Page 13

Ghost

“What do you mean, missing?”

Brick asked as he sat beside his partner, Roman, at the kitchen table.

“No one has seen Mr. Cross for over two days now,”

Elias said.

“The veterinarian is missing?”

Ray asked as he walked into the kitchen and over to the coffee machine. Ghost smiled at him. Despite their varied activities last night, both he and Ray had had a good sleep and were ready for a dose of caffeine.

“Yes,”

Elias answered. “He hasn’t reported to his clinic for two days. His receptionist called us this morning to report him missing. We went by his house, but no one’s home, and his truck is gone.”

You think he might have taken off?”

Ghost asked as Elias’s phone rang, and the sheriff answered.

Ray brought over two cups of coffee and set them in front of himself and Ghost.

Julia came in with a wide smile on her face. “It’s good to see you up and around, Ghost.”

“Thank you, Julia. I feel completely healed.”

“Good,”

she said. “Are you all hungry? Breakfast is all ready.”

“I could eat,”

Ghost said. The others echoed that sentiment.

“Thanks, deputy,”

Elias said before hanging up. “Mr. Cross’s truck was found a few miles from the town limits. It was empty. To answer your question, Ghost, he could have gotten spooked when you started looking into Jericho Miles’s death.”

Julia and Rick, Spencer’s partner, brought over platters with eggs, turkey bacon, toast, whole wheat pancakes, and fresh fruit and set them on the table with a stack of plates and utensils.

“Dig in,”

Rick said, and these men didn’t have to be told twice. All discussion stopped until most of the food was eaten—which didn’t take long.

“That was great, thank you,”

Brick said.

Thanks and compliments came from the team sitting around the table.

“We’ll go out and have a look at Mr. Cross’s house,”

Brick said. “Will the truck be brought into the station?”

“Yes, we’re having it towed,”

Elais said as he stood. “I’ll meet you at the vet’s house around ten.”

Brick nodded, and Elias walked out the front door, likely on his way to the station. Ray took Ghost’s empty cup and refilled it with coffee.

“Thanks,”

Ghost said. It felt so good having Ray beside him.

It’d been one hell of a night. A night Ghost wouldn’t likely forget for a long time, if ever. They’d gone three rounds before both passed out from exhaustion, and Ghost was surprised he was walking straight this morning. He was enjoying the looks and touches Ray was giving him. That thought brought up another. What would happen when Ray returned to Seattle? He couldn’t stay at Fire Lake forever. Before he could get too caught up in that thought, the back door opened, and Shaw walked in with another man. This had to be Detective Rocko Owens, the man who’d helped track Ghost down and Ray’s former hookup buddy.

He was strikingly handsome. His blond hair was cut high and tight, and his green eyes scanned the room, like the other team members, looking for threats. He was tall, muscular, and tanned; no secret there. The man lived in Florida, the Sunshine State. Ghost noticed the tattoo on his left bicep. It had a skull wearing a beret with a knife in the background, and a banner that read, “RANGER AIRBORNE.”

A military veteran made sense given how he behaved, always on guard.

Normally, Ghost wouldn’t have been sure how to act around this man, but after recent events with the team, he didn’t have an ounce of uncertainty. By the look on Rocko’s face, the man didn’t feel quite the same.

“Hey, have you eaten?”

Julia asked the new arrivals.

“Yes, thanks. We’re good,”

Shaw said.

Ray stood and placed his hand on Ghost’s shoulder. “Ghost, this is Detective Rocko Owens.”

Rocko stood beside the table, looking unsure if he should sit or stand. Ghost knew too well what it felt to be the outsider, and it sucked. He stood, and everyone at the table quieted as he crossed the kitchen to stand in front of Rocko and held out his hand.

“Thank you for helping track me down, Rocko.”

The relief on the man’s face was evident as he took Ghost’s hand and shook it.

“I’m glad I could help in some way, and I want you to know how sorry I am for the confusion I caused.”

“It all worked out. We were able to shut down another one of those damn Noah Group compounds.”

“Thanks,”

Rocko said with a grin. “You’re letting me off easy.”

“What’s the use in making it difficult? Welcome to our strange and crazy world of mutants the Noah Group created and continues to hunt. We need everyone we can get to stop them from taking over and hurting anyone else. We’re all in this together.”

“I see what Ray was talking about; you are one of a kind.”

“And he’s all mine,”

Ray said as he came up behind Ghost and wrapped his arms around his waist.

Rocko put his hands up in mock surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Brick laughed, then grew serious. “We have thirty minutes before we move out. I want Spencer, Shaw, and Rocko to head to the station to check out Mr. Cross’s vehicle for any clues. Rocko, see if you can pick up a trail we can follow. Ray, Ghost, Conor, and Gunner are with me to search his house. Stryker, Harris, Woodley, and Jason, I want you to have another look around that barn that got the veterinarian upset in the first place.”

“Oh yeah. Did you ever receive that picture I sent you?”

Ghost asked Ray.

“Sorry, what picture?”

Ray asked.

“The one I took in the barn before falling through the hayloft.”

“Right,”

Ray said, pulling out his phone to review his messages. “The one with the heart carved into the barn beam?”

“Yes. You said no clue was too small. So I took a picture.”

“A.M. and S.M. Hmmm…wait,”

Ray said, and Ghost watched him flip through his pictures until he came to the ones he took at the cemetery. “Shit. No way.”

“What?”

Brick asked.

“Jericho Miles’s legal name is Allan Jericho Miles,”

Ray said. “And your great-aunt.”

“Sophia Matthews,”

Brick said.

“You mean Jericho Miles and Great-Aunt Sophia were the ones who carved that heart?”

Spencer said before opening his laptop and typing like a madman.

“They must have been lovers,”

Ghost said.

“Jericho went off to the Korean War in 1951 and returned right before the war ended in July 1953. Then there were incidents of Jericho hanging around the lake house and Sophia’s parents calling the sheriff to have him removed,”

Spencer said.

“My grandfather,”

Ray confirmed.

“He was reported to be the town drunk after he returned from Korea, and he was discharged from the Army after having a mental breakdown,”

Brick said.

“However, until then, Jericho was considered an outstanding soldier,”

Ray added.

“We need to dig deeper into what happened to send Jericho over the edge,”

Brick said.

“And what happened when he returned to Marshall to be reunited with Sophia,”

Julia said. “If they were lovers before he went off to war, do you think he was so different when he came back that Sophia didn’t want to take him back?”

“You were right,”

Ghost said to Ray.

“Right about what?”

“That no clue is too small. We wouldn't have put it together if I hadn’t taken that picture. That is if they were indeed lovers,”

Ghost said.

“I believe we’re on the right path,”

Brick said. “Follow it. Good job, Ghost.”

Ghost looked around the table at the team and was struck by how much he felt like a part of them and L. H. Investigations. As Ray wrapped his arm around him, Ghost knew he’d found his home. Now, all he had to do was convince Ray to stay here and not return to Seattle. Hmm, how could he do that, knowing how much his lover hated the small-town life? He guessed he’d have to put his all into making it impossible for Ray to leave him.

And I have a few ideas about that.

***

Ray

When they pulled up to the brick two-story house that belonged to Mr. Cross, nothing appeared off. Brick had given them a rundown on the person of interest on their drive from the lake house. They’d left Julia and Kyle rifling through boxes of files Sophia and Ray’s family had kept for any mention of the Berry family or Jericho’s time in the Army.

Spencer and Harris managed to dig up information on Mr. Cross and, more specifically, his father, the former mayor of Marshall. As it turns out, during the time when Jericho was shot, Ronald Cross was mayor, and Ray’s grandfather was sheriff. It was 1954, a year after the Korean War had ended, and Jericho Miles had become notorious for drinking himself into a stupor daily and turning up at the lake house.

Father Henry Jones joined the community and took over the local congregation from the retiring priest. Life appeared to be normal enough, but only a few short months later, Jericho would be dead, and Father Jones would be in a Marshall police cell, arrested by Ray’s grandfather for the murder.

How the hell did they get to that point, and how were the previous mayor, missing vet, and Berrys family involved?

“Looks like every other house in this neighborhood,”

Conor said. “This is an older part of Marshall, right?”

“Yeah,”

Ray replied. “Some of these houses have been here since Marshall was founded. This one’s probably been renovated a few times over the years, but the original framework should still be in place.”

He remembered biking through this neighborhood when he was a kid and how some of the older residents watched him go by like he didn’t belong. Being the poor kid with the law as his family sucked. Being the sheriff provided Ray’s grandparents and parents with a home, but it wasn’t nearly as nice as the ones in this area. His family may have represented the law in this county, but no one ever mistook them for upper or middle class. They weren’t landowners or ranchers. They weren’t part of the original settlers or had the money for the best things. It always surprised Ray how little law enforcement was paid for putting their lives on the line daily.

“Apparently, this is the Cross family home. They’ve lived here for several generations,”

Brick said.

“I wonder what those walls have seen?”

Ghost asked.

“Considering the local veterinarian was concerned about us snooping around the old Miles family barn, and his call caused us to be shot at,”

Ray summed up, “I’d say they’ve seen their share of shady shit.”

“Well, let’s look around and see if he’s left anything behind that’ll be useful,”

Brick ordered. “Gunner and Conor, have a look in the garage and around the exterior.”

“On it,”

Gunner said.

They stepped out of the SUV as Elias pulled up in his cruiser.

“Cross kept a spare key in his office at the vet clinic,”

Elias said while holding up a key. “Saves us having to break in.”

“We could have picked the lock, but have it your way,”

Brick said, sounding disappointed, as if Elias had taken the fun out of it.

The team leader was one of a kind, and Ray had quickly figured out why Brick held the position. He was always in control, but carried an edge that reminded all those who came in contact with him how badass he was. The SEAL could hand you your heart still beating and never look back or wonder whether he’d made the right decision.

He was intelligent, skilled, and deadly, and held a firm sense of duty, especially the difference between right and wrong even when that line grays. Ray would, and had gone to battle with Brick without question. He brought out excellence in others and trusted them to get the job done. If anything, people wanted to prove Brick’s belief in them was warranted. The perfect Navy SEAL team leader.

“Cameras,”

Gunner said while pointing up at the corner of the house.

“There’s another one on the far side,”

Elias added.

“Hmm, was he concerned about people breaking in here in Marshall?”

Ghost asked. “Not exactly the hotbed of criminal activity.”

“Says the man who was shot at and kidnapped,”

Conor joked.

“Good point.”

“Maybe he was watching for someone specific,”

Ray said. “The man might have enemies.”

“The Berry family, perhaps,”

Brick added.

“Could be,”

Ray answered.

The group split into respective teams, and Elias, Brick, Ghost, and Ray entered the house through the back door and directly entered the kitchen area. Ray immediately noticed the stale air that permeated abandoned places and homes of elderly individuals who tended to use only a few rooms of their homes, leaving the rest to collect dust.

“He lived here?”

Ray asked.

“Yes. Though it appears a bit…”

Elias said.

“Barren,”

Brick provided.

“Yes, exactly,”

Elias said as he opened the fridge.

Ray glanced over, noting it contained milk, butter, coffee creamer, eggs, and a half-full jar of dill pickles. He scanned for the date on the side of the milk carton, which expired two weeks ago. Pickings were slim around here. He walked to the cupboards and opened the first one he came to. Inside was as empty as the fridge. Only a couple plates, bowls, and glasses.

“Being a bachelor is one thing, but this surpasses that,” Ray said.

“I was thinking the same thing. Let’s take a look around,”

Brick ordered.

The group separated. Ray and Ghost headed toward the living room, which appeared to be in the same state as the kitchen. Furniture was arranged around the room in a normal fashion. The couch, wall unit, television, side tables, coffee table, and chair all sat in place, but Ray had the distinct impression no one had sat there for quite some time.

“This place is giving me the creeps,”

Ghost said. “It feels dead in here.”

“Makes you wonder where the man spent his time.”

Ghost opened one of the side tables to find it empty, and Ray opened the other with the same results.

“This is getting stranger and stranger,” Ray said.

He could hear Elias and Brick down the hall looking through the bedrooms. “This place is empty.”

What the hell is going on here?

Ray went to a door set at the back of the living room. Opening it, he found a closet with a couple of coats hanging that looked like they’d never been worn. A thick layer of dust lay on the fabric, but Ray noticed the rod holding the coats was clean, not a speck of dust.

“Look at this,”

Ray said to Ghost.

Ghost came over to look inside. “A closet?”

“Yes, or that’s what it appears to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whatcha got?”

Brick asked as he entered the room.

“Just a suspicion, but something’s not right about this closet. The coats are new but covered in dust, and the rod is dust-free as if the coats had been slid aside regularly.”

Ray pushed the coats aside to get a better look inside. He felt around the walls for anything that stood out but found nothing. Ray turned and ran his fingers along the inside frame of the door, where his fingers caught on a switch.

“What do we have here?”

Ray flipped the switch, and the wall at the back of the closet popped open, leading to a set of stairs and a light turned on.

“Holy shit,”

Ghost gasped.

Ray pulled out his Glock, as did Brick and Elias. No telling who or what was down there.

“Ghost, I want you to stay here for now,”

Ray said. Ghost didn’t have a weapon and wasn’t military-trained. At that moment, Ray decided he’d make it his mission to teach his lover how to use a gun and protect himself. Then it occurred to him that Ghost could, in fact, fry someone’s brain, but it still put Ghost out of commission, leaving him unable to protect himself. So that ability was more of a last-ditch effort when all else failed.

“But—”

Ghost began, but was cut off quickly.

“No buts. Wait until we clear it.”

“Fine.”

Ray chuckled at Ghost’s pouting tone.

Elias stepped forward and took the lead as the local lawman.

“Sheriff’s office. If you’re down there, announce yourself now,”

he ordered.

Nothing.

“This is Sheriff Cooper. I’m coming down. Don’t shoot anyone.”

Elias led the way down the stairs with Ray on his heels and Brick covering the rear. This situation wasn’t on his bingo card for today, but Ray could roll with it. He’d spent his life pivoting and changing directions. Why stop now?