Spooky Business (The Spectral Files #3) - S.E. Harmon Page 0,74

his prison uniform meticulously patched and clean, but today there was a long tear down one side. The pocket was torn clean off, the patch with his DC numbers hanging on crookedly. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his bottom lip was puffy and bruised, almost like he’d been in a fight.

Maybe his nervousness had something to do with the spirits who accompanied him everywhere he went. Two of them stood behind him like silent sentinels, but I knew better than to think they were always well-behaved. He might not be able to see them, but I knew he could smell them—the small room was filled with the scent of oranges.

I recognized both ghosts. Janet Winston was back and she’d brought a friend, victim number seven. Her name was Grace Bellows, and she’d been on her way to meet her first grandchild.

Janet looked different than the last time I’d seen her. Her hair was tangled and dirty, her face dark with blood and bruises. Dakota once told me that ghosts tried to maintain their favorite appearance, the time in their life when they were happiest. But when they started to remember and relive the past, their tenuous hold on reality slipped. If that was the case, then trouble was probably dead ahead.

My opening salvo was strong as fuck. “We arrested Valerie last night.”

He did a good job of hiding his surprise, but there were telltale signs. A quick widening of his eyes. The way his pulse jumped in his neck. He smiled, slow and mocking. “Guess you’re not just a pretty face. I knew you’d get there eventually.”

Yep, here I am. All caught up on your bullshit. “You set the copycat murders in motion.”

“I wrote to Delilah. Told her that there was a lot of heat on me since the last murder, and she needed to finish the job. She fought me on it for a little while.” He shook his head. “She lost her nerve. Got soft. That’s when she told me about our son. She said she couldn’t afford to get in any trouble and risk leaving him alone in the world.”

“Were you surprised to find out about Joey?”

“Yes. Even more surprised that she’d left him with someone else to raise like he was a puppy from a litter.” His lip curled. “I told her to go get our boy back, or there would be hell to pay. She said she would. That’s when the letters stopped.”

“You figured out that Valerie Carr killed her.”

“It wasn’t all that hard to solve that puzzle, Doc.” He lit another cigarette from the one in his mouth and dropped the butt in an empty can of root beer. “She had to be dead. Delilah would’ve never cut me out of her life for good. She couldn’t manage it, even when she tried. She was always under my control.”

Well, isn’t that nice? “You didn’t care that Valerie Carr got away with murdering the love of your life?”

He shrugged. “She finished my Rose garden. That bought her a little goodwill. That’s why I let her keep the boy.”

I showed him the picture of Janet Winston again. “Who was she? You sent her mother a dozen black roses.”

“Black Baccara,” he said. “I called her that because of all that gorgeous dark hair.”

“Where did you find her?”

“At a bus stop, shivering in the rain. She was an only child of overprotective but loving parents.” The tension in his shoulders visibly eased. Talking about his precious Roses was one of his favorite activities. “Her boyfriend got some girl pregnant, and her father took it upon himself to threaten the guy. She was pissed.”

“Is that why she left?”

“Pretty much. She was fed up with her parents butting into her life and upset with her boyfriend. She was ready for change, so she decided to spread her wings and head to New York City.” He smiled fondly. “I convinced her to go back home and then I offered her a ride.”

Janet made a low sound of pain, and when I glanced up, she had a strip of masking tape across her eyes. Her head thrashed back and forth, clearly lost in the memory of her last days. I decided to move on before I upset her further.

I shuffled through the stack until I found the picture of Grace Bellows. She had a sweetly rounded face and rosy cheeks, her blonde hair soft and curly and tucked behind both ears. She looked nothing like the horror standing behind