Yeah,” Cassie said. She rounded the corner of the house but was disappointed when all she saw was open air. Had the little boy disappeared, or was he playing hide-and-go-seek? “I’m at a crime scene as we speak.”
“Oh, really? That’s not boring.”
“No, it’s not.” Cassie weighed her next words. “I know you called for a reason.”
Laura sighed. “I don’t want to interrupt you if you’re working.”
“Working? You know they don’t pay me for this, right?”
Laura laughed. “You should maybe look into getting compensated.”
“I’ll do that. Now stop stalling. What’s up?”
The silence stretched on and Cassie could hear the gears turning in her sister’s head. “Look, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m going to be blunt about it. Mom’s sick.”
Cassie felt dizzy and had to put a hand on the side of the house to steady herself. “What?”
“She found out a couple months ago, I guess. She made dad keep it secret, but I don’t think he could anymore. He told me and begged me not to tell you, but I can’t keep something like this quiet. What are they thinking?”
“Why didn’t she want to tell us?”
“You know Mom,” Laura said. “She doesn’t want to bother anyone.”
“Jesus Christ. She’d wait until we surrounded her on her death bed to tell us she’s dying.”
“Probably.”
“Is it bad?”
“She has a brain tumor.”
“You’re shitting me.”
Laura laughed. “Wish I was. She said she started to feel pressure behind her eyes that wouldn’t go away. Had some trouble seeing. She knew something was off, so she got checked out.”
Cassie’s entire body got hot. “Is she going to be okay? Are they worried?”
“They checked her out, and it doesn’t look like it spread anywhere else. They’ll need to do a biopsy to be sure, but it’s nothing to get worked up about.”
“Those sound like dad’s words.”
“Funny how he had to call me because he was worried but spent the next hour saying it wasn’t a big deal.”
“Parents are weird that way.” Cassie took a deep breath. “So, she’ll need brain surgery?”
“I guess so.” There was the hint of a tremor in Laura’s voice. “They have a couple more appointments to go to before they set up the big surgery, so they’ll have to get through those first.”
Cassie hesitated to say what was on her mind, but she had to ask. “Why didn’t I get a phone call?”
Laura blew a big breath into the phone’s mic. “I don’t know, Cass. I really don’t. Things have been strained between all of us.”
“I’m sorry—”
“I know you are. It sucked when you pushed us all away, but I get it. You went through all that trauma. I’m always going to love you, and I’m always going to be there for you, even if you don’t want me to be.”
Tears filled Cassie’s eyes and she sniffled. “Thank you. I want you in my life. You’re my sister.”
“You’re welcome,” Laura said. “But you have to do more than that.”
“Me? What do you mean?”
“It’s time to apologize to Mom and Dad. It’s time to repair things.”
“I’m not the only one—”
“I know that, Cassie. I know. But listen, they dropped everything for you, and you were a good sport for a while—”
“A good sport?”
Laura kept going as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “But you kicked them out of your life. You kicked all of us out. We’ve all been hanging by threads for the last couple years, and I’m tired of it. I want my family back.”
“I didn’t go anywhere.”
“Yes, you did. And I get it. You’ve been through so much, and that takes a lot of time to heal. A lot longer than a few years.”
“Are you using your psych degree on me?”
“So what if I am?” Laura laughed, her voice still quivering. “Cassie, I think you’ve come a long way in the last ten years. From the few conversations we’ve had, I think you’ve done a lot of healing. But you won’t be able to close those wounds until you talk to Mom and Dad.”
“What about you?”
“Me too, if you can squeeze me in.”
“Yeah, I can.” Cassie gasped. “Is this an intervention?”
“Definitely not.” Laura’s laugh was stronger. “Mom and Dad have their own issues to sort through, too. They spent a long time keeping us as close as possible. I had to move to California to grow up. You had to almost die. Twice.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“The point is, I think we need to go home.”
“That sounds terrifying. But--” Cassie said, “--I want to see mom. I want to make sure everything is okay. I do want to fix this, Laura.”
“Good. Me too.” The sound of rustling papers filled the phone for a minute. “My next appointment will be here soon, but do me a favor? Look at your calendar. Let me know when you can get away for a week. I’ll fly into Savannah and we can have some sister time before we head to Charlotte.”
“You know, I’m the big sister,” Cassie said. “You’re way too mature right now.”
“We all have to grow up some time,” Laura said. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll let you be in charge when we’re around Mom and Dad.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Hey,” Laura said. “I love you.”
Cassie’s throat tightened with emotion and she recalled the hands wrapped around it less than twenty-four hours prior. “I love you, too.”
“Call me soon, okay? Promise me?”
“I promise. Thanks for calling me.”
“You’re welcome. Bye, sis.”
“Bye.”
Cassie hung up the phone and was consumed with a well of emotion. While Laura had sounded casual about their mother’s prognosis, it was not easy to hear that kind of news. The idea of reuniting with her family was terrifying, but Laura had a point. They couldn’t stay like this forever. They’d have to talk about their problems one day.
But the major question was whether Cassie would ever feel comfortable confiding in them about her abilities. They wouldn’t try to lock her up in an insane asylum, but she also didn’t want to make matters worse.
Only time would tell.
Cassie looked around one more time and headed back to the front of the house. She couldn’t see the ghost of the little boy anywhere. Why had he shown up now? Why here? It was the first time she had seen him out of her house and it didn’t make sense. Langford was a killer, but so far, his entire demographic of victims was grown women. The little boy didn’t belong.
Cassie reached the front of the house and met David at the entrance.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“My mother has a brain tumor.” Cassie’s casual tone surprised herself. “I think I’m still processing it, but my sister said they don’t think it’s cancer. We’ll have to wait until it’s removed to find out.”
“I’m so sorry.” David’s face was a mask of concern. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Let’s solve one problem at a time,” she said. “I could use the distraction.”
Thirty-Five
The inside of Langford’s house was more impressive than the outside, but Cassie didn’t have much time to look around. It was big and open and somehow devoid of any real personality. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t be happy to live in a house of this size, but a home needed some warmth and a welcoming atmosphere. This one felt sterile.
She followed David up the stairs and tried to not think about the fact that this was where Lucy had lost her life. She focused on the task ahead of them.
Harris met them at the door. “Everything okay?”
“Some personal stuff. Nothing I can do about it now.” Cassie looked over Harris’s shoulder. “Did you find the letters?”
“Right where he told us they’d be.” Harris stepped to the side.
Cassie’s breath caught in her throat. Langford’s bedroom was at least three times the size of her own. He fit a king bed, two dressers, a TV cabinet, and several bookshelves in there, and it still felt open and airy. Comfortable.
And she had been right about the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Impressive, right?” David asked. “Why do terrible people always have the best stuff?”
Cassie shrugged. She had been wondering the same thing. Langford was a doctor, and it was clear that he either made good money or came from a wealthy family. Maybe both. She didn’t know how much a house like this cost, but she knew it wasn’t cheap.