The Trouble with Ghosts (Here Witchy Witchy Book 3)

by A. L. Kessler

  His name hit with such a hard punch my ears rang and my breath disappeared. I didn’t hear the other names; all I could think was that Nick lost his life because someone decided to blow up our building. We may have not always seen eye to eye and we were both ready to go back to working on our own, but I didn’t wish death upon him.

  “Abby, breathe.” Agent Grace whispered in my ear.

  I took a shaky breath and focused on Boss Man.

  “We have our team working on the case, meanwhile, you are to all return to your cases. Do not speak to the media about this, let them draw their own conclusions for now. We do not want a mass…witch hunt.”

  No, we didn’t. Muttering went around the room at his words. I wanted to be on that team, but there was no way Boss Man would give me another assignment.

  “We are working on recovering, and until we get the building back up and running, agents will be moved to this location. We will have equipment and systems up and moving as soon as we can. For now, the local FBI and police departments are working with us to allow us access to their labs and staff for current cases.”

  I leaned back in my chair, trying to shove off the numb feeling. I wanted to be on the case, but I still had three on my plate with no end in sight for any of them. No, that wasn’t true. I had two suspects in custody to interview today. Nick’s death…I needed to grieve for my partner, but all I felt currently was anger. Anger that he died in a needless attack on the building, anger that it was my partner that died and not someone else’s, anger that I survived simply because I had to pick up paperwork.

  Boss man concluded his briefing, informing us that we’d be kept up-to-date on the case and then dismissed us. I gave everyone a moment to clear out before standing. Agent Grace had chased after another agent for something, leaving me alone with Boss Man in the room.

  “Collins.” He called, waving me over to him.

  I forced my feet to take me over to him. “Yes, sir?”

  “I want you to continue to work with Agent Grace on the cases you and Nick were working on. After, I want you to make sure you set up sessions with the company counselor on grief and loss.”

  I tried not to glare at him. “I can handle some grief, sir.”

  “You lost your partner today, that’s not something your mind digests easily. You will take my advice or you will be suspended until you do. I watch out for my people. I’m not going to watch you drown in grief.” Something passed in his beady little eyes that I didn’t understand. Maybe, just maybe, Boss Man actually had experience in grief and losing a partner.

  “Understood.” I nodded. “Now if you’d excuse me, Agent Grace and I have some old files to go through.”

  “Of course.” He took a step back to let me pass to the door.

  I walked out and found Grace standing in the hallway with a bank box. “Let’s find an empty room and get to work.”

  It’s like she understood that I needed a distraction from everything right now. “Let’s do it.”

  We found an empty conference room with a big round table and started spreading the papers and evidence bags out. She wasn’t kidding, there wasn’t a whole lot to go on. I picked up the ransom note in its baggy. “If the thumbs hadn’t been in the PIB building, we could get a hand writing comparison from them.”

  “Do you think that would have worked? I mean, human flesh and paper are two different surfaces.” She leaned over and slid some pictures my way. “This was the location that was closest to the mailbox the letter was sent from.”

  “It might have worked, I’m not the expert in that area.” I muttered and looked at the pictures. “It’s an abandoned strip mall.”

  “They’ve since redone and rented out most of the stalls. I drive by it every day since moving back here.” She sat back down. “Any idea when they redid it?”

  I looked at the pictures and tried to even place where in town it was. “Is this the one across from the huge grocery store?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They put the grocery store in about five years ago and slowly started to bring the strip mall back to life. They thought it’d be a good place to start rebuilding that side of town. Bring life back to it, all that.”

  “So five years too late. No one there had security cameras set up since there were hardly any businesses there.”

  I tapped the photo. “That’s only a few blocks away from Calico’s new research facilities.”

  “You don’t think they had something to do with it, do you? How would they relate?”

  I took a moment to see if there was any possible way they could be connected. “Without knowing what else was done to those skeletons, I don’t have a connection.”

  “Then let’s not go chasing dead ends.” She looked at me. “I know you want to peg Jerry with everything you can, but we’re not in the business of making false accusations.”

  Part of me wanted to reach over and smack her, but I had to remember she was more experienced than I was. Nick was at least on the same level as me, so if we made mistakes we tended to make them together. I nodded and sat down. “Then we really don’t have much more on this case.”

  My phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket. “Agent Collins speaking.”

  “So there’s something weird going on at the house.” Mason’s voice barely rose above the strange noise behind him. “Any chance you can get Nick out here?”

  “I can’t…Nick’s…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. “Merick can help you if it’s a ghost problem.”

  “Okay, I’ll call him. I’ll be joining you for questioning this afternoon. Did you get a debriefing on the attack yet?”

  “Yeah, we just finished it. I’ll talk to you about it tonight.” I disconnected the phone.

  Grace opened her mouth to say something but then went back to her papers. “We’re not at a complete dead end, remember Nick talked to some of the families. You have his notes don’t you?”

  Had I grabbed them when he and I were talking? I pulled my bag into my lap. I found my folder for the case and flipped through them. “No, but let me check the reports. Nick’s always on top of his paper work, so maybe he got it filed already.”

  I booted up my laptop and waited. When it finally logged into the Wi-Fi and the server, I got the shared files for Nick and me. I found a folder already created, and yes, he’d dropped all his notes in…as if he knew. The notes were about the same as Nick and I had discussed, there was nothing similar between the victims except gender. None of their family could put a link between them, no common last place known. We had someone targeting PIB with the thumbs case and the bombing. That could be a possible connection. Or there was a witch or warlock with a vendetta against PIB.

  My phone chirped at me. “Mason’s heading towards the station to question Jerry. I’m going to meet him there.”

  “I’m going to stay here and piece together some of this. Before you go, will you e-mail me Nick’s notes?”

  I took a moment and sent her the files, trying to push off the sense of betrayal that I had. He was dead, Agent Grace was now assigned to help me with the case, and there was nothing else I could do. Yet a little voice in me pulled at the guilt. Had I reacted quick enough, could I have kept the fire from him? Could I have used my elemental abilities to save him if I hadn’t left so quickly?

  Pushing the thoughts off, I shut the computer. “They’re in your e-mail. I’ll see you tomorrow, or do you need me to come back and drop you off at your car?”

  “No, I’ll grab another agent to help me with that. You go ahead and don’t worry about me.” She waved me on without looking up from her computer. “Fill me in tomorrow on the interview with Jerry.”

  “I will.” I walked out of the room. As I headed towards the door I wondered how I would face the coven tonight. The media hadn’t released names yet, but I didn’t know who Nick had listed as next of kin. Oftentimes if a witch or warlock had no local family they would name a coven member. I thought about the vampire we had sittin
g in custody and wondered if I could get out of going to the Coven barbecue. Clarissa probably wouldn’t forgive me and maybe I needed to spend some time away from the case.

  I climbed into the driver’s seat. Turning over the engine, I realized that I was going to have to tell Mason that Nick didn’t survive. Dread churned my stomach and I put my head against the steering wheel. It was going to be a long afternoon.

  I walked into the station and waved at the few officers who were working through their lunches. Mason was waiting for me by the interrogation room, his arms crossed. “Do you plan on using magic during this interrogation?”

  I shook my head. “No, not this time.” I ran my hands over my pants. “I plan on using threats, negotiations, and maybe slamming him into the floor…”

  “Abby…”

  “Sorry, it’s been a long day. I’m not in the mood to have him sit there and lie to me right now.” I looked at the door. “I promise I won’t lay a hand on him.”

  “Merick was able to come to the house to handle the situation there. I’d rather Nick next time because the ghosts seem to like him.”

  I shook my head. “Nick won’t be coming back to this case or any cases.” I didn’t meet Mason’s gaze in fear of starting to cry. I needed to save my tears for later, when I was alone. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words ‘Nick didn’t survive.’ “We lost him in the attack.”

  Mason put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He let me have a moment to collect myself. I took a shaky breath and focused on what was in front of me. The man who had a connection to the house and the experiments. I needed to keep my resolve and my calm. I needed to keep my head off the attack and on this case. I closed my eyes and forced myself to bring up the memories of the corpses. The way the skin stretched over their skulls and bones. The way the jaws all fell into silence screams. The empty eye sockets that I saw in my sleep.

  I tightened my hand on the knob of the door. I let the anger flood through me that they had more victims at different locations. The panic of being pinned to the ground by a vampire who wanted to violate me by mixing my blood. I opened my eyes before walking into the room.

  “Hello again, Jerry.” I smiled and sat in front of him. Mason sat next to me without a word. I tapped my hand on the table. “Last time, you managed to lie to me even with magic involved.”

  “I’m just talented like that.” He shot back and leaned forward. His hands were spread on the table. “And if you think I’m going to tell you anything else tonight, you can kiss my ass.” He snapped back.

  I pulled out the picture of Ira and slid it towards him. “This the vampire who bought the house for you?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “That’s fine, I’m working on getting video surveillance of the bank.” That wasn’t true, but he didn’t know that. I wasn’t even sure how long the bank would have kept footage.

  He locked his jaw and I knew I had him. “So why don’t you save me a bit of footwork and just confirm it for me? You scared he’s going to find out? Because right now he’s got bigger problems than you ratting on him.”

  “Like what?”

  “Do you know what the penalty is for vampires who kill?”

  “I don’t know much about how the law handles vampires. I’m more concerned with shifters.”

  The laws weren’t always that different, but I wasn’t going to point that out right now. I tapped the photo. “We have fifteen deaths connected to him, possibly more if the victims from today don’t survive. They are directly related vampire deaths, which means we will send an execution squad after him as soon as we figure out where he’s located. It’s only a matter of time. The territory vampire leader is working with us. There are no secrets among the vampires.” I didn’t know if that was true either, but it sounded good.

  “So you’re just going to kill him?” His voice softened a little. “Hunt him down like an animal?”

  “He drained fifteen people of blood, performed experiments on them, kept them in inhuman conditions. Do you think he deserves better?” I met his gaze. “You might have had signed consent forms for the blood, but nothing else.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “He’s trying to make this world a better place. You don’t understand that. As a witch, you’re privileged. You look human, act human, people don’t fear you like they do other supernatural creatures.”

  “There are still prejudices against us.” But for the most part he was right, there was nothing physical to mark us to make people fear us. Vampires had their fangs, occasionally shifters and werewolves showed different parts of their characteristics. They were easy marks for the non-human label. “How does he plan on achieving this?”

  “The experiments you saw, he’s mixing blood, trying to give everyone a bit of supernatural powers. He’s trying to make hybrids.”

  I glanced at Mason who nodded. He stood. “I’m going to make a phone call.”

  He had the same thought I did; we hadn’t really considered what the victims had been exposed to in terms of supernatural blood. He’d make sure that the victims had containment teams to keep the threat low. Our hospitals had wings to keep supernatural creatures to lower the risk of contamination.

  The door clicked behind Mason. “Experimenting on people without consent is wrong. Trying to create hybrids…”

  “Are you one of those people who think there are natural ways? Breeding perhaps?”

  “I’m not willing to discuss what I believe in this situation.” I pulled the picture away from him. “What I want is answers.”

  “And I told you that I’m not giving them to you. So I guess we’re at an impasse right now.”

  “You gave me answers about his experiments. So what went wrong ten years ago? No doctors to back up your info on blood? Did your vampire lose control?”

  “It’s not him that loses control.” He pegged me with a glare. “You met some of his experiments the other night. Didn’t you?”

  The blood-starved vampires. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest, but I kept my face blank. “I’ve meet several of them if he’s behind the hordes of vampires.”

  “You also caught one of his associates a few months ago. One of mine too. He’s not giving you answers either? Just enough to string you along.”

  Just like he was doing. “We also have the vampire from earlier today.” I reminded him. “All the blood, the locations of all the facilities. We have a lot on you.”

  “But not enough on him.” He shrugged. “Throw me in jail, put me on trial, there are others out there working towards our cause.”

  Always others. “Answer me this. How is he connected to the vampire king?”

  He jerked like I had hit him. “In life or death we serve no king.”

  I flashed back to the press fiasco when a vampire who kidnapped me had muttered the same thing with his last words.

  “You just paled a bit, Agent Collins.” He chided and laughed. “His connection doesn’t matter anymore.”

  Mason walked back in. “Agent Collins, they are taking precautions with the victims.”

  “Thank you for handling that.” I glanced at Jerry. “You’re up on assisting manslaughter charges, fleeing the police, and hiding evidence. Amongst the charges for illegal blood banks and everything else that goes along with that.”

  “You going to offer me a deal? Lie to me, saying that you can give me a break and knock down some of those charges?” He laughed. “No thanks, witch. Good luck with your information, because I gave you everything that I will.”

  I clenched my fist and Mason cleared his voice. “In that case, this interview is over. Agent Collins?” He motioned for us to leave.

  Standing, I counted to ten to keep me from slamming Jerry’s head into the table. It wouldn’t do me any good. All he had given me was more loose ends. I turned and left the room.

  Mason came after me. “Like Tomes, just enough information to pin it on someone else.”

  “Basically. Levi coming in tonight
to deal with the vampire?”

  “Yep, you’re not going to be here for that?”

  I shook my head. “No, I have to go to a coven thing, and then Merick and I are going to do a trace spell.”

  “You okay, Abby?”

  I knew exactly what he was getting at. “I’ll be fine. I just have to get through these cases before I grieve too much. Don’t worry, Boss Man made me swear that I’d go to the PIB counselor.”

  “How did he get you to do that?”

  “He threatened to suspend me.” I gave a half smile. “I’ll let you know if Merick and I find anything tonight.”

  “Please do. And please take care of yourself.”

  I gave him a small wave as I walked away. I’d take care of me the best I could, but the only way I really knew how to deal with grief was to keep moving. Always moving. Just because a death happened the world didn’t stop turning. Paranormal creatures didn’t stop killing each other or, attempting to, just because my partner died.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I managed to stop by the house, shower, and dress in something not work clothes before going to the address Clarissa had given me for the cookout. My gun was still in its holster on my belt, my badge was tucked behind me, and my ever faithful bag was slung over my shoulder. But gone was the black clothing, replaced by more casual blue jeans and a black tank top.

  Clarissa ran up to me the moment my foot hit the property. She threw her arms around me. “I saw the news, thank the goddess that you’re okay.”

  She squeezed me to the point where breathing became hard. “I’m okay. But I have bad news.” I steeled myself again to say it out loud. The more I spoke or thought about it, the more real it seemed to be.

  She stepped back, but kept her hands on my shoulder. Her gaze searched my face before finally meeting mine. “What is it?”

  “Nick didn’t make it. He was in the building during the attack.”

  She put a hand to her mouth. “What the hell are you doing here, then? Abby, you should be home grieving, not out here pretending to socialize and have fun.”