This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
World Castle Publishing, LLC
Pensacola, Florida
Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2020
Paperback ISBN: 9781951642488
eBook ISBN: 9781951642495
First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, March 9, 2020
http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com
Licensing Notes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Cover: Karen Fuller
Editor: Maxine Bringenberg
Chapter 1
Sasha got back to her rental and sat down at the table. The dead woman knew her. The place was furnished, thankfully, so she didn’t have to worry about anything other than food. The dead woman in the field knew her. Sasha would have to make dinner soon. Looking around the kitchen area, she wondered how she’d gotten home. Her mind wouldn’t be still long enough for her to focus on one thing for more than a second or two.
Laying her head down on the table, she thought about the things that the woman, Melinda Harvard, had told her. Not just that, she needed to be found—they knew where she was—but about not just her death, but the baby too. Also, she was her sister, she’d told her. Sasha didn’t know what to think about her saying that. As far as she knew, she had just the one sister, and she didn’t look like Melinda at all. She didn’t even act like her.
While Pearl still lived at home, taking care of their mom, she’d never been as thin as she wanted to be. Pearl had weighed close to four hundred pounds the last time she’d seen her, over three years ago now. Sasha, too, had always had to fight with her weight. But she wasn’t obese, or anything like her sister was. Sasha made sure that she kept up with her exercise program. And when she wasn’t able to run or something like that, she’d go to the gym.
Melinda had been thin, but it seemed more like she was just that way, rather than she’d had to work at it. Sasha had no idea why that mattered, but she was trying to think of things that would make what the woman had told her true. Which, Sasha realized, was more than likely just that. Just as true as Sasha being able to talk to ghosts.
In thinking of her sister, she thought of her mom. Her mother was a liar and a thief. She scammed people when she could, even if there was no reason for her to do so. Sasha also knew that her mom could get up and around as well as Sasha could. Being confined to a wheelchair, as she told everyone, was a bald faced lie, like most of the things that spewed from her mother’s lips—like her name.
Her mom had been calling herself Katie since Sasha had been a child. Her real name was Sally, but she had always liked the name Katie and decided that it made her sound younger. Sasha had never understood her mother—even less, her brother and sister. Her dad was the only one that not only believed in her but gave her shelter when talking to the dead got to be too much. With her parents divorced since she’d been five, it was easier to stay away from Katie when she got it into her head that Sasha needed to be doing more for her.
Sasha got up to make herself a cup of tea, her mind still battling with the things she’d been told. The brewing of the tea, the putting in the sugar and lemon, gave her something else to think about, even if momentarily.
As soon as she sat down, Sasha thought of Melinda. She’d gone to the body to see if she could find out who had killed the woman and left a newborn behind. Sasha liked the big ex-cop who had been there and didn’t mind helping him out when he’d ask. Sasha knew something was off almost before she got to the body. The ghost was staring at her with a huge smile.
“There you are.” Sasha told her that she didn’t know her. “No, but I do you. You’re my sister. My older sister by five years. Your mother, our mother, gave me away when she figured that people would think her much too old to have another child. Since they knew who she was, they put my name on the birth certificate as well as hers. That way, I was able to find you.”
“I have a sister and a brother.” Melinda had told her their names and their birthdates. “That’s correct. Why are you here? I don’t usually get to— Do you know who murdered you?”
“I do.” She looked at Sawyer then, and the man that was standing nearby, a cop whose name she couldn’t remember. “It’s not like you think, whatever you’re thinking. I wasn’t killed by any of those that we’re related to. I don’t know why I cannot think of his name, but you don’t know him.”
“I don’t usually come to people where they’ve been killed or died. The dead usually seek me out, and I tell someone where they are to be found. This is all new to me.” Melinda said that she’d been given permission to talk to her. “By whom? There are more people out there like me?”
“Yes. Very many like you are now. But that is to change. You’ll need to start helping us.” Melinda sat down beside her or made it look like she was sitting. “You’ve been so very helpful to the dead, sister mine. You’ve helped so many of us find peace, and given those that we love more peace in that bodies have been found and put to rest. We cannot thank you enough for that.”
“I didn’t have a choice in the matter. They just started coming to me when I was four. I haven’t any idea why I can even do this shit.” Melinda asked her about the mark that was on the bottom of her left foot. “So? I’ve had that forever. It’s even noted on my baby chart that I have it. What is it other than a birthmark?”
“A mark of birth.” Sasha told her that she didn’t know what she meant. “You were hurt in the womb, and that made you so much different than other children being born. Others like you need to be taught how to do what you do naturally. My child, my daughter, has the same marking. The man who murdered me, he thought he was killing you or someone that could talk to ghosts. He wishes us dead so that we will not tell anyone what he’s done. I still don’t know his name, but as I said, you know him.”
“Was he going to kill the baby? Your child?” Melinda watched as pictures were taken of her body. When she was flipped to her back, Sasha could see that her belly had been cut open, the child taken from her. “He did this to you?”
“No. He only shot me, in my belly there where I’ve cut myself. I did the rest. I could not let her die within me. I needed her to be found, and someone—someone like you—to raise her. To keep her safe.” Sasha told her that she didn’t want a child. “Then she will die as well, I think. He will find her through records.”
“Sasha?” She looked at Sawyer when he said her name. “We know that you’re speaking to her. What we don’t know is what’s going on. Can you tell us anything about her murderer? Did he do this to her?”
Sasha told him about how Melinda had delivered her own child. That the man had meant to kill them both after he realized it wasn’t Sasha. That he wanted them both dead. However, she didn’t tell him that they were related. Nor did she mention that she was supposed to take the child to raise as her own.
“You will need his help, they told me. The Bishop men are worthy of one, such as yourself. They are well respected on both sides of this sphere.” Sasha asked her who had told her
that. “The dead. Those in charge of making sure that the rules of our kind are enforced. That we’re doing nothing to the living, nor are we harming those that helped us be found. There are others out there that do more. You will never have to do what they do. But you will be the one that they go to when they have unsolved business to take care of, such as finding the person or people that killed them. You have been, I guess, promoted.”
“Promoted? I don’t want to be promoted, damn it. I want to just do what I do and nothing more.” Melinda started to fade. “I have so many questions. You can’t leave me yet.”
“I must, I’m afraid. I have lingered too long on this sphere.” She stood up when Melinda began to fade more. “His first name begins with the letter ‘C’—that is all that I can remember. You must find him before he finds you. He will know when my death is announced, that he killed the wrong person.”
Then she was gone. Sasha had come back home in a fog, not letting her mind think of anything but the next step to getting there—get in the car, start the car, and things such as that. Now here she sat with so much useless information that she didn’t know where to even start.
Sitting at the table, stirring her tea until it was cool enough to drink, she got herself a pen and paper and began writing down all the people that she knew whose first name began with the letter C. There was a pitiful number of them, and only a scant few of them even knew what she did for others.
Not sure what she was supposed to do now, she picked up her tea and dumped it into the sink. Sasha didn’t even care for the drink, but there was something so calming about making it that she kept the bags around just for the simple pleasure of making it.
When her cell phone rang, she picked it up after seeing the face of her mom. Sitting down again, she was ready for the battle that would ensue. Deciding not to talk about what she’d discovered today, she made sure that her mom knew that she was busy upon answering the phone.
“I don’t care what you might think you’re doing that makes you too busy to talk to me. Where have you been, Sasha? I’ve been by your apartment several times, and you’re not there. I want to know what you’re up to now.” Sasha laid her head back on the table when she saw that Hailey had returned. “Are you there? It would be just like you to just put the phone down and not speak to me.”
“I’m here. I have had a rough morning already, and I don’t want to have to deal with whatever drama you think you might have going on in your life at the moment. Also, how the hell did you go by my house, Mom? I thought that you weren’t to drive. You said you couldn’t walk.” That didn’t sit well with her mom, but she didn’t care. “Whatever you’ve done, whatever you’ve had done to you, it’s not my concern. You got yourself into whatever mess you’re in, get yourself out of it.”
“When did you become so horrid, Sasha? You used to be such a fun loving little girl. Where did she go?” Not answering her didn’t seem to be an option with her mom today. “Tell me what it is so that I can tell you to get over it and—”
“I grew up and figured out that you’re not as young, as nice, or as wonderful as you and your clique thinks you are. You’re a mean, hateful person that thinks revenge is the only way that you can make people pay for whatever shit you’re doing at the moment that goes belly up.” Mom huffed at her. “As I said, I have things going on here, and I need to get to them. Call Pearl or Zack home. They’ll be rooting you on in your misdeeds because they don’t know you the way I do.”
Disconnecting the call made her feel better, but not for long. Looking at Hailey when she moved to stand in front of her, Sasha asked her what she needed. The smile that she gave her was watery, with bits of underwater things hanging out. Sasha shivered.
“I’ve been found, thanks to you.” Sasha asked her why she was still here then. “I’ve been asked to keep an eye on you. To help you with your new job.”
“I don’t remember saying that I’d take it. Besides, if it’s just more of the same, I’ve learned it by myself. I’m sure that I can figure out the rest. Don’t you?” Hailey began to change. Not fade, but to become what she might have looked like before her untimely death. “You’ll be human again?”
“No. Not human. I thought that it would be much easier for you to see me like this, rather than how I looked when they pulled me from the water this afternoon. You did very well with the Bishop person today. He will be an ally for us both. He and his family.” Sasha pointed out that she worked alone and liked it that way. “You have done very well in the past, Sasha, but things needed to change. In that, you were the one that was chosen to help more people. It will be good for us.”
“And what about me? How is this going to be better for me? Did anyone think about how much I’ve given up to help the dead? How very little sleep I get when you and the others come to me in the middle of the night and then bug me until you’re found? Did anyone mention that?” She asked Sasha if not being able to sleep would have mattered in the long run. “Yes, it would have mattered. I can’t hold down a job. And the little work that I do get, someone always comes along and screws that up for me too. I’m broke. The last of my money was used to come here. Because you dragged me here by telling me how important it was that I help them find you. I did that.”
“You did. Would you like to know why it was so important?” Sasha said that she didn’t care. Hailey just smiled as she spoke again. “Bradley was planning the same demise for the woman that he is living with now. She deceived him by not telling him of her children, of which she has three. They, too, would have been murdered. Her youngest child, Beth, is to become a great attorney someday. Someone that will fight for the dead and their rights. There are none of those now.”
“This is the reason that I don’t want to know shit about those that I have to help.” Sasha paced the room as Hailey waited. “This ‘C’ person. Does he really exist? Is he really going to come after me? And that little baby?”
“Yes. He will kill you both if he finds you.” Sasha didn’t care about herself, but it would hurt her if something happened to her...niece, she supposed. “The babe is in good hands now. She is being called Pip. There is no other name for her that we were told. The man that is caring for her, he is as good a man, as is his brother, the cop that you worked with today. You will need them all, especially this man, when the man comes for you.”
“This is a fucked up nightmare. You know that, don’t you?” Hailey told her how sorry she was. “I’m sorry too. This isn’t your fault. It’s mine, for thinking I could ever have a normal life.”
Before she changed her mind about this, even if she’d had a choice, she pulled out the business card that had been given to her by Sawyer. Calling the man to see how she could get help from him, she told him that she’d like to meet him at his house. She figured that was the best way to figure out what the fuck was going to happen to her now. Also, she told him that she’d need a ride to and from his home, please?
~*~
Raven watched the proceedings of her mother’s pretrial hearing. Not only had she been found to be quite sane, which no one that had met her believed, but they thought that she was competent to stand trial for her crimes. Not that Mother thought she’d done anything wrong, but she had killed her entire family as a child, and that was what they were going to try her for. She had also murdered several people recently in the name of getting things to impress her clique at the club. And she’d kidnapped Raven’s daughter, Molly, and nearly killed her.
The people there were listening intently to what was going on. Most of them, Raven had found out, had been taken advantage of in some way. Whether it was financial or physically, Merriam Addington had been worse than any of them had thought. Including her father.
Roger, her dad, was getting on with his life now that his wife of thirty years was no longer bullying him around. And Mother had been a bully, too. She didn’t even care if she had to lie or cheat to get him to do what sh
e told him. The thing that bothered the family was that Mother had thought she was the first and only Addington, and that other Addingtons were to use her as a guide on how to act and live. The fact that her only daughter had a child out of wedlock made her feel that Molly wasn’t a real person and that she should have been killed at all costs.
Raven had been an adult when she had Molly. The man that she’d been having a fling with had already been married, which Raven hadn’t known about. Then a few weeks after she broke it off with him, he’d been killed, which Raven thought had worked out well for her and Molly. His plan had been to marry her after killing off his current wife, then to kill Raven. After that, he’d be wealthy—her name and money would open doors for him. Mostly to the bars, but they’d be opened up.
“Mrs. Bishop? Would you mind coming forward, please?” Raven stood up and made her way to the dais that the judge was sitting behind. Something must have happened, she supposed, while she’d been thinking because he looked about as stressed as any man that she’d ever seen. “Your mother would like to have a word with you about her living conditions.”
Raven glanced at her mother before looking at the judge with a smile. “No. I like her right where she is.” The judge glanced at his name bar to remind her to address him properly, and Raven told Judge Henry that she was sorry. He rubbed his hand over his face to the back of his hair. It looked as if he’d been doing that for some time now. “What is it she thinks I’ll do for her?”
“She won’t tell anyone but you. She said that it’s personal. And because of that, she will not answer any of the questions put to her so that we may proceed with this pretrial.” Raven glanced at her mother, then back at the judge again. “I’m begging you, Raven, to do this for us, please. I have a lot to get through today. I don’t want to burden you, but I’ve seen you in action with her, and I think it would maybe set her up nicely if you were to tell her what you wish.”
“Will you record it?” He said if she did this, he’d use his own phone to do that. “All right. But this will not be pretty, sir. I’m telling you right now that I don’t like her, and I certainly will not be putting up with her shit.”
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