Why oh why hadn’t Lee’s brother written down a middle name?
“Not your own murder. I’m interested in information about the killing of two girls, prostitutes, who were found cut up on the beach.”
“That’s not very nice,” the ghost in long johns piped up.
“What? That they were prostitutes or were cut up?”
“My mother cared about my murder,” the ghost in suspenders continued.
This is why I hate working with ghosts who are over a hundred. At fifty, most of them start going a little screwy.
I sighed. “Look, I’m sorry, but maybe you shouldn’t have been taking drinks from strangers?”
Suspenders ghost said, “That’s not fair. I hadn’t had a drink in months, and I had no money, and here’s this nice doctor…”
“Look, you’re right. What happened to you was horrible, but so was what happened to these girls.”
“I thought you just said they were prostitutes?” the long john–wearing ghost said. “Sounds like they got what they deserved.”
I squelched my temper. I still needed to know who killed them.
I pulled a black-and-white photo of one of the girls out of my backpack. “All right, let’s try it this way. Raise your hand if you remember seeing two women murdered around the time you died, on this very beach.” I held up the old black-and-white photo.
All three ghosts raised their hands.
“Do any of you actually remember anything?”
Tom Jones with the hat lifted it and scratched what was left of his hair, or at least what he remembered had been left of his hair. “We’re pretty sure we remember Tom Jones.”
The other two nodded.
“We’re just not sure which one of us might be him.”
I closed my eyes. “And the women?”
“We’re pretty sure we’ve heard of them murders….”
“Let me guess—you can’t remember which one of you saw them?” I shook my head. “Why did you answer my summoning?”
The ghost with the suspenders said, “We don’t get to talk to people too much. No one ever calls us and it gets awful boring.”
“All right, think, guys, or try to think. These woman would have been badly cut up—face, body, fingers.”
Only one ghost spoke up this time, the one wearing the cowboy hat. “There were two girls killed like that, but I only really saw the one killed. I found the other one. Stumbled over her while I was alive, I think. Neither one of them were the one in your picture, though.” His face scrunched up. “That Chinaman, the one with the sister, he asked me all sorts of questions, made me look at the body. I never saw anything like it.” He shook his head. “He kept asking if the cuts had all been there when I’d stumbled across her. Made me sick to my stomach to look, but he paid me well. I took my money to the bar afterwards….” His voice trailed off as he looked towards the pier, not the one he’d died under but the modern one that had replaced it. “That’s how I ended up here, I think.” He dropped his chin. “No good deed, eh?”
Yeah, I’ll say. “Look, do you remember seeing anything else strange that night? Under or around the docks? Something or someone?”
He shook his head. “That Chinaman asked me the same thing. It was dark and, whatever it was, it kept its head covered.”
“It?”
The ghost nodded. “It ran out into the water, and I never saw it come back up—some kind of devil or sea monster.”
No such thing as devils and sea monsters. More likely a ghoul. Salt water doesn’t ruin their skin the way it does with zombies. He could just grab a rock and sink, no need to breathe.
I noticed the water was now lapping around the soles of my boots. I’d been so focused on keeping my ghosts wrangled, I’d missed the tide coming in. The drizzle had let up, too, and sun now peeked out from behind the grey clouds, lighting up spots on the beach. People would be venturing onto the dock and the beach soon: time to get out of here.
I pulled out my remaining bottle of laudanum and offered it to the three of them. “Look, guys, it’s been fun,” I said.
“Keep it. Next time, bring us some whisky,” Suspenders said, grumpily. And with that, all three ghosts vanished.
I extracted my boots from the mud and turned to head back up the shore.
All the warning I had was chilled air brushing the back of my neck.
I glanced behind me to catch sight of a dark, solid object sailing towards me. It clocked me on the side of the head.
“Damn it—” I slipped on the seaweed and wet rocks, and hit the shallows face first, getting a good mouthful of salt water. I pushed myself back up until I was standing again. My god, did my ears ring.
A raspy laugh pierced the ringing in my ears. I glanced around the shale and shadows under the pier.
“You know, I heard you weren’t the brightest knife in the drawer, but I never thought you’d come down here all by your lonesome.”
It was a woman’s voice, and raspy. Another flash of ice ran down the back of my neck as the sun ebbed in and out of the clouds. The ghost of Anna Bell floated above me. Large blond ringlets curled around her face and shoulders, and she was barefoot, her small feet pointed like a jewellery-box dancer’s and dangling under the hem of a cinched blue dress. Resting on her shoulder like a parasol was a piece of broken, waterlogged two-by-four.
What could I use to defend myself against a poltergeist except Otherside? But it was fifty-fifty that I’d pass out if I tapped the barrier again. I’d have to run for it. I gauged the distance to the pier’s ladder.
Anna Bell’s eyes flashed red and a smile spread across her face.
The two-by-four came down on my head again.
CHAPTER 19
DROWNING
I coughed up cold salt water. My throat burned from it. I was bone chilled, soaking wet, and my ears rang like after a seance, when I’d been standing too close to Nate’s speaker.
Anna. The last thing I remembered was the poltergeist….
My eyes fell on the rope wrapped around my waist and chest. Thick rope, the kind you find washed up onshore, pinned me to one of the pier’s pillars. I was sitting with my back against the pillar in a shallow pool of water, my hands bound behind my back. If my pounding headache was an indication, Anna must have knocked me out and tied me up. The sun had disappeared and the rain had picked up again. The lights on the pier had been switched on, bathing the shallow water around me in yellow light. If I had to guess, I’d say I’d been out for an hour or so. She must have hit me hard with the two-by-four.
I shook my head, trying to clear it, but all I managed was to get wet hair in my face and up the level of pounding in my head. I was so numb, I heard more than felt the water lapping against me. The tide was coming in. Not good. It was a wonder I didn’t already have hypothermia.
I needed to get a hold of Nate.
I tried to curl my legs underneath me and push up. It was no use. The ropes tying me to the pier might be wet, but they held tight.
I tried getting my hands loose next, but my fingers were so cold I could only fumble. No way I could slide my set compact out of my back pocket.
A small wave struck me, shooting water into my face.
“Nate?” I yelled. No answer.
“Anyone?” Maybe someone on the docks might hear me.
A grating laugh drifted towards me, as if through a hollow tin can.
The poltergeist…
I scanned the water around me for my sheet of metal and china marker. I spotted them tied to my backpack, which was hung on a rusty nail. Just out of reach, but where I’d be sure to see them.
“Goddamnit, I hate poltergeists.”
The irritating laugh stopped. “I’d be more careful of what I said, Miss Kincaid, considering your position….” The mist and fog coalesced in front of me and Anna Bell appeared. She floated closer to me, until the cold emanating off her chilled me even more. Anna Bell’s features were clear and crisp. She must have spent a lot of time l
ooking at herself in the mirror.
As she stared at me, her eyes deepened from a bright blue to a pure glossy black.
Yup. Definitely knew the effect an appearance could have…
“I’d heard someone was looking into the murders,” she said. “Heard chatter about it from some girls I used to know. Had to investigate for myself.” She smiled, showing rows of sharpened teeth, like a shark’s. “But I have to say, the apprentice of the great Maximillian Odu does not impress.”
“Why don’t you give me my marker and sheet metal and we’ll see how much I impress you?”
She actually sighed. “I haven’t tied someone to the pier in years. Used to get ten dollars a body.” She came closer and ran a finger down the side of my face, leaving a trail of ice.
“No one pays ten dollars for bodies anymore, Anna.”
She gave me another slow smile. “Who said I ever cared about money?” The ropes tightened around me, and I gasped.
“So how’s Lee doing these days? Still got all those scars?”
I closed my eyes. Why the hell hadn’t I listened to Nate?
“Now Miss Strange, why don’t you tell me what you think you know about these murders.”
There is a method to dealing with a ghost you know is going to hit you regardless of what you say. “Go to hell.”
Anna Bell flashed me a smile that would have been vicious even without the teeth. “Why don’t you tell me about mine and we’ll go from there?”
I rolled my eyes. “So if I tell you everything you want to know, you’ll let me go? You seriously expect a practitioner to fall for that? I’m not an idiot, Anna Bell. You’re a poltergeist. You guys lie, cheat and steal. If I told you everything, you’d still torture and kill me for kicks. Where’s the incentive?” I gave her the most nonchalant shrug I could muster.
Her features rippled with shock and outrage.
I took the chance and slowly, carefully tapped the Otherside, hoping she wouldn’t notice. Since my ears were already ringing and my head ached, I barely noticed the nausea.
Anna was clearly used to the screaming-in-fear variety of victim. Unsettled, she rasped, “If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll definitely torture and kill you. If you do, I might let you go. Some chance is better than no chance.”
I just laughed. “I’m much better off not telling you. At least then I won’t look like an idiot before I drown.”
I’m not sure what pissed her off more, that I was calling her bluff or laughing at her, but she hissed, “Remember what I said about never selling a body with marks? It was more of a guideline.” Her hand shot out, morphing into a fog-like ribbon that wrapped around my neck, freezing the skin where it touched me. Great, another ghost who liked strangling people.
Every inch of me wanted to panic, but I forced myself to look into her black eyes. Another few minutes siphoning Otherside was all I needed….
I sucked in a breath. “You know what, Anna Bell?” I forced out. “I dare you to knock me out right now, before the tide comes in, so the only thing you’ll be able to do is sit there and watch—”
“Be quiet, I’m trying to think,” Anna screamed, losing her tentative grasp on her temper. She’d probably never dealt with a victim who talked back. Well, this could be a learning experience.
Her hand tightened and I almost lost my hold on the Otherside. “What kind of amateur poltergeist are you?” I challenged. My throat seized from the cold and I coughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve never dealt with a practitioner before.”
“I said shut up—”
Coughing relentlessly now from the ice in my throat, I managed to say, “Shut up? Seriously? Come on, I expect a little more—”
“Shut up!” she screeched. The two-by-four shot out of the water and into the air then slammed into my leg. Sharp pain shot up my thigh, and I screamed. There’d been a nail on the end of it and she’d driven it into my leg.
Anna Bell laughed, and her face relaxed as if she were taking the first sip of wine at the end of a long day. Her icy hands slipped from my throat and I gasped in air.
“Now that’s more like it,” she said.
I shut my eyes and tuned her out. Must not drop globe, Kincaid, must not drop globe. I held on through the pain.
Satiated for the moment, Anna floated down until her face was inches from mine, the cold rolling off her. I braced myself for another assault. But she didn’t attack. Either she couldn’t feel me pulling a globe with the barrier this thin or she was too busy drinking in my pain. There was a serene look on her face I didn’t like. When an entity as violent and psychopathic as a poltergeist is at peace, I’m far from it.
“You have no idea what you’re looking for, do you, Miss Kincaid?” she said in honeyed tones.
The water was at my chest now. If I didn’t pass out from the pain of the nail in my leg, I’d drown soon enough.
Anna’s nose twitched and she sniffed the air around us. Had she noticed what I was doing? I tried to distract her. “What is it to you if I am looking for a serial killer? Hell, it’s the one who took you out. I’d have figured you’d want a piece of him yourself.”
Anna let loose a high-pitched laugh. “Oh no, Miss Kincaid, the others were victims, not me. I helped pick them.” She floated so close I could see her eyes burning black. Her lip curled. “But not me. I was to be made a god.”
So Anna Bell had been a volunteer.
“You lured those girls, didn’t you? You were an accomplice.” I kept my voice as steady as I could. “No offence, Anna, but you got shafted on the deal. Did you know your boss was a ghoul from the start, or did you only figure that out after?” A wave splashed my face, and I sputtered. The water was up to my collarbones now.
“Be careful what you say, Miss Kincaid. My master is someone much greater than you or me.” Her smile spread. “He doesn’t take kindly to people taking an interest in his business. Ask Lee Ling. He thought the merchant’s wife did a lovely job of cutting up her pretty face and taking the eyes. Served the Chinaman right for poking his nose into the murders. Lucky for him, my friend didn’t want to work with men. Only me.”
“That’s not a friend, Anna Bell, that’s a pimp.” I spit out a mouthful of salt water as another wave hit my face. “You’re awfully slow on the uptake.”
Another laugh, but there was no missing the vicious tone. “You’re funny. Most of my victims weren’t very funny. They tend to sleep through it. Or scream. I preferred the screaming.”
“It’s a real fucking shame I don’t have a piece of chalk.” I was almost there. I just had to keep her talking for…
“Why Thursdays?” I said.
She stared at me, frowning.
“All the murders were on Thursday. Why?”
The light went on and Anna laughed. “Because Thursday was my night off from Madame Louise’s.”
I shut my eyes. Of all the stupid patterns for me to have fixated on…
Anna stroked a ghost fingernail across my cheek so cold it burned. “How about this, Miss Strange. You start screaming and I’ll tell you all about my friend. That way we both get what we want.”
A wave broke over my head. Whether I had enough Otherside or not, I had to try now.
“Fuck off, Anna,” I said, staring into the black pits that passed for her eyes, and I threw every last bit of Otherside I’d siphoned straight at her.
She froze mid-air. She knew something was amiss, but with the barrier so thin, she was unable to see the golden cage of Otherside coalescing around her. Recognizing her as one of its own, the Otherside dust began to twine itself into a free-form net, the endgame being a collapse back beyond the barrier, dragging Anna with it.
The water was at my neck now. I had to wait for the Otherside surrounding Anna to collapse and I’d be home free….
She reached out a tentative hand, snatching it back as a spark of Otherside flared at her touch. Anna screamed, her face contorted in rage. “You’ll wish you hadn’t done this,” she threate
ned, and raked her fingernails down the length of her cage. Small tears opened in their wake. Ignoring the sparks of Otherside eating at her flesh, she raised her hand to rip at her cage again. The entire time, her eyes were fixated on me, her target.
I didn’t think, I just tapped the Otherside and siphoned as much as I could, throwing it at the cage. The tears began to seal, but not fast enough as Anna raged and tore.
I strained to pull more Otherside through…and the cold realization hit me. If I planned on surviving, I needed even more Otherside. A lot more.
Going against every instinct, I dropped my globe and let pure, unfiltered Otherside flood my skull. For a moment I thought my heart had stopped, and fire coursed through my blood and brain. I probably screamed.
But I managed to throw all of it at Anna.
“No!” she screeched as the cage collapsed around her, dragging her back across the barrier in a flash of gold.
I felt like I was on fire. My throat was dry and my vision blurred. There was too much coming through, but then it stopped. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I was alive…and there was sea water up to the bottom of my chin.
I fumbled at the ropes again. I don’t know if it was luck or the adrenalin, but this time I found the edge of the first knot, though I had trouble feeling its strands.
My fingers slipped. I swore and tried to find the knot again. Come on, Kincaid, you beat a poltergeist and now you’re going to drown in water shallow enough to stand in?
“Nate?” I screamed on the off chance he was listening. When there was no answer, I screamed again, hoping someone on the pier above might hear me. I took a gulp of air and submerged my face, trying to get a better grip on the rope. No use. All I could hear was my heart beating, begging me to get out.
More sea water made its way into my mouth.
Cold Otherside brushed my face.
“Nate, am I ever glad to see you,” I said as a ghostly grey form coalesced beside me.
It wasn’t Nate. It was Gideon, sitting cross-legged above the water. He smiled at me. “It strikes me that you’re in a bit of a fix.”
The Voodoo Killings Page 25