The Sullivan Gray Series Box Set

by H. P. Bayne

  As the body was sealed back up in preparation for the trip to the pathologist’s, Forbes provided the information they wanted. Between you and me, found the bullet wound. Coroner thinks she could feel slug along the back. Will be charging Montague.

  Dez let loose a laugh, one that had Sully joining in. But it didn’t last long. Carter had once again decided to show himself, materializing next to Sully in the same tortured form in which he’d always appeared.

  Dez shivered, unaware as yet they’d been joined by a third person. “God, it’s cold all of a sudden. We should get out of here, go grab a coffee.”

  “Not yet.”

  Sully knew Dez had clued in when he next spoke. “Crap. He’s here, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah. He’s here.”

  “He look the same?”

  “So far. I’m hoping not for long, though.”

  Sully took a step closer to the spirit. “The police are going to charge Montague with shooting you. The people you love will be safe. You don’t have to stick around anymore.”

  The ghost didn’t move.

  “There’s something else you need, isn’t there?” Sully asked. “Is there something you want me to tell someone for you?”

  Carter reached out, touched Sully’s hand. The image flashed into Sully’s mind of two lovers, embracing and sharing a deep kiss on a bed. It wasn’t Carter and Tessa Sully was being shown, but Evan and Roanna.

  And the feeling coming through Carter wasn’t one of anger or betrayal. It was love.

  The vision ended, and Sully opened his eyes to address Carter. “I’ll tell them. Come with me.”

  Sully sensed Carter nearby as he and Dez closed the distance to the ghost’s loved ones, huddled in a group as Forbes passed along what information he could. Once the detective had left, Sully approached the group.

  He was surprised to find himself wrapped in Lana’s embrace. “Thank you. Thank you so much for helping him. And for helping us.”

  “Are you guys okay?” Dez asked as Lana released Sully.

  “Well as can be expected,” Hal said. “It will be nice to be able to give him a proper service. But we were talking, and we think we’re going to bring his ashes back to the park at some point. This is where he would want to be.”

  “Is he here?” Lana asked.

  “Yeah, he is,” Sully said. “There’s something he wants me to tell Evan and Roanna.”

  The young couple had been standing just to the side, Evan’s arm wrapped around Roanna’s shoulders. Sully approached them, searching for the right words. “You were worried he knew about you two being together but didn’t like it. You were right about him knowing, but you were wrong about the other part. He showed me he’s seen the two of you together, and he isn’t upset about it. He loves both of you, and he loves that you’re happy.”

  A sob broke from Roanna’s throat, followed by another, until she was wrapped in Evan’s arms.

  “Thanks, Car,” Evan said, sniffling back his own tears as he stroked his girlfriend’s hair. “I know I got angry with you sometimes, but it was just one brother getting pissed at another. I love you, man. Always will. I promise, if Ro and I ever have a son, we’re naming him after you.”

  Sully returned to Carter’s parents. “He stuck around all this time to look out for you. He needs to know he doesn’t have to do that anymore, that you’ll be okay.”

  “We will,” Lana said. “Thanks to him, we’ll be just fine. Hal and I went through the rest of his trunk. It was like he was there with us. It’s a piece of him we’ll have forever. It isn’t enough, and it never will be. But it’s something. And it’s proof he’s still here with us, that he’s still a part of us.”

  The sensation of warmth spread through Sully, but it wasn’t until he looked to his left, to where Carter stood, that he realized it hadn’t come from within himself. A light had surrounded Carter, and Sully watched as his body untwisted and unbent, as parts of him torn apart became whole again.

  Moments later, a tall, handsome, athletic seventeen-year-old stood in front of him, a smile lightening his face.

  “I wish you could see him,” Sully told Carter’s loved ones. “He’s okay. He’s really okay now.”

  Hal smiled, sniffling back a tear that mirrored one Sully could feel rolling down his own cheek. “I guess some things we’re just going to have to take your word for, Mr. Chadwell.”

  Injuries had delayed them, had gotten in the way of Sully’s promise to reunite with his and Dez’s mom. He’d reasoned with Dez he didn’t want to show up there with an injury, and Dez—still nursing one of his own—saw the logic in that.

  But a full month had passed, and then some, and Sully had run out of reasons to avoid the meeting.

  Dez drove them out, his fingers tapping out a rhythmless tune on the steering wheel. Sully sensed the anxiety radiating from his brother as they drew nearer to the acreage where they’d grown up.

  “You okay?” Sully asked.

  “Just not sure of the best way to handle this.”

  “It was your idea. I thought you had this cased.”

  Dez threw a glare at Sully. “You re-introduced yourself to me by digging me out of a grave. I had a few major things going on at that moment, and I was already rocking a pretty serious panic attack. You were just one of a few shocks to my system. Mom…. She’s going to hit the floor.”

  “You want to break it to her first?”

  “Maybe I should. Might be better if I start things off slow, and call you in once she’s had time to partially adjust. I just don’t know what to say.”

  Sully smiled. “You’ll think of something. You always do. You’re the chatterbox in the family, after all.”

  “Shut up.”

  Sully was happy enough for the two of them to pass the rest of the drive in relative silence, saying nothing as Dez flipped endlessly through radio stations and drummed away on the wheel.

  It wasn’t until they had turned up the drive to the acreage that Sully found his own reason to panic.

  “Oh, shit.”

  “What?” Dez asked.

  “Isn’t that Lowell’s car?”

  Dez followed Sully’s eye to a silver BMW parked in front of the two-storey house, illuminated beneath the porch lights. “Crap. Yeah. It is. What do you—?”

  “Stop the car.”

  “We’re almost—”

  “I said, stop the car!”

  Dez braked hard, no doubt an unconscious response to Sully’s tone. He rarely raised his voice, could barely remember the last time he had.

  But now wasn’t the time for a trip down memory lane. Sully bailed out of the passenger seat, and stood beside the car, eyes darting around in a search for a place to conceal himself.

  “Sully—”

  “Go. I’ll find somewhere to hide out until he’s gone. Text me when that happens. And, please, don’t tell him anything. He can’t know about me, all right? Please.”

  “I won’t say anything. You know that. Jesus, man, what’s going on with you?”

  “Just go, before he sees and starts wondering what you’re doing.”

  Sully slammed the door and sprinted into the ditch and onto the field on its other side. Behind him, the sound of the engine indicated Dez pausing a moment before crawling down the road toward the house.

  There was nowhere much to hide this side of Kettle-Arm Creek, and Sully relied on the darkness of the night to keep him invisible while he ran toward the waterway. Memory told him it was bordered by reeds and tall grass, with a short embankment leading down to the water itself—as decent a place to hide as he could find. He could see Dez emerging from his SUV at the house, casting a glance out at the shadowed field, likely looking for Sully.

  Sully was relieved when Dez’s visual sweep appeared to come up empty. If Dez couldn’t see him, then neither could Lowell.

  The riverbank was just ahead, the moonlight revealing the spikes of reeds against the dark water.

  He hadn’t counted on Aiden
.

  The little boy stood just this side of the creek, a dull glow making him visible in the dark.

  Sully slowed to a walk, an irrational thought forming that the child might be scared off like a rabbit would be. He’d only seen the boy a handful of times during his life, mostly when Sully was a child and new to this house. He’d once thought Aiden had appeared to him simply because Sully was a new face, or because the boy was worried he was being replaced. Now Sully suspected it was something else, that Aiden had been trying his best to pass along a message without having the slightest idea how to do it.

  Sully knew the boy’s secret; what he didn’t have a firm grasp on was a means to help.

  Aiden's face was turned toward the house. He didn't readjust his gaze even when Sully drew nearer.

  “Aiden?”

  The child's eyes remained fixed on the building currently housing his killer, but Sully had the inexplicable feeling he had Aiden’s attention nonetheless.

  When he was within five feet of the spirit, Sully knelt in the tall grass, bringing himself nearer Aiden’s height.

  “I know what you need,” he said. “I've been too afraid to get it for you. But I will get it. One way or another, Aiden, I will get him. He won't hurt anyone ever again.”

  Sully changed the subject, to one that was of equal importance to both of them.

  “Have you seen Dad? I think he must have been looking for you. Did he ever find you?”

  The sensation of a second spirit hit Sully, and he turned to see Flynn Braddock behind him. So much time had passed since Sully had last set eyes on him, he’d begun to hope maybe his father had crossed over.

  As Flynn closed the distance to take Aiden’s small, wet hand, Sully was faced with the heart-wrenching truth. Flynn hadn’t gone anywhere, and he wouldn’t until Sully could figure out a way to get them both to cross—together. Experience told him there was only one way to do that.

  “I'll find a way to get Lowell,” he said. “I swear to God I’ll find a way.”

  Sully’s new phone—bought for him by Dez after tossing his old one on Forbes’s advice—rang in his pocket. Sully swore at the loud sound, moving farther down toward the creek to answer it. It was unlikely he’d be heard from the house, but paranoia had become his new best friend—a relationship he’d never sought and was growing increasingly tired of.

  He hadn't checked who was calling, and was surprised to hear Forbes on the other end.

  “I wanted to let you know ballistics matched up between the bullet from Carter’s body and the gun Montague used to shoot at you. I’ve officially charged him with Carter’s murder.”

  “How’d he take that?”

  “Not well. Bear in mind, he’s maintaining his right to remain silent on that one. But let me tell you, he had plenty to say about the fact he’s been charged, most of which would have to be bleeped on network television. He did say something else though, something I couldn’t, by rights, take him up on. He said if I gave him a walk, he could help me bring down a circle of pretty powerful people. He didn't give me many names, but he told me one of them is the uncle of the private investigator who was working for him. Lachlan Fields has only one living uncle, and he’s ninety-two and suffering from severe dementia. So now I'm wondering: what does Lowell Braddock have to hide?”

  Sully had been crouching in the grass; the words had him plunking down on his backside while his brain tried to make sense of what he’d just been told.

  He’d thought he was the only living person with knowledge of Lowell’s darkest secrets. Suddenly that was no longer true. The possibilities instilled both hope and fear. If others knew, they could be broken down, mined for information. Or it could turn out the others were equally or even more dangerous than the enemies Sully had already made.

  The only truth clear to him was that he had to find out more before Forbes did. Anything else could put his family at risk.

  The lie rolled off his tongue more easily than it should have.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But if there's something to it, you can bet your ass I'm going to find out.”

  THE STORY CONTINUES IN HOLLOW ROAD. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE OR READ FOR FREE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED.

  Afterword

  Thanks so much for reading! I am continuing to work on the next Sullivan Gray books, and would be pleased to keep you updated on future projects and release dates if you would like to join my mailing list. As an adding bonus, a growing anthology of short stories, entitled Haunted: The Ghosts of Sullivan Gray, is available as a gift to subscribers. Visit my website at hpbayne.com to sign up or simply click here to join up and pick up the current version of Haunted.

  The books in The Sullivan Gray Series can be read as standalones to some extent, each with a plot that wraps itself up by book’s end. But there is a deeper plot that threads throughout the series so, for that reason, I always suggest the books are best read in the following order (click the titles to check them out on Amazon):

  Black Candle

  Harbinger

  The Dule Tree

  Crawl

  Hollow Road

  Second Son

  Spirit Caller (coming soon)

  And one more big, big ask: if you could please take a moment to leave me a review on Amazon, I would be eternally grateful. Reviews mean more than many people realize, as they are often the difference between a would-be reader simply browsing or deciding to take a chance on making a purchase.

  Thank you so much for reading. Having readers like you pick up my books is truly a dream come true for me. I hope you’ll come back to visit Kimotan Rapids again soon!

  All the best!

  -H

  Acknowledgments

  My heartfelt thanks as always to my family, friends and readers. Your support has been incredible, and your encouragement invaluable.

  My editor Hannah Sullivan and my cover designer Fiona Jayde have helped me turn my writing into actual books, and for that I am eternally grateful. I am so fortunate to have them on board during this journey.

  And to my advance reader team, you guys have been stars in terms of finding all the little things that slip past my final edit, and your enthusiasm helps me launch my books with far more confidence than I would be able to otherwise.

  Thank you to all of you!

  About the Author

  Fascinated by ghost stories and crime fiction, H.P. has been writing both for well over two decades, drawing on close to two decades as a crime reporter. Raised on a farm on the Canadian Prairies, H.P. enjoys reading, portrait drawing, travel and spending time with family and friends.

  For more information, visit H.P.’s website at hpbayne.com.