That Awful Sound: Psychic Detectives - The Joliet Sisters (7 page)

“Let me get this straight. The Forstalls
engineered the entire scheme because they were being blackmailed.
So they killed three people,” Harrison huffed out.

“Hamilton Forstall fought his two older
brothers for years over control of the business. He filed two
lawsuits,” Charmaine said. “It’s all online. I found four articles
written back in the nineties. He lost in 2008. Stealing from the
company was his revenge.”

“Plus they didn’t want their reputations to
go south. Imagine sex tapes of them on the internet for eternity.
You’ll find video in Darrius’s phone I bet. Check if he has a
desktop or tablet computer, too.” Jessi sound weak. She yawned,
closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the car
seat.

“Yeah, but gunshots don’t explain the bloody
mess in there. Three dead people, two of them among the most
prominent New Orleans citizens. Jesus, what a nightmare,” Harrison
nodded at the house. “Looks like something out of a horror movie.
You two wanna explain? Wait a minute, don’t answer. I’m guessing
it’s nothing I can put in an official report that won’t get me
fired and committed to a psych ward.”

“Okay, they started arguing about the
blackmail. Things got out of hand and everybody started shooting.
Mr. Forstall used that antique torture tool to hack up Darrius. In
the dark everybody got slashed, shot and dead.” Jessi spoke without
opening her eyes.

Charmaine looked up at Harrison. “We’ll back
up they were all nut jobs with a taste for violence. I mean they
tried to kill us.”

Harrison stood straight with another deep
sigh, followed by a grunt. “I’ll make it work. Great. The pimple on
my ass shows.”

His commander sat in a police Tahoe for a
few minutes talking on the phone. He scanned the area, found
Harrison and beckoned him with a sharp hand movement. With another
grunt of resignation, Harrison trudged off in Murphy’s
direction.

“Now we can talk the real deal. Lucas?”
Charmaine gazed into the night as if she could see him.

“Yeah, plus he brought reinforcements. He
was too scared to come alone,” Jessi mumbled.

“Your ghost boyfriend to the rescue,”
Charmaine teased.

“He ain’t my boyfriend, and he’s too jumpy
for my taste.”

“You almost passed out. What was that
about?”

Jessi sat up, eyes open. “Lucas and the
others started all talking at once. But I got the gist. I reached
out to the… not sure what to call it. Negative force I guess. What
about the lights? Sure wasn’t me.”

“I started thinking how we needed to get
away. I stared at the lights, blocked out everything else and
prayed hard. Then they flickered and went out. Didn’t know I could
direct objects. Thank you, Lord.”

“There you go with the God nonsense. Pure
energy and you’ve been practicing control of it. Remember? Science,
not superstition,” Jessi countered.

“Intelligent design. Even Einstein said so.
God is real, Jess.”

Jessi led her head fall back and closed her
eyes. “Whatev. I’m too worn out to argue with you.”

“We gotta deal with that thing in the house.
Alyssa and Grayson will be in danger,” Charmaine said as she gazed
at the Forstall mansion.

“Agreed, though I doubt they’ll want to live
there ever again. My bet is they sell the place. Still, we can’t
let a string of rich white folks end up as ghost snacks. Wouldn’t
be very polite,” Jessi murmured, her words slurred by fatigue.

“
I don’t see how you can
sleep. I won’t for a long time. That awful sound keeps echoing in
my head, even through all the chaos. Staying awake looks really
good to me now. I want some normal back in my life for a minute.
Hey, I feel like Belgian waffles. What about you?”

Jessi’s soft snoring was the only answer she
got.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Born in Louisiana, Lynn is a licensed
clinical social worker. She has worked in a secure psychiatric
hospital, a juvenile correctional facility, as a child abuse
investigator, been designated as an expert witness twice and had a
host of other fascinating encounters during her career. “All of my
experiences as a social worker continue to feed my fiction.
Louisiana is the home of colorful characters and tall tales. I’m
definitely a product of my environment. My first babysitter taught
me about voodoo when I was a toddler. And then my childhood really
got interesting!”