Latham's Landing (10 page)

His partner looked at him apologetically.
“Sorry, Jim.”

“
Damn it, be more careful,” he said
with a glare, then revved the gas again.

It wasn’t Drake’s fault, really. He was just
nervous. Jim knew why. His own gut instinct was telling him to turn
back.

“
There’s the house, Bowman.”

“
No shit. There’s no one else around
for miles,” Bowman said, slamming the door shut.

“
Stone liked his privacy,” Drake
said.

“
Watch that past tense,” Bowman said
darkly, walking toward the door. “We get the facts, remember? No
one’s officially dead until we see an ID’d dead body.”

They’d gotten here before the ambulance. But
Drake was right, at least one person inside wouldn’t need one, most
likely. Homicide wasn’t usually called just for an injury.

“
Creepy place,” Drake said.

Bowman surveyed the rebuilt farmhouse, the
light white and blue structure. He felt it, too. There was
something sinister about the place, its isolation instilling a
feeling of dread, as if he was inches away from being prey to some
looming predator. But he’d be damned if he gave into fear at his
age. “Just pick your guts up out of the car, and follow me in, you
pansy.”

The officers walked up the stairs, each step
creaking with their weighty advance. Jim rang the doorbell.

A large burly officer opened the door. “Jim,
Drake.”

Hawk Lease was a good friend, even if he was
still a uniform and not a detective after ten years. “Lease. Fill
us in.”

“
A murder,” Lease replied. “But we know
who and why they did it. Follow me.”

He led them though the hallway into a
tastefully decorated living room. On the couch sat a
seventeen-year-old girl, her long brown hair covering her face.

“
This is Carolyn Stone,” Lease said.
“She called the station tonight and reported the
murder.”

At the use of her name, the girl looked up,
her hazel eyes shining wetly in her tear-streaked face. She moved
back her long hair, revealing in her hands a small kitten. “You can
sit if you want to, officers.”

Both Jim and Drake sat down. “Miss Stone,”
Jim began. “Please start at the beginning—”

Lease turned to leave. “Goodnight, boys.”

“
Where are you going?” Drake
demanded.

“
Cedar Central Hospital,” Lease said
pointedly, turning. “My partner got stabbed apprehending the
suspect. He went in the first ambulance that responded. Now that
you finally got here, I need to go check on him.”

That kind of insolence was why Lease had
never made detective. “Go ahead,” Jim said.

“
Why are you here, anyway?” Drake said
snidely. “I thought Locke was on duty tonight—”

Lease visibly bristled. “We answered the call
because we were the closest unit. This is a homicide case now, and
you’ll be happy to know that your work is all done. The murderer is
in a cell. The coroner just pulled up outside with the ambulance.
There’s nothing left but for me to go home, and for you to do the
same, once you do the routine.”

Drake glanced to Jim, irked. “We didn’t hear
any ambulance.”

Drake and Lease had never gotten along,
especially when Drake had made plainclothes and Lease hadn’t. This
poor kid didn’t need their angst tonight, on top of everything else
she was going through
. “Lease, go ahead to the hospital,”
Bowman directed. “We’ll finish up here.”

“
You didn’t hear anything, Drake,
because they didn’t use the sirens,” Lease said darkly, then
left.

“
His notes are here,” Carolyn offered,
hesitantly handing a few sheets of paper to Bowman. “I went over
the facts with him while we waited for you guys.”

“
Thank you,” Jim, reading the first of
Hawk’s three paragraphs of scribbling.

Lease was right. It was a simple case. Just
after midnight, Sheila Stone had been attacked in her bedroom, the
outside windows forced in with a crowbar. She’d been stabbed while
sleeping and left for dead. Because of the severity of the wounds,
death had been almost immediate.

“
Is your father not at home?” Bowman
asked, looking up at Carolyn.

Carolyn shook her head. “He’s on a business
trip until Sunday. I called him but no one answered.”

Bowman looked over the latter paragraphs. A
man named Dewey had been arrested lurking outside the house, blood
on his clothes and some of Sheila Stone’s jewelry in his pockets.
Known about town for his quick temper, heavy drinking, and odd
ways, he was a good fit. He was intoxicated, but had passed a
Breathalyzer test. Shockingly, he’d not denied the crime, but
instead admitted it, right before stabbing Lease’s partner in the
arm with the murder weapon.

Hawk had been right, this was a simple
case. But there were a few holes in this story that needed
answering, like a valid motive.
“I’m sorry, but we have just a
few more questions, Miss Stone.”

Carolyn nodded.

“
Did you hear any noise at
all?”

Carolyn shook her head. “Nothing. But I’m a
deep sleeper.”

“
You were in bed when the crime
occurred?”

“
Yes, asleep.”

“
Had Dewey been hanging around here
previously?”

Carolyn nodded. “He’s been doing some odd
jobs for us. I think my dad felt sorry for him, because they went
to school together years ago.”

That feeling was about to change
, Jim
thought to himself. “Any motive you can think of?”

“
Dewey disliked that we wouldn’t let
him live on that land of his rent free,” Carolyn replied. “Dad
wanted to help him, but didn’t want to just give him money. He
wanted Dewey to work for it, and get off the booze. Dewey’s been
angry lately, saying that he’d wished my father hadn’t bought his
property when it went to auction for back taxes, that we just
wanted to lord it over him that we had more than he
did.”

That was motive aplenty.
“Do you have
someone to call?”

“
I’ve called my dad, like I said,”
Carolyn said, petting her kitten. “As soon as he gets it, he’ll
likely be catching the first flight home. Until then, I’m staying
with a close friend. I’ve already called her. I’m going to drive
over there tonight as soon as you leave.”

Bowman nodded, then got to his feet, Drake
following. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Carolyn’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.
I’ll show you to the door.”

After the police officers left, Carolyn
walked upstairs, her kitten Raven at her heels. She began packing,
tossing clothes into an overnight bag. She was going to stay with a
friend that much was true. But her stepfather wasn’t coming home.
Oh, she’d called his IPhone, and left the teary message begging him
to return to her as soon as he got the message, telling of her
stepmother’s murder. But she’d made sure to take the IPhone out of
his bag before he’d left yesterday. It was sitting beside his bed
now. He’d never even miss it, not with his Smartphone and his
Blackberry.

Dewey had been the perfect patsy, with his
malice and stupidity. She’d only had to tell him how her stepmother
laughed at him behind his back, and he’d done the rest all by
himself. What was unnerving was that he’d probably planned to
murder her as well tonight, to leave no witnesses.

“
Got what was coming to them, both of
them,” Carolyn said vehemently to her kitten. “Dad will, too, when
he visits that construction site tomorrow.”

Big companies had cheats, and her
stepfather’s firm had been no exception. Carolyn had just pointed
out a few discrepancies to her father that she’d seen while
interning these last few weeks of summer. Then she’d anonymously
told the embezzling foreman George that he was going to be fired,
that her father found out everything. George’s crafty nature mixed
with desperation would likely do the rest.

“
And so what, if it doesn’t?” Carolyn
said bitterly aloud. “I’ll just have to come up with another plan
to gain my independence. I know who killed Rob, but no one believes
me.” She packed her last clothes and closed the lid with a slam.
“I’m not going to college in the fall, and pretend like
everything’s okay. Because nothing is ever going to be okay
again.”

The kitten purred, kneading the coverlet with
its tiny claws.

She petted it. “You understand, Raven.”

Steven and Sheila wouldn’t give me my money
until I was twenty-one. That was my mother’s money, damn it, and
neither one of them have any claim to it! I couldn’t wait another
three years to avenge Rob, not when I loved him so much. And Steven
said if I didn’t go to college—the one HE chose—that said he’d cut
me off financially, and kick me out of the house. He said people
died, then you had to grieve and move on. But what he meant was I
either did what he said, or else.

Maybe Steven would’ve understood me if he
was my real father. But a lot of things would have been different
if Mom hadn’t found out she had cancer right after they got
engaged. And if he hadn’t hurried up to marry Sheila right after
the funeral. I’m not sure he ever loved Mom at all.

“
It takes more to make a father than
being called Dad,” Caroline said softly. “Something you never
understood, Steven.”

His answer to my grief was a spot on his
summer staff as an intern…and a kitten. But this wasn’t some teen
infatuation. Rob was the man I was going to marry. I’m not a little
girl crying who needed a new toy. I don’t need people telling me
what to do. I need vengeance.

Carolyn opened a cat carrier, then popped
Raven the kitten in. It began wailing.

“
You’ll be fine,” Carolyn assured,
shouldering her bag. She picked up the carrier. “I’m sorry, Raven.
But where I’m going, you can’t come with me.”

The place where Rob died is cursed. His
death wasn’t an accident. It was deliberate. Anyone who goes near
Latham’s Landing gets killed, or disappears. They say Rob’s boat
overturned in a storm, yet the weather was clear that day, with no
rain or strong winds forecast. He was murdered.

The bible says an eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth, a life for a life. You took him from me, Latham. Ghost
or whatever you are, I’m coming to burn you down.

“
Can you see he gets a good home?”
Carolyn asked hopefully, handing over the half-grown kitten in its
carrier. “His name is Raven. I’d love to keep him, but I’m
allergic.”

“
We hear that a lot,” the shelter
worker said sadly, casting Carolyn an appraising look. “We’ll do
our best, but we can’t promise anything.”

“
Here,” Carolyn said, peeling off a few
hundreds. “This should help.” She also handed over a card. “This is
my lawyer. If you can’t find a home for him, please call that
number. I’ll try to make other arrangements. I don’t want him put
to sleep—”

“
It’s obvious you care about him,” the
shelter worker said, petting the kitten through the cage with her
fingers. “Why don’t you keep him? There are shots you can get
nowadays for allergies—”

Because I’m going up against supernatural
forces,
Carolyn thought to herself.
I’m probably going to
die. And I’m not leaving him an orphan to fend for himself, and get
stuck with a family that might not love him, like I was.
“I
really can’t. But please call this number, no matter which way it
turns out. I’d love to hear you found him a good home.”

“
All right,” the worker said
reluctantly, putting the money in a lockbox under the desk and
pocketing the card. “You’ll need to sign this release form.” She
picked up the cat carrier. “Come on, Raven.”

Carolyn signed the form hurriedly, then
walked out without looking back, wiping at her teary eyes. She had
to be strong now, and see this through to the end. She had control
of her family assets, thanks to her lawyers. Now that Raven was
taken care of, there was only one more thing left to do, burn that
evil mansion down to the ground. Latham’s Landing had killed Rob.
She was going to destroy it, or die trying.

“
You want this for what?”

Carolyn counted silently to five, then forced
a smile at her priest, willing him to be accommodating. “I’m going
to visit a relative that is a shut in, and she’s religious. She
asked that I bring her some holy water, some wafers, and get a
blessing for these.” She handed him two rosaries, two gold cross
necklaces, and three rings that also had crosses engraved on them.
“Can you please bless these objects, Father? I’m happy to make a
donation for your trouble. I realize this is an odd request, but
it’s very important to my aunt—”

“
Of course,” her priest interrupted,
beaming as he beckoned to her. “Come in.”

Caroline followed him inside his rectory,
nervously shifting from foot to foot. The priest began setting each
item down on the table, then commenced to thank God for creating
the object, and implored God to empower the object that it could be
used for his greater glory.

Caroline listened, fidgeting.
How do I
know the priest is a true believer?
Her life would be riding on
his faith, if the stories of Latham’s Landing were true.
He
always acted like he truly believed, in the years he ministered to
me and mom. I guess I have to believe in him, and pray for the
best.
She began to pray quietly, closing her eyes, reciting the
words the priest said along with him.

The priest finished each blessing, then
handed the objects to Caroline, making the sign of the cross over
each one. Then he also made the sign of the cross over her. “For
your good health.”