RetroCog (a Power Up! story)

by Harte, Marie

  He drew closer, and Lara noticed the strain on his face. “Frank?”

  “Mrs. L. just bought one of my best pieces. One I did all by myself, not copied from anyone whatsoever.” He glared at Chloe before looking around at the empty area. Then he centered on Lara. “Don’t freak out on me.”

  Beside her, Chloe tensed.

  Lara panicked. “Frank, what’s going on?”

  “Noah’s at the hospital. He was leaving the library and got hit by a car.”

  Chloe blinked. “Are you shitting me?”

  “I wish.” He stepped back as Lara and Chloe rounded the front desk. “He’s okay, just bruised and banged up a bit. The doc was putting an ace bandage around his wrist before I left. I would have called with the news but my cell died. And Chloe, you can lose the suspicious look. I ran into the Liebermans carrying my painting on the way in. I swear; I came here straight from the hospital. No side trips. I wanted you to hear the news about Noah from me.”

  Lara blinked away a rush of tears. Frank had said he was fine; she wouldn’t lose it now. “What happened?”

  “I’ll drive.” Frank pointed to his car. They exited the inn, entered, and sped off. “You’re not going to believe this.”

  “Spill, string bean.” Chloe crossed her arms over her chest.

  Lara scooted to the edge of the backseat so she could share in the conversation.

  Frank frowned. “I’m surprised the voices in your head didn’t already tell you, Sybil.” Chloe scowled, and he continued. “Mike Buckman hit him with his SUV.”

  “You’re kidding me!” Lara gasped. “So Mike is the killer?”

  Frank paused. “I don’t think so. I followed Noah’s ambulance to the hospital. Mike seemed genuinely upset when I saw him in the waiting room. Then again, a witness saw him hit Noah, so maybe he was putting on a good show of innocence. Hard to leave the scene of an accident anonymously when someone sees you and you’re wearing a deputy’s uniform.”

  “He tried to leave the accident?” Lara wanted to strangle the deputy.

  “According to what I heard when I was eavesdropping, Mike tried to call for backup but had trouble with his car radio. He said he left Bill—yeah, Bill Knowles, your number two suspect—with Noah while he rushed into the library to call for help. But when he went back outside to wait, no one was there except for some old lady tending to Noah. And then he noticed his SUV had vanished.”

  “No way.”

  “Way.” Frank drove them to the small hospital and parked. They hurried inside, bypassing the receptionist, who waved at Frank. A few rooms down the hallway, they found Noah grumbling at Deputy Peters. Noah’s left eyebrow had a dressing over swollen skin. He wore a bandage around his wrist and upper forearm, and his chest had doctored scrapes along his left side. He still wore his jeans, now ripped in places. But the scowl on his face told Lara he couldn’t be too bad off.

  “I told you already. I wasn’t watching where I was going. Next thing I know, I’m airborne. I landed hard on my arm and skated down the alley, giving me these.” Noah pointed to his ribs and upper chest. “I’m fine to leave, I’m telling you.” He opened his mouth to say more when he saw Lara and the others in the doorway.

  Deputy Peters looked over his shoulder and sighed. “Hey, Lara, Frank. Come on in.” He turned back to Noah. “Well, Mr. First. I guess that’s all, then. If you think of anything else you might have seen, let me know. Here’s my card.” He left his card on the table. When he walked away, he tipped his hat at Lara and Chloe before leaving.

  Lara didn’t wait a moment more. She ran to Noah’s side and ran her hands gently over his body. “Oh Noah. What happened? Are you okay?” She kissed his lips, his cheeks, and hugged him tight until he groaned. “Sorry.”

  “No, no. That’s okay. You just keep doing what you’re doing.”

  Chloe snorted. “Trust Noah to get himself all banged up to add to our drama.”

  “What happened?” Frank asked. “Did Mike Buckman really run you down, then try to leave your ass in the street?”

  “No.” Noah scowled. “It was my fault, but these idiots are trying to blame Buckman for it.”

  “But he hit you.” Lara didn’t know why Noah would defend a man who’d tried to kill him.

  “I stepped in front of his truck. Yeah, it’s hazy, but I was seriously freaked by what happened in the library.”

  “What happened?” Chloe stepped closer.

  Frank snapped his fingers. “That’s what else I meant to tell you two. Seems the librarian and Noah saw Cecilia Fine. Her ghost materialized in the library by Noah. You should see the crowd over there right now.”

  Noah sighed. “Look, let’s get me out of here. I don’t want to talk around other people. We’ll go to Chloe’s room, and I’ll fill you in on what I found out.”

  Lara put her hand on his chest to stop him when Noah tried to rise. “Explain what the deputy wanted first. Noah, are you in trouble?”

  “I’m not, but I think Buckman might be. After he hit me, someone stole his SUV. Made it look like he’d tried a hit-and-run. Only Buckman was in the library calling for help.”

  “So he said.” Frank shrugged. “According to the librarian, he never got through. Some other emergency had the crews tapped.”

  Noah groaned. “I don’t know. I was laying there, trying to figure out what the hell happened, when I woke to see some old woman looming over me. I was a little disoriented.”

  “But Mike said Bill was waiting with you.” Frank narrowed his eyes. “Was he?”

  “I don’t know. But I do know that Buckman is now missing. No one can find him, and his SUV is gone as well. That’s what the deputy wanted to know, if I’d seen anyone else when Mike went into the library.”

  Lara wished she understood what had happened, but the important part of it all lay in bed, still alive and kicking. “Come on, guys. Let’s get Noah out of here. We’ll talk at Chloe’s.”

  Where she’d demand some answers out of this man, answers that had more to do with him and her than this case. She wouldn’t let confusion and assumption stand between them, not when she’d almost lost him. Lara had no intention of letting anyone have Noah. Not Cecilia, Finn, Mike, or Bill.

  No, this man belonged to her and her alone.

  * * *

  He watched the group leave through a narrow crack in the door, titillated at the thought of their plans to take him down. They had no idea what they were up against. He’d killed before, and he’d kill again. The run-in with First had been a test. So easy, so very simple to protest his innocence and then disappear. First looked little the worse for wear, which he’d soon amend. But not before he had a taste of Cecilia. He’d waited long enough.

  He rubbed his aching cock. It had been too long since he’d had a woman. He needed Cecilia, and he needed her now. He turned from the stairwell door and had gone a few steps toward the basement when he heard the door open.

  “Hey. What are you doing in here? I think Deputy Peters is looking for you.” His girlfriend smiled at him. She had dark hair and blue eyes, but when he closed his own, he could pretend well enough.

  He put his hand in his pocket and gripped the switchblade. He’d intended to wait, but he needed a fix. Turning around, he walked back up the steps to meet her. He reached around her and closed the stairwell door. Tugging her with him down the steps, he didn’t need to cover her lips. She knew well the value of discretion.

  He whispered in her ear, “You won’t believe this, but I found out who murdered that girl they found a few days ago, and it’s someone no one would suspect.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really? Who?”

  “One of our own. A civil servant. Ironic, huh?” He pulled her down the rest of the steps, and they stopped under the basement stairwell, where the dim light barely reached. A favorite trysting spot they’d used before.

  “Is it Deputy Peters?” She tilted her neck to give him better access. He sucked hard and unbuttoned the front of her white shirt, exposi
ng the swell of her breast confined by a plain bra. The white bothered him. He wanted to see scarlet silk, not serviceable cotton.

  “No. Not him.” Thoughts of what he intended to do excited him.

  “You’re so hard.” Taken by his arousal, she rubbed against him, enflaming his desire. “But if it’s not Peters, who—”

  “I said it’s someone no one would suspect.” Awash in his pending orgasm, he raised his hands to her neck and squeezed. Not playfully, the way they normally did, but with the intent to kill. He breathed in her terror and tightened the pressure, ensuring she didn’t have enough oxygen to cry out. “Our murderer? Sugar, it’s me.”

  Chapter Ten

  Noah felt like shit. He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt a bit groggy from the painkiller they’d shot into him at the hospital. The drive to Chloe’s hotel was little more than a blur, but at this point, he didn’t care. He sat up in bed, his back against the headboard with Lara by his side. The woman got prettier every time he looked at her. It was all he could do to remember they had a crowd. The bed was so soft and Lara so close…

  Chloe sighed. “Noah, pay attention.”

  Frank chuckled. “I’d say he is.”

  Noah flushed and shifted, wondering how the hell Frank could know he had a hard-on through the jeans covering his crotch. He couldn’t help his constant need for Lara. But having Frank point it out to everyone in the fucking room didn’t help. “Asshole.”

  Frank snickered, and Chloe laughed despite the flush on her cheeks.

  Lara didn’t smile. “Talk, Noah. What happened in the library that led to that?” She pointed at his arm. At least she didn’t frown at his bruised side any more, since one of the guys at the hospital had offered him a scrub top to wear.

  Noah took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I keep thinking the past is repeating itself. Cecilia’s been bugging me about it too.”

  Chloe tilted her head. “So you’re hearing her now? Not like in a scene from the past?”

  “No, it’s definitely the present. Like what Lara hears, I think. Her voices aren’t like yours, Chloe. Lara hears the dead.”

  “She hears dead people,” Frank whispered in an overly dramatic voice before he laughed. “Come on, that movie has already been done.”

  “That was sees dead people, moron.” Chloe shook her head. “So what’s your take on all this?” she asked Noah.

  “Wait, she hears them for real?”

  Everyone ignored Frank.

  Noah nodded. “I think it’s happening again. Finn’s brother killed Finn and Cecilia.”

  Frank recovered quickly. He looked at Chloe. “You know why I’m such a good forger? Because I identify and copy patterns. Ever since I arrived in this one-horse town, something’s been bothering me about Finn’s and Cecilia’s deaths. They started a pattern that’s ongoing. You know about Mike’s and Bill’s mothers dying, right?”

  Noah started. “You know about that?”

  “Hey, when I find a new town, I learn as much about that town’s law enforcement as possible.” He paused. “What? It makes sense. I’m a safety-conscious guy.”

  “Yeah, it makes sense if you’re a criminal.” Chloe ignored the finger he shot her. “So their mothers dying? What about it?” she prodded Frank.

  “Finn and Cecilia died mysteriously. Hundreds of years later, the Knowles sisters died in a weird fire. And what do you know, they’re the descendants of Cecilia Fine and Finnegan Fury, who, believe it or not, had a kid they kept a secret. That kid turned out to be a girl, raised by Michael Fury. The girl then married Barnaby Knowles.”

  Lara stared. “How do you know all that?”

  “Ida Knowles and I became fast friends days after I started working for her. She tells me things. You wouldn’t believe all the info I have on the people in this town.” Frank preened. “After Noah arrived, I went back to her to ask about Cecilia and Finn.”

  Noah swore. “Shit, Frank. That would have been nice to know before. What the fuck else haven’t you told us?”

  Frank frowned. “Hey, I’ve been digging a lot of this up since you got here. The stuff about the fire I already knew, but when you added another layer to the pattern, I had to get more data to better understand what we’re dealing with.”

  A reminder that he’d seen himself as Cecilia’s killer struck him. “Explain.”

  “Well, back in 1856, stories say how a stranger rode into town, and the next day they found a girl dead. Then a few days later, Finn and Cecilia died. Before the Knowles sisters died, the authorities found a dead girl in a culvert near the old industrial section. They blamed it on a stranger folks saw passing through. Now here we are. You ride into town, and we have a dead girl.”

  Chloe sat in a chair across from the bed. “Oh boy.”

  “Damn, Frank.” Noah glanced around the room. “You’re all going to love what I saw in the library.” Resigned to telling the truth, even if he did alienate Lara, Noah had to put her safety before his feelings. “I saw Finn’s brother and Finn in a fight. Michael Fury was shot. He vowed to have Cecilia, Finn’s whore—his words, not mine. Then he shot the doctor who stitched him up.” He studied Lara, seeing in her his future if they could make it out of this in one piece. “But at the end, I saw Michael’s face, and he was me.”

  Lara blinked. “No way. You’re Finn.”

  Frank shook his head. “Lara, I think it’s time for you to go. Get away from all this. Let’s get you out of town and keep you safe until we figure out what this means.”

  “I have to agree with Frank.” Much as it killed him to think of no longer spending time with her.

  “No, no. We’ve got interference.” Chloe shushed them when they started asking questions. While they waited for her to explain, Noah reached for Lara’s hand, pleased when she gripped his tight.

  Lara smiled at him. “I trust you, Noah.”

  Despite everything, all the strange coincidences, Cecilia’s warnings, and his own revelations. The woman trusted him. The remaining wall shielding his heart crumbled and fell at her feet. “Baby, I wanted to tell you this last night. You don’t know how I—”

  “It’s got to be Finnegan Fury’s brother,” Chloe interrupted. “He’s interfering in this because you’re close to breaking the pattern. He’s here, like Cecilia and Finn still are. Their energy won’t leave, not until we stop this from happening again.”

  “So we’re dealing with not one, but three ghosts. Christ, I can’t believe I just said that.” Frank rubbed his forehead and started pacing. “Cecilia, Finn, and dear brother Michael. But which one of them wants Lara dead?”

  Lara spoke. “Cecilia warned me earlier. Beware the jealous lover. Cecilia had a lot of men, but from what Noah said, it sounds like Michael Fury was the jealous lover.”

  Frank stopped in his tracks. “So Finn really didn’t kill her after all. Mike did and got away with it.”

  “Perfect. Now what do we do with what we know?” Chloe asked.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but I need a rest.” Noah sighed. “I’m finding it hard to concentrate.” On more than Lara’s sexy body so close to mine. “Lara, go with Frank and Chloe. Don’t leave her alone for a minute,” he warned them.

  “No. I’m staying right here.”

  “No, you’re not.” Noah glared. Until he knew for certain he couldn’t be the cause of her harm, he didn’t want her around him.

  “Yes, I am.”

  Chloe cleared her throat. “Need I remind you this is my room?”

  Noah and Lara stared at one another, neither breaking eye contact.

  Chloe muttered something under her breath. “Fine. Come on, Ian.”

  “It’s Frank now, dammit.”

  “Frank. You and I have some work to do. Let’s leave the lovebirds while we find Mike Buckman and see what’s he’s really been up to.”

  Frank scowled. “But Noah—”

  “He won’t harm a hair on her head, trust me. Noah’s not built that way.” She dragged Fr
ank out the door with her and slammed it behind them.

  Leaving him and Lara all alone. Finally.

  He couldn’t believe he’d almost blurted out loud that he loved her. Noah started to sweat, needing to tell her but feeling as if he’d just had a narrow escape. What if she didn’t feel the same way? The woman was no one’s fool. They’d hadn’t known each other very long. Embroiled in an unsolved murder and possibly targeted by a killer, Lara wouldn’t be receptive to hearing his emotional crap now, would she? For all she knew, he was behind everything. He’d arrived in her life, bringing her nothing but trouble.

  Yet she’d said she trusted him.