Victoria House (Haunted Hearts Series Book 2)

by Denise Moncrief

  “So you don’t think Caroline is dead?”

  There was so much hope in the woman’s voice. He suddenly understood, or at least he got a glimpse of how much hurt it must have caused Doris for Caroline to disappear like she had.

  “Doris...” He sighed. The truth could be so painful. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what my friend with the FBI found out. I shouldn’t have kept it to myself.”

  She reached across the table and patted his hand. “It couldn’t have been an easy thing for you that she left like that, and I’m sure it was pretty hard for you to talk about. You must still be trying to get over it. You should have told me, but I ain’t holding it against you. It’s no use holding anything that girl did against you. She had a mind of her own.”

  She didn’t get it at all, but that was all right. He wanted her to believe whatever made her feel better.

  “If I hear from her, I’ll let you know. I promise. I won’t keep things to myself when it comes to her anymore. I know you need to know. I should have realized that. Keeping it to myself wasn’t very thoughtful or fair of me.”

  Doris rose from her chair, wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “I should go now. I’m sure you have plenty to do investigating Jared Crenshaw’s murder. That sorry bastard...” Doris stood a little taller. “Excuse my language, but everyone knows he wasn’t any good and the way he treated that girl... Shameful.”

  “Yes, ma’am. It was.”

  “Well, you take care of yourself, Mitchell. You’re the best son-in-law I’ve ever had.”

  He grinned. “I’m the only son-in-law you’ve ever had. Not much competition there.”

  Doris headed for the door. Then she turned. “I guess you’ll be divorcing her as soon as you can.”

  She seemed so sad that a clog of sorrow formed in his throat to match the pain that shadowed her eyes.

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded toward Tori. “Is she your new girlfriend?”

  Tori flinched and then made a lame attempt to stifle her reaction. He thought her embarrassment was somewhat cute.

  “Yes, she is. Although I’m not sure she wants to admit that to anyone yet.”

  Doris took her time staring hard at Tori. “I’ve heard you left Little Rock because of some personal problems. Maybe the two of you will be good for each other.”

  Tori finally spoke. “What do you mean by personal problems? What have people been saying about me?”

  Doris seemed a bit sheepish. “I shouldn’t have mentioned that. It’s probably just talk, you know. People around here will make stuff up when there’s nothing new to discuss. Right now, there’s plenty of talk about Jared Crenshaw. No one’s sorry he’s dead. Not one person in Hill County.”

  Before Tori could follow up with another question, Doris had scurried out the door and was gone.

  She pounced on Gray. “What did she mean by that? I haven’t talked to anyone in Fairview about my past. No one except you.”

  He held up both hands. “We’ve been together practically non-stop since we talked about that. Who could I have told?”

  “Well, there was that little bit of time when you were interviewing Kimbrough.”

  “I promise I haven’t told anyone what you told me.”

  He held his breath. Would what Doris said ruin their still fragile relationship? It was so new that he had no idea what would kill it.

  She blinked at him. “I believe you.”

  Shocked, that’s what he was. She was incredible. He never knew how she’d react.

  “You do?”

  “You’re right. Why would you tell anyone what I told you? I get the feeling you hate the gossip in this town as much as I do.”

  “More, baby. More. I’ve lived with it longer.”

  She shuddered as if the thought had sent an electrical shock through her. “The people in this county are just... Just plain mean sometimes.” She rose from her chair. “Come on, let’s go grill McCord.”

  The way she suggested interviewing McCord sounded a bit like she looked forward to rotating him on a skewer over an open fire with an apple in his mouth. The picture almost made him chuckle, but the serious expression on Tori’s face squelched his amusement.

  Did Tori have just a bit of a mean streak? If she did, she might fit right in with the inhabitants of Hill County. She’d have to be able to hold her own with the mean-spirited people around her.

  He smiled as he followed her out the door, enjoying the magnificent view of her backside and appreciating the fact that she wasn’t perfect.

  ****

  Ashley’s worthless boyfriend had insisted on transferring Josh to the hospital. When the door to his room swung open, he wasn’t relieved to see Gray’s face sticking around the corner. Right behind him appeared Tori Downing. Josh groaned and turned his head. Every movement seemed like a hammer pounding the inside of his skull. The pain from the beating was worse than any hangover he’d ever experienced.

  “How are you feeling, Josh?”

  He flinched. With those innocuous words, Gray had started the inevitable conversation about how Josh’s fingerprints had ended up on Jared’s missing Chevy. Josh had known the interrogation was coming from the moment Gray announced that someone had found the truck. It had been only a matter of time before Gray came around to ask the hard questions.

  “Look, I know why you’re here.”

  “I was coming to see you anyway—before I discovered your prints inside Jared’s truck.”

  Tori leaned against the wall behind Gray. “Actually, I found them. Gray just watched while I powdered and taped.”

  Gray tossed a scowl at her, but she didn’t flinch under his non-verbal reprimand. Josh liked that about the woman. Tori Downing could hold her own with Mitchell Grayson. Something to think about. Had his old friend finally met his match?

  “Yeah, sounds familiar.” He refused to act guilty like a criminal. “He likes to take credit for what other people do.”

  Would Gray catch his jab? Ashley had told him the whole sorry story about what happened to Jeremy Haskins. When she finished, Josh had been sick to his stomach. Gray had given up a lot to protect Ashley from Fred Haskins.

  Gray stared hard at him for a moment. Message received loud and clear. Josh’s ploy hadn’t worked. Gray wasn’t going to be sidetracked. Anger flashed in his eyes. The tactic had been low, and Gray wasn’t going to let that stop him from gouging the truth out of Josh, just like digging the debris out of an infected wound.

  Josh sucked in a deep, fortifying breath when Gray pulled up the only chair in the room, scooting it as close to the bed as he could. He wished Gray would back up a little, give him a little more breathing room.

  “So you want to tell me about it?”

  Josh lifted his hand to scratch his head, but the IV stuck in his vein would only allow him so much movement. He rubbed the back of his itchy head on the rough pillowcase. “Courtney asked me to get rid of the truck, so I did.”

  Gray blinked.

  His story was going to be a hard sell. “She didn’t kill Jared.”

  “I never said she did.” Gray clipped each word.

  Josh shifted in the uncomfortable torture device hospitals jokingly called beds. “The night they disappeared she called me. Jared had come home high on something or other and tried to make her sleep with him, so she stabbed him with a screwdriver.”

  Josh stopped, hoping Gray would absorb the relevance of that bit of information. It wasn’t the first time Jared had tried to rape his common law wife. The last time, Jared had accused Josh of attacking her to cover up his own actions.

  Gray’s eyes narrowed. A vein pulsed in his neck. “Go on.”

  “When I got there...I don’t know, I guess it was almost one-thirty...he was hitting her. Pressed his hand on his wound with one hand and clobbered her in the face with the other. She was a bloody mess.”

  “Uh-huh. That might explain the blood on the bedroom floor.”

  His hand wrapped around the bed rail
as a fresh wave of pain hit him. “I punched him and he went down.” He closed his eyes. It had been a wide-awake nightmare.

  “So when did you cut his throat?”

  He sputtered his answer. “Cut his throat? I didn’t cut his throat. I tied him up and left Courtney holding a baseball bat. Told her to smack him in the face if he tried to get up. You weren’t answering your cell phone, so I drove back into town to look for you. If I had been able to find you, maybe he wouldn’t be dead. After about an hour, I gave up and went back to the trailer. By the time I got there, they were both gone.”

  “What time was that?”

  He licked his lips, dying for a bit of ice. “About two-thirty, maybe closer to three Wednesday afternoon.”

  “So when did Courtney ask you to ditch the truck?”

  He breathed in a rush of oxygen. Adrenaline pumped through his veins. He had the strong urge to run or take a long pull on a bottle of Jack Daniels. How deep was the hole he was digging for himself? “Before I left the trailer, I got a text from her asking me to get rid of it.”

  “Why did she want you to do that?”

  His nerves jumped in rhythm with his accelerated heartbeat. Why would Gray believe his story? “She said she wanted everyone to think they’d left town.”

  “But you knew they hadn’t?”

  He held his tongue. No need in making things worse by admitting what Gray already knew.

  “That’s why you went out to the old Jepson place. Because she was hiding out there and you went out there to meet her after things cooled down a little.” Gray’s sarcastic laughter scraped his psyche like coarse grit sandpaper. “You really want me to believe this bull? Do you really think you can talk your way out of this, Josh? Not this time. You should have done a better job cleaning the truck. I might never have known you were involved in Jared’s murder if you had gotten rid of all of your fingerprints.”

  What was Gray talking about? He’d wiped everything down he’d touched. Then he groaned. Of course, that wasn’t the first time he’d been in Jared’s truck. The night Jared beat him near to death Jared had thrown him into the passenger seat, drove him home, and tossed him out onto his front porch. He’d touched everything he could just in case Jared had chosen to kill him and dump his body in the middle of the woods.

  “Josh, you just admitted being at the scene of the crime the day the man died. I have no choice but to arrest you.”

  He paused, and for the first time since the conversation started, Josh saw sadness tinge Gray’s expression.

  “You know that, don’t you?”

  Josh’s heart sank with disappointment. Past friendships didn’t protect him from his current problems. He understood what Gray was doing. “Do what you have to do.”

  Gray’s phone was already at his ear, and he was asking dispatch to send a deputy to guard Josh’s hospital room door.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Gray descended three flights of stairs so quickly that Tori almost twisted her ankle racing to catch him. When they reached the first floor, he pounded his hand on the door and banged it open.

  She pulled on his shoulder when she finally caught up with him.

  He spun and faced her. “What?”

  “You want to tell me what that was all about? I thought we decided he didn’t kill Jared.”

  Gray jerked his head toward the waiting room to his left. “Do you really want to have this discussion in the hospital lobby?”

  She glanced around them and discovered three pairs of eyes trained on them.

  He turned and moved quickly toward the sliding glass doors. She quickstepped to keep up with him. The trip across the parking lot was made at the speed of light.

  When they were finally seated in his car, she tried again to get him to talk to her. “So?”

  “So what?”

  “Why did you arrest him? Don’t you know what that will do to his career?”

  Gray snorted. “His career was shot anyway.”

  That was no excuse. One cop didn’t ruin another cop’s career without a good reason.

  “Do you think he had something to do with Jared’s death or not?”

  “No.”

  “Then why arrest him? Gray, that’s not right.”

  She’d felt the humiliation of false accusation. At the moment, she hurt for Josh McCord, even though she wasn’t sure she liked him very much. What he had done was stupid. But was it criminal? He’d only tried to help an abused and battered woman out of the jam she was in.

  Gray inserted his key into the ignition. “Doesn’t matter if he did it or not. He admitted to obstructing justice and tampering with evidence.”

  “If you take that to the prosecutor, you’re going to have a hard time proving it. All you’re going to do is create reasonable doubt when you finally do catch Jared’s killer.”

  He backed out of the space and headed toward the street. “No, what I’m doing is making sure the killer thinks he’s gotten away with murder. That will make him cocky or sloppy.”

  “At Josh’s expense.”

  Gray jerked to a halt at a red light. “I need you to trust that I’m doing what’s best for everyone. Josh understands. If the killer attacked him once, he’ll do it again. This way, he’ll know that Josh is in our protective custody. Now, do you understand?”

  “Okay, I guess that makes sense...somewhat.” She adjusted her seat belt. “So then why are you so mad at him?”

  “I’m not mad at him. I’m mad at myself. He called me Wednesday because he needed my help, and I ignored his phone call because I was being a self-righteous jackass.”

  “Do you always get in this kind of mood when you come to difficult realizations about yourself? I mean, is this what I have to look forward to every time you have a personal revelation about your less than perfect character?” Her sweet tone dripped with sugary syrup, half teasing and half serious as sin.

  He glanced at her and then redirected his attention to the road. They were already halfway to the Ozarkan. At least, she assumed that’s where he was headed.

  “My character has many flaws. You better get used to it. I can get very moody. Almost like a woman on her monthly.” A slight smile quivered on the edges of his very kissable mouth.

  She relaxed a little. Her mission had been to lighten the mood. “Oh, please, you’re not going to go there, are you?”

  “Are you going to deny that women get cranky during that time of the month?” He smirked. “I’ve learned it’s best to take cover when a woman is having her monthly visit from Mother Nature. Otherwise, a man is liable to step on a land mine and get his property blown off.”

  She growled with irritation. She couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. He’d suddenly crossed the line into fighting territory. “You have got to be kidding.”

  His eyes twinkled. Maybe he was teasing. “You want me to help you pack?”

  “Changing the subject?”

  He laughed. “I think it’s probably a good idea if I shut up about that now.”

  He was right. She reached for her purse on the floorboard as he turned into the Ozarkan parking lot. “Most of my stuff is already in my trunk. I just have to clear out my things from my room. Shouldn’t take long.”

  “I can go get us some breakfast while you pack.”

  “Great. Do you want to ride with me up to the house or do you want to follow me?” He turned off the motor and twisted in his seat to face her.

  “How about if I meet you up there? I need to stop by my house and pack a few things too.” He swept a stand of hair behind her ear. “I’ve lost several nights sleep. I could use some rest.”

  That sounded like a warning and a disclaimer.

  She yawned and nodded. “Okay, then I’ll see you later.”

  She waited, not moving out of her seat, wondering if he would lean over and kiss her goodbye. It was nearing eight in the morning. Plenty of people moving around to witness their public display of affection. Maybe he was trying to be discreet about their
new relationship.

  To her surprise, he didn’t hesitate to slip his hand behind her neck and pull her in for a long, delicious kiss. He leaned back and stroked her cheek with his pointer finger. “Ummm, sweet like candy.”

  Her heart raced. If she was dreaming, she wanted to float in this newfound Nirvana forever. “You still want this. I mean, us together?”

  He grinned. “More than ever.”

  She returned his grin and popped the door lock. “Hurry then. I’ll see you at the house.”

  He cranked the engine as she got out of the car, and then she watched him as he drove away. This was the beginning of the rest of her life, and she had the deep down feeling that it had to be better than what she’d already lived through.

  ****

  Gray checked his watch one more time as he waited in the driveway for Tori to arrive. While he leaned on the hood of his car, he enjoyed the slight breeze that rustled through the trees on the peninsula. The weather had been steadily warming over the past few days. Soon the heat of summer would fry northern Arkansas, but he was enjoying the pleasant weather while it lasted.

  His gaze shifted toward the upper floors of Victoria House. Tori had told him about the apparition she’d seen gazing down at her from the second floor window. He was a little jealous of her experience. He’d never seen a fully developed apparition before. Actually, he’d never seen anything that even came close to a spirit manifestation.

  Until a few weeks ago, his ghost hunting credentials had been pretty much embellishments of minor experiences that could probably be debunked as naturally occurring phenomena. Until he’d heard the ghost of Celeste Standridge speak to him in an EVP recording, he’d only halfway believed in what he was doing. Until everything in Laurel Standridge’s garage had risen and swirled in the air around him, ghost hunting had been more for fun than for gathering scientifically substantiated data.

  Living at Victoria House might boost him into the top echelon of well-known paranormal investigators. With full access to the place, he might be able to record more than a few experiences. His pulse raced at the possibility, yet he wasn’t sure if he wanted that or not.