“What else can you tell me about the judge’s untimely death?”
“You know I can’t give you much without him being in the morgue.”
“Yeah, just spitball it for me, okay? I need to get something so I can keep the mayor from riding my ass. He’s a pain on a good day. This isn’t a good day, Roxy. This day is about as far from good as good can get.”
She happened to agree.
Plus, the mayor was predictable if nothing.
“Well, I can’t give you TOD. When the killer cut him open, that cooled his liver down, and fast. So, I can guess, but that’s about it.”
“Hey, I’m okay with your guesses. You’re pretty accurate when you need to be.”
It was her gift.
“With rigor just setting in, I’m going to say he bought it six to eight hours ago. You figure with all this torture, the fact he’d bled out most of his fluids, and he peed himself—likely from fear or pain—the killer had him an hour or two before that.”
“So, we’re looking at around ten hours.”
Roxy pulled out her phone. “Did you see the paper this morning?” she asked.
“Uh, I was a little busy.”
“With a man?”
She snorted. “Yeah, the one in my dreams. My bed was chilly last night.”
And the last seven hundred nights.
For some reason, Bishop Killion scared the men away. Maybe it was her job.
Or…it could be that she called it how she saw it, and most guys wanted a delicate flower. She was more like a prizefighter ready for the next round.
It was her father’s fault.
He’d made her into this mess—she was sure of it.
“I was working on reports instead of reading the paper. What did I miss?” she asked.
Roxy tossed her BFF the phone. “Read it and weep with gratitude that I’m awesome and kick ass.”
Bishop read the headline.
Her eyebrow winged up, and immediately, she was grinning. “That’s some headline.”
‘Judge Abrahms caught canoodling with co-worker’s wife at the gala.’
“That might piss me off enough to cut the son of a bitch open to watch him bleed.”
“Yeah,” Roxy said laughing, “especially if you’re the other guy married to the woman being canoodled.”
Maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought. If Bishop got lucky, she’d head out to the interview and find a bloody man weeping over what he’d done.
She’d been known to get lucky like that.
In fact, it ran in the family.
Her father, before he’d been killed, was kissed by the luck of the Irish. Evidence fell into his lap on a daily basis, and it helped him arrest the bad guys. The man had some crazy mad skills until that luck had finally run out.
That’s why she was proud to carry on his legacy.
“I love how you still read the paper,” Bishop said. “What did my horoscope say?”
Roxy snorted. “That you’re going to stop focusing on work and find a sexy man to settle down with in the next week.”
They both stared at each other and then began laughing like it was the funniest thing they’d heard.
Everyone looked at them, but they didn’t care.
This was how they ran their crime scenes. Some might call it disrespectful, but when you were standing in someone’s entrails, you had to keep it light.
If not…
You’d lose your mind.
“Yeah, who has time for men? I’m too busy babysitting the deputies.”
“They’re men,” Roxy reminded her.
“Yeah, but they don’t do it for me. When you watch guys shove a whole Twinkie in their pie hole, it loses the mystery. Call me picky, but that’s not sexy.”
Her best friend high-fived her.
“Amen.”
As the coroner’s truck backed up, Bishop got serious. “Babe, I need you to do me a huge favor?”
Roxy stared at her. “Uh oh. When you ask for a favor, it usually means tequila, a bender, and someone is in trouble the next morning.”
“Yeah, not quite, but that sounds like fun. We’ll do that soon.”
“Spill it, Bish.”
“Can you sit on this for a day? I don’t want the media getting the details until I do the notify and talk to the mayor. My ass is in the sling, and I know it.”
“I can do that. What are friends for?”
Thank God for that.
It was hard enough being a female sheriff in a town this big but having your best friend as your coroner definitely made it easier.
“I want to make sure all of our bases are covered. I have a feeling, since the judge was already on their radar, that this case needs to be run impeccably.”
Roxy patted her on the back. “Bish, you always run everything by the rules. In fact, I think ‘rules’ is your middle name.”
She was well aware.
Bishop couldn’t help it.
She was raised to fight for justice, and she took a vow to the people of Ravenswood.
Actually, none of that mattered. What really kept her focused was the promise to her father. When he’d been shot, she’d promised to carry on in his honor.
This was only part of it.
Carrying on meant doing it to the letter of the law to get people the justice they deserved. Judge Arron Abrahms might have been a dick, screwing with another man’s wife, but no one deserves to have their stomach sitting beside their knee.
That was just wrong on so many levels.
And gross.
It was really damn gross.
“I have the utmost faith in you, Bish. You’re a one woman crime fighting team.”
Yeah, no pressure there.
“You do your part, and I’ll do mine.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she offered, winking at her. “Now what the hell was I supposed to do?” Roxy teased.
“Oh, you’re funny.”
“I do believe I am.”
“Have the trace pulled and see what your CSI can get me. I need to move fast. This screams bad news.”
Roxy agreed. “Bishop, I’m going to tell you right now that this killing was to get attention. Whoever did this dumped his body here for everyone to see. This isn’t going to be about him checking out another man’s wife. This is ugly.”
Yeah, she figured as much, but she still had to follow the most obvious lead. Her instincts told her it was BS, but she had to do her job. As she pulled her red hair back into a ponytail, she glanced around the scene. “There are no cameras located on this side of the courthouse. They all face the main entrance.”
“Did the killer know that or was it luck?”
She didn’t have a clue.
Bishop was going to have to have all the cameras pulled anyway, even if she was pretty sure that this killer did his, or her, homework.
She didn’t buy for a single second that this maniac got lucky where the body was dumped.
This was planned.
She’d bet on it.
Before she could give the team anymore orders, she heard her name being called.
“Sheriff!”
Bishop Killion turned to see one of her deputies heading her way. “What’s up, Alonzo?” she asked. The deputy looked out of breath, as if he’d run to the crime scene.
“Ma’am!” he said, huffing and puffing.
“Aren’t you supposed to be securing Judge Abrahms home until the CSI’s can get there and start working it?”
“I was there, ma’am.”
“Bishop. I hate when the men in my office call me ma’am. I feel like your freaking mother or some school teacher.”
He checked out her legs.
“Eyes up here, sport, or I’ll kick your ass back to the office and in front of the lady,” she threatened, pointing at her best friend.
Roxy laughed. “Really, you can’t blame him. You’re the one who wore a skirt to the crime scene.”
She gave her BFF a dirty
look.
“I was due in court today to testify. The judge,” she said, pointing down at him being wrapped in the black body bag, “frowns on us showing up in uniform. He likes us in suits. My blazer is in my vehicle.”
Roxy rolled her eyes.
“Ma’am,” the deputy said, getting agitated. “I mean, Bishop, we have a problem.”
“You think?”
Again, she pointed at the dead man.
“It’s about him.”
“Spill it.”
“I went out to the judge’s home, like you asked, and I found this.”
He handed her a paper. It was sealed in a plastic evidence bag. As she read it, she glanced over at her coroner. “I need you to get the details under control, and make sure your reports are locked down nice and tight.”
“Why?” Roxy asked.
Bishop glanced over at her deputy. “Head out and make sure that we sweep the judge’s home, okay? Keep this note quiet. I swear to God, Alonzo, that if you say a word, I’m handing you to the mayor. He can deal with you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He hustled away.
She cringed. “I think they do that on purpose.”
When he was gone, she passed it to Roxy. “Read it and weep.”
Roxanne Faust scanned the note.
‘One of Seven.’
“Oh, Bish, this is about to really get down, dirty, and shitty.”
Yeah, she could say that again.
“What are you going to do?”
What could she do?
At this point, there was only one option, and she was going to have to follow the game plan.
“I’m going to wait for the next body, and then I’m calling in the big guns.”
“The FBI?”
“Yeah, aren’t we freaking lucky? It looks like Ravenswood is about to get some help from the Federal government, our blessed tax dollars in action.”
“Oh boy,” muttered Roxy.
Yeah, she could say that again.
As of that moment, there weren’t words to describe it.
Chapter Two
Wednesday Night
The trip to Ravenswood wasn’t as arduous as it could have been. On the way there, it went by rather fast. It helped that the town was maybe twenty miles from their home base in Fire Bay. While they expected it to be a sleepy little town, much like theirs, it was anything but that.
Ravenswood was rather large and bustling with people.
It was definitely a tourist area with lots of places for people to shop, visit, and get away.
It was a mix of quintessential quaintness and tourist trap run amuck. This was going to be interesting.
As Nate drove one of the vehicles toward the unknown, he knew this was going to be a crapshoot.
They were really going into this one with not much on their side. They had Lucian Monroe’s address and nothing more. As to if he was going to be happy to see them, they didn’t have a clue. Before they left the house, Maura ran into town to get some cold meds for Avalon. She was worried the woman was coming down with a bug or something.
He was grateful that Maura was like a mother hen when it came to Avalon. At least he could stress a little less than he already was. While he liked going out in the field, he was worried about the woman who was sitting in the passenger seat beside him.
She was being quiet.
“Are you okay?” he asked, glancing back in his rearview mirror. Luke, Maura, and Jagger had taken a second vehicle. It was all in case something happened, and they needed to escape with Avalon.
She turned her head, and he had a difficult time breathing. Whenever he stared into her pale blue eyes, he swore he saw her beautiful soul.
“Yes, I’m just listening.”
“To?”
“The voices.”
He glanced back at the road to make sure they didn’t have an accident. “Right now you hear voices?”
“You don’t?”
“Um. No. Generally, that’s not a good sign.”
Avalon started laughing.
She was obviously busting his ass. Of course he didn’t hear voices. He wasn’t crazy.
Her melodic laughter offered him some relief. If she was happy, then they were good.
Wasn’t that how it went?
Nate was definitely out of his league on this one. After the last few months with her, he still didn’t get women. He especially didn’t get one who was a powerful psychic.
Still…
He couldn’t help but feel as if something was wrong. His gut was screaming, but he wasn’t sure about what. He really sucked at girl issues. Maybe he’d ask Maura what was happening when they got situated.
After all, she was pretty astute.
Oh, and a girl.
When she didn’t speak, he glanced over. “Do you really hear voices?”
“Nathaniel, how do you think I find our cases? They don’t just find me. I have to search for them in the static.”
“Static?”
“That’s what it sounds like. I hear all these voices going at once, and then I focus in on the one screaming the loudest.”
“Lucian Monroe?”
“Yeah, he was really bellowing in pain last night. It was hard to ignore.”
“I don’t know how you do what you do, Avi. You astound me every day.”
She reached over and held his hand.
Nate couldn’t help but glance down at the engagement ring on her finger. It was the one she’d picked out when they’d shared a dream. It looked perfect on her.
He hoped it stayed there.
“So, about the wedding?” he began.
“What about it?”
“When do you want to have it? We’ve talked about it a lot the last couple of weeks, but we haven’t really nailed down a date. Are we going with the holidays? Spring?”
For Nate, the best answer was the sooner the better. He felt like she was slipping away. He could feel the hesitation. As of late, Avalon was hiding something.
He could feel it.
She pondered his question.
Yeah, this was a tricky subject. Avalon really wanted to get married fast, especially if she was having a baby. How was she supposed to convey that without giving away the potential secret?
Marriage mattered when there was a baby on the way.
Wasn’t that what people did?
You got married then had kids? If her mother, or grandmother, were alive, and they knew she was having a baby and not married…
Who knew what they would have done to torture her?
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t like that answer.
“If you’ve changed your mind, Avalon, you can just say it to me. I’m an adult. I can handle it.”
That was a lie.
He’d cry like a baby and beg.
Who the hell was he kidding?
She turned her head, wishing she could see into his blue eyes. What she wanted was to run her fingers though his black hair. It was growing, and she loved the feeling of it against her fingers.
“Why would I have changed my mind?” she asked, a little confused by his response.
He didn’t answer.
“Nathaniel?”
“You seem like you’re less than happy about the prospect of marrying me. The last week, you seem angry at me, and I don’t know what I’ve done.”
She knew what she’d done.
And she knew what she was hiding.
“I’m not angry at you, Nathaniel. I have a lot on my mind at the moment. That’s all. Really.”
She’d just lied.
He could feel it.
When Avalon didn’t want to deal with something like learning Braille or talking about their wedding, she’d say ‘I have a lot on my mind’.
It basically meant stop talking about it before we have an argument.
Okay…
He got the hint.
“What else do you feel about this guy?” he asked, foc
using on work to keep himself sane.
“He’s a good person. I can feel it. He’s simply hiding it behind his anger. He’s afraid, hurt, and bitter.”
“How strong is he?”
She tipped her head and thought about it. “Not as strong as I am, but I’d say a good eight point five on the scale.”
That was really strong.
“Okay, that’s good to know. Is he safe?”
“Safe?” she asked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, is he safe for you to be around him. You’re my utmost concern. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“He’s very safe. He’s not going to risk himself, or me, for any reason. Honestly, I’m not sure he’s going to talk to us. When we get there, I’ll handle it.”
He laughed. “I think I’m supposed to do that part. It’s kind of my thing. You find them. I schmooze them.”
Avalon shrugged and tried to let the irritation go. She’d learned that fighting with Nate was an uphill battle. It was easier to let him try, and then fail. That’s when she’d step in and handle it.
“Okay.”
“We’re almost there.”
“Great.”
Nate wanted to weep. Something was off. Normally, she’d be leaning toward him, laughing, or telling him something she’d learned earlier in the day. Avalon was always fun to be around, but the least week, she was holding back.
“I love you, Avi. Whatever I did, I’m sorry.”
She felt horrible that he was suffering. As soon as she took that pregnancy test, she was going to have to sit him down and talk. If she was pregnant, they had some choices to make.
If she wasn’t, she had an apology to give him. The poor man was suffering. His Aura was a mess. She wanted to cry for him.
“I hope you always remember that, Avi.”
She would, but how was she supposed to have this conversation with him, right before they were going into this situation.
Now wasn’t the right time.
That she knew.
“We’re really close. I can hear him. He’s connected. I don’t always have this when I’m near another psychic. This makes my work so much easier.”
“What’s that mean?” he asked.
Oracle Seeing (The Phoenix Files Book 2) Page 4