The Haunted Bones

by PM Weldon

  And it was time to move on.

  She was calm enough now to plan out her next move. Doubling back and attacking McNally would be suicide. But moving on, leaving town before the mansion's fire became priority news, was a much better idea. No plane flights because those could be searched. A leisurely drive to Vegas was a pleasant idea, and from there she could hide for a while, once the story about the bones went away.

  She stopped at a diner not far from McNally's real address. It wasn't a planned location, just something she noticed after she sat down, pulled out her laptop and started looking at the things she'd transferred over from the lady cop's files. There wasn't much there. Apparently she had been married to a cop who died the same night McNally was shot. McNally and the dead cop had been partners. And now McNally was shacking up with the widow.

  Meh. Let them fuck all they want. Her plans to kill him with a tainted prescription had fallen through earlier that day when her insurance contact reported McNally didn't take any prescriptions. The ones on record were for pain, given to him after he was released from the hospital. None of them had ever been refilled.

  It was like the guy had a guardian angel watching over him.

  She was so out of there.

  The diner's TV was on the local news and on closed caption. She glanced up at it and checked the time just as the headline REMAINS ID REVEALED scrolled sideways across the bottom of the screen. She froze as the reporter popped up in front of The Alley Haunt bar with lights behind him. His words printed out on the bottom. White type on a black background. She gripped the edge of the table as the identity was revealed—

  She pushed back and let go of the table.

  She expected to see the name Elizabeth Poulin. That was her mother's name. The name of the woman she'd shoved in that wall and bricked up.

  But…who was Patsy Granger?

  Granger.

  No…

  She felt the blood drain from her face. The neighbor's last name had been Granger. The wife's name she never knew, but she'd learned the man's name. George Granger. He and his wife had lived next door. The wife always baked so the house always smelled like sugar. At night she could hear them fighting.

  How…how could the bones in the wall be the wife's?

  And if they were hers—if this wasn't a trick—then…

  WHERE IS MY MAMA?!

  Twenty

  Staying in my ex's home was not a slumber party, even though she and I did stay up talking late into the morning. I fell asleep on the couch and then woke again when I heard Julie laughing. I rubbed at my hair and stumbled toward Susan's kitchen just as my phone and Julie's phone went off. I got to mine first and looked at the display. "Vale." I put the phone to my ear. "McNally."

  "I could get used to hearing that on a regular basis."

  I smirked and ran my tongue over my teeth. I needed a toothbrush in the worst way. "I take that to mean you have good news?"

  "Put him on speaker!" Julie said.

  "Was that Brenner?" Vale asked.

  I ambled into the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar beside Julie as Susan dumped pancakes on plates. The whole scene was so surreal. "Uh, yeah. She and Susan have been conspiring while I slept." I tapped the speaker button. "You're in the open, captain."

  "Good morning, all. I have two things to share, so Ms. Lowell, I do hope I can count on you to be discrete?"

  "As always, Captain Vale." Susan set a plate in front of me and mouthed the word eat.

  "Talk about the fire first." Julie squeezed a lot of syrup on her pancake.

  Susan came around the bar with a bottle of peroxide, a role of gauze, tape, and a pair of small scissors. I was more than shocked when she pulled and wrangled my tee-shirt off and began cutting away the old bandage. That's when I noticed I'd bled on the gauze.

  Once she removed it, I got a good look at the wound, the blood and the stitches just before Susan reached out and turned my face away. Good idea. My stomach felt a bit queasy. It was always easier to see torn skin and blood and muscle on a body—but I had a hard time seeing it on myself.

  "They did find human remains in what was left of the house, but it was in so many pieces they're not sure yet if it was male or female. Could be Ms. Smith or not. We won't know 'til they perform DNA testing or reconstruct the body."

  Susan always was the best cook. I cut off a bite of pancake while Susan worked on my shoulder. I even managed not to scream like a girl when she poked at it with peroxide. I did suck in some sharp breaths of air, though. "That just means the crazy bitch might or might not be in the wind. You have any idea what you're looking for?"

  "Meehan and Rosenberg are working on it."

  "Jeebers." I chewed before I spoke again. "Does Meehan sleep?"

  "Barely. And we know it was Mrs. Smith who hacked your computer. We're keeping an eye out for any activity using that IP in case she is out there and tries to hack in again to your computer or anyone else's. The more interesting news is what the surveillance picked up on Llse Wallace."

  "Oh?" Julie and I exchanged glances.

  Susan finally stopped torturing me with the peroxide and started wrapping a new bandage around my shoulder and chest. "Llse Wallace? The COD's ex?"

  "Discretion, Susan." Vale warned. "She drove straight home and never came out again. But one of the team watching saw someone in the backyard, and then about a half hour after that, a Lexus pulled up and a woman in a trench coat and scarf went inside."

  "Any ID on the driver?"

  "Car's registered to a rental service. They'll call when they get the name.

  I looked at Susan as she finished taping the bandage in place on the back, then started on the one in front. I barely noticed it when she pulled the gauze away. "That doesn't get us any closer to why she was so freaked out about my pictures."

  Vale spoke. "True… I'm keeping the surveillance on her until tonight. Then I'm going to have to cut her lose. Budget concerns and no justifiable reason. You still plan on heading over to the warehouse?"

  "Yeah. I have to go by my house to get my camera, though, or get to my car to get the spare."

  "No, you don't," Susan spoke up, and went to the side door next to the pantry. Before I moved out, that closet had served as storage for all my cop gear. Now it looked like she'd moved in her own things. One of those things was a camera bag. She handed it to me over the breakfast counter. "This is my camera. Do not break it, understand? I don't want you going out there alone, though. I'd go with you, but I have court again in two hours."

  "I agree with Susan." Vale said something to someone near him before he spoke again. "Brenner, go with Devan. Once Meehan and Rosenberg finish, I'll sent Rosenberg over and let Meehan get sleep."

  "I don't need a babysitter, Captain." And I really didn't want to be around Rosenberg at all. The guy hadn't liked me when I was a cop. He sure as hell didn't like me now. After Julie and I reconnected after I got out of the hospital, she told me about how Theo Rosenberg was sure I was the shooter and not Ferrell. Made jokes about Ferrell and I being gay lovers.

  Yeah…Rosenberg was an ass.

  "No, you don't. But you don't need to be dead, either. It cost too much money to save you the first time. Give me a call when you're finished there, or if the pictures show anything." He disconnected.

  Susan had a very strange look on her face. I had already confessed everything to her while we talked so I didn't know why she looked like that. "Dev…Llse Wallace…"

  "Please, no. I really want to keep my appetite." I held up my hand before I opened the bag and did a quick inventory. Nice camera—digital. Several lenses, batteries, smart cards, and a flash. "You like to take pictures?" I looked up at her.

  "Just…put the bag down, okay? Hear me out. I'm using your case as a sort of brain cleanser for my own. And I want to get it straight in my head on what I read over and over in that report and what you told me this morning. You found Jimmy already dead, walked in and saw Ferrell dead, and then you were shot. You can't rememb
er anything after that."

  "That's it in a nutshell. All blank."

  "Llse claims she heard all three of you arguing, but if you're right, that's impossible."

  "Right."

  "Llse said she was in the park to meet Chad and saw Chad get killed by Ferrell."

  "Right."

  "There's something not right about all this."

  I sighed. "Finally noticed, huh?"

  Julie put a hand on my arm. "Dev, be nice. She believes you and Llse never had any kind of affair."

  "I've been saying that since I woke up."

  "And I'm sorry." Susan said. "Llse had everyone believing it. Except for Julie, here—she never did. And I don't think a lot of your colleagues did, either. We knew she was lying, but we didn't know why."

  "Yeah, it's that motive thing. Nasty little fuck." I finished my pancake and slammed back a glass of OJ. "I'm getting a shower and changing. Julie, I suggest you do the same. I wanna be out of here by ten and get this over with." I left the two of them at the counter. Susan looked lost in thought and Julie looked miserable. It had to be hard on her, listening to us talk about finding Jim dead as if we were discussing luggage. As I jogged up the steps, I made a pact with myself never to be that insensitive again.

  Julie was ready before me and Susan had already left by the time I grabbed the camera bag. Susan trusted Julie with the alarm code and the keys to her old Honda. Well…my old Honda. I was okay with letting Julie have the wheel. I was a nervous wreck during the whole drive. I think I checked the camera and smart card a dozen times just to do something with my hands.

  The warehouse was just outside of Atlanta in the northern tip of Fulton County, so it was still in our jurisdiction. It was one of those industrial parks that from the air looked like bars of Legos laid out side by side in rows. One end of the third building had its offices gutted, and had been used at one point to store road-construction vehicles.

  There wasn't a car in the parking lot and the sign on the front was long gone, as was the inventory I remembered scattered along the fence separating the park from what looked like a vacant lot. Something had been there before, but I couldn't remember what, and it was long torn down. A white pickup pulled up beside the car and the driver handed Julie the key. She told him she would call him when we were done.

  "Awright. I already turned the lights on, so just flick 'em off when you lock up." He drove off.

  My phone buzzed. It was my sister, probably reminding me about Pink's birthday. I said as much as I let voicemail answer.

  "You talk to her since Thursday?"

  "No." I wrenched my arm back and forth. Susan had done a good job. "Been a bit preoccupied. But I will."

  Julie unlocked the front glass doors. "I'm going to stand out of the way and you need to start taking pictures." I was shocked when she pulled out her gun and held it barrel down with her good hand. "I'm just watching your back, Dev. Go ahead."

  I didn't know if her behavior was because of the other night at her place or if Vale had said something to her. Either way, I didn't want to stay any longer than I had to. I readied the camera and started shooting the entrance. I stepped inside, focused, and shot where I remembered seeing Jim. I took pictures of every step, from moving through the narrow corridor by the front office, to the back where they'd found the three of us, two dead and one barely alive.

  I thought I would feel different, standing in the empty building with its bare girders. But the truth was, I didn't feel anything. I saw brown stains everywhere and a piece of police tape. The outline of the two bodies was still visible after two years. "No one's been in here to clean up?" My voice echoed inside the building.

  "Just the owners. After the shooting, they moved locations while we conducted our investigation." She looked at the floor. "You want to know where you were?"

  "No," I answered quickly. It was the truth. But not for the reasons I figure she thought. I wanted to stay blank. I wanted the pictures to tell me.

  I hoped they would.

  "You know Susan still loves you. She knows she made a mistake."

  "Jewels—" I focused on a corner near the mark where Ferrell's body had been. "Not now. I don't want to discuss Susan with you." I continued to take shots. Standing, kneeling, sitting.

  "But she also knows she missed her chance with you."

  Click. "Julie…not now." I really didn't want to have this conversation.

  "I figured that would make you happy."

  After the last click I turned to face her. "I woke up in a strange bed, unable to move or see. I couldn't talk because there were a dozen tubes down my throat and nose. The first face I saw was Susan's. I saw her eyes and her expression and I knew something had changed." I turned the camera off. "And I knew that something wasn't me. It was weeks before I got the whole story…before she told me Llse had let it slip that I was supposed to meet her later that night but Ferrell showed up here, inside. And how Llse told everyone she and I had…had an affair."

  "But you didn't, Dev."

  "I didn't know that at the time. I couldn't remember anything in those first months." I said that a bit too harshly. "But as my brain started healing, some things came back to me and I remembered I never had any kind of relationship with Llse. But no one would believe me, Julie. Not even you at first. So I spent nine months in rehab after six in a coma, and the only visitors I had were Vale, my sister, and Pink, because as soon as it was clear I couldn't remember what they wanted me to remember, nobody wanted to talk to me." I was getting emotional and I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to remember these things.

  I turned and headed back to the front of the building.

  "She was sleeping with Jimmy."

  Julie's voice echoed all around me and broke up my little pity party. I stopped and turned. I'd known what Jimmy was doing…with Llse…but Julie wasn't supposed to know it. I knew he hadn't been as strong as me to see how wrong Llse Wallace was. I stood there and didn't say a word.

  Julie was facing away from me, her gun down at her side. "I discovered the affair the day after we agreed to start a family. He'd been real careful, Dev. Real careful. But I think…I think she wanted me to know, because she called the home phone. Acted like she'd made a horrible mistake at the end of her little porno message."

  She sniffed, and I watched her shoulders lower. "And I knew that night he'd gone to be with her. You know what I was doing when you two were shot? I was kicking him out of the house, Dev. I was getting rid of him. I ripped up his clothing, destroyed his prized collection of bottled ships…I was so angry. And then I got the call…you both were shot. He was dead…" She turned and looked at me. Tears stained her face. "But you were fighting for your life. So I held on to the thought that maybe…maybe you would tell me that it wasn't true. That it was a lie and she was lying because we know she's a liar!"

  The last shout rang inside the building. I felt my own heart leap into my throat and swallowed it. "Jewels…"

  "Did you know you're the only one who ever calls me that? Jim never would. He said that was your name for me. So I only let you call me that." She wiped at her face with the back of the hand holding the gun. "So…I, ah…I watched as the bitch trashed your name and left my husband alone. He died a hero. But I never felt like a hero's wife, Devan. Not once."

  When she walked past me, I sensed she didn't want me to touch her, so I lowered my camera and walked silently behind her.

  Twenty One

  Of the thirty shots I took, fifteen had images on them. The same ghostly wisps of people. But I knew these people. We looked at them on Vale's computer screen, which didn't have the resolution we needed. But there they were…images of the night I was shot.

  The most telling picture showed an obviously dead Jimmy Herndon just inside the front door. Five shots of him from different angles, as if the ghost of his death had posed for me.

  The most confusing pictures were the multiple placements of him, as well as Ferrell. In a few, Jim wa
s by the door, and Ferrell was in the room Llse claimed she was held in. But Ferrell was also sprawled where Jim was just inside the warehouse entrance in three others.

  I watched Vale's face for a while. "Not what you wanted?"

  "Oh, they're more than I hoped for. But I had hoped to show Ms. Wallace in a different location. Perhaps not in the room, but out there with the two of you."

  "You're making Llse to be the shooter?" Julie sounded as surprised as I was. I always wondered if she had something to do with it, but I never really pinned her for the shooter.

  "I don't think the pictures show living people." I pointed to a blank area. "I was here, right? When these two were found near me? But I'm not there."

  "Because you didn't die?" Julie straightened up and shivered. "But, didn't those pictures of the Birch murders show their killer? Remember the darker shadow?"

  I pursed my lips. "You have a point. I just don't know how this is supposed to work."

  Vale flipped through the shots. "My guess is Jimmy was dragged in here and the whole scene was staged, and the blood cleaned up."

  "You didn't find anything there with forensics?"

  "Oh, I doubt they looked at the entrance. No immediate bodies there." Vale shifted in his chair. "If we sort through the positions—" Vale moved pictures around on the screen. "It looks like Ferrell was shot in that room—see his body in this picture?"

  Julie and I nodded.

  "When Jimmy showed up he was shot, and then when you arrived, you were shot, Dev."

  Julie leaned against the desk. "So we can only see wherever the dead are."

  Vale's desk phone rang. "Brenner," Vale said as he picked it up. "Get me the autopsy file on Mason Ferrell." He put the receiver to his ear. "Vale."

  I stared at the images as Julie left the office. I wanted to get them on my home computer and do a bit of enhancing to bring out the features.

  "I see…" Vale was saying. "Okay, call me as soon as you know something." He hung up. "That was Rosenberg. He swung by Meehan's first before driving out to the warehouse."