Page 3

Chapter 3

Donovan

W hen I’d first turned in my resignation to the Chicago PD, my old partner had pulled me aside and asked if I needed help of the professional variety. I couldn’t entirely blame her. Burnout had me in its grips, but I didn’t let it show, even to her. I questioned the decision even as I packed my apartment and moved across the country to a town I’d never even set foot in before. My mom and my brothers supported me, of course, but even they didn’t fully understand.

The questions and doubts in my mind disappeared the first day I stepped into the Lowery’s Crossing Police Department. The entire single-story building could have fit in the reception area of the Chicago PD with room to spare. In contrast to the high-tech, modern CPD, the scratched-up desks lined up in the main workspace held ancient computers that looked old enough to vote. Faded carpet stretched across the floor, while windows that definitely weren’t energy efficient lined the walls, letting in the warm summer sunlight.

I loved it immediately.

Meeting the chief in person, meeting my new partner, all of it just felt right in ways I couldn’t explain. Instead of spending my days delving into the darkest depths of human depravity, I now helped investigate hunting accidents and the drug problem in the mountains. I still saw things that kept me up at night, but nothing like the cases I’d seen in Chicago.

The one-year anniversary of my arrival in Lowery’s Crossing was coming up this summer and I didn’t have a single regret about leaving my old life behind and taking a chance on this tiny mountain town.

Maybe I was biased, though, because I’d met Alex three months into my time here and that certainly colored my views on my life. I know some people likely thought we were moving too fast, but what Alex and I had was the real thing.

A crumpled piece of paper hit my forehead, bouncing off to land in my empty coffee mug.

“I’m requesting a new partner,” I grumbled, fishing the paper out and tossing it in the trash can beside me.

“Good luck with that,” Will snorted. He sat across from me, his back to the door, leaning back in his chair. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, William Dodd could have been the definition of the “All-American boy next door” if it weren’t for the sparkle of mischief in his eyes.

“Maybe Camille is interested in the job. I think I’d rather work with the good twin.”

“The town would riot if she left Buns ‘n’ Roses.”

“I’d be more scared of Raina hunting us down for stealing her girlfriend away. I guess that means I’m stuck with you.” I dug an old report out of the trash, carefully folding it. “Can I ask why you assaulted me with paper?”

“You had that look again and I needed it to go away.”

I paused in my folding and raised an eyebrow. “What look?”

“That heart-eyes look you get whenever you’re thinking about Alex,” he shrugged. “Honestly, it’s terrible and you should be embarrassed.”

“So, I should throw things at you whenever you start thinking about—”

“We’re talking about you, not me.”

“Smooth.”

“Thanks.” Will flashed his most charming grin, sighing when I ignored him and went back to folding the paper. “I do have a serious question, though.”

“I’d believe you more if you hadn’t started the conversation by throwing something at me, but fine, I’ll bite. What’s up?”

He didn’t immediately respond, which was enough to get my attention. Will was not the type of guy who hesitated much, especially not around me.

“Will?”

“I just wanted to ask how Alex is doing?” He didn’t quite meet my eyes, his gaze hovering somewhere around my shoulder.

“He’s fine,” I said slowly. “Why do you ask?”

“Just… with all the stuff with his ex a few months ago and the whole thing at the farm.” He glanced at the door to make sure no one could overhear. “I haven’t really seen much of him since then, so I just wanted to ask.”

That made a little more sense. Will had been with us when the ghost of Thomas McAvell possessed Alex. I still had nightmares of that day, seeing Alex standing there, pointing a gun at his own head.

“He’s getting there. I think leaving town for a while helped.” We’d spent a late Christmas with my family in Chicory, Illinois, as soon as Alex recovered. My mother had immediately taken him under her wing and they still talked and texted several times a week.

“Good. That’s good,” Will said, but he still seemed slightly off, like something was still bothering him. I didn’t get a chance to keep pushing, though, because the chief let herself into our office at that moment.

“Parker, Dodd,” she said by way of greeting. “I’ve got something for you to look into.”

Will was closer to the door, so she handed him the slim folder she’d brought with her.

“What’s up?” I asked, coming around to read over his shoulder. The very top sheet was a homemade missing person flyer, with a picture of a teenage girl front and center.

“Rebecca Perez’s parents just reported her missing. They say she didn’t go to school this morning and they haven’t been able to reach her all day.”

“But they did see her this morning?” Will asked.

Chief Cornell nodded. “Rebecca has a history of running away. This is the third time in a year she’s disappeared. The last two times, she came back after a few days when her money ran out. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to look for her, though.”

“Agreed. We’ll get to work on it,” I said. “Are the parents still here?” I glanced at the flyer and saw the names ‘Joseph and Eva Perez’ listed at the bottom, along with what must be their home phone number.

“They’re in the interview room waiting. I told them you’d be right in.”

There was only one interview room here at the LCPD, and it doubled as a storage room. Thanks to Alex, I also now knew it was haunted by the ghost of an old detective.

The mystery of what was bothering Will would have to wait. I moved it to the back burner so I could focus on the case at hand.

“Alright, let’s get to work.”

***

A long day of chasing down leads on Rebecca Perez got me exactly nowhere. Her parents said they’d seen her walk out of the house on her way to school that morning, but somewhere along the way, she’d just disappeared into thin air. Everyone in the house had been running late this morning, so they hadn’t kept as close an eye as they usually did.

The Perez family lived just outside of town, so Rebecca usually walked down the road to her friend Amelie DeVor’s house and the two girls got a ride to school with Amelie’s older brother, Landon.

When we spoke to Amelie and Landon, however, they claimed Rebecca never arrived. They’d waited for her, but given her history of skipping school and running away, they’d assumed she was just being her usual self and left without her when it got too close to first period.

The two houses were less than a mile apart, but only if Rebecca cut across a stretch of trees between the two houses. Otherwise, a curve in the road doubled the distance. In bad weather, Landon said he’d drive up the road to pick her up, but Rebecca usually preferred to walk. When pressed, Amelie admitted that her friend usually used the walk to call her boyfriend. She didn’t know his name, only that he was older and Rebecca’s parents had absolutely forbidden the relationship. Naturally, being a teenager, that had just made Rebecca want him even more.

Since she’d run away before, her parents had installed a tracking app on her phone to keep tabs on her location. When they’d pinged it earlier, they’d found it sitting on Rebecca’s nightstand, still plugged into the charger.

Will and I spent the rest of the day walking the same path Rebecca would have taken, knocking on doors, and putting out word on the town’s social media to call us if anyone got any tips, but so far, we had nothing to go on.

Just before the end of the day, we reconvened in our office to go over everything. We were both tired, cold, and muddy from trekking through the fields, with nothing to show for it.

“What do you think?” Will asked. The case notes were spread out on our shared desk space; the office was so small we had to push them together to have any room to move.

“Honestly?” I sighed heavily. “I think she ran away again.”

“Me, too. I just felt like a dick saying it,” he admitted with a wince.

“Amelie said she always talked to her boyfriend on the walk, so it’s hard to imagine her forgetting her phone, even in the chaos of the morning they had. The most likely scenario is that she left it on purpose, knowing her parents could use it to track her.”

“I’d do the same thing if I were her and wanted to meet my secret boyfriend.”

“There’s nothing between the two houses but the trees and we didn’t find any signs of her or of any sort of struggle.” The ground was too frozen for any tracks to be visible, but there was a faint path winding through the trees. The Perez and DeVor families had been friendly for years, and generations of kids going to play with each other had created a trail of beaten earth between the two houses.

“That curve in the road would be a great place for someone to wait for her,” Will added. “Once it bends around, you can’t see it through the trees from the Perez house. If her boyfriend were smart, he’d wait there and pick her up.”

“If he were smart, he wouldn’t be dating a sixteen-year-old girl.”

“True.” Will glanced over at the door, which we’d closed this time upon arriving back at the department. “Hey… this feels weird to ask, but you haven’t heard from Alex, have you?”

“Alex? I mean, I texted him to let him know I wouldn’t be able to make it for lunch, but I haven’t talked to him much otherwise.” It hit me then, what he was trying to ask. “Oh! No. He promised he’d call one of us if anything happened.”

“That’s good news, then, right? She’s missing, so if anything bad had happened to her, Alex would know. I think? Even after he explained it, I’m still kind of hazy about how this all works.”

“Me, too,” I admitted. “But he said the ones that come to him are usually people who wouldn’t be found otherwise, or don’t want family to find them. Rebecca would fit that.”

“Which makes it even more likely she ran away.”

“Exactly what I was thinking. We’re not going to stop looking, though.”

“No, definitely not. It does make me feel a little better, though.”

“There’s not much more we can do here tonight, though. Let’s wrap up and head home. We’ll come at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.”

“With any luck, she’ll realize her boyfriend is a jerk and be back before then,” Will said, stretching as he stood up. “I passed the information on to the surrounding towns, too, so maybe we’ll get a hit on them passing through.”

Together, we put the case file back together, locked it up, and left for the night. Will headed for his house while I went up the road to A Likely Story.

There was only an hour until closing, since I was running a little late tonight. Sunset approached, casting warm golden light across the little town and glinting off the leaded windows of the bookstore. Soft light emanated from within, inviting passersby to wander through the doors and peruse the shelves. A wooden sign hung over the door, installed years ago by Alex’s aunt and maintained lovingly by him since he’d taken over.

A tiny bell jingled when I stepped inside, and immediately the worries and tension of the day eased. I’d never been much of a reader as a kid, not like my brother Dane, so I hadn’t spent much time in bookstores. Still, even I could tell that A Likely Story was special.

The checkout counter, a long length of solid wood, ran to the left of the door, while tall bookcases spanned the right wall, with shorter shelves perpendicular to them creating aisles. A wall of open shelving separated the store in half, filled with plants and store merchandise.

The back half of the store was devoted to reading, with cozy nooks set up amongst the shelves. This was where I spent most of my evenings now. I even had a favorite spot; along the right wall, near the tall windows, in a plush loveseat. It offered a peaceful view of the town, but more importantly, it was in direct line of sight of the counter, so I could watch Alex working.

“Donovan!” Alex’s smile when he saw me walk in soothed any lingering tension I’d been holding. He was checking out a customer, a woman I vaguely recognized but couldn’t put a name to, so I waited until he finished to come around the counter and kiss him.

“Missed you,” I murmured, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“You saw me at breakfast,” he laughed, but he hugged me right back and his lips met mine, anyway.

“How’s your day been?” I stepped back only because he was still working, and the doors would be unlocked for another hour.

“Better than yours, it sounds like. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really. It’s not bad, just messy,” I said, shaking my head. Alex had enough nightmares of his own to deal with. I did my best to make sure I didn’t add to it.

“I’ve got your book stashed under here, if you want to relax while I finish up?” He reached under the counter, pulling out my current read and handing it to me.

“I don’t deserve you, you know that?”

Alex blushed, rolling his eyes. “Go chill out. I’ll come find you once I lock up.” He gently pushed me toward my spot and I let him, only pausing to steal another kiss before retreating to my cozy corner.

Once there, though, I didn’t open the book. The day had worn me down and my brain had decided it was time to go offline for a while. Instead, I just relaxed, letting my mind wander, making idle plans for Alex’s birthday. It was a month before Mom’s, so summer was going to be busy, but I couldn’t wait to spoil him. I couldn’t think of anyone who needed pampering more than him. If I couldn’t help him deal with ghosts, the least I could do was take care of him afterward, and since there weren’t exactly any other psychics I could turn to for advice…

That thought caught and snagged in my mind, reminding me of something Alex had joked about just a few nights ago. When he’d teased that he was the only psychic in the world, I’d laughed along, but now I couldn’t help but wonder. I’d never given much thought to the paranormal before. Psychics had always been the stuff of movies and cheesy TV shows, not reality. Once, when I’d been a detective in Chicago, we’d had a woman call claiming to be a medium. She’d very firmly told us that the man we were looking for was dead and we would find him at the bottom of a drainage ditch. We’d found him the very next day, alive and hiding out in a motel room with three prostitutes. Needless to say, it’d given me a healthy skepticism of so-called psychics.

Then Alex Copeland stumbled into my life, and I’d been forced to reevaluate. Seeing the ghost of a murderer possess him was more than enough proof to make me a believer, but only in him. If someone else were to make the same claims, I’d doubt them, probably assume they were a fraud. But what would be stranger: Alex being the only person in the world with abilities, or there being more people out there with gifts and somehow they’d stayed hidden all this time?

That question nagged at me, forcing me to rethink every strange interaction I’d ever had. I’d spent my early years as an officer in downtown Chicago, so there were plenty to consider.

I completely forgot about the book in my lap and I had no idea how long I sat there, poring through my memories, before the loveseat dipped and I blinked to find Alex settling in beside me.

“You okay? You’ve been staring at that bookshelf like it personally offended you.”

“Just thinking. Nothing bad, I promise,” I added, before he could get the wrong idea.

“Pizza for your thoughts? I’m all done and I was thinking maybe movie night at my house?”

“It’s a deal.” I hesitated, though, trying to figure out the right way to word this.

“Uh oh. That bad?” Alex shifted in his seat so he faced me. “Maybe talk first, then pizza, because that face is freaking me out.”

“My thinking face freaks you out?” I aimed for a teasing tone, but I must have missed the mark because he just looked worried. “It’s nothing. Just… something you said a few days ago just got stuck in my head and now I need to figure it out.” I drummed my fingers across the book cover. “You joked that part of the reason I fell for you was that you were the only psychic out there, so there was no competition. Do you remember that?”

“Vaguely,” he said slowly. “I’m not following, though.”

“It got me wondering if it was really true.”

Silence. When I stole a quick look at Alex again, his brows were wrinkled into a frown, his lower lip caught between his teeth like he did when he was thinking hard about something. I let him be, letting him turn it over in his head like I’d been doing for the last hour.

“So, you’re wondering if there are other psychics out there somewhere?” he asked. “I mean, I know of at least one other.”

“Wait, you do?” What the hell?

“Yeah. You do, too.” He raised an eyebrow. “Thomas McAvell was psychic, according to the story. That’s supposedly why he went crazy and killed his family.”

“Huh. I guess in all the chaos that day, I forgot about that.” I trailed off, adding that new information to the questions circling in my mind. “What are the odds that two people who can see ghosts would live in the same state, let alone nearly in the same town? Does that mean it’s way more common than we thought?”

“I wish I had some answers for you, Donovan, but I have no idea. I’ve spent most of my life avoiding anything to do with my abilities,” Alex confessed, voice soft. “If there’s anyone else nearby, the ghosts don’t seem to know about it, because they all come to me.”

“Would it be something you’d consider researching?” I asked carefully. With how much Alex appeared to hate his gift, I didn’t want to push him. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course, and I’ll drop it if you’d prefer we just leave things as they are.”

Again, Alex was quiet, eyes distant. No matter what he decided, I’d stand by him, but I did hope he’d at least consider looking. If there was someone out there who could help him, maybe that would give him some peace.

“The way things have been hasn’t been so great,” he finally said. He kept his eyes straight ahead, the picture of calm, but he kept tugging and twisting the hem of his sweater, tugging at a loose thread.

“You have a whole team backing you up now, though,” I reminded him. “You don’t have to handle it all alone anymore.”

“Yeah, but I still can’t control it. I didn’t even know I could use crystals to protect my house until my asshole ex did it. Even then, I haven’t tried to learn anything about how to do it myself.” He sighed heavily, his head falling back against the loveseat. “I guess we should at least look into what possibilities are out there. As much as I hate him, Nate knew more about my own abilities than I do. There’s a freaking crystal shop in town and I’ve never even set foot in there.”

“There is? Where?” I ran over my mental map of Lowery’s Crossing, trying to place a crystal shop.

“It’s on Race Street, right by the dog grooming place, remember?”

We’d walked the town end to end, backward and forward and sideways, on our evening dates, but it still took me a second. “I thought that place was a plant shop or something. I assumed that’s where Raina got all hers.”

“Nope,” Alex shook his head. “I mean, I’ve heard they do sell plants there and they keep a lot in the windows, but mostly they sell crystals and stuff like that.”

“You’ve really never been in? I thought you were basically on a first-name basis with all the small businesses in town.”

He flushed, tugging harder at the thread. He was going to unravel the whole sweater at this rate. “It’s kind of stupid, but I never went in there because it… I don’t know. I guess it felt like I was validating what I could do if I did? It doesn’t make sense, but going in there would have made it feel more real, somehow? As if going out at midnight to find dead bodies isn’t real enough. I told you it’s stupid and I just—”

“Alex.” I leaned in and kissed him, my preferred method of slowing the avalanche of self-doubt that sometimes slipped free. I grasped his hands in mine at the same time, forcing him to relinquish his stranglehold on his sweater. “Hey. You’re not stupid and you’re allowed to feel however you want about your ability. If I were in your shoes, I don’t think I’d be nearly as calm about it as you’ve been.”

“If you were in my shoes, you’d have your house protected and have the ghosts trained to knock at the door already.” He laughed when he said it, but that self-mocking undertone was still there.

“After everything you went through with your mom, moving around, and trying to run your own business while dealing with something like this on your own, with absolutely no support… Alex, you’re fucking amazing. It kills me that you don’t see what I see.”

“I believe that you believe I’m awesome. That counts, right?”

I prided myself on being a level-headed man, but there were times, like this, where I truly hated the people in Alex’s past who’d made him feel like this. The worst offenders being his own parents just made it all the worse.

“That counts,” I agreed, running my thumb across his knuckles until his shoulders loosened. “I’ll just keep telling you until you actually believe it, too.”

“I still say that counts as a form of torture. Compliments are so awkward,” he groaned.

Laughing, I leaned in and kissed him again, lingering until I had to pull away or risk getting us into a compromising position. The doors of the shop were locked, but the windows faced the street and if I did what I truly wanted to do, we’d get arrested for public indecency.

“We’ll continue this discussion when we get back to your place,” I murmured against his lips and finally saw a smile.

“Promises, promises. How fast can you get us there?”