Memento Mori: Haunted New Orleans Series

by Rayvn Salvador

  “Yeah, that looks great.” I looked over at Hanlen. “What do you think?”

  She scrunched up her face and nodded. “I like it. A lot. It’s fabulous. The camera work is amazing with you sitting on the stool on the driveway like that, and the house in the background slightly out of focus.”

  I stole a quick kiss and then looked around at who remained. “I think we’re good here for today. Everything’s set, and we got some great footage. That random fog that rolled in after that quick shower was perfect.”

  “Right?” Aaron said as he strolled up, taking his last bite of whatever he’d grabbed for a snack. The guy was always eating or drinking something. Though I supposed with his body-builder physique, he burned calories faster than the rest of us. “I don’t think we could have asked for better filler footage than we got today. And this one,”—he hitched a thumb at Hanlen—“was made for television. The camera loves you.”

  I looked over and saw Hanlen blush and smiled. “He’s right, you know? You saw how well those scenes went when we watched them back.”

  “That’s only because I had great interviewers who made me feel comfortable.”

  “Nah, it’s all you.” I tucked that wayward wave behind her ear and ran my fingers across her jaw on the retreat. I couldn’t seem to stop touching her, and was grateful that she appeared to not only tolerate it outside of closed doors but also enjoy it.

  “Lark?” I called. She looked my way from her spot in the corner where I knew she was placing some selenite. I’d asked her to put shards in the four cardinal corners of the house to help with protection but also to ramp up the energy. Normally, we’d use quartz or amethyst as an amplifier, but for some reason, my instincts had told me to use selenite this time because of its ability to keep light and energy flowing and allow messages from higher forces to come through. Lark had wholeheartedly agreed.

  “Yeah?” she answered.

  “Are you good? Do you need anything from me before we head out? I want to go check on Burke. We still haven’t heard anything from him, and I’m starting to worry. I need the data he gathered on the woman Harper believes is Chloe Aillet, given the research she did after interviewing the Whitakers. And I just want to make sure he’s all right.”

  She smiled and waved a hand, still full of selenite shards. “No, go on. I’m good. Just have a few things to finish up here and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow. What time do you want us here?”

  “Um, let me send a group text later. I have to do some thinking about how to attack the next few days. As we know, the things we uncover will dictate a lot of it, but I’m not sure how early I want to start. We should all get as much rest as we can since we’ll be going overnight for the next couple of days, at least.”

  “Sounds good,” she answered. “Drive safely.”

  I grabbed Hanlen’s hand and started to walk away when I heard Lark call out. “Oh, wait. Dev?”

  I turned, and Hanlen turned with me. “Yeah?”

  “Um . . .” She cocked her head for a minute and stared off into space. “Whew, that was a rush. Okay, ah . . . I have no idea what this means, but you need to look to the water and beware of false prophets. Or maybe . . . false idols? I don’t know.”

  My stomach tumbled. “Message from spirit?” I asked.

  “No,” she answered. “Just a psychic flash. And as you know, they don’t always make sense in the moment.”

  “But they’re always right. At least, you are. Thanks for the heads-up, Lark.”

  “Take care, you guys,” she said and went back to her task.

  I retook Hanlen’s hand and walked through the courtyard to the front lawn. Squeezing her fingers, I asked, “Did that freak you out?”

  “Actually, no,” she said. “I still don’t get it, and I’m not sure how I feel about it all, but I’ve seen enough in the time that I’ve been here to know that not all things need to be explained. Some things just are.”

  “Well, well, well. Is cynical Hanlen Arbor becoming a believer?” I turned her to me and wrapped her in my arms, staring down at her. She smiled up at me.

  “I didn’t say that. But I do have a lot more respect for what you guys do.”

  “I’ll take it,” I said and then took her lips in a passionate kiss. She melted into me and gave as good as she got. When we came up for air, both of us were breathing heavily.

  “It is really too bad that I have some things to take care of because I would love nothing more than to take you to bed and ravish you until the sun comes up.”

  She squeezed my butt. “I thought you said we needed sleep.”

  “Oh, we do. But we can nap between rounds. And I fully plan on taking advantage of the morning hours we don’t have to be here to sleep with you in my arms.”

  “Such a charmer,” she said and then kissed me quickly again before climbing behind the wheel of her SUV.

  When I was buckled into the passenger seat, she turned to me. “Where to?” she asked.

  “I really want to go and check on Burke. He lives in Bucktown on Lake Ponchartrain.”

  “Do you have his address on you, or do we need to go into the city first?” She looked over at me as she navigated the drive to the main road.

  “I’ve got it.” I held up my cell. “Just head that way, and I’ll direct you once we get closer.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Not too long later, we pulled up to a house on the 17th Street Canal, fishing boats heading out onto the lake beyond the property. A columned porch encircled the entire whitewashed dwelling, the setting sun creating a perfect backdrop.

  “Wow,” Hanlen said as she put the SUV in park. “Nice place. What does Burke do again? Or what did he do before he started working for you?”

  “He’s an associate professor and a local historian. He also dabbles in some web sleuth stuff. There are all sorts of true crime aficionados out there that lend their support for cold cases and such. But I think his family has money from generations of being in the seafood industry.”

  “Ah, that makes sense,” she said and unbuckled her belt. “It looks pretty quiet here. I don’t see many lights on in the house. There’s a dim glow in the corner window over there, but I don’t see anything else. And, strangely, my investigator instincts are buzzing. Maybe it’s just because nobody’s heard from him, but I’m glad we came.”

  “Yeah, me, too,” I said and got out of the SUV. I checked my phone again, just to make sure that Burke hadn’t texted or called me back. When I saw no new notifications, I stuffed it away and waited for Hanlen to join me at the front of the SUV. “Ready?” I asked.

  “Yep, let’s do this. I have a really bad feeling for some reason and want to make sure that he’s okay.”

  I couldn’t agree more. The minute I stepped foot on Burke’s land, my instincts started screaming.

  We walked up the porch steps and rang the bell. When I didn’t hear anything from inside, I knocked. Hanlen stood beside me, taking in her surroundings. I could almost see the gears in her mind working. We’d talked about her job, and I could see why she was so good at it. She had innate ability, both natural and supernatural.

  I knocked one more time without an answer. Just as I was about to give up and tell Hanlen that we should go, I saw Burke walk around the side of the house from his backyard, his form backlit by the setting sun, creating a silhouette in the dusk.

  “Hey, man,” I called. “Everything okay? Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick.”

  Hanlen looked where my attention was focused and then turned to me. “Dev, who are you talking to?”

  My heart sank, and my breath caught in my lungs.

  Well, fuck.

  Chapter 18

  Hanlen

  “Dev? What’s going on?” I asked, my instincts immediately picking up on the shift in Dev’s body language.

  He looked at me and blew a breath out through his lips before biting his bottom one. “I just saw Burke.”

  Confused, I looked around, not se
eing anybody. “Where? Did he walk into the back?”

  Dev shook his head and then looked to the sky as if searching for answers. Or strength. “He’s actually right there and coming closer.” He pointed.

  I looked where he indicated but still saw nothing. “I don’t see him. Is he behind the gazebo?”

  Dev scrubbed his hands over his face. “No, he’s right there. But you can’t see him. Fuck, Hanlen. That’s Burke’s spirit. Something happened to him. He’s not with us anymore. He’s on the other side of the veil.”

  Burke’s . . . spirit. I was instantly nauseated. “Are you messing with me?”

  Before I even finished my sentence, he turned me to face him and shook his head adamantly. “No. I would never do that. When you told me that you didn’t know who I was talking to, it all clicked. Remember, I told you, to me, if a ghost wants to be seen, they look and sound just like you and me. The only difference is, I can’t touch them. I really thought that was Burke—alive-and-well Burke—not his spirit. We need to go and see what happened. Sometimes, ghosts linger or return to the place they felt the safest, but I have a feeling that he’s here to talk to me. I don’t want him to stick around longer than he has to if that’s not what he wants. Are you going to be okay with this? It’ll probably be really weird for you to only hear one side of the conversation.”

  “I’ll be fine as long as you relay what you learn. Right now, I’m in investigator mode. I need to know what happened more than I’m worried about how we’ll get that information.”

  “Good answer,” he said and kissed my temple before walking in the direction of the side of the house. As we got nearer, I felt the hairs on my arms and neck stand at attention. It had to be my imagination. Still, I tried not to let it make me uneasy, especially since I had the advantage that most people didn’t have and knew why it was happening.

  “Hey, man,” Dev said, and my stomach tumbled again. The vivacious, funny guy that I’d spent time with at Lafitte’s was no longer with us. Why was life so unfair, taking those who were so very alive well before their time? Those thoughts made me think of Reagan again, and I had to take some deep breaths and clear my head so I wouldn’t get mired in the sorrow and not pay attention to what Dev was saying.

  “I’m going to paraphrase what you tell me so that I don’t leave Hanlen in the lurch, okay?” He actually smiled, and I wondered what Burke had said. “Yeah, we’re together,” he said, letting me guess what Burke had questioned. “Thanks, man.”

  Dev led me up onto Burke’s porch again and indicated for me to take a seat on the swing. I did, and he sat next to me, still looking at the steps. “What happened?” he asked the air.

  After a minute, he turned to me. “He said he doesn’t really know. Apparently, he came home from the historical society and was ambushed in the garage. He said he knows that something bad happened to him, gets flashes of some pretty horrific things, but he can’t actually remember it.” He took a breath. “That’s not uncommon for tragic deaths. Wren didn’t remember her murder either. Didn’t even know she was dead until Findley told her. It may come to Burke eventually, and it may not. Sometimes, it’s the universe’s way of wiping the slate clean so they can make a proper decision how to handle their afterlife.”

  God, I felt so bad for Burke. He was probably about my age, like Dev was and Wren would have been. I couldn’t imagine having my life cut short like that. Or even younger, like Reagan’s had been. And he had been so excited to be working with Dev on the show. It really seemed like he’d found his niche. God, it was so horrible. So terribly unfair.

  Dev had tuned back into something Burke was saying, and I waited patiently. “He said that he woke up down by the lake.” Which made me think of what Lark said to him before we’d left Arborwood.

  “Look to the water,” I said, remembering. “Well, it seems we likely know what she was referring to, at least with that part. How do you want to handle this? You have a seasoned investigator with you, but we are also dealing with the third death surrounding us in a very short time. You and I both know that we had nothing to do with any of them, but Watkins and Miller may not feel the same. Do you think we should call this in now? Do they know what you can do?” God, I couldn’t believe I was even asking that. Did I know what he could do? Did I believe now? I searched deep and realized that, yes, I thought I did. My, my, how the times had changed. The subtle changes in me over the course of this trip, mostly attributed to the man now at my side, had cultivated a profound shift within me. I’d have to examine that closer later, but for now, I would take comfort in the fact that I wasn’t freaking out about it. There was too much else going on.

  “Let’s go take a look, and then we’ll call. I think it’s important for us to see things before we report it.” He paused. “Burke agrees. Okay, let’s head down there and see if we can find anything.”

  “Lead the way,” I said and stood.

  When we got to the back of the house, I saw that Burke had a floating dock and a tiny personal beach. At first cursory glance, nothing appeared out of the ordinary, but as we got closer, my hackles rose more. It was the only way I could describe the feeling that swept over me. I could tell that Dev felt the same. His body tightened, and the grip he had on my hand became slippery from the sweat that now dotted his palm. After another perusal from left to right, my gaze snagged on something sticking out from behind a big boulder down by the dock, at the line where the grass met the sand and rocks. I pointed.

  “Down there,” I said, and Dev’s gaze followed my finger. He nodded and picked up the pace, walking towards whatever it was I had seen. We were running out of light. Burke had some post lights down here, but it was still dark. I let go of Dev’s hand and pulled out my cell, turning on the flashlight app. He nodded and did the same with his. When we got closer, I saw that what I’d caught sight of were boots. Nice ones that disappeared into dark denim. Oh, God.

  “Fuck,” Dev said aloud, echoing my thoughts. I had a feeling I knew exactly what we’d find when we got down there, and I wasn’t sure I could handle it. I hadn’t seen August’s body, but Bea had told us exactly what she’d found and how she’d found him. While I’d seen Dustin Reynolds’ corpse, I didn’t have a personal connection to the man. Between those and what I knew would soon fill my vision, I wanted to vomit because all I could think about was Reagan’s drained form. I stopped in my tracks.

  “Hey,” Dev said, backtracking a bit and making me look at him. “Are you okay? I know this can’t be easy.”

  “No, I’m not okay. But I can do this. Just give me a second.”

  He pulled me into his body and held me close, his oak moss scent enveloping me and calming something inside me. I took a few deep breaths and then stepped away, ready to see this through.

  “Let’s do this.”

  We walked the rest of the way to the rock and rounded the side of it. The sight before me knocked out every breath I had left and staggered me. I actually took a step back, my hand flying to my mouth, my eyes rounding.

  “Holy fuck,” Dev said. I couldn’t agree more. While Reynolds’ body had been gruesome with its slashed throat, and disturbing in how it had been arranged, this was like something out of a nightmare—or a horror movie. Burke was posed in nature, the same as Dustin and August had been—at least according to Detective Miller—but this was something else. More heinous. More depraved. More . . . personal, somehow. He lay prone with his hands crossed over his middle, his legs straight out, that damn token or coin on his forehead like the others. But where the others looked almost peaceful in death despite the bloodless wounds, Burke was a mess. There was no other way to describe it.

  His skin had that unnatural waxy pallor that the others had, likely a result of the exsanguination, and a little bit of the elements I supposed. But nearly every inch of Burke’s skin bore a gash. It was like death by a thousand cuts. And his eyes . . . oh, God, his eyes. They had been removed. Almost surgically, the gaping holes like hell pits. He, too, had a slit thr
oat, but while Dustin’s had been almost surgical in its cleanliness, this was ragged and raw, as if the monster who had done this had used the dullest implement possible to inflict the most pain. There were other pieces of flesh missing from his body, as well, almost as if someone had torn chunks free. Maybe even with teeth.

  Jesus.

  “This is different,” Dev said.

  “It is. Definitely more rage filled. Something’s happening to our killer. Something . . . I don’t know. Set them off? Not only have the kills been much closer together—at least from what I’ve gathered about the cases—but they’re escalating. And yet becoming sloppier. All I can hope is that the scene is sloppy, too. This sicko needs to be caught.” I looked up to see Dev staring at a spot just beyond the body, tears in his eyes.

  “I’m so damn sorry, man. So sorry. You didn’t deserve this. And I hate that you have to see it.” He wiped his nose and nodded, presumably at something Burke said.

  “I wish I knew, brother.” He paused for a minute, looking as if he were listening. “You’ll need to work through this earthly trauma. You can venture out, but you’ll eventually have to return home to recharge since this is where you entered the veil. After that, if you want and are receptive, I would be honored to perform a ritual for you to help free your soul and allow you to enter a place of rest if that’s what you want. But until then—and even after if you so decide to forego the ritual and are open to it—I’d love for you to help with the investigation at Arborwood. Maybe even work with some of my other departed family and friends to get to the bottom of this asshole wreaking havoc on our city.” He nodded, and then a small, soft smile graced his face.

  “I told you. I found you for a reason. We were meant to work together. This may not be what we had planned, but you are and will always be a part of the team. Until you decide you’ve had enough. I mean, why would I pass up access to the Akashic Records by a historian?” He smiled, and then laughed. “Truer words have never been spoken.”