Chasing Morgan

by Jennifer Ryan

  Tyler wouldn’t be surprised to find a few domestic disturbance calls to the Weston house. Maybe Morgan’s mother even filed charges of domestic abuse against her husband. Something Tyler had seen many times in his career. He could talk to a man like Weston and know just how the scenario played out between him and any woman he had in his life. Tyler wondered where Morgan fit in the picture. Had Weston abused her in some way, too? The thought made him sick.

  “So what name does Morgan go by?”

  “Her mama went by Standish. We may have been married before God, but that woman came from Satan. She bore that demon of a daughter. Should’ve known right off she came from a long line of witches. She put a spell on me. Every single one of them Standish women was the devil’s spawn.”

  Tyler looked to Sam and Davies for some kind of support or understanding of this guy. One second he spoke like any normal man wanting to find his daughter, even if he did it in a hostile tone. The next second, he was spouting off about spells and the devil. He was talking crazy, and they had no way of knowing if he was telling the truth or lying.

  “So, Morgan’s a demon witch who comes from a long line of witches. Well, let me just scroll through my contact list and give you her address. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.”

  Tyler rolled his eyes. This guy couldn’t be for real. If he was, Morgan probably had a good reason for hiding from him.

  Davies read the files popping up on his computer. He turned the screen so Sam and Tyler could see.

  James Weston, recently released from prison after serving twelve years of a fifteen-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. He’d killed his wife, Fern Standish. Another notation stated Morgan Standish had been the key witness during the murder trial.

  Tyler scribbled a note to Davies for him to get a copy of the police report and court transcript. He wanted to know exactly what happened to Fern Standish and just what part Morgan had played in sending her father to jail.

  Davies pointed to the screen and Tyler stared in disbelief as he looked at a picture of a young Morgan Standish. She looked to be about twelve. No mistaking her. He’d never forget those blue eyes or that golden hair. When he’d met her, he assumed she was eighteen or nineteen. According to the records, he’d been right. Now twenty-four, she had a Texas driver’s license. The photo was about seven years old. She looked so young.

  “It’s none of your business if she wants to see me or not. I have a right to know where my daughter is.” Impatient, his voice grew louder.

  If Morgan’s testimony cost James twelve years of his life, Tyler didn’t need to guess why he wanted to find her. Revenge.

  “Just tell me how to get in touch with her. That’s all I want.”

  “Her last name wasn’t given out. So tell me how you know it’s the same Morgan.”

  “It’s her. No one but Morgan could pick out those men and name them. She’s better than any so-called psychic out there. She’s seen things since she was just a little bit of a thing. Used to scare me sometimes the things she knew. She can do things too. She can get into your head, hear your thoughts, crazy things like that. More too.”

  The more too interested Tyler. He already knew she could read his mind. He wanted to know what else she could do.

  Sam’s hand locked on Tyler’s arm. The stunned look on Sam’s face as he stared at the computer screen disturbed Tyler. He read the information on Morgan. An open cold case, the police considered her a missing person. She’d gone missing after the trial. No one knew if she’d been kidnapped, or simply left on her own.

  Tyler’s chest ached. Twelve years old when she disappeared, he thought about the first time he’d met her and the fact that she looked like a student with her backpack. They’d met in a restaurant while he finished his meal and she’d just ordered iced tea and a bowl of soup at the table beside him. He considered her order and appearance and realized she might have been on her own for more than five years before they met. He wondered what she’d done, and where she’d lived for those five years. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through. He didn’t want to imagine it. He didn’t want to think about her alone and on the streets at such a young age.

  Time to get Dad off the line, so they could do some research. What could they do about Morgan? She’d asked them not to give out her name, and now they knew why, at least partially. She was hiding from her past.

  “Listen, Weston, why don’t you give me your number, and I’ll get back to you with Morgan’s information. I’m not giving out her number without talking to her first.”

  “All I want is her phone number. If she doesn’t want to talk to me, she can hang up. Either way, I’m her father, and I want to talk to her.”

  Tyler wasn’t about to give him anything. He didn’t know how to contact Morgan. Her calls always came through with a blocked number. He’d never had a reason to dig any deeper. If Weston got the number he’d be able to find her, or at least come close. You could find out just about anything about a person using the Internet. Tyler planned on doing a little research himself using the FBI’s resources and the Internet once he got rid of Weston. They already had all the information they needed on him. Davies had spent the last few minutes digging up everything on Weston and his troubled past. They needed to know about Morgan.

  “I hate to tell you this”—actually he didn’t—“but I won’t give out her number to you or anyone else. The next time she calls, I’ll let her know how to get in touch with you. We’ll just leave it up to her.”

  Probably never going to happen, even if by some miracle he did hear from Morgan. No way she’d want to contact her father. After all, she’d sent him to prison. He couldn’t imagine Morgan’s devastation, losing her mother by her father’s hand.

  “The next time she calls, huh. You don’t know how to get in touch with her.” James laughed. “She’s crafty, that one. You probably have no idea what she’s capable of doing. I’ll just bet you’re looking up information on me and her. You’re probably more interested in her though. You’ll be lucky if you find anything on her after the trial. That girl lit out as fast as she could.

  “Maybe you’ll get to her before I do. It won’t make any difference. You talk to her; you tell her I’m coming for her. Well, on the other hand, she probably already knows and this is all for nothing. You have a good night, Agent Reed.”

  He hung up before Tyler responded, his sardonic laughter ringing in Tyler’s ears.

  Chapter Seven

  * * *

  THEY SORTED THROUGH all the information they gathered on James Weston and Morgan Standish for two hours. Tyler learned more about Morgan in that short period of time than he had in the five years they’d talked on the phone, and it shamed him.

  Weston hadn’t been an outstanding parent. He hadn’t even been a good parent. Seven domestic disturbance calls on record. Tyler could only guess how many times the cops weren’t called to the Weston-Standish home. Morgan had been sent to a foster home for a few weeks when her mother ended up in the hospital for minor injuries and psychiatric evaluation. Morgan’s mother had become severely depressed in the end and hadn’t been able to properly care for her daughter.

  Morgan’s juvenile records were sealed. Davies offered to get them. Tyler declined. None of their business, they certainly didn’t have any reason to dig up her past. They’d already gone beyond the point of decency, justifying their actions because her father had called and essentially implied a threat to Morgan. He’d already killed her mother. They only wanted to make sure Morgan was safe.

  That’s what Tyler kept telling himself. He just wanted her to be safe. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had his doubts.

  “Look what I found,” Sam said from his cubicle across the aisle. “I searched the Internet for anything on ‘Morgan’ and ‘psychic.’ I found a few interesting sites that have a lot of information about her.”

  Tyler got up from his desk and stood behind Sam and read over his shoulder several of the bookmarked web page
s.

  Tyler read silently about the court case in which she testified for the prosecution against her father. Vilified in the press, they called her a witch and talked about her ability to see things. They made her sound crazy and delusional. He read an account where several rocks had been thrown at her outside the courthouse where she testified. Police had to aid in getting the crowd to stand back, so the star witness could enter the building. Harsh treatment for a young girl in this day and age.

  The trial had been sensationalized because Morgan’s father and his attorney had gone to the press and made Morgan out to be crazy, psychic, and possessed by the devil. Every religious zealot and crackpot showed up at the courthouse to rid their community of the devil’s demon.

  “Small towns,” Sam said. “They made her out to be the bad guy, even though her father killed her mother. She saw it all happen. She told the police where to find the weapon. She didn’t see him get rid of it, but she knew. We both know how she knew where to find the knife.”

  Tyler nodded. “She saw it in her mind, or however she does what she does. Twelve years old and people are yelling ‘Witch!’ and throwing rocks and all she wanted is justice for her mother. On top of it all, her vicious father sent those close-minded, intolerant jackasses after her. I can’t imagine what that did to her.”

  “I’d say it did a lot,” Sam said sadly. “Look at the next article. She went missing the day the trial ended. Her father hadn’t even been found guilty or sentenced, and she’d already taken off. People speculated one of the crackpots outside the courthouse had kidnapped and killed her. That seemed to be the consensus for a while. Then, nothing. It looks like the cops just tossed her file into the cold case pile. I’ll bet they didn’t do more than wait to see if a body turned up. When it didn’t, they forgot all about her. No one wanted to deal with the strange girl who saw things.” He looked up at Tyler as he read the article. “It’s sad. None of them understood her, so they made her the villain. There’s hardly anything about her father and the murder. They were all fascinated with her. They made her into some sort of sideshow freak.”

  “No one cared enough to remember she’d witnessed her mother’s murder,” Tyler said, disgusted. “They gave up on her. No one helped her. They tossed her into a system that didn’t want to deal with someone different. They treated her like a freak instead of a scared little girl.” Tyler shook his head in disbelief. “Twelve years old, Sam, and look what a town did to her.”

  He felt sick.

  Doo, do, do, dooo—

  “You really need to change that thing,” Sam teased. He closed out the web pages with the news articles and Tyler answered his phone.

  “Oh, God, Maria. I’m sorry. There was this big blowup at work. I’ve been stuck in a meeting with my boss and digging through information on a case.”

  Today turned into a rotten day, and he thanked his lucky star Maria didn’t lay on the guilt trip because Tyler had forgotten their date. He grinded the heel of his hand into his tired eye.

  “Yeah, it’s been a bad day. I promised dinner at Decadence, but it’s too late. How about I pick up a pizza and come to your place? Yeah? I want to see you, too. Okay. Let me tie up some things here, and I’ll be over within the hour. Yeah, I can’t wait to see you.”

  He hung up and realized he did want to see her. He hadn’t made anything work out with Morgan today, but he could try to salvage the tenuous relationship he had with Maria. He needed something good to hold on to, and the only thing he had was her.

  Morgan was gone.

  If he wanted to have that elusive wife and kids, he needed to make it happen. Maybe he could fill the emptiness after Morgan’s abrupt departure from his life with a real woman, one that he could talk to, touch, and have a real life with. He’d been putting off other women because Morgan had always been in his head and on his mind. Now that she was gone, he decided it was the perfect time to put the rest of his life in order. He’d start with Maria.

  “I have to say, I’m surprised she isn’t pissed off. She seemed pretty understanding.”

  Tyler had to admit, it surprised him too. Every other woman he’d dated would have broken up with him, or at least yelled and called him every dirty name in the book. He appreciated Maria’s easygoing nature even more.

  “Maria liked the idea of spending a quiet evening together at her place. Maybe she’s one of those rare women who understands that sometimes, as hard as I try, I can’t be at her beck and call. She said she just wanted to see me, and if that meant she had to wait another hour, she was fine with it.” Tyler’s spirit felt lighter already. He had no way of making things up to Morgan, but he could make things right with Maria.

  What’s Morgan doing? Is she okay?

  He stopped that train of thought, mentally disembarked, and boarded the new train that lead to Maria and a real relationship.

  “Yeah, I guess. Before you take off, check this out. I don’t know if it’s Morgan’s, but I think it’s a safe bet to say it is. I think this is how she earns a living. I guess we could check her taxes and find out where she works . . .”

  “No. We have no reason to invade her privacy like this. Having her father call and finding out about her past . . . I don’t know, it feels like I’ve betrayed her,” Tyler said.

  “You mean we. You and I are partners. She may contact you, but you and I are in this together, whatever happens. Her father has no way of finding her.”

  “I wish I felt the same way.” He looked at the website Sam had pulled up and his gut twisted when he saw the image of a woman with her arms outstretched and white light, like the light of a star, shining from her silhouette. The image rocked Tyler back on his heels. Morgan. Her long flowing hair, the hint of the outline of her face turned to the side. The shape of her body illustrated in the outline as the light radiated out of her form.

  Strange and ethereal and beautiful all at the same time.

  He’d only seen her briefly, but she’d haunted him ever since.

  Morgan, his psychic ghost.

  “I tried to send a message over the website, but when you click on the link to ask your question, there’s a message that pops up and tells you the site isn’t taking requests at this time. I wonder how many people found this site after the press conference. At least, there’s no personal information on the site, no name, address, phone number, nothing. This could be anybody. She must have shut things down with the message if she was getting bombarded with requests.”

  “Maybe,” Tyler said, his eyes locked on her image.

  “According to the site, she accepts all questions and inquiries. She states clearly, if she can’t answer, you don’t have to pay. If she can, she charges fifteen dollars and sends you an email with your reply. There are no horoscopes. I find that odd. All the other sites I looked at have some sort of fortune-telling platitudes. Morgan deals in simplicity. Either she can answer you, or she can’t. According to all the testimonials, she gave out accurate and precise information. She doesn’t offer up some broad answer that could mean the same thing for any number of scenarios. People talk about how she knew things that no one could have known.”

  “I’m not surprised. She never gave us something we couldn’t use. She may not have known the specific case the clue went to, but she was never vague enough that the clue fit any case.”

  Tyler gave her credit where credit was due. “She could have said it’s a white guy who’s average height between the ages of twenty and forty. She never did. She’d always give an accurate description.”

  If the guy was white, twenty-seven, with dark hair and green eyes, that’s what Morgan told them. Specific. She only called on cases that she could help. She never promised to try on other cases. He liked that about her.

  No way did she help them so she could prove something to them, or anyone else. She didn’t do it as a gimmick, or to draw attention to herself. She did the opposite. He, Sam, and Davies were the only ones who knew just how much help she’d provided. He should have
never let Detective Stewart coax him into giving up his source. Why didn’t he keep his mouth shut like he’d done on the other cases? Why did he talk about Morgan this time? And to a man who only wanted to prove the FBI incompetent and out to take credit for the bust?

  “Yeah, she’s amazingly accurate. So, what do you think? Is this her website?” Sam asked.

  “The image of the woman on the first page is her. She added the white light to obscure her identity.”

  He’d know her anywhere. He stared at the webpage again and simply sighed. He couldn’t fix this. Frustrated, there was more wrong with this than he could see. He couldn’t call her and find out what scared her away, or warn her about her father. She’d made herself clear. She wanted to be left alone. She’d left him alone. And it pissed him off. This whole damn mess pissed him off.

  “I gotta go. If her father calls again . . . I don’t know. Get rid of him.”

  “We have enough information to locate her,” Sam said.

  “Why? Why would we do that?” Tyler let his anger show. Sam raised an eyebrow, a look of concern coming over his face. Tyler was usually the calm one in the room when everyone else was falling apart.

  “To let her know her father’s looking for her. To tell her we’re sorry her name went out to the press. So that we can ask her to continue helping us when she can.”

  Maybe you can tell her you’re in love with her, and you’re miserable without her, you dummy. That’s what Sam really wanted to say. He held his tongue. Tyler was in no mood to hear it, and Sam didn’t want to start a fight. Tyler held on to denial about his feelings for Morgan. It ate him up inside and Sam had a feeling he traveled the road to ruin by trying to make things work with Maria. She was just a poor substitute for Morgan. They all had been. He wished Tyler would finally come to realize that himself.