Oracle Haunting (The Phoenix Files Book 4)

by Morgan Kelley

  That was good enough for him.

  She was the best.

  When they exited the room, Brianna and Detective Maguire were already there, and everyone was congratulating her. He was on the phone, and he looked troubled.

  “I’m happy for you,” Avalon said, hugging her. “You got married, and fast.”

  “Well, when you have limited time,” she said, trying not to freak out about it.

  Avalon stared at her. “You’re pregnant.”

  She laughed. “He said the same thing. Laird knew right after.”

  “He could feel the life in you.”

  He crossed the room, and kissed his wife. “I told you so,” he teased. “It’s a gift.”

  Oh, that was a good gift to have. She didn’t mind at all. In fact, Brianna hoped there would be many next times where he got to say that.

  “You look upset,” she said, feeling his energy being off. “What’s wrong?”

  “A grá, I have to go. I need you to stay here. There’s another victim.”

  She felt horrible that he had to spend his wedding day standing over the dead.

  “Do we have a name?” Nate asked, pulling on his suit jacket. He, Bishop, and Maura were up.

  “Yeah, unfortunately, it was Tierney Sweeney. She was found in the alley outside her apartment.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” muttered Bishop. “I was going to get her out today,” she said. “She was going home.”

  They all heard it in her voice.

  She was upset.

  Lucian put his arm around her. “I’m sorry, baby. I am so sorry.”

  Yeah, so was she.

  This sucked.

  “I need a map,” Maura said. “When I get back here, I’ll start mapping the bodies. We can’t overlook anything.”

  Lucian had one in his desk. “I can get you that.”

  “Thanks.”

  “How bad is she?” Brianna asked. “From the flashes I saw, she’s going to be a mess.”

  “James is there, and he said she’s been stabbed, her throat sliced, and her heart taken. It looks like our killer’s pattern. Again.”

  Roxy spoke up, “Get me some pictures. I can work off of them before the autopsy report is done.”

  He had an idea. “Would you like to go to the scene?” he asked. “The coroner is never on time, and you might see something.”

  Jagger didn’t look happy.

  “Is it safe?” he asked. “We have some assholes trying to get their hands on my wife, and I’d like for that NOT to happen.”

  “Want to come?” he offered Jagger.

  “Yeah, I do.”

  He glanced over at Maura. “Can I tag in, Major?” he asked, knowing it was up to her. Could she keep his wife safe?

  Yes, she really could.

  Still…

  “Go, Jagger. You need to be with her. I can work here,” she offered.

  He knew she wanted to get some space to work through her issues, but she was being her normal self. Maura would always take one for the team if they needed something.

  And Jagger needed this.

  “Molly is outside. Can she stay?” Laird asked. “I know she’s a beast, but she’s going to dig under your gate to get to Brianna and Avalon anyway,” he offered.

  Lucian laughed. “Yeah, she can stay. I like dogs.”

  “Can I get a dog?” Avalon asked.

  “You can have whatever you want,” Nate offered.

  “What?” Maura said. “Really? Who’s going to walk the dog, and scoop poop? She’s blind. We know who it WON’T be.”

  Avalon laughed.

  Nate pointed right at Maura.

  “I hate you. Today, more than anything.”

  He laughed, and grabbed his things. Leaning over the couch, he gave his wife a kiss. “Avi, behave, stay out of trouble, and if you need me…”

  “I’ll be good, Nathaniel. I’m going to play with the dog. You know…since I’m BLIND.”

  Maura sighed. “You know what I meant, and don’t try to put this on me.”

  She did, and that’s what made it even funnier. She was simply trying to lighten the mood, since the room felt heavy to her.

  Lucian kissed his wife. “Don’t get stabbed, shot, hurt, or anything else today. Let’s go for a zero-incident day.”

  She shrugged. “I can’t help that people want to hurt me. Blame them, not the victim.”

  He stared into her eyes. “I love you, Bish.”

  She squeezed his hand.

  Jagger held out his hand for Roxy. “I hope you don’t plan on poking at a body dressed like that.”

  “I can get her scrubs from the forensic unit.”

  That worked for him.

  “Brianna, A grá, miss me. You and I have some celebrating to do later.”

  She blushed. “LAIRD!”

  He grinned wickedly.

  And they headed out.

  Luke was silently sitting on the couch. “Do you want me to help you?” he asked his wife.

  “Yeah, that would work for me. I need that map.”

  Lucian headed into the office to get one. When they arrived in Ireland, he’d bought one that showed the streets—in case they wanted to explore and not get lost.

  “Your dress is lovely,” Avalon offered, “but it doesn’t look comfortable. Did you bring a change of clothes?” she asked Brianna. “If not, I have some sweats in my room, and you’re the same size as I am. You could have them.”

  Brianna held out her hand. “I actually do have some, Avalon. Then we can talk. I’m curious about the baby Laird and I made.”

  Avalon smiled. “I’ll tell you all about her.”

  She beamed.

  “I can’t wait.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Crime Scene

  T o say that the crime scene was a hot mess would be an understatement. The media was there, and on top of that, so was his boss. Superintendent Jack O’Brien, headed up his special detective’s unit in Adare. Most of the time, he was in Cork, but apparently, the news of a killer had gotten his attention.

  Shit!

  Today was really bad day to have Americans tagging along. This was going to suck. It wasn’t like he could hide them somewhere until the coast was clear.

  “Sir,” he said, as he approached the line. “I didn’t know you were coming,” he offered.

  “We need to talk, Laird.”

  Jack O’Brien led him away from the crime scene. “You’ve had a complaint against you, son,” the older man offered, pulling out a cigarette and offering one to his detective.

  He declined.

  “About what?” he asked.

  “You’re cavorting around town with some American, meanwhile Irish citizens are being murdered. Then, you have people on the crime scene that have no business being there.”

  He pointed at Nate, Bishop, and Roxy.

  The only thing that was saving his ass was Jagger had taken a birds-eye view, and he wasn’t standing there.

  “Sir, they are Feds from the US, and a coroner.”

  His eyebrow went up. “Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?”

  He could hear Avalon in his head. ‘Tell him you were going to report it after the third victim. You think the Americans have had a killer like this back on their soil. Put it on us,’ she whispered. ‘Our cover will hold.’

  He really hoped so, and he would take the lifeline.

  His wife’s life depended on it.

  “They think it’s one of theirs, and they came to handle it. They asked me to be part of it, and we have always had a working relationship with our brothers and sisters in the US.”

  “Shit! They think it’s one of theirs?”

  He nodded, praying this didn’t come back to haunt him.

  “Sir, I’m very much involved. I got married today, and here I am—not with my wife—but working a case.”

  The man’s face softened. “You could have passed this off, son. If you want to be with your wife…”

/>   “Sir, I can’t pass this one off. My wife is American, and I suspect she’s in danger. The FBI approached me, and asked if we could keep this low key since they don’t have jurisdiction. Adare is small. I have three Garda and two thousand plus citizens. I was doing what I thought you’d want.”

  He relaxed.

  “I want to meet them. I need to see them in action.”

  He prayed the Americans could pull this off.

  “Sure thing, sir.”

  Laird led his boss over to them.

  “My boss, Jack O’Brien, is curious as to why the FBI is here,” he began. “Maybe you can introduce yourselves.”

  Roxy took the lead. “I’m Doctor Roxanne Armstrong,” she said, smiling sweetly at him. “I’m a coroner.”

  He shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure, ma’am.”

  Nate went next. He’d heard Avalon’s warning. How? No clue, but he’d take it and run with it.

  “I’m Nathaniel Black, and I work for the FBI,” he said, pulling out his fake badge and ID. He had to hope that Elizabeth had planted them in the system just in case.

  “This is my partner, Bishop Monroe.”

  “You’re married to the man who owns that big estate, aren’t you?” Jack asked, shaking her hand.

  “I am. It’s a pleasure, sir. We hope to be able to assist in finding this killer.”

  “Jack, we were about to check out the scene. Would you like to join us?” Laird asked.

  “Yes, son, I would. I have to investigate the complaint whether I buy it or not.”

  “May I ask who filed it?”

  He stared at him. “You have a rat in your house, Laird, so you may want to handle it.”

  Oh, Laird knew who it was.

  James Cooley had ratted him out. What he didn’t know was that Jack O’Brien and his father had served together for years. They’d been partners, friends, and a team. Jack would always side with him, when in doubt. It was one of the reasons he’d been offered Adare’s office.

  “I’ll handle that later.”

  “Solving this would be the best remedy,” he offered. “Let’s get this done.”

  The forensic tech on the tape handed them each booties. After pulling them on, Jack stepped back and let them do their thing.

  “I need a kit,” Roxanne said, grabbing one from one of the techs. “I’ll return it.”

  “What the hell is she doing?” James asked, until he saw the superintendent. “I mean, are they cleared for the scene?”

  Laird hated sneaks. “They’re officially helping, James, so you can stop worrying. Superintendent O’Brien has been notified.”

  The man’s face said it all.

  He wasn’t happy.

  “What do we have?” Laird asked, hoping the Feds were as good as they said.

  Roxanne crouched before the body. “Her heart was taken while it was still beating,” she said, checking the tissue around the hole in her chest. “The stab wounds were also while she was alive, but her throat…she was dead.”

  “How can you be sure?” James Cooley asked.

  “Simple. The tissue around the wounds will be pink if there was blood flow. If there was none, that signals she was already dead—as in her heart was not beating, or it was gone from the chest.”

  “What else can you tell us?” Laird asked, crouching beside her.

  She ran her hands over the woman’s body. “She has a skull fracture. She was hit in the head and…” Roxy moved her stiff neck, and they could all hear the crunch of bones. “Her neck is broken.”

  Laird made notes.

  Roxy moved down her body. “She had sex before she was killed.”

  Bishop offered up some information. “She was a hooker, like the second victim,” she stated. “Tierney Sweeney was likely working.”

  Yeah, why?

  She didn’t know.

  Bishop was going to get her out, and the last they’d heard she was heading to a pub to have something to eat.

  The superintendent listened.

  “Three victims, and the first was a thief, the second a hooker, and the third one too.”

  Nate went with it. “The killer might be picking people that he can erase easily.”

  “He?” Jack O’Brien asked. “How do you know it’s a he?”

  Nate did his thing. “This is a killing of anger and aggression. Look at the knife wounds. The first victim. Michael O’Rourke was a large man. The average woman wouldn’t be able to overtake him.”

  He had a point.

  “My detective says you’ve had killings like this back in the States.”

  “Yes, we did.”

  He contemplated it. “You can help. I’d like to keep this as low key as possible, so I’m asking for your discretion.”

  Oh, they wanted that too.

  “I want to search her flat,” Laird stated.

  “I’ll stay here with the body,” Roxy stated. She could feel her husband watching her from somewhere, so she knew she was safe.

  Nate knew that he needed to stay too. He wanted to check out the body and avoid the spotlight.

  “Bishop, you go.”

  She was good with that.

  Bishop knew that she could walk out of there, and likely not be tagged as a Fed. If Nate’s picture showed up on the news…

  Yeah, bad.

  “Okay, son, I’ll leave this to you,” Jack said. “You need to wrap it up, and if it is an American doing this, extradite with the Feds back to the States. We aren’t going to play games with the US Judicial system.”

  “But the killer murdered our citizens,” James objected. “What about them?”

  The Superintendent focused on him. “Yes, he did, but we need to see who had more victims. We’ll send the killer there for extradition and let it play out.”

  He glanced over at Laird.

  “Handle it.”

  Laird knew how precarious this whole thing was going to be.

  “Sir, I know procedure.”

  The man smiled and then hugged him. “Congrats on your wedding, son. I hope I get to meet her. Your ma and da would be proud.”

  He was aware.

  “Thank you. Jack.”

  He patted him on the back, and returned to his ride. Laird let out a sigh. “We had better wrap this up, or I’m going to be screwed,” he said, keeping his voice low.

  “Go dig around. Something is there. We have two hookers, who were roommates, and they are dumped in two different alleys.”

  Yeah, he got it.

  There had to be something that made this killer pick these two women. Kyra first, and Tierney second.

  Bishop and Laird headed inside.

  Once there, they began digging around.

  “Matches,” Bishop stated, tossing them to him. “They have that pub’s name on them. The one Kyra went to before she was killed.”

  “That’s suspicious.” Already, he was thinking about his friend who owned the place. Sean might have seen something else.

  “Yeah,” she said. “It really is. Maybe our killer is hunting out of there,” Bishop offered.

  That was a good possibility. It was the most popular pub in Adare.

  “We should head there next. I picked her up to get info out of her, but as far as I knew, she was heading here to lie low until today.”

  He heard it in her voice.

  “Bishop, don’t feel guilty.”

  “I do. She was almost free.”

  He patted her on the arm. “We all make our choices in life, and they are part of our fate. Her time, it was up.”

  She got that, but she didn’t have to like it.

  In fact, she hated it.

  “What are you going to do about your Garda guy who ratted you out?”

  He shrugged. “Some people here, they don’t like tourists or Americans. You guys tend to be brash.”

  She snorted. “You don’t say? It’s the guns, isn’t it?”

  Laird kept digging through Tierney’s things as he laughed. “Yeah, th
at might be it.”

  “I would be scared shitless to do your job without one,” she admitted.

  “That’s why I carry one, but in ten years, I’ve never had to fire it once at work.”

  “Lucky you. You should come to the US. It’s like the wild, wild, west.”

  “Really?”

  “Nah. It’s like here, where I came from. Small town, sheriff trying to do her job, falls for some beast who swept her off her feet and they lived happily ever after chasing psychics. It’s a real love story.”

  He grinned. “Your husband—he’s something.”

  “The eye patch?”

  He looked at her. “Uh, no. The fact that he can help Avalon. She’s pretty damn strong. He’s got to be a pretty tough psychic to hold up under that. I’m only getting flashes, and I want to cry like a wee baby.”

  She snorted. “Always sexy in a man. Your new wife must be so proud.”

  He roared in laughter.

  “I like you, Bishop. You say what you mean, and that’s priceless.”

  “In America, they call me bossy, pigheaded, and stubborn, but I like how you phrased it best.”

  “Oh, it’s still that here, but I’m just polite.”

  “I like you, too, Laird, and I hope you and Brianna get through this. I want to see you have that baby.”

  He did too.

  “I found something,” she stated.

  “What?” he asked, moving toward her.

  “Bank statements. Tierney Sweeney spent a lot of time at ‘The Bog’ and some place called ‘Frisky Business’.”

  He looked up.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “A sex shop.”

  “Oh, please tell me we’re taking Nate there. I want to bust his ass in the worst way, and that place will absolutely do it. It’ll make him nuts.”

  He laughed. “You’re vicious.”

  “Yeah, well, they’re like brothers. If you give them any softness, they use it against you. I’m going to make him blush,” she said, rubbing her hands together.

  “Well, this should be fun to watch,” he said.

  “Oh, it will be,” Bishop admitted.

  She was going to ride some uptight ass.

  Outside, Laird had found the body being loaded into the coroner’s van. Clearly, the real one had arrived, and he didn’t look happy.