The Pirate Ghost Page 9

  “But if they messed up their search, why should they book me at all?”

  “I’ll have a judge get you out of here,” he said, ignoring her rhetorical question. “The cops aren’t going to admit anything about falsely obtaining their evidence unless I force them to do it. Don’t worry, I’ll have you out in ninety minutes, max!”

  “Okay, I’ll tough it out,” she promised. “It seems a bit too good to be true, though.”

  “It’s true,” he assured her. He buzzed for the guard to let him out of the interrogation room. “Unless you know something about this that you aren’t telling me, that’s all there is to it.”

  “I don’t know anything else,” she said.

  “Okay, then. They’ve got your prints, so they’ll take you down to the cells now. I’ve got to find a judge and get my paperwork in order before they all go home for the night. ’Bye now,” he said as the door beside him opened. “Ninety minutes, max.”

  “Goodbye.”

  With her lawyer gone, Tess found herself alone. The day’s events were still so fresh and so unbelievable that she just sat in shock for a minute until a voice in her ear reminded her that she wasn’t really alone at all.

  “So, am I to take it that they’re forced to ignore that knife just because it was found on another man’s property?” Gabriel sounded skeptical. “A resourceful criminal would surely have known that fact and acted accordingly.”

  “But a resourceful police department would have thought about it before looking in that garage.”

  “True.”

  “Gabriel, could you please let me see you if you’re going to be talking to me?” Tess asked him. “You’re making me crazy talking out of nowhere like that.”

  “That wasn’t my desire.” He materialized across the table seated in the chair her lawyer had vacated. Or, more correctly, he was kneeling in front of the chair so that it looked as though he was seated. “But then I think it would take far more than a spirit voice to make you crazy, Tess Miller.”

  “Why do you think that?” She rubbed her forehead, watching the man across from her grow from a faint image to that of a solid, real human being. “I feel like a wimp.”

  “Wimp? Weakling, I suppose,” he mused. “No, you’re hardly that.” His smile seemed to soften the light in the room, making her feel safer. “You put that officer of the law in his place, you did, and you haven’t buckled under the pressure of any of this. You’re a strong woman, Tess Miller, a fine woman.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “I just hope I’m a free woman soon.”

  “You will be,” he said.

  The door of the interrogation room opened and a policewoman entered. “Come on,” she said, her hands and forearms sliding through the smiling pirate’s chest. She pulled her hands back abruptly, frowning. “Let’s get you settled in,” she said with less certainty.

  “I suppose you’ll be needing money to pay that lawyer, then,” Gabriel said. “As sure as it rains, a lawyer wants his money. You don’t want that banker fellow paying the freight.”

  “No,” Tess said quietly.

  “You’re not going to sit here all night,” the officer said tightly. “Come on.”

  “I wasn’t—oh, never mind.” Tess stood and walked to the door with her.

  “You get out of here,” Gabriel said, “and we’ll go about rounding up some money for your legal defense. Unless, of course, a pirate’s booty has no value these days.”

  Tess merely nodded, hoping he would take that as confirmation of the value of his contribution. She followed the woman down the hall and through a steel door into a room containing a table and several lockers.

  “Okay, remove your clothing,” the policewoman said, sliding a manila envelope across the table. “Put your valuables into this envelope.”

  “What?”

  “Strip,” the woman commanded. “We’ve got to conduct a search, and then you’ll wear the prison jumpsuit. Hurry up and it’ll be over within a minute.”

  “But my lawyer will be back—”

  “Sure, sure, but you’ve still got to be searched.”

  Resigned, Tess slipped out of her shoes and began unbuttoning her blouse. Then she stopped, saying, “Get out of here, Gabriel. Okay?”

  “What?” the woman asked.

  “I’m gone,” said Gabriel, and Tess was privy to the strange sight of the man backing out through a solid wall. As he disappeared, he said, “Don’t you let them rile you, lass. You’re a singular woman, and I’ve all the faith in the world that you’re up to this challenge. If I were a man instead of a foolish spirit, I’d find ways to back up my words and let you know the truth of them. Goodbye for now, lass.”

  And, at that moment, hearing the heartfelt tone of his words, Tess didn’t mind being called lass at all.

  “WE’VE GOT TO KEEP the cops focused on the wife,” Carl Downey said. “As long as they’re busy looking for ways to pin it on her, they won’t try pinning it on us.”

  Carl was sitting in his office at Downey Construction with Jay Sturgis, his “assistant,” seated across the broad desk from him. Carl was in his mid-sixties, balding, but still as lean as he had been when he was a middleweight prizefighter years earlier. Stout and short, Jay was in his late thirties with dark hair and eyes.

  “The last I heard was that they found a knife,” Jay said. “Her lawyer went to see a judge about springing her, but I don’t see how he can fight that evidence.”

  “Walter Chambers is her lawyer,” Carl said, smiling smugly. “No way he’ll get her off. He’s just a two-bit crook. It would be nice if she actually did kill the guy. Someone had to do it.”

  “Do you think she did, Carl?”

  “No, but it’s good that the cops think she did.”

  “We’ve got the title with her signature,” Jay reminded him. “We can forge her name on the other paperwork.”

  “No, I don’t want anything to go wrong There’s too much money tied up in this to blow it all by forging the woman’s signature.” Carl sighed, looking out the window at the gray sky. “I think we’ll just have to cut our losses and buy the land from her. If anything looks untoward, we won’t be suspected.”

  “We already bought the land once.”

  “I know,” Carl said ruefully. “But it’s the price we’ll have to pay for doing business with a shifty fool like Cage. Draw up some purchase papers so we can get it over and done with. Even a conviction won’t help. That’ll keep them from digging into his business affairs too deeply, but it won’t help this deal. We want to break ground in a month—not after years in court.”

  “Okay, I’ll get right on it.”

  Carl Downey continued looking out the window as the other man left the room. Everything had been going so well until Cage’s wife decided to divorce him. Dealing with the now-deceased Realtor had been less than satisfactory since then. All because of that woman. Maybe she did kill him. Maybe not. If she didn’t, he’d better keep an eye out for who did. There was a lot of money involved after all.

  THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE turn at their own pace, and the wheels turned slowly enough that Tess suffered the indignity of a jailhouse meal before her lawyer returned with an order for her release.

  “I’m horribly sorry for the delay,” Chambers said. “The judge was backlogged, and the cops put a lot of effort into covering their rears. Sergeant Wilkes has a lieutenant’s exam coming up, and he’s very anxious about that.”

  He met her outside the cell block after she’d changed clothing.

  “At least I’m out,” Tess said. “Now what?”

  She had decided that she couldn’t tell Walter Chambers about the intruder, either. As an officer of the court, he was obligated to tell the police. Maybe the cops would suspect both her and Chambers of trying to create a nonexistent housebreaker to pin the crime on.

  “They’ll try to make their case in some other way,” he said. “Don’t be too surprised if you see some ill-concealed police officers following you from tim
e to time. Darrell Cage was worth millions. This case is a big deal for them, and now that they’ve officially pegged you as a suspect, they’ll hold on to you like a dog with a bone.”

  “Gee, thanks, you’ve made me feel much better,” she said. “Where do I get my belongings?”

  “At the front desk.”

  They walked to the booking desk, where the envelope containing her personal effects was unceremoniously given to her and she was told not to leave town. When she stepped out of the police station into a light drizzle, Tess felt so good that the sky might have been bright and cloudless.

  “Now what do I do?” she asked Chambers.

  “We get your car out of the impound and then you go about your life as best you can.”

  “And that’s it? Where does the police investigation go from here?”

  “If we’re lucky, and I mean damn lucky, they’ll get a lead away from you and eventually catch the killer,” he said seriously. “If we’re unlucky, they’ll concentrate on proving that you did it and never leave you alone. Remember, as far as the cops are concerned, you got out of this on a technicality.”

  “So they still believe I’m guilty.”

  “Yes, they believe you’re guilty.”

  “They will leave me alone, won’t they? I mean, I can go on with my life more or less normally?”

  “Yes, more or less,” he said as they walked down the steps and around the corner to the parking lot and its fenced-in section reserved for impounded vehicles “They have probable cause to keep you under surveillance if they want to, but not to harass you or impede you in any way. If you have any trouble with them, call me and I’ll slap an injunction on them.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “It’s good to know I’ve got someone on my side in all this mess.”

  There was no one visible in the lot, so Walter pressed the buzzer on the door to the garage.

  “You’ve got Charles Dumont in your corner, too,” he said.

  “Yes, I guess I do. Say, about your fee...” she began.

  “Mr. Dumont will cover that.”

  “No, he won’t, either,” Tess said quickly. “He’s a nice guy and all that, but I’d rather not owe him for my defense. Okay? I’ll pay you myself.”

  “Fine,” Chambers said. “I’ll just bill you by the hour and send it to you when we’re all done.”

  “Good. I’m making arrangements to get the cash now. Would a week be too long to get the money?”

  “I hate to dampen your mood,” he said, smiling. “But I’m going to be your lawyer for much longer than a week. Unless they come up with a killer in rocord time, you won’t have to worry about paying your bill till sometime around Christmas.”

  “That long? They won’t be watching me all that time, will they?”

  “No, they don’t have the manpower, but they’ll sure keep it open ”

  He pushed the buzzer again. This time, an officer opened the door. “Yes?” the uniformed man asked.

  “Walter Chambers,” the lawyer said. “We’ve come for Teresa Miller’s car. Here’s the paperwork.”

  The officer took the papers from the lawyer suspiciously and looked them over. Apparently satisfied with the vehicle release form, he nodded and said, “Just a minute.” A moment later, he emerged from a door on the other side of the chain-link fence and unlocked the gate. “Back row,” he said brusquely, handing her the car keys.

  As Tess accepted them, she felt the first hint of what it would be like to be under the constant suspicion of the police department, for the man stared at her with open contempt, branding her a murderer with his eyes.

  “Happy motoring,” the officer said.

  “You’ll have to learn to ignore them,” Chambers advised as they walked to the car, which was parked between a dented Chevy and a Cadillac. “They aren’t going to go out of their way to make it easy on you.”

  “I can tell,” Tess said. “Well, thank you for everything.”

  “It was a pleasure,” he said. “I’ll call you if there are any further developments, and I want you to call me if the police give you any trouble at all. Just don’t leave town. Don’t even appear to be leaving town.”

  “I won’t,” she promised, unlocking her car door. “Oh, by the way, nobody ever said exactly where they found the body.”

  “On the beach near Bernie’s Lounge,” he said. “Does that mean anything to you?”

  “No,” she replied a bit doubtfully. It did seem odd the killer wouldn’t have chosen a more secluded spot than that. Unless, of course, he wanted the body to be found as quickly as possible “Well, thank you again.”

  Her lawyer acknowledged her thanks with a thumbs-up and then turned and walked away.

  “Well, then, you’re out, are you?” Gabriel appeared in the back seat, startling her briefly.

  Tess grinned, shaking her head. “We’re going to have to work on your manners,” she chided. “Popping in and out just won’t do. Where have you been?” she asked as she drove out of the impound lot and headed north toward home. “I missed you.”

  “You did?” He sounded surprised and pleased, and Tess looked into her rearview mirror to see a broad smile lighting his features. “I didn’t feel that I should be staying as it was a women’s jail and all. I could admit, however, that I missed you, as well. I missed you a great deal.”

  “There were only two cells for women,” she said. “And I was the only woman there.”

  “Well, I put my time to good use,” he said. “I’ve done a bit of reconnoitering, and I believe I can find my booty just off the beach a bit.”

  “You mean the bag of money you threw overboard?”

  “Yes, though I don’t expect the bag has survived. Gold, it held, and gems. Perhaps that lawyer fellow could help you convert old booty into ready cash.”

  “I’ imagine he can,” Tess said. “I don’t know much about salvage laws.”

  “I know less, that’s certain,” Gabriel said. He leaned forward, resting one muscular forearm on the seat beside her while he watched her drive. “So what manner of transportation is this?”

  “An automobile,” she replied, glad to have something to talk about rather than the murder. “We also call them cars. They run on gasoline.”

  “And you all ride around by yourselves in them just as a person might ride a horse, even though you’ve got the space of a carriage inside?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “Don’t you get lonely riding by yourself all the time?”

  “No, not usually. It’s very wasteful, though.”

  “Aye, that it is. But you do it well,” he commented. “I’ve felt nary a bump.”

  “I can teach you how to drive if you’d like.”

  “I would,” he said. “From what I’ve seen, a person who cannot manipulate one of these vehicles is as good as cast adrift in the world.”

  “Tomorrow after work, I’ll show you how,” she promised. “If you’re still here, that is.”

  “Where else should I be?”

  “I don’t know,” Tess answered, frowning. “I’m afraid you’ll be snatched away just as quickly as you came. I wouldn’t like that.”

  “Nor would I. Tess Miller, I find you to be a wonderful woman, and I’d like nothing better than to remain with you. It’s very strange that after all those years of wishing I’d be gone somehow, I find myself wishing not to go.”

  “That’s very kind of you to say.”

  “’Tis the truth. I feel as if I’ve known you a long time, Tess Miller. I know that I was meant to be here with you.”

  Though she couldn’t find the right words to express her own emotions, she knew her feelings for him were the same. She felt comfortable with Gabriel, as though his presence was a woolly blanket she could snuggle under to keep the cold world at bay. She felt—well, she felt loved when she was with him. There was no other word than that.

  “Have you given any more thought to why you’re here at all?” Tess asked. “For that matter, do you
know of any way you might cross over completely? You know, become totally alive again?”

  “I’ve thought about that quite extensively,” he said. “I would give a king’s ransom to feel the sand beneath my feet and taste a tankard of ale once more. I’d gladly die another tune if I had but an hour to touch...” He let his words trail off, then looked out at the buildings.

  “We’ll have to work on that,” Tess said, wishing he had finished what he’d begun to say. She could see in her rearview mirror, however, that he was frowning. “What’s wrong?”

  “Oh, I am that transparent, am I, that you can tell my mood so easily?” He smiled then, but it was forced. “It’s true enough that something is eating at me, but I’d rather talk about it in the safety of your home rather than here on the open roadway.”

  “Safety? Gabriel, I am safe,” she said. “Is there something you don’t want to tell me?”

  “Oh, I want to and will,” he said quickly

  “Then tell me now,” she insisted, shifting her gaze between the evening traffic and the man’s face in her mirror.

  “I’ve lied to you, Tess, and that bothers me. It was a sin of omission to be sure, and with good intent, but I’m still not at ease with it. This morning, when you left the house, everything went as we planned. I lost my hunger right enough and was able to leave the house, as well. I thought it necessary to have a look at that small yard behind your house.”

  “Yes?” His tone warned her to be ready for bad news, but she couldn’t think of what it could possibly be.

  He touched her shoulder, his broad hand massaging her gently. “There was blood in the yard,” he said. “A great quantity of blood. You see, lass, I would bet that your husband was, indeed, killed on your premises last night. If the constables had taken any more time in the yard, they’d have seen where the body was dragged away.”

  “Oh, God,” she exclaimed, “that’s why you said not to let them into the yard.”

  “Yes, that’s it. I thank God for the rain, but it wasn’t quite soon enough.”

  “Do you think that sound I heard last night was when it happened? Gabriel, this is horrible! I should have let you check it out right then.”