SPIRIT OF CONSEQUENCE (A Spirit Walking Mystery Book 1) (13 page)

Chapter 13

The plane landed in Seattle, Washington, in a rainstorm. The weather was as dreary as I felt. It rained the entire time I was there. I just wandered from street to street, wishing I could feel the rain. No one saw me, no one spoke to me, and I cried a lot.

At the Seattle Waterfront, the streetcar’s clanging grated on my nerves and the strolling people’s conversations aggravated me. I stopped at Piers 55/56 where I caught a cruise to Tillicum Village on Blake Island. Usually the cruise and the promise of a smoked salmon dinner thrilled me, but not this time. I didn’t enjoy eating food through other people. Nothing tasted good, smells made me nauseated, and the normal city sounds irritated me.

My heart felt like it had been ripped from my body. I knew I had done the right thing. Dodge did not need to fall in love with a ghost.

On the second week I was there, I grabbed a ride in a taxi to visit the aquarium when it pulled to the curb to let someone in. I wasn’t in the mood to share my ride, so I absentmindedly reached for the handle and actually opened the door. I’m not sure who was more shocked – me, the taxi driver, or the lady who came in the other door. I quickly exited the cab. The lady slid over, looked out the door, and then closed it. The taxi pulled away from the curb.

After that I concentrated on being able to touch and move things. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy. I touched and felt everything, from a blade of grass to the sides of the Space Needle.

I had to be very careful. Once at a Starbuck’s, I picked up a flyer for a local event and a man saw it. He went screaming from the room, yelling that it was possessed. He wasn’t far wrong.

The next day I went outside, closed my eyes, and felt the rain for the first time in years. It no longer felt dreary; rather, it cleansed and lifted my soul.

The only thing I hadn’t tried was touching another person. A part of me was afraid it wouldn’t work. Inanimate objects were one thing, but to touch and feel another person’s skin was just too daunting to think about doing. If it didn’t work, I’d be devastated.

The next day, I took another plane to Dallas, Texas. Lots of cowboy hats, horses, and the best barbeque food in the world. None of it made me happy; not even stroking the beautiful palominos at a nearby ranch brought a smile to my face. I was just so lonely with no one to talk to.

When I had been there about a week I went to the downtown public library after it closed and picked up a copy of the New York Times. It was the only place you could get paper copies of anything. Everyone used digital media. It was time to leave Texas, but I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go next. Maybe I would see something in the paper that would spark my interest.

There was a festival in Paris, a race in Monte Carlo, and a new exhibit at the Cairo Museum. I love all things Egyptian. I turned to page four to read more about the new exhibit and saw the small headline, “Where will this serial killer strike next?” I sucked in my breath as my stomach tightened into a hard knot.

The killer had struck two other cities before going to San Francisco. Three nurses were killed in Charlton, Oregon six months earlier. Charlton had three huge universities that specialized in nurse’s training. According to the article, most of the nurses in the entire country graduated from one of those three universities. Three months before that, three female actors were killed in New York City. Dodge had been right about the killer murdering certain types of women because of the cities where they lived.

A multi-jurisdictional task force was looking into the murders, according to the newspaper, and the FBI was involved since the deaths were in three different cities across the United States. Dodge’s name was mentioned as a member of the task force. Since he was the officer that had found the link between the deaths, he was asked to join the team. There wasn’t any mention of Dexter or Marge, so they probably were still dealing with the San Francisco homicides.

I searched through several other newspapers and found another article. According to that report, patron saint medallions were found with each victim - St Genesius, the patron saint of actors, and St. Camillus of Lellis, the patron saint of nurses. This newspaper didn’t say anything about the engraving on the back of the medallions, but I assumed the initials were there since three victims were killed in each city.

Another paper mentioned the tattoos being added to the victims’ bodies after they died, but it didn’t say if they were irregular-shaped blobs like those in San Francisco.

In one of the papers there was a quote from Dodge: “We’re working day and night to find the person responsible for the deaths of these women. This guy is going down and I’m going to be there when he does!”

I smiled. I bet he hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last few weeks. After I had read all of the articles in every paper, I closed them and went to my favorite Texas restaurant: Red, Hot, and Blue. They made the best pulled pork sandwiches. Their banana custard pudding was fabulous too. I’m not sure if it was the food or just reading about Dodge, but I felt better. He sounded fine and busy working. Everything was as it should be.

So, back to what city would be next on my agenda? Just then I heard the bells on someone’s cell phone. It reminded me of Las Vegas. I hadn’t been there in a long time. I loved all the bells, whistles, and flashing lights of that place and being able to touch things there would make it even more fun.

A quick bus ride to the airport and I boarded the first flight to Vegas. There’s nothing better than the thrill of a gambler pulling the handle and seeing the “7s” flip in just the right places or a poker player being dealt a straight-flush. Vegas was a total high! The last time I had been there, I slipped in and out of people all day. I just had to be careful because it was a total drag to accidentally go into some gambler who’s losing, especially if they spent money they couldn’t afford to lose. Then I had to endure their guilt feelings.

It was late in the evening when we made our final approach to Las Vegas. The lights of the city lit up the sky. I couldn’t wait to get on the ground. Getting around Vegas had certainly improved in the last ten years. They expanded the tram system so that it ran from the Mandalay Bay all the way down the strip to the Stratosphere, added a huge fleet of shuttles, and banned the cars from traveling down the Strip. Cabs were still allowed on the Strip but were assigned to specific hotels.

As soon as we landed, I headed for a cab with the Luxor pyramid symbol on its trunk. It’s my favorite hotel. I’ve always been a fan of Egypt and visiting the full-scale replica of King Tutankhamen’s tomb gave me almost as much of a thrill as pulling the handle of a slot machine. Thank God they finally took the huge sticker off the glass pyramid a few years ago. It might have been a good way to advertise their headliners but it ruined the grandeur of the pyramid. One of these days, I would actually go to Egypt, a place I hadn’t made it to yet. There would be time. I would have an eternity to wander, visit, and experience life. Now that I could touch it too, I was thrilled. If I could get someone to put money in a machine, I could pull the handle myself.

As I slid from the cab, the sparkling lights, swaying palms, towering Sphinx, and crowds of people sent a jolt through my body, the sensations overwhelming. The night air was warm and people were dressed in shorts and tank tops. God, it was good to be here. I couldn’t wait to get inside and experience it with my new skill.

Two middle-aged women stood near the front entrance to the Luxor. Their identical silky black strapless evening gowns and short black bob hair styles were comical alongside their body types – one tall and athletic like an Amazon, the other, short and stocky. They’d probably come from dinner in one of its exclusive restaurants.

“Joan, did you hear what everyone was talking about in the bar a few minutes ago?” the tall woman said to her friend.

“No, what?” Joan asked, as she shoved a loose strand of black hair behind her diamond studded ears.

“A woman was found strangled in one of the rooms at the Circus Extraordinaire.”

I stopped.

“You’re kidding me. Didn’t that used to be Circus Circus?”

“Yes, it’s really cool now. Thank God someone had the sense to burn it down five years ago.”

As their conversation turned to Las Vegas trivia, the two women walked away.

I stood there stunned. Another murder? I was sure it was just a single incident. I started into the Luxor but stopped – maybe I should go check it out. I slid into a cab with a circus tent painted on its back trunk and headed up the Strip.

There had to be at least ten police cars parked in front of Circus Extraordinaire, along with several news vans and hundreds of people. The police had the street barricaded so no one could pass down the Strip or get close to the casino.

I slipped out of the taxi and walked the rest of the way. Cops were everywhere! A perky news reporter dressed in a tailored pink suit signaled for her camera man to focus on her, so I went over and listened with the rest of the crowd.

“That’s right, folks. Las Vegas has joined the cities of San Francisco, Charlton, and New York. One of the showgirls at Circus Extraordinaire was strangled tonight. My sources say that a medallion was found around her neck, just like in the other cities.”

She put her hand up to her ear and listened for a moment.

“Yes, I assume that the task force will be coming here to Las Vegas.”

I stumbled away from the crowd. Dodge was coming here? My emotions fought each other. Part of me wanted to run away and the other part wanted to show him my newfound skills. My brain told me I should go with my first instinct, get out!

An elderly lady with white hair standing next to me said to the man at her side, “Honey, we better get a cab to the airport or we’re going to miss our flight.”

“Okay.” He stepped to the curb and flagged down a taxi.

I got in between them, leaned my head back on the seat, and closed my eyes. Was it fate? Or was I looking for an excuse to stick around and see Dodge?

“They say the girl was strangled, just like the other ones,” the man said.

The woman crossed herself and sighed. “It’s so sad. That makes ten women dead.”

“There’s going to be more if that task force doesn’t find the person responsible.”

“I’m sure they’re working as hard as they can to find the killer.”

The man shrugged. “I’m sure they are. I wish I knew something or could do something that would help find the creep.”

The woman smiled, reached through me and patted her husband on the leg. “It’s the old cop in you, my dear. You never gave up on any of your cases even when they wanted you to step aside and retire.”

“If more people got involved, they’d have stopped this guy a long time ago. Somebody knows something or saw something; they just don’t think it’s important. It’s the little things that crack a case.”

“You were always good at finding those little things, too.”

He shrugged again. “Sometimes, but the best skill for a cop is sensing when someone is lying to you. If you know that, you can solve anything. I hope one of the cops on this case can tell the difference between a lie and the truth.”

The cab stopped at a red light and I slid out. Now, I don’t think that conversation was for my benefit, but sometimes fate has to kick you in the butt to make you listen to it. Maybe I could help. Maybe I needed to finish what I had started.

Where was the police department in Vegas? I had no idea. Would that be where the task force would work? If I went back to Circus Extraordinaire, the team would eventually show up there, I reasoned. I got in the first Circus cab going back up the Strip. We only got as far as the barricade, but it was close enough. I got out and walked toward the hotel. The Amazon lady was right about one thing; they did a great job remodeling this hotel. There were three buildings, all in the shape of big tops, and a twenty story hotel tower behind them. They were probably going for that three ring circus idea and it worked. I had never been inside this casino; I never made it down this far on the Strip. By the time I spent days at the Luxor, Excalibur, and New York – New York, The Mirage, and Treasure Island, I was usually ready to leave. I especially loved Treasure Island. I always had a thing for pirates. When I was a teenager my entire room was filled with Johnny Depp posters from his ten pirate movies.

I walked through the glass doors into the hotel. The circus theme was well done. The lobby was filled with statues of clowns, trapeze artists, jugglers, magicians, and other circus entertainers. They even had cages with live animals. I saw lions, tigers, and two elephants. The amazing part was there wasn’t any smell from the animals. It was the one thing I didn’t like about circuses. They must have a great ventilation system in the animal cages here. Everything was done in primary colors. It was bright and very festive.

If I didn’t know that there was a victim lying in a room someplace, I would have thought it was a cop convention. Two men in suits stood by the front desk and spoke to the cops. Maybe they knew when the task force would arrive. I sauntered over and listened.

“This is terrible, Mayor!” the man at the desk said to the two men. “We just finished our remodel last year and now this!”