Chapter 23

K ate crowed as she read the email that just came in from Manila. Now that was news. Kate got up from her desk to find Rodney standing right in front of her. She stepped back, and he was all over her.

"Why did you release Doug?"

"I want to see what he does," she replied, "and this is not the time to discuss it. Call Amie in for an interview for tomorrow, will you? Looks as if we have something to discuss. But I can't do it today. I'm heading up to the Feldspar property."

"Why?" Rodney asked, his eyebrows shooting up. "I'll come with you."

"Don't need to," she murmured. "Simon is apparently already there."

"Ah, in that case, at least you won't be walking into a bombing or whatever. Did he ever figure out any more to explain his initial warning?"

"No, not yet," she replied, "but he's asked to go into the house now, so it must be safe enough."

Rodney nodded. "You be careful."

"I will." She smiled. "I'm not sure what's going on, but it does feel as if maybe I'm getting somewhere. I just have no idea where that is, though."

"If you're stirring up a lot of ghosts, people won't be happy. Somebody's gotten away with murder for a very long time, and they won't take kindly to that changing now."

"I know," she murmured, "yet, just because they got away with it for all this time, doesn't mean they will again and again." And, with that, she dashed out to her car. As she got in and turned on the engine, she got a text. It was Rodney again.

Please just be careful.

She sent back a quick message. I will.

As she drove up to the house in question, she wondered about so many things in play here, but absolutely nothing would break apart unless people started talking. Yet quite likely the Feldspars had their own secrets for a long time, and, when there were secrets, people tended to keep those to themselves.

But she had to wonder about Doug. He was such an angry man, as in angry like the whole world was out to get him. She wondered where all that came from. Obviously he had had a tough time with the violent loss of his parents and his grandmother, his missing aunt, and even his sister had been taken from him, with her serious brain injury. Kate certainly understood the pain, the trauma, and the tremendous adjustments Doug had to make after that loss. However, he was still so incredibly angry all these years later.

She pondered that, as she pulled up in front of the abandoned home and parked beside Simon's car. Normally it was unusual to see him out in his vehicle, as he generally preferred to walk around town on his own if he could. Yet this was an unusual circumstance, she was sure.

As she walked up to the front door, she still saw no sign of him. She'd asked him to wait, and it was unusual for him to not pay attention to that. As she stood here studying the exterior, wondering where he was, she heard a voice behind her. She turned, and Simon approached her, with a cup of coffee in each hand.

She smiled, reached out to take a cup, and muttered, "I was afraid you'd gone in."

"No, you told me to wait, so I was just walking the neighborhood. Outside of this property, it's a pretty incredible place."

"Yeah, so you want to buy this one too?" she asked in a joking manner.

"Possibly, although I don't know what I would do with it," he admitted, "and it's not in my preferred location."

"It might not be your location," she noted, "but I highly doubt that would stop you from turning a profit."

He gave her a curious look. "And yet turning a profit isn't particularly of interest to me."

She smiled and nodded. "I know that, but I doubt too many others do."

"I don't really care about everybody else," he said, with a wave of his hand. "As long as the people in my world know, then it's fine by me."

She nodded and walked into the house. "Have you seen anybody around here since you drove in?"

"Should I?"

"I half expect Doug Feldspar to show up here." He stopped and frowned at her. She nodded. "Not that I'm setting you up or anything."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, with a wry look on his face. "Because telling me that now makes me feel that way."

"No, not at all," she replied. "I told you that on the phone already—but you were distracted, I guess. "

Simon admitted, "As a matter of fact, I was distracted."

Kate added, "It is a bit of a concern in the sense that he's looking for information himself. He's not had an easy time of it, and I think he's just as cracked up and upset over it all as anybody."

"Of course," Simon agreed. "He did have his entire family murdered."

"Not quite all," she clarified, with a headshake.

"Weren't you supposed to go check on the sister yesterday?"

"I was, and then I got called away on something else, so I'll fit that in later today."

"Or maybe you don't need to go there."

"Yeah, I do," she confirmed, as she faced him. "Even if it's just to confirm that she can offer nothing for information."

"Ah, I guess it's all about getting that final bit of info, isn't it?"

"You never know what you don't know until it appears," she shared, with a smile. Inside the building she stopped and looked around. "This would have been quite an incredible building in its day too," she murmured.

"Yeah, it sure would, but it doesn't have the same feel to it as the Paragon."

"What feeling is that?"

"Cozy. Elegance, warmth," he replied. "Yet here?" He shuddered at something inwardly. "It feels cold, as if it was a possession, a status symbol," he explained, as he wandered around the place. "It doesn't feel as if it was somebody's heart and soul."

"And yet the Paragon does?"

"Yes," he declared, "I can even remember the feel of it. People in that building absolutely thrived and loved being there, loved that part of their lives and everything about it."

She just frowned at him and then shrugged. "If you say so."

"I do." He laughed.

"Why are you here now?" she murmured, studying his face as he wandered the house. "I mean, yes, the crime scene has been released, and, yes, I'm here with you, but did you have a specific reason today?"

"Only Shawn," he replied.

"Only Shawn, huh ? This place has been vandalized, has been broken into multiple times, and the family has pretty-well taken what they wanted out of it," Kate reported. "And it's just been left to rot for the rest of the time. I highly doubt anything could be found here, except for a place to stay overnight."

"For the humans maybe. I saw some ghosts in here while I was waiting for you."

Kate raised her eyebrows, not surprised though to hear Simon say that.

Simon added, "I needed to come anyway."

She could respect that, though she didn't understand it. But she didn't have to understand everything in Simon's life in order to know that his gift worked. She just followed Simon's lead as he walked around the property. When she heard a noise outside, she looked out one of the windows, and, sure enough, there was Doug. She smiled. "Exactly what I thought he would do," she murmured.

"And yet you wanted him to, didn't you?"

"Yeah, the only way you'll get answers in a cold case like this," she murmured in a low tone, "is to get people upset and make them say things and think things that they hadn't thought before, you know? To make them reconsider life from a different viewpoint." When Simon studied her curiously, she shrugged. "I'm no shrink," she muttered, "but Doug Feldspar has some serious issues to sort out."

"I don't know that you're not a shrink," Simon pointed out, "because, damn it, you come up with things that make me stop and wonder."

She laughed. "Not really. It's just a simple case of understanding humanity and what humanity needs out there."

She walked to the entrance to meet Doug. When she opened the door to him, he immediately glared and snapped at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here on police business," she stated, "and I could ask you the same. What are you doing here?"

"This is my home."

She cocked her head to the side. "Yet it's currently registered to a holding company."

"Which is mine."

"It's a numbered account," she added, staring at him.

"Yeah, that's mine too."

"Yours and Darrian Jackson's?"

"Yes." Doug glared at her, almost getting in her face. "After all this, I think I want to sell the place.… It won't increase in value, and it won't offer any solutions to anything, so I might as well just move it on." He stared gloomily around the front hall and muttered, "Darrian's been good for me, helping me to handle everything."

She nodded. "I don't suppose he's the beneficiary, is he?"

He frowned at her. "Don't even start talking shit about him. You don't know anything."

She smiled cheerfully. "If he is, maybe you should think about changing that."

He shook his head. "See? You're just trying to cause trouble." Then he gave a menacing laugh. "All you cops are fucking insane."

"I'm just giving you a warning about life and con artists."

"This isn't about life ," he clarified. "I never lived a life as it was. You're just starting trouble."

She shrugged. "It's the cop in me."

"Yeah, that's all you do. You start trouble and hope that people react in a way that gives you something."

"Wouldn't that be nice," she said, with a smile.

Just then his gaze widened, almost in horror, as he looked behind her.

She didn't need to turn around to imagine he had seen one of the ghosts Simon noted were in this house. She was surprised that Doug could see them, when she had not seen them. Frowning, she asked Doug, "Are you okay?"

"What the hell is that thing?" he cried out.

She turned but didn't see anything. "What thing?" she asked cautiously. He pointed, but she shrugged. "Look. I don't know what you're seeing, but I'm not seeing anything."

He turned to her, looked back at the room behind her, then calmed down somewhat. "I don't know what I saw there for a moment," he muttered.

"Could be ghosts," she replied. "Shawn, who was found dead here, was very much of the opinion that this place was haunted."

"Shawn was homeless," Doug stated, "and, anybody with half a brain wouldn't be homeless, so you can't believe him. "

She sighed. "Yet you seem to have seen a ghost. Regardless, maybe if you had gone through the military trauma Shawn experienced, you would understand," she shared calmly. "I would have thought that being through trauma yourself, you, of all people, would understand."

He stared at her for a moment. "I don't give a fuck," he snapped and turned to leave.

She asked him, "Were you this angry before you lost your family?"

He turned and glared at her, then shook his head. "No, of course not. Their murders are what's made me so angry."

"Maybe." She studied him intently. "But you have an awful lot of anger, especially after all this time."

"Oh sorry," he bellowed, "sorry if I didn't get over it as fast as you think I should have." He sneered at her. "But that's so typical of a cop, isn't it? You know it all and expect everybody else to listen to your BS."

"Seems as if you're spouting your own BS."

He glowered at her, as he backed up. "You don't know what the hell you're saying. This is private property, and you need to get the hell out of here."

"It's part of an official police investigation into a current murder," she reminded him. "So I'm not leaving until I'm done. In fact, I could kick you out for disturbing my crime scene. However, if you've got a legitimate reason to be here yourself, that's fine. You can stand around and watch me, while I go through everything in this house, looking for clues."

"Clues to what?" He shook his head. "My parents were murdered a decade ago. So no way anything is left around now."

"Yet there absolutely is," she countered, looking at him. " I guess you don't really understand forensics, do you?" And, with that, she gave him a superior look, then turned and headed deeper into the house.

He followed her cautiously, looking around uneasily.

"You're really spooked by ghosts, huh ?" she asked him.

"If there's such a thing as ghosts," he replied, "which I'm sure as hell not saying there is. However, the only ghosts that I figure are here would be my family. Yet I can't say that makes me feel any better."

"There's always Shawn," she noted. "What about his ghost? His body was dumped here at least."

"So what? That doesn't mean jack shit."

"No, it sure doesn't. I'm glad to see you understand that much about the system."

He stared at her. "You're not like other cops."

She shrugged. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"It's not a compliment," he snapped, that same tic in his jaw active again. "Jesus, you don't even know when you're being insulted."

She laughed. "That could be true. I'm only interested in the facts. So, if you've got something to say, why don't you just come out with it?"

"I don't like you in my house," he snapped.

"I don't think you like being in this house either, so I'm not sure what difference it makes."

He frowned at her and asked, "What do you mean?"

"It gives you the heebie-jeebies to even be here. Just the thought of ghosts around this place is setting you off. That's what you were thinking, and that's what you were seeing earlier."

"You don't know anything," he snapped.

She shrugged. "For all I know you actually saw something from way back when."

He stared at her in shock. "What?"

"You heard me," she said, staring at him. "Don't act as if you didn't." With that, he started to visibly shake. She nodded. "See?"

"You can't know that," he said. "You can't."

"You might be surprised at what I know," she declared, ruthlessly digging into Doug's phobias. "The only way to free yourself from all that is to talk to me."

"No, no, no," he argued, backing up. "Talking to you is not smart. I know what cops do. They twist words around and make it so that you don't know what end is up."

"If you're telling the truth, what difference could it make?"

"The thing is… the truth isn't always the truth."

She sighed loudly, staring at him. "That's a very interesting statement. Are you sure you don't want to tell me about the night your family died?"

"There's nothing to say." He shook his head. "I was in my room. I came down and found blood everywhere." He shuddered again, this time as if to shake something off. "That's what happened. And, ever since then, I keep waiting for you guys to solve this, and you never do."

She frowned at him for a long moment. Something about his short summary didn't ring true. "Where was your sister?"

"Upstairs in her room too."

"Did she go downstairs with you?"

"No, she didn't."

"So, when did she get the brain injury?"

He glared at her and then shrugged. "I don't remember how or what, but she got shot. I think during the robbery. "

"But you said she was up in her room."

"Yeah, she was, but I don't know when she went downstairs," he shared. "It's been one of the mysteries."

"What if she wasn't up there in her room at all? What if she was downstairs the whole time?"

"I don't know," he cried out. "You think I haven't thought about that a time or two?" He shook his head. "Do you think I've just been sitting here, doing nothing the whole time? You people think you're so smart and think it's all about you, and that's bullshit too."

"I'm glad to hear that you're still considering what happened to your family, to your sister," she replied, giving him a little bit of space. "It can't be easy to have horrific memories that don't fade."

"No, it isn't, and you start thinking that maybe you didn't understand what happened at all."

"Your sister is older than you, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she is."

"How was her relationship with your parents?"

He hesitated, then shrugged. "Difficult."

"Any idea why?"

"Yeah, but we can't talk to her about it, and I don't know for sure, so I don't want to say anything."

"What don't you know for sure?"

He went silent for a moment, then he spoke again. "I think she was being abused."

"What?"

"I think my father was abusing her, but I don't know that for sure," he snapped.

"You heard her say something about it or what? You heard somebody say something?"

"Darrian mentioned it," Doug replied, as he seemed to be pulling on some memory for that.

"Did Darrian come over that night?"

"Yeah, I called him, and he came over right away."

"Before the cops?" she asked, her eyes widening at the thought.

He glared at her. "Yeah, before the cops."

His answer confirmed the fear that she felt in the pit of her stomach. She let out her breath. "Did you consider that maybe that wasn't the best thing to do?"

"No, I didn't," he declared. "I just reacted. I needed a friend. I needed somebody to come help. Darrian came and he helped."

She nodded. "Of course he did."

"Look. He's not a bad guy in any way, and he's not guilty of any damn crime. I just needed somebody to help."

She didn't say anything because Doug's version of Darrian compared to Daisy's version was something completely different. "How much do you deal with him now?"

"He handles all the family trust investments, so I don't have to deal with anything."

Kate felt less and less comfortable with each passing second.

"Mostly I just roam around the world, pissed off," he shared, glaring at her.

"You might want to work on that."

"It would be nice if you actually worked on giving me some closure then."

"I am," she stated. "Not everybody in this world is out to get you, you know?"

"Sure seems like it," he barked, as he glanced around this house. "Look at this place.… Look what happened to my world. "

She nodded. "I get that, yet other people have experienced pretty traumatic events in their lives too."

"Oh, right ," he muttered, "so I'm supposed to feel better because other people have it shittier?"

"No, not at all. You're supposed to take heart that there can be life, even after this," she suggested. He stiffened and then relaxed, and she realized that was probably Simon's influence coming through. She turned, looked at him, then nodded her silent thanks.

Simon walked out the front door and headed out into the yard.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Doug asked in confusion.

"Just part of the whole murder mess that we have to deal with."

Doug shook his head. "Christ, I don't understand any of this."

"I don't either," she confirmed, with a shrug. "So, if I asked you to show me some of the paperwork you have from Darrian, would you?"

"Sure, it's not as if I ever open that shit."

"How come?" she asked, curious.

"Because I don't understand any of it," he admitted. "It's pretty technical stuff."

"Good. I really want to see it then."

He glared at her. "You're just trying to cause trouble for Darrian."

"I want to confirm that everything's on the up-and-up for you and your sister. I'll also go see your sister. I wanted to do that yesterday but couldn't make it. I'm heading there this afternoon."

"If you say so, but it won't do you any good. "

"Why is that?"

"Because she can't talk anymore. She can't do anything anymore, and, if my father was responsible for that, I wish I would have killed him myself."

She contemplated that for a long moment. "What if… and just bear with me please. What if your sister went down and shot your family?" He stared at her in shock. "Don't tell me that you haven't contemplated such an option."

"Not for any length of time, no," he declared. "That's not who Alison was."

"Unless she was being abused, in which case there's always a breaking point."

He nodded. "I did consider it, but she wouldn't have killed my mother or my grandmother. No way. They were close."

Kate nodded. "I noticed there's no security camera footage from inside or outside for that entire time the murders occurred."

"No, the burglars took the tapes with them."

She nodded at that too. "Very convenient."

He shrugged. "I assumed that's what burglars do."

"They probably do."

He stared at her. "You sure say some weird shit."

She snorted. "I'll come to your place after I'm done here and get the paperwork."

"I can email it to you." He pulled out his phone, clicked on a few things, asked for her email address, and then looked up at her. "There, that's some of the latest documents."

"Good enough. Thanks." She smiled at him.

He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"I know. If I find anything, I'll let you know."

He looked a little relieved at that but added, "You won't find anything."

"Good. Where was your bedroom in this house?"

He stared at her and then shook his head. "The front bedroom on the second floor."

She looked up, frowning. "So, if you had burglars, you didn't hear any activity on the first floor?"

He shook his head. "No, honest to God, I didn't hear anything. I had my headset on. I was playing video games."

"Okay, I can see that, and then what did you do?"

"I came racing downstairs and saw the carnage."

"Why did you race downstairs? What was the trigger? Can you remember that?"

He pondered that for a moment. "I took off my headset, and I called out to my mom. I thought I heard somebody downstairs, but my parents weren't supposed to be here. They were out for the evening. It was pretty early for them to return. So I called out, and, when no answer came, I bolted downstairs."

"Yet, from the time you called out to not hearing anything and coming downstairs, did you hear anybody run away?" Kate asked.

He shook his head. "No, I didn't."

"So, you didn't hear shots fired? You didn't hear anything?"

"No, I didn't," he repeated in frustration.

She envisioned that scenario from his perspective. "That's just made your life that much harder, hasn't it?"

"How would you feel?" he snapped. "I mean, you're here at the time, and you don't even know. You just come downstairs and boom .… They're dead."

"Your sister, where was she?"

He walked toward the living room and stood on a spot in the hallway. "She was right here… at the bottom of the stairs."

"Interesting. And she was bleeding from the head wound?"

"Yes. It was gross."

She took a deep breath and nodded. "I don't suppose you took any pictures, did you?"

"You've got the crime scene photos," he said, looking up at her in astonishment.

Something rose inside her. Again that same pull was building up to this point. "You did take some, didn't you?"

He flushed. "Yeah, Darrian had already talked about how the police couldn't be trusted and how there would likely be all kinds of cover-ups, making my dad look like he was some sort of a cheat," Doug snapped. "And, sure enough, that's what lots of people were doing. Trying to say that he was in these bad deals, and that's exactly what ended up happening."

"I want your pictures," she stated calmly.

"What will you do with them?" He frowned at her.

"Compare them to the crime scene photos."

He stared at her in shock. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," she repeated, "and, if anything's been doctored or changed, then I can tell. I really need to see those photos."

He shrugged. "Whatever." He pulled out his phone. "I only took a couple."

He quickly forwarded them to her, and she nodded. "Good enough. Now I can bring up the crime scene photos back at the office and compare them."

"But even if something has been retouched," Doug noted, "how will you know if it was me, the cops, the coroner, or Darrian for that matter?"

"I won't, but it'll be a place to start."

And, with that, his shoulders sagged. "Yeah, okay. Thanks.… Look. I am sorry for being a jerk. Please just solve this." And, with that, he turned and raced to his car.

She could almost see his shoulders relaxing for the first time, and she realized how deeply he was still affected by all this one decade later.

For a moment there, she wondered if an angry fourteen-year-old would have been angry enough to have wiped out his family, and it certainly happens. It's definitely happened in the past, and she didn't want it to be the case here. Now, for the first time, she realized it probably wasn't him.

*

Simon waited for Kate to find him, and it didn't take long after the young man left. He looked over at her, smiled, and asked, "Was that Doug?"

"Yeah."

"He didn't seem ready to punch you this time."

"No, I think being here made him more of an emotional wreck than anything."

"Did it help at all?"

"Maybe," she murmured. "He apparently took a couple photos of the crime scene from back then. So, we will see where that goes."

He slowly nodded. "I can't say I'm terribly surprised, although I would be surprised that it was on his phone. Wouldn't the cops have checked?"

"They might have but may not have realized that it meant anything," she said, with a nod. "Doug was quite a mess at the time, and they may not have taken his phone. He was just a kid and may not have looked as if he would be a decent suspect or witness. In a crazy highly charged scene like that, the cops do the best they can and hope they covered all the angles. But Doug did send me the photos, so, when I get back to the office, I'll take a look. I also need to stop in at the facility where his sister is. Plus, I need to sort out a few other things, like this Darrian guy."

Simon stared at her, clearly surprised. "Darrian? Darrian Jackson?"

"Yes, why?"

"You want to stay away from that guy."

She stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"He's a crook, very slimy. He deals in offshore accounts, funneling money outside the country, tax evasion, and, if you want somebody to give you a hand in doing something shady, he's the guy to do it. If there's ever a chance of somebody getting in trouble, you can bet it won't be him."

"Yeah, now that's a problem. The accounting firm in Paragon had Darrian Jackson as a partner, before he got too slimy. Then Darrian was a friend and maybe a partner of the Feldspar family. Doug back then was a fourteen-year-old kid who called Darrian before he called the police."

Simon whistled at that. "Jesus, really?"

"Yeah, which is part of my concern right now. I have the crime scene photos that Doug just sent me, but who's to say that Darrian himself or this kid didn't do something to change the crime scene?"

"I wouldn't trust them at all," Simon stated.

"I also got Doug to send me some of his financial information, since this Darrian character has been handling the family trust for him."

"Do you have somebody to go over it? "

"I hope so. I'm not stupid, but this stuff isn't really my forte."

Simon suggested, "If you want, I can take a quick look whenever."

"Maybe," she murmured.

"Are we done here?" he asked.

She turned to him and asked, "Did you find out whatever you needed to find out?"

He shrugged. "I'm not really seeing anything, which is kind of a problem because it did feel as if I needed to be here. I did see what I thought were at least two ghosts earlier, but I am not sure I really saw that either."

"While I was talking to Doug, he saw something behind me that shook him, and he's quite worried about ghosts."

"Of course he is," Simon noted. "Think about it. You've got a traumatized kid with all kinds of memories from here, all kinds of shit coming down. If you have anything to do with it or if you're in any way attached, any ghosts could easily be his family members."

"Did you see any family members?" she challenged.

He smiled. "Definitely some shit is going on here."

"When you take a moment, I already know you're holding something back." She paused herself then added, "Did you find anything useful?"

"No."

But you could have .

He turned and looked at her, puzzled. "How could I have?"

"I didn't say anything."

He stared at her for a moment. "You didn't say, But I could have ?"

"No, I didn't." She frowned at him. "What are you hearing? "

He slowly turned and looked around the house. "Somebody said, But you could have , which means I need to take another look."

And, with that, he headed back into the house, determined once and for all that he would figure out what the hell was pissing him off here. He walked through the house, using his senses more than anything. When he got to the rear kitchen and stepped into the massive backyard, he kept on walking and walking and walking. When he got to one spot, he turned and looked back at her, yet stood here for a long minute.

"Simon?" she called out, and he just remained there. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to him.

"I know this is a big ask," he began, "but…"

She frowned at him, looking around, shaking her head. "Don't tell me a body is here."

He winced. "I can't tell you that. All I can tell you is that I'm being directed here."

It was a serene spot and had the potential of revealing something important, but no way could she get budget money allocated for this, and yet Simon wouldn't back down. "I would need a cadaver dog in order to even contemplate it," she explained, "and, besides, what's it got to do with this case?"

"I don't know," Simon snapped back in frustration. "All I can tell you is that it's got something to do with this property. Did anybody here go missing?"

"Doug's aunt."

Simon looked at the ground below his feet and then back at Kate. "Guess what?"

Kate shook her head, and then her shoulders slumped.

Simon nodded. "I think we found her."