Bone Island 03 - Ghost Moon (17 page)

He stopped by a coffee shop and questioned a man who hired Vargas now and then for cleanup work. The man shrugged and told him that when Vargas wasn’t working, he usually spent his days on U.S. 1 with an inventive sign so that he could beg cash from visitors.

Liam drove around the island and found that Vargas was doing exactly that—he had a sign that proclaimed him a Desert Storm vet, a family man with kids to feed, who was just out of luck.

Vargas saw him, and paled.

Liam parked his car and walked over to the sidewalk by the light where Vargas had been begging.

“You gonna arrest me?” Vargas asked.

“I should.”

“I’ll quit right now,” Vargas said earnestly. “It’s just been bad lately, you know? I mean, stockbrokers are out of work, you know?”

“Yes, it’s been a bad time,” Liam agreed.

“So…you gonna give me a break?” Vargas asked.

“I need to know about the last time you were with Gary White,” Liam told him.

Vargas looked puzzled and scratched his head. “Gary? Well, we went to the Merlin place together—but you know that. You saw us together. Why? Oh, Lord, what did Gary do?”

“Gary is dead,” Liam told him.

“Dead?” Vargas said, horrified.

“Dead.”

“Dead—as in deceased?” Vargas said.

“Very. He’s been dead for days—I don’t know how many,” Liam said.

“Oh, God!” Vargas said. He put his hands on the sides of his head and sank down to the sidewalk. “Dead…how? Where?”

“I found him on the Merlin estate. I don’t know how he died yet. The medical examiner is going to have to answer that question,” Liam said. “I need to know the last time you saw him.”

“Oh, man…the last time I saw him was when you caught us in the house, Liam. He must have gone back. I told him not to. I told him that you were watching the place…that the cops would be keeping an eye on it. But…oh, man! You don’t know what happened?” Vargas asked. He sounded scared.

“That’s the last time you saw him?” Liam pressed.

Vargas squinted hard, thinking. “Yeah, that was the last time I saw him. Oh, man. He was young. He might
have… Well, he could play a guitar. He might have had a chance.”

“Yeah, he was young,” Liam agreed.

“Lord, oh, Lord,” Vargas said.

“Look, did you see or hear anything unusual? There were kids who had broken in as well, and they were terrified. They thought that someone—or something—was in the house with them,” Liam said.

Vargas sniffed loudly, about to burst into tears. He shook his head. “No. But you know what? I think that Gary was scared that day. He wanted to get out. He seemed uncomfortable in the house, you know?”

“Uncomfortable—that’s it?” Liam asked.

Vargas thought and lifted his hands. “Yeah. Well, you know, old man Merlin was a weirdo. There were all kinds of things in that house. I mean, there’s a goddamned mummy in the place. Gargoyles. Coffins. He was weird. And those animal heads! It’s a flipping horror house, really, you know?”

“There’s absolutely nothing else you can tell me?” Liam asked.

Vargas thought. “Yeah, yeah, there is,” he said.

“What?” Liam asked.

“There’s the guy across the water.”

“What guy across the water?” Liam asked.

“Jonas. Jonas Weston. The guy who owns the bed-and-breakfast. Hell, I remember him when he was a little kid. Always watching the place. You know what? I think, even when he was a kid, he was jealous. I think he loved the house—weird as it was. You know what else? I think he had a thing for Kelsey Donovan. Yeah.
Really. I think he wanted Kelsey Donovan, and I think he wanted Cutter Merlin’s house. I mean, he has a place, yeah. But it’s nothing like the Merlin house.”

“Vargas, Jonas Weston has always lived across the water. You can see the Merlin house from his place. There would be no way that he wouldn’t look at it,” Liam said.

Vargas sniffed. “He’s a fuckin’ Peepin’ Tom, that’s what he is. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen him watching the place.”

“You’ve seen him watching it?”

Vargas gave a brittle laugh. “Hell, yeah. Of course, I watched it before I went in. I watched him watching it. I had to wait until I knew he wasn’t watching it before I went in with Gary!”

“You’re telling me that you think that Jonas Weston did in Gary White—over the Merlin house?” Liam demanded.

Vargas shrugged. “What? You think Gary walked there to drop dead? No, I’ve seen that guy staring at the place, like he coveted it or something. And not just him. Oh, man. There’s the lawyer.”

“Richter? Joe Richter?” Liam asked.

Vargas nodded grimly. “He’s always hanging around. Driving out… I mean, before old man Merlin died, that guy was always driving out to kind of case the place, too, you know?”

“No, I don’t know. Not really.”

“Ask him. Ask Richter if he’s seen Gary White,” Vargas said. Tears welled into his eyes. “Gary. Gary’s dead. Maybe there is a curse on that house.”

“You believe in curses, Vargas? You don’t seem the type,” Liam told him.

“There’s one more person you should find out about,” Vargas said.

“Oh? And who is that?” Liam asked.

“That fellow—
your
friend. Your friend Ted, the guy who is such a genius and such an expert on old stuff. Yeah, you ought to be talking to him,” Vargas said.

“But shouldn’t I be talking to you?” Liam asked. “You were with Gary—the two of you broke into the house together.”

Vargas shook his head. “That’s the ticket, sir. That’s the ticket. Gary and I were in that house together. You need to check out all these people that you didn’t catch in it. I’m giving you three men
I’ve seen
staring at that place, dying to get their hands on the things that are in it. Mr. Joseph Richter, fine attorney, Mr. Jonas Weston—and Ted and his girl, Jaden. They’re the ones you ought to be grilling, Officer! Oh, yeah. Those folks.” He paused, shaking his head. Tears welled in his eyes again. “Gary. Oh, Lord, poor, poor Gary.”

He shivered ferociously.

“That house! That wretched Merlin house. There’s something that goes on there. Something in the brick, the concrete, the wood.” He looked up at Liam. “Don’t you understand? There’s something about it. It’s the house. The house is evil. Merlin was up to something. Devil worship, had to be. And because of what he did…something is there. Something that has lived there. Something malignant. Something that is… I’m telling you, something that is pure
evil.
”

I
t was five o’clock when they finally left O’Hara’s. Kelsey felt exceptionally brave due to Avery’s presence and several pints of Guinness. When Katie expressed concern and said that she and David and their immediate group would happily return to the house with her, she told Katie that she was going to be fine.

“There’s crime-scene tape all over your property,” Katie reminded her.

“Ah, but I don’t plan to go home and play in the mangrove swamp,” Kelsey assured her. She kissed her friend, who looked exhausted as well, and assured them all she was just going to take a nap, and she’d see everyone the following day. Clarinda needed to get to work, Jonas had to act as host at his B and B, and Jaden admitted she was eager to get back to the little box and the research she was doing. David, Sean and Vanessa had their own work to return to as well. Kelsey really was fine—and tired. Tomorrow, with Cutter now restfully buried, she would start reading the book he had been holding,
In Defense from Dark Magick.

It was still daylight when Kelsey and Avery returned to her house.

They walked back to the funeral-home parking lot where Avery had left his rental car and drove the few blocks down Front Street to the little road that led out to the house.

The driveway and the house were free of crime scene tape. It still stretched from the far left of the house to the end of the land, encompassing all but the immediate front and back yards of the house and the house itself.

“Creepy,” Avery announced.

“It’s not creepy—it’s a house. Cutter was a collector, that’s all,” Kelsey said.

“Creepy. I’m sorry, Kelsey, unless you’re a born-again vampire or something, the place is damned creepy,” Avery told her. “Seriously! Look at it. Peeling gray paint. Those windows that look like eyes.” He shuddered. “And a dead body to boot!”

She turned to him. “Avery, are you afraid of staying here? Jonas Weston owns the place right across the water. He turned his family home into a bed-and-breakfast. I can get you a room over there if you’d prefer.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a coward,” Avery said. “I was just pointing out that the house is—creepy.”

“Okay. Fine. It’s creepy,” she said.

She exited the passenger side of the car. She was feeling a little tipsy. The “celebration of life,” or reception, or whatever they had hosted at O’Hara’s, had lasted all day. It had included a few too many beers. Luckily, Avery had been determined not to have more than one or two drinks, and then switched to diet soda and coffee. She
was feeling a little unbalanced—and a little defensive and belligerent, as well.

“I suppose that ‘creepy’ is good for the artist’s soul,” Avery said.

“Yes, and it’s really a beautiful house, and Cutter was a fascinating man. He wanted to preserve artifacts and cultures. He always said that it was both good and bad that the world was homogenizing, and that it was incredibly important that we recognize cultures and beliefs.” She headed for the house, dug in her purse and finally found her keys. By then, Avery had taken his suitcase from the car and joined her on the porch.

“Need help?” he asked.

“Funny, funny,” she said.

“No, I’m being serious. Think you can get that key in the door?”

She twisted the key in the lock, staring at him.

“Hey, I think you should be a little inebriated. You found a body on your property this morning, and you buried your grandfather. Drink yourself into oblivion, if that will help.”

“I don’t want to be oblivious.”

“Then we should make some coffee,” Avery said.

Kelsey didn’t want coffee; it seemed like a nap would be in order. She slipped her arms around Avery and hugged him tightly. “Luckily, you got here after the cleaning. I have to dig some sheets out of a closet to get you a bedroom going, and then I’d like to lie down for an hour or so? Will you forgive me?”

“Only because we were ahead enough on work so that I’m not going to go down because of you,” Avery said,
his voice gruff. He smiled. “You know, you’re the stickler, always wanting to be a month up on everything.”

“It works, huh?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I’m still on California time. Flew into Miami yesterday and took a puddle jumper down this morning. Body clock is still adjusting. Take your nap. I’ll find a room, and sheets. I prefer taking care of myself, which I will do, and then grab a bit of a snooze myself.”

“I would never be so rude—”

“Hey, you know me. I remake beds in hotel rooms. I’ll be fine,” he told her.

She kissed his cheek. “Explore my childhood, then. Enjoy,” she told him, waving an arm to encompass the house. “It is truly entertaining. Mummy is by the fireplace. What else? Coffin is over there, gargoyles… Well, knock yourself out. Sheets are actually in bedroom closets.”

“I’m already taking in the animal heads,” Avery assured her. “And I’ll find my way around just fine. Maybe I’ll go out and see the sunset.”

“No!” Kelsey cried. “No, no, no. Promise me you’ll stay right in this house. I don’t want you out on the property alone. Please, Avery—a body was discovered this morning.”

“Hush, my darling, fine. I’m not going anywhere for a while. I’ll see the famous Key West sunset on another night, all right?”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Upstairs, in her room, she crashed down on her bed. She just needed an hour or so of sleep.

She had almost drifted off when she found herself jerking up again. She had to lock the door to her room.

Avery was in the house, she told herself.

But it didn’t matter.

Even when Liam was actually sleeping with her, she had to lock the door to her room. It was paranoia, she told herself. Dangerous.

No. She wanted to be in the house.

She just wanted her door locked at all times. She wasn’t sure why, but she feared sleeping to wake up and find that someone
was
there.

Someone staring down at her as she slept.

It was getting late in the day, but when he left Chris Vargas on the street, Liam called Franklin Valaski to see if he was still at the morgue.

He was.

Valaski, like many a Key West old timer, had taken the morning hours to attend the funeral of Cutter Merlin.

“Come on in, Liam. Come on in. I have Mr. Gary White on steel right now, and I can give you my initial findings,” Valaski told him.

As he drove toward the medical examiner’s office, Liam reflected on the events of the last several hours—finding Gary White’s corpse, and Cutter Merlin’s funeral. As long as he lived, he would never forget the look in the man’s eyes.

Had Gary had that same look? They’d never know. Gary had no eyes left in his skull.

The corpse didn’t look much better when he saw it stretched out on the gurney. Some of the skin had dried out from the sun, and was now stretched out taut, ripped in places over bleached white bone. Some of it looked like…soupy goo.

Gary White had been given the customary autopsy cuts and sewn back together.

The face was best described as gruesome. The mouth was open, contorted, as if it had frozen in a scream. A great deal of soft tissue had been eaten away by the sun, sea, salt and creatures of the mangroves.

“Not a pleasant sight, our old friend Gary,” Valaski said.

“I don’t know of any relatives. They’re working on that at the station,” Liam said.

“Well, let’s hope they don’t find any,” Valaski said.

Liam nodded. The scent in the room was a horrendous mixture of chemicals and decomposition. Valaski handed him a white mask to filter the air. Liam accepted it without comment.

“Hell of a day, huh?” Valaski asked.

“Agreed. So?”

“Well, our friend Gary died of something like a pinpoint prick to his heart. Actually, the death appeared to have been a heart attack, or heart failure, but!” Valaski announced. “I’m an old buzzard, and I don’t fall for many tricks. Even if a man is someone on the fringe of society. In this morgue, no matter how rich and powerful or poor and sad in life, we find the truth.”

“Franklin, there is no one more grateful for your
honor and your expertise,” Liam told him, “but, come on. Please. Explain.”

“Well, here you go. Come here…look at the scans. It might have appeared that the heart was ripped up soon after death, the body was in such a sad state. There are bits and pieces of sharp coral in the area of the peninsula spit where he was found—probably dredged up years ago when harbors were fashioned for the ships…or, who knows? I’m no geologist or geographer. God knows how we have more of a key now than we did before, though I suppose I could—”

“Franklin. All right. We’re looking at an area where mangroves are growing, and thus it’s enlarging constantly, and away from the beach that was also dredged out long ago, we have roots, we have crabs…and there’s an occasional toss up of long-dead coral. I got that. So?”

“Well, where he was found, it just might have appeared that he’d fallen on rock, and thus causing this area—” Franklin pointed to a mass in Gary White’s chest “—where the heart itself bled out. Aha! But before the chewing and decomposition, I don’t believe there was a tear of any kind in the man’s chest, or in his heart. This looks like it was caused by a needle of some kind. I don’t think it was done by something so many centimeters in circumference as an ice pick, but…there is that possibility.”

“He was murdered, and murdered by a slim stiletto-like object, possibly a needle, and, less likely but possibly, an ice pick,” Liam said.

“Precisely!” Franklin Valaski said, looking pleased. “Well?”

“Well, a man was murdered and left to rot,” Liam said.

“Yes, yes, but at least he didn’t die like Cutter. He was cleanly murdered. No mystery—no strange look, no books or guns or talismans in his hands,” Valaski said.

“Franklin, he was murdered,” Liam said. “When?”

“I don’t know exactly. It might have been three or four days, or maybe a week.”

“What? You can’t pin it down more than that?” Liam asked, dismayed.

Valaski shook his head. “There was water in the lungs, so if he hadn’t died from the piercing of his heart, he would have drowned. I believe he was caught under a root or something, beneath the water, but for how long, I don’t know.”

“I thought you people studied larvae, flies?”

Valaski rolled his eyes. “We
people
do. But he was underwater. No flies. No maggots. No larvae, not at first. It’s impossible for me to tell you what day he was killed. Please, Liam! He was half-eaten. It’s amazing I have what I do.”

“I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated.”

“Ah, yes. Man’s inhumanity to man, but nothing as eerie as Cutter’s death!”

Liam shook his head. “Please, Franklin. It’s more of a mystery,” Liam said.

“Oh?”

“Why on earth murder a poor, down-and-out man specifically on the Merlin property? There was nothing
to steal from him. He wasn’t high-powered. He didn’t have a wife or a mistress. There was no reason in hell for anyone to kill him,” Liam said.

“Well, you’re quite right, Liam,” Valaski agreed.

“Unless he saw something. Unless he knew something,” Liam said.

“And so it does have to do with Cutter and the Merlin house,” Valaski said.

Liam nodded. “He saw something, or he knew something, or…”

“Or?”

“Or he was simply the right victim, lured out to the Cutter estate because he was an easy mark. No family, a drifter, no friends who would immediately worry about his whereabouts.”

“Why would anyone kill for that reason? Unless you have a serial killer on your hands who just seeks out victims,” Valaski said.

“Not this time, Doc,” Liam said.

“Then?”

“He may have been lured out to the Merlin house and murdered there precisely because the property had belonged to Cutter Merlin. And someone wants everyone to be afraid of the house, to think that it’s hexed or cursed.”

Valaski stared at him, frowning. Then he shrugged. “I solve the mystery of the body, my friend. The mystery of murder is up to you.”

Darkness had fallen when Kelsey awoke.

She felt puzzled for a moment, not sure where she
was. Then she knew, of course. She remembered the compulsion that she had to keep her door locked or she would awaken to find someone staring at her.

She felt a moment’s pure terror; there was someone there. Someone just staring at her, watching her sleep.

She jerked up in panic, desperate for light. She felt encompassed by the night, certain someone was there and horribly afraid that she would discover that she was right.

She wasn’t alone; there was someone with her, watching her in silence.

She jumped out of the bed and stumbled to the light switch by the wall. Her room was instantly bathed in a glow, and she flung around in terror, searching out every corner of the room.

The edge of her fear began to fade away. She gave herself a shake. She was alone. It had been her imagination, the paranoia that was growing within her—even while she insisted she wasn’t afraid of the house. The bathroom!

She strode to it with long, angry footsteps. She had to
see
if someone was there. Better to face whomever or whatever it was!

But the bathroom was empty.

She shuddered and then laughed aloud at herself.

She wasn’t even alone in the house. Avery was somewhere napping, poking through the oddities or reading and sipping a cup of tea.

She walked back and checked her door; it was still locked.

She shook her head, smiling at her own foolishness,
and opened the door to the hallway. The entire house was dark.

With the glow from her room guiding her, she walked along the hallway and turned on the overhead light.

“Avery?” she said her friend’s name softly and decided he had to be in one of the rooms upstairs, sleeping. She backtracked. He would have chosen the guest room just a few doors down from her own. She opened the door quietly and saw that Avery was indeed there, snoring softly.

“Ah, yes, gorgeous, but you do snore!” she whispered affectionately. She closed the door again, letting him sleep. It couldn’t be very late; Liam would have been back. She glanced at her watch. It was just seven.