Dying Wishes: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Shelby Nichols Adventure Book 14)

by Colleen Helme

  “I won’t work with her again… that’s a promise.” With a determined nod at me, he followed Willow to his desk and plugged in the thumb-drive with the video feed from the hotel.

  I hated to admit it, but his plan put me in a good mood. I hoped it worked out just how he thought, but if not, it’s the thought that counts, right?

  Settling back in my chair, I logged into my account, holding my breath that my password still worked. The program opened up, and I sighed with relief. At least something was going right. The chief had given me full access to all the detectives’ cases, and I typed Mack Haywood’s name into this treasure trove, hoping everything was up to date.

  The case file opened to his information, listing his driver’s license and address with all his personal information. I scrolled to the next page and found a picture of him kneeling beside Coco. My breath hitched to see them together. He looked so happy, and Coco sat at attention beside him. Green trees surrounded them, and Coco had a special rescue-dog vest attached to his chest. They looked like a perfect team, and sorrow filled my heart.

  Knowing the crime scene photos came next, I closed my eyes and swallowed. Not sure I’d ever be ready, I hesitated another second, then scrolled down to get it over with. The first photo showed Mack lying on his stomach with a pool of blood around his head.

  He had fallen between the living room door and the hallway to the kitchen. I read through the report, noting that he’d been struck several times on the back of the head with a hard, blunt object. From his position, it was determined that he never saw it coming.

  I glanced through the report, finding that it had happened between nine and nine-thirty that night and he’d been discovered by a neighbor who had heard Coco barking his head off. By the time the police arrived, Coco’s barks were so frantic they had called animal control before letting him out, afraid the dog might attack them.

  It was noted that the dog had ripped up the carpet in front of the door trying to get out of the back room. The report didn’t include anything else about Coco or what had happened to him, but I knew it had been traumatic. No wonder Coco had been so despondent at the shelter.

  I read through the remaining information and discovered that Detective Williams, along with Clue Ventanilla, a new detective I didn’t know, had been assigned to the case. That it wasn’t Detective Bates was a small miracle, since he didn’t like me much.

  So far, they’d interviewed the neighbors and most of the search-and-rescue people Mack worked with, along with his son and a few friends. But they didn’t have a suspect. They’d also checked the neighborhood for security cameras that might have picked up something, but found nothing from them either.

  I shook my head. It didn’t look like the investigation was going well. But maybe I’d know more after I spoke to Detective Williams. I jotted down the names of the neighbors, and a few from the search-and-rescue team, so I could talk to them myself, hoping I could pick up something that Williams had missed.

  “What are you doing?”

  I jerked in surprise, quickly glancing over my shoulder to find Bates looking down at my computer. He was thinking that I’d been gone for days, and he wondered why I was looking at Williams’s case.

  “Did he ask you for help with that?” Moving to perch on the side of my desk, he continued, “I didn’t think you were cleared to come back to work.”

  He knew all about my visit to the Big Apple, and the help I’d given the NYPD, mostly because the chief wouldn’t stop talking about it. Now here I was… back to work already and sticking my nose into a case. What was up with that?

  Willow’s wildly gesturing arms caught his attention, and we both watched as she nearly hit Dimples in the head. Bates narrowed his eyes, thinking that maybe having me around wasn’t so bad if that meant the new psychic would leave.

  There was something about her that he didn’t like, and it bothered him that the chief had called her in while I’d been gone. Between her and me, he’d go with me any day. Hell, I had more mojo than ten of the other gal, and I was a lot nicer to look at.

  Wow. Would wonders never cease? Bates… on my side? “Hey Bates. To answer your question, yes… I’m cleared to work, but the chief said to take it easy, so I’m just looking through a few cases to see if anything pops out at me.”

  “Oh… so… Harris didn’t want you to help him?” He glanced at Dimples, feeling a little sorry for the guy, but grateful it was Dimples and not him.

  “Well… he did ask me, but I guess the chief can only have one psychic on a case at a time.” A chuckle bubbled out of me. “Who would have thought that would ever happen… right?”

  “Hell yeah. One psychic is bad enough.”

  “Damn straight,” I agreed. It caught him off-guard, and we both laughed.

  “Well, if you’re looking for a case to help with, I caught one this morning that might be right up your alley. It looks like a drug deal gone wrong, so it’s probably gang related.”

  Since that was the last thing I wanted to do, I did my best to appear indifferent. “Maybe, but I like this case better.” I pointed to my computer screen. “I mean… I’m sure both cases are important but… finding a gang member’s killer wouldn’t be as rewarding as helping out on this case. Just look at this guy. He was a good person who didn’t deserve to die. There’s a real mystery here.”

  “Yeah, I can see that.” Bates was wishing he’d gotten the call for that case, but he’d already had a full load when that one happened. “So that’s a no?”

  Not wanting him on my bad side, I shrugged. “I can take a look at it. Who knows? Maybe I’ll pick up something.”

  His brows rose in surprise. “That’s real nice of you. Come on over to my desk and I’ll show you what I’ve got so far.”

  I followed him to his desk, a little dazed that we were working together for a change. He sat down at his computer and explained that the victim had been shot several times, but there wasn’t a weapon at the scene.

  “Like I said, it looks like a gang shooting in an old building on the south side. We didn’t find any money or drugs, but it’s practically a given that it was a drug deal gone wrong. So far, no one’s talking, but you might be able to help us out with that.”

  He pulled up a crime scene photo, along with an arrest photo of the same person. “We just identified the victim. His name is Tommy Demarco, and he has a rap sheet a mile long. He’s been in and out of the system since he was a teen, mostly dealing drugs. None of the recent arrests have stuck though. He always seemed to get off on a technicality.” Bates thought it pointed to organized crime, and he’d give his right arm to tie it to the Manettos. Maybe, with my help, he could.

  Yikes! I didn’t want Uncle Joey tied to this, so maybe it was a good thing Bates had asked for my help. “Oh… yeah… I bet that’s frustrating. Maybe when you’re interviewing some of the gang members, I could listen in and pick something up? I mean… I can’t guarantee anything, but I’d be happy to try.”

  “Yeah? That would be great.” He thought it couldn’t hurt to ask the cop who worked the gang unit to watch as well, in case he had anything to add.

  “Okay. Just let me know when you’re ready to question them, and we’ll work something out.”

  “Thanks Shelby. I owe you one.”

  My brows rose. “Really? Wow… I won’t forget that.” He almost regretted his words, but, from my grin, he knew I was mostly teasing. “Guess I’d better see if Williams can use my help. I mean… if I’m helping you, I might as well help him, right?”

  I glanced at Williams, who sat at his desk with his shoulders hunched. “He doesn’t look too happy.”

  Bates huffed out a breath. “I guess. Just remember you’re helping me first.”

  “I will.” I sent Bates a smile and made my way to Williams’s desk. From the discouragement that hung over him, it was obvious that he wasn’t happy.

  His partner sat at the desk across from him, glancing at her computer screen and thinking they had
spoken to just about everyone, and nothing had come of it. Now she was checking his financial records for any kind of discrepancies, like a big deposit or withdrawal, but she hadn’t found anything.

  “Hey Williams,” I said, sitting down in the chair beside his desk. “You’ll never believe this, but I have a connection to the case you’re working on.”

  His eyes widened. I’d never worked closely with him before, but he was interested in anything I could give him. “What’s that?”

  “I adopted a dog yesterday. His name is Coco, and his late owner was Mack Haywood.”

  “Oh wow. That’s crazy. How did that happen?”

  I explained the whole story about taking my kids to the shelter to adopt a dog and finding Coco there. “They didn’t know anything about him except his name, but he responded so well to me and my kids that we adopted him. Then, this morning, I took him on a walk.”

  I told him that I had a premonition to walk the dog in a certain direction, and that’s how we ended up at Mack’s house. “I know it’s hard to believe, but there it is. His son, Austin, was there, and he filled me in.”

  “That’s nuts.” Williams could hardly believe it, but then… it was me, so it had to be real. He glanced in Dimples’s direction and shook his head. Having another psychic here was weird, and he was glad he wasn’t the one working with her. At least I wasn’t some pretender like she seemed to be.

  Oh… that was so nice. Too bad I couldn’t thank him. Still, it lightened my heart just the same. “I told his son, Austin, that I’d see if you’d made any progress.”

  Williams snapped his attention back to me, then glanced at his partner. “Shelby, this is Clue Ventenilla, my new partner.” To Clue, he continued. “Shelby is the psychic that the chief keeps talking about.”

  “Yeah… I got that.” She sat in the adjacent desk and had listened to my story about Coco. She wore the standard detective jacket over dress slacks with a white shirt, and had dark-brown, shoulder-length hair.

  Her brown eyes held a hint of wariness, like she expected the worst. The coincidence didn’t seem possible to her, and her brows drew together with suspicion. Another psychic? Was there something in the water around here?

  I extended my hand for a quick shake, which she returned half-heartedly, waiting for the inevitable question about her name. Yes, she was named after her aunt, but where it originated, she had no idea. She just knew that most people liked to give her a hard time about the unusual name.

  “Hi Clue, it’s nice to meet you.” Not liking her distrust, I decided to use my psychic powers about her name to convince her I was the real deal. “I think Clue is a great name for a detective. I’ll bet you’re named after someone, right? An aunt maybe?”

  Clue’s eyes widened, and she sputtered. “How… How did you know that?”

  “Well… I’m the resident psychic… or I used to be.” I glanced over at Willow and shrugged. “Anyway, it’s nice to meet you.”

  Williams saw his chance to ask her about her name, since he’d always wondered about it, and jumped into the conversation. “So it’s not short for anything?”

  “No. It’s just Clue. Besides, what could Clue be short for anyway?”

  Williams thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Uh… Cluella?”

  “What? Ugh… that’s terrible. No… absolutely not.”

  Williams hid a smile, thinking that if he ever wanted to rub it in, he’d call her Cluella. Cluella Ventenilla. That had a nice ring to it.

  I tried not to smile, and kind of felt sorry for her. On the other hand, maybe I should feel sorry for him if he followed through on that thought, since she was thinking of punching him in the face if he ever did.

  “So… about the case.” I interrupted. “Any ideas on what happened?”

  Williams sighed. “There’s not a lot to go on. We’ve checked Mack’s phone records, and now we’re looking into his financial records to see if he made any big deposits or payments. So far, nothing looks out of the ordinary.”

  “But you think he was murdered by someone he knew?”

  “Yeah. He’d obviously invited them in and put the dog in the other room. We think he must have been headed toward the kitchen when he was struck on the head. The forensic results indicate the person was probably shorter than the victim, and used something like a hammer, but we haven’t identified the murder weapon.”

  I nodded. “Well, I hope you don’t mind if I look into it, too. I feel a connection since I own the guy’s dog now.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Clue asked.

  I shrugged. “I’ll probably just talk to his neighbors and maybe the search-and-rescue people he worked with.”

  “We already did that. There was nothing there.” Clue thought she was a darn good detective, and she didn’t want me to waste my time. Plus, it rankled that I was stepping into her case, like I thought I could do a better job.

  “I’m sure you’ve done a great job so far, but maybe I’ll pick up something with my psychic ability. I think it’s worth a shot, and I don’t mind spending the time. It’s worth it to me.”

  Her eyes widened. I’d picked up her intentions like a pro. Had I been trained to read micro expressions? That had to be it… unless it really was a psychic ability. But she didn’t believe in that stuff. Still, she’d woefully underestimated me. “Whatever… I suppose we could use all the help we can get, right Williams?”

  “Yeah, sure.” He didn’t mind at all, thinking they certainly had nothing to lose.

  Clue pulled a card from her jacket and handed it to me. “Call me if you find anything.”

  I took it and nodded. “Sure. Thanks Clue… I’ll let you know.” I’d almost said Cluella, and thanked my lucky stars I’d held it back. She might not punch me in the face, but I didn’t want to risk it.

  As I slipped her card into my purse, I glanced Dimples’s way. He and Willow were still hard at work watching the surveillance video. Since I didn’t want to interrupt, I passed them with my head held high and kept going.

  “Shelby, wait,” Dimples called. “Are you leaving?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll walk you out.”

  I shrugged, but waited for him to join me. Willow glanced up, not happy he was leaving. As we walked out, I felt her staring daggers into my back. She wondered what Dimples was up to. He’d better not ask me to help with the case again. She was doing a great job. They didn’t need me.

  It was a relief to leave her unwelcome thoughts behind. Dimples was glad to get away from her, too. Her perfume was giving him a headache. Plus, she tended to be overbearing, and it was starting to get on his nerves. But beneath all of that came a wave of unhappiness… he’d missed me.

  “Uh… that’s too bad she’s such a… witch,” I told him. “If it helps, I miss you too. How soon can you ditch her?”

  His surprised gaze caught mine. Did that mean I’d forgiven him?

  I smiled, and he chuckled, causing his dimples to appear. I’d missed them, too. “She probably doesn’t even appreciate your dimples. Otherwise, she’d try to get you to smile more often.”

  This time his smile reached his eyes, showing off his boyish handsomeness. He was inordinately pleased, and grateful that I cared.

  “So how’s Billie doing? I haven’t had a chance to chat with her since I got back.” Dimples was married to Billie Jo Payne… a newspaper reporter. She still used her own name for the paper, which pleased me to no end since it fit her so well, mostly because she’d been a big pain in the butt when we first met.

  “She’s doing great. In fact, she was happy to hear you’d made it back. I told her you were taking some time off though, and that you needed a break.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Well… you know she’s still hoping to get an interview with you for the paper, right?”

  “Oh… yeah. I was hoping she’d forgotten about that.”

  “Nope.” His grin widened, and he hoped the sight of his dimples would soften me
up.

  I chuckled. “So… I guess I should thank you?”

  He nodded. “Damn straight. You can thank me by helping me with this case.”

  I let out a huff. “Not fair. Besides… you didn’t hear how much Willow dislikes me. She’s kind of scary. Are you sure she doesn’t have something to do with the case? Like… could she be the killer?”

  He snorted and shook his head. “Of course not. But, if you’re worried about that, why don’t you and I go talk to Sophie? They released her from the hospital, and she’s staying with her mom. You might pick up something.”

  I hated to let him down, but I didn’t see how that would help. “You know, if she’s got amnesia, it’s not going to help me, right? Her mind will be just a big blob of nothing.”

  “Yeah… I know… but what if she’s faking it? You’d know right off the bat.”

  “Oh… I hadn’t thought of that. Yeah, I guess I would.”

  “Then it’s worth a quick visit. We can go right now. I’ll text Willow that something came up.” He pulled out his phone and started a text before I had a chance to answer. Finishing, he sent me a big smile, making sure his dimples wobbled like little tornadoes. “Okay… let’s go.”

  I shook my head. “It’s a darn good thing you’ve got those crazy dimples going for you.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Dimples drove us to the house, asking me all sorts of questions about my vacation in New York. I told him most of it, but left a lot out. Still, it was enough for him to know that Uncle Joey and Ramos worked with the NYPD to put a notorious mob boss out of commission.

  “Wow. That’s nuts. And you were right in the middle of it all.” Not that it surprised him, but it sounded intense.

  “Yeah… it was intense, especially right at the end.”

  “I’ll bet. No wonder you’re seeing Bob Spicer. I heard he’s pretty good.”

  “Yeah… he is, but he’s also fascinated by my psychic abilities. He wants to know all about them and how they work, so I have to be careful, which, in some ways, just adds to my stress. You know you’re screwed when the help you need makes your stress worse, right?”