Haven of Nightmares (Littlemoon Investigations Book 5) (17 page)

Then back to her again.

Yeah, they were screwed.

“So, you’re a psychic? We’re talking a genuine, ghost talking psychic?”

“Yes.”

Damn!

She didn’t lie.

He didn’t sense one.

In fact, she was calm, not defensive, and being open. That meant only one thing for him. She was telling him what she believed to be the truth. How could that be?

He pulled out his phone. “I need a minute.”

With that, he walked away.

Roman was the first to speak. “Tori, you didn’t have to do that. I would have held up under the interview, and I would have kept the agency’s secret safe.”

She was aware, but she did have to do it.

“I have you guys to corroborate my location. I was back West with you guys, on the day the last three girls went missing, and I’ve been here with Matilda the entire time. She’s my alibi too.”

She got that, but it was deeper than that. On this one, they were all going to have to put their faith in her and Bethany. They were driving this bus.

They didn’t know what she knew.

They didn’t see what she saw.

Bethany was going insane in her head, and that meant one thing. This guy was just like Beckett, Vivian, her, and Nyx. He had a gift, and she was willing to bet it was his heightened intuition. As a cop that would come in handy. He’d sense lies, and he’d feel out situations around him.

Oh, he knew it too.

“They’re looking for a scape goat, and I won’t give them one, Roman. Julian and I protect our family, and this is the same thing. You’re not just an employee. You’re part of us.”

Roman looked relieved.

“She’s got a point,” Julian stated.

She hushed them when she heard footsteps.

When he came back, they were still waiting for him. “I had to send the ME in with the bodies. I have a feeling this is going to be long, complicated, and time consuming.”

“It won’t be long at all. I’m a psychic, he didn’t do it, and that’s the end of it.”

He laughed.

Granted, she was telling the truth. It didn’t work that way, and she knew it. There were procedures and policies he had to follow. This man was a person of interest, he was there when the bodies were found, and he looked guilty as hell.

Everhart had to do his job.

“I need to question him in an official capacity. He was a suspect, and then here he is, the day the victims turn up ten years later. One was his sister and one was his girlfriend—he has a personal attachment to the victims. That puts his ass in the middle of this mess.”

“I’m innocent,” Roman said, reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out a boarding pass. “Here’s when I arrived. You can also check back where we’re from. I was there all week. I got here yesterday, and that’s it. The victims were gone.”

“And the old bodies?”

“He was with me,” Matilda stated.

“And you are?”

“I’m Matilda Boyd. Devora was my sister. I’m his alibi and will attest that he wasn’t alone for a minute.”

He shook his head.

“I tried to hire the Littlemoons to find her body,” she began, “and they have done exactly that. In the process, I ran into Roman working there. We’ve taken this on as a team. We want closure for our families.”

She didn’t lie either.

“Are you the only psychic here?” he asked Tori.

This was the cue she needed.

“No.”

“Who else is then?” Detective Rose asked.

“You are.”

“What?” he asked, sure he had never told anyone anything about his gift. How did you explain it without sounding like a nut?

You didn’t.

“
YOU
think I am?”

“I know you are, and so do you. I can prove it.”

He closed the notebook and glanced over at Roman. “This is over here. I’m going to take him in for official questioning.”

It was time for Tori to blow his mind.

“Your name is Everhart Red Rose. It was a joke between your parents. They were romantics at heart. When you came screaming into the world, they named their first, and only, child Hart Red Rose. You were born on Valentine’s Day, and it was amusing for them. They were damn funny. Your dad still is.”

He stared at her.

“That was a joke between them until the day she died, wasn’t it? You still bring red roses to her grave every Valentine’s Day.”

Julian watched his wife work.

Yeah, there was no doubt that she was getting stronger. He could see it in her confidence, and how easily she pulled information out of the air around her. She was obviously seeing something the rest of them weren’t.

Or hearing it.

“Who told you?” he looked around for a camera. Maybe this was some prank.

“Your mother, Cheri.”

He stared at her, trying to find the lie. He wanted desperately to tear her apart for going there. His private life was just that and sacred to him.

“She’s feeding me the information. She’s right behind you, in case you’re curious as to where she is.”

He turned, backing away from where he had been standing. His face said it all.

“You have her eyes. They were that same liquid-y silver color.”

He spun, moving toward her. “Stop it.”

“Why? You believe psychics exist, but I can’t be one? What? Only you can have a gift? It’s a big world, Hart, and there are so many of us.”

He stopped right in front of her, his fists balled.

“Let’s face it. I found the bodies in five hours, Hart. I found the first piece of this.”

He didn’t know what to say.

Tori looked away from him, as if staring at something still behind him. She knew no one could see the woman but her. So, she needed more information to prove it to him.

“She’s not done talking.”

“What does she have to say?” he asked curiously.

If this was his mother…

He didn’t want to get his hopes up.

“She’s in biking gear. The helmet is pink, the shorts are blue, and across the back…”

“Rose.”

She nodded. “Not the name, but an actual picture of one. She liked to be funny.”

He closed his eyes.

“She was in your life, and then…” Tori snapped her fingers.

They all jumped.

“Then she was gone. You told her that morning not to go biking. You knew she was going to die, but you were just a boy. You begged her to stay home, you told her you were sick, throwing up, feverish, but she still went.”

They waited for the confirmation.

“She had a triathlon coming up, and the ride was important to her. Only, she didn’t know that she was important to me. On that day, I came in last.”

Tori moved toward him, and he didn’t step back.

Well, that was progress.

“She feels horrible for that, Hart. Cheri wants to tell you she’s sorry. She should have put you first and listened to you.”

Tears filled his eyes. “You really see her, don’t you?”

Tori nodded. “She has a message for Tom. Tell him that the woman he met, the one he’s agonizing over, is a lovely choice, and he’s waited too long to get remarried. It’s okay for him to take his ring off.”

Tori was wearing down, and fast.

She didn’t have much more, and she knew it. This was taking one hell of an energy drain.

“I need proof. Have her knock. Have her do something. I want to believe, Tori, but this is crazy.”

His badge flipped out of his pants pocket, landing on the one corner. It balanced precariously.

That shocked the hell out of him.

“Mom?”

“That was Bethany. She’s my spirit guide. Your mom can’t manifest. She’s just here to give you this message and move on. She’s been waiting for someone who could communicate between you.”

He looked around.

“She knows that you’re okay, and so is your dad. It’s her time to go. She’s watched over you, and she sees that you’re fine.”

“Mom? Are you really here?”

“Lean down,” Tori said.

He did.

He felt the kiss. It was gentle and on his cheek. It was the only sign he really needed. It was proof enough for him to trust the woman before him.

“I love you, Mom.”

When it was gone, he glanced over at Tori.

“Do you believe me now, Detective?”

As if timed, the radio in the corner turned on and the channels began flipping.

“She’s. The. Real. Deal.”

Everhart stared at it, his mouth open. “Uh, what the hell was that?”

“Trey,” Julian stated. “Knock it off. We know you’re here. Stop trying to hog the spotlight.”

The detective just laughed. “This is so weird. I don’t even know what to say to any of this.”

Julian headed toward the chirping radio, showing the man it wasn’t even plugged in. “See why we need to do this the right way?”

Yeah, he got it. 

She was a psychic.

Well, that explained a lot. Those were some tough cases that they’d solved.

“We need your help. We’re going to stop this killer, but we can’t do it alone,” she stated. “We’ll need the reports, some inside track details, and your official assistance.”

“You can have the credit,” Julian stated, bracing his body against Tori. She was a little wobbly, and he knew she had likely drained herself trying to do her medium thing.

“I don’t care about the credit,” Detective Rose said. “What you just gave me was something precious. I was able to say goodbye. Finally.”

That was why she didn’t mind carrying this burden. As her gift grew, she’d embrace it for the Detective Roses in the world. This wasn’t only about saving the dead.

It was about helping the living too.

“Help us,” she asked. “Join our team until we wrap this up, and then we’ll be out of your hair for good.”

He could do that.

Holding out his hand, he offered her his. “If you’re playing me, Mrs. Littlemoon, there will be repercussions in the end. I can promise you that.”

She patted his arm. “Hart, you have all the power. You know my secrets. If anything, you can screw us over.”

She was right.

“What does your gift of intuition tell you?” she asked.

“It tells me to trust you, and stay away from your husband. He wants to rip out my heart, stomp on it, and put it back in upside down.”

She started laughing.

“I wasn’t thinking upside down. He made that part up,” Julian admitted.

The radio chimed to life.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

“Shup up, Trey!” they all said at once.

Hart grinned. “It looks like we’re going to be a team.”

Great
.

Julian hoped that didn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

Chapter Nine

Wednesday Late

Afternoon

The place had quieted down considerably. The police had left, taking the remains with them. Everhart Rose had to go back to do his job and start working the case.

He would pop back in as soon as he could, and then join their investigation.

Until then, they’d stay in and try to work the case.

They now had one heck of an issue, and it was a huge one. The media had gotten word that three victims had turned up at Remington Academy.

The second that happened, they went into full vulture mode. They were now posted outside the gates, hoping to find anything that would add to the nightly news clips that were going to be looped on air.

They were prisoners on the haunted grounds.

Great
.

As Roman made them dinner, he wished he could do more for them. They were stuck eating peanut butter and jelly, only because their supplies were limited.

He wanted to show his appreciation for what Tori had done that day. It meant the world to him.

She’d stood up for him.

So had Julian.

It had been years since anyone made him feel like he belonged in their circle.

They made him feel like he wasn’t just being paid, but that he was part of their family. That was something he could never pay back, and he knew it.

It was a gift.

A huge one.

Placing the sandwiches down on the table, he took a seat not far from Matilda. She looked exhausted. Come to think about it—so was he.

It had been a long, stressful day. He couldn’t think of a worse day, and then he recalled what had happened at the hellish school ten years ago.

Okay, so it wasn’t that bad.

Maybe it was starting to look up. After all, they’d found both of their sisters, even though the ghosts were still haunting the place, and they were no closer to finding the killer.

It was frustrating but there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Kind of...

“Where do we even start?” Roman asked, feeling a little overwhelmed by the entire thing.

Tori took a bite of her sandwich. She was starving, and so was Veronica. It was definitely feeding time for her. PB&J never tasted so good in all her life.

“You were an investigator of sorts—what would you have done first?” she asked. Part of taking him out in the field was seeing how he worked under pressure. They didn’t want to have a loose cannon running around representing them.

This was a test.

Now, Roman had to pass it.

They waited as he thought about it.

“I’d start digging and asking questions around their disappearance ten years ago. Since it started then, it would be my focus.”

Julian took a sip of his water. “We’re going to narrow that down. We know two things about this case.”

“And they are?” Roman asked, trying to learn on the fly. This wasn’t so different from being a reporter. It was a lot of the same details, but with the potential to lose the perfect grammar.

“We know that they were all killed by a man, and that they were placed under concrete.”

He didn’t say anything.

Roman tried to piece it together.

Tori continued, “We have to see who was here when that Quad was being constructed. Who had access to it?”

He got it.

“That’s easy. My father would have designed it, since that was his thing. He likely built it to give the students a calming place to go and study. The more I think about it, the more I remember him and my mother talking about it.”

“Okay, so he planned it. Who built it? I can’t picture the headmaster at this rich kid hangout getting his hands dirty.”

He thought about it.

They were right. His father was the thinker. He never liked to break a sweat, unless it was carrying a few too many books up the stairs.

He was a gentleman and a scholar.

And a coward for taking his life.

“It was the groundskeeper,” Matilda offered, filling in the blanks. “I remember walking past one day on the way to the conservatory to practice, and Elbert Barber was digging and marking off the area.”

“He still works here,” Roman offered. “I kept him on, since he knew how to take care of the place. Besides, no one wants to be here. It creeps everyone out, and good help is hard to find.”

Yeah, didn’t Julian know that? He hired family for that reason.

“He’s the best place to start,” Tori stated. “We can’t ask your dad…” Then she laughed. “Okay, we probably could ask your dad if I could find his spirit in this mess. Maybe Bethany can track him down and interrogate him.”

Julian laughed. “Our lives have gotten so odd. Before I was worried about you kicking someone’s ass and getting hurt, and now I have to worry about your minion ghosts doing the deed.”

She grinned. “Adapt. Adjust. Overcome. It’s a good soldier’s motto.”

Yeah, wasn’t that the damn truth?

“Okay, so say you can find my father’s spirit, how will you talk to him? A Ouija board?” Roman asked. “I’m not mocking you. I just don’t know how this works. I saw you read the detective, but that drained you. By the end of the five minute conversation, you were pale.”

Julian stepped in and fielded that one. “I think we need to call in backup on this one. Tori has only been doing this a few months. We need someone who can handle the heavy spirit lifting, so to speak.”

They all knew who he was talking about.

“Nyx?” Roman asked.

“Yep. She’s more familiar with the spirit world, and she will be able to do that séance thing and channel. If we can find your father, we can ask what the hell was going on here.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t involved.”

They stared at the man.

“No offense, Roman, but something evil was going on here. This big ball of negativity didn’t happen only from the killings. We have nine dead girls, a growing darkness, and there’s a reason why. We have to figure it out,” Tori stated. “We have to get to the bottom of it.”

He understood.

Pulling out her phone, Tori dialed the office. Lena answered and patched her through to Nyx.

“Hey! Are you guys okay?” she asked.

Tori put her on speaker. “Well, we’ve found three of the victims, the ghosts have seemed to calm down for the moment, and we have a dilemma.”

“What is it?”

“Are Claire and Beck there by any chance?”

“Yeah, we’re all having something to eat in the conference room. You’re a few hours ahead of us. It’s still lunch time here.”

“Put me on speaker.”

She did.

“Claire, Beck, I need a favor.”

“What is it, boss?” Beckett asked.

“We need mega research done. We’re starting to tie this all together, but we need a place to start. The three new victims, who were taken, were all from a local school. I need you to do some research for us while we’re in the field.”

“Can do.”

Julian spoke up, “We had two schools targeted. What do both schools have in common?”

“Teachers and students,” Beckett answered. “You think that maybe one of the teachers who taught there is now at the other school?”

“Yep. I really do. While we’re working on the grounds keeper and Roman’s father, we need you to find us a link.”

“Uh, how are you going to interview his father? Isn’t the man dead?”

“That’s where Nyx comes in. We need her to hop a flight and join us. She’s going to help channel. I can’t handle all the spirits here. I’m on overload.”

“I can head there,” she offered. “I’m sure that place has to be overwhelming.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Tori said. “Right now, I have some woman weeping right by me. She’s wailing. It’s hard to concentrate.”

“We talked about how to shut them out,” Nyx offered. “You need to tell them to back off, close off your mind, and don’t let them in.”

She laughed. “This place is pure evil. They aren’t listening. I’ve pretty much offered up my sexy husband if they’ll shut up. They won’t take a hint.”

“Hey!” Julian objected, getting his wife to laugh.

“Be careful,” stated Claire. “If anything happens to you or that baby, Clarissa will flip out. She’s already called every day this week to tell me to feed you. She’s moving in soon if you don’t gain weight.”

Tori laughed. She was well aware.

Julian’s mother had lost a grandchild in utero, and she wasn’t letting it happen again.

“I’ll be fine. I have backup here. We just need someone who can handle more of the energy.”

“I’ll be on the flight tonight, and be there sometime late tonight.”

Roman gave them the details of how to access the property.

Julian stopped him. “Nyx, bring Beau. He’s going to have to sneak you onto the grounds. You can’t go through the front gate. We have media all over the place. They’re dogging Roman now that there are bodies.”

Beau started laughing. “That happens to be my specialty. I can get her to the building. We’ll do it Army style.”

“Ohhh, kinky,” she teased.

Julian groaned. “Come on!”

Nyx laughed. “Don’t worry, Tori, we’ll get there to help out. Hang in there.”

That was all they could really do.

“Great. Claire and Beckett will find dig up information on the teachers, Nyx and Beau will get here, and tomorrow, we’ll have some fun.”

Julian lifted a brow. “I don’t think a séance in a building full of angry spirits sounds like fun, Tori. In fact, it sounds like crazy fell out of the bag and is running around with an ax to grind.”

She snorted. “I love you.”

Oh, he loved her too, but she was forgetting one thing. The dead couldn’t be killed, but they could be.

“Just get here, Nyx. We’ll go from there.”

“I’ll call you when we get some details on the teachers,” Beckett said, right before the call ended.

“Now what?” Matilda asked.

“Now we wander around and wait. Roman, can you find your groundskeeper and tell him we need to see him tomorrow?”

He got up. “I can call him. His number is in my father’s office downstairs. I’ll be right back.”

When he was gone, Matilda lowered her voice. “I’m worried about him. I admit that I don’t know him all that well, but I feel like he’s closing down.”

Detective Rose wasn’t the only one with good instincts. It looked like Mattie had them too. She was definitely right.

Then again, could they blame him?

His family home was haunted.

The school they owned was turning into a cemetery.

Reporters wanted to crucify him in the paper.

Oh, and something was trying to kill them in a giant evil-filled school.

If Roman wasn’t tied up in knots over all this, they would have thought something was definitely wrong.

The shit was getting real at Remington Academy.

That was for sure.

“Just try and keep him focused on the facts. We’re going to solve this, and we’re going to stop this killer.”

“I hope so. I think I’m going to go keep him company. I’m worried about him.”

That was probably a good idea. When Matilda headed off, Julian glanced over at his wife.

“I have a bad feeling.”

She did too.

“We need to figure out what the hell is going on, Julian. That female spirit is weeping and wailing. She’s muttering
‘how could he’
, over and over again.”

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know, but it makes me nervous.”

Yeah, it probably should.

Julian pulled his wife against his body and held her close. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll figure this out.”

“I hope so. I feel hunted.”

Yeah, he did too, and that was a damn bad sign.

Roman had found his father’s little book of numbers. While he had Elbert Barber’s number in his phone, it had mysteriously been wiped of all the power and information.

It was creepy.

What kind of game was this ghost playing to erase all of his contacts?

It was empty.

He didn’t want to freak Matilda out, so he kept it to himself. He could re-add them later, or when he got home. Then he thought about going home without her.

That hurt his heart.

He’d lost her once already, and that time was coming again. He could see the writing on the wall.

They only had this case.

While they weren’t a couple, there was that definite attachment building. She felt like she belonged to him, and he didn’t want to let that go.