Haven of Nightmares (Littlemoon Investigations Book 5) (34 page)

Entering the room, they saw the smashed urns from Roman’s meltdown. They were still all over, but they weren’t alone.

The floor was covered in a puddle of blood. In the middle of it was a body.

It looks like Trey and Bethany had been right.

They found Elbert Barber.

“Don’t get too close,” Hart said, calling in his team. They had a fresh scene, and that meant they might get some evidence from this.

The killer had screwed up.

“I’ve done this a few times,” Tori stated. “I need to get a look. I see something.”

She approached, stopping just outside the perimeter of the blood. She had a good view of the body.

“What is it?” Roman asked.

“Someone cut out his heart.”

Mattie gasped.

“Yeah, it gets far worse,” she stated, pulling out her phone to zoom in and take a picture. When she showed them, they all saw what she had meant.

There was a pentacle.

“We have something evil going on here. It looks like black magick.”

The news just got worse.

Much worse.

Chapter Nineteen

Thursday Morning

It didn’t take long for Detective Rose’s team to arrive and for them to start doing what they did best. As they worked, Hart knew he had to do the notify, and it was going to suck.

Only, that wasn’t the only problem weighing on his shoulders. Once his bosses heard about another victim found on the campus, they were going to insist on a formal interview. Insist was a mild word for what was going to happen.

It was going to get ugly.

He wasn’t going to have a choice in cutting Roman Remington a break. At this point, suspicion was mounting, and he had to do his job. That being said, it meant running Roman through the ringer to appease the higher-ups.

This was going to suck too.

He genuinely liked the Littlemoons. It was his instinct telling him that they were good people. He didn’t believe, for one single second, that Roman Remington had anything to do with this.

Still..

He had to bring bosses something.

From the outside, looking in, this whole thing was strange. The media had pegged the Littlemoons as something of an enigma, and when they got a hold of this angle, it was going to erupt. The papers, news, and internet were going to be awash with the chaos, speculation, and gossip.

He knew it.

So, he had to break it to them.

Now he could only hope that they wouldn’t hold it against him in the end. If they did, he couldn’t really blame them. He was about to become that dick of a cop that he never wanted to be.

This was the shitty part of the job.

He was about to disappoint people, and himself.

Hart knew that it didn’t matter what his
‘gut’
said. It only mattered what came across his superiors’ desks, and what played out in the media.

When he found them, they were sitting inside the family’s quarters waiting for his arrival. From the looks on their faces, he could tell one thing.

They knew it was coming.

They were braced for it, and the tension was palpable. That made it even harder.

“I’m sorry,” he stated. “My hands are tied and there is nothing I can do to avoid this. With this murder, and the ritualistic implications, they’re going to want to keep this under control.”

Roman didn’t know what he was talking about, but Tori and Julian did. “I’m confused,” he admitted.

“He has to do a formal interview, Roman,” Tori stated. “You had a recent death here, and the code used to access the campus was the one specifically designated for the family. You’re the only family left. He’s got to bring you in to ask you the hard questions.”

Mattie looked horrified.

“He didn’t do it! I was with him. I’ll swear on a stack of bibles that he’s not guilty of any of this!”

Hart held up his hand to stop her. “Miss Boyd, I know that, but I have to do this. If I don’t, they’ll yank me and give this case to a co-worker. It’s going to be huge in the media. Hell! It already is. We have calls coming in from the families who saw your name attached to it. I’ve had confrontations with a father of one of the missing girls. As soon as that pentagram gets out, and it will, this is going to be all over BNN.”

Julian was aware.

The facts of life were tough, but he knew that there was no way you could stop all the leaks. Once the cops were called in, all it took was an anonymous source to call it in, and they were screwed.

It could be a fellow cop who hated Hart.

It could be a disgruntled tech.

It could be anyone looking for a side payoff—reporters often paid for anonymous tips from secret sources. 

The lid was going to be blown off the minute the body left the premises, and the second it happened, it was all about damage control while they worked.

At least Nyx and Beau were headed back. Then Shelby wouldn’t be trying to get rich off this—
again.

“It’s okay,” Roman offered. “I know you have to do it, Detective Rose. I don’t blame you. You’re simply doing your job.”

He was glad the man understood.

“I’m going to have to be tough, but I promise, Mr. Remington, that I am in your corner. I don’t, for one second, believe that you’re behind this.”

“Why?”

“Because I know how it feels to fight a battle so big that you know you can’t overcome it. I know how it sucks when you feel like you’re never going to stay ahead of it. Plus, my instinct knows you aren’t a killer.”

He relaxed.

“I don’t go after innocent people, and I always fight to find justice. I like to find the real criminal.”

Mattie chimed in, “I’m his alibi.”

Hart was aware. “I’m going to head out to do the notify for the widow. I’ll need to clear a room and get ready. The best bet is for you to pretend that you’re not a couple,” he stated, pointing at Mattie.

She opened her mouth.

“You have one hell of a hickey on your neck, your face is brush burned from his scruff. I don’t think you were cozying up with a ghost, and I doubt Julian is cheating on his wife. It was a logical assumption since there are only four of you here, and you got all protective the second I mentioned formal interview.”

Mattie blushed. “Uh, okay.”

Roman thanked him.

He really wished he wouldn’t.

“I’m going to tear into you. I’m going to be hard, asking questions you’re going to hate. I have to do it. I need you to believe it’s not personal. If I show weakness in there, they’ll know it. My bosses know how I run an interrogation. Any mercy, and you’ll be tossed to another investigator. They won’t have this little gift of gut instinct, and they’ll crucify you in the media and the interview. Not all cops care if the suspect is guilty.”

Tori patted Roman’s arm. “He’s right. We’ve all been there. It doesn’t matter what we think. It’s what we had to prove. He’s going to try to prove you were the killer, and you’re tying up loose ends. You have to show him otherwise.”

Roman was familiar. He recalled sitting behind that table as a teenager.

It sucked.

Then he was scared.

Now he was only thinking about one thing.

Protecting Mattie from this mess.

“I’m going to ask if you’re a couple. You’re going to lie to me. I’m going to pretend I buy it. Cover that throat up, and make the brush burn go away. I’m damn good at my job, and I’m going to help you dig out of this, but in my own way.”

He shook Hart’s hand. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You’re going to be lynched in the media. Be at the office in two hours. The media will be following me, so they might not notice you arriving. That’s our best case scenario at this point.”

“Watch your back, Detective,” Tori stated.

“You too,” he said to the Littlemoons. “Be ready.”

As he headed out, Tori decided they would have some time, so they needed to handle some of the details from the previous evening.

“We need to talk.”

Roman was all ears. The second the man left, Mattie moved closer, and he had his arm around her.

“About?”

Julian stated the obvious. “We have your back. No matter what the media throws at us, we’re not bailing on you. That is the first, and foremost, thing that you need to know. You’re our employee, and we’re going to protect you.”

He was so glad. “Thank you, Tori and Julian. You’ll never know how much I appreciate that.”

“You’re our family,” Tori added. “We take care of our own, and if Hart gets booted from this case, and we need a lawyer to keep you safe, we’ll get you the best one. You’re not going down for murder when you clearly aren’t guilty.”

Mattie was nervous. “Is that a possibility? Could they really throw him in jail for this?”

They had both worked in law enforcement. When a dirty cop wanted to make you look bad, they could. They had to put all their faith in Detective Rose.

This would be a test for the man they had opted to trust. If he burned them, he was going down. Tori and Julian would use all they had to do it too.

Connections.

FBI.

Their skills.

“No, it’ll be fine,” Roman stated. He didn’t want Mattie worrying. He gave Julian a look, and without words, he conveyed what he needed most.

If this went badly, and he was locked up, Matilda Boyd would be safe. They would still take her back to Delta Falls and give her a family to protect her.

That’s all he really needed.

Julian nodded, signaling he got it.

“Okay, we found some things, and we need to know what you know,” Tori stated.

“Shoot.”

“Who are Chase Weber and Blake Lyons?”

Roman didn’t have to think hard for either of them. “My best friend at the school and his brother had attended Remington from the start. Harrison was the easy going one, but Chase…he was a handful. My dad took it upon himself to make sure that Chase walked the straight and narrow. Their parents were dead, and they needed to get their educations according to the estate lawyer. If they wanted their trust funds, they had to complete their education.”

“Okay, why was he in a detention book that your father had?”

“Chase was a hot mess. The ladies loved him, but he couldn’t follow the rules. He was tough to handle.”

“Did he graduate?”

“Yeah, he did. It was the year after Harrison and I did, but he somehow made it. I think he’s turned his life around. I think he’s this doctor with a sexy young wife—who he treats like arm candy. Personally, I like librarians.”

Mattie ran her hand up and down his leg. She was so glad he did.

“What about Blake Lyons?”

“He hated my freaking guts. That kid gunned for me the entire time he was here. When he pointed his aggression at my sister, my parents finally dismissed him on some rule that I couldn’t believe would stick. He wasn’t happy, and neither were his parents.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. The only thing I’ve ever heard about him was that his father was in charge of this big Ponzi scheme, and the whole thing collapsed around him. You know…rich people problems. His father is in prison, his mother remarried back into money, and Blake…no clue. He was an only child.”

Tori made notes. They were going to find him.

“When did he get kicked out?”

“The year before it all started happening…” He realized where she was taking it. “You think it was him? You think it’s about my past?”

“He’s a suspect. Right now, we don’t have many. We have to take any that pop up at face value. At this point, it could be anyone, and your neck is on the line.”

They had a point.

“We know from the code that it had to be someone familiar with the campus. You, yourself, said that only so many people would know the master code.”

“I wouldn’t have given it to him.”

“He could have gotten it anywhere.”

They had a point.

“Who is Gene Gentry?” she asked, continuing the questioning.

The name was very familiar.

“After my father killed himself, but before my mother took her life, he was running the place for that year. He was a family friend. My dad trusted him.”

Tori added him to the list she was creating.

“Where is he now?”

“As far as I know, he lives in town. He and his wife would be about retirement age, I think. He and my dad were close. I guess you could call them best friends.”

Tori pulled out her phone. “We need to get a few names run through our people. They’re going to hate getting this call, but we need them up and researching.”

“We need another office on this side of the country,” Julian stated. “Then we wouldn’t have to worry about the three hour time difference.”

Tori knew that was her husband’s dream in life. Unfortunately, he liked to handpick his employees, to make sure they were quality. At this rate, they’d be dead before their current office was filled.

As the phone rang, Justin’s voice came over the line.

“Unless my brother is dead, you shouldn’t be calling. It’s inhumane and barely four in the morning.”

“We need help,” Tori said, putting the call on speaker. “We have the police closing in on Roman, wanting to put his ass in jail, Nyx has burned out her gift, I’m carrying two spirits, and we just had a body with a pentagram left for us. If this wasn’t an emergency, I’d be having breakfast not reaching out to touch someone.”

Justin was immediately wide-awake.

“Do you need me and Vivian to hop a plane?” he asked. “We can be there by this afternoon.”

Julian was tempted.

If his office was fully staffed, he would have taken the offer. “No, stay there, but we do need help.”

“What can we do?”

“I have some research I need. I know Beckett was running a few for us, but I have specifics to narrow it down,” Tori stated.