The Ghost Files 4: Part 1

by Apryl Baker

  “Richards!”

  I wince at the sound of my captain’s shrill bark. She still hasn’t been able to ream me out over the last case I stuck my nose into. Granted, we did manage to solve a set of murders that spanned several counties. So, hopefully, she’ll take that into consideration.

  I switch course and head to her office instead of checking in with a couple guys I know who’ll give me the four-one-one on the case.

  “What are you doing here, Richards?” She wastes no time getting right to the point. Her abruptness and ability to cut to the chase fast tracked her to the position of captain.

  “I wanted to check on the investigation, see if there are any leads.”

  She eyeballs Mattie behind me and then goes into her office. “Both of you get in here and close the door.”

  Mattie is wide-eyed and her shoulders are ramrod straight when she marches into the room ahead of me. I can only hope she keeps her mouth shut. Captain Warner won’t put up with it for a second.

  “Sit down.”

  The frown on my girl’s face is shouting that she’s about to say something she shouldn’t, but to my shock, she does as she’s told and sits.

  “You two seem to be at the center of every storm that’s come through here over the last six months.” Captain Warner pulls out several files and lays them on the desk in front of her. “Care to explain that?”

  “We’re special like that.” Mattie smiles, but it’s not a nice smile. It’s one full of teeth. I want to kick her.

  “Special?” Captain Warner cocks her head to the side. “Special wouldn’t be the term I’d use to describe it.”

  “What she means to say is that we just were really lucky in putting two and two together.”

  “Yes, Richards, that I will agree with, but my issue is how you managed to get anywhere near any of these cases. The first one, I’ll give you.” She glances down at the files and then back to us. “Your foster sister went missing, Miss Hathaway, and your foster mother turned out to be the perp behind several disappearances. That I’ll accept as the right place, right time. But this one, I can’t overlook.” She holds up a file, her expression severe. “The mayor’s daughter is dead. And here you two are, yet again, right in the eye of the storm.”

  This I hadn’t expected.

  “The two of them were targeting Mattie and Meg…”

  She holds up a hand, stopping me. “I know that. I read the reports. I still want to know why you had whiteboards in your apartment with photocopied files of cases from several other counties. You should have brought this to my attention the moment you made the connection you did. Perhaps, had you done that, people wouldn’t be dead right now.”

  “Perhaps he didn’t tell you because he was in the hospital, suffering from a traumatic head injury that almost killed him.” Mattie’s eyes are narrowed, her smile almost lethal. She reminds me of her father in this moment.

  “Before that…”

  “And when did he have time?” Mattie leans forward, her eyes sparkling with the same arrogance I’ve seen mirrored in her father’s. “When his mother got arrested? When he had to play referee between his parents? When you questioned him for hours about what he’d discovered about his birth mother? Let’s not even talk about him having to deal with an entire family he didn’t know, a family who was out for blood when it came to Ann Richards. Or perhaps when he went back to his apartment to collect his notes and all the evidence he’d compiled to bring here to you, only to be attacked and almost killed before he could? So tell me, Captain Warner, when did he have time to bring you up to speed?”

  Captain Warner leans back and regards her with a blank expression. The cop face, I call it. I’m betting she’s cursing Squirt out six ways to Sunday behind all that calm. I’ve never heard anyone speak to the captain like that. She terrifies most of us.

  “The fact is, Dan is a great cop. He sees things where others don’t. Take Sally, for instance. Officer Donut-Hole wrote her off as a runaway, when she was, in fact, a murder victim. He made connections that no one even saw. He did his research and handed you the evidence to guarantee the DA would get a conviction. Instead of sitting here blaming him for things out of his control, you should be thanking him for everything he’s done to do his job despite all that’s going on in his personal life.”

  Remind me to never piss Mattie Hathaway off.

  “And how do you fit into all of this, Miss Hathaway?” Captain Warner folds her arms across her chest. “Dan, I can understand. He’s a police officer. How do you fit in the puzzle?”

  “I already told you. I’m just special like that.”

  She and Captain Warner stare each other down. The room is dead quiet until the captain opens the top file and pulls out all the sketches Mattie did for me. Those were in a folder at my apartment. Dread seeps into every pore I have. No way can either of us explain how her drawings mimic the state of the bodies as they were found, before we even had crime scene photos.

  “Care to explain these?” She starts to lay them out one by one on the desk facing us.

  “They’re drawings.”

  “I can see that. Care to explain what these were doing at Richards’ apartment? Some of these victims we hadn’t discovered yet. We had their most recent photos, but these drawings depict their deaths. Exactly.”

  For once she keeps her mouth shut and just glares, defiant in the face of something that is going to bite us in the butt.

  “Richards?” Captain Warner turns her attention to me. “Anything to say?”

  “She’s special?” I have no idea how to get out of this one.

  The look the captain gives me is enough to make me shrink back and want to hide under the proverbial rock. It’s not like I can come out and say she sees ghosts and drew them the way they appeared to her. She’d arrest us on the spot.

  “I can’t tell you why she drew those.” I look her in the eye so she knows I’m not being shady. “Isn’t it enough that those drawings helped us identify victims and bring their murderers to justice?”

  “I’m going to be asked to explain these, Officer Richards. If you can’t give me a sufficient explanation, you’ll be explaining it to people you don’t want to talk to.”

  “I see dead people.”

  I groan at Mattie’s flippant statement. She looks so serenely innocent, like the kid in the movie did when he said that line. Captain Warner, on the other hand, does not look impressed.

  “Look, you wanted an explanation. That’s the explanation I have for you. Believe it or not.”

  “You really want me to go to my superiors and say ‘Oh, she’s a ghost whisperer.’ That’s utterly ridiculous, young lady.”

  “Your grandmother died when she was seventy-two of a massive heart attack. She died at home, in her favorite dress. Purple with white flowers around the collar. Her name is Hattie and she loves streusel, but only if it’s homemade. She taught you how to do a running stitch when you were nine, gave you your first diamond necklace when you were thirteen, and let you cry over Bobby when you were sixteen.”

  Shock, disbelief, anger…I can see her go through each different emotion as what Mattie says sinks in.

  “And before you ask how I know all that, Hattie is standing right behind you. She told me. She says to tell you not to worry, Muffin, it’s all going to be all right.”

  Muffin? The captain’s grandmother called her Muffin?

  “Look, lady, you don’t have to believe me. I frankly don’t care if you believe me or not, but you will not sit here and make accusations about Dan. He doesn’t deserve it. Not after everything he went through to uncover the truth. The truth everyone else was willing to ignore.”

  Oh, wow. She actually told her she can see ghosts? Mattie never tells anyone that. Why would she say that?

  Captain Warner stares mutely at her, and I can see the first faint signs of fear forming in her eyes. Not a good thing. She can make Mattie’s life very unpleasant if she wants to. Although I think Mr. Crane would
have something to say about that, and I don’t want the captain fired.

  “Captain, ma’am.” I lean forward, my face as earnest as I can make it. “We came to try to help Kayla. I know this all sounds unreal, and you’re probably trying to decide if we’re pulling your leg or not, but we still need to find that little girl. You’re a good cop. You know I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think we could help.”

  It’s several long minutes before she answers, and I’m surprised again today. I thought she’d throw us out or possibly even arrest us for interfering with a police investigation, but she doesn’t do any of that.

  “Tell me what you need.”

  ***

  CSU has already gone over the bear, taken samples of the bloodstains, and dusted the plastic dress the doll wore for fingerprints. They were quicker than I’d thought they’d be. Missing kid, though. It’s every police officer’s worst nightmare. Kelly Roberts is the crime lab tech working on the bear and all the other victims of this particular perp. She’s on the phone when we come in, so Mattie and I walk over to her station to wait.

  Captain Warner didn’t even quibble over letting Mattie come. Today is full of surprises.

  “Dan.” Kelly’s smile is always at one hundred percent, even in the face of all the tragedy she investigates. Like blood-soaked teddy bears. “Can I do something for you?”

  “The captain has me working on the Rawlins case. I just came to see if you guys found anything, and then I thought I’d take the bear down to evidence lockup for you.”

  “I thought you took a leave of absence?” Kelly starts typing on her computer.

  “All hands on deck with this one.”

  Kelly’s eyes flicker to Mattie who speaks up before I can.

  “I’m observing for a school project. Summer school. I’m taking a few extra classes so I can graduate early. The captain cleared it as long as I don’t release any details of the case.”

  “That’s pretty awesome.” Kelly’s blonde hair bounces in its ponytail when she turns to face us. “Not this case, of course, but it’s great to observe police work.”

  Mattie puts on her most innocent smile. The girl can lie like nobody’s business. She’s quite scary sometimes.

  “So what do we know?” I pull out my phone and bring up my notes app. It’s a lot easier than trying to carry around a notebook and pen all the time.

  “We type matched the blood on the bear with the child’s blood. That much is a match. I’ve got DNA results pending, but I think we’re all confident it’s her blood. The fabric makes finding any kind of useable print impossible.”

  “So we don’t know anything new?” Not that I was expecting anything grand, but I’d hoped for at least some kind of clue.

  “Well, I wouldn’t say that.” She looks up from the computer screen, a frown on her face. “We found traces of sulphur on the bear and some type of goo embedded in the material. I’m still running that through a chemical analysis, but so far I’ve gotten no hits on known substances.”

  “Goo?” Mattie tilts her head. “Was it black?”

  “Yes. Have you seen it before?”

  “No, but Kayla went missing from my neighborhood. We were there when they found the bear. I thought I saw something black on it, that’s all.”

  Black goo. I’ve seen it before. While we were in New Orleans, a lower level demon attacked Mattie. It oozed that black slimy stuff. Black goo. A small shudder goes through me at the memory of that thing. It’s not something I ever want to experience again. Zeke’s probably right in assuming a demon is involved in all the disappearances and murders. If it holds with the same pattern, Kayla has a week to be found before she’s killed.

  “Did anyone check for the same substance at any of the other crime scenes?” I blink when I hear Mattie’s question and refocus on the conversation. She’s going to make an excellent police officer if I can just convince her to give the force a try. I know she and cops don’t see eye to eye and have some bad history, but she has the instincts of a cop. I’d hate to see her waste all that potential.

  Kelly frowns and goes back to her computer. After a few minutes, she shakes her head. “No mention of it in any of the other files.”

  “But did they know to look for it?” Mattie presses. “Maybe Kayla got in a lucky shot and some of the stuff rubbed off on the bear. Maybe there wasn’t anything to find at the other locations. But what if they overlooked it because they didn’t know to look for it?”

  “That’s a very good point.” Kelly squinted at her screen. “Maybe I’ll send a team back to each site to look for this stuff. It can’t hurt to cover all our bases.”

  “No, it can’t.” I shift, my attention on the bear sitting inconspicuously on the table in the plastic evidence bag. “If that’s all, I’ll go ahead and run the bear down to evidence lockup.”

  “We normally do that.” Kelly frowns at me, clearly wondering at the break in protocol.

  I shrug. “I told Captain Warner I’d do it, but if you’d rather and have the extra time, that’s fine.”

  She purses her lips, but after a minute, she hands me the bag. The sealed bag. Now how am I going to touch the thing if it’s in a sealed bag? There’ll be too many questions if I open it.

  “Can I see it?” Mattie leans forward, her hands outstretched and tries to take the bag from Kelly the same time I do. She pulls and the flimsy plastic tears. “Oh my gosh! I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. Did I ruin it?”

  Kelly clucks at her like a mother hen. “No, no, sweetie. It’s fine. I’ll make a new one and we’ll transfer it. No harm done. I need to go grab one out of the office. I used the last one I had out here earlier. Give me just a second.”

  She’s beyond scary sometimes.

  As soon as Kelly disappears, Mattie shoves the bear at me. I’m not sure how she managed to hold onto it, honestly. Kelly should have taken it with her. Chain of custody can’t be broken, but I’m not going to tell on her, and there’s no one else in here.

  The tear is long, and half the bear is sticking out of the bag. I only have to touch it, but I don’t know if I can. I know I don’t want to, but Mattie’s right. If I can see anything to help that little girl, then I have to at least try.

  Tentatively, I brush my thumb over the soft fur and then curl my fingers around it. I’m prepared for the onslaught of images, but nothing comes. Frowning, I clutch it tighter. It’s just an ordinary bear.

  “I got nothing.”

  “Really?” Mattie pushes in closer. “Let’s try something. Close your eyes and think about earlier. Think about when we pulled up to the driveway. Think about Kayla standing there, playing. Concentrate on that image, on what she was wearing, on her face, her expressions. Think about nothing but Kayla and the last time you saw her.”

  Sensory memories. The eye sees more than it can process all at once. It’s a technique used in a lot of law enforcement branches to help a witness recover memories they didn’t even realize they had. It almost always works.

  I close my eyes and allow my mind to wander back to this morning. I can see her there in her yard, her blonde hair and blue eyes watching the car. She probably didn’t recognize the car and was curious. Kayla is cute. I remember thinking I wanted to check to see how many registered sex offenders lived in the area. Kids that cute tend to attract unwanted attention. Always good to have an idea about those kinds of things.

  I got out of the car and she grinned at Mattie, then went back to playing with her bear when Mary flew out of the house. I could just see her out of the corner of my eye as we talked to Mary. Playing by the fence. The street only had a couple of cars, but none of them set off alarm bells. We followed Mary up the porch steps, and I glanced back one more time. Still in her yard. I turned my head back toward the door and…there. Across the street. I see him. Jeans and a sweatshirt hoodie. He’s not supposed to be there. Out of place.

  A flickering starts behind my eyes, just blurry bits and pieces at first. Kayla talking to the bear, ma
king plans for a tea party. She hears a noise and looks up. She sees the man standing outside the gate right in front of her. Fear. The stench of sulphur. I see him. Only it’s like I’m seeing two people. Like I got hit with a baseball right in the face and I’m seeing double. That can’t be right, can it?

  She’s afraid and tries to run, only he’s ready. I see him grab a fistful of her hair with one hand and yank her up very fast, his other hand covering her mouth. Pain. Stinging, searing pain.

  I can see the long cuts on her arms. The fence. She cut her arm on the fence. The blood ran down and onto the bear. She tried to hold onto it as he dragged her over the fence and hustled her down the street, but her arm hurt too much, and she dropped it. That’s how it got blood on it.

  More images flood my field of vision. So fast I can’t make sense of them, so fast I get dizzy. I reach out and grasp the edge of the counter I’m standing beside to keep from falling.

  “Let go of it, Dan.”

  Mattie’s voice is faint, but it’s enough to cut through the cacophony of images, and I let the bear drop to the floor, and they stop. Gone. Like they weren’t even there. Three deep, shuddering breaths later, I bend down and pick up the bear, only this time, I keep hold of the plastic bag. Not touching that thing again.

  Kelly breezes back in, evidence bag in hand. She takes one look at my face, and concern wipes the smile off hers. “Dan, are you all right? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

  “I told him to take it easy.” Mattie wrings her hands, and only some of it is for show. She’s worried about me. I see it in her eyes. “The hospital wanted to keep him for observation this morning, but he insisted he was fine. He’s not. He gets dizzy spells and can barely stand up.”

  “I think I’d better take this down to evidence.” Kelly takes the bear from me, and I don’t protest. “You need to go sit down and rest for a while.”

  “Thanks.” I attempt a smile, but my lips won’t quite curl up. Flashes of what I’d seen keep interrupting. I do need to sit and work through everything.