Dead Suite

by Wendy Roberts

  “The words from the necklace,” Sadie whispered.

  He looked down on her with a frown.

  “You were supposed to recognize the calling. You saw their spirits. It was a message that He called you to rid the world of whores. I saw a medium who had the necklace empowered with a spell that would drain energy from anybody unless they were ridding the spiritual world of tramps and whores while I worked on those in the physical here and now.” His voice was tight with anger. “You ignored the messages I left. We were supposed to work together . . . then die together. Once you’re gone, maybe you can finally rid the spiritual dimension of those tramps.”

  Herbert put his hands on his hips and his black jacket fell open. Hanging on a clip from his belt were sharp pruning shears. The kind that would be perfect for snipping off fingers!

  Sadie opened her mouth to scream but Herbert pressed his palm over her mouth and nose with such pressure her teeth cut into her lips.

  “Luke eleven verse twenty, Sadie,” he snarled. “‘If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’”

  Sadie tried to push him off, but his entire body weight was pressed into her. Only a small amount of air managed to slip between his fingers into her nose, and her lungs began to burn.

  “My daughter was slipping into the world of whores,” he hissed furiously in Sadie’s face. “And her useless mother was blind to the demons! Leviticus twenty-one declares that if a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she must be killed!”

  Sadie kicked up her feet but they were bound tightly with the sheets. Damn hospital corners!

  With one hand still pressed forcefully against her mouth, Herbert used his other to quickly slip a gold chain from around his neck. Then he released her mouth and swiftly tugged the long chain over Sadie’s head. She went to scream but had so little breath in her lungs that it came out a mere squeak.

  Herbert grabbed the chain and began twisting. Sadie felt the gold cut into her neck as she writhed and thrashed, trying to throw him off balance. It was no good. He was too strong.

  Abruptly, Herbert stiffened and tensed. His body vibrated and his face drew into a grimace as though he were having some kind of a seizure. He fell to the floor. Zack stood behind him holding a Taser gun.

  Zack rushed to her side and pressed the call button her fingers had been desperately trying to reach.

  “You okay?” Zack asked.

  Sadie coughed and gasped but managed to nod.

  Herbert Sylvane moaned softly on the floor and Zack pressed the Taser trigger and jolted him a second time.

  A nurse came running in and Zack ordered her to call the cops. Then he wrapped his arms around Sadie and pulled her into a strong hug. He smelled faintly of soap and cologne and home.

  Chapter 19

  The doctor wanted to keep Sadie in the hospital another day because of the trauma, but Sadie claimed she’d be more traumatized by the bill and insisted on going home. Later that morning she was discharged but not before Detective Petrovich stopped by to give her an update.

  “You’ve probably figured it all out by now,” Petrovich said. “Eddie Prior is Herbert Sylvane. Guy changed his name when he walked out on his family, and we suspect that’s when he started on his mission to get rid of working girls one at a time.”

  “And working for hotels . . .”

  “Yeah, that just made the pickings easier.” He nodded. “So did helping out at places that offered street support for hookers.”

  “Like WATS?” Sadie asked.

  “Right. While wearing a clerical collar.”

  “But he wasn’t a priest?”

  “He was on the road to becoming a priest when he met and married Della. He still fancies himself a pretty holy guy.”

  “Saving the world one hooker at a time,” Sadie spat.

  “Yup. He’s confessed to everything. Crazy as a loon. I’m not a shrink but he talked about his sister. . . . I’m guessing he snapped when she killed herself and blamed him.”

  “We met at a support group that offered help for families struggling with loss through suicide,” Sadie said. “I hardly remember him. Thought I was just offering sound advice by telling him his sister’s finger pointing wasn’t right and that he wasn’t to blame.” She dragged a shaky hand through her hair. “I really gotta start watching what I say.”

  “I’m thinking a little nugget of crazy was always inside of him. You weren’t the one who released it. You just gave him words he obsessed about. Nothing you could’ve done about that.” He tilted his head. “Do you know he really believes he was doing the right thing and thought you were going to help him?”

  “He brought crazy to an entirely new level.” Sadie wearily rubbed the crease between her eyebrows. “And speaking of crazy, I know you don’t want to hear about paranormal stuff, but I need to get that necklace so that Rosemary and Maeva can do a cleansing on it.”

  Sadie thought that he was going to balk at that, but maybe her supernatural friends were finally beginning to wear him down, because Petrovich promised to see what he could do about getting the necklace out of evidence to make sure that happened.

  Petrovich stayed for a few more minutes to answer her questions and then left to take care of the mountain of paperwork involved in the case.

  Zack drove her home. He set her up on her sofa with a comforter, a remote control, and Hairy for snuggling. He served her soup from a can and beer from a bottle and let her watch all the sappy sitcoms she could handle.

  “The job I agreed to take is only twenty minutes away. I’m going to find an apartment nearby.”

  “You don’t have to keep that close an eye on me,” Sadie remarked, although her heart skipped a happy beat.

  “It’ll make dating you easier.” He slumped into the chair next to her with his own beer and offered her the lopsided grin that she’d missed so much. “Give me some time to get settled back in Seattle and we can start doing the normal things couples do on dates . . . necking in the back of movie theatres . . . holding hands across restaurant tables.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  After a few hours Maeva and Rosemary stopped in to check on her.

  “I’ll leave you ladies to make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble,” Zack announced. “I’ve got some things to do around town.”

  He came over to Sadie, lifted her chin with the tip of his finger, and kissed her thoroughly with a fiery passion that would’ve had her collapse in a heap if she hadn’t been sitting down.

  Once he left the house Maeva let out a low whistle.

  “I’m guessing we’re back to hot and heavy with the two of you.”

  “We’ll see,” Sadie said, wanting to believe but still needing to protect her heart.

  Rosemary said, “Don’t you find it ironic that he asked us to make sure you don’t get into any trouble?”

  “Oh, give her some peace for a few minutes.” Maeva rubbed Rosemary’s shiny bald head and chuckled.

  “Uh-oh. Why do I get the sneaking suspicion you two aren’t just here to check on my well-being?” Sadie asked. “Isn’t it enough that I was almost murdered twice in one day?”

  “That’s not my fault,” Maeva said.

  “Actually, at least part of it is your fault. You mentioned me at a convention that Gayla Woods went to in her search to grow her medium powers. She was wowed when you said that your friend Sadie helped the dead go over to the other side.”

  “I spoke to a large group in Los Angeles. I had no way of knowing someone would take the time to connect Madam Maeva’s in Seattle to you in the same city.” She paused. “But you’re right. I never should’ve mentioned your abilities. Particularly when Scene-2-Clean relies on trauma clean, not ghosts, to stay afloat.�
� She looked pointedly at Sadie. “However, you were supposed to go and stay with Rick. Not go back to the house on Halladay Street.”

  “There was a tracking device inside my purse. Remember, we talked about that at the hospital? I thought a tree branch broke my door frame, but it was either Gayla or Herbert who broke in using the branch and placed the tracking device during that windstorm a few days back. If I’d gone back to Rosemary and Rick’s place, all this would’ve played out endangering you. Herbert had Gayla buy the house but when she didn’t side with him in destroying prostitutes and their spirits, he killed her. He probably would’ve killed all of you if you stood in his way.” Sadie shuddered.

  “You keep calling him Herbert.” Maeva waggled her finger at Sadie. “He’s Eddie Prior. Iris’s dad, right?”

  Sadie told them all that Petrovich said about how Eddie changed his name to Herbert Sylvane when he left his family here in Seattle and took up hunting down hookers as a pastime. “Working at a hotel chain where he could move around the country. Volunteering at places like WATS while pretending to be a onetime priest. He never became a priest. Petrovich said he left the seminary to marry Della Prior and then left her and Iris.”

  “Could be he really believed he was holy and saving the world from demonic whores. That’s sad,” Rosemary added.

  “No. The sad part is that when he returned to Seattle a few years ago and was volunteering at WATS, he saw his own daughter was attending an acting camp he thought was reserved for prostitutes, and he somehow killed her,” Sadie said. There’s no proof he actually killed Iris. It still could’ve been Della who did it.”

  Sadie didn’t want to think about how unlucky it would’ve been for Iris to have two messed-up parents, but she knew it was entirely possible that was the case. After all, birds of a crazy feather did tend to flock together. Eddie (a.k.a. Herbert) and Gayla were proof of that.

  “So, tell me why you’re really here,” Sadie said.

  “To help Iris, of course.”

  Chapter 20

  “We can’t go back to the house. It’s a crime scene,” Sadie reminded her friends.

  “You’re right.” Maeva nodded. “We wouldn’t want to cross a crime scene just to help a spirit get the peace she so justly deserves. I couldn’t ask you to do something like that.”

  “Even if I still have a key for the house and so, technically, we wouldn’t be breaking in,” Rosemary added.

  Sadie thought about how she had broken into May Lathrop’s basement suite to honor the ghost’s final request.

  “I guess it wouldn’t be the first time,” Sadie grumbled.

  They all piled into Rosemary’s Mini Cooper, since Sadie’s Corolla was once again being dusted for fingerprints and tested for trace evidence. They parked a couple blocks away and walked casually down the street like three women out for a stroll. Sadie loaned Rosemary a dark hoody so that the woman’s piercings, tattoos, and baldness were less noticeable. But it was asking a lot of a hood to hide everything, and a young man eyed them warily when they walked by.

  At Sadie’s suggestion they went around the back of the house so that neighbors wouldn’t see them entering.

  “Don’t touch anything,” Sadie warned once they were inside. “Petrovich already has enough work cut out for him here.”

  “It’s not like our fingerprints aren’t already here,” Maeva said. “But we’ll be careful. Don’t worry.”

  As they walked through the house they paused briefly to carefully tiptoe around the substantial blood left by Gayla’s murder. Although blood didn’t usually bother Sadie, knowing it could’ve been her own pooled there caused her to catch her breath.

  As they headed up the stairs Maeva mused, “I wonder why all the action happened in the master bedroom instead of Iris’s room.”

  “That’s a good question.” Sadie opened the door to the master bedroom where they’d gathered the few times before. “Maybe we should be in Iris’s room, if she was poisoned in her own bed like the papers said.”

  “The ghost visited you at hotels and she had no trouble making a pretty big impression in this room,” Rosemary pointed out. “If she wants another room, I’m sure she’ll find a way to make that known.”

  Sadie shuddered as she looked around the room where she’d been held by Gayla Woods.

  “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Maeva said, worriedly watching Sadie. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “She needs to finish it,” Rosemary stated firmly. “She’ll feel better once she does.”

  “Let’s just get it over with.” Sadie didn’t feel good at all. She took a deep breath and let it out gradually, then called out, “Iris, it’s time.”

  They watched as the closet door slowly opened. Inside the space was the spirit of Iris, who looked worriedly over her shoulder as she stepped forward.

  “Gayla’s dead and your dad’s in jail,” Sadie said. Then she added sympathetically, “I am so sorry that you never had a chance to be the actress you wanted to be.”

  “Mom wasn’t crazy at the start . . . he made her that way.” Iris’s voice still held that faraway sound as if talking from the bottom of a well, but she also sounded weary. Tired of fighting the demon of a dad she hardly knew.

  “You did good,” Rosemary put in. “You should be proud.”

  “Who knows how many women he would’ve killed if you hadn’t helped.”

  “I want to be with my mommy,” Iris whimpered, sounding more child than teen.

  “You don’t need to stick around any longer. Close your eyes,” Sadie instructed. “Remember good times with your mother. Think about all those times when she was there for you. Imagine her waiting for you with her arms wide open and—”

  Sadie stopped and watched as long arms reached out from the swirling darkness of the closet and wrapped around the spirit of Iris. Her mother’s arms. Bit by bit Iris’s shape began to fade. A churning cloud of white enveloped the ghostly opaque shapes of both Iris and Della Prior. Then as quickly as the mist appeared, it dissipated and the two shapes shimmered around the edges before disappearing forever.

  “Much better.” Maeva smiled and walked forward to shut the closet door.

  “Wait.” Sadie strode forward and peered inside. “I never noticed before but the back paneling in the closet looks loose.”

  “With all the slamming, banging, and spiritual upheaval in there I’m surprised it hasn’t totally fallen apart,” Rosemary remarked.

  Sadie stepped inside, wrapped her fingers around a loose corner of wood paneling, and yanked. The board groaned, splintered, and finally gave way. Out tumbled a bundle of faded white envelopes. She picked up the stack, untied the string that bound them together, and opened the top letter. She scanned the notepaper inside and anger flooded through her. She handed off the paper and opened the next letter, and the next.

  “Asshole,” Rosemary muttered.

  Sadie agreed.

  “Eddie was writing his wife all along and telling her that Iris was possessed by the devil.”

  Maeva added, “Look at this.” She waved a letter in the air. “He even told her the phrases to use and the actions to take for an exorcism, and told her to get off her meds so that she could see Iris more clearly.”

  Sadie skipped to the last letter.

  “There’s instructions telling her where to get the arsenic to put in Iris’s drink. He swore it would kill the demon inside her but not harm Iris.”

  “He knew Della was mentally unwell,” Sadie said furiously. “He knew that and used it.” Sadie looked around in disgust. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “We need to make sure all entry points from botched exorcisms and open pathways are closed,” Rosemary stated emphatically. “Or this house will never be safe for another family.”

 
“Can I leave you two to do that?” Sadie put a hand to her head. “I just want out of here.”

  She left the house by the back door and sat on the stoop in the dusky light, waiting for her friends.

  “I leave town for a single night and you almost let my partner kill you, huh?”

  Sadie looked up and smiled wanly at Owen Sorkin.

  “What are you doing hanging around here?” she asked.

  “Driving by and saw some lights upstairs. I thought maybe it was a ghost,” he said, chuckling. “Question is, what are you doing here?”

  Sadie didn’t comment. She didn’t think Owen was ready for the whole truth and nothing but the truth on the supernatural.

  He joined her on the steps and held her hand.

  “I am so sorry for all you went through,” he said seriously. “I had no idea Gayla was a crazy loony and I’d never heard of that Herbert guy.”

  “Eddie Prior was his real name,” Sadie corrected. “The real Halladay Horror and Seattle Slasher.”

  Owen gave Sadie’s hand a squeeze.

  “I’m sorry for siccing the cops after you,” she said.

  “That’s okay. Perfectly understandable. I was checking out a cottage I bought,” he whispered in her ear. “Feel like getting away from it all and resting for a few days? There’s a hot tub, fireplace, and a well-stocked liquor cabinet.”

  She released his hand and got to her feet.

  “Thanks, but I need to get my own house in order.” She offered him a quick smile. “And that includes trying to work things out with Zack.”

  He stood up next to her.

  “Maybe you’ll change your mind.”

  Sadie shrugged, because one thing she knew, there weren’t any guarantees in life. Or death.

  Read on for a sneak peek at the next Ghost Dusters Mystery

  DROP DEAD BEAUTY

  Available from InterMix in May 2013