Ashley Ridge (Haunted Hearts Series Book 3)

by Denise Moncrief

  “I thought you were afraid of him.”

  “I am.”

  “Why would you go back then? That doesn’t make sense.”

  He got the look on his face, the one that informed her he had made up his mind, the Josh-needs-to-be-in-control-of-the-situation face.

  When they were younger, she didn’t understand the attitude, thinking Josh was trying to control her. With a little more maturity, she realized Josh was trying to control his entire world, trying to keep what he knew stable, and that included her and her actions. Not that it was any less suffocating because his focus was on everything and not just her. Understanding him better gave her more freedom to choose her battles, and she finally understood a small part of what made him who he was. A beginning to knowing the real Josh McCord.

  Josh craved stability like she craved freedom.

  “I understand why you don’t want me to go. But you can’t watch over me twenty-four hours a day just to make sure nothing ever happens to me. I have a life I have to live. If I can’t do what I always do, I might as well go into that cage under Terrance’s cabin and lock myself in. What I need more than anything is my freedom.” She’d been a prisoner to one thing or another for years. For too long.

  “I don’t like it. The thought of you being alone with that man…”

  She groaned. He’d said that already. “Do you have a bad feeling about it? Like a premonition or something?”

  “No. I just have this unsettled feeling, like something is about to happen and I can’t stop it, whatever it is.”

  “Don’t you think that’s a bit dramatic?”

  His grin returned. “I’ve been accused of that before.”

  He rose from his chair, circled the table, and hovered over her. “Would it be clingy of me to ask you to check in with me a few times today…just so I’ll know you aren’t dead?”

  “Yes, it would, but I can do that…just because you asked so sweetly.”

  He nodded. “I can be sweet.” There was a definite twinkle in his blue eyes.

  “I’m going to kiss you now.”She reached up and put her hands on either side of his face. When their lips met, a fire raced up from her core and zoomed through her veins.

  What harm could there be in doing as Josh asked? She’d be careful around Terrance. She’d call Josh a couple of times today…just because he wanted her to and she wanted to hear his voice.

  ****

  Shaw should have grabbed his baseball cap from the front seat of his SUV. The afternoon sun heated the top of his head and he worried about getting a burn in the part of his hair. He stood on the dock where he usually stowed his boat when he stayed at the Landing and watched as Gray and Tori unloaded bags of groceries from the cargo hold.

  “Here let me get some of that,” he offered.

  Tori dumped her bags into his arms.

  The tension between them was still thick enough he could cut it with a hacksaw. Her personality was not the kind to let go of hurt easily. She was still holding a grudge, despite the fact he’d showed up when she begged for his help with Caroline’s murder.

  Gray bypassed the front door of the old catfish restaurant and took the stairs on the side of the building. The top floor housed an apartment with a private kitchen. In the Landing’s heyday, the upstairs had served as the manager’s living quarters. Since the restaurant was located up Ashley Creek and only accessible by boat, it had benefited the manager to live on the premises.

  For years, Shaw’s family had given over the day-to-day operations of the business to Bernard Shaw. Bernard was more than an employee. He was the business’s namesake. The restaurant thrived on his reputation for hospitality. But more importantly, Bernard was part of their family. So much so, that when Shaw’s mother discovered she was pregnant with a boy, his parents had decided to name him after the manager of Shaw’s Landing.

  Hard times hit the restaurant after Bernard died. The place had closed and the building had slowly deteriorated over time. A few years ago, Shaw had asked his parents if he could buy the place from them with the idea that he might try to reopen it one day. They had laughed, almost hysterically, and given him the deed without asking for compensation. So unlike them. His parents were two of the greediest people he’d ever met. And the weirdest.

  The plans to reopen kept getting delayed. First, a promotion had given him more job duties and less personal time off. Second, it had been difficult to find skilled workmen to do the necessary remodeling. Something about the place drove people away and no one would tell him what or why. He had his suspicions, but he had never found any evidence of paranormal activity. When people acted that way, it usually meant there were rumors of a haunting. Maybe he imagined every place on earth was potentially haunted. Maybe he was obsessed.

  Sometimes he’d come out to the restaurant and stay a few days in Bernard’s apartment. The seclusion was just what he needed after a particularly difficult case. Nothing relaxed him more than spending hours on the dock with his line cast into the waters of Ashley Creek. He never caught many fish, but that wasn’t the point of fishing.

  He admired the view from the dock of his property one more time before following Gray and Tori up the stairs. Once inside, he helped them put the groceries away without asking.

  Tori yanked open a cabinet and pulled out three tall glasses. “I’ll fix some iced tea.”

  He wanted to warn her to be careful with the woodwork. The cabinetry was probably over fifty years old. Instead he sucked back his reprimand. His mother had taught him how to treat a guest, even if his guest was an aggravating woman like Tori Downing.

  Gray slipped an arm around her and kissed her. The woman beamed with pleasure. Shaw was happy for Tori. Truly happy. After all the crap she’d gone through in Little Rock, she needed peace and contentment. He had hoped her new romance with Gray would make her a little less crabby toward him. So far it hadn’t.

  He turned his attention to police business, which was the reason he’d followed them out to the Landing. “I’ve gotten no leads on Courtney Crenshaw. As long as she’s been in the wind, she’s gonna be hard to find.”

  Gray slid onto a barstool and grabbed some cashews out of a container on the island. Tori shoved a glass of iced tea in front of him and then slid one down the counter toward Shaw. He nodded his thanks, and she offered him a thin smile. Maybe she was finally thawing a bit. Not a moment too soon.

  Shaw leaned against the kitchen cabinets, sipped his tea, and watched the couple do their odd little mating dance. When Tori finally settled into a seat next to Gray, his hand gravitated toward hers. The mush was getting deep.

  Gray popped a few cashews into his mouth and chewed before he revealed his thoughts. “I’ve been thinking about Courtney a lot. Haskins has resources. He might be searching for her, not because she was connected with Cooley and knows too much, but because he knows she’s his daughter. He seems intent on passing the operation down to his offspring. Since Jeremy is dead, that means Courtney and I are the two candidates for the position of crime boss in training. She’s already connected to the operation. The only hang up he might have is that she’s a woman.”

  Shaw had listened to the tape Gray had made of his conversation with Haskins. Gray had made a few good points. Good. He’s still thinking like a cop. That meant he wasn’t ready to get out of law enforcement yet.

  Shaw took a sip of tea before throwing another thought out for consideration. “He could possibly lead us right to her. Let him do the work for us.”

  “He could already have her.” Gray swirled his ice in his glass. He’d already downed three-quarters of the liquid.

  “I searched Cooley’s place this morning. I couldn’t find anything to connect him to Haskins.”

  Gray nodded. “That isn’t surprising. The old geezer was wicked clever.”

  Tori finally entered the conversation. “Lucy Kimbrough must have been tipping him off every time a raid was planned on one of his meth labs.”

  Gray slid an arm ac
ross the back of Tori’s barstool. The googly eyes they were making at each other made Shaw want to laugh aloud. How could they talk about Cooley and drug operations and meth labs and still create so much sugary sweetness between them? Just looking at them gave him cavities.

  He refocused his attention on the conversation and away from his jealousy of their relationship. “There wasn’t anything at Cooley’s place that linked him to Haskins, but Haskins clearly admits his association with Lucy Kimbrough in your conversation with him, and Kimbrough admitted to Josh McCord her connection to Cooley.”

  “We’re not going to be able to connect Haskins to Cooley. They’ve covered their tracks too well. We need some other leverage to bring Haskins down.”

  Shaw cleared his throat. An idea had been burning in his brain for hours. He’d hardly gotten any sleep the night before thinking about his plan. It was solid. It could work. He just needed Gray’s cooperation. “We need to plant someone undercover in his operation. That’s the only way we’re going to get him.”

  Gray laughed. “Who do you suggest? Everyone in this county knows everyone else. Haskins isn’t going to trust a stranger with his secrets. That’s an interesting idea, but it won’t work with him.”

  “There’s one person who might be able to pull it off.”

  Tori caught the unspoken before Gray did and bolted out of her chair. “Are you out of your mind, Shaw? You can’t ask him to do that. Hasn’t he been through enough already? Can’t you understand how hard it is for him to know that he’s related to that…Haskins?” She spat the name Haskins as if it was a synonym for vermin of every kind.

  Gray placed a hand on her arm. “It’s not a bad idea. It could work.”

  “If he found out what you were doing, he’d kill you. It wouldn’t matter that you’re his son.”

  Shaw grabbed onto Gray’s tentative agreement and sunk his hook into him. “It’s the only way you’re ever going to prove you’re a better man than the man who fathered you—to beat him at his own game.”

  Tori shook with anger. Her neck splotched red. Her eyes shot fiery darts of wrath at Shaw. “Don’t encourage this, Shaw. This is a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. The worst idea you’ve ever had.”

  “Tori, I don’t think you are familiar with every one of my ideas.”

  “No? I just seem to become acquainted with the ones that could end someone’s career, just like you almost ended mine.” Every word she uttered grew louder.

  Shaw jerked his head once. Her last remark felt too much like a slap in the face.

  “We have to do something about Haskins, Tori.” Gray had pulled out his reasonable voice. For a moment, Shaw thought she was going to punch Gray in the snout. Hadn’t the man learned yet that a reasonable woman doesn’t want to be reasoned with?

  Tori was being very reasonable, but the situation called for a solution that was out of the box and maybe just a little bit unexpected.

  Gray shook his head. “We can’t count on the sheriff to do what’s right. You know that. He’s been compromised somehow.”

  Shaw leaned toward them, anxious for his opinion to be heard. “I listened to their conversation, Tori. Haskins said he’d asked Halsey to stop investigating Jeremy’s disappearance. Why would he ask that? And why would Halsey listen? Haskins would ask if he knew what happened to his son, and Halsey would stop if he were willing to keep the truth quiet.”

  “Shaw is right. If Halsey owed Haskins, he would do whatever the man asked. Think about it, Tori. Why does it seem like so many crimes go unsolved in Hill County?”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Really, Gray? Isn’t that a little dramatic? I haven’t been in Hill County that long, but it doesn’t seem like there’s that much that goes unsolved.”

  “No, Tori. You haven’t been here very long.”

  Gray finished off his last ounce of iced tea and stared hard at Shaw. “If I do this, I can’t let anyone know what I’m doing. No one. You shouldn’t have even let Tori in on it.”

  Tori sputtered a rebuttal, but Shaw talked over her.

  “She has to be in on it. If something happened, and I hadn’t clued her in, she would have hunted me down and—”

  “Really, Shaw? Do you really think I’d hate you that much?”

  He grinned. “You haven’t been very nice to me since the Lipton thing.”

  Her eyes flared with extreme annoyance at the mention of Lipton’s name. She poured him a fresh glass of tea from the pitcher she’d left on the island. “I promise I’ll play nice. I didn’t poison your drink or anything.”

  Her calm assertion made him wonder otherwise for a half a second.

  Gray glanced at his watch. “We’re supposed to meet Josh and Ashley in town in a couple of hours.”

  “That should give us enough time to come up with a tentative plan I can present to my captain.” He paused a moment. “Maybe we should consult with the FBI and the DEA.”

  Gray nodded. “Someone should know about this besides you and your boss. I want immunity in writing for whatever happens before this even gets started.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Josh pulled into a parking place in front of the only restaurant in Fairview that didn’t have a name. Among locals, it was simply called the Diner. After he exited his truck, he peered through the front plate glass window and spotted Gray, Tori, and Ashley at a table in the back corner. Gray nodded when they made eye contact, the signal that the coast was clear. The restaurant was empty of law enforcement, at least for the time being.

  He slipped through the front door and eased his way toward them. Sitting with his back to the rest of the diner usually made him uncomfortable, but in this circumstance, he wanted to shield what he had brought with him from other nosey diners.

  As soon as he parked his butt in a chair, Gray pushed aside the rack in the center of the table that usually held salt and peppershakers, sugar packets, and an assortment of jellies and preserves.

  “I printed off the photos I took at the scene. Epps hasn’t uploaded his autopsy photos yet, and he hasn’t sent me biological samples yet. I had to sneak in there and ink her prints myself. She didn’t hit on AFIS, and Cherish didn’t have her prints in the system, so I still have no idea if that woman is really Cherish Duncan or not.”

  Gray snorted. “Epps is dragging his feet.”

  “As usual.”

  Josh opened the folder he’d brought with him and spread three pictures across the table. “So is that Cherish Duncan?”

  Gray leaned over the photos and studied them a long time. “Kind of looks like her, but I can’t be certain. This woman is the right age, and she sort of looks like a Duncan, but it’s hard to tell.”

  “I don’t think she looks much like Brett.”

  Gray nodded. “I don’t think those two looked much alike anyway. She always looked more like old man Duncan than Brett did.”

  Gray had just confirmed what Josh was already thinking.

  A chill crawled up Josh’s spine. He glanced around the diner to make sure no one was watching and put the photos back into the folder before anyone noticed what they were looking at.

  “It shouldn’t take Epps this long to prepare an autopsy report. Something isn’t right.”

  Josh agreed with Gray’s conclusion. It was the same one he had come to earlier but hadn’t had the time to consider.

  “Has Brett Duncan been to the morgue?”

  Josh shook his head. “I’m guessing no. There’s no entry in the case file about a viewing by next of kin.”

  Gray scooted his chair forward, closer to the rest of the group. “I’m gonna guess that Halsey knows Zach was the last person to see Cherish alive and he’s covering this up. If that woman isn’t Cherish, then a dead woman with her driver’s license is likely to stir up fresh trouble for them.”

  “You know the whole town would be buzzing about it if news of Cherish’s death had gotten out,” Ashley whispered. “I haven’t heard a thing, and Mildred at the clinic usually knows e
verything about everybody in town.”

  Josh finally got to the part he’d wanted to say all along. “You gotta come back, Gray. Whatever is going on, it’s huge, the sheriff is in the big middle of it, and I can’t go behind his back very long without him finding out. I can’t tell anyone else, and I can’t do this alone.”

  “I can’t come back. Not yet.”

  “Then, what am I gonna do? I can’t confront Halsey. I have zero credibility with him.”

  Gray sighed. “Do you think my credibility is any better right now?” He leaned a little further in. “This is what I’d do if I were you.” He tapped the closed folder on the table. “I’d take those photos out to Brett and ask him what he thinks, and if he isn’t sure, then drag him to the morgue with you. Epps could deny him access to the body on some technicality, but he won’t. His mind doesn’t work that way. The only way he’d refuse is if Halsey told him to. Just make sure when you go that Halsey isn’t around.”

  Josh nodded. Gray had given him some sound advice.

  “Now, what are we gonna do about this other thing?” Gray’s eyes glowed with anticipation.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Ashley offered him a weary smile. “I told them everything.”

  He reached over and squeezed her hand. That had to have been hard for her. Once again, he wished he’d been there for her.

  “It was easier to tell them without you here.”

  He pushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. “Are you always gonna read my mind like that?”

  “I’m going to try.”

  Gray cleared his throat. They turned to face him almost in unison. Josh smothered the smile that spread across his face. Now was not the time for extreme happiness. Not in the midst of discussing such a serious topic.

  Gray muttered something under his breath before speaking again. “Ashley told us about what happened at Phelps’s cabin. Zach told you about the experience he had the night Cherish died. And you never could figure out who clobbered you at the Jepson place. What do all these events have in common?”