Dream Caller (A Dream Seeker Novel Book 3)

by Sharp, Michelle

  Bahan’s knee was bobbing fast enough to shake all the papers on the table, he was so deeply in the zone. “I’ve got a bad feeling it makes perfect sense. I keep searching for a mention of you—what happened to you after the shooting, what was your statement—but there isn’t one. No mention of you surviving anywhere.”

  Tossing down the document in his hand, Bahan pushed back from the table. “Let me ask you something. If you and I are brought in to clean up after something like this, what do we do with a traumatized little girl who may or may not have witnessed the violent murders of her family? How do we keep her safe from a drug cartel that’s going to want all loose ends dealt with?”

  Jordan knew where he was going with his questions. “We make her disappear.” Jordan propped her elbows on the table, let her head rest in her hands, while her mind toyed with the idea that she’d been unwittingly put into some kind of witness protection program.

  “They tried to change my name,” she finally murmured. The memory was vague, as most were from the year following her family’s death. Probably because they’d poked every anti-depressant and sleeping pill known to man down her throat. “They told me when you live with a foster family that you have to take the family name, but I never would.”

  Bahan looked at her.

  “My name was the only thing I had. I couldn’t give that up, too. Plus I have a birth certificate and a social security card. I think all the info is right.”

  “Are they the same documents you’ve had since birth? Is the social security number you have now the same one you were born with? Or did it change about the time you were eleven?”

  “I don’t know. How would I know that? I didn’t have my social security number memorized when I was ten.”

  “Most ten-year-olds don’t.” Bahan sighed. “It looks to me like the authorities—probably the Feds your dad worked with—made a decision to let the world think you died that night, too. The shooter was dead. He wasn’t telling anyone he fucked up and only took out three people instead of four. It was a brilliant way to protect you, when you think about it.”

  “So that’s why I went into foster care in Kansas City instead of St. Louis. They moved me to a different city, altered my documents, and bam, I’m a different Jordan Delany.”

  “You’d have probably had a different name, too, if you hadn’t been such a little shit about it. It’s the best theory we’ve got.”

  “So the funeral here was just for show? They buried four empty caskets just to protect me. That was a lot of trouble and expense to go through.”

  Bahan went unusually silent. Which was never good. “Yeah,” he finally agreed. “Or maybe they actually did bury three people. And maybe the only empty casket was yours.”

  Chapter 3

  Ty and Isobel stepped into the foyer of Hailey King’s sorority house. Hailey’s two roommates were waiting with a police officer in the next room.

  “You want to separate them?” Isobel asked.

  “Yeah.” Ty glanced at the girls through the large archway. “You take the blonde somewhere else; I’ll interview the brunette here. Then we can compare notes.”

  They walked into a large room that looked well-worn from years of parties. The two young women were huddled together on one of the three couches lining the walls.

  Ty pulled an ottoman in front of them and sat. “Hi, ladies. I’m Officer Tyler McGee from the Longdale Police Department. This is Detective Isobel Riley from the Missouri Highway Patrol. We’re very sorry about your roommate. We’ll do everything in our power to catch whoever did this, but we need to ask you some questions.”

  The girls nodded.

  Ty glanced down at his notes. “Ashley, would you go with Detective Riley?” One girl stood and followed Isobel out of the room.

  The other girl grabbed more tissues, ready to cry.

  “It’s Gena, right?”

  She nodded again.

  “Hi, Gena. I know this is hard. Can you tell me what happened this morning?”

  The girl blew her nose and then said, “Ashley and I had the alarm set for six. We were supposed to help out at a healthcare seminar today. It was for extra credit in one of our classes. Hailey was going too.”

  She sniffled. “We’re all nursing students. When we got up, it didn’t look like Hailey had ever been home. She left some clothes and books on her bed last night when she left for the party. I didn’t think they’d been moved.” Gena shrugged, wiped her eyes again. “We figured she had too much to drink and just stayed at the frat house with David. We decided to go search for her so she didn’t get in trouble for being a no-show.”

  “David?”

  “David Benson is Hailey’s boyfriend. He’s a business student. They’ve been seeing each other for a while now.”

  “Were they together last night?”

  Gena nodded.

  Ty noted the boy’s name. David Benson would need to be located. “How long?”

  “Since we started school last August. They were pretty serious. She was nuts over him.”

  “Was that normal? For Hailey to not come home?”

  Tears rolled down Gena’s face. She shook her head. “No, not at all. I mean, she would come home late sometimes, way after Ash and I would be asleep. But she never spent the whole night with David. It’s kind of frowned upon. David has a roommate. It’s pretty tacky to hook up in a room when another guy is sleeping there. And Hailey was sort of . . . um . . . old-fashioned about those kind of things.”

  “Old-fashioned meaning what?”

  “Meaning she wouldn’t sleep around or hook up with random guys walking in and out of a frat room. She was just, sweet, you know? A good girl who got good grades and . . .”

  Gena dropped her head in her hands and started sobbing. Ty sat quietly and let her cry. He knew what being on that side of the questions felt like.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Gena. You’re doing a fantastic job. Do you need something to drink?”

  Gena wiped the tears away with a tissue. “I’m okay.”

  “Do you have any reason to believe her boyfriend would hurt her?”

  “I can’t see it. David was always really protective of Hailey. Like I said, they were pretty crazy about each other. He walked her home every night. In fact, I looked out the window last night and saw him leaning against a tree watching the sorority house. I figured he was waiting for Hailey to get inside safely. I told Ashley I saw him, and that’s when we turned out the light. I just assumed Hailey was home safe.”

  “You saw David outside the sorority house? What time was that?”

  “I’m not sure exactly. One maybe. No, wait. Probably more one-thirty-ish. I’m not sure.”

  “Are you positive it was him?”

  “It’d be hard to confuse David with anyone else. He’s really tall and thin. And he’s got all this blond, bushy hair that sticks out from under that Cubs hat he always wears.” Gena shrugged. “Not too many guys look like David.”

  “Did David ever seem overly protective? Jealous? Ever violent?”

  “No. See, that’s why I don’t want to say stuff. He wasn’t like that at all. He was really cool about her hanging out with us.”

  “Gena, you’re doing the right thing for Hailey. Everything you’re telling me helps me to catch who did this. I’m not looking for an easy person to blame. I’m looking for a killer. If you tell me Hailey’s boyfriend was a good guy who was concerned and understanding, that doesn’t paint him as someone who would hurt her. But I have to ask the questions, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Do you know where David is from? Where he grew up?”

  Gena shook her head. “I know he has money. A lot of it. He gave Hailey a diamond necklace last week for their six-month anniversary. She hasn’t taken it off since.”

  She didn’t have it on when they’d found her, Ty recalled. “Anyone else you know of who might have a personal grudge against her? Anyone bother her recently? Fight wit
h her?”

  The girl sat for a long moment without saying anything. Finally, she stared up at Ty. “She had a big fight with David last night.”

  ***

  Ty stepped outside of Hailey King’s sorority house and waited for Isobel on the porch. Big houses with Greek letters lined a good portion of the street. In the distance, majestic old buildings made for a pretty campus as they spread over several city blocks.

  His gloomy exhale hung in the cold morning air. It should have been a place where life was beginning, not ending.

  He loved his job. Most days. Today wasn’t gonna be one of ’em. First he’d need to explain to a young woman’s family that their daughter had been murdered. Then shake up another family when he had to question the most logical suspect—Hailey’s boyfriend.

  On top of it, he was tip-toeing through a sea of eggshells with Isobel, praying hard that the one night they’d had together wasn’t going to haunt the hell out of him. Technically, it had been more like ten minutes. Ten lousy minutes filled with a bad attitude, too much beer, and less than stellar sex.

  And a whole bunch of remorse the second it was over.

  He’d been well aware that Isobel was interested in more than a professional relationship. The problem was, he’d never been interested in having anything with her. He didn’t dislike her; she was cute and a pretty good cop. But whatever that spark was, the one you were supposed to feel when you sleep with someone, it had never been there.

  Unfortunately, she’d unzipped his pants and rolled a condom on him before he was absolutely sure that he felt absolutely nothing. And that just seemed like piss-poor timing. His beer-hazed brain had reasoned that it might insult her more to stop than to politely part ways after.

  In comparison, he remembered catching sight of Jordan for the first time—across a sea of drunks in a dirty, disgusting strip club—and feeling like someone had clamped jumper cables to his heart. Until then, he’d thought love at first sight was a damn dumb thing to believe in.

  His stomach gave a queasy jerk. Probably the candy bar he had for breakfast. Or the guilty fear that somehow the ten minutes he spent with Isobel was going to wreak havoc with the lifetime he intended to spend with Jordan.

  And his fear would come to fruition unless he could close this case in record time and keep the women from ever coming face to face.

  “Done already?” Isobel asked, stepping out onto the porch of the sorority house.

  “Been done for a few minutes. What took you so long?”

  “I like to be thorough the first time around.”

  “I was thorough.”

  “I’ll bet you lunch that I got more info than you did.”

  Ty nodded. “Okay. Shoot.”

  Isobel proceeded to run down the same information he’d just gotten.

  “That’s you’re thorough investigation? I got that much.”

  Isobel held up a finger. “Excuse me, I’m not done. Hailey was at a mixer last night. It was Hailey’s sorority and her boyfriend’s, David Benson’s, frat house. Apparently they had a big fight.” She shot him a cocky grin.

  “You’ve got nothing lunch worthy.” Ty laughed at her superior smile.

  “Do you know why they were fighting?” she asked.

  Ty folded his arms. Sighed. “No. But I intend to find out as soon as I can get to the boyfriend.”

  “They fought because Hailey was a virgin. It was the six-month anniversary of their first kiss last night, and Hailey had told David she would sleep with him. Turns out she got cold feet because they were in a crowded frat house. But both of them had plenty to drink.”

  “You got Ashley to spill all that?”

  “It’s called being thorough.” Isobel’s smile was triumphant now. “Not only that, but David got a little hotheaded and stormed away. I guess they had words loud enough that several people heard. Then Ashley heard the story first-hand again when Hailey cried on her shoulder last night. And although Hailey was pissed because David went to the basement of the frat house and played poker with some buddies, basically ignoring her the rest of the night, she still stayed when Ashley and Gena left. I guess hoping to make up with David.”

  “So we’ve got a wealthy, angry, drunk boyfriend who was promised sex but then got denied.” Ty crammed his hands into his coat pockets. “Okay, I guess that’s worthy of lunch. See if you can run down priors for David Benson. Gena said she saw him hanging around outside the sorority house last night right about the time Hailey was murdered. We need to know why. I’m going to make a few phone calls before we talk to him. I want to know where he’s from and where he went to high school. And if he so much as got into a fist fight in high school, I want to know about that, too. We’ll play it by ear from there.”

  “Anything you say, slick.” Issy winked, and Ty’s stomach did the queasy-jerk one more time.

  “Let’s head to the frat house and find Benson,” he said. “And get this case over with pronto,” he added when she was well out of earshot.

  ***

  Ty followed Isobel’s car to David Benson’s frat house.

  “Benson is squeaky clean as far as I can tell,” Isobel said as they compared notes and slowly strolled down the walk to the front door. “But do you know who his dad is?”

  Ty glanced at Isobel. “Yeah. Doyle Benson. Real estate developer.”

  “Fucking rich real estate developer. You better make damn sure you advise Benson of his rights before you question him.”

  Ty stopped and turned toward her. “I’m not questioning anyone as a suspect yet. I’m only gathering info from witnesses.”

  Isobel arched a brow. “You keep telling yourself that.”

  “You want to walk away, not talk to him because his dad has money?” he asked.

  “No, I want to make sure anything he says sticks. He could turn out to be more than a witness. It’s a gray area, and you know it.”

  “All I know is that if I didn’t talk to the people who were with her last, I wouldn’t be doing my job.” Ty pounded a fist on the door of the frat house. “Nothing gray about it.”

  A young guy—bleary-eyed and classically hung over—opened the door. Ty announced himself and Isobel, they flashed their badges, and Ty told the kid he needed to speak with David Benson.

  Saturday morning in a frat house looked like someone had put a little C4 inside a keg the night before. But to their credit, guys were cleaning up. Probably so they could do it all over again tonight.

  “Derek, is Benson in his room?” the young guy shouted.

  “I’m not his fucking keeper—oh.” The kid who walked into the room flushed ten shades of red when he saw Ty with his badge.

  “Keeper or not, one of you needs to find him. Or I’ll start a search inside your house, here, that will probably turn up a whole lot of trouble for every member of Phi Beta Dickheads, or whatever you call yourselves.”

  Isobel snickered when the two guys scrambled up the stairs. “I remember that about you, your way with words.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve learned these young cocky guys speak only asshole. You’d do well to remember it, too.”

  One of the frat guys returned. “We think he’s still in the basement. Probably asleep. They were playing poker until early this morning. It’s through that door.”

  Ty nodded and then headed down the creaky wooden staircase with Isobel behind him. He flipped every light switch he came across.

  “Turn the lights off, fucker, we’re trying to sleep.”

  Ty wasn’t sure which one of the young guys spoke. He looked around, counted five hungover bodies splayed out on various pieces of old and nasty furniture. An open bag of marijuana sat in full view.

  “Disgusting. It stinks down here,” Isobel murmured. “And it’s going to take us forever to wake these assholes up and figure out which one is Benson.”

  “Nope, I don’t have that kind of time.” Ty decided to give them a wake-up call they would never forget. He pulled his gun from the holster. “Cover t
he stairs and aim at any asshole who moves. Make the show a good one.”

  He stepped to the middle of the basement, cleared his throat. “You are all under arrest for possession of a controlled substance. Get up. Now.” Most of the idiots began to stir. He raised his voice another notch and proceeded as though he’d uncovered a multi-million-dollar drug ring instead of a few bucks worth of weed. “On your knees. Now. Hands behind your head.”

  Their big eyes started paying attention in a hurry.

  “Which one of you is David Benson?”

  They were all quick to point at a tall, skinny, curly-haired guy. Ty moved in front of the blond kid that was still slouched on a couch.

  “The rest of you, upstairs with Detective Riley. Wait in the front room and answer her questions politely. If you show any disrespect, I will add resisting arrest and assault of an officer to your drug charges. Do we understand each other? Move. Now.”

  Four guys shuffled upstairs with Isobel.

  Ty turned back to the blond kid. “Are you David Benson?”

  “Yeah. But that pot isn’t mine. I don’t smoke; you can ask any of the guys. Do a blood test if you want.”

  “David, I’m not here because of the pot.” Ty looked the kid over, paying careful attention to his hands and face, checking for signs he’d been in a recent struggle. He saw nothing. “Do you have a girlfriend named Hailey King?”

  “Yeah,” David answered. “But she doesn’t do drugs, either. She hardly ever even has a beer. If you found drugs here, she for sure didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  Ty holstered his gun, grabbed a folding chair and straddled it backwards in front of David. “I’m not here because of drugs, David. I’m sorry to have to tell you this. Hailey King was found murdered early this morning. I need to know when you saw her last.”

  Ty watched the kid’s hungover brain attempt to process the information.

  “What? Is this some kind of sick joke? Who the fuck are you? Where’s Hailey?” The kid shot to his feet.

  Ty stood, too. “Sit down, David.”

  The kid stared at Ty for a moment, and then tears rolled from his eyes. “Who are you?” David asked again, but this time he was struggling to get the words out. “Where is Hailey? I want to see Hailey.”