SPIRIT OF CONSEQUENCE (A Spirit Walking Mystery Book 1) (16 page)

Chapter 16

I only had one choice – tell Dodge before he found out. When I ran into the conference room, he sat at the table with Marge and Dexter at his sides.

“It’s a great idea,” Marge said.

Dexter puffed up his chest. “It was my idea.”

“Can I talk to you?” I asked, sliding up beside Dodge.

“How are you going to play it?” Marge asked.

“You’re going to have to find a priest who is willing to lie on camera,” Dexter suggested.

“Please, Dodge. I really need to talk to you.” I stood between him and the other two officers.

“Most priests are not going to lie,” Marge added.

“We could find someone to play a priest, then we wouldn’t have to worry about the lying.” Dexter said.

Dodge got up and walked around me. “That’s okay, I’ve found one who is willing to say just enough that’s true and not enough to let the killer know that we’re lying about Tami.”

“Dodge! Now!” I pleaded.

He reached up and rubbed his temples.

“Got a headache, Dodge?” Dexter asked.

“Yeah, let me go and take something for it and I’ll meet you downstairs, in the lobby.”

Marge and Dexter left.

Dodge looked at me, frustration and a bit of annoyance showed on his face. “What is it?”

“There are some things you’ve got to know about me before you get that report from Dexter.”

Dodge came over to me. “You’re not the killer, are you?”

I laughed. “No, not that.”

He held up his hand and pointed to his fingers as he talked. “Okay, I know that you went to St. Elizabeth’s School for twelve years and then graduated from the University of Sacramento in just three years.” He smiled, then started ticking off other events in my life, “Even before you turned eighteen you were picked up eight times for shoplifting, four times for loitering, five times for racing your little black Jaguar, once for drunkenness in public, and, my favorite, twice for writing ‘Dick is one’ on the principal’s car.”

“Hey, that juvenile record is sealed.”

“Not to a cop with connections in the juvenile system,” he scoffed.

I stepped toward him. “What else do you know?”

“You went to rehab for Zeon three times and left all three times before you completed the treatment.”

“Okay.”

“The most bizarre thing – you married your parents’ lawyer, who was fifty at the time, when you were seventeen. Didn’t you tell me you didn’t have any relatives but that moron uncle of yours?”

I laughed. “I always forget about the stupid marriage. It wasn’t real. Uncle George has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. When my parents flitted off on some vacation or even when they were around, he was the one who looked after me. He was my father’s best friend and also the executor of their estate. All of my parents’ money was tied up in trust until I was twenty-five. He was very smart and knew with my record, I’d never be able to get myself declared an emancipated minor and get control of my money. I didn’t want to share my money with the herd of lawyers that managed my parents’ holdings so Uncle George signed a pre-nuptial agreement stating that he had no access or rights to any of my money, we got married, and he let me have as much money as I wanted, whenever I wanted it.”

“Not now that you’re dead.”

“I guess not.” I shrugged. “Was there much about my accident?”

“You were high on Zeon and alcohol. You were coming from a party?”

I smiled, remembering. “Yeah, Uncle George threw me this humongous twenty-fifth birthday party the Saturday before my birthday. We were celebrating the fact that in a couple of days I would be twenty-five, in control of my own money, and he would have our marriage annulled.”

“Uncle George had Zeon at your party?”

“No.” I shook my head. “That was at the after-party thrown by his son, Jed. Jed was a couple of years older than me but we were partners. He was the brother I never had; more than that he was my best friend. If you checked his juvenile record, you’d see he was usually picked up with me. Except, of course, for the graffiti. He thought that was childish and wouldn’t come along even to help.”

“It was nice to see you were never picked up after you turned eighteen.”

I lowered my head. “Well, that’s not exactly right.”

Dodge raised his eyebrows. “It isn’t?”

“No. Uncle George is also the executor of the local police department’s women’s and orphan’s fund. He hid it well, but when you got down to the bottom line, I was their sole contributor.”

“You owned your own police force.”

I shrugged. “It came in handy.”

“All that money and power and you ended up dead at twenty-five.” He shook his head.

I lowered my head, again. “I didn’t hurt anyone else in the accident, did I?”

“Nope, went over the railing and crashed in the bottom of a canyon.”

There was one question I had always wondered about, so I asked it. “Was there anything about my funeral?”

“Now that’s a gruesome subject.”

“I know, but I’ve always wondered about it.”

“I didn’t look for a funeral notice.” Dodge sighed. “I just didn’t want to read about it and think about you being lowered into the ground and covered with dirt.”

Was there a funeral? I wondered. Or did not enough people care that I died for there to be a service. I know that I was a little self-centered when I was alive, but wouldn’t at least Uncle George and Jed have done something? Did they not really care either? I spent twenty-five years on this earth and didn’t really touch anyone enough for them to want to say goodbye to me? I wasn’t important enough to anyone to be remembered? What does that say about my life? About me?

I looked up and saw my reflection in Dodge’s eyes. I also saw warmth and love in them. I moved forward until I was only a few inches from him. “You knew all about me and still you wanted me?”

“Of course, but that’s not the person you are anymore. Sure, I think you still like to live on the edge a bit. Why else would you get involved with a cop in the middle of a murder investigation? The rest is definitely behind you.”

“Dying worked better than rehab.”

“It usually does.” He closed the small gap between us and kissed me on the nose. “I’ve got a television spot to do. Why don’t you wander around the crowd and see if you can pick up anything?”

I saluted him. “Yes, sir.”

We left the conference room together. When we exited the elevator, television crews had set up their cameras. I slipped away and crept through the crowd. No one seemed out of place, but what would a serial killer actually look like? I wondered. Didn’t they look just like everyone else? Wasn’t that what made them good at killing multiple people? If you could spot them, they would get caught the first time.

I wandered in and out of people. Everyone seemed excited, but that was probably due to the television cameras and the murder.

Two women ogled Dodge. One was old enough to be his mother, the other his daughter. They were decked out in evening wear, one dark green and the other a bright magenta; jewelry adorned their necks, wrists and ankles. Between them, they had over fifty thousand dollars in jewelry decorating their bodies.

“He’s so handsome,” giggled the younger woman.

“Yeah, I’d like to get that one into my limo and have my way with him,” the older woman said.

I stepped into the younger woman and gave her indigestion, she grabbed her stomach, and then did the same for the older one. They both took off running to the nearest restroom.

I listened as Dodge ridiculed the killer for taking Tami’s life. “She was a good Catholic girl. Tami went to church every weekend and she worked in the soup kitchen of Father Murphy’s church. Plus the killer left tons of forensic evidence in the room and on the body.” Dodge pointed to the priest who stood next to him.

Father Murphy was a short, lean man with chubby cheeks and kind eyes. He moved toward the microphones. “Tami was a wonderful girl. She didn’t deserve to die like this. She’ll be missed.” Then he stepped back.

A reporter shouted. “Then this is not the same killer as in San Francisco, Charlton, and New York.”

“Not unless that killer has become stupid or careless in the last day or so. The person responsible for the killings in San Francisco, Charlton, and New York was a genius – this killer is an idiot. I’m turning the investigation into Tami’s death over to the Las Vegas Police Department. The task force will be leaving in the morning.”

Dodge led the priest away.

I caught up with Dodge in the front lobby, where he was talking to the priest.

“Thanks for doing that, Father.”

The priest patted him on the shoulder. “That’s okay, Inspector. If it helps, then it will all be worth it.”

The two men shook hands and then the priest looked directly at me. He nodded my way. “You’ve got a very beautiful young lady waiting for you, Inspector. Although she looks kind of pale, maybe you should get her something to eat.”

I smiled at him. He nodded and smiled back. “I’ll be on my way.”

I grabbed Dodge’s arm. “He could see me. Did you see that? He could really see me. Maybe more and more people are going to be able to see me.”

Dodge looked at me. “You are looking pale. When was the last time you had something to eat?”

I waved my hand in the air. “This morning but I don’t need to eat. I’m dead, remember?”

Dodge frowned. “Okay, but I’m not.” Then his eyes glistened. “Let’s go back to my room and I’ll order room service. That way you get to eat and I get what I want.”

“Is that all we’re going to do now?”

“I hope so.” Dodge smiled.

I followed him back toward the elevator. Marge came running up to us. “It worked, Dodge.”

“What?”

“We got a note from the killer.”

“Where is it?” Dodge asked and moved away from me.

“They’re checking it for prints and trace evidence. Then they’re sending it to the conference room for us to review.”

Dodge nodded toward the elevator. “Let’s get up to the conference room and go over the notes on Tami’s death. Then we’ll be ready when we get the note.”

“Perfect.”

“Where’s Dexter?”

“He was waiting for a call, so he went back to his room for a few minutes. He’s meeting us in the conference room.”

“Okay.” Dodge turned and came close to blowing right into me. He stopped suddenly and almost fell.

Marge looked down. “What’s the matter? Did you trip on something?”

“Yeah.” He looked at me and frowned. “I’m going up to my room and take something for my head. I didn’t take it before the television crew got here.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you in the conference room.”

The three of us got into the elevator. Marge pushed three and Dodge pushed five.

When the elevator opened on three, Marge stepped out and then used her hand to stop the elevator door from closing. “This is no time for a quickie, Dodge. Get your ass back to the conference room after you take your pain blocker.”

Dodge actually blushed. “I wasn’t…”

Marge laughed. “Whatever.” Then she pulled her hand off the elevator door and waved goodbye.

I started laughing as soon as the door closed.

Dodge frowned at me.

“You should have seen your face. It turned beet red.”

Dodge glanced up at the video camera in the corner. He turned his back to it. “If there wasn’t a camera in here, I’d take my quickie here.”

I put my hands on his chest, then ran them over his shoulders, and down his back. “We could always knock it out of commission.”

“No time. I’m ordering you some food and then getting back to the conference room.”

“How am I supposed to eat food?”

“If you can touch it, you should be able to eat it. Right?”

“I don’t think so,” I looked down at my stomach and put my hand through it. “I don’t think it will go anywhere.”

“I need to eat, so you can. Maybe it will make you look better.” The expression on Dodge’s face was hard to read. Was he scared? I wondered.

“I don’t need to eat. Remember the dead thing?”

As soon as we were inside our room, he picked up the phone. “I’ll order something, then, I guess, you can get inside me and eat it.” He cringed as he said it.

I laughed. “You’ve already been inside me. It’s only fair, but don’t worry about it. I’ll go down to the restaurant and get a bite with someone else.”

The relief showed on his face. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. I’ve been doing it for over five years. I think I can find a meal worth eating in this town.”

“Okay. Thanks.” He opened the door. “I’ll walk you to the elevator.”