Shaw's Landing (Haunted Hearts Series Book 4)

by Denise Moncrief

  Grayson blinked at him. Of course, he knew that. Grayson was in law enforcement. Or at least, he had been. “I can’t do anything with that information, Shaw. I went out there to confess what happened to Jeremy. I couldn’t stand keeping the secret any longer. I wanted a clean conscience…to start a new life.” He glanced at Tori.

  Sympathy and support reflected in her almost emerald green eyes.

  Yet Shaw sensed what Grayson had told Haskins wasn’t quite what really happened. “You told Haskins you ran over his son. Is that the truth?”

  “No. But I’m not going to tell you exactly what happened no more than I’d tell Haskins. It was an accident. A stupid accident that should have never happened. But I knew that if I was going after Haskins, I didn’t want that secret hovering in the background ready to come out and ruin my credibility. Now, I have no idea what I’m going to do. The thought of that man’s blood running through my veins…”

  Grayson didn’t have to tell him everything. He could figure it out. The man was covering up the truth for Ashley Rivers. No doubt Josh McCord’s girlfriend had been behind the wheel when Jeremy Haskins died.

  “You’ve told Haskins that you wouldn’t pursue investigating him or his operation. Are you sure that’s the impression you wanted him to have?” Shaw thought Grayson could have handled it better…or left it alone. His visit to Haskins had only further complicated things.

  “I went out there to declare war. I was convinced it was the right thing to do. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  Tori slid her hand across the counter and grabbed Grayson’s clenched fist. “You couldn’t have kept what happened to Jeremy to yourself much longer. It was eating you up.”

  Grayson straightened in his seat, unsettling Tori’s hand from his. “Just because I told him I’d back off doesn’t mean you have to.”

  Shaw didn’t like delving into county politics uninvited, but Haskins’s semi-confession had criminal implications as well. “What about Halsey? Maybe you should—”

  “You heard what Haskins said. Halsey kept it quiet. Why?” Grayson shook his head. “I was going to play that for Halsey, but now I think maybe I shouldn’t. There are several things that Halsey has done lately that make me question whether or not I can trust him. He sent me out to the Crenshaw trailer because Trudy Jepson was in a panic. Why would Trudy Jepson call Halsey and not 9-1-1? That doesn’t make sense. What if Trudy actually called Haskins, and Haskins asked Halsey to send someone out there? Trudy might have asked Haskins for help since he’s Courtney’s father.”

  Shaw wasn’t so sure. From what he’d heard on the recording, it appeared that Haskins was unaware Courtney was his daughter until Grayson’s visit. Why would he ask Sheriff Halsey to step into the situation? Why would Trudy Jepson ask him to?

  Grayson tapped the countertop in front of him. “Even after we found Lucy’s fingerprint on the electrical box at the Crenshaw trailer and she acted strange when we asked her about it, Halsey still pushed me to arrest Josh for Crenshaw’s murder.” He leaned back in his seat. “He acted like he didn’t know Lucy was part of Haskins’s operation, but what if he did know?”

  “You’re building your case against Halsey based on a lot of maybes and what-ifs.”

  “I know, but something doesn’t seem right about his behavior.”

  Tori leaned her elbows on the countertop. “The thing that bothers me most about Gray’s conversation with Haskins is his inference that Halsey knew about Gray’s involvement in Jeremy’s death and did nothing just because Halsey asked him not to.”

  Grayson caught Tori’s eyes and held them, but he addressed his comment to Shaw. “I think there’s someone you need to meet.” A secret understanding seemed to pass between Tori and Grayson.

  Tori reacted with a cackle and a smirk. “You aren’t going to take him out to see that old mountain woman, are you? She can’t tell you anything.”

  “She told me Caroline was in trouble, and she was right.”

  Tori’s amusement disappeared like morning mist. “You can’t be serious, Gray. That’s just a weird coincidence. She was very cryptic. You’re wasting your time.”

  Shaw smiled at Tori’s vehemence. “Sounds like an interesting person. Let me know when you want to go see her.”

  Grayson seemed pleased with himself.

  Tori scowled at him and shot a pointed glare at Shaw. “When can I go back out to my house?”

  “It might be awhile.”

  “I can’t live in a motel forever.” Aggravation rose and fell with the volume of her voice.

  “I said you could stay here until things settled down.”

  She shivered, apparently at the thought. What was her problem? The place wasn’t so bad. He’d stayed in the apartment many times since the restaurant closed. Maybe it wasn’t luxurious accommodations, but at least, it was clean and secluded.

  Grayson grew solemn, his face setting into a serious frown. “Wonder what Haskins meant when he said the house wasn’t safe for us.”

  Shaw had a ready answer. “There was a meth lab in the basement.”

  Tori laughed, and her mirth was loaded with a hint of derision. “Shaw, the house has no basement.”

  “Yes, it does. Remember that hollow wall I was asking you about?”

  Her laughter died.

  “A set of service stairs was behind the wall that went all the way from the basement to the second floor. It had been sealed off. At the top are some really narrow passageways that wrap around the outside of the house. There’s a door at the top of the stairs. From there we could either go into the passages or exit into the upstairs hall. Dickerson liked to have never found the door. It was well hidden, but I’m sure that’s how Lucy got Caroline up the stairs without waking the two of you.”

  Still, she would have made a lot of noise.

  “Wait a minute, Bennett. You can’t be sure when she hauled her up the stairs, and we’d just gotten to the house yesterday morning. She could have taken her up there the night before or the day before or…”

  Shaw hesitated to give the man details of his ex-wife’s death. Technically, the investigation hadn’t been officially closed, and Grayson was still deemed a suspect. “She hadn’t been dead that long. True, she could have been…left there the night before.” He coughed uneasily. “I have a potential witness that might be able to tell me when Lucy moved…Caroline up the stairs.” He’d almost said Caroline had been dumped. He’d almost called her the body.

  Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “A potential witness?”

  “Courtney Crenshaw told me she’d seen the whole thing.”

  Grayson’s dull eyes suddenly showed some of their former spark. “You’ve spoken with Courtney? That’s good news. Now, maybe we can get some answers.”

  “I had to let her go.”

  Tori’s head snapped up. “What? Why?”

  “She threatened to talk about what she saw at the house…about the paranormal stuff.” He paused and waited for their reaction.

  Tori’s face twisted into an angry scowl.

  “Really, Tori? Do you want to go through that again?”

  The previous anger disappeared. Tori appeared confused. Her lower jaw worked as if she was refraining from saying exactly what was on her mind. “So how did Lucy get into the stairs if they had been sealed off?”

  Good. Tori was willing to move on. “There’s a tunnel. The access is on the edge of Lake Jefferson and goes through the hill under the house into the basement. There’s a door into the stairwell in the basement. I’m guessing she found out about it from Omar Cooley.”

  “Cooley? How did he know about it?”

  “Well, how would I know that?” Shaw asked with some amusement. He had many skills, but reading minds wasn’t one of them.

  “How do you know Cooley knew about it?”

  “He left behind the remains of his meth lab.” He was making an informed guess that the lab had belonged to Cooley, but he was confident it was a very good assumption.

&
nbsp; The circle had finally come back around to Cooley.

  “Ohhh,” Grayson and Tori uttered in unison.

  Their synchronization was too cute and just a bit too sugary sweet for him.

  The light of comprehension flickered in Grayson’s eyes. “That’s what Haskins meant when he said the place was too dangerous to renovate.”

  Tori rose from her seat and deposited her dirty plate in the sink. “So what’s your next move?” When she turned back toward him, deep lines etched her brow.

  In front of Grayson, she had obviously kept her concerns in check. Behind his back, she was letting Shaw see the full extent of her fears.

  He made himself look away from her. “I need to go out to Cooley’s place. I want to see if I can find any connection to Haskins. But I want a warrant and I want to coordinate with Peyton County before I do that, since it’s in the next jurisdiction.”

  Grayson left his seat and stood in front of the refrigerator. “That’s a good idea. The sheriff over there can get kind of testy when you tromp on his turf.”

  After studying a selection of cold drinks, Grayson chose a diet soda. Shaw suppressed his amusement. Grayson didn’t seem like a diet soda sort of guy. Tori’s influence on the man, no doubt.

  He waved a can at Shaw, but Shaw declined the offer with a shake of his head. No way could he drink the stuff with all the weird chemicals in diet drinks.

  Grayson drank probably half the can before he spoke again. “Halsey said something interesting last night, and I didn’t get the significance until now.”

  “Yeah?”

  “He said he knew someone in the Department was on the inside of Cooley’s operation, but he’d always suspected Josh. When he said it, I thought it was an obvious lie. I’d already proven that Sam Richards was working for Cooley. Now, it seems Lucy was too.”

  Tori stood next to Grayson and slid an arm behind his back. Both of them still looked like they could use a few hundred more hours of sleep, but Shaw would bet they’d get very little. Grayson leaned closer to Tori.

  “He was deflecting suspicious away from himself. I bet he knew Lucy was working for Cooley. He never said anything to me about suspecting Josh was on the inside of Cooley’s operation before then, and nothing has ever stopped him from accusing Josh of anything and everything.”

  “Halsey needs to be handled delicately. After all, he is High Sheriff.”

  Grayson make a disgruntled noise. “He is that.”

  Tori popped in with her opinion. “Hill County needs a new sheriff.”

  Shaw was ready to change the subject. Discussing wrongdoing in high places made his lower eyelid twitch. “McCord and I went out to Laurel Heights last night.”

  “Yeah?”

  “My crime scene guy was working in Laurel’s bedroom, and the evidence markers kept moving on their own.” He planned to dangle intriguing bits in front of Grayson one delicious bite at a time just to watch his expressions.

  Grayson’s eyes lit with excitement. “Really?”

  “He’d find them all bunched up next to her closet door. He’d move them back and then do something else, and when he’d look that way again, they’d been moved right back by the closet.”

  “Sounds like the closet is the nexus for paranormal activity, doesn’t it?”

  Shaw smiled. He had Grayson hooked. Once he was through telling the story, he’d get the man to cooperate in any way he asked. “I decided to do a night investigation, you know, after the official crime scene investigation was over.”

  Grayson appeared to be engrossed, leaning forward as if to absorb every detail. “So you took Josh with you? I’m surprised he agreed to go after our experience last time. What happened?”

  “I found a book in a cubbyhole in the back of the closet. When I reached to pick it up, it flew past McCord, out of the closet, and landed in the middle of the bedroom floor. Every time one of us tried to touch it, we got our hand slapped. Literally. One of us provoked, I’m not sure anymore which one of us. It all happened pretty fast. I just remember not expecting an answer. The entity in that house told me that only Laurel Standridge was allowed to touch the book.”

  Grayson’s eyes glowed with excitement. “So the activity in that house isn’t over yet.”

  “Apparently not… I met with Chase and Laurel this morning.”

  Grayson chuckled. “You’ve had a busy day already then.” The man sounded a trifle jealous.

  Shaw nodded. “Yes, I have.”

  “What did they say?”

  “They agreed to meet me at Laurel Heights, and Laurel is going to try to pick up the book. I have the feeling it might be Celeste Standridge’s diary.”

  Grayson’s expression turned thoughtful. “If it is a diary, that might give Laurel some answers about her childhood and maybe explain why Celeste still haunts the place.”

  “That’s what I thought…and I was wondering if the two of you would meet us there.”

  Tori flinched. “Why?” Her face might have gone a few shades paler.

  Shaw met her direct gaze. “Because you have the gift of touch. Maybe the book will tell you something.”

  The tip ends of her hair started dancing. “Are you freaking kidding me? Haven’t I gotten into enough trouble over stuff like that?” Her voice lowered to a harsh whisper. “We’ll be lucky if no one finds out about what happened out at my house.” She shook her head hard. “I don’t trust Halsey.”

  Neither did Shaw, but they had already beaten that subject up. “I need Laurel to go back out to the house and show me exactly what happened when Tino died, and asking her to pick up the book seemed like a good lure to get her there. I don’t think she’s going to agree unless the two of you are there. She asked specifically for Grayson.”

  Tori stuck out her chin. He’d seen that defiant stance before.

  “So she didn’t ask for me? That means I don’t have to be there.”

  Actually, it was just a request. She didn’t have to be there anyway. Shaw rose to his feet so he could match her glare for glare. “I’m asking nicely.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I think Gray needs to stay away from stuff like that for a while. Don’t you think he’s had enough already?”

  Grayson broke into their stare down. “I’ll go, but Tori doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to.”

  “I’m not staying here by myself. This place is creepy at night.”

  Creepy? Shaw had never heard the place described that way before. “How so? Have you experienced something out here?”

  Fiery laser darts of wrath shot from her eyes. “Oh, no, no, no. Not everything that feels creepy is paranormal, Shaw. Just stop it. You are obsessed, you know.”

  Grayson started laughing, and Tori shot him a death glare.

  “It’s not funny.” She scowled first at Grayson and then at Shaw. “I’ll go, but I’m not touching anything.”

  Shaw grinned at her bluster. “Suit yourself.” He glanced at Grayson and noticed him hiding a smirk behind his hand. “I’ll call later and set up a time to meet.” Shaw headed for the door, and then turned to Tori once again. “Oh, I almost forgot. I found this on the dock. Is it yours?”

  He pulled the charm on the gold chain from his pocket and dangled it in the air in front of her. For a minute, he thought she was going to pass out.

  Grayson’s smirk disappeared as he slipped an arm behind her to keep her from falling. He spoke next to her ear. “Isn’t that Palmer’s necklace?”

  Tori wriggled out of his steadying embrace and backed away from the charm. “I threw it into the lake near Victoria House. That’s a long way from here. How did it get on your dock?” She pressed a fist to her lips. Fear radiated from her.

  Shaw studied the charm. The emblem appeared to be Phoenix rising. “Are you saying this belonged to Michael Palmer?”

  She stared at Shaw, tears welling in her green eyes.

  “You took something from a crime scene and didn’t put it into evidence?”

  “It didn�
��t add anything to case, and I didn’t think anyone would miss it. I just wanted something of his to remind me that things aren’t always what they appear to be. But that thing…it’s possessed or something. Just like he was.”

  Grayson grabbed her hand. “We think Palmer’s spirit attached to it. That it followed her because she was wearing it almost constantly. She’s had several weird experiences, especially at the house. We think the dark apparition in Victoria’s bedroom was Palmer. You listened to our EVP session at the beginning of the recording. That was Palmer’s voice. He’d already shown up in Victoria’s bedroom that morning. He tried to get Tori to stab me with a knife. That’s why she threw the necklace into the lake.”

  Shaw’s heart beat a bit faster. They hadn’t told him that part of the story yet, and he had interviewed both of them after Lucy Kimbrough died. He’d listened to the EVP session but hadn’t connected the voice to Palmer. A chill ran up his spine and settled into a cold spot at the base of his neck.

  Tori had the gift of touch. What had wearing a sadistic murderer’s charm done to her? How had it ended up on the dock of Shaw’s Landing more than a mile away from where it had been thrown into the lake?

  Before he could stop her, Tori had grabbed the necklace and flown out of the apartment, racing down the stairs. He caught up with her at the dock, with Grayson close on his heels. He watched as her arm swung and the charm went sailing through the air before hitting the surface of the creek with a splat.

  ****

  Four o’clock came and went, and Josh never appeared at the tree. The more time passed, the more depressed Courtney became. Where was she going to get enough money to survive on? She wanted to be angry with Josh for standing her up, but she couldn’t. If he didn’t come to the tree, then something had prevented him from it. He seemed to be in as much trouble as she was.

  True, he might be drunk off his butt, but she sensed something else was going on besides his usual alcohol-fueled campaign to forget how much he loved Ashley Rivers. When she’d talked to him the previous night, he’d seemed tired but extremely sober.