by T. S. Ryder
"We weren't," Oskar replied harshly. "We got drunk at a party. If she was here—"
"She is," Melody interrupted. A look of confusion crossed her face. "And she wants me to tell you toad face. What does that mean?"
Oskar felt his shoulders relax. He laughed out loud, surprised by how suddenly he believed Melody. She could see ghosts? He really should think that she was insane, but he didn't. After all, he could turn into a giant bald eagle, how much stranger was seeing ghosts? He believed her, just as he believed Cindy was right beside him.
"Toad face. It was an inside joke between us. So she's here." He hesitated. "Cindy, I'm sorry that I couldn't stop Fezioni and the men that took you. I did everything I could. It just wasn't—"
"She doesn't blame you and doesn't want you to blame yourself, either. She tried to escape them. She heard them talking, they were going to kill her no matter what. There wasn't anything you could have done. And she wants you to stop hunting the rest of the crew. It's not good for you or the community. Besides, Fezioni turned against them. He killed most of the others, anyway."
Knowing most of them were dead helped ease a little of the pressure in Oskar's mind, but he shook his head. "I can't give it up. With those men still out there, there could be more people killed."
Melody glanced to his right and back at him. "She said that it's not your job anymore. It's up to the little man with the small eyes and bad suits to catch them, and he's getting close."
Oskar smiled at her description of the deputy director. That was so Cindy.
"She wants you to take care of yourself."
"Does she know who killed Fezioni?"
Melody shook her head. "She was with you hiking when he was killed. She doesn’t really care about him, anyway."
"How could she not care about the man who killed her?" Oskar's voice was a low hiss.
"He's dead, she's dead. There's nothing more to do with him. She wants you to take care of yourself, and to tell your cousin that she loved him. That they would have had a very happy life together. She also wants you to make sure he doesn't end up alone his whole life." Melody shook her head. "I didn't think that you were that nice of a person." A pause. "Because you act like a stuck-up, spoiled brat, that's why."
Oskar laughed. It was such an appropriate response to Cindy that he felt his heart lighten. She really was there. "So this is how you had so much information about other murders, is it? Because you see ghosts that demand you help solve their cases?"
A pained looked crossed Melody's face as she nodded. "It's a nightmare. They've never come to me around Blackcliff, although there was one time when a hiker got lost and died… Blackcliff has always been my sanctuary. I really hope that this doesn't end up being commonplace."
She glared at the space beside him. At Cindy.
"What did she say?"
"Something very rude. Now you promised to tell me what you wanted, so spill." Melody's hands clenched and she ground her teeth. "What do you mean, not yet? You promised me—"
She threw her hands in the air and sank back against the booth, shaking her head. Oskar watched her, half amused and half worried. Melody focused on him again as Jane came rushing over to them, her mouth set in a thin line and her eyes narrowed.
"Is everything okay, dear?"
Melody nodded, though she still looked annoyed. "It's fine. Just a little miscommunication."
Jane glared at Oskar, who did his best to smile back at her. The Old Gossip was named after its owner, from what he could see, and he had no desire to give her more fodder for the rumor mill than she had. She had already convinced half the town he was a killer. "Will our orders be ready soon?"
"Soon." Sniffing, Jane moved off again.
"She's gone," Melody muttered. "Just like that, she goes. She has got to be the most annoying ghost I have ever met. She refuses to tell me anything!"
Oskar laughed, reaching across the table to take her hand in his. "That sounds like Cindy. She always had to have things just right and she would never admit when she was feeling emotional. Would just flounce out dramatically. It's comforting to know she hasn't changed."
"Comforting to you, maybe." Melody shook her head. "She wants to tell you something, but refuses to say what."
Oskar's brow furrowed. "Do you think it might have to do with our child?"
Melody shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea."
It couldn't be that she wanted to tell him that she was secretly in love with him. They’d had their chance to be together, and there wasn't anything between them. Both of them knew it. So what could she want to tell him? Their child had been given up for adoption. She had assured him of that, and there was no way she could have actually kept the baby. He would have known.
Could it be that the baby actually died? But why would she lie about that, and why would she refuse to tell him that? His Eagle chittered.
"So… you really believe me?" Melody's brow was furrowed and she sucked her lower lip between her teeth. "That I can see ghosts, I mean."
"Yeah. I'm a Shifter. It's not that much more of a leap to say yeah, you can see ghosts."
"But it's not the same. There are thousands, hundreds of thousands of Shifters. You're real, I can see you. You can't see what I can see."
Oskar shrugged. His hand was still over hers and he squeezed it gently, smiling now. "I'm a good judge of character and I can usually tell when people are lying. I can see that you genuinely believe what you're saying, and really, you know things nobody else knows. Yeah, I believe you."
"Wow. I didn't expect…" She beamed at him, and Oskar was struck by just how beautiful she was. If there wasn't a booth between them, he would have kissed her.
She opened her mouth again, but the tinkling of the door opening drew both of their attentions. Barton, his face set grimly, marched over to them. Melody quickly snatched her hand away from Oskar's, while he frowned at his friend and colleague. From the angry set of Barton's mouth and the way his hands were half-clenched, something bad had clearly happened.
Oskar stood when the other agent got to them.
"Freyson, I need you come with me," Barton said, under his breath.
"Uncle Todd, what's going on?" Melody jumped to her feet.
"Go where?" Oskar demanded.
Barton glanced around the café. Everybody was staring at them. There were whispers going on behind hands, and a young woman with curly hair was clutching her heart, her face white, as though she thought the FBI agents were about to start shooting.
"I'd really rather do this in private," Barton said.
Oskar shook his head. "Are you arresting me?"
"I hope it doesn’t come to that."
Melody gasped. "But he's not the killer."
"I thought I told you to stay out of this." Barton narrowed his eyes at Melody. "For once in your life, do as you're told."
Oskar felt the irrational need to punch the older agent in the face over the tone he took with Melody. He took a deep, calming breath. "What is going on, Barton?"
"A new witness has come forward, claiming they saw you and Fezioni leaving town together on the day of the murder. You don't have an alibi. So how about we just go down to the station and get this all sorted out before we cause even more of a scene than we already have?"
Barton's brows rose and, as much as Oskar hated to take orders, he knew that the other agent was right. He nodded reluctantly and allowed himself to be shepherded into the middle of the other agents that had come with Barton. His Eagle screeched. Melody made a strangled choking noise and grabbed her purse.
"I'm coming, too."
Barton turned to her. "No. I don't want you involved."
"I'm already involved. Besides, I'm the one who found the body. There might be some more stuff I need to tell you."
"What sort of stuff?"
Melody's eyes widened. "Stuff."
So Barton knew about her secret? Oskar wasn't surprised. She did call him uncle, after all. Barton looked annoyed, but he n
odded and waved for Melody to follow them. The people gawked at them as they left the café, but Oskar ignored them. He had bigger problems at the moment than gossip.
Chapter Seven
Melody paced around Uncle Todd's office. As soon as they had reached the temporary FBI headquarters, he had stuffed her in here while he went to interrogate Oskar. He hadn't even listened when she hissed at him that she had ghostly information that was vital to finding the real killer. Maybe he had been completely serious when he told her he wanted her to stay away from the case.
Maybe he was going to ignore her 'ghostly information' because she wasn't listening to him.
"He's coming back." Cindy's sudden appearance made Melody jump, and the ghost smirked. "You know, for somebody who claims to talk with the dead all the time, you're really jumpy around us."
"Oh, shut up."
Cindy folded her arms and sat on the desk, pouting. Moments later, Uncle Todd came into the office. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was pinched. Melody poured him a cup of coffee, but he only scowled when he took it. He stared at her for a long time before he shook his head.
"When were you going to tell me that Oskar and Cindy had a child together?"
"I only just found out. How do you know?"
"Good question," Cindy muttered.
Uncle Todd sat heavily behind his desk. "Oskar just told me. It's not looking good for him."
"He didn't do it. Cindy was with him at the time of the murder, and she says—"
"Melody!" Uncle Todd put his elbows on the desk and buried his face in his hands. "I can't take the word of a ghost and present it as evidence. We've been over this before. I need facts that I can see. And you're not supposed to be involved in this case, remember?"
Melody put her hands on her hips and glared at her uncle. "So what you're saying is that you would prefer to send an innocent man to jail than listen to what I have to say?"
"I'm saying that you can't keep involving yourself in murders. And as for Cindy collaborating Oskar's alibi, I couldn't trust it even if she was telling me it herself. They had a child together. Fezioni killed her."
"Is he saying I'm lying?" Cindy cried, her perfectly manicured nails digging into her palms. "I'm not lying! Oskar didn't kill Fezioni."
"I believe you," Melody said, turning to Cindy. "Just sit down and shut up. You can't help with this."
"Neither can you," Uncle Todd said firmly. "Go home, Melody. Take a couple days off work. Leave town. Just leave this case behind. I don't want Oskar to have done this, but I have to follow the evidence. No." He shook his head as she opened her mouth. "I don't want to hear it. Go."
Melody glared at her uncle for a moment before she turned on her heel and stormed out of his office. Leave town? Unlikely. If he wasn't going to find out what had really happened, she would! It was the least she could do for Oskar, with his bright blue eyes and charming smile. His cleft chin. His honey-silk voice…
Crap, she thought. I have it bad.
***
It didn't take much for Melody to convince Jane to spill all the gossip she had heard about the murder. In fact, all it took was one juicy tidbit of her own. Melody nearly winced when she told the Old Gossip's owner that she had been on a date–a real date, she emphasized, not a business date–with Oskar when he was arrested, to get the older woman's gums flapping.
Melody learned a few things that she was certain the FBI didn't know. Like how Freddie Truman swore he saw Fezioni's ghost wandering around downtown with a horde of devil wolves following him. Or Skye Johnson's insistence that she saw Betty Easthope sneaking in and out of Fezioni's bedroom and that Betty was pregnant now.
In fact, Melody was certain that even if Uncle Todd had decided to talk with Jane Gardens, he would have been too impatient to weed through all of that nonsense in order to strike gold.
The day before the murder, Elisabeth was seen talking with Fezioni, and she had seemed very shaken by the encounter. Melody wasn't sure if it was relevant, but by this point, she was desperate to figure out what had really happened. Elisabeth was the last person she would suspect to be a murderer, but in her experience, anybody could kill given the right circumstances. In any case, that encounter might be relevant to finding out the truth of what had happened.
The daycare was overrun with kids, as was expected, but Melody managed to get Elisabeth's attention anyway. Luckily, there were a couple of other workers at the daycare, so the two women could chat for a bit.
Melody went straight to the point. "I heard that you and Fezioni had an argument the other day and that it shook you up."
Elisabeth's shoulders tensed, though she had been nothing but happy to see Melody moments before. "Look, I'm really busy."
"I know, and I'm sorry for taking your time, but I'm trying to figure out what happened." Belatedly she realized that could be taken as an accusation, so she was quick to add, "I know that a lot of the guys around here are sweet on you, and if Fezioni threatened you, more than one of them might have taken matters into his own hands."
Elisabeth brushed the hair from her face and looked over the kids. Her arms crossed over her chest and she leaned away from Melody, just enough that the realtor knew it wasn't a conscious act. "It was nothing, okay? He was just complaining about how noisy the kids could be. It has nothing to do with his murder."
"Was there anybody else around? Somebody that might have gotten the wrong—" Melody cut herself off as a five-year-old boy wandered over to them. He eyed Melody warily but flashed Elisabeth a shy smile as he held out a daisy for her. Dimples flashed as his bright blue eyes crinkled.
Melody stared. The little boy was the spitting image of Oskar. The blue eyes, the dimples, the cleft chin. The shape of the nose, his ears, even the color of his hair. Everything about him was Oskar.
She became aware that Cindy was standing behind the boy, tears in her eyes as she twisted her hands.
"Now you know," the ghost whispered. "This is why I'm here and what I wanted to tell Oskar. I didn't know how, though. He never wanted our child. But he doesn't have anybody anymore. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving him up… I was doing the right thing. I would have been a terrible mother. But…"
"Like I was saying," Elisabeth said, as the little boy ran back to join the others, "my talk with David has nothing to do with his murder. I can't help you. I'm sorry that your… friend or whatever he is to you has been arrested, but I'm sure that the FBI will figure out it wasn't him. Now I need to get back to work."
Elisabeth gestured to the gate, staring hard at Melody, but the realtor's gaze was still on the little boy.
"Who is that? I don't think I've ever seen him before."
Elisabeth frowned. "That's Julius. He's new in town. Only moved in three months or so."
"Ask her about his family," Cindy said. Her voice was hard, as though she already knew the answer to the question herself and just wanted Melody to know. "Ask her."
"His family," Melody blurted. "I usually know all the new families moving into Blackcliff. Are they staying with family or something?"
Elisabeth's frown deepened and she folded her arms. "What's this about, Melody? He's a little boy, he had nothing to do with this murder. And I'm not sure I like you asking questions about the kids in my care. Privacy accounts for something."
"I know. I'm sorry." Melody finally stopped staring at little Julius. "It's just that… I know that this is going to sound a little crazy, but he looks exactly like Oskar. And five years ago he had a child with this woman named Cindy. They gave the baby up for adoption, but I think it was a boy. But Fezioni kidnapped and killed Cindy two years ago."
Elisabeth's eyes widened until they were round and bugging slightly from her head. She covered her mouth with her hand and gasped. "Do you think David was here to kidnap Julius? They arrived close to the same time!"
"So he was adopted?"
"Yes." Elisabeth ran a hand through her hair. "Julius was adopted after he was born, but h
is adoptive parents died in a car crash last year. He's been through a few different foster homes and was just sent here. And I don't know everything, but his foster mother did say something about her birth parents being Shifters. Do you really think David was after him?"
Melody found the little boy again. Her brow furrowed. If Fezioni was after the boy, it just made Oskar's situation all the worse. Julius had to be the reason Cindy was still sticking around. But what did she want? For Oskar to step in and take him back, or what?
And how did this tie back to Fezioni's murder?
Chapter Eight
Oskar toweled off before he stepped from the small hotel shower, unable to turn off the thoughts bouncing through his brain. All he really wanted to do right now was collapse in bed and sleep, but he had work to do, and so he wrapped a fresh, dry towel around his waist.
The door to the hallway opened just as he stepped from the bathroom.
He jumped towards the nightstand where his gun was, but before he got there he got a look at who it was breaking into his hotel room.
Melody. She jumped when she saw him and put her hand on her heart, closing her eyes briefly. "You scared me to death!"
Oskar frowned as she shut the door behind herself. "Really? You just broke into my hotel room–which is illegal, by the way–and you're telling me I scared you do death? I could have shot you. What are you even doing here?"
Silence answered him. Melody's eyes were wide and fixed on his torso. They moved down over his abs to trace the top of the towel. He glanced down to make sure he was fully covered and her eyes snapped back up to his. Her face went cherry-red and she quickly looked up at the ceiling.
"Sorry," she blurted.
Oskar strode to the closet and pulled out a complimentary robe, pulling it on. Not that he minded her ogling him like that, but his lack of dress was clearly uncomfortable for her. "Why are you here, Melody?"
"I was looking for evidence. I didn't think that you would have been released from FBI custody yet. Uncle Todd seems pretty convinced that there isn't any evidence to prove that you didn't kill Fezioni."