Ghost Medicine (36 page)

“What about that white van you saw? Was there a delivery scheduled for this morning, Jo?” Leigh Ann asked.

“Nothing was in the log, and when I called our vendors and couriers, I got zip.”

“Maybe it was just somebody who got lost and went to the wrong address,” Esther said.

“Could be,” Jo said, unconvinced. She saw her uncertainty and fear mirrored on their faces, her heart going out to all of
them. She turned away, determined not to let them see the apprehension she shared.

*   *   *

Something was up. Sergeant Ben Stuart had seen it in the eyes of the corporal who’d come to get him. To make things worse, the secretary who sat outside his battalion commander’s office refused to look him in the eye.

Instructed to sit rather than stand across from his commanding officer’s desk, he
waited, trying to remain cool and calm.

“Sergeant—son—I have bad news. Your father was found dead in his home earlier this morning,” he said.

Ben stared at Major Johnson and shook his head, the words refusing to sink in. “That can’t be. I just spoke to him yesterday on the phone, sir.”

“It happened last night, apparently. One of his employees found the body at his home early this morning. I
spoke to the investigating officer, a sheriff’s department detective. She said he died from a bullet to the temple.”

Ben leaned forward, certain he’d misunderstood. “Sir, are you saying that my father committed suicide?”

“The medical examiner has yet to make that determination, but that’s what it appears to be,” he said in a quiet voice. “I’m sorry for your loss, Sergeant.”

Ben felt as if he’d
been sucker punched in the gut, yet oddly enough, he felt no pain, just a numbness that seemed to go right to his brain. “It’s got to be another Tom Stuart—not my father. It’s a mistake,” he said, then quickly added, “sir.”

“No mistake, son. Employees at his business—The Outpost—made a positive ID, and the fingerprints match those in your father’s service record. You’ll be granted twenty-one
days’ emergency leave as soon as the orders are cut. Check with my clerk before you leave so the paperwork can be processed. Again, my condolences to you and your family. You’re dismissed.”

Ben nodded, dazed, then rose to his feet and saluted before turning to the door. There’d be forms and a million steps to follow. There always were. He reached for the door handle, functioning on automatic
now.

A half hour later, seated on his bunk, Ben was still shaking his head. This had to be a mistake. It just didn’t make any sense. Former-marine Lance Corporal Tom Stuart offing himself? Impossible. His father would never have taken that way out.

Memories came flooding back to him. Eighteen months ago, Ben had been driving drunk, trying to run from memories of combat. He’d wrecked his car,
nearly killing himself. His father, a man of few words, had come to the hospital to see him. There’d been no pity in Tom Stuart’s eyes as he looked Ben straight in the eye. “Only a gutless coward would kill himself, son. If you want to die, die like a man. Don’t hide behind a bottle,” he’d said.

Simple and to the point. No sympathy, no coddling. Tom Stuart had been capable of neither.

Yet that
meeting became a major turning point in Ben’s life.

Now they were telling him that the old marine had shot himself? No way, it had to have been murder. He’d go home and find out what really happened. He’d have three weeks, including travel time, to figure things out. Somehow that would have to be enough.

Also by Aimée & David Thurlo

Ella Clah Novels

Blackening Song

Death Walker

Bad Medicine

Enemy Way

Shooting Chant

Red Mesa

Changing Woman

Tracking Bear

Wind Spirit

White Thunder

Mourning Dove

Turquoise Girl

Coyote’s Wife

Earthway

Never-ending-snake

Black Thunder

Plant Them Deep

Lee Nez Novels

Second Sunrise

Blood Retribution

Pale Death

Surrogate Evil

Sister Agatha Novels

Bad Faith

Thief in Retreat

Prey for a Miracle

False Witness

Prodigal Nun

The Bad Samaritan

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Aimée and David Thurlo are the authors of the critically acclaimed Ella Clah mystery series, which includes
Black Thunder
and
Never-ending-snake
. They have also written the Sister Agatha mysteries; several novels about Lee Nez, a Navajo vampire;
The Spirit Line,
a young adult novel; and numerous romantic suspense novels for Harlequin Intrigue.

The Thurlos live in Corrales,
New Mexico, with a number of animals who reflect their passion for animal adoption. David grew up on the Navajo Reservation and later returned there to teach. Aimée is a native of Cuba who has lived in the American Southwest for more than thirty years.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.

GHOST MEDICINE

Copyright © 2013 by Aimée Thurlo and David Thurlo

All rights reserved.

Cover art by Bill Villareal

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Thurlo, Aimée.

    Ghost medicine / Aimée Thurlo, David Thurlo.—First Edition.

        p. cm.

    “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

    ISBN 978-0-7653-3403-9 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-4668-0785-3 (e-book)

    1.  Navajo Indians—Fiction.   2.  Spirits—Fiction.
   3.  Paranormal fiction.   4.  Murder—Investigation—Fiction.   I.  Thurlo, David.   II.  Title.

PS3570.H82G46 2013

813'.54—dc23

2013022085

e-ISBN 9781466807853

First Edition: November 2013