“You going to look for the girl? You never have that much luck finding them once they’ve passed on.”
Drying his face on the towel, Michael said, “I’m going to find the sheriff. Then I’ll go out to the field. The lady there will know the girl’s passed. If she’s not ready to help now, she will be soon.”
Sarah’s bark woke her up. Sitting up, Daisy whistled and the retriever obediently left the window and came over to her, ears perked and waiting. “Who’s out there, girl?” she asked softly, dragging a hand through her hair. Her curls tangled around her fingers and she sighed. She’d been so damned tired, she’d gone to bed before her hair had dried all the way.
Bad move for a woman whose hair curled the way hers did.
She stood up and moved over to the window, peering through the blinds. The sleek little convertible moving up the road wasn’t one she recognized. The full moon shining down was bright enough for her to see pretty well—buffed to a high shine, late model, and the top was down. She didn’t know a person in town that owned that kind of car.
And since she didn’t recognize it, Daisy had a good idea who it was.
FBI Agent Michael O’Rourke.
It was the middle of the night. She didn’t have to be a cop to know it was a bad sign, an agent showing up on her front door this late. Turning away from the window, she moved to her dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans. Drawing them up over her hips, she grabbed the bra she draped over the foot of the bed and put it on. Just as the truck pulled up in front of the house, she tugged a skinny strapped tank top on. Glancing in the mirror, she made a face at her reflection. Her hair was a mess.
Making a side trip to the bathroom, she splashed some cold water on her face and slicked her damp hands over her hair. The door bell rang. Turning away from the mirror, she padded away out of the bathroom and down the hall.
Sarah waited patiently at the door, her liquid eyes black in the darkness. Reaching out, Daisy turned on the light, giving her eyes a second to adjust before looking through the Judas hole. “Out kind of late, aren’t you?” she asked as she unlocked the chain to let him in.
His eyes were grim. There was a chill to his features that made her gut go cold. And suddenly, Daisy wished she had stayed in bed. Wouldn’t have mattered though. She felt cold all over. A cop knew what was wrong when a person was woken up in the middle of the night. It was because somebody had died.
“Why are you here?” she asked softly, backing away from him. She rested her hips against the hall table and folded her arms around her chest.
“She’s gone.”
“Tanya?” Daisy asked, clenching her jaw.
“No…Tanya hasn’t passed on yet,” he said quietly. He continued to watch her closely and she saw the answer in his eyes.
Daisy had never seen anybody who looked as haunted as he did. She prayed she’d never see it again. Swallowing the knot in throat, she said huskily, “Then you’re going to have to explain who you are talking about. Tanya is the only one who has died recently.”
“I told you that he had taken somebody else.”
It seemed like the pit of her belly dropped out. Closing her eyes, she said, “No. You said he just took her.” One hand closed into a tight fist and she fought against the useless burst of fury. No.
“He didn’t kill her. She died.”
Perplexed, Daisy opened her eyes and glared at him. She shoved off the table and planted her hands on her hips. “Damn it, O’Rourke, you’re not making much sense. Now granted, it is the middle of the night and I’m in dire need of a caffeine rush. But if you’re going to come here and tell me that a girl is dead—” She clamped her mouth shut and hissed out a breath. She took a deep breath. Tried to think, turned his words over in her head. Nope. Still didn’t make sense. Looking back at him, she said in a tight voice, “You need to remember something. I’m a cop. I’m the town sheriff. I take a dead girl pretty damned seriously. Especially since we have a killer using my town as his hunting ground.”
His lashes lowered, hiding the haunting blue of his eyes. “She was sick—bad heart. I told you that. I think her heart gave out.”
With that, he turned on his heel and started for the door.
“Hey!”
He paused, looking over his shoulder.
“Where in the hell do you think you’re going?”
“Out to the field. Tanya might be ready to talk to me.”
Propping her hands on her hips, Daisy stared at him. “Why? What changes things from this morning?”
“Because a girl is dead,” Michael said, his tone patient, as though he was talking to a small child.
“Yeah and this morning, talking might have saved her.”
Michael’s lips curled in a sad smile. “I don’t think so—you don’t understand, Sheriff. The deceased, they are like kids. Like a young one, scared, confused and alone in the dark. She couldn’t this morning—it just wasn’t time, not for her.”
“So because it wasn’t time for her, some young girl was raped and tortured, probably scared to death—” her voice faded away at the look on his face.
“No. She wasn’t hurt. I don’t know what happened. But there—wasn’t that tortured touch to her. I need to go. Are you coming?”
Damned jerk, Daisy thought a few minutes later as she drove over the rough roads. He sat next to her in silence. Hell, she couldn’t even hear him breathing. Spends so much time with his ghosts, he acts like one.
It was unsettling. She couldn’t hear him. He sat so still he could have been carved from marble—yet her senses were entirely too attuned to him.
He smelled good. Trapped in the close confines of the car, she was aware of just how good he smelled. Daisy had always been a sucker for the way a guy smelled. She didn’t particularly care for cologne on a man, just the clean smell of soap and male.
And damn, this particular male was something else.
She was entirely too aware of him.
Being this close to him made her skin feel hot and itchy, made her aware of the way her clothes felt against her flesh, how her hair blew around her face in the breeze. Her heart started to slam against her ribcage and her breathing sped up. Against the steering wheel, she could feel her palms getting sweaty.
Up ahead, the gravel road ended and she had to turn off onto the dirt road. Eventually, that would end and there would be little more than two ruts in the dirt to follow and then they’d have to get out and walk the rest of the way to the field. She was looking forward to it, because she had to get out of this damned truck.
Then maybe she could think something else beside him.
Alone, in the middle of the night, with a man she didn’t really know and there were murders being committed in her county, and the only thing that Daisy could really think about was how damned good he smelled.
Twenty minutes later, she had her wish.
Following behind him, she slammed her flashlight against her thigh and tried to figure how this had happened. “You know, I am the sheriff. I think I should be the one walking in front.”
He didn’t say anything.
Daisy slid her gaze back down the length of his back. And stared at his ass. Again.
Now she wasn’t thinking about how good he smelled. For the past fifteen minutes, she had been trailing after him and in the bright patches of moonlight, she had been left to admire one very fine ass. “Any reason why you insist on being in front?” she asked irritably.
“Not sure where she is.”
Tanya.
As they crossed into the clearing, she reached up to rub at her temple. “I’m still not entirely sure why we came out here. How can she help us? How can you even be sure you’ll see…”
Something cold brushed against her. Daisy froze, jerking around, but she couldn’t see anything.
Her eyes flew to Michael’s face but he wasn’t looking at her. He seemed to be staring at somebody just to Daisy’s left, somebody roughly Daisy’s height. His eyes were gentle, a so
ft smile on his face.
He didn’t say a word.
“Why is Daisy here?”
Michael shrugged. He focused his thoughts, projecting them so that he didn’t have to speak them aloud for them to be heard, “She’s the sheriff—if something’s happened, shouldn’t she know?”
“Why?” Tanya’s voice was flat and grim, her eyes angry. “It’s too late to do anything now.”
“She’s trying, Tanya. She can’t turn back time. He isn’t leaving any clues. She can only do much,” Mike said, trying not to let her sense his frustration.
Tanya’s eyes closed. “I know. The girl’s dead though. So am I. Can she stop him from doing it again?” Her image wavered, a certain sign of rising emotion.
“I don’t know…that might be up to you.”
Tanya’s eyes flew open. “What can I do? Damn it, I’m stuck here. Here or at that damned cabin where he…where he…” Her voice faded away and her eyes looked stricken as she stared at him, her image wavering in and out of sight.
“Tell me who he is. Can you see him yet?”
She spun away from him. “No! I don’t want to see him…he’s just…just there! I can’t—”
Michael sighed. Running a hand through his hair, he glanced at Daisy. She was staring at him, her eyes wide and apprehensive. She’d sensed something from Tanya. Tanya had passed too close to her. The sheriff was a sensitive. She’d felt the cool touch of the deceased. He looked away from her pretty face and focused on Tanya. “It’s okay—don’t force it then.”
Looking at Daisy, he said, quietly, “Come on. Lets go for a drive.” Maybe he’d get lucky and just feel something lingering from the young girl’s passing. Daisy stared at him.
“We just went for a drive. Here. Now we’re going for another one?” she demanded sarcastically. “What’s with all the silent stares?”
Michael shook his head. “Nothing. There’s nothing here right now.”
“Nothing my butt,” Daisy snorted, propping her hands on her hips. Arching one elegant brow at him, she said, “What’s going on?”
Michael repeated, “Nothing.” He walked between the two women, one living, one caught between the world and what waited beyond. The cool icy touch of death grazed his flesh as Tanya’s arm brushed his. On the other side, he felt the warmth of life and the sweet scent of Daisy’s body flooded his head.
“Where are you going? I thought you came here to help.”
“You’re not ready to help me. I’ll do it another way,” he responded, trying unsuccessfully to block Daisy’s scent from his head. She smelled too sweet.
“Where are you going?”
“We’re leaving,” he responded shortly. Too damned many voices in his head. “Nothing here right now.”
“The hell there isn’t. I felt something—damn it, you’re the spookiest damned person I’ve ever met in my life. If you weren’t talking to somebody then I’ll eat my badge.”
Michael stopped. Tanya circled around them, staring at him with shuttered eyes. “You’re supposed to help me—isn’t that why you can see me? But you’re just going to leave. Why aren’t you helping?”
“I will help you—when it’s time.” Turning away, he looked at Daisy. “Tanya’s here. But she still can’t help me. Can’t help us. I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do until she’s ready.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Tanya said angrily. “What in the hell do you want from me?”
Daisy stared at him warily, watching as he looked off to the left. Her eyes narrowed as she studied him. Her mouth parted and she whispered, “The diner…damn it, you were talking to somebody at the diner. Damn it, was there somebody you were talking to at the diner?”
Arching a brow, he asked levelly, “Did you see me talking to anybody at the diner?”
She scowled at him, her rosebud mouth puckering up as she replied snottily, “I didn’t see you talking to anybody just now either, but I’d bet my next paycheck you were talking to somebody.” She stood there, glaring at him in the moonlight with her hands fisted on her hips, her eyes glinting with temper.
And Michael suddenly had only one thing on his mind.
Kissing that scowl off her face.
Forget about the dead crying out for justice. Forget about the voices that had crowded his brain for far too long. Forget about the malevolent evil that darkened this small town.
He wanted to kiss her. It was the weirdest thing, too. Because Michael didn’t forget about his responsibilities. He hadn’t ever been able to silence the voices in his mind.
Her eyes flicked to his mouth and he heard her soft intake of breath. Taking a step, he heard a branch break under his foot. She spun away and he closed his eyes, muttering under his breath. You’ve lost your mind.
But another part of him said, This is the closest to sane you’ve ever been.
Turning away, he found himself staring at Tanya. Her gaze moved back and forth between him and Daisy, her pale, transparent features still full of fury. “You’re just going to leave? There has to be something else you can do. How can you just leave?”
“Because until you are ready to help me, there’s nothing I can do here,” Michael told her as gently as he could. Then he walked away.
After a minute, he heard Daisy falling in step behind him.
You’ve lost your mind, Daisy told herself.
Had he almost kissed her?
Had she almost kissed him?
And damn it, she was really disappointed when that kiss hadn’t happened.
Murder investigation, hell-O! she shouted at herself. She really needed to sit herself down and have a talk, explain the basic rules of common sense. The weird guy passing through town wasn’t the best guy to have a fling with—well, some people might argue he was the perfect guy for a fling. But Daisy didn’t do flings. And if she did…well she just didn’t. She was also a little busy trying to catch a serial killer before he killed one more woman. Definitely not the ideal time for any kind of romantic interlude.
A couple hours of good, hard, mind-blowing sex might just clear your head and let you think better. Okay, that was her libido talking.
She needed some sleep, that was what she needed. Well, sleep or a self-induced orgasm. Any of that might help a little. But instead of going home and telling tall, dark and strange here to get lost and come back when it was light out, they were out driving.
Stuck in a car with a man who did the weirdest things to her system. He made her skin buzz and at the same time, there was something about him that really, really freaked her out. He didn’t talk, either. He just sat there, his hands resting on his thighs as he stared outside.
What in the hell he was looking at, she didn’t know. Where they were going? She didn’t know that either. At least earlier there was a destination. He’d been talking to Tanya in the field. She knew he had been. Now though, she wasn’t so sure what his game plan was. Driving down 402 when it wasn’t even three in the morning wasn’t how she had planned to spend her night.
“I should have made some coffee,” she muttered. She pressed her fingers against her eyes and rubbed, but it didn’t make it any easier to hold her eyes open.
“He picked her up here.”
Daisy hit the brakes. “What?” she demanded. Turning on the overhead light, she looked at him, feeling a cold chill dance up her spine. His eyes were glowing again.
“He picked her up here,” he said quietly, staring off into the darkness. “She was hitchhiking. Wanted to go to Indianapolis—she’d never been. There was a play she wanted to see. Mom was afraid she’d get sick.”
Daisy had absolutely no idea what to say. Swallowing, she shifted her gaze forward and realized she was still in the middle of the road. Easing the car to the shoulder, she shifted to park and turned the overhead light off. “Who is she? I can’t do anything until I know she is.”
He didn’t hear a word she said. “She was walking—it was late, almost dark. She’d thought she’d get t
o town before it got dark. He pulled up and he just looked so safe…so normal.”
Her palms were sweating. That icy cold sweat. Fear and rage clamored for equal footing inside her. Rage at whoever in the hell was doing this in her town. Fear that it was happening…and with such apparent ease…
And she was also uneasy as hell.
Michael O’Rourke was entirely too spooky. He didn’t seem quite human. “Can you tell me something that will help me stop them?” she asked, her voice rough with emotion.
“She saw his face.” He continued to stare out the window, but his voice seemed a little more focused, a little more there.
“You…you aren’t talking to her, are you?”
He blinked and the glow faded from his eyes. A sad, but relieved smile curled his lips and he glanced at her. “No…no, she’s gone. It’s just—kind of like an echo.”
“What’s this about his face?” Daisy asked, closing her hands tightly around the steering wheel.
The smile that lit his face now wasn’t sad, or relieved. It was downright mean. “She saw his face…I can’t see him yet. But I’ll know him.”
Closing her eyes, Daisy thunked her head down on the steering wheel. “Damn it, shouldn’t it be easier than this? Can’t you just tell me who he is so I can go grab him?”
Michael started to laugh. “If you just go and grab him, even if I could tell you a name, you’d never be able to keep him. You’re a cop, Daisy. Think like one. There has to be proof. He’ll give himself away—when he does that, there’s going to be proof.”
Growling, she turned her head and glared at him. “Don’t you think I’ve been looking for proof all this time? And while I wait, he’ll grab another girl. If she died before he had his fun like you think, then he is going to be pissed.”
Through the shadows, she could just barely see his face. The dim glow coming from the dashboard didn’t give off much light. She watched as he leaned his head back against the seat and sighed. “I don’t think he’s going to grab another right now. He’s not pissed—he’s scared. Something has him scared.”
Talking with the Dead Page 6