Chapter 9

K ate had gone through both of the previous case histories on Amie's first and second dead husbands and had written down a series of notes for herself. The first husband committed suicide two years into the marriage. The second husband was killed on their honeymoon. There had been a break-in, and, as the reports had stated, he'd fought with the intruder and had been shot and killed in the struggle.

Nobody was ever questioned on the murder at the time, and no one had ever been caught or convicted since. This had also occurred in the Philippines. She didn't want to say that things were a whole lot more casual over there, but, in truth, things were a whole lot more casual over there.

She frowned as she went through the bits and pieces of both dead husbands' files, finding family members of the two husbands. With that list in hand, she picked up the phone and contacted Jimmy, the brother of Amie's first husband, John. When she identified who she was, silence came on the other end. He had clearly not seen this coming.

"Why are you calling me after all this time?"

She frowned. "I get that five years later is a long time for a grieving family, but it's not necessarily a long time for investigations into these cases."

"If you say so," he replied, "but all it does is bring up all that pain again."

"I'm sorry for that," she murmured.

"What possible reason could you have for bringing this up again now?"

She hesitated, then dove in. "Because Amie's third husband just passed away."

"Third?" he asked in shock. "She's already been married twice after my brother?"

"Yes, and her second husband was murdered on their honeymoon in the Philippines."

Another long silence ensued, and then he said, "Jesus, either she's got the devil's own misfortune or…"

"Exactly," Kate agreed, "and I'm just doing a check into the events of the first two deaths in case she possibly helped them along the way. Hence, my investigation."

"Good," he declared brutally. "I never liked that bitch. I told my brother that he shouldn't marry her and that absolutely no way he would ever be happy with her."

"Why was that?"

"Because he loved education, and he loved people who pursued education. It was really important to him, and then suddenly he married somebody just the opposite? Education had absolutely nothing to do with her world. I asked him what they even had in common, and he just laughed. I told him it didn't matter how good she was in bed because, at some point in time, he would want someone he could converse with. I didn't like the bitch from the get-go, but he was in love . He was madly in love with her, and I couldn't talk him out of it. Then two years later, he was dead, after being so unhappy, so miserable that he committed suicide," he shared bitterly.

"Never ever in a million years would I have thought that my brother would do that. He was a guy who loved life, and he was absolutely full of life," His voice broke as he spoke, and Kate felt sorry for him as he went on. "The whole thing remains completely incomprehensible to me." Then he stopped, and his tone took on an odd note, as he asked, "Hang on a minute. Are you thinking that John didn't commit suicide?"

"At this point I'm just inquiring into the circumstances around his death," she clarified. "I know that the investigation was concluded and that the cause of death was determined to be suicide."

"Sure, he swallowed a bunch of pills and ended up in the morgue," Jimmy confirmed, "but what if he didn't knowingly take those pills?"

"And that is always something we have to look at. The police report stated he was quite depressed beforehand. Do you know anything about that?"

"If he was, he didn't tell me about it. That was Amie's version of events," he stated bitterly. "She would never talk to us afterward either, saying that it was way too painful. She didn't want anything to do with us and couldn't even tell us about his last days. Those two years of his life were lost to us," he added. "After they got married, it seemed as if it didn't take very long before we had no contact with him. She completely isolated John, and, the next thing we know, we're getting a phone call, saying that he'd committed suicide. Yes, it's absolutely horrific, but, sorry, he's gone ."

So much bitterness filled Jimmy's tone that it was easy to see how he still felt the pain of his loss. "I am sorry," Kate replied, "and I'm not trying to stir up anything untoward. I'm just trying to find some way to get to the truth. My job is to investigate the death of her third husband, and I felt as if we needed to take a hard look at everything."

"Yes, of course, of course, and thank you for that," he added hurriedly. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be bitter, but it's really hard when you lose somebody who you love, and you can't understand the circumstances. It would be absolutely godawful to find out that John had been murdered," he admitted, his voice rising. "But, in a sick way, it would also be a hell of a lot better because then we would know that he didn't choose to walk away from us."

"Would he, if he was terribly unhappy, have contacted you?"

"I would have thought so, yes," he stated. "At any point in time, up until John married her, we were close. All of us were close. But, with that marriage to Amie… everything broke apart, and John just wasn't there for us anymore. He wasn't there for any of us—or against us either, really. With any phone calls we made, he was either too busy, or he didn't answer them himself and never called back. So I don't know what it was."

"That's not normal behavior."

"We wondered if Amie was trying to separate him from us, to isolate him, you know? He was all about her and hadn't been terribly impressed that we were not fans of Amie's. Plus, their marriage happened very, very quickly. Far too quickly from my point of view, and he didn't get enough time to really know who she was inside. We weren't terribly supportive," he shared, with a groan, "and believe me that we paid for that dearly. We never got another chance to talk to him. Next thing we knew, John was just gone, with no warning, Amie telling us how he supposedly committed suicide because he was so unhappy and depressed."

Jimmy continued. "I can imagine that he was unhappy because, honest to God, nothing good was between them. And," he said in frustration, "yes, opposites attract sometimes. I get it. We've talked about it among ourselves many, many times since, but it was all just so wrong."

"Wrong in what way?" Kate asked.

"Amie and my brother were so not the same people that you would ever in a million years think they would be happy long-term, and the family was right because obviously he wasn't happy. Not if he committed suicide and certainly not if he was murdered," he snapped. "Jesus, I can't believe you called me, and now I won't stop thinking about this."

"I'm not here to stir up anything," she reminded him, "and yet I realize that making these phone calls will do just that. But I'm not doing my due diligence by this latest husband or by your brother if I don't take another look at all this."

"Honestly, Detective, I'm grateful that you're looking into it," Jimmy muttered, "and I'm sorry. I'm obviously allowing my emotions to get the better of me, and that's not fair either. Please do a thorough check, look into every angle, and, when you come to a conclusion, let us know. I just want the truth. That's all."

"I will," she promised, "and I guess I need to ask if there were any other friends who your brother hung out with? Anybody who he might have talked with, anybody online maybe? Did he belong to any support groups or anything?"

"None that I know of," he replied, after a minute. "Again, that would have all been in the time period when we had almost no contact with him. It was hard enough to know that his life was going on without us, but to know that he was so unhappy that he didn't even come home when he obviously needed somebody?… Talk about a challenging ti me."

"What about your family? Are your parents still alive?"

"My mother is. My father died last year," Jimmy shared. "Also a very difficult time on the heels of losing John. My father was never the same afterward."

She winced at that. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," he murmured. "Anyway, if you have any other questions, just get a hold of me, and I'll do my best to share whatever I might know. Just be aware that we had almost nothing to do with him in the last two years of his life, once he married that bitch. You can imagine that reality has tormented us terribly. You would think, with our family so close before that, if your brother is down and out, his family is the one place he should turn to." Jimmy ended the call soon after that.

Kate made notes of her telephone conversation with Jimmy about his brother John. But the longer Kate stared at that data, she had to wonder if anything Amie said was true or if it was all a fabrication of Amie's. Something in all this related mess didn't ring true, but Kate had yet to find absolutely anything in this latest case, the death of Robert Mulhouse, Amie's third husband. Was it anything other than murder, maybe not even involving Amie? Just something else for Kate to unravel.

She sat for a long moment, tapping her phone. Then taking a cleansing breath, she picked up her phone and contacted Susan, the sister of Amie's second dead husband, Daniel, currently living in San Diego. When she reached the sister and explained what she was calling about, Susan was soon crying.

"Dear God," Susan muttered in between sobs. "I sure hope somebody will look into this, though I don't even know what you could possibly do about it since it didn't even happen here in the States. We've been completely tormented over the fact that nobody seemed to give a crap about Daniel's murder."

"I'm sorry," Kate replied, wincing at the impassioned plea in the sister's voice. "And you're right. I'll have a very limited influence in the investigation. I can request the files, but it won't necessarily help."

"So, why are you calling?" Susan asked, suddenly curious. "I mean, if you can't have the investigation reopened or do anything from a distance because it happened in a separate country, what is it that you're hoping to do?"

"I'm looking into the circumstances of Daniel's marriage," she replied.

"Why?"

Kate respected Susan's bluntness, especially when it came to the people she interviewed. "Because the third husband of your ex-sister-in-law, Amie, just died."

"Third husband? Wait. When was the second marriage?"

"Your brother was Amie's second marriage. She was married once before she married your brother," Kate explained. "So, apparently you didn't know that?"

"No, we didn't know that. I bet Daniel didn't know that either," she declared, sounding puzzled. "Why would she have kept that from us?"

"Because her first husband committed suicide," Kate shared, "and I'm sure a certain amount of that she didn't want to explain."

Susan gasped. "Oh God, that would be horrible."

"Yes, I'm sure it was."

"So, what about this third husband? Amie obviously moved on." An odd tone filled the sister's words. "Somehow, it doesn't seem as if it's been all that long, but maybe that's not fair. I don't know."

"Two years have passed, I believe. Two and a half, I guess."

"Yes, so how long was she married this time?" she asked.

Kate hesitated, and then, knowing it would cause quite a ruckus, she replied, "Two years."

Shocked silence came on the other end. "What? So, six months after my brother's death she married someone else?" The pain was evident in her tone. "That's all Daniel meant to her?"

"I don't know about that," Kate replied. "All I can tell you is that Amie's been married for another couple years, and this time her third husband supposedly committed suicide."

"Why do you say, supposedly ?"

"We're treating it as a murder."

"Good God." Another shocked silence filled the other end that went on for a while. "Detective, I feel as if you're not telling me an awful lot."

"I'm not at liberty to tell you much, at least not at this time," she admitted. "I'm sorry about that, but it's just part of the work I do. Until we have confirmed details, we won't release them to the public."

"No, no, of course not," Susan murmured. "Christ, if Amie had nothing to do with it, I can't think of anybody unluckier in love than her. However, if she did have something to do with my brother's murder," she snapped, "I hope she rots in hell." She choked up before adding, "Look. I need a few minutes to even contemplate what you've just told me and to get ahold of myself. So, if you have any other questions, could you call me back at another time? "

"I can do that," Kate said, "but I do need to ask a few questions right now, specifically regarding how Daniel felt about the marriage, how you felt about Amie, and things like that."

"There wasn't anything to feel. It seemed as if she separated him from us very quickly, before the engagement even," Susan shared. "We really hoped she wasn't the kind of person who would isolate Daniel from his family, but… no doubt that's what she did."

"So, they broke off all contact?"

"I think it probably would have just gotten worse, but Daniel didn't make it very far into the marriage, did he? He didn't even survive his honeymoon after all," she stated bluntly.

"If he hadn't been murdered, how do you think it would have ended up down the road?"

"I don't know for sure, but I can tell you that my other brother was already heartbroken by the fact that Daniel was avoiding us, or at least not wanting to spend time with the family anymore, mostly because he was spending that time with Amie."

"Right."

"Is that similar to what happened in Amie's other marriages?"

"Certainly in the first marriage, but I haven't had a chance to connect with the family members of the third husband yet."

"I wonder if she just isolated them all," Susan murmured. "A lot of insecure women do that regardless, and it makes them feel as if maybe they're more loved if they can get rid of the family members. Thus the husband isn't spreading that love and attention among too many people. "

That was an astute observation on Susan's part. With a deep sigh, Kate asked, "You didn't have a whole lot of time to spend with Amie, so do you know what she was like as a person? Can you tell me something about her?"

"I thought she was bitchy," Susan declared, "not my kind of person. I did ask Daniel at one point in time what he saw in her, and he told me that she was the only one who ever loved him, and I felt that was extremely telling."

Kate sat back and frowned. "Did Daniel have a lot of friends prior to this?"

"No, he was a loner where girls were concerned. He was absolutely shocked when he hooked up with Amie."

"Right," Kate muttered, as she stared down at her notes. "So, Daniel was probably overjoyed then at having a relationship and having somebody who loved him."

"Exactly," Susan agreed. "My mother and I… we just seemed to cease to exist, even though we had been there for Daniel all this time."

No bitterness filled his sister's tone, and Kate had to wonder why that was. "You seem to be fairly calm about this whole scenario."

"It's not even so much that I'm calm," she explained, "but, when you love somebody as deeply as I loved my brother, you just realize that you can't change some things. You just hope that they're happy, wherever they are." She spoke with that same calmness in her tone, and that was unnerving for Kate. "And, in this instance, I really hope Daniel enjoyed his life before it ended too quickly. Also, if you find out that Amie had anything to do with it," Susan shared, "I hope you nail her ass to the wall. Now I really need to get off the phone." With a click she disconnected, leaving Kate to stare down at her notes .

When Lilliana walked back into the bullpen, Kate asked her, "I guess a case from another country means we don't have any access to the files, right?"

"We can send a request," Lilliana suggested, "but it generally won't be fast or necessarily easy to get. A lot of time they'll eventually give us a copy of their investigation file, but it'll be very incomplete, and you'll be left staring at it, wondering how it was even a completed case."

Kate nodded. "I was thinking that, but the least we can do is try."

"Why? Has it got to do with this recent murder?"

"Yes," Kate said. "Amie's second husband was murdered… in the Philippines."

"Ah." At that, Lilliana winced. "The Philippines, now that's the wild, wild west when it comes to murder."

"Apparently you can hire it done pretty easily there?"

She nodded. "You can absolutely hire it done."

"Amie had contacts there too. That's why they honeymooned there, to see her family—supposedly."

"Jesus. So, she's from the Philippines?"

"She is, but she's a Canadian citizen now."

"Right, so you request the file, and we'll see what you get, but I wouldn't count on getting any information that'll be helpful."

"Right," she murmured. She picked up the phone and spoke to Reese. "Can you get that Philippines file on Amie's dead second husband?"

"Sure, no problem. Just may take a while to receive it."

"Understood. Plus, do you have time to dig up any family for Robert Mulhouse and ask them about his marriage to Amie?"

"I'll see what I can find. "

"Thanks." Kate ended the call, then stared down at her handwritten notes in front of her. "Three husbands," she murmured, without looking up. "All three dead."

"Life insurance?" Lilliana asked.

"No idea for now, but that's next. I've got Reese on it because, as soon as life insurance is involved…"

"I know. Our suspicions go way up, and, in this case, she's already got a boyfriend on tap, all lined up to be husband number four."

"Which is also sketchy."

"More than just sketchy," Lilliana stated. "I would suspect the boyfriend needs to be taking a serious second look, but I don't really have any reason to say it that specifically at this point."

"Sure you do," Kate countered, with a bright smile. "You just don't want to imply that he's in danger until you have something concrete."

Lilliana shrugged at that.

"Would you?" Kate asked her.

"No, I sure wouldn't," Lilliana responded, "but whenever you solve whatever is going on, I highly suggest you give him a heads-up."

"I know," Kate muttered. "I made him aware of the other husbands, as well as their shortened lives, so he's not entirely clueless, though he appears completely smitten. So my warning may have fallen on deaf ears. This case won't be the fastest to close, I'm afraid."

"Did the tapes get you anything?"

"Forensics has them," she shared, "and I saw a little bit that Smidge had found, and we've pulled the security tapes for the full night, as well as security tapes from the neighborhood, because we found no other signs of anybody entering or leaving the house. We also still have to find out where the gun came from and if they got the gun and matched the bullets to it. More so, I want to know if Amie even knows how to use it."

"When it comes to guns, all it requires is point and shoot," Lilliana murmured, looking over at her.

Kate grumbled, "Yet, according to what we have on file, Amie doesn't have any experience with them."

"Again, essentially nothing there would rule her out." Lilliana took a moment and then added, "Sounds to me as if your wifey is guilty."

"Maybe, maybe not. I don't know yet," Kate muttered.

"Where was the boyfriend at the time of the hubby's death?"

"Nate says he was at home alone."

"So, we don't have a confirmation on that either?"

"Nope," Kate replied, then something clicked. "You think he might have killed the husband in order to free up the wife?"

"It's hard to say with what little we have right now," Lilliana stated, "but I wouldn't be so quick to release him from the suspect pool."

"Oh, I haven't released anyone yet," Kate declared, with a grim smile. "I'm just getting started."

*

Simon's morning had been a complete crap show, and, as his afternoon wore on, Simon realized he needed to shift today's mood. When things went bad, if he didn't soon interrupt that momentum, it seemed to stay on course, getting even worse. That was not how he wanted the rest of his day to go .

He called out to Joe, "I'm heading to get coffee, and I'll work at the café for a bit." Joe raised a hand in recognition of his words but didn't respond. Like Simon, Joe was fully invested in keeping things on track, plus dealing with supply issues, which were now becoming even bigger problems, through no fault of their own. Life just happened and, with the pandemic, became a whole lot worse. Now they had this constant issue in the world of supplies, and no matter what Simon tried to do about it, things just didn't seem to get any better. That was frustrating in itself, but they were dealing with it in creative ways, and that's what counted.

As Simon walked to the coffee shop, he looked around, remembering the doctor who had frequented this location. Sadly the man chose to end his own life rather than face the consequences of his actions, but that didn't stop Simon from casually glancing around, expecting to see him—his ghost really. The fact that he hadn't seen his spirit was a good thing.

As he walked into the coffee shop, he placed his order and then waited for his coffee to be made. Taking it with him, he sat at one of the outside tables. As he spent a few minutes sitting here, he became aware of an odd feeling catching his attention. He looked around, not seeing anything. Yet, when a man spoke, his voice scratchy and sounding half sick, Simon turned, not surprised to see the homeless man, Shawn. Simon nodded. "Hey there. Bad day?"

"Bad life," Shawn admitted.

Simon pointed to the other chair at his table and motioned for him to sit. "What's up?"

Shawn asked, "Any chance of some food?"

Simon nodded, then caught the attention of one of the waitresses, cleaning up tables nearby. She came right back with a couple sandwiches and a coffee.

When placed in front of Shawn, he looked at it appreciatively. "Thanks, I really need that."

Simon didn't say anything, just waited while Shawn scarfed down the food.

With a full stomach he sat back, closed his eyes, then released a groan, as if he were in pain. "I don't remember the last time I've felt this shitty."

"Are you sick, or what's going on?"

"No idea," he muttered. "Just one of those times where you feel as if everything's wrong, and nobody gives a crap."

"Yeah, I've had a time or two like that myself."

Shawn studied Simon, and, as if seeing something in his gaze, Shawn nodded. "You have seen some shit, haven't you?"

Simon's lips twisted. "Yeah, I've definitely seen some shit," he agreed.

"Look. I can't keep hassling you for food, but… I really appreciate the fact that you came through when I needed it," Shawn said. "It's hard to keep food down right now."

At that comment, Simon studied him a little more closely. Shawn appeared pale, but not as if he would collapse or anything. "Do you need to go to the hospital and get checked out?" Simon asked.

Shawn shook his head several times. " Nah , hospitals and I don't get along."

"I can imagine," Simon replied, without judgment, "especially when tolerance and patience goes out the window after you've been there a time or two."

Shawn nodded slowly. "I didn't really expect to live this long as it is," he shared, staring off in the distance .

That's not exactly what Simon had expected to hear, so he just waited.

"A lot of people told me that I would be dead a couple years back." He glanced at Simon, then shrugged. Seeing the question on Simon's face, Shawn added, "I got this heart thing going on."

"Sorry, man," Simon said, genuinely feeling sorry for the guy.

"I'm not. Life hasn't exactly been an easy thing to get through," Shawn noted, with a smile. "So I can't be at all upset to leave it. Yet I do want you to get that building."

Simon laughed at that. "If I can make it happen, I'll do it. However, I don't think you or I can do anything about it."

"Maybe," he muttered, "but the ghosts really want you to have it."

"That concerns me a little to even consider that they're bothered about it."

"They're bothered because of what happened," he noted, leaning in.

"What happened?" Simon asked him.

"Talk to the ghosts," Shawn suggested. "I know you can. They already told me that you can, so you should ask them yourself."

"Maybe."

Shawn sat here for a long moment just sipping his coffee, while Simon worked. Finally Shawn broke his silence. "Do you know anything about the Feldspar house?"

Since that was the name of the house that Kate had gone to and that Simon had been so adamant that she not enter, the comment was surprising in the least. "I've heard about it." Simon frowned, thinking about the mention of the murders of the century. "I don't know all the details." Shawn didn't say anything, just nodded his head. "I gather you do?" Simon asked.

"Not necessarily," Shawn replied, "but the ghosts at Paragon? They know.… They say the Feldspar house and the Paragon are connected."

"In what way?" he asked, truly wanting to get this right.

Shawn frowned. as if sorting through the question. "I don't know. I don't really know what the deal is. The ghosts don't talk to me in that much detail. You should talk to them."

"But they brought up Feldspar house with you?"

"Yeah, they sure did," he muttered, and then he yawned. "Man, I've got to get me some sleep."

"You not sleeping either?"

"I was totally okay to sleep in the Paragon building, but then you told me about all the realtors coming, and you were right.… They did come, bloodsuckers every one of them," he muttered. "I just couldn't take all that negative energy, so I left."

"I'm not sure we'll see too many more of them now," Simon noted, eyeing Shawn closely. "Yet I can't say that for sure."

The homeless guy pondered that, as he slowly swirled the last of the coffee in his cup. "Yeah, not sure I want to take the chance."

"Why? Do the ghosts get really angry when people enter the building?"

"Oh, they get angry all right," Shawn agreed, looking up at him. "If you don't get that building… they'll get really angry. You don't want them angry."

"I still don't understand why they want me to have the Paragon though."

At that, Shawn shook his head. "They just do, and it's got to do with that Feldspar house."

Simon stared at him. "That makes no sense."

"It doesn't matter," Shawn replied. "All I can tell you is that they're connected." And then he frowned and looked over at Simon and asked, "Do you know somebody named Kate?" When Simon stiffened and glared at him, Shawn nodded, surely seeing his expression and the tension coming off Simon in waves. "She's needed somehow too." With that, Shawn got up, yawned, and muttered, "I need to get some sleep.… I'll see you later. Thanks for the food and the coffee, man."

And, with that, Shawn walked away, leaving Simon staring after him.