by Raven Snow
“I’m afraid she’s right,” Rowen told the spirit. “You’re in the bedroom. Look in the direction I’m speaking from. Do you see me?”
I see… a shape. It’s blurry.
“That’s me?” Rowen raised a hand. “I’m waving, see?” She extended her arm. “Now, try to touch my hand.”
A chill swept right through to Rowen’s bones when his ghostly hand swept right through hers. What’s going on? Dimitri demanded, sounding progressively more frightened. What happened?
“As my cousin here so tactfully put it, you’re dead. What happened, specifically, is what we’re here trying to figure out.” Rowen did her best to speak slowly. You could spook spirits off if you dumped too much information on them at once. Given the sudden change they had gone through, it stood to reason that they would be easily overwhelmed. At the same time, Rowen didn’t want to space her questions out too far. If he moved on before she could figure this whole thing out, it would be a real shame. “Do you remember what you were doing here last night?”
What? Dimitri seemed distracted, like he was only half listening to what they were saying at this point.
“Were you here for some particular reason?” Rowen asked, raising her voice slightly and adding impact to her words. “Were you here to meet someone? Was there something inside that you needed?”
Yes.
“Yes to which?”
There was that pause again. I was meeting someone.
“Who were you meeting?” asked Rowen.
Another pause. I was meeting Richard Drew.
“Richard?” The name piqued surprise in Rowen. She hadn’t necessarily expected that. He’d seemed like such a nice guy. Then again, there was a very limited number of people who would be meeting with Dimitri in a place like this. Richard and Veronica were likely the only ones who even had keys outside of the hider one Dimitri had used. “What were you meeting him for?” Rowen waited for a response, but one didn’t come. “Dimitri?”
Peony spun where she stood. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. “I don’t feel him anymore. Do you think he moved on?”
“Something like that,” said Ben, stepping through the bedroom door.
Rowen turned, startled. “What do you mean?” Ben didn’t have innate spiritual senses too, did he? Things would get very complicated very soon if that was the case.
“They took away the body,” Ben explained. “I gave them the okay. It’s been on the floor for long enough. Richard Drew is the owner of this house now. We questioned him earlier and he was very clear about wanting the body taken out as soon as possible.”
“I was in the middle of a conversation with him!” Rowen snapped. She didn’t much care if officers outside heard. “What’s the point of calling me out here if you’re going to be actively working against me while I try to find answers for you?!”
“Calm down.” Ben frowned. “I didn’t realize removing the body would remove the spirit. You can see the body later if that’s the case.”
The spirit moving with the body wasn’t always the case. It did happen from time to time. This certainly seemed like one of those times. “And when can I do that?”
“I’ll call you,” Ben told her. “Did you find anything of value out in the meantime?”
“He says he was meeting someone,” Rowen said before Peony could.
“Did he say who he was meeting?”
“No,” Rowen blurted, quickly. The way Ben’s eyes narrowed, she suspected he thought she was lying. She was. She was aggravated with him for a whole host of reasons right about now. Rowen ignored his expression and looked to Peony instead. “Come on. Let’s get going. There’s not a whole lot that we can do here without the body.” She glanced at Ben as she spoke, hoping he got the message that she was very much annoyed with him. She left the house then, Peony at her heels.
“You didn’t want to look the place over some more?” asked Peony as they exited out the front. “Maybe we could have gotten some more impressions from the place. Not spirits but, like, energy and stuff.”
Given all the years of wildly varying emotions that had been had in the Drew house, Rowen knew she wouldn’t be able to get an accurate read on it. “I can think of a better way to get answers.”
“What’s that?” asked Peony. She was interrupted by almost running straight into Eric. She gave a startled yelp.
Eric raised an eyebrow. “You’re leaving already?” he asked Rowen. “Are you telling me I came all the way down here just to turn right back around and go home?”
“No, we have plenty to do,” Rowen assured him. She spotted his car parked on the adjacent curb and headed for it.
“Where should I go?” asked Peony. “Do you want me to follow you guys?”
“No.” Rowen glanced back at her cousin. “Get back to those flowers. The wedding is tomorrow. I’m gonna take care of this.”
Peony groaned. “But I’m no good at it.”
“Keep calling Margo if she doesn’t come in on her own within the next hour. She’ll help. She was having fun with it yesterday.” Rowen waved a goodbye to Peony who was standing there looking very sulky, her arms crossed over her chest.
Rowen walked to Eric’s car and got in on the passenger side. “I got to talk to Dimitri some but not as much as I would have liked to.”
“They took the body away?” Eric asked, starting the engine.
“How did you know that?”
“I saw them taking a body out the front. So, I guess you were talking to him when they stole him away from you?”
Rowen nodded. “And I don’t much appreciate it since they called me out here to begin with.”
“Can’t you go see the body in the morgue later?”
“Ben said he would give me a call when I could, but…” Rowen shook her head. “I still don’t like any of this.”
“Are you sure this is why you’re mad at him and not the whole Rose thing?”
“You say that like I’m not allowed to be mad at him for several reasons.” Rowen brought her phone to eye level and begin clicking her way back to where she had been online stalking the Drew family.
“So, what’s the plan?” asked Eric. “You’re acting like you have a plan.”
“Don’t I always?”
“Not really. And, when you do, the plan isn’t necessarily a good one,”
“Hush,” hissed Rowen. She found the address she was looking for and told the GPS on her phone to track it. “We’re going to Richard Drew’s place. Dimitri said that he was at that house to meet him. It seems like a good place to start, doesn’t it?”
“If the police aren’t there already,” Eric pointed out.
“I didn’t tell Ben everything Dimitri told me.” Rowen made a point to look straight ahead and out the window as she spoke. She knew that Eric wouldn’t approve of that.
“Why in the world would you do that?” Eric demanded. “You can’t just withhold information from the cops. They’re going to find out, and then they’re not going to hire us to consult anymore.”
“They won’t find out,” Rowen assured him.
“You can say that, but you pull stunts like this all the time. Besides, who’s to say the cops aren’t going to have a visit with the Drew son and daughter right after they wrap things up here?”
“Because they have already questioned them.” Rowen really had given this a bit of thought. “They’re not going to question them again today. Come on. Let’s get going.”
Chapter Eight
Richard Drew didn’t live too far from where his late mother had, but his home was significantly larger than hers. It was white, had two stories, and a picket fence. Rowen had seen it in pictures from his social media but that hadn’t quite prepared her for seeing it in person. “Looks like he has the perfect little life, doesn’t it?”
“Not if he killed a man last night,” Eric pointed out.
“Fair enough.” Rowen got out of the car after Eric parked in the driveway. There were a couple of cars
parked in front of them. There was a little four-door sedan and the big SUV that looked like it was for family outings. “Looks like the whole family is at home.” Rowen wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She would much rather corner Richard while he was alone. Waiting around wasn’t really an option, though. There was no telling when they would go their separate ways.
Rowen headed to the door with Eric on her heels. She knocked. When no one answered, she knocked again. There was a lot of screaming going on inside. It sounded like the kids were playing loudly. Rowen still wasn’t sure how she felt about having kids someday. This was certainly a point against it though.
“I think you’re going to need to ring the doorbell.” Eric reached over his wife’s shoulder and did it himself. After the ring, everything on the other side of the door went awkwardly quiet. The door opened a few seconds later.
“Can I help you?” asked a woman with brown hair and tired eyes. She regarded Rowen and Eric with a slight frown. Rowen couldn’t blame her. No one wanted strangers showing up on their doorstep.
Rowen made sure to put on her best smile. “Hi there. I don’t know if your husband mentioned us. I’m Rowen Greensmith and this is Eric.” She motioned over her shoulder. “I was wondering if we could speak with him about what happened today.”
The wife seemed to deflate a bit at that. She exhaled heavily. “What are the odds? I don’t know what to make of any of this if I’m being honest. It’s such a shame. To think everything was normal one day and the next… all this insanity.”
Rowen nodded. “We’re working with the police to try and sort it out. My husband and I are private investigators. We sometimes work as consultants for these sorts of things.”
The wife nodded. “I think my husband did mention you.” She opened the door a little wider. “My name is Amy, by the way, just in case he didn’t mention me. Come on in. I’ll take you to him.”
Rowen and Eric entered. Not far past the door were the two kids making all the noise. A little boy with a red, sticky looking mouth and a little girl with a toy laser gun looked up at her. The little girl leveled the gun at Rowen and pulled the trigger. Tinny sirens whirred and lights flashed. “Bzzt, you’re dead,” shouted the girl.
“Oh no,” said Rowen, forcing a smile and feeling terribly awkward about it. She had never been very good with kids.
“That’s my wife,” gasped Eric. “How could you kill my wife? That’s so mean.”
The little girl grinned wider and “shot” Eric next. He staggered slightly, groaning and sputtering. Amy smiled, though she was rolling her eyes at the same time. She dropped her smile before looking at the kids. “Go play in your room, you two. Adults need to talk. You know what to do when adults need to talk.”
The little girl turned to shoot her brother next. He gave a shriek and took off toward the bedroom. “They’re cute,” Rowen said, only because it seemed like the right thing to say.
“They’re a handful,” said Amy. “This way, my husband is probably downstairs. He loves to tinker when he’s not at work.” She led them down into the basement. It looked half done. There was a pool table and several pieces of furniture, but the walls were skeletal and unfinished to the point that you could see the wiring. “This was supposed to be a game room,” Amy explained. “We never did get around to finishing it, I’m afraid.” She sighed wearily and gave a shrug. “Ah, well. Maybe someday, maybe even this Christmas if Richard gets a bonus this year! That would be nice. We could have company over more often and not have to worry about waking the kids. You’ll have to give me your number. I’ve lived here all my life and heard all about the Greensmiths. I’m sure you would make an absolutely fascinating dinner guest.”
Rowen couldn’t tell if the woman was being genuinely nice or simply polite. In the end, she decided it didn’t really matter. “We’d like that,” she said, glancing back to her husband.
“Sounds good,” agreed Eric, putting on one of those heart-melting, charming smiles of his. Rowen didn’t miss the way Amy’s eyes moved over him after that. She didn’t mind. It couldn’t be helped. Her husband was gorgeous; there was no denying it.
In contrast, pudgy Richard looked awfully plain sitting there in an apron. His forehead was sweaty and he was covered in gray splotches all the way up to his forearms. He was sitting at a pottery wheel, working on what looked like what might be a bowl. Quite a few bowls covered nearby shelves already. Rowen wasn’t sure she could rightly call this tinkering. “You’re quite the artisan,” she said with a smile. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”
Richard jumped, putting a huge dent in his bowl. He quickly stopped powering the wheel before it could get completely torn apart. It took him a moment to recognize Rowen and her husband. Finally, he seemed to relax. “It’s just a hobby. It helps me relax… What are you two doing here?”
Rowen raised an eyebrow. He knew. He had to know. “Well, we got called to a crime scene this morning.”
Richard slouched a bit in his chair. He shook his head as if to clear it. “Right… Right, of course.” He stood, hands held out in front of him like he was trying not to make a mess. He walked to a big, industrial-looking sink. “Guess the pottery making really did take my mind off things, huh?” His smile looked forced. He wasn’t in a good mood today. He had no reason to be. “Do they have any suspects in custody yet?”
“Not to our knowledge,” said Rowen, standing by while Richard dried his hands.
“It was her old flame, right?” Amy sounded perversely intrigued by all of this. She scanned the room, a guarded look on her face. “Why would he break in?”
“He let himself in,” Richard corrected. “They said there wasn’t any sign of forced entry. They think he had a key.”
Rowen didn’t correct him and mention the hider key. It sounded like they had spotted the rock it had gone in later. It wasn’t Rowen’s place to give that sort of information out. “There’s a lot that still needs to be investigated.”
Amy nodded, mostly to herself. It was like she had stepped into a crime drama and gotten lost in the role. This might have been the most excitement she’d had in weeks. “I always did think they made something of an odd pair. He was so active and outgoing, and Dina was happy being a homebody unless Veronica dragged her out of the house.”
“We don’t have a whole lot of time,” said Eric, stepping into the conversation abruptly. He turned his gaze to Amy. “Do you mind answering some questions for me upstairs?”
Amy looked back at Eric. She raised her eyebrows and, again, gave him a quick look up and down. “Of course I don’t mind.”
Bless Eric, taking one for the team. Rowen hadn’t been sure she would get any answers from Richard at this rate. She waited until he had gone before turning back to the man she had really come here to question. “There’s a sofa in there. Do you want to go sit down?”
Richard smirked. “Thanks for offering me a seat in my own home.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Come on.” Richard led the way to the sofa in question. “I’m sorry about my wife. She’s a great woman, but she can be nosy.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Rowen dropped down onto the sofa, pulling a recorder from her pocket. “Do you mind if I tape this?”
“I don’t see why I would. Go ahead.”
“Thanks.” Rowen turned the recorder on and set it on the coffee table. “The police said you were the one to find the body, Richard. Is that true?”
The color seemed to drain from Richard’s face. “Yes, I’m afraid I did… It hasn’t been the best day so far.”
“I can’t imagine.” Rowen could imagine. She had been in similar situations. Because of that, she knew how hard it was. She wanted to, at least, extend Richard some sympathy. He really didn’t have the look or feel of a murderer as far as she was concerned. “What time did you get there?”
“Oh…” Richard’s gaze grew unfocused, like he was trying to picture this morning in better detail. “I probably got there around s
ix. I was trying to get some packing in before work at the bank. I just wanted to get it over and done with, you know? I was worried when I found the front door unlocked. I let myself in, walked to the living room, and… there he was.”
“He was already dead, I take it?”
Richard nodded. “It looked that way to me. He was on his back. He wasn’t even blinking or anything. I was terrified of going near the body, so I just ran back out onto the porch and called the police… Do you think I should have checked on him? What if he was still alive?”
“It doesn’t sound like that was the case,” Rowen assured him. “You did the right thing. He was already dead. Better you didn’t disturb the crime scene.”
Again, Richard nodded. That seemed to be what he had wanted to hear. “I don’t know why he was there so late. I didn’t even hear that he was in town.” Richard paused then. He opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. It was like he was having some sort of internal debate about what to talk about next.
“What is it?” Rowen asked, prompting him.
“It—” Richard began. He shook his head like he’d decided against asking. Before Rowen could say anything else, however, he took a deep breath. “You said you spoke with Dina, right? After she died.”
Rowen noted the skeptical way in which he had asked that, like it was embarrassing to believe regardless of whom he was speaking to. “I did,” said Rowen, taking a little offense to his tone.
“Did you try the same thing with Dimitri?”
“I did.”
“And what did he say?”
Rowen debated internally over telling Richard the truth. “He said a few things,” she told him finally. “I suppose the most interesting thing he told me was that he was there to meet with someone.”
Richard’s brow furrowed. “Meet with someone?” he repeated. “Who?”
“Who do you think?”
It didn’t seem like Richard quite knew how to handle that question. He looked down at the floor, his frown growing more intense. “Well, I guess it would have to be someone who had a key, right? That’s just me and… Veronica.” His head snapped back up. He looked at Rowen with wide eyes. “You can’t think it was either of us, can you? I mean, obviously, I didn’t murder that guy, right? Right? And Veronica—Veronica isn’t that kind of person. She almost applied to be a police officer back when we were teens. I don’t think I’ve ever caught her breaking even minor laws.”
