The Traveler: Book 5, The Eddie McCloskey Paranormal Mystery Series (The Unearthed) (11 page)

“Where do you think she went?” Eddie said.

“Probably off on some drug binge. She likes to party too much, blow all the money. Then she comes back with her tail between her legs, saves up again. Repeats.”

Christie said, “We really need to talk to her, Mr. Lange. Are you lying to us?”

“Fuck no. I don’t like pigs but I also don’t lie to them neither. Got no reason to.”

“Then you won’t mind if I take a look around the house to make sure she’s not here.”

“I would mind, actually.”

“I can get a warrant in an hour.”

King nodded. “Then go get one,
slope
. No pigs come in without a warrant.”

He turned around and headed back to the house. Christie shot Eddie a look, which he took to mean,
Go ahead.

“Does she ever talk about Perks?” Eddie said.

King stopped in front of the steps and turned around. “Fuck no. She knows better than to bring him up around me.”

Christie pretended to get a text on her cell phone. “I have to make a call. I’ll be in the car.”

Eddie let her get a few feet away but had to ask his next question before King retreated inside.

“Is it true, what everybody says?”

King grimaced. “What does everybody say?”

Eddie stretched the moment so Christie could get back to the car. “That Perks forced her to help him?”

King tried to stare him down. But Eddie didn’t flinch.

King finally said, “She’s a crazy bitch.”

“Is that a yes?”

King didn’t answer.

“Does she ever talk about it?”

“No, I don’t let her.”

“How do you not let her?”

“I tell her not to bring it up.”

“You beat her quiet?”

King smiled. It was a cold, reptilian grin that sent a jagged shiver down Eddie’s spine. This guy was savage. His switch was hair-trigger. He could drop what little civility he had in the blink of an eye and turn into a wild animal.

King was careful with his words. “I put some sense into her.”

“Has anyone been by to see her recently?”

“Just her friend, that crazy bitch Sandy.”

“Who’s Sandy?”

King shrugged. “How the hell should I know? She’s crazy and has crazy friends.”

“How do they know each other?”

“Does it matter?”

Eddie was tired of the attitude. He envied Christie’s ability to put up with it on a daily basis. No doubt she got it ten times worse than him, being a woman.

“Yeah, it fucking matters, dipshit. So you can answer our questions or we’ll go get a warrant.”

“Go get a warrant,” King said. He turned around again.

“When was Perks here?”

King stopped on the steps. Had Eddie latched onto something?

King turned. “Huh?”

“When was Perks here?”

King frowned. “A day or two before he was killed.”

“Why’d you need time to think about that?”

“It was awhile ago.”

“It was the biggest shootout this town has ever seen, but you had to think about it?”

King said nothing.

“Has Perks been back since?”

King had trouble figuring out what Eddie was asking. He said nothing.

Eddie said, “Before he died, what happened when he came out here?”

“Me and him got into it.”

“Over Star?”

“What else?”

“What happened?”

“She’d left him, so he was pissed and didn’t want her with anybody else. He said no matter what happened to him, he’d find her.”

“What did he mean?”

King shrugged. “He knew the pigs were close, I guess.”

“How was he going to find her if he was in prison?”

King shrugged again. “He was crazy, man. Crazier than her even. How the hell should I know?”

Eddie thought it had to be significant. No matter what happened, maybe not even death, Perks vowed to find Star.

Eddie said, “Why did she leave him?”

“Yours truly became available.”

“And quite a catch you are.”

King smiled but there was nothing friendly behind the grin.

“Maybe she knew what he was up to.”

“Maybe she did,” King said, like it meant nothing to him. “Maybe he gave off a weird vibe and she caught it.”

“What happened when he came out here?”

“Me and him got into it.” King flashed that reptilian smile again. “And he lost.”

Eddie nodded. “We need to know where Star is. If you’re keeping information from us, you’re aiding and abetting.”

“Aiding and abetting what? Her drug binge? That’ll get me a day inside at most.”

“You’re interfering with a police investigation.”

“What investigation? Perks is dead.” King folded his arms. “It’s not like you’re chasing his ghost, are you?”

Eddie read between the lines. King had put two and two together. He must have heard the rumors about a ghost sighting.

Eddie said, “If you’re keeping anything from us, you could go to prison.”

King shrugged. “That don’t scare me.”

“Been in before?” Eddie said.

“Sure. Just like you.”

Eddie and King regarded each other. The cards were all on the table now. King knew exactly who he was.

“You haven’t seen Perks, have you?” Eddie asked.

King said nothing. He just smirked and went back inside.

Eddie shared the details of his conversation with King. Christie interjected with a lot of good questions, a few of them Eddie hadn’t thought to ask. They discussed next steps.

“Who knew Perks really well?” Eddie said.

“His mother, who to this day maintains his innocence,” Christie said.

“When you searched the apartment, did you find any evidence of the occult?”

Christie thought about it. “Nothing comes to mind.”

Eddie nodded. “Let’s pull the file when we get back to the station and take a look.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Something King said. Perks vowed to find Star, no matter what happened to him. This was around the time the net was closing in.”

“You think he meant he’d find her, even after death?”

Eddie sighed. “I’ll admit it’s thin, but it’s somewhere to look.”

“We have our pick of somewheres to look,” Christie said.

“True. So let’s hold off on that till we get back for the meeting with Knotts tonight.”

Christie got them back on a main road. Eddie liked getting some distance between King and himself. He didn’t trust the ex-con and found himself checking the passenger mirror.

“So next steps then,” Christie said.

Eddie said, “Is Fellov’s house open?”

“Harney ordered the crime techs back to do another sweep. He thinks they missed something.”

“Did they?”

“I doubt it,” Christie said. “But it’s what I’d do if I were him. He has no other leads so he might as well double-down on the physical evidence to see if there’s anything there.”

“What’s the deal between you two?”

She didn’t answer right away. “Did you ever just not get along with someone?”

Eddie smiled. “Happens all the time.”

“So you know what I mean.”

“I do.” He looked out the window as Christie drove. “Okay, we’ll hit Fellov’s later but I really need to get in there tonight.”

“I’ll make that clear to him.”

She made a right into a shopping center and parked in front of a deli. “Lunch?”

“You read my mind.”

They went inside. The deli was small and loud as the two girls working the registers called out orders to the guys in the back who were making the food. Eddie offered to pay for Christie’s, but she declined.

“I can just expense it.”

She finally laughed. It was the first one he’d seen. Score one for Eddie. She had a big, gorgeous smile and her eyes lit up.

“You are serious trouble, Eddie. You know that?”

“Is that a yes?”

“I’ll pay for my own, thank you.”

“Honest to a fault.”

They paid and grabbed the last empty table, by the front window. Two moms had brought their kids in, and their children were jumping up and down on their chairs and making a racket. The moms had mastered the double art of
tuning out
and somehow carrying on a conversation despite the noise.

“How are we going to find Star?” Eddie said.

Christie finished chewing and swallowed before speaking. “We’ll find her. But let’s not talk about it in here.”

“Detective Christie, are you taking a few minutes off? I’m shocked.”

She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “I don’t know why they make the sandwiches so big. I can barely eat half.”

“You’re not exactly big yourself.”

She quickly changed the subject. “So how’d you get into this line of work?”

Eddie laughed. “Fell into it, more or less.” And he told her about his fascination with the paranormal growing up, which had been sparked by his brother. Then how his brother had started ghost hunting on the side and developed a real solid team of locals. He told her about their early investigations, most of which had yielded zero results. He stopped before he got to the first big case they had, where his brother had been murdered. He figured she knew all about that.

“Does it pay?” she said.

“It does now,” Eddie said. “I don’t live large and it’s just enough. How did you end up here?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not from this town.”

“How do you know that?”

Eddie put his sandwich down. “Because you look at your GPS everywhere we go.”

“That could just be habit.”

“It’s not.”

“Or maybe I’m a woman and have no sense of direction.”

“You said it, not me.”

She sipped her soda and watched him over the cup. Clearly she was reluctant to open up to him. Whether that was because she was a cop and he was an ex-con, or whether that was because they were working together on this case, or whether that was because she just didn’t like him personally…he had no idea.

She put her cup down and pulled out her phone to check email. “My ex-husband is from here.”

“Is he still around?”

She nodded. “He’s a day trader and works from home. Have you ever been married?”

“Not even close.”

“How is that possible?”

He wondered if she was about to dish out some compliments. “What do you mean?”

“You’re late thirties and own your business. A man like that usually has prospects.”

“First of all, I’m
mid
thirties. Second, yeah I own a business but it’s not like I’m running a normal operation.”

“How about a girlfriend?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Nothing steady in…I don’t want to say how long.”

She studied him. “You are a player, I’ll bet.”

He laughed. “Maybe in my twenties. Now I don’t have the time even if I wanted to be.”

“Do you want to be?”

He shook his head no. “How about you?”

She said, “Let’s get back to work.”

Eddie didn’t budge. “What would you say if I asked you out?”

“I would say we’re in the middle of an investigation, Eddie.” There was no inflection in her voice, just that preternatural calm. “And I don’t date anyone I’m working with.”

Which just intrigued him more. He wondered what her husband was like, how long they’d been together, why they’d split up. He imagined what she’d be like in the bedroom. He could tell she was sensual, could tell she knew what she liked. She was always in perfect control while at the office, he figured she was wild in the bedroom.

Or he was just wishful-thinking his way into a fantasy.

“Fair enough.” He wiped the smile off his face. This woman was exciting him. “But I think you would say yes.”

She didn’t react at all.

***

Christie finished her call with Harney and put her phone away. “He isn’t happy about it, but he’s going to run down Sandy.”

Eddie leaned against the cruiser. It’d been brisk earlier, but now it was getting warm in the sun. Typical March. You could never get comfortable.

“What about the techs?” Eddie said.

“They’ll be done in another hour or two. So we can look at Tonya Schubert or Tiffany Engel.”

Eddie thought about it. “Who can we talk to about Schubert?”

“Schubert was a saint, so we could talk to anybody and they’d probably know her.”

“I hate to say it but Harney’s right. She’s not the type that would turn into a murderous ghost.”

“You know what’s bothering me?”

“The fact that I haven’t asked you out yet.”

She completely ignored the comment. “We keep saying the ghost is murdering these people.”

“Right.”

“But does the ghost mean to?”

Eddie had considered this. “It’s a problem, I agree.”

“Why didn’t you bring it up, then?”

“Because I got blindsided by that meeting with Knotts. I hadn’t formed any theories yet.”

“Sorry about that. Harney called for it. He wanted to catch you with your pants down.”

Eddie saw an opening for a line but thought better of it. “No big.”

“I read your blog, so I know that ghosts sometimes manipulate their physical environments. Why would our ghost intentionally try to scare people to death? Why wouldn’t they just pick up a knife, or find a gun? There are easier ways to kill a person, and scaring them isn’t a surefire way.”

Eddie nodded. “I agree. So there are a few possibilities. Maybe the ghost
didn’t mean to kill anybody
. Maybe she was just trying to communicate with them. And unfortunately, both Stahl and Fellov reacted poorly to her presence and died of fright.”

“Long shot, right?”

“Everything is a long shot in this case right now. Another possibility is the ghost
cannot
manipulate the environment. Not all ghosts can. Maybe all she can do is appear and scaring people to death is the only way she can kill them.”

Christie nodded. “Makes sense. So can you test the ghost’s abilities?”

Eddie nodded. “As long as we can find her.”

Christie drove. He wondered what she thought of him. She must have liked what she’d found on his blog and online, so at least she thought him competent.

Eddie said, “Okay, so everybody will say good things about Schubert. That probably won’t help much. So how about we look at Engel first.”