Page 15

Ghost

The touching moment sent chills down Ghost’s spine, and the hair on his arms stood on end. It felt almost as if Great-Aunt Sophia was in the room with them, blessing this reconnection of the Matthews family tree after decades of loss. Ghost couldn’t imagine what it had been like for poor Sophia, pregnant and alone. Jericho was fighting in a war a world away with the possibility of death high, and likely, there were unsupportive parents more concerned with their family reputation than the young unmarried woman caught in the middle carrying the child of the man she loved.

Ghost’s heart went out to Sophia and the choices she was forced to make. If only Jericho had married her before shipping out, who knew how the family dynamic might have played out.

His musings were cut short as Brick’s phone rang. Reluctantly, Brick released Stryker, and Ghost watched Julia wipe a tear from her eye before the team leader answered the call.

“Brick here,”

he said as he stepped away from the table.

“So now we need to find out what happened after Jericho returned,”

Ray said as Brick continued his quiet conversation over the phone. “And where Sophia might have been sent to have her baby.”

“Do we know how long he’s been dead?”

Brick asked, catching everyone’s attention and changing the mood instantly. “We’re on our way.”

Brick hung up and faced the table.

“Cross is dead. Rocko was able to lead them to his body. Ray, Ghost, Stryker, and Conor, you’re with me. The rest can keep digging through the files. Spencer, you and Harris have a special job. I need everything you can dig up on land transfers, purchases, and inquiries on any properties within Marshall County. Hell, I want to know the who and why for every acre of land that’s changed hands in the last eighty years. If someone so much as sneezed in the direction of Marshall, I wanna know about it.”

“On it,”

Spencer said.

Ghost stood as Ray pulled out his chair and he couldn’t help but soak in these little shows of care. After years as an outsider in a world where Ghost never fit in, he now had a team, a family, and a man who cared for him. It was one of those proverbial pinch-yourself-to-ensure-it-was-real moments.

They loaded into one of the several SUVs the team had acquired over the years, and Stryker drove, allowing Brick to make more calls. It never ceased to amaze Ghosthow many contacts the man had.

“Do you think that guy from the hardware store killed Mr. Cross?”

Ghost asked.

“Jackson? He’s high on the list,”

Conor said. “Or someone from the Berry family.”

“What would they have to gain?”

Ray asked. “Or perhaps Cross was about to do something to jeopardize whatever they’re planning.”

“Every time I think we’re clearing things up, more shit happens to muddy the water,”

Ghost said.

“The trick is adding the new information without losing track of your original mission. Pivot without losing track of the starting line,”

Ray said. “In this case, our original mission was to find out if the priest truly killed Jericho Miles and what happened to Sophia’s baby.”

“Okay,”

Ghost said. “We now know that Jericho was the likely father of Sophia’s baby and that while he was off at war, her parents forced her to leave to save the family reputation.”

“Yes,”

Ray agreed. “Of course, we’ll have to confirm all this, but it stands to reason this is why Sophia kept all the information. Perhaps she wanted to track down her child someday, or she knew something about what was happening in Marshall but didn’t have enough proof. Leaving the trail for Brick to come along and put the pieces together. She left the lake house to him, and those boxes were hidden there.”

“What about Jericho?”

Conor asked from the backseat. “Who would have a reason to kill him, and why would a priest take the blame for it? Especially a priest who just arrived in the community.”

Ray grimaced.

“I’ve learned over the years of working homicide investigations that if it wasn’t a crime of passion, self-defense, accidental, or misadventure, the easiest answer is typically looking at who would gain from his death.”

“How would a priest gain from his death?”

Ghost asked.

“He wouldn’t. Unless we’re unaware of something that has yet to be uncovered. We can also cross out misadventure because, as far as we know, Jericho wasn’t doing anything dangerous like playing Russian roulette with a revolver. That leaves us with a crime of passion, self-defense, or accidental.”

“Why would Jericho attack a priest? Self-defense seems unlikely,”

Conor said.

“We’re nearing the location. I need eyes open to anything that might have been left behind,”

Brick said as the SUV slowed.

Ghost could see the flashing lights from one of the cruisers pulled off into a clearing past the old mill on the outskirts of Marshall.

“How far away was the truck from the body?”

Ray asked.

“The truck was on the opposite side of town,”

Brick said.

“Someone drove him across town to kill him?”

Ghost thought that sounded odd.

“Unless he was already dead, and they wanted to buy some time,” Ray said.

“They weren’t betting on us having Rocko on hand. It would have been near impossible for anyone to find the body out here so far away from the truck,”

Conor said.

“Wait, a deputy came out here with Shaw and Rocko, right?”

Ray asked.

“Yes.”

“Can the deputy be trusted knowing how Rocko was able to find Cross’s body?”

Ray asked.

“Yes. Elias had a discussion with the four deputies a while back. They’ve been vetted and can be trusted,”

Brick answered.

“Let’s do this,”

Stryker said as he shut the engine off and opened the driver’s door. Ever the man of action.

Ghost followed Ray out and up to the crime scene. A sheet covered Cross’s body while Rocko and Shaw leaned against the cruiser, and the deputy stood talking to the coroner. Elias was pulling up as they approached the team.

“Good work, Rocko. What do we have?”

Brick asked.

“Single shot to the back of the head close range,”

Shaw reported. “No ligature marks on his wrists or ankles.”

“He knew his killer and allowed them to get close before the fatal shot,”

Brick said.

“Likely,”

Ray answered. “Let’s have a look.”

Ray walked through the long grass and down into the hollow. Ghost looked around, not a building in sight, confirming that the odds of finding Cross’s body were slim and if he hadn’t been found the animals would’ve gotten to the body first, destroying any clues and compromising evidence.

Watching Ray pull the sheet off the body without emotion reminded Ghost of how the life of a detective involved situations like this regularly. He imagined Ray had seen worse a time or two before. Seeing a man he’d known with half his face missing was much more jarring for Ghost.

He’d seen enough and decided to have a look around the area. The farther away from the body, the better. He wondered how people like Ray dealt with such violence day in and day out without breaking. He guessed, based on Stryker's generous gift of the millions his late mother left him, donated to The Wounded Warrior Program, that mental trauma and scars abounded and support was difficult to find.

In Jericho’s case, it seemed he’d returned a changed and traumatized man. He’d likely suffered from PTSD in some form, and it was well recorded he’d drowned himself in alcohol on the daily, maybe to blur the memories and pain. All they could do was speculate at this point, and Ghost hoped they would soon get some definitive answers and lay the poor man’s memory to rest.

Ghost wandered through the long grass, aimlessly lost in his thoughts, until something caught his attention. At first, he dismissed it as nothing, but as Ghost got closer, the reality of what he saw shocked him. A wallet?

“What the hell?”

Ghost walked over to the worn, black leather wallet and knew better than to touch it. It lay partially behind a rock, and he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps it fell out of someone’s pocket when they were out here dumping Cross’s body. That would be too easy, but he could hope.

“I’ve got something over here,”

he yelled.

Ghost turned when he heard footsteps coming up behind him. Brick, Elias, Ray, and Rocko joined him and surrounded the find.

“Hell, they couldn’t have been this dumb,”

Ray said. “Could they?”

“Considering that Jackson guy from the hardware store took shots at us for a very vague reason,”

Ghost said, “I don’t think we’re working with the cream of the crop here. He seems more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kinda guy to me.”

“Could be Cross’s,”

Rocko said.

“Checked already,”

Elias said. “Still on the body.”

Ray pulled out a pair of gloves and carefully picked up the wallet. Ghost vibrated with nervous energy as he watched him open it to find the owner's identity before turning it to show Elias, whose eyes widened upon seeing the name.

“Well, holy shit.”