The Ghoul Next Door (31 page)

I shook my head ruefully and sipped at the coffee. “I like them for the Cup,” I said, laughing a little again.

“Yeah. Me too. They’re wicked good.” Souter added a wink and then she made a little more small talk, about the weather and such. At last the coffee and her relaxed attitude took effect and I stopped shivering. “You ready to tell me what happened?”

I nodded and got on with it. I told her everything, holding nothing back, not even my conversation with Lester Akers. I didn’t care if she thought I was crazy, I knew I wasn’t.

To her credit she listened to all of it without interruption except to have me elaborate on a point or two while she took detailed notes. When I was done, she leaned back in her chair, moved her reading glasses off her nose, and said, “So, let me get this straight: This Sylvester Akers possesses these men and gets them to commit murder?”

I shook my head. I’d seen too much of the real nature of the men listed in the closet to think that’s what was going on. “No, but he does help draw out the psychotic nature of men already predisposed to violence. At best, I think he encourages them to act on their homicidal thoughts, and during the act of murder I think Sy is very much present, hence all the wounds made by a left-handed attacker. Sy enjoys the bloodlust and jumps into their minds to share the experience.” And then I remembered Gilley standing in front of me in the doorway of his condo wielding a knife, and I knew that Sy had been getting stronger as his brother’s condition worsened, and he was starting to influence the minds of innocent men too, like Luke and Gilley. I kept that part to myself, however, because I knew that Souter wasn’t likely to understand.

Souter looked back at her notes. “Still,” she said skeptically. “Seven homicidal men all living at some time in one house? That seems a little far-fetched, don’t you think?”

I shook my head again. “Not to me. It’s my experience that positive energy attracts positive energy, and negative energy attracts negative energy. I believe the men in question were drawn to that house by some inexplicable force they couldn’t quite name. Once they were there, they became angrier, more withdrawn, and their thoughts grew darker and eventually turned to murder. But I also want to point out that, for the record, it’s not seven homicidal men we’re talking about—it’s six, including Sy Akers. I believe that Murdering Mike and Lethal Luke were one and the same.”

“Mike Lucas,” she said.

“Yes.”

She sighed and looked at her notes again. “We ran a quick background check on the good doctor and know what we found?”

“Another body?” I guessed. I knew deep in my bones that Lucas had killed before.

“Yeah. He had a girlfriend as a med student who was found stabbed to death in her apartment. Supposedly the doc found her and tried to revive her, before calling nine-one-one. She lived in a rough part of town with a dope dealer for a neighbor and he was a straight-A student, so nobody looked too closely at him as a suspect.”

“Where was he living at the time?” I asked.

She tapped her finger on the table. “Stoughton Street.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“In light of all this we’re going to open that case back up. And now it looks like I’m going to relook at him for Brook Astor’s murder, along with reopening the Gracie Stewart murder too.”

“Ken Chamblis is someone you’ll want to interview for her murder. Talk to the bartender at Sheedy’s—her name is Tracy. I don’t know where Chamblis lives, but I’ll bet you can track him down.”

“Oh, we will,” Souter said, making a few more notes.

“As for Brook Astor, I’m telling you, Dr. Lucas did it,” I said. “And he tried to frame Luke Decker for it. He knew Luke and his wife had had an affair during their divorce.”

“Yeah, we heard about that too, but he wasn’t the father of her baby; that we know for sure.”

“Do you think it was Dr. Lucas’s?”

Souter shrugged, but then she shook her head. “I don’t think so. One of the day nurses we interviewed said that Brook came to the hospital shortly before she was murdered to confirm her pregnancy. She’d confided to the nurse that she was dating somebody new—a guy who lived in L.A.—and it was getting pretty serious. Brook was thinking about moving out there to be with him, and we were able to eliminate the new boyfriend as a suspect. We thought that’d point to Decker as the killer more firmly, but then we couldn’t figure out how he might know about her pregnancy until we learned that any of the hospital staff could easily access Brook’s medical files. I figured maybe Dr. Decker had poked around where she didn’t belong and had passed on the info to her little brother, but that theory always bothered me because Luke and Brook had split up a full year before. And I couldn’t see Dr. Decker risking her medical license to pass on the news of the pregnancy to Luke. I mean, she’s a smart lady. Why would she want to stir up trouble?”

“She didn’t,” I said. “It was Dr. Lucas who accessed the medical records. I think he found out she’d been to the clinic, started looking into her medical records, and discovered the pregnancy. Maybe he even knew about the guy in L.A. I bet he killed her because she’d had the nerve to leave him when she discovered he was cheating on her, and not even a year later she’s having another man’s child. He’s the type to want to get revenge for something like that, and I’ll bet he thought it was a pretty clever idea to frame Decker for her murder while he was at it.”

Souter nodded, but I could tell she’d wait until after she had a chance to interview Lucas to confirm our suspicion.

“The thing I don’t know,” I said, “is what was Brook doing on Comm Avenue in the middle of the night?”

“She got a series of phone calls on her cell from an unidentified number,” Souter told me. “It came from a burner phone and we were pretty sure it was the murderer luring her there. I wanted to make it stick that the calls were all made by Decker, but the first two calls came into her cell while you had Decker under surveillance. We confirmed the time stamp on your end, and in the video Decker’s sleeping like a baby while Brook’s phone is ringing with whoever was calling her on the burner phone.”

“Lucas,” I said. “He called her and somehow got her to go there.”

“What I can’t figure out,” Souter said, “is how did Lucas know Decker was going to leave his sister’s place that night so that he could frame him for murder?”

“It was Sy,” I said. “This spook forms intimate relationships with the men he possesses. They share thoughts and ideas and I’ll bet you that Dr. Lucas and Sy the Slayer had this all planned out for a long time. Our team was the wrinkle in their plan, though. And then I believe that Kendra made the connection between Dr. Lucas and his former residence on Stoughton Street and maybe she even discovered the murdered ex-girlfriend and put it all together. What she didn’t know was that Dr. Lucas was probably keeping tabs on us, knowing we were close to figuring it all out. He kept Lester drugged so that he could take full advantage of Sy and maybe he found Kendra all alone in the parking lot and had the perfect opportunity to silence her.”

Souter inhaled deeply and let it out in a sigh. “I hope that girl pulls through,” she said.

“I have faith,” I said, because I did.

Souter smiled. “Faith is good. All right, Holliday. I’ve kept you long enough. Your boyfriend and your partner are outside in the hallway pacing a groove in the floor. I’ll let you go, but if you think of anything else you want to tell me, you call.”

“I will,” I promised.

Souter held the door open for me, and before I even knew what was happening, I was pulled forward and wrapped up in my boyfriend’s arms. “Thank God, thank God, thank God,” Heath whispered over and over as he carried me several steps down the hall.

“Hey, babe,” I said, hugging him back just as tight. “I’m okay,” I told him before he could even ask.

Heath didn’t say anything; he just held me for a long time and I was so moved by his concern that I felt tears sting my eyes. “I swear I’m okay,” I repeated.

Heath sighed into my neck. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he whispered.

“Deal.”

Heath then set me down and kissed me lightly. I stepped back and was turning away when Gilley barreled into me and hugged me so fiercely that I couldn’t breathe. He also made an attempt to lift me off my feet, but he only managed to stumble a few steps with me. “Gil,” I squeaked. “I’m okay. Please ease up.”

He released me and stepped back and I was so touched to see that he was actually sobbing.
“You scared the hell out of us!”
he shrieked.

I winced but reached out to wipe at his cheeks. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t on purpose.”

“Don’t do it again!”

I held up a hand, taking a vow. “I promise.”

And then another figure stepped forward and I realized it was Steven, his face a mask of concern. “Are you hurt?” he asked me, lifting my chin to look at my neck.

“I’m fine.”

He took my pulse and then stared deeply into my eyes and I realized how much he actually still cared about me. I felt a flush hit my cheeks and I was glad Heath was standing behind me and couldn’t see my face. And then Steven seemed to catch himself and his expression became more clinical. “We were worried.”

His fiancée then stepped forward and took up my hand. “I heard it all through the phone,” she confessed. “I recognized Mike’s voice, and everything clicked into place.”

“Courtney was the one who called in the attack,” Gilley said. “That’s why the police got here so quick.”

“And she called us,” Heath said, with a note of gratitude.

“Well, it all turned out okay,” I insisted, feeling suddenly exhausted. I glanced at a nearby clock. It was only ten after eight, but I was ready to go home and get into bed. I eyed the skeptical faces all around me and I tried to push a reassuring smile onto my lips. “Really, guys, everything is fine now.”

But it wasn’t.

No sooner were those words out of my mouth than the sounds of screaming erupted nearby as a nurse came running down the hallway. Souter, who’d been talking to a few other detectives just down from us, whirled around and the whole group was off in a flash. A chill ran up my spine and Heath grabbed my hand and our little group rushed after the detectives.

We were stopped by a male nurse in the hallway who warned us not to get close. “It’s pretty bad,” he said.

“What happened?” I asked anxiously. I couldn’t be sure but I thought the commotion was coming from Lester’s room.

“One of our residents fell just as the nurse was coming to give him his meds,” he said. “He impaled himself with some sort of spike, and I think he’s dead.”

My jaw dropped and I reached around for my messenger bag. Digging through it, I counted the spikes in the bottom of the bag. I’d pulled seven from the car. There were only six in my bag. I hadn’t even thought to count them when I’d come back in from the hallway after talking to Heath. And Lester’s words about being like a vampire who needed a stake driven through his heart to stop the evil came back to me, and I knew—I just
knew
—what he’d done.

I turned away and pulled at Heath’s hand. He followed me and I walked all the way outside to the back terrace before sinking to the pavement and dissolving into a puddle of tears. I’d never felt so guilty in all of my life.

Later we learned that Lester had left a note behind. It read simply,

It ends with me. Please bury me in this vest. It was given to me by a friend who refused to judge me, even though she knew all my sins.

I met Steven at one of our favorite lunch spots. I’d told Heath that I had a hair appointment, which was true—I did have one, but not for an hour. I felt a little guilty about lying to him, but I knew it would only bug him if I told him the truth about this meeting with my ex.

Steven was five minutes late, but when he showed up, he looked more handsome than I’d ever remembered and my breath caught at the sight of him. What was surprising was that I wasn’t moved by melancholy for what could have been, but joy at seeing someone I’d once loved deeply so happy. He radiated with it and it made him a stunning picture of a man.

After kissing me on the cheek, he sat down and said, “You’re not coming to the wedding.”

I smiled. “No. I could offer you a legitimate excuse, but I think we should be honest with each other, don’t you?”

“We should,” he said.

“I think it’s a bad idea because as much as I know you love Courtney, and I love Heath, there’s still a spark between us and I still care about you.”

Steven looked at me for a long moment without commenting. Then he took my hand and kissed it before placing it over his heart. “There will always be a little bit of you in here,” he said.

I nodded. “The same is true for me.”

“You and Heath seem very happy together.”

“We are.”

“He takes good care of you?”

“The best.”

“Then I’m happy for you.”

“Me too.”

“And . . . ,” Steven said, his voice trailing off as if he was searching for the right words, “I don’t know that I ever thanked you, M.J. For helping us with Luke. He’s much better now and he’s already reapplied for the fall semester.”

“I’m so glad,” I said. There’d been no signs of Sy the Slayer after Lester’s death. “Did you hear about Dr. Lucas?”

“Yes, it’s all over the hospital. He took the deal.”

Lucas had made a full confession after the DA had offered him forty years with a chance for parole in 2044. It was a crap deal if you asked me, so little to pay for such an evil man, but the alternative had been millions of dollars of the state’s money spent on a court trial and probably a similar sentence. Ken Chamblis had also been arrested for the murder of Gracie Stewart, which I gave Detective Souter huge props for.

“Did you hear about the old house?” Steven asked me.

“Gilley told me he saw it on the news. Burned to the ground in an electrical fire.”

Steven nodded. “Good riddance.”

“Good riddance is right,” I agreed. “And how’s Kendra’s recovery?”

“She’s making excellent progress,” Steven said. “Courtney checked on her this morning and she’ll be released next week and back on the air in no time.”

I smiled again. “Good. Or maybe not so good. I owe her an interview.”

“Yes, so I hear. And I also hear you’re doing readings again?”

“I am, but only for the next week. Then Heath, Gilley, and I are heading down to Valdosta.”

Steven’s brow lifted. “You’re going home?”

“My daddy is getting married.”

Steven grinned. “Wedding bells are all around you,” he said. “Maybe you and Heath should take a turn.”

That made me laugh. “Oh, I think Gilley and his boyfriend, Michel, will beat us to that punch. I’ve never seen Gil so head over heels.”

“Good for him. But I still say you and Heath should tie the knot. You’re good for each other. And if you get married, I promise not to come to your wedding either.”

I shook my head ruefully, but I was grinning ear to ear. We then ate lunch and laughed and talked like old times and it was really good. And then Steven paid the bill and held out his hand to me as I got up. “When you get back, let’s keep in touch,” he said.

I nodded, but it was the first time I’d been dishonest with him since meeting him there. “Let’s.”

As I looked at him, I could see reflected in Steven’s eyes he knew that we wouldn’t.

He then hugged me tight and kissed the top of my head and I felt tears touch the corners of my eyes. “I won’t ever forget you, M.J.,” he said.

“And I won’t ever forget you.”

With that, he stepped back, squeezed my hand one last time, and was gone. It was the last time I ever saw him, but it was a sweet ending all the same.