Chapter 19

K ate waited for the phone to be picked up. When Daisy finally answered, her voice slurred, as if tired and worn out, Kate apologized. "I'm sorry. Did I wake you from a nap?"

"Maybe," the older woman muttered, her voice slowly gaining in strength. "What can I do for you, Detective?"

"Did you or your husband have any dealings with a guy by the name of Shawn?"

"Shawn?" she repeated. "No last name, huh ? I hope you're not asking about our client base because I couldn't possibly remember that many names."

"No, not particularly," Kate replied, now sighing. "It's a homeless person's case I'm dealing with right now," she clarified. "Apparently he hung around the Paragon offices because either he worked there with somebody in that building or he knew people who worked in the building that he was close to."

"That building was home to a lot of businesses over the years, particularly ones that came and went," she shared in astonishment. "What has that got to do with us?"

Kate hesitated and then added, "In this case, his body was found at the Feldspar house."

Daisy gasped. "Oh good Lord."

"Yes, so you can see why I'm asking if you know that name."

"Know that name?" she repeated, sounding confused. "I mean, what was it again? Shawn? It's not ringing a bell, but I don't know. I can think about it some more and tell you later."

"That's fine, thank you. I just wanted to check. Maybe Shawn knew your husband, and maybe Jet helped out somehow. Apparently Shawn did military time, then came back with PTSD."

At that Daisy repeated the name a couple more times, then she gasped with shock. "Oh my, Jack Ludwig."

"Yes, I believe that was his legal name, although his friends on the streets called him Shawn."

"I don't know about Shawn," Daisy noted, "but Jack Ludwig, yes. He worked for my husband for a while. He was really good friends with… Oh my. Oh dear."

"What's oh my , and what's oh dear ?" Kate asked.

"I do believe Jack knew the Feldspars, but I don't remember how they were connected."

"I don't really need you to tell me how they were connected, although it would certainly be helpful if you could tell me anything about Shawn. What he did with your company, and what the relationship was? That would be most helpful. Honestly anything at this point would help."

"Well, he was just… I really need a cup of tea and a moment to clear my head."

"How about I come visit?" Kate offered.

Daisy moaned. "I guess you won't let me off the hook on this, will you?"

"No, I'm sorry. I can't."

"Fine then," she said crossly. "Come over. I'll put on the teakettle. "

With that, Kate once again bounded to her feet and raced to her vehicle. When she arrived at Daisy's house, she walked up to the front door, and Daisy opened it for her.

"I've been sitting here trying to think about Jack," she began, "and I don't have a ton of memories about him."

"I understand that," Kate replied, "and I get that it was probably a while ago."

She nodded and pointed to the tea service on her table. Both women sat down and Daisy poured tea for both of them. "I know that my husband was persuaded to hire him. Jack just did odd jobs—cleaning the office, filing, some hand-deliveries, things like that. But he did have a good head for numbers, and my husband enjoyed being around him.… I was going to say I don't know what happened and why he disappeared, but I think it all happened at the same time."

"You mean, the same time as the Feldspar murders?"

"Yes, I think so.… I seem to recall that… and I can only give you vague memories on this. Maybe Jack was profoundly affected by the Feldspar murders, and I seem to remember that he might have been good friends with somebody there."

"Like the son or the daughter?"

"I think it was the daughter, but, when the daughter was so badly injured… I don't know if he just couldn't handle it, or she couldn't handle it, or what. Honest to God, none of us could handle it," she admitted. "It was just such a horrific scenario, losing so many members of the same family at one time, and everybody was terribly affected by it."

Kate nodded. "Of course, and that makes total sense."

"It might make total sense now," Daisy pointed out, "but, back in the day, I think we were all just in shock mode and trying to function enough to get through the day. For me, the pain was much less because I wasn't as close to the family in the way my husband was. I didn't realize how close he was getting."

"You mean, with the niece?"

"Yes, exactly," she snapped, and then she groaned. "And you can see that all my attempts to stay calm and to be fair and balanced about the whole second-family thing go up in smoke."

"I am so sorry about that. It's not your fault, and you're still dealing with a very large betrayal."

"Yes, I am. Thank you for understanding that." She took a deep breath. "Maybe you'll want to go talk to them."

"I will," Kate noted. "I need to at least talk to both the sister and the niece."

"Good luck with that," Daisy replied. "First, the sister may be in a coma. She was that bad off. As for the niece, I know she's pretty bitter because she thought that my husband and I were divorced."

"And was there any talk of the two of you divorcing?"

"No, I didn't even know anything about it," Daisy snapped, as her shoulders slumped.

Daisy was tired, emotionally and physically. That made Kate sad to even bring up all this with her. "I'm sorry that this is all being dragged up again. It's hardly fair to you."

"It's not fair, but it is also the reality of life," Daisy stated. "As I have found, to my great chagrin, just because something isn't fair doesn't mean that it'll change and go your way. So, don't feel ashamed about having to ask me questions. I'll get through it the best I can."

"And that is much appreciated," Kate murmured.

"I also found another phone number for Rosemary—or maybe it's the same one as I thought was in the box, and I just wrote it down in two different places."

"Rosemary Feldspar? That's the niece, right?"

"Yes, the one my husband married ," she said in a mocking tone.

"Ah, good, I'll contact her." And with that, she got the phone number from Daisy and wrote it down, aware that it seemed slightly familiar. As she pondered it, she muttered, "I almost feel as if I've seen it before."

Daisy shrugged. "I certainly hadn't seen it before she called me after the funeral, but who knows. My husband was definitely a con man when it came to keeping that side of his life separate from my side of his life. I had no idea," she muttered, with a sad sigh. "I think that's what made me the angriest because I considered myself an intelligent woman… somebody not easily duped." She shook her head, with sorrow written all over her expression. "He made me feel like a fool, and that, that's hard to forgive."

Kate understood that all too well. She got up after their tea and thanked the woman for her assistance. On her way out the door, she turned and added, "Just remember that what you're doing now goes a long way to standing up and facing what happened to you. You're nobody's fool, and anybody can get tricked by somebody they love. That's what love is about, totally trusting someone without a second thought. He broke that trust, but he didn't break you." With that parting wisdom shared, Kate turned and made her way to her car.

*

Simon walked out the front door of the Paragon building, still energized from his discussion with Benjamin, who would send him a report, a general report based on what he'd found, and then they could go from there.

As he went to close the front door, he thought he heard a voice calling out to him. He turned to look, but nobody was there. Frowning, he stuck his head in the building and froze because he saw that same weird apparition, that shimmering form, now more of a defined shape. Simon stepped inside, keeping his gaze on the form, as he closed the door behind him.

"Shawn, is that you?"

The form shimmered a little brighter.

Simon wasn't sure if that was a yes or something else. "I don't think you're supposed to be here, buddy."

The form shimmered again ever-so-slightly.

"Did you call me?"

And again that weird echo came, half-yes, half-no.

He wasn't sure if that was an answer or if it was just some noise drifting through the building. He walked a little closer. "Is there something you need to tell me?" He could swear to God that the apparition spoke. He didn't see a mouth. He didn't clearly see anything, but he heard a noise, a word, and it was so clear and strong. Yet it made no sense because the word just hung there, alone.

"Feldspar."

"Yes, you were found in the Feldspar house," Simon confirmed, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck raise, even on his arms. All his hair stood up, and his instincts told him to run like hell. Yet, if he did run, how would that help whatever the hell this was? But, as soon as the ghost said Feldspar , the apparition slowly started to fade.

"Wait," Simon cried out. "What about Feldspar? What is it? What's wrong with it?"

Of course at the point of maybe getting some answers, the apparition dissipated.

Simon groaned, as he stared around the space. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but definitely something was here. Just as he went to phone Kate, his phone rang, and he saw that it was her. "Hey, great minds and all that," he said lightly. "I was just about to call you."

"Are you okay?" she asked, her tone sharp. "I just got the sudden urge to call you."

He smiled. "I do like the idea of sudden urges to call me, but I'm fine."

"You're in that damn building, aren't you?"

He gave a small laugh. "Yes, and I think I just saw Shawn's ghost again. The only thing he would tell me, and, no, I don't know that the ghost was talking to me, so don't press me on this, but all I heard on the ethers—"

"Ethers?" she asked in a deliberately dubious and noncommittal tone.

Simon let it go and came straight to the point. "All he said was Feldspar ."

"Yeah, Feldspar is coming up, again and again," she noted.

"Did you ever look at all the old case files on Feldspar?"

"I've got them at my desk," she shared. "I've gone through them, but I haven't had a chance to completely analyze the data. It's also not a cold case that I'm really entitled to open, but I do want the details from it, which may be connected to the current cases I've got going now."

"You should bring some of the other guys in the office into the loop," Simon suggested. "It sounds as if you're getting somewhere."

"Am I?" she asked in a mocking tone. "I would have sworn I was nowhere at all. "

"Oh, but I think you are," Simon declared, feeling a sharp pang of knowingness. "It definitely feels as if you are. Something that you just found out is putting you on the right track."

"That may or may not be," she muttered, "but you certainly couldn't prove it by me."

He laughed. "That's just because, once again, you are doubting everything in your world."

"Ha. I don't know about that, but I can tell you that Shawn spent a lot of time with the accounting firm in the Paragon building, and somebody in the Feldspar family or a friend of the Feldspars got Shawn the job there at the Paragon."

"Well, crap," Simon said in astonishment.

"Yeah, too bad Shawn didn't tell you about that."

"Too bad Shawn wasn't still around to tell me about anything," he stated firmly. "I wish he was."

"Yeah, me too, and I know that you have been quite affected by his death, and I'm sorry about that.… I would love to say that I'm almost there in solving Shawn's death because it feels as if I am, but I don't have anything clear and concrete to get there. Not yet anyway. This case is messing me up."

"You do realize that multiple people have been killed in order to keep quiet whatever happened," Simon pointed out, "and all your digging is petrifying me that you're coming up close against that killer and putting yourself in danger." Silence came on the other end of the phone, and he groaned. " Right . I don't get to say anything about that, do I?"

"It's not that you don't get to say anything," she countered gently, "but it's not as if I'll quit now, will I?"

He slowly let out his breath, aiming for control but knowing that it would likely be a complete waste.

Then she came back with a retort. "And I'm not doing anything stupid. I'm definitely not trying to do anything more stupid than you would consider," she clarified, with a note of humor.

"I know, but bodies are dropping like flies around these two properties."

"Yeah, no kidding. I do understand that murders have been committed just to keep this all quiet," she conceded, "and that is definitely not something I'm terribly happy with. Shawn and Frankie deserved a better life than they had, even if it's one that they chose. However, the information I've just found out now is something that I need to double-check, and, for that, I need to get back to the office and make some phone calls."

"Or you can just come to my apartment and make some phone calls," he suggested.

"Too early yet," she muttered. "It's not even noon."

"I understand, but we haven't had a nooner yet," he suggested in a teasing tone. He heard her sucked-in breath, and he laughed. "Yeah, I shocked you."

"And yet I don't know why I should be shocked," she whispered, her voice thick. "Just hold that thought until I get home, will you?"

And, with that, she ended the call.