Stolen Dreams

by Stacey Kennedy

  He chuckled deeply before he answered. Apparently, he was aware I just dodged his attempt to flatter me. “Joined the force a few years back and it’s been my life ever since.”

  “Not married then?” It came as a surprise to hear his job was his life. I hadn’t taken him for a workaholic. Too personable.

  He glanced sideways at me, his sleek eyebrow arched up again. “You up for a proposal?”

  “No,” I snapped instantly. “I was just curious. Wanted to get to know you better, that’s all.” Maybe I was being more obvious than I thought. Did my smidgen of interest in Kipp show? God, I hoped not. I’d have to remember to not ask personal questions. Kept me safe from exposure that for some reason my mind drifted to an odd intrigue about him.

  “No, I’m not married.” His grin remained, telling me I was being entirely obvious. He waited until we turned left to walk down Main Street then continued, “Not even a girlfriend. Too busy working to have time for relationships.” His eyes twinkled. “Well, ones that last longer than a night.”

  Typical man answer. “Sounds like you had fun.”

  He nodded, solemnly. “Yes, I have had that.”

  Immediately, I realized I’d made a terrible mistake. I shouldn’t have been talking about him like this. An urge to smack myself silly hit me. Here was this dead guy, grieving everything he’d lost and here I was making him relive it. If able to, I would have buried myself underground and stayed there. “I’m sorry. This must be really hard for you to talk about your life.”

  His eyes filled with a sadness which seemed far more profound than what I would have expected. I’d hit a sore spot indeed. He shook his head, confusing me. “It’s not what you think.”

  It’s not what you think? What did that mean? He isn’t sad his life is over? It was there, no denying it, something made him regretful. “What...”

  “Ma’am you all right?” A stern voice interrupted.

  I glanced away from Kipp to see a uniformed cop staring at me. “Ahh...” I peered over his shoulder to see we had arrived at the police station. I’d been so lost in the conversation and my own thoughts it just hadn’t clued in. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m...ahhh...just going into there.” I pointed at the red brick police station.

  The cop inclined his head. Seemed he agreed that was a good choice for me considering he saw me talking to air. “Go on in. You will find the help you need with the officers there. You can trust them.” He held the front door open for me and nodded me in.

  I fought against the urge to roll my eyes. Instead, I smiled. “Thank you.” I stepped by him and entered the station.

  He tipped his hat, returned the smile. “Good day to you, Ma’am.”

  The door closed behind me with a whoosh of air. The station was busy. A simple design, main counter in the front, hall down to the left, and behind the counter was cubicles of busy police officers.

  At the main counter, a young woman fresh out of college—bright-eyed with an eagerness to work—sat with a phone stuck to her ear directing calls. Give her five years and this pretty brunette would be letting the phone ring ten times before answering it. The excitement about being a big girl wore off real quick once you hit the real world.

  Only a few feet away from the desk, I said, under my breath. “You owe me so big for this.” Of course, he couldn’t repay me, but it just needed to be said.

  Kipp chuckled.

  “What can I do for you?” the receptionist asked as she hung up the phone and met my gaze.

  “Tell Betty you need to speak with Zach.”

  The door next to desk opened with a loud bang, startling me. Two cops came in with a drunk, elderly gentleman slurring and spitting while he fought against the cuffs around his wrists. I squished myself against the desk to get as far away from him as I could. He reeked of day old booze and piss. Lord, I didn’t belong here. I glanced back to the receptionist who wore an impatient expression. She might be used to this but I wasn’t. “Is Detective Zach in?”

  “Detective Zach?”

  I shrugged, shifted my weight on my foot to hide the move. Without a last name, it was the best I could come up with. If Kipp wanted better, he could go float away to find someone else to do this. Which would have been perfectly fine with me.

  “Zach Foster?” Betty asked, reaching for the phone.

  “That’s him.”

  I nodded. “Yup, Zach Foster. Is he in?”

  Betty’s fingers waited on the buttons to obviously make the call. “Who can I tell him is here and the reason for your visit?”

  “Tess Jennings.” I stole a quick glance at Kipp. He nodded encouragingly. With a deep sigh, I looked back at Betty. “I’m here to talk about Kipp McGowan.”

  Betty’s eyes went wide, her fingers typed quickly as she entered in the extension. “One moment please.” After only a few moments, she said, “A visitor to see you, Sir. She has information regarding Kipp.” Another pause. “Mm hmm.” Then another. “Yes Sir, I will send her along.” She hung up the phone. “Zach will be with you shortly, but Eddie will meet you in interview room one.”

  Great! More cops, just what I wanted.

  “Just go straight down the hall, first door on the left,” she directed.

  “Thanks.”

  Kipp led the way to the interview room, but he didn’t need to. The cop waiting outside the door told me I was in the right spot. His cute face was full of suspicion. His deep brown eyes studied me as he ran a hand through his rich mocha styled hair.

  “Tess Jennings?” the Jersey-Boy cop asked.

  “That’s me.”

  He opened the door and waved me in. “I’m Detective Eddie Miller.”

  I stepped into the A-typical police interrogation room—two way mirror and all. My only hope was he’d forget my face after this day, which I doubted. He was a cop after all, trained never to forget a face.

  Eddie followed me in, closed the door behind him, then met my gaze with no amount of playfulness on his face. “What information do you have on the incident with Kipp?”

  “Well...” And that was the beginning of a one-sided conversation as Eddie sat and watched me with an unreadable expression.

  Ten minutes later, I finished the replay on the past events. “...and that brings us to now.”

  Eddie sat quiet, nothing showed on his face. Finally, he broke his silence. “Let me get this straight. Our comrade, Kipp McGowen is a ghost—here with you now—and wants to talk with his partner, Zach, about a cold case they were working on?”

  “You got it.” He burst out laughing then stood. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  The moment the door closed, I aimed a glare at Kipp. “I told you no one is going to believe this.” Not that I hadn’t expected this, but it was far worse than even my imagination could have concocted.

  Kipp smiled, which appeared to be in a reassuring way. It didn’t work. “Just give him time. He’s never come across this and probably thinks you’re a nut.” When my glare deepened, he cleared his throat and added, “We’ll show them you aren’t.”

  The door suddenly opened, and to my utter horror, another cop joined the one I had the not-so-great-pleasure of just meeting. “Oh, wonderful.”

  Kipp laughed deeply. “Just be patient―we’ll show them.”

  Yeah right, as if I hadn’t already been patient enough. My breath came out in a heavy huff as they took their seats at the table around me.

  “My name is Max, Ms. Jennings,” the man introduced himself.

  Apparently, he was the one who dealt with the crazies, and I could see why, his kind face was trusting. “Eddie tells us Kipp is here with you.” I nodded heavily, forced myself to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, and held back my snappy retort. He hadn’t directly asked me the question and was due the right to ask anything. “Yes, that is what I said to him.”

  Eddie laughed loudly.

  Max hid his smile—not so well. “And you have also stated that Kipp has the answers to solve the disappearan
ce of Hannah Reid.”

  These men and their stupid questioning were going to be the death of me. My patience was hanging on by a very thin thread. “No.”

  Max’s eyebrows rose, confusion hard on his face. “No, that is not what you said to him?”

  “Yes...I mean, no.” I threw up my hands exasperated. “What I’m trying to tell you is he doesn’t have information on her disappearance, but her murder.”

  Max’s eyebrows rose higher, nearly reaching his hairline. “You do realize her body has not been discovered?”

  “The papers said as much,” I responded with shrug. “Kipp hasn’t told me so much.”

  Max pondered that for a moment, his gaze intent on mine. “So, what has Kipp told you then?”

  “Tread lightly here,” Kipp cut in. “We don’t know who to trust.”

  Well wasn’t that a whole bucket of reassurance. “What he has told me is he thinks whoever shot him is also the one responsible for killing Hannah.”

  Max frowned, leaning back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Have you ever been institutionalized, Ms. Jennings?”

  The blood in my body boiled as my teeth gritted. And here they were, the inevitable questions. “No. I. Have. Not.”

  Max didn’t look put off by my anger directed at him. “Do you have a history of mental illness in your family?”

  My arms crossed over my chest in preparation for just where this was going. “No.”

  “So...” Max glanced around the room. “Kipp is here, right now in this room telling you these things.”

  I had just about enough of being made a fool of. If he could make me feel stupid, I would simply have to return the lack of curiosity. “No.”

  Max responded with an equivocal look. “No?”

  “He is not...” I waved my hand around the room. “Everywhere you looked.” I pointed to the chair next to me. “He is sitting right there.”

  Loud laughter washed through the bland white room. It was just the thing to make my annoyance shoot through the roof. It’s one thing to hear them chuckle, see their smirks on their faces, but to be right out laughed at? Oh no, my limit had been reached.

  “Listen here.” The men went dead quiet, surprised gazes met mine. “Do you think I came here because I felt like being made fun of? Well, I didn’t.” I pointed to Kipp, who sat beside me. “These ghosts will not leave me alone. Do you think I have any interest in looking like a complete crazy person? The only reason I am here is because Kipp wants to pass on a message. So, either get on with it and ask me some goddamn important questions or I’m leaving.”

  No one said a word at my rant, but the silence broke when the door flew open, and Kipp stood up. “Zach.”

  “Thank god.” I threw my hands up in relief. “Zach has finally arrived.” It was about time. Now, this horrible-no-good night could end and I’d put this memory into the past, never to be revisited.

  Again, no one said a word. Stunned expressions were all around me.

  “Do you know her?” Max asked Zach.

  Zach examined me a moment, cocked his head and searched for recognition. He finally looked back at Max. “I haven’t a clue who she is.”

  Max turned back to me. “How do you know his name?”

  It was like talking to a bunch of idiots. Honestly, my patience with these people was beginning to dwindle. “Because Kipp just said his name.”

  “Leave her with me,” Zach ordered. The men followed the demand immediately, all exiting the room quickly.

  After he closed the door behind them, Zach focused on me. I could only gulp as he made his way toward me. If bodybuilders were my thing, he’d be something to look at. Everything about him was tough, his dark eyes showed a resolve that was not to be played with, and the tight line of his lips declared he was not the type of guy you pissed off and lived to tell about it.

  He grabbed a chair across from me, spun it around and straddled it. “Now, tell me what you told them.”

  I shrieked in frustration and dropped my face into my palms. “If I have to say this one more time, I’m seriously going to blow a gasket.” Kipp laughed loudly and I raised my head to glare at him. “It’s not funny.”

  “Yes it is.” Kipp continued to chuckle.

  “I didn’t laugh,” Zach commented.

  My gaze went back to his and I nodded to show him I knew that. The continued insinuations I was slow, was irritation at its best. “I know you didn’t laugh.” I pointed to Kipp again. “He did.”

  Zach followed my finger, then looked around the room a couple times before glancing back to me. “And the he you are talking about is Kipp?”

  I nodded slowly, indicating how stupid of a question it was.

  Zach sat straighter in his chair and laced his hands behind his head, his expression disbelieving. “Your story is that Kipp, who is a ghost, has come to you and said he knows how to solve the Reid cold case.”

  “Yes. Now was that so hard?” Good grief, it was like talking to someone in a foreign language.

  Zach fell silent as he examined me. His look gave no sign of what he was thinking.

  When the quiet grew stifling, I needed to break from it. “Do you believe me or not, because if you don’t, I’d like to go home.” I was done with this before I’d even walked in the door. The faster I was out of here, the sooner I could either laugh or cry. I wasn’t quite sure which one I was leaning toward at the moment.

  “You won’t be going home,” Zach responded, instantly.

  There went that comforting idea.

  “As to the matter of whether I believe you?” he continued. “That remains to be seen and the only way to discover if you are being truthful is to ask you a few questions.”

  Finally, someone here had a bit of sense. Instead of just making a joke about this, he was intrigued enough to dig further. A sense of relief washed through me. “Well, get on with it, I’d very much like this show to end.”

  Zach lowered his hands from his head and placed them on the table, his gaze intent. “So, Kipp is here with you now?”

  I smacked my forehead and let out another squeal of annoyance. “Oh my fucking God.”

  “Okay.” Zach raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, I’m sorry. All right, if he is here, ask him what we did last Sunday.”

  “Watched the football game,” Kipp responded.

  “First of all, I don’t have to ask him. He can hear you and he said you watched football together.”

  Zach eyebrows furrowed but he shook it away and relaxed his features. “Too easy. Sunday night football, everyone watches that.”

  “Well then ask something more personal.” My voice was curt and tight. This wasn’t rocket science.

  Zach looked at his hands on the table, thought for a moment, then raised his gaze to mine. “What do I take in my coffee?”

  “Two sugars,” Kipp answered quickly.

  “Two sugars.”

  The answer seemed to surprise Zach, but as quickly as the reaction came, it was gone and he was deep in thought. A moment later, he asked, “What was my last girlfriend’s name?”

  “He doesn’t have girlfriends.”

  “You’re gay,” I replied.

  Zach’s eyes went wide. “Pardon me?”

  Kipp burst out laughing.

  I shrugged. It was the logical assumption. “Well, he said you don’t have girlfriends so I thought it meant you were gay.”

  Kipp continued to laugh, but eventually settled down. “He plays not stays.”

  “Oh,” I said in understanding. “You’re the player type are you?”

  Suddenly, I had a real sense that Caley and this cop would get along quite well. Just as my best bud knew my type, I knew hers all too well. She’d be smitten over Mr. Muscles and the two could play each other to death.

  Zach’s eyebrows furrowed deeper. I could see his disbelief had begun to crack. “Who was the last woman Kipp took to bed?”

  The question made my stomach tighten. Hearing of Kipp�
��s lovers sent an unhappy ping down my spine. Ignoring that bit of silliness, I glanced at Kipp for an answer.

  He stared at me curiously, which made me wonder what he was looking for. I nodded and waved my hand for him to get on with it. He finally blinked then said, “Candi.”

  It only took a second before my laughter erupted. “Candi! You cannot be serious. You slept with a woman named Candi? What was she, a stripper?”

  “There is nothing wrong with the name, Candi,” Kipp dignified, shifting in his chair as if he was uncomfortable. “She was a nice lovely lady.”

  “I bet she was a nice lady...to you.” I laughed harder. “Candi, that’s priceless.”

  Slowly, I began to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes and looked over at Zach. He sat frozen solid, his eyes wide in bewilderment. My mouth immediately clamped shut, no trace of a smile on my face.

  Zach leaned in forward. His gaze now focused and steady. “On the last cold case we solved together what was found with the body?”

  “No one else knows this other than the cops who worked the case.” Kipp’s voice lifted with excitement. “Tell him, it was an old antique doll.”

  Mirroring Zach’s movement, I leaned in and met his gaze dead on. “A doll.” One second I was sitting, the next, I was being dragged by the arm from the room.

  Kipp laughed hysterically behind me. “I told you, we’d get them to believe.”

  Within seconds, I was out the front door of the station, thrown into the passenger seat of a car. “Hey! What the hell?” I struggled to sit a little more comfortably as Kipp suddenly appeared in the backseat.

  Zach glanced at me, his look stern and fierce. “Tell me everything and do it now.”

  ***

  Chapter Five

  The drive through Memphis went by quick since Zach tore the hell out of the street travelling at warp-speed with his car. Now, standing outside the modest bungalow, I glanced around a couple times, surprised to see that Zach lived in such a suburban neighbourhood. Especially, considering his garden looked well-tended.