Collateral Damage: A Tethered Novel

by Wayne, Jessica

  “True,” Myria considered. “Perhaps he wasn’t ready just yet. Maybe there was something else he was looking for as well. I’m curious Timothy, why come after you? It was a big risk for him to send someone after you.”

  “The man who shot me told me ‘he was wrong about you.’ Which led me to believe he suspected I was immortal.”

  “Okay, but why?”

  “Paislee said it was because he loved antiques and I would be a living one.” He smirked at her and to his relief, a small smile crossed her lips.

  “It has to be more than that. What did he have to gain by obtaining someone who was immortal?”

  “Can’t it just be that he’s insane?” Paislee asked.

  “It could, but I doubt it,” Myria responded. “Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything at all about objects he was interested in?”

  Paislee thought back on the years she’d been in his possession, had he said anything that might give them an idea of what he was after? She shook her head, “I can’t remember anything in particular.”

  “Okay, I’ll keep digging,” Myria offered.

  “I’m going to go talk with Aengus.” Timothy got to his feet.

  As soon as he was outside, Paislee leaned in and lowered her voice, “Myria something strange happened today.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Timothy took me to his wife’s grave. I touched the stone, and it was as if I was transported back in time. I was standing in a village, and it was like I was her.”

  “What happened in the vision?”

  “He proposed to me, well her. And then moments later I was transported again and was telling him that I couldn’t have any children.”

  “Were those the only two?”

  “No, the next memory was him discovering he was immortal and wouldn’t age. After that it was me, I mean her, on her deathbed, and then a vision of Timothy standing in the gravesite staring down at her grave.”

  “Interesting.”

  “That’s not even the craziest part.”

  Myria lifted her eyes to look at Paislee.

  “I met her.”

  “Timothy’s late wife?”

  Paislee nodded. “When the last vision was over, she was standing in front of me smiling. She told me that she wanted to speak with me. That she needed Timothy to be okay, and that I should-”

  “Should what?”

  Paislee bit down on the inside of her cheek. “That I should love him.”

  Myria leaned back in her seat. “That’s very interesting. You spoke with a woman who’s been dead for nearly two centuries.”

  “Just tell me I’m insane.”

  Myria let out a laugh. “You are not insane. Graveyards are powerful. Think about all the powerful emotions that are woven into that ground. The sadness, fear, loneliness, and love.”

  “So, because the ground is powerful I got visions of a dead woman?”

  “No, my best guess is that Cait was a witch.”

  “What? There’s no way. Timothy despised witches and all magic. No way he would have married one.”

  “It’s quite possible that he didn’t know.”

  “Myria there has to be another explanation.”

  “I’ll look into it, but that would be my best guess.”

  “So then how was she with me today? Even if she was a witch, she’s a dead one. So how could she reach out to me?”

  “I’ll need to look into it further. But it’s quite possible you share a bloodline somewhere along your family lineage.”

  Paislee stood. “So not only was Timothy’s late wife a witch, but we might be related?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “This is insanity.”

  “I will look into it for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Not a problem. If I were you, I would be honest with Timothy about what happened today. If I learned anything about him when we were young, it’s that he doesn’t like being misled or only given half-truths.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Paislee responded as Timothy and Aengus, who now looked in a much better mood, came in.

  “Talk to who?” Timothy asked her.

  “You.”

  “Is everything alright?”

  “Let’s go for a walk.” Paislee had no interest in being embarrassed in front of her new friends if Timothy got angry again. Besides, this way she could yell at him too.

  Timothy and Paislee walked out towards the flower garden and stopped in front of the gate. “I need you to know that I’m not saying any of this to hurt you, and I need you to listen to the very end.”

  “Okay.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

  Paislee began by telling him about the first vision when she touched the stone, as she continued she watched carefully for any sign of anger on Timothy’s face. Instead, he was completely and totally emotionless as she talked about what she’d experienced. When she got to the last part, she skipped over the ‘he loves you’ and ‘you should love him’ parts and just told him that Cait had loved him, but that she needed him to be okay.

  Afterward, she stopped and studied him carefully.

  “You are telling me that my late wife, sent you visions of our past and then spoke directly to you.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you cast no spell?”

  “No, I didn’t. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to conjure up someone else’s memories.”

  “Was there anything else?”

  She took a deep breath, this was the part she had feared the most. “Complete honesty?”

  He nodded.

  “Myria believes Cait may have been a witch, and that somewhere along the way we may share some DNA. That’s how she believes Cait was able to contact me.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Cait was not a witch!” His face went red, and Paislee instinctively took a step away.

  “She doesn’t know for sure, Timothy. And no one is accusing her of anything. It could very well be that it was just the power in the ground or whatever Myria said.”

  “I need to be alone.”

  “Okay. I’m sorry Timothy, I just thought you should know.”

  He nodded, and she headed back towards the house.

  * * *

  A witch? They wanted him to believe his Cait had been a witch? Were they fucking kidding? There was no way he could have been married to someone for thirty years and not known they possessed the same magical powers he despised.

  And why would she talk to Paislee and not him? If she was there and was a witch, why the hell couldn’t she have spoken to him too?

  He climbed into his car and pulled out of the drive. There was no way she was a witch, and he hadn’t known about it. Surely, she wouldn’t have kept that from him.

  He drove to the cemetery and made his way back to Cait’s grave. “If you’re here Cait I want to talk to you.”

  Nothing happened, and Timothy balled his hands into fists. “So, you can talk to a stranger, but not to the man who’s loved you every day since he met you? Who’s loved you even since you’ve been gone?”

  Nothing but a small breeze. “Fuck it then.” He turned to head back to his car just as the wind picked up.

  “I’ve missed you,” a voice he knew all too well sounded behind him, and Timothy turned slowly. She was so beautiful, just as she’d been every single day of her life. The gown she wore was a soft green that contrasted perfectly with her red hair that was braided down her back. She smiled, and his heart ached to hold her.

  “How are you here?”

  “We can get to that,” she responded, and he stepped closer. “Paislee is a nice woman.” She said with a sad smile. “I’m truly glad you have her.”

  “We’re only friends.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Timothy, I know you too well for you to lie to me.” She smiled.

  “I’m not, nothing has happened between us.”

  “Why are you holding back?”

  “I can never love anyone el
se Cait, you were it for me.”

  “Then you are foolish. I am gone Timothy, have been for a long time, and while it saddens me to think of you with someone else, you have to move on too.”

  “Are you a witch?”

  She hesitated but then nodded. “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me? Why keep it a secret?” He was hurt, angry even, but inside he felt as if he’d always known on some level, even if he hadn’t wanted to admit it. How else had she been able to help so many people other healers had turned away?

  “You had told me of Myria, of the power she possessed and of how you had loved her. At first, I didn’t want to be compared to her. I didn’t want you to think of her every time I did any sort of magic. After that, it became a secret out of fear that you would leave me if you found out.”

  “How could you think that?”

  “Because after you discovered you were immortal, you made it very clear you hated all things magic.”

  His eyes widened. “Why didn’t you make yourself immortal? So, we could stay together?”

  “If I had done that, it would have been unfair to you.”

  “How would that have been unfair to me? What was unfair to me was having to watch you die!”

  “Timothy, I knew no such spell. And had I managed to cast it, you wouldn’t have been able to be here today, so you could protect Paislee.”

  “That’s bull shit.”

  “I had a vision shortly after we married. It was of you, shielding a young witch with your body while a blast of magic hit you. Because of your immortality, you didn’t die, but she would have.”

  “Well, seeing as how I am no longer immortal, I don’t see how that is going to happen.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

  “My visions may not happen exactly how they appeared, but they were never wrong.”

  “Why did you talk to Paislee earlier and not me?”

  “You weren’t ready to talk to me.”

  “It was three hours ago, what would have made than any different from now?”

  “I knew Paislee would talk to Myria about what happened, in which case she would tell you, and I had hoped you would come back.”

  “You based a lot on assumptions.”

  “Or perhaps I just know you very well.”

  “I miss you, Cait.”

  “I miss you too, Timothy. But you have to move on, for both of us. I cannot move into the afterlife while I know you are suffering.”

  “You’ve been here for two hundred years?”

  “It passed much quicker for me, but yes.”

  They stayed silent for a moment, staring at each other. “Are you and Paislee related? Is that how you were able to contact her?”

  “Not related by blood. But by spirit.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Our magic.”

  “So, you were able to contact her because of your magic?” She nodded. “Why show her those particular memories?”

  She smiled. “Because each one showed the man, you truly are. Beneath this façade, you show the world.”

  “I’m not the same man anymore .”

  “You are still the man I fell in love with, the best man I’ve ever known.”

  He shook his head. “You’re wrong, I don’t deserve her.”

  Cait reached forward and gently touched his cheek. “I know all you have ever done Timothy, I’ve seen it all in dreams since the day I died. You are a good man, and you deserve every happiness in the world. Why do you deny yourself love, when it’s so plainly in front of you?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  She smiled. “Oh Timothy, love her as you loved me. You both deserve it.”

  She started to fade away, but he put his hand up. “Wait, please.”

  “It’s time for me to go now,. I will always love you.” She faded out of sight, and Timothy fell to his knees unsure of how he should feel. The fact that she was gone again pained him, but the weight off his shoulders somehow felt lighter. She was okay, and wanted him to be happy, so what did that mean for him? For the first time in two centuries, he felt a feeling of peace wash over him as he got to his feet and headed back to Paislee.

  Chapter 19

  Detective Peter Reilly sat at his desk staring down at the crime scene photos before him. He had researched heavily into Jessica Crew’s background and found nothing that would have gotten her killed.

  Especially not so violently. She’d been a kind, hard-working woman who everyone adored. So why was she dead? What ties did her death have to Timothy McGinley? The man was not a suspect, he had an alibi and to top it off Peter had seen the devastation on his face at the sight of his secretary.

  He was good at reading people, and McGinley had cared for the woman. So why was she dead? He asked himself again. After typing some notes on his keyboard, he pulled up the security tape from the coffee house again. The location of her body proved it had to have something to do with the antiquities dealer. Who else would go through the trouble of sealing a body into a crate?

  They could see the back of the truck, but no one ever touches it. But it had to have happened in that parking lot. After that, the truck was on the move, and the crates weren’t touched at the airfield when they arrived.

  She had been spotted out to dinner three hours before her time of death.

  There was no way their victim could have gotten to China, been killed, and shipped back in the matter of a few hours.

  “Wait a minute,” he muttered and leaned in closer, there was a shadow on the ground near the back of the truck, and Peter was sure he’d seen a flash of light. Was it possible this video had been tampered with?

  “You still here?”

  Peter looked up to see his partner standing next to his desk. She looked tired, as if she’d been up all night. He couldn’t blame her, this one was eating away at him too.

  “I think I might have found something.”

  “Oh yeah?” She stepped around his desk and leaned in.

  Peter forced his eyes forward, he was a happily married man, had been for twenty-one years now, but Madeline Shultz knew zero boundaries as far as where she put her chest.

  “Right here.” He pointed to the shadow and then the light that flashed almost immediately after. “Did you see that?”

  “Barely.” She straightened, and he could see she was thinking. “Were the videos tampered with?”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Tomorrow we need to check with the tech team and have them take a look at them.”

  He looked at the time, it was well after ten, and he knew nothing else would get done until the morning.

  “Yeah, I need to head home. Mildred is going to yell at me if I pull an all-nighter again.”

  Schultz laughed. “Yeah and I’ve got a hot date.”

  “At ten p.m.?”

  “Hey, I don’t judge you for your monthly board game night.”

  He shrugged and grabbed his coat. “I suppose that’s true.”

  They walked down to the parking garage together before they went their separate ways. “See you in the morning,” he said, and Schultz waved before heading over to where her motorcycle was parked.

  Peter was nearly to his car when hands grabbed him. He felt a sharp pain and clutched at his throat, horrified to see his blood on his hands. He crumpled to the ground as a face came into view, but his vision was blurry, and he couldn’t make out who it was. His body grew numb and cold as he bled and within moments he was dead.

  * * *

  Timothy sat on the front porch as the sun rose over the trees. The splashes of orange and yellow filled the sky and he smiled.

  Yesterday had been harder than he ever could have imagined. Having everything he had thought he knew about Cait being ripped away, only to discover she had been a witch all along had been nearly more than he could take.

  And yet, to see her standing there, looking just like she had the day he’d asked her to marry him,
had been therapeutic to his soul.

  He looked up to see Myria’s husband walking towards him. Timothy started to get up but decided he’d stay. After all, he’d been ignoring the man since the day they arrived here.

  “Morning.” Sheamus stopped in front of Timothy and crossed his arms.

  “Morning, Sheamus.”

  “I wanted to speak with you.”

  Timothy scooted over so Sheamus could sit next to him on the porch.

  “I know that you have some issue with me, but I’m not sure I understand why. Myria tells me I should let it go, that you’ve been through a lot, but I didn’t do a damn thing to you.”

  Timothy smiled and took a drink of his coffee. “Did Myria ever mention me?”

  “She did. She told me you had all grown up together, and that you were with them the night Aine died.”

  Timothy nodded. “Did she also tell you I was in love with her?”

  His eyes widened. “She did not.”

  “I came to her one day after everything had happened and I told her how I felt. That I cared for her past the bounds of friendship, she told me that her happiness didn’t matter and that the only thing she could focus on now, was making sure Aine found her way back to Aengus.”

  Sheamus stayed silent.

  “I was angry at her for that, until I met my Cait.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know any of that.”

  Timothy slapped Sheamus on the back. “It’s all in the past now, and I believe I should be the one to apologize for the way I acted with you. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see Myria happy. Both she and Aengus meant so much to me, and I will be forever grateful that they got their happy endings.”

  “What about you?”

  Timothy’s face darkened. “Not everyone gets their happy endings . Sometimes a person’s soul is too dark for that.” He stood and walked inside leaving Sheamus staring out over the grass.

  Timothy was just starting up the stairs when his phone rang. He saw it was Ashton and answered quickly, “McGinley.”

  “We got a problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  “One of my guys was trailing the two detectives. He was sitting outside the parking structure when Detective Schultz left, but when her partner didn’t emerge, he went in. Detective Peter Reilly is dead.”