The Haunted Bones (11 page)

"I think I got her!" Julie came into the
break room where Vale, myself, and Meehan were making coffee. I
wasn't going to drink any, but I wanted to watch them make
faces.

"Got who?" Meehan said.

"The woman who approached Devan." She laid a
few printed pieces of paper on the table. "Multimillionaire Edward
Smith. Made all his money in some gadget I never heard of.
Eighty-three. Married Elspeth Charity two years ago. Died in his
sleep six months later. The money's been tied up in probate ever
since."

The printout had a photo of the wife. The
face was familiar, but her hair was dark, and it was obvious this
was a mug shot with no makeup. "Says here she was arrested for
soliciting?" I asked.

"That was five years go." Julie said.

Meehan laughed. "Yeah, Elspeth Charity
sounds like a stripper name."

"She's been a stripper. And she's been
married five times—Charity was the name of the fourth husband.
Edward Smith was the last one."

Vale put his hand on the file. "Is this the
same woman who came to you at the Haunt?"

"I would say I'm ninety-nine percent sure.
But…how is she related to the body in the wall?" I looked over at
Julie.

She flipped a page over. "Twenty-five years
ago, when those units were brownstones, the corner unit was rented
by a teacher named Elizabeth Poulin. She had a daughter, Elspeth
Mary Poulin."

I rubbed at my lower lip. "So you're
thinking this Mary Smith is Elspeth Charity, is Elspeth Poulin, the
daughter?"

"Yes. According to the ownership records,
the place was sold to Better Management Inc., and leased it to
Justin Birch." She looked at the three of us. "The Birch family
turned it into a successful bar for five years."

"That's when Cahan found out his daughter
was having an affair with Birch's wife. Cahan killed all of them."
I leaned back in the chair. My shoulder throbbed.

"I'm still not seeing the relation with
Patsy Granger." Vale shook his head.

"When the Poulins lived
there, the next-door neighbors were George and
Patsy
Granger
.
A husband and wife with no kids. Patsy Granger's husband reported
his wife missing a year before they left. The police searched for
Patsy's husband but never found him. In fact, there's no
registration for a George Granger with his credentials listed in
any IRS reports. No birth certificate."

"Fake name." Meehan rubbed at the back of
his head. "This is just weird."

"You think this Elspeth Poulin, aka Mary
Smith, killed the Grangers and put Patsy in the wall?" Vale looked
incredulous.

Julie shrugged. "Why else would she be so
curious as to why Devan was taking those pictures?"

"We need a warrant to search Ms. Smith's
home. McNally, is there a way to find out if her IP was the one
that hacked your server?"

I grinned. "I got just the person to call.
You get me the IP." Pink was going to love getting hold of that
information. "Did you find out if it was Mary Smith that called
Cahan?"

Meehan shook his head. "No. There were
several calls back and forth to a burner right before he shot you,
but…" he shrugged. "No lead."

As Vale got on the phone, Julie sat in one
of the folding chairs. "I so need to change clothing. Meehan, is my
house still roped off?"

"Yeah. They'll release it in the morning.
But you're welcome to stay with me if you want."

She smiled. "No thanks. Jim used to tell me
horror stories about your housekeeping skills. Devan? You
okay?"

"Yeah…" But I wasn't. Not really. "I'm
trying to figure out motive."

"Motive?" Meehan said. "You mean for this
Elspeth to kill and wall up Patsy Granger?"

"Yeah." I shifted in the chair and winced.
Maybe I should have put the sling back on. "Those remains are
what—twenty, maybe twenty five years old?"

Meehan and Julie nodded.

"And this Mary Smith is how old? Thirty
nine? Forty?"

Julie looked at her print outs. "Forty
one."

"So…that makes her around fourteen when this
woman was shoved in the wall." I leaned forward. "Why?"

They looked at each other. Finally Meehan
said, "Uh…I don't know if I really buy the whole trifecta. You
know, opportunity, means and motive. I think as long as you have
opportunity and means you move on it. But if motive's that
important to you, we'll just have to ask her when we find her."

I snorted and grabbed my jacket before I
stood up—slowly. "Come on, Jewels."

She stood with a hand on my good shoulder.
"You okay? You're not looking so good."

"Shoulder. I'm considering either pain
killers or a serious fifth of scotch."

"Let's just wait for Susan."

I blinked. "Susan? You
mean…
my
Susan?"

"Wow, now he really looks pale," Meehan
said.

Julie guided me back to the chair. "Yeah…I
talked to her when I looked up Patsy Granger. She called me about
the photos on the news broadcasts. Wanted to know if we were
serious about using ghost photos. She's offered to put us up for
the night."

"Put us…" My hands grew clammy. "She's…been
following this? I mean…she's seen the pictures? Does she know I
took them?"

"I doubt it. I didn't tell her. She's
dealing with that Lanier Strangler case."

"Oh?" My ex never really talked about her
cases. We kept our professional life out of our personal. That
is…until I was shot. And then it all evaporated. "They catch the
guy?"

"Apparently not. There was another victim
two nights ago, so she's been in court getting her client
acquitted. I mean…how could he have killed someone else while in
jail?"

True. I stood again and moved toward the
door. "You know, your relationship with my ex-wife is damn
scary."

"I'll say," Meehan piped up.

When I turned to head out the door, someone
stood in my way.

Llse.

And she looked
oddly…irritated. "That was
your
picture, wasn't it? That's why you're back here
again, passing your ghost pictures off on this precinct as
legitimate police work."

"My
ghost
pictures? Llse…what ever do you
mean? I don't take…
ghost
pictures." I glanced down at Julie. Why was Llse
so upset? "Good evening to you, too, Llse. Chief Of Dees send you
back down here again?"

"No. But he did call me all excited about
some picture used for a preliminary identification of that body in
the wall of some old bar. You know how he likes all that creepy
shit."

Vale came up behind us and put a hand on my
shoulder. I stepped out of his way. "Ms. Wallace, so nice to see
you. Is there something we can do for you?"

"That picture was taken by McNally, wasn't
it? And all those other pictures? The ones used for the Birch
murders?"

We all glanced at one another. Vale said,
"Exactly how do know about those pictures, Ms. Wallace? They
haven't been released yet."

"Mathew told me."

I raised my eyebrows.
The
Chief Of Detectives
Matthew Wallace? Did Vale show them to him?

"No I'm afraid that's a lie. I haven't
released them to the COD, either. But I am very interested in your
sources. Please…step into my office."

But when he moved through the doorway to
guide her away, she moved to the right and then walked swiftly down
the hall to the elevator.

"Shouldn't we go after her?" Julie put her
hand on her gun.

"Oh no." Vale smiled as he looked back at
me. "I think your idea to use those photos is shaking a lot more
loose than we intended."

Eighteen

Llse's performance won her an
all-expenses-not-paid surveillance by the city's finest. Vale
ordered her every move monitored for twenty-four hours.

"You think that'll be enough?" I asked him
as we headed to the elevator. I was tired and I needed sleep. I
didn't care where. Julie was with us, yawning every ten
minutes.

"I want to see what she does,." Vale said.
"I might not ever be able to connect her to your shooting, Devan.
But there is always the hope I can prove she lied on the
stand."

"Why are you wanting to help me on this?" I
paused in the hallway, really curious. "I came out of that coma and
everyone was pissed off at me because I allegedly had an affair
with the witness and couldn't remember a damn thing. Do you even
know how humiliating that was?"

"Devan, we all know how hard it was," Vale
said. "You have to trust me on this. I didn't believe her. Not one
word. I know you and Jim. The story she spit out wasn't worth a
dog's shit. But the COD got involved and then word came to me we
were to give credibility to Llse's statement. Being married to him
gave her credibility."

"And me with a bullet in my head made me
less than a trained monkey."

"Devan, don't." Julie put a hand on my arm.
"We didn't think that. But we have to do what we're told. None of
us believed her. The evidence never fit her story. And now that you
remembered more of what happened…" She glanced at Vale. "We will
follow the truth. And right now, I want to know why she's so pissed
off about your pictures. What do they have to do with her?"

I stared at her a second. "Nothing."

"Exactly," Vale finished. "I don't think the
case is Ms. Wallace's problem. I think it's what your pictures
revealed, McNally. Whatever's happening with your camera, it's
rattling some things loose. I want to see how the pieces fall,
either with Mary Smith or with Llse Wallace. You've made them both
nervous. What you took in the Haunt might be a one time thing.
Or…it might not. But there's only one way to find out, right?"

Julie nudged me. "You think you can make
your pictures do it again?"

"I don't know why or how they did it the
first time."

"Why not try?" She smiled up at me. "It's
time to go back to the warehouse, Devan, and bring your
camera."

It wasn't a new idea. In
fact, I'd already thought of it. Having Julie and my old boss
suggest it was too good to be true. I made a note to myself that
tomorrow I would go to the warehouse and take pictures. If
something showed up, that would prove something was weird
with
me
. And if it
didn't happen again, then it was just a fluke.

A fucked-up fluke, but only that.

"Captain!"

We all turned to see Meehan jogging toward
us. His face was red but I thought now wasn't the time to suggest
exercise. "What is it?" Vale said.

"There's been a fire in Alpharetta. Edward
Smith's mansion just burned to the ground."

Vale's jaw set. I looked at Julie. So much
for sleep.

The elevator doors opened and the woman I'd
once been married to for three years stepped through. Susan had
been the ultimate woman to me. Strong, beautiful, intelligent,
caring, and just…incredible. Now when I saw her, I felt a pang of
resentment. She'd promised to be my wife and to stand by me. Yet
she was the first to bail the moment the rumors of an affair
surfaced.

And so we stood in the hallway facing each
other. She paused and I watched her put on a smile; her court
smile. Then she approached with her hands out to Julie. "It's so
nice to see you."

Julie returned the embrace. Vale and I
stepped back.

"Ready to go?" Susan wasn't going to
acknowledge Vale and I.

"Ah, actually," Julie began as she looked
over at me, "there's been a new break in the case and so Devan and
I are staying here."

Now Susan looked at me. On the phone we were
fine. Jovial. Even friendly. But there was something about that
face-to-face that always threw up barriers. She cracked a fake
smile for me. "But Devan's not a detective anymore."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Vale crossed
his arms over his chest. "Once you get that gold badge, it's always
in your blood. Brenner, why don't you catch a few hours of sleep?
There's really not much you or Devan can do until they put the fire
out and start clearing the debris. And with the house gone, that
means Ms. Mary Smith is out there. I doubt she'll even try to get
to you at Ms. Lowell's home."

Julie's eyes widened. "But she won't come
after me. She'll come after Devan. He can't go to his place."

"What…what are you talking about? Who's
coming after Devan?" Susan looked a little shaken. I was touched.
"I've been in court all day. I don't know what's going on."

"There's a lot to tell you, Ms. Lowell.
Perhaps another time. But Detective Brenner's right: I'll need to
have protective detail for Devan—"

"Oh hell you won't." The words raced out of
my mouth before I could catch them. Though they were true. "I need
to go home, grab some clothes and my camera if I'm going to head
back to the warehouse."

"Protective detail?" Susan looked from me,
to Julie, to Meehan who stood behind us staring at her, and to
Vale. "Someone's out to hurt Devan?"

"I'm afraid so," Vale said.

That's when I caught on to what Vale was
doing. And God, he could work it. "Ah…no. Uh uh. I'll be fine at my
place. You put police out front and not inside, and I'm sure I'll
be good. Just get me the IP and I'll call my server goddess."

"Oh, fuck, Devan—you got Pink involved in
this?" Susan asked.

I waved at her to shut the hell up. "Susan,
just take care of Julie, okay?"

"No. You're coming with me."
She waved at me to follow. "Both of you. My house is big enough and
it's gated." When I didn't follow, she turned and glared at me.
"
Now
Devan."

"I'm not going." I crossed my arms over my
chest. "You can't make me."