Celeste Files: Unjust (14 page)

Barney took a sip of beer, and leaned into the sofa. “Is she Hispanic like the others?”

Celeste nodded. “Young, too. She was badly sunburned and dehydrated. Her doctors say she’ll be fine, but she refuses to speak. At this point we don’t know if she was on Denis’s boat. But I find it too coincidental that she was pulled from the water the day after Denis’s boat sank.”

He set his empty beer bottle on the coffee table, and placed his hat back on his head. “Yeah, but I still can’t see Gabe involving himself with abducting women.”

“I can’t give an opinion about Gabe. He didn’t want to meet with me today, and after all the readings I did on the women’s photos, I didn’t have it in me to do one using the clothes Gabe wore the night of the storm.”

“Did you do a reading on Denis’s clothes?”

“No. I don’t need Denis in my head any more than he already is. But I do know he wants revenge, and he wants it against Gabe. From the beginning, Gabe claimed it was just him and Denis on the boat. Jane Doe opens up new possibilities—especially after going through the pictures of the women today.”

“Well, if Jane Doe was on the boat, we have two people that could’ve killed Denis.”

“Exactly. If she stabbed Denis, I’d think any court of law would let her go considering Denis was clearly abducting and selling women—and had the intention of doing the same to her. John and I are wondering if Jane Doe is too scared to talk because she doesn’t understand the laws we have here.”

“And maybe Gabe’s keeping his mouth shut because he thinks the woman Denis took went down with the boat. Gabe wouldn’t know what was found at Denis’s trailer unless someone told him. Hell, I’d be tightlipped about what happened that night if I was in his place. Think about it. If Gabe tells the detectives there was a kidnapped woman on the boat, he’s implicating himself, right?”

“Right,” Celeste said, Barney’s line of thought spurring one of her own. “Denis wanted me to know what he was, now we know. But what’s strange is that considering how hell bent he is on getting his revenge, he hasn’t showed me what happened the night the boat sank.”

Barney cocked his head. “Why do you suppose that is?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he wanted me to see how bad he was in life, so that it scared me enough to help him. Dead people are strange like that.”

Barney burst into laughter, just as John opened the front door. Celeste’s mouth watered when the aroma of blackened grouper filled the room. She stood to help John with the bags.

“That was quick,” she said. “I was just telling Barney about Jane Doe.”

“Strange stuff.” Barney shook his head. “So Gabe doesn’t know about the girl, right?”

“No. Nick and Jerry were hoping to get her to talk first. It’s possible she wasn’t on the Cajun Lady that night.”

“If you don’t believe in coincidences,” John said from the kitchen. “Barney, are you ready for another beer?”

Barney stood and pulled his keys from his pocket. “Better not. If I ain’t on time for dinner, Vlad will feed my Shashlik to his dang gator.”

After Barney left, and John had whipped up a batch of Strawberry Daiquiris, Celeste plated their food. “Do you think Barney will find a way to let Gabe know about Jane Doe?” John asked.

That had been one of the reasons for inviting Barney over this evening. She had disagreed with the detectives and thought Gabe should know about Jane Doe. If the man was innocent, and had nothing to do with abducting women or Denis’s murder, Jane Doe could help set him free. If Gabe
had
been involved in Denis’s plans, Celeste wanted the man convicted and given the harshest sentence possible. Since neither she nor John thought it was a good idea to contact Gabe’s attorney with information the detectives had yet to release, they hoped Barney would work well as the messenger. “I have a feeling he will. Without her, Gabe could face a life sentence.”

“True, but if Gabe does go to prison, Denis will have also gotten his revenge. Which means you’ll lose the stalking ghost.”

Unless Jane Doe proves Gabe’s innocence, and Denis doesn’t get his revenge.
What then? Would Denis continue to come after her, haunt her for not giving him what he’d wanted?

God, she hoped not.

Chapter 10

“ARE YOU READY for bed?” John asked, and kissed her temple.

Celeste looked up at the star-riddled sky and wondered if any of the surviving women were doing the same, or if they were enduring something unspeakable. The two daiquiris she’d had earlier curdled in her stomach, the rum, mixed with the spices from her grouper, tickled the back of her throat. “You go ahead. I think I might watch TV for a while.” She rose from the chaise lounge chair, gathered their glasses, and used her elbow to slide open the patio door.

“I didn’t mean right this second,” John said, helping her with the door.

“It’s been a long day, and you have training in the morning.”

“I told Lola we’re taking off another day. I want to be with you while you’re at the Sheriff’s Office going through the rest of the pictures.”

“You don’t have to be,” she said, not meaning it. She loved having John by her side today. There had been too many moments when she’d wanted to have a complete breakdown. Especially when she’d come close to discovering a woman’s name, who had killed her and where her body had been located, only to be dragged from the vision. Why that would happen, she didn’t know. She’d planned to call Maxine tonight and ask her what she thought about all of this. But after Barney had left, she didn’t want to talk about the women, Denis or Gabe. She’d wanted to eat her grouper, drink the daiquiris John had made, and relax with him.

“What if I want to be there?” he asked, came up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “What if I don’t like the idea of you being alone in a room with nothing but the dead surrounding you?”

She set the glasses in the sink, then turned in his arms. “I’m ruining your training sessions and our vacation.”

“I don’t know about that.” He tucked an errant curl behind her ear. “I feel like this case has brought us closer. Not that I ever thought we were moving apart.”

She smiled, and twined her arms around his neck. “I know that, but I get what you’re saying. My being psychic again has been something we’ve both had to adjust to—you more than me.”

“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “Seeing what you could do today…I forgot how spot on you could be. I’m proud of you, honey. The leads you gave Nick and Jerry were damned good.”

She kissed him. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

“Why? Did Nick say something to you? If he—”

“No, it’s not that. I think by the time I left today, I made a believer out of Nick.”

“Then what is it?”

“The women I couldn’t reach. As much as I want to give the ones who’ve died justice, I wish I could help the ones who are still alive and still have a chance at a good life. But I can’t reach them if they don’t reach out to me.”

“Have you worked on this with Maxine? You know, being able to connect with the living?”

She shook her head. “It’s the dead I need to get under control first. If Jane Doe still isn’t talking, and Barney ends up not going to Gabe’s attorney, I’d really love to meet her, or at least use her clothes to try to get a reading.”

He kissed her forehead. “I have a feeling Jerry will push for you to do that. If the girl is too afraid to talk, maybe her past plane of existence, or whatever you can see, will do the talking for her.”

“I love you.”

His mouth slid into a sexy smile. “I love you, too. But where did that come from?”

“You, trying out your psychic lingo.”

He tightened his grip around her waist, and pulled her close until their bodies were flush. “I’m actually feeling psychic myself.”

“Is that right?” She grinned. “Are you seeing something from the past, present or future?”

He leaned in and kissed her neck. “I see you naked, leaning back against the dresser. Legs spread. Me on my knees.”

She chuckled. “That was a memory from last night.”

He slid his hands beneath her tank top. “You’re right, but I swear I see that happening now.”

Her breath hitched when he rubbed her nipple. “And the future?”

“I predict you’re going to have several orgasms.”

“Several? I like that prediction,” she said, then kissed him.

*

Celeste jerked awake, the memory of the dream she was having instantly disappearing. She tried to retrieve it, but couldn’t. All that remained of the dream was a sense of loss and melancholy. After viewing pictures of women presumed dead, and connecting with many of them, it made sense that her subconscious would create sad dreams. At this point, she was glad she couldn’t remember the one that had awoken her.

She looked to the clock, then curled against John’s back. Although exhausted, she wished it were five, rather than three in the morning. Five o’clock was still early, but a much more respectable hour to start her day. She closed her eyes and thought about their daughter, pictured the last time she saw Olivia, and how much fun they’d had at the park that day. But then her mind shifted to the Sugar Shack. On the way home from the park, she and Olivia had stopped by the bakery to check on a few things. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t heard from Jenny, who Celeste had hired as manager back in February. Maybe she should call the store and check on things before she headed to the Sheriff’s Office. She also needed to call Maxine. As her mind grew increasingly active with a mental list of what she’d discuss with Maxine, she tossed onto her side. After a few moments, and worried about waking John, she quietly snuck out of bed, slipped into a pair of panties and a t-shirt, then made her way into the kitchen.

Once she snagged a bottle of water from the fridge, she went into the living room, then turned on the TV. Keeping the volume low, she used the remote to flip through channels. After skipping dozens of infomercials, and a few evangelists looking for money, she settled on a nature show about arctic wildlife and, pulling a blanket over her, stretched out on the sofa.

Within minutes, the male narrator’s soothing voice had her so relaxed, not even cute frolicking bear cubs could keep her eyelids from drifting shut. She began to weave in and out of consciousness, would catch snippets of the narrator, until she finally succumbed to the sleep she desperately needed…

Waves lapped along the shore, where a penguin wearing a boot sat on a rock, a can of tuna in front of it. “A little help here?” the penguin asked.

Celeste reached into her back pocket and pulled out a can opener.

“You’re a handy one to have around,” the penguin said, and raised its flippers. “I could use those hands of yours.”

Celeste opened the can for the penguin.

“This tuna’s no good.”

She leaned over and looked inside the can. “That’s because it’s not tuna.”

“Then what is it?”

She touched what looked like caviar. Used the tip of her finger to push aside the dark, tiny orbs, then froze when something tugged at her finger. “There’s something alive inside here.”

“Impossible. They’re all dead.”

“No. I’m telling you, some of them are alive.”

“And I’m telling you they’re all dead.”

Dread slithered up her spine. The penguin didn’t sound like the penguin anymore. She knew that voice. It haunted her both day and night.

Holding onto the can, she slowly turned her head toward the penguin and gasped. Denis sat on the rock, his once tanned skin was a greenish black, blistered and peeling away in places like snake-shedding. His eyes were missing, along with his lips, as if crabs and fish had feasted on them. When he grinned, a tiny hermit crab escaped from a hole in his cheek.

More horrified by his presence than the sight of him, she took a step back.

“Where ya’ goin’, sugar? We need to have a little talk.”

“Stay out of my head and life. I have nothing to say to you.”

“Are you sure about that? I’d think you’d have plenty of questions for me.”

“Fine. Do you have a list of who you sold the women to?”

When Denis laughed, water oozed from his orifices. “Pick a different question.”

“No. You can no longer be punished, but the men who bought the women from you can. Do one right thing in your life, and help the women you’ve destroyed.”

He laughed harder. “Oh, I’m being punished. I’m stuck in this world, watching the money I’ve made collect dust. Watching you disobey me by wasting time on the women, when you should be talking to Gabe. Women are good for two things: fucking and having babies. I didn’t care about the women when I took them, or what happened to them after I got paid. So I don’t give a shit about them now.” He stepped onto the beach, his single boot and bare foot sinking into the sand. “All I care about is my revenge. It’s the only thing that will get me out of here.”

“You don’t deserve your revenge.” She took another backward step. “After meeting with some of the women you took, I think you deserve to rot in hell.” She flung the can of tuna and can opener at him, then turned and sprinted down the beach. Her heart raced. Fear lodged in her throat when the sand beneath her feet liquefied, slowing her pace until she could barely move.