Victoria House (Haunted Hearts Series Book 2)

by Denise Moncrief

  He studied her summary and knitted his brows. Something in the report bothered him, but he wasn’t sharing it with her.

  She prompted him to return to their conversation. “You were going to tell me about Epps’s preliminary report.”

  “He estimated time of death sometime Wednesday, but he didn’t think he could get any more accurate than that.

  Typical. Epps didn’t like to hang his professional reputation on getting too specific about time of death.

  “So does McCord have an alibi?”

  Grayson snorted. “Figured that out, did you?”

  “It was pretty obvious.”

  “Yeah. He has an alibi. Sort of. Not what I’d call solid, but solid enough. Halsey interviewed him. I was a little busy.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, and his weariness just seemed to pour from him in waves of tension. “Halsey said Josh claims he was in the office all day and most of the night Wednesday working on the evidence from the Standridge murder.”

  She laughed. “In the middle of the Sheriff’s Department. I’d say that’s the best alibi.”

  “Well, it would be if he had someone to account for every second of his time that day, but that would be difficult to establish unless someone noticed him coming or going...or missing. If he murdered Jared, he would have been gone for hours. Halsey doesn’t want me to ask around and stir up trouble if it isn’t necessary.”

  “And you believe McCord?”

  He sighed. “I have no reason not to.”

  Where had Grayson’s professional cynicism gone?

  “So what are you going to do now?”

  “I have one more person I could talk to.” He glanced at her with a mischievous gleam dancing in his gorgeous eyes. Whatever he was thinking seemed to perk him up a bit.

  “I don’t suppose you’d go for a drive with me?”

  “Drive?”

  What was this about?

  “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.” An indecipherable smile creased his lips.

  “Okay.” Did she sound as skeptical as she felt?

  “I’d like a second set of ears.”

  “Ears don’t just spontaneously erupt out of the side of someone’s head,” she said with amusement.

  “I just want...”

  “A witness?”

  “Not so much a witness as another opinion.”

  “You’re being very cryptic.”

  He smiled. “I think when you meet her, you’ll understand why.”

  “Her?” She stood and retrieved her jacket.

  “Can we leave that humming? I mean, without anyone being able to see what’s on the screen.” He pointed toward the computer as it continued to churn through the AFIS databanks.

  Was he still worried that someone might interfere with the investigation? She was beginning to trust Gray’s investigative instincts. Both McCord and Kimbrough had tried to wheedle information out of her.

  “I can run the program in the background and put the computer on lockdown with a blank screen.”

  “Do it.”

  She tapped on the keyboard, keeping her eyes on her hands. “I haven’t seen McCord yet this morning.”

  She threw the observation out there, wondering how Grayson would react. She already knew McCord was on leave. Kimbrough had told her so.

  “He won’t be coming in for a few days.” Grayson’s tone was so flat.

  “Administrative leave?” Was she going too far? Would he shut the conversation down if she pushed for more details? She straightened and stared directly into his eyes.

  He blinked at her.

  “I mean, isn’t that what usually happens when the sheriff catches one of his staff punching one of his deputies?”

  Aggravation flashed across his face. “You heard about that, huh?”

  “Kimbrough told me.”

  He grumbled something she couldn’t decipher and then burst out with an opinion. “That woman can’t keep her mouth shut.”

  “Did you ask her to?”

  He scowled. “No. I haven’t talked to her. I haven’t talked to anyone about Josh.”

  “Then how did you know about his leave?”

  “I asked Halsey to put him on leave before he punched me. Josh only helped me convince the sheriff it was the right thing to do.”

  Okay, that was interesting. “Why?”

  “It’s a long story and I would rather not discuss the details in public.” He glanced around the room. No one was available to overhear them.

  “These walls can hear things. I’d rather not talk about Josh’s personal business where we can be overheard.”

  “The two of you have a strange relationship, don’t you?”

  He grunted. “You could say that.”

  “I guess ghost hunting kind of forms a special bond, huh?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “I Googled The Lady Of the Lake and found your blog.” That sounded so weird. Grayson didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would write a blog.

  He laughed, but there was no amusement in his laughter. “We hadn’t done an investigation in months.”

  “Hadn’t? That sounds kind of past tense.”

  “We did an investigation Saturday night. Things got kind of intense.”

  So that was why she couldn’t get him on the phone.

  “Really? You mean, you put aside your differences long enough to investigate a...”

  “Haunting.”

  She smiled. “Really?”

  “Are you mocking me, woman?”

  She shook her head, but kept the grin on her face. “Of course not. Why would I mock you?”

  “Because I get the feeling sarcasm is what you do best.”

  “You are a very perceptive man.”

  He pointed toward the door, indicating he would follow her out. Just as they were leaving, the computer pinged. They stopped and turned in unison toward the machine.

  “What was that?” Grayson asked.

  “A match.”

  She quickly typed in the code that would unlock the computer. He was right behind her, staring over his shoulder. She straightened and turned to say something, almost bumping him in the nose. Even though he was only centimeters from her face, he seemed to stare at nothing. Then his gazed shifted toward her. His features had set into a bewildered expression. No, it was more like a stunned look. He should have been relieved the system hadn’t identified the print as Josh McCord’s, but clearly he wasn’t relieved at all.

  Tori remembered Lucy Kimbrough had been at the scene before she arrived, but Gray had sent her away. Kimbrough hadn’t been happy about that. “Why would her fingerprint be on the electrical box?”

  Maybe there was a perfectly reasonable explanation why Lucy Kimbrough’s print was on the box, but there probably wasn’t.

  Gray placed his hands on his hips. “I don’t know. But I’m gonna find out.”

  Their eyes locked again, and the lock seemed unbreakable.

  He shook his head in apparent disbelief. “She should have been wearing gloves. And I don’t remember her going anywhere near the box.”

  An unspoken message passed between them. Grayson was keeping the information to himself for the moment, at least until he could confront Kimbrough. Tori understood that. She would give him time to talk to the deputy, but she wouldn’t wait forever.

  “Print that off.”

  Tori did his bidding and offered him the printout.

  Grayson didn’t reach for the document. His hands remained firmly planted on his hips. “Seal it in a brown envelope with the lift and put it in the safe.”

  “Brown envelope?”

  “Everyone knows the brown envelope is off-limits.”

  “What?” she sputtered. What kind of chain was he building for the evidence?

  “That’s how it’s done.” Something sparkled in his blue eyes, something unfathomable. A challenge maybe. Would she play by his rules, or would she insist on bringing her own set of r
ules to the table?

  “That’s how it’s done around here, you mean.”

  He shifted from one foot to the other. “It’s not like Little Rock hasn’t ever had problems.”

  She jumped on his insinuation. “Please.” She held up one hand. “Don’t even imply—”

  “I wasn’t implying anything.”

  She sniffed. “Sure, you were.”

  How much had he heard about her difficult past at the Little Rock lab?

  She stuffed the printout and the fingerprint lift into a brown envelope, left the room, locked the door behind her, and walked down the hall. She opened the walk-in safe and deposited the envelope on a top shelf. He was right behind her every step of the way.

  She twirled on him and found him standing uncomfortably close...near enough if she moved their chests would rub together. She cleared her throat just as heat radiated through her body and warmed her in places she thought were dormant. Like a volcano coming back to life.

  “Are we going to see this mystery woman, or not?”

  He seemed flustered by her sudden question, or was it her too near presence that rattled him?

  “Sure. Come on.”

  He didn’t move. She cleared her throat. He backed out of the safe and then turned to walk quickly away. She followed him down the hall and out the rear door into the parking lot. He turned around suddenly, and she nearly collided with him again. They seemed to be stumbling all over each other.

  “Are you always so difficult?” Fire flashed in his blue eyes.

  She felt the sizzle all the way down to her toes. “Well, yeah.” She smiled sweetly. “Makes life interesting, don’t you think?”

  He grumbled something indistinguishable, turned around, and headed for his car.

  ****

  Tori leaned back on the headrest while Gray went into the convenience store. He hadn’t yet told her where they were going or who they were interviewing. When he emerged from the store, he was carrying a king size Baby Ruth bar. He dropped it into the cup holder as he slid into the driver’s seat.

  They had traveled about five miles down Highway 65 when she pointed toward the uneaten candy. “Aren’t you gonna eat that?”

  Why did he buy chocolate if he wasn’t going to eat it? She wouldn’t have left it there, begging for attention. She would have never let a perfectly good chocolate bar go to waste. That sucker would have been long gone by now if it had been hers. She licked her lips at the thought.

  “It’s for Timna.”

  Should she dare ask? “Who’s Timna?”

  “She’s a… Well, she’s… I don’t know how to describe her. She’s about a thousand years old. Lives up in the mountains. Knows everything about everybody. Thing is, she hardly ever leaves the mountain, so no one knows how she collects so much information about everybody.”

  Tori stared at the man, not bothering to hide her open evaluation of his credibility. Not to mention his sanity. This was his informant?

  “I swear she knows everything about everybody. She might know who killed Jared Crenshaw or where Courtney is hiding.” He paused as if waiting for her reaction.

  She refused to give him one.

  “You think I’m making this up, don’t you?”

  “No.” Her denial didn’t sound convincing, even to her. “Well, okay. It does sound a bit far-fetched.”

  “Even for a bunch of hillbillies like us?”

  What does he mean by that? Did he think that’s how she thought of him? Of Fairview? Of Hill County’s fine inhabitants? “I never said—”

  “Nope, you didn’t, did you?” he said with a slight smile. “But it looked like you were thinking it.”

  “Look, Grayson,” she began in an effort to reasonably express her chagrin at his inference that she thought the inhabitants of Hill County were hillbillies. “I don’t think—”

  “Gray.”

  “Huh?”

  “My friends call me Gray.”

  “You want me to call you Gray because your friends call you Gray or because you think we’re friends?”

  “Your choice.”

  “I’m not sure we can be friends.”

  “Oh, why not?”

  Because there’s too much sexual tension between us. We have to be professional or nothing at all.

  She bit her lip to keep from voicing her inner thoughts and turned her attention to the passing scenery. She had to redirect the conversation away from her discomfort. The best defense was a good offense, right?

  “Who’s Caroline?”

  He sputtered and almost lost control of the car before he tossed a quick glance at her and then turned his attention back to the curvy mountain road. “She’s none of your business.” He sputtered some more. “Who told you about Caroline?”

  “I overhead those women at lunch the other day talking about her.”

  He groaned. “People in this county just can’t seem to mind their own business.”

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject.”

  His jaw tightened. “Sure you did. You women just can’t leave a guy alone.”

  That attitude was why they could never be anything more than co-workers. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing.” He grunted and slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

  “Are you sure it’s nothing?” she asked with faux sweetness.

  “You do that on purpose, don’t you?”

  She was about to deny whatever he was implying and opened her mouth, but he was talking again.

  “Never mind. When we get to Timna’s, let me do the talking.”

  “Not a problem.” A promise that was easy enough to make. She wasn’t sure why they were visiting the old mountain woman anyway.

  “So you needed me really bad the other night, huh?”

  She turned and blinked at him. “What?”

  “You called me in the middle of the night. Whatever you wanted must have been urgent.”

  What did he mean by that? She bit back the angry retort sitting on the end of her tongue. She needn’t read sexual innuendo into everything the man said. Just because she had the hots for him...

  Stop it, Tori. Don’t even think like that. Bad, Tori. Bad.

  “I wanted to ask you about what happened in Victoria House... I mean... Is it true someone was murdered in that house a long time ago?”

  He smirked, and she wanted to slap the expression clean off his handsome face. “That’s why you called?”

  She turned her head away from him so he wouldn’t see the embarrassment that heated her face. Surely her cheeks were bright red.

  “Why are you asking about the murder? Did something happen when you were out there?”

  She kept her silence, not ready to speak. Her voice would have been squeaky and wobbly, and the uneven tone would have revealed her mortification.

  “What happened, Tori?” Suddenly his playful tone had turned dead serious.

  “You’re gonna think I’m crazy,” she whispered.

  “No. I won’t. After what happened to me Saturday night, I don’t call anyone crazy.” He reached across the console and squeezed her hand. It surprised her so much she flinched. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be familiar.” He released her hand and she wished he hadn’t. “Go ahead. Tell me what happened at the house. I’m more likely to believe you than anyone else in this county. In this state. Maybe even in the world.”

  “Exaggerating a little, Gray?”

  “Maybe.”

  She gulped in a deep breath and took the plunge. “I was about to leave, and it felt like the house was trying to keep me there. I couldn’t move. Then it felt like someone had sliced me across my throat.” She involuntarily lifted her shaking hands to her neck.

  “And you know what that feels like, don’t you?”

  His question rattled her. “What? Why do you say that?”

  How much did he know?

  “I have friends with the State Police.”

  Oh, of course. Law enfo
rcement was a big gossipy community. Somehow they all knew each other, even crossing jurisdictional lines.

  She sniffed hard. “Well, they may not have all their facts straight.”

  “No doubt.” He paused a heavy moment. “But you were cut, weren’t you?”

  She nodded. “Not something I like to remember.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “No, you can’t. Not unless you’ve lived it yourself.”

  This time when he reached toward her and wrapped his hand around hers, she didn’t resist.

  “That’s why an experience like you had at the house would bother you so much.”

  She laughed, a short quick eruption of mirth. “I would have been shaken up no matter if I’d been attacked with a knife before or not. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced, and it’s not like I haven’t—”

  “You’ve experienced something paranormal before, haven’t you?”

  She bit her lip to keep from answering.

  He laughed, an echo of her previous mirth. “After all my years of so-called paranormal investigation, I’d never experienced anything until Saturday night.”

  She turned and stared hard at him.

  “Josh and Ashley and I were real good at faking it. The other night...too real.” He shuddered, and she wouldn’t have believed he’d have reacted that way unless she’d witnessed it with her own eyes. He always projected an aura of tough maleness. “I know you read my blog posts.” He snorted. “I have a good imagination, but my imagination was nothing like the real thing. Nothing at all.” He squeezed her hand just a little harder. “So you see, I would be the last person to call you crazy.”

  She pushed her hair out of her eyes with her free hand. It trembled a little, so she shoved it beneath her thigh. “The reason I called Saturday was because I saw the same man go into the Crenshaws’ trailer and then leave with a large plastic bag.”

  “The same man?”

  “I saw him Friday afternoon from across the inlet. From my driveway as I was leaving. Probably just before you got there.”

  “So you’ve seen someone over there twice?”

  She gulped down her anxiety. He didn’t sound happy. Not at all.

  “Tori... Tori... Why didn’t you tell me this before now?” He released her hand and gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.