Page 19 of Ghostly Bother (Ghostly #9)

Angus sat down at the conference table, slapping a thick folder down in front of him.

"We have got to find a way to sort all the information we have.

I have no damn idea what's going on, who we're investigating, or who is a suspect.

" He was tired, and with so many different groups investigating the mayor's murder, he had no solid direction to work. The case was all over the place.

"I agree." Captain Marshall took a seat beside him.

"That's why we're here this afternoon. I'm getting reports from all sides, but I'm not seeing any advancement in the murder investigation.

We have a ton of leads in fraud and bribery, but not one damn bit of evidence on who might have killed the mayor. "

Franks set his coffee on the table and took a seat on the other side of Angus. "Have we gone through the audit report?"

Detective Amy Burns took a seat across from them, pushing another large folder toward the center of the table.

"There's your report. I've looked through it but not done a full read.

I got the names of some of the companies who have been confirmed to be bribing the Mayor's Office.

The thing is, there are ongoing investigations and court cases happening that we have to be careful not to impede. "

"Murder trumps bribery. I don't care about their cases.

Sure, we'll do our best to keep things quiet and not cause any problems with the ongoing cases, but we need to interview these owners and find out where they were the night the mayor was killed.

" Captain Marshall pulled the large folder toward him. "How many companies are we talking?"

"Six who were actively bribing, but four more who had been and suddenly stopped," Amy told them.

"Those are who I want to look at first." Angus tapped his pen. "If the mayor stopped working with them, then one of them could have been mad enough to take her out."

Franks nodded. "We can follow up on that this afternoon."

Amy handed him a paper. "There's the company names, owner's names, and contact info."

"Thanks." Franks took the paper.

"Meanwhile, I'm still interviewing staff.

I'm about seventy percent through the list. So far, only seven don't have solid alibies, and of them, there are two I think deserve a deeper look.

Most of her staff were kept in the dark about the bribery going on, but the few who did know weren't happy about it.

" Amy handed Captain Marshall a stack of papers.

"Names I've interviewed and my take on each. I'll get the rest to you as I finish."

"What about family members? Does the husband's alibi hold up?" Captain Marshall asked.

"He was home with the kids. We have his security camera feeds and it shows him coming home at the time he said he did and not leaving.

He doesn't open the front door until we arrived later that night to report his wife's death.

Neighbor confirmed seeing them eating on the deck.

If he did it, he had to have snuck out the back some way.

I just can't see him leaving those kids home alone.

I believed his reaction when we told him she was dead. " Angus glanced at Franks.

"So do I. It's not the husband." Franks leaned forward.

"We've talked to her sister. She was upset and worried about how the kids were taking it.

Both the sister and husband were aware that Eden was being investigated.

Husband had filed for divorce but hadn't been served yet.

As far as we can tell, Eden had no idea it was happening.

The sister tried to get Eden to step back and stop taking bribes, but Eden ignored her.

Telling her she wasn't doing anything wrong.

No one we've spoken with knew Eden was pregnant.

We can't find any record of her seeing a doctor or getting any kind of prenatal care. "

"Do we know who the father was?" Captain Marshall asked.

Angus knew, but he couldn't admit that in front of everyone.

He mentally made a note to let the captain know later when they were alone.

It was so much easier now that they'd let the captain in on Lance's ability to speak to ghosts.

It had been a huge risk, but the captain had been open-minded and once they'd proven the truth to him, he'd accepted it as truth and never gave it another thought. "Not yet."

"Find out. He could be our killer." Captain Marshall slapped a hand down on the file in front of him. "The media is begging for answers, and I have nothing to give them. The governor called the chief this morning, looking for updates. We've got to give them something."

"I've got people going through the few cameras in the surrounding areas.

They're running plates and hoping something links back to someone the mayor worked with, but so far they haven't found anything.

We're looking for hidden bank accounts the mayor may have had.

If she was depositing bribe money, we don't show it on her personal accounts or anything her husband admits to knowing about.

The audit was already searching for the money trail before her murder and was coming up empty.

" Detective Burns sighed. "Could be she had an offshore account, but we can't find any paper trail of one. "

"And her phone records?" Captain Marshall asked.

"Nothing, but several people I interviewed said they'd seen her with two phones. If that's true, we've only found one of them. Maybe the murderer took the second phone. We just don't know." Detective Burns leaned back in her chair. "I wish we had more."

"Don't we all?" Captain Marshall stood. "Keep me posted. We'll meet again tomorrow unless something breaks."

Angus stood, waiting for everyone but Franks to leave the room before grabbing the files and new information they'd been given.

"I'm going to give Lance a call and see if he can help us a bit more.

I don't know what other options we have right now.

" He didn't want to rely on Lance, but he was sure Eden knew more than she was telling them.

If he could talk to her himself, he would, but he wasn't blessed with the ability.

It was frustrating to have his boyfriend or mother always do the work he wished he could do himself.

"Don't forget we were doing this long before Lance came around and was able to help.

You're a good detective, Angus. We both are.

We might not get the answers we want right away, but we will get them.

" Franks slapped a hand on Angus's shoulder.

"I'll be in the office going through this.

" He took the file from Angus and headed down the hallway.

Angus blew out a hard breath. Franks was right.

He'd been working cases without ghosts for years.

He could do it now. It just pissed him off that he had the victim around to talk to and she refused to be cooperative.

He stepped outside the building and took a deep breath of fresh air as he pulled out his phone.

He didn't call Lance often at work because he was usually in the middle of an autopsy and couldn't talk, but at least he could leave a message.

He hit the button to call Lance and listened as it rang several times before Lance answered.

"Didn't expect to hear from you today. It's a nice surprise," Lance said.

Angus closed his eyes, his stress easing at just the sound of his voice. "Hey, it's good to hear your voice."

"Everything okay?" Lance sounded concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just this damn case. I can't catch a break. I feel like I'm missing something huge, but don't know what. How's your day?"

Lance sighed. "Not too bad if I can ignore the shadow I have following me around. She's a bit of a pest."

"Actually, I was hoping she was there. I hate to ask, because I know you said you didn't want to help her, but I'm desperate for anything she can tell us to help.

Is there any way you can press her a bit to give us something she thinks might help?

Names of people that were upset with her, companies she refused to work with, anything could help.

" Angus leaned against the brick wall, watching traffic go by on the street.

Lance sighed deeply.

"I know, but I don't know where else to look.

We're interviewing everyone we can, but I know there has to be others we don't know about.

And a woman like Eden doesn't have her job without having a bunch of enemies.

It would help if I knew who those enemies were.

" Angus ran his fingers through his hair. "Please."

"She's not going to tell us anything else. We've tried. She knows what we need from her and refuses to give it." Lance sighed again. "Listen, I need to get back to work. Carrie's waiting on me." Lance hung up.

For a moment, Angus just stood there. Lance had never just hung up on him.

He'd always said goodbye or that he loved him before ending a call.

Angus debated on calling him back and apologizing, but the slim chance that Lance had been telling the truth and was really busy kept him from doing so.

Still, his stomach churned at the possibility that Lance was really upset with him.

"Well, hell." He slid his phone back into his pocket and forced himself to head back inside.

He would deal with Lance tonight when he could look him in the eyes and apologize for asking him to get involved.

He wondered if Eden was being a bigger pain in the ass than Lance had let on.

He knew at first, she was pressuring him.

She'd kept him up that one night, but he'd thought things had gotten better.

He found Franks alone in the office as he entered. He dropped down in his chair and sighed. "I think I fucked up, but I'm not sure how."

"What's wrong?" Franks stopped what he was doing and gave Angus his full attention.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think Lance is pissed off that I asked him to talk to Eden. He got really quiet, then hung up on me with an excuse that he was busy." Angus shook his head. "Maybe he was busy, but it just felt like he was angry."

"Didn't you say his boss is on vacation and Lance is in charge this week?" Franks stood to refill his coffee. "Want some?"

Angus held out his mug. "Yeah, but he's never just hung up on me.

Eden's been a pain, refusing to give us names or incriminating anyone she might have been working with.

I didn't think it was that bad, but she keeps trying to insist Lance push me for information.

He keeps telling her to hang out here if she wants to know what's going on.

" He took the cup of coffee Franks handed him. "Thanks."

"You need to run over there and talk to him?" Franks asked.

"Nah, if he is mad, I don't want to make it worse. And I really don't want to fight at work. It can wait until I get home later tonight. I just hate wondering if he's mad at me. We don't fight. I mean, we've had little arguments, but never anything I'd call a fight. This feels different."

"You're probably being paranoid. He's busy at work, and yeah, Eden's a pain, but I can't see him letting her get between the two of you. Go home on time tonight, get some take out for dinner so neither of you have to cook, and talk through it. I'm sure he's just stressed with Sam gone."

"You're probably right." Angus forced himself to refocus, though he couldn't rid himself of the feeling something was wrong. "So where are we on the case?"

"Interview with Cascade Electric CEO in ten minutes. He's one of the companies the audit found was offering bribes for contracts. Should be interesting since the audit report isn't out publicly and companies don't know yet whose names are involved. I'll let you play bad cop."

Angus laughed. "Won't be hard. I'm so tired of this case.

Not to mention upset that any company would bribe another for contracts.

I know it happens, but the best thing we can do is make sure the public is aware of everything once this is over so not only do these companies face criminal charges, but they lose all standing in the community as well. "

"Yeah, I think we'll see a lot of businesses go bankrupt in the next year.

Ones most thought were too big to fail. Cheat your way to the top and you fall hard.

" Franks tossed a wrapped candy at Angus.

"Suck on that. Get the frown off your face, and your head on work. Things will be fine once you get home."

"I hope you're right." Angus took the candy and unwrapped it.

All he could do was his job and let personal things wait until he had the time to deal with them.

As badly as he wanted to think Lance had just been busy, he knew better.

Something was wrong and he'd made it worse.

He couldn't wait to get home and figure out exactly what was going on and find a way to fix it.