Page 8 of The Raven

The Ghost Of Raven Blackwood

The Cop

Instead of getting some very much-needed sleep, I was sitting at my breakfast bar poring over files I’d read at least a hundred times. If not more.

I knew Raven’s case better than I knew the back of my hand, and even without the document titled, ‘victimology,’ I knew Raven didn’t have any biological siblings, let alone an identical twin sister.

Yet, I scanned the documents in hopes that I would find something I’d missed every other time I’d gone through the paperwork; otherwise, I was going to have to admit something I didn’t want to.

I was seeing the ghost of Raven Blackwood.

Because the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that the woman I’d seen outside Boogie’s apartment, and later hiding in the shadows of my kitchen, was Raven.

I would have recognized her anywhere.

I scrubbed my hand down my face, debating if I should call my doctor to ask for a psych evaluation, when my phone rang from beside me. Not bothering to check the caller ID, I answered it on the second ring. “Roberts.”

“Detective Roberts, it’s Carly,” the soft, familiar voice said at the end of the line. “I’m returning your call. We haven’t heard from you in a while.”

I slumped in my seat as guilt rushed through me. Work had kept me busy of late, even before Boogie’s death.

“Yeah, work’s been…” I trailed off, ignoring the hint of accusation in Carly’s tone. It was none of her business why I’d been avoiding calls. “Are there any updates?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Of course there wasn’t. There was never any news.

I sighed. “Right. You’ll let me know if-”

“If anything changes, I promise you’ll be the first person we call.”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see me before muttering my thanks and hanging up. Less than five seconds later, my phone rang again. This time, I checked the caller ID.

Nick.

“Yeah,” I said as a way of greeting.

“Boss.” The solemnness of his tone instantly told me he wasn’t phoning with good news, and a lump of dread landed in the pit of my stomach. “There’s been another murder. Another Viper.”

“Who?” I asked, standing and heading to my bedroom to change out of the T-shirt and sweats I was wearing.

Shit.

Things were going from bad to worse.

“Zachary Wright.”

“Ziggy,” I replied, wedging the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could use both hands to put my pants on. “Same MO as before?”

“No, I don’t know what the fuck happened to him, but it isn’t pleasant. Looks like every single one of his blood vessels exploded within his body or something,” Nick replied, a grimace in his voice.

A trickle of sweat ran down my spine.

What the fuck?

My mind began to spin with possibilities.

“Boss, you still there?” Nick said after a few seconds of silence.

“Yeah,” I replied, my ass kicking into gear. “Text me the location. I’m on my way.”

In all my time as a cop, I’d never seen a body as fucked as Ziggy’s. Well, maybe with the exception of Boogie. Nick hadn’t been lying when he said it looked like Ziggy’s blood vessels had exploded within his body.

Dark purple stains pooled under the surface of his skin where he’d bled internally, and blood had streaked from the corner of his eyes, both nostrils, and either side of his mouth.

Whoever had killed Ziggy had made it as painful as possible.

Sucked to be him.

“It will be a few days before we get the toxicology results,” the coroner said, staring down at Ziggy with Nick and me. “But if I were a betting man, I’d say he was injected with some kind of poison.”

“Ouch,” Nick replied.

I hummed my response, agreeing with the coroner. It made sense with the two empty syringes we’d discovered lying next to Ziggy’s stone-cold body.

He was slumped against a dumpster, and next to where his head rested was the outline of a raven drawn in white chalk.

I stared at the drawing, more interested in the artwork than understanding how Ziggy had died. I was beyond certain that these killings were linked to Raven and Eric, yet I was still clueless as to who in their right mind would challenge the Vipers.

The slamming of a car door dragged my attention away from the conversation between the coroner and Nick, my body tensing at finding my boss, Lieutenant Brenner, striding toward me, his face twisted in fury.

There was no love lost between Brenner and me, and we’d butted heads countless times, especially in the past year.

He thought I was arrogant. I thought he was shit at his job.

In my opinion, he was partly to blame for why the Vipers believed they were untouchable, and why crimes like rape and murder went unsolved.

For years, he’d allowed them to rule the roost.

He’d had it in for me from the minute I transferred to Hadleigh Peak, making it clear he believed I was only given the position because of my father, who just so happened to be the Associate Deputy Director of the FBI. It couldn’t possibly be because I was good at what I did.

“I want updates, Roberts. What the fuck is happening?” he barked when he stopped in front of me.

I shrugged. “Looks to me like someone is targeting the Vipers.”

“I can see that,” he replied through gritted teeth. “Who?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be standing here looking for evidence.

They’d be locked up already,” I replied tersely, my blood beginning to boil.

The man knew just how to get under my skin.

“You know, just like Ziggy and Boogie, and the rest of the Vipers would be if I’d been allowed to do my job,” I added, unable to resist stoking the flames.

Rage flashed in his eyes as the air around us thickened with tension. From my periphery, the coroner scarpered, and Nick shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot, avoiding looking at either of us.

“How many times are we going to go over this?” Brenner started. “There was no evidence-”

“No evidence? Except for me witnessing Grim and his gang fleeing the scene?”

“You know damn well that would have been thrown out at court, given your connection to the victim, and your incessant desire to arrest the Vipers for every single crime that happens in this town,” Brenner snapped.

I muttered a curse, unsure whether it was because he never referred to Raven by her name or because he was using my past friendship with Raven as a shitty excuse to close the investigation.

Yeah, I knew Raven when we were kids, and we reconnected when I returned to Hadleigh Peak, but that was all. At least, that’s what I told Brenner when he found out I had a personal connection to the victim.

The truth was…complicated.

“That’s bullshit, and you damn well know it,” I said, my voice rising as I took a step closer to the prick. “Besides, there were other opportunities. Witnesses, forensics-”

“I refuse to go over this again with you, Roberts!” Brenner growled, straightening his spine. “An investigation was carried out, and everything pointed to Eric Mills killing the victim before he killed himself. I-”

“Eric didn’t murder Raven!” I bellowed, drawing the attention of the cops loitering in the alley conducting their forensic examination to stare at us.

My fists clenched by my side as Brenner stared back at me, his features contorting into a snarl. Before he could reply, Nick gently touched my arm.

“Boss, take a walk. Clear your head.”

“Good idea,” Brenner hissed.

I held his gaze before snorting and looking away.

Any other Lieutenant would have ordered me back to the station to await discipline for speaking to a superior like that, but not Brenner.

He would never admit it, but he needed me at the scene; he knew I was the best detective on the team, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

I muttered another curse before storming out of the alley and pushing through the blockade. If I stared at Brenner for any longer, I would have smashed my fist into his face.

Loosening my tie, I took long strides away from the crime scene, needing to put distance between me and the asshole. Fucking Brenner, he’d been a thorn in my side from the minute I arrived, but now his fuckery was allowing rapists and murderers to walk free.

The cool night air brushed against my heated cheeks as anger swirled in my body. I was sick to death of the narrative that Eric had been the one to attack Raven before killing himself; it was impossible. I’d witnessed with my own eyes how much that man doted on Raven.

Lost in thought, I didn’t realize how far from the scene I’d walked until movement from across the road caught my attention. I stopped walking and scanned the road in time to see a hooded figure disappear down another dark alley.

The feeling of familiarity coursed through me, and I knew in a heartbeat who it was. Acting on impulse, I crossed the road and followed the figure, my heart racing like a speeding train as adrenaline pumped through me.

Dim lighting from the buildings on either side of the alley lit her up. She was leaning against the wall, her head bowed, with her hood covering her face.

I stopped several feet away from her. Not out of fear that she would hurt me, but not wanting her to disappear.

“Raven,” I whispered, knowing in my heart of hearts it was her.

She raised her head, meeting my eyes, and for a few seconds, my heart stopped dead in my chest.

It really was her.

The light surrounding us lit up her face. She was exactly how I remembered her: a heart-shaped face, perfect lips, a small, slightly upturned nose, and eyes the color of the Caribbean Sea. She lowered her hood, and her long, straight black hair cascaded down, almost reaching her waist.

She was as beautiful as the day I first met her, when she was five, and I was seven.

There were so many things I wanted to say to her. So much I wanted to tell her if I ever had the opportunity to speak to her again, but the words lodged in my throat.

“How?” I finally asked, managing to force the words past my state of shock. “How are you here?”

“A soul can’t rest until it resolves its unfinished business,” she replied softly, almost as if she were talking to herself. “But I can’t figure out how you fit into this.”

My brows furrowed. “What do you mean?” I asked, confused at her cryptic statement.

“I know what they did to me, but you,” she paused, trying to find her words. “I don’t know why I feel this strange pull whenever I see you. I don’t know how you fit into the picture when I can’t remember you.”

My heart sank to the soles of my shoes. Whether she was real or I was seeing a ghost, it didn’t matter. It still hurt learning that she had no idea who I was or what I had been to her.

“You don’t remember me?” I repeated, hoping for a different answer.

She stepped away from the wall, closing the gap between us. I couldn’t stop myself from inhaling deeply as her scent surrounded me, an intoxicating smell of rose and lavender that reminded me of home.

She was my home.

“You were there that night,” she stated, her gaze penetrating mine.

I nodded once. “I found you.”

Her eyes narrowed on me. “I need to see,” she replied, confusing me even more than I already was.

Slowly, she lifted her hands, hesitating when they reached my head. My heart pounded furiously against my rib cage, loud enough that I was sure she could hear it.

“Can I?” she asked, pausing just before her hands made contact with me.

I didn’t know what she was asking, but the overwhelming need for her to touch me dominated all rational thought. I needed to feel her. Needed to know she was really there and not a figment of my imagination.

I nodded, unable to form any words. She closed her eyes and pressed her hands against either side of my head, her palms surprisingly warm against my temples.

In a heartbeat, the alley around us disappeared, replaced with a montage of scenes from the night my life changed.

Grim and the others shooting past me in their car as I pulled up outside her apartment.

Blood.

The stench of smoke.

Eric, dead on the floor.

Ripping the bag covering Raven’s face open and starting CPR.

The piercing screams of police and ambulance sirens.

The machine flatlining as doctors desperately fought to save her life.

When a sob echoed around me, bringing me back to the dimly lit alley, Raven dropped her hands and stepped back, her breath coming in short gasps as her body tremored violently.

“You…stayed with me,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

“Yes,” I replied, ignoring the lump of emotion painfully clogging my throat.

“Why?”

I shook my head; the grief I’d experienced every minute since I found her naked and lifeless resurfacing and preventing me from speaking.

“Mason,” she whispered, her tone filled with sympathy. She reached her hand out to me again, but this time, she cupped my cheek. My eyes closed as I nuzzled against her soft palm, embracing a moment I never thought I would experience. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you had to find me.”

Every part of me wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her how sorry I was that she’d had to endure what they put her through. How sorry I was that I hadn’t been able to lock the cunts up.

I stepped forward, ready to do exactly that, when the shrill tone of my phone pierced the air and halted my movements. Raven pulled her hand away, and the warmth that had flooded my body at her touch instantly disappeared.

“You should get that,” she said, her tone hardening as she tore her gaze away and looked down at the ground.

Silently cursing, I turned and pulled my phone from my pocket to find Nick was calling me. “Yeah?”

“Boss, I’m just checking in. Brenner has fucked off; the coast is clear.”

“Right. I’ll be back soon.”

I hung up and spun back to Raven, not in the least bit surprised to find she’d vanished into thin air.

Again.