She glanced back at her parents’ bodies. “You probably see this all the time,” Kate commented, swinging her purse strap over her shoulder.
“Like I said, death is part of the job, but it’s not something you ever get used to.” He still hadn’t gotten used to his own father’s death, twenty years later. Being so close to death just brought all the memories rushing back. “I was just ten when my father was killed, shot. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it,” Jack admitted, shaking his head.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” said Kate, squeezing his hand.
Jack rubbed her hand with his thumb. Kate was amazing. To have endured what she did, yet still have the capacity to comfort him. “I understand the pain you’re feeling. I wish there was something more I could do for you.” He hated to see Kate hurting. It was a pain that never healed. He couldn’t leave her to face the void alone. He would see her through this dark time.
“You’re here. That’s enough.” Kate clung to Jack’s hand.
“Let’s wait somewhere more comfortable so you can rest a while,” Jack suggested. Kate took one last look at her parents, found Jack’s hand, and followed him out.
Doctor Malek was waiting outside.
“There’s an FBI agent here who wants to ask Katherine a few questions,” said the doctor. “I asked him to wait in that room,” he said, indicating a door across the hall. “Katherine, when you’re ready to talk, I can answer any of your questions.”
Katherine clasped the doctor’s hand. “Thank you, Doctor, I really appreciate all you’ve done.”
“Your parents have done so much for this hospital over the years. I wish I could have done more.” Doctor Malek ushered Jack and Katherine into the room across the hall and said his goodbyes.
A tall man in a dark, tailored suit came toward them. “Are you Katherine Crystal?”
Katherine nodded, then turned toward Jack. “And this is my friend, Jack Hale, from the Atlanta Police Department.”
The agent shook Jack’s hand. “I’m Agent Terrance Spaulding, with the FBI.” He turned to Kate. “I’m here to investigate your parents’ case. I’m sorry for your loss, Miss Crystal.” He motioned to a couch behind him. “I’d like to ask you a few questions, if I may.”
Jack sat Katherine on the couch and whispered in her ear. “Are you up for this now?”
“I want to do this,” she answered. “I need to find out what happened to my parents.”
Jack nodded, kissed her on the forehead and sat down next to her.
“Thank you,” said Agent Spaulding, taking out a pen and a small notebook. “Miss Crystal, do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt your parents?”
“Hurt them?” Katherine folded her hands together and looked up at Jack.
Jack placed his hand over Kate’s folded ones. “What Agent Spaulding wants to know is if any of the cases your father handled might have resulted in any dissatisfied clients or if, as a judge, a verdict he issued might have angered one of the parties.”
Katherine blew out a breath and concentrated. “I don’t know any specifics about my father’s cases.”
“Miss Crystal, it’s very common for a judge, especially a federal judge, to have enemies,” explained Agent Spaulding. “We have to look into all the angles, all possibilities.”
“Everyone loved my parents,” Katherine countered. “They were the most wonderful people in the world. I don’t know anyone who would want to hurt them.”
“Of course, we’ll be checking recent court records, interviewing your parents’ colleagues, ruling out suspects, and we’ve already had investigators at the scene of the crime, checking out the car for sabotage.”
“Suspects? Crime? Sabotage?” Katherine asked, frowning, turning to Jack. “Wasn’t this an accident?”
“No, Miss Crystal,” announced Agent Spaulding. “Your parents were murdered. And until we find out who is responsible and why, your life might be in danger too.”
Chapter Eleven
The day was much too beautiful for a funeral. The Atlanta air was crisp and clear. The trees were just beginning to lose their leaves as she was being forced to shed her parents. Her parents loved fall, so maybe it was fitting that they were being lowered into the ground in their favorite season. Watching their caskets disappear into the earth was the hardest to bear. Katherine choked and almost lost her composure.
The minister was speaking, and Katherine nodded appropriately, but she barely heard a word. She had remained numb throughout the service. Hundreds of people had viewed her parents’ bodies during the visitation the previous evening and dropped by the house to pay their respects. Many more had shown up for the funeral. It seemed like the whole town had turned out, including the Mayor of Atlanta, many dignitaries, judges, colleagues from her mother’s firm, and lifelong friends. That was comforting, but it didn’t change the fact that she was all alone now.
She’d had some friends from the gallery, but now that she didn’t work there, they’d lost touch. There were no relatives left on either side of the family. She was the last remaining Crystal.
Katherine grappled with the shovel and sent a spray of dirt into each of the cavernous holes in the ground. The cemetery workers would finish up.
Jack had been correct in assuming her parents had expressed their wishes in advance of their deaths. Her parents’ attorney had handled every detail according to the Crystals’ very specific directives, which was a good thing, because there were a lot of decisions to make. Determining the burial place, picking out the caskets—down to the type of wood and the lining—deciding what type of service to conduct, prayers and hymns, readings and remembrances. Her parents had chosen a Celebration of Life service. Their friends had handled the catering arrangements so she could receive guests at the house after the funeral.
Judge Tyler and Jessica Crystal had even written their own eulogies. Her only consolation was that they had died together and would go on to the next chapter of their lives as one. Of that she was certain. A love that strong didn’t die when the body shut down. Her parents weren’t going to remain buried in a box in the cold ground. They weren’t even here now. Perhaps they were hovering temporarily, watching the graveside service, watching her now, but their spirits had been filled with so much life she was sure they would soon move on to the next challenge, spreading their light throughout the universe, trying to right wrongs somewhere in the great beyond. That brought a slight smile to Katherine’s lips. But they could never have imagined that she’d have to bury both her parents at the same time.
At the conclusion of the service, Katherine wandered away from the crowd and sat on a cold stone bench dedicated to someone in another family. She felt a swell of sympathy and a crowd of concerned eyes tracking and registering her every movement, searing her from a respectful distance.
Katherine crossed her arms and looked up at the wispy clouds in wonder. She was aware of a host of spirits all about this place of death—newly unleashed spirits, fleeting, floating, some visible, some evil, some benign, some barely there, but she was connected to them and they to her. They whispered to her, enveloped her. She drew a deep breath, sighed, and let them in, finally.
When she was feeling better, she would try to contact her parents on the other side. She was sure she could. A groundswell of untapped powers waited within her, ready to emerge. Tendencies she’d tamped down while her parents had been alive now cascaded out of her like a waterfall. She wasn’t exactly sure what they were or how to control them, but something was definitely different, and she was open to learning more.
She had shaken countless hands, hugged and kissed a lot of her parents’ friends, and she was worn out. Even Justin Bamberger, the son of her parents’ best friends, made an obligatory appearance and, before he left, he followed her over to the bench to offer his condolences. She and Justin had grown up together. Both sets of parents had expected them to get married, and they had been engaged briefly, but Katherine had broken it off, dashing everyone’s hope
s, especially Justin’s.
Justin kissed her, a less than discreet, more than passing kiss. She could tell he was trying to make her feel something, but she felt nothing but emptiness.
“Little Cat in the Hat.” Justin always opened with the same line whenever he saw her. He’d started calling her that at his Bar Mitzvah, when she and her mother had worn matching hats to the synagogue to watch him become a man.
“When are you going to stop calling me that?” Katherine said, pursing her lips.
Justin just laughed, patted her head where a hat should have been, and took hold of her hand. He looked down at her, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously. “Probably never.”
She was aware of his towering height, his dark, tousled hair, his perfectly chiseled face, and the muscular, athletic body she knew rippled beneath his stylishly tailored but appropriate suit.
“You look good,” Katherine admitted. “How have you been?” Inclining her head, Katherine made room for him beside her on the bench, for old time’s sake. He would always hold his place as her mother’s favorite suitor, after all.
“Been reading about my favorite psychic,” he answered, crowding her just a bit too close. “You’re all over the news. I can’t turn on the TV without reading about Crystal Ball Kate. Do you think that’s advisable?”
“I can’t control what people write or say, and I don’t really want to talk about that,” Katherine objected. “Especially not today.”
“Cat, I’m really sorry. Is there anything I can do for you?” Justin flashed his puppy-dog eyes, then broke out into a boyish grin. He was always trying to insinuate himself back into her life, when she’d made it perfectly clear it was over between them. He couldn’t accept her the way she was, visions and all, was freaked out by them, in fact. His solution was for her to ignore them. He thought her visions were something she could suppress or cover up at will. Something she would outgrow. He wanted to mold her into her mother. She didn’t fit the mold, would never have made him the proper corporate wife, and she knew it, even if he didn’t.
He still had hold of her hand, and she tried to extricate herself, but he wasn’t having any of it.
“Justin,” she admonished, yanking her hand away.
“Still don’t like to be touched in public, I see,” he shot back in a huff.
“Not by you, and not at my parents’ funeral,” she answered dryly. She wished he would just disappear. Wished, at that moment, she had the power to make him vanish.
Justin folded his arms across his chest. “Someone’s gotten cranky since we broke up.”
“Yes, I’m cranky. I haven’t really slept since I arrived home from Sydney. And I’m not in the mood for your inappropriate sense of humor or your drama.” She turned away from him and stood up. “Thank you for coming. I appreciate it, really, but I need to go back to the house.” Home would be a strange and lonely place without Mom and Dad.
Leaving him on the bench, she walked over and took a final look at the gravesite. Then she turned to step into the limousine the funeral home had provided.
She felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Kate.”
She turned around. Of course she’d known Jack would come. He had barely left her side since that night at the hospital. There had been some photographers waiting when he’d dropped her off at her house after the visit to the hospital. Jack had flashed his badge, firmly grabbed their cameras, and chased them away. They wanted to know what was next for Crystal Ball Kate. How could she tell them if she didn’t know herself?
“Who’s the asshole?” Jack asked, glaring at Justin, who got up from the bench, smoothed the crease on his suit jacket, and walked toward the paved road to his car.
“Just an old friend,” Katherine sighed. She couldn’t wait for this day to be over.
“An old friend who can’t seem to keep his hands off you? Or his mouth?”
“Okay, we were engaged once.” Katherine looked up to gauge Jack’s reaction.
Jack frowned and looked to be on the verge of sulking. Men were so predictable.
“Please don’t tell me you’re going to go all jealous on me at my parents’ funeral.”
Jack’s expression turned contrite, but he increased the pressure on her shoulder. “I came to offer you a ride home.”
“No, but thank you,” she said, gently lifting his hand from her shoulder. His sympathy was cloying. Everyone’s was. “The limousine from the funeral home will take me home. I need to go back and at least show my face at the house, and then I’m going to crawl into bed and never get out. You’ve done a lot already. You’ve done enough.” She hoped that didn’t sound like a brush-off. She hadn’t intended it to be. But she just wanted to be alone.
“If that’s what you want, then, okay.” Jack shrugged.
“It’s what I need right now,” Katherine assured him.
The light had gone out in Jack’s eyes, but she was too exhausted to worry about hurting his feelings. She needed to rest her tired body and her restless mind. The night headaches were back in full force. Her doctor had called in a prescription for sleeping pills, and she was going to take them to shut off the incessant voices in her head. She imagined herself as the princess in the Sleeping Beauty story, drifting off to an enchanted sleep. Maybe after she was rested she could face the handsome prince. Right now, she couldn’t deal with Jack’s pity and concern, or his possessiveness. And she couldn’t depend on him forever. She had to learn to stand on her own two feet. She was, after all, alone.
She knew she was pushing him away, but she wasn’t sure what to make of their on-again-off-again relationship, if it could even be labeled a relationship. Since they’d met, they’d only been together during a crisis. She didn’t even know what a normal life was anymore.
She’d call Jack in the next few days to see if he’d learned anything new from the police about her parents’ murder. Agent Spaulding from the FBI had given her his card and promised to follow up, but Jack spoke his language. He would help her sort through all the jargon and get to the bottom of the crime. She couldn’t imagine who would want to kill her parents. But whoever was responsible for their deaths was going to pay.
In the hospital, Agent Spaulding had warned her that her life might be in danger, but her safety was not really a concern to her. Jack, on the other hand, had hardly let her out of his sight. He was the overprotective type and she knew he was only being cautious, but she wasn’t his responsibility. He’d probably stick with her 24/7 if he had his way. So she had to be the one to make the break. It was better for both of them.
Chapter Twelve
Katherine wasn’t ready to let them go. She knew she should go through her parents’ things. Donate their clothes to a deserving charity. But she wasn’t up to it. She didn’t know how much more of this she could take. There had been the reading of the will, which now left her independently wealthy, but she’d rather be dirt poor than have to live without her parents. Rambling around in this empty mansion, which now seemed stone cold and lifeless without her parents in it, she was lost, bereft.
She’d left the safe till last. That’s where she hoped to find more intimate traces of her parents. Keepsakes, papers, pictures. Maybe a letter—for her?
Katherine hoisted herself out of the comfortable, apple-green wingback chair and walked over to the safe. She knew the combination but had never used it. Never had to.
She swung open the safe, brought out the contents, and placed them on the coffee table. Her mother’s favorite necklace, a wedding present from her father—priceless not only in terms of dollars but in sentimental value. Katherine handled the stones, the last tangible vestige of her mother. Some bonds, stock certificates, property deeds, gold coins, pretty much the kinds of things you expected to find in a safe.
Rummaging through the papers, which she would have to discuss with her parents’ lawyer, now her lawyer, she came across a yellowed document.
What was this? Looked like some kind of contract or, no, it
was an adoption certificate. Adoption certificate? That made no sense at all. She picked it up and examined it more closely.
Then it dawned on her. It was probably some kind of private adoption her father had handled for one of his clients when he had his own practice. Did she need to return this to its rightful owner? Well, her attorney would know what to do with it. She started to toss it aside when she noticed the date of the adoption. May 19, 1983. Her birthdate. That was too much of a coincidence, and she didn’t believe in them. She read further.
Birthplace: Casa Spirito, Florida.
Birth mother: Juliette Spencer.
Birth father: Rev. Carter Coulter.
Who were these people and why was this document in her parents’ safe? And why was the baby on the contract born on her birthday?
Katherine rubbed her eyes. She’d been born right here in Atlanta at the hospital on Peachtree Street, the same place her parents had died. Baby Girl Coulter had been born in Florida, a home birth, in a town she’d never heard of. No connection, except for the date and the fact that Baby Girl Coulter’s papers were in her parents’ safe, almost thirty years later.
Katherine picked up the phone to dial her attorney. This was really none of her business. It was a private matter between Juliette Spencer and Reverend Carter Coulter, but there was her father’s signature on the document. Her father’s lawyer would know the answers, or at least where to go to look for them.
She quickly hung up the phone. What if this was one of those illegal adoptions? You read about those all the time, the ones done under the table, for outrageous amounts of money, where couples who couldn’t conceive bought a baby on the open market. What if this was such a case? She didn’t want to involve the attorney at the risk of sullying her father’s reputation. You never knew who you could trust these days.
Without realizing it, she had subconsciously dialed Jack’s number. It had been on the card he pressed into her hands at the cemetery. She’d had his number on speed dial, but she hadn’t bothered to call him since that day. She wasn’t ready to face Jack again or think about what was happening between them. And he hadn’t called her. She could hardly blame him. Since the funeral, she had pretty much shut him out of her life.
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