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

by Colleen Helme

“Good. And… just so you know, Willow’s on her way in as well. Word is she’s called the chief a few times to complain. I think she might throw something at you… and maybe include me as well. I think it’s about what happened last night.”

  “What do you mean? She wasn’t even there.”

  “I don’t know that for sure.”

  “You think she might have come late and seen Ramos?”

  “It’s a possibility, but your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that she’s got something up her sleeve. At least you’ll know what is it, and we can figure it out after you get here.”

  “Damn. Okay. Thanks for the warning. I’ll be there soon.”

  Wanting to look good, I took some extra time with my makeup and hair. Because things were heating up at the station, I slipped on my navy jeans, pairing them with a purple shirt and my navy blazer, making me look pretty darn sassy.

  It didn’t hurt that I wanted to look good in case I managed to fit in a motorcycle ride after it was all over. By then, I might need something to help with my stress levels, and I was sure Bob would agree.

  Feeling confident, I left after a quick goodbye to my kids and Coco.

  I strode into the precinct with my badge around my neck and a confident swagger, although I had to admit to a case of nerves. What did Willow have on me? Was it just jealousy, or was there more to it? I guess I’d find out soon enough. Still, it couldn’t be anything serious. If only my stomach would stop churning, I might believe that.

  Stepping into the detectives’ office, I looked for Willow, wanting to hear her thoughts before she pounced on me. Dimples caught sight of me and waved me over, thinking that Willow had just arrived and was entrenched in the chief’s office. He didn’t like it.

  I sat beside him. “Really? And you have no idea what she’s saying?”

  “Not a clue.”

  “Damn.”

  “Since you’re here though, we can go over what happened last night.”

  “Okay… and we put you in Ramos’s spot, right?”

  He grimaced. “Yeah… we’ll say you called me instead of him. I was late, so I missed you at the bar. Everything else is the same.”

  “Okay… got it.”

  He let out a sigh and leaned his elbows on the desk. “Your testimony works for last night, but not for Brock’s murder and what they did to Sophie.”

  “Oh… so what do we need?”

  “Well… the murder weapon would be nice. But, beyond a confession, which neither of them will give, I think the only way for this to work is to get them to turn on each other. With your help, we might be able to do that.”

  “Right. Sounds like I need to talk to them.”

  Dimples glanced at the chief’s office, wondering what Willow could be saying to keep him in there for so long. “It might be good to do that before they’re done in there.” He picked up his phone. “I’ll have them bring Dex up to the interrogation room.”

  After Dimples finished his call, we had to wait for Dex. Each second we waited I worried that the chief’s door would open, and I’d get the boot. Finally, we got the signal that Dex was ready, and I leapt up to follow Dimples into the interrogation room.

  Dex sat with his wrists in handcuffs, locking him to the table. His swollen and bandaged nose, along with the black-and-blue swelling around his eyes, made him look like he’d been in a fight and lost. The goatee he’d been wearing was gone, so it must have been a disguise, and there was no sign of his glasses.

  Seeing me, his eyes glittered with malice. “What’s she doing here?”

  Dimples motioned me into a chair across from Dex. I wasn’t sure I wanted to sit that close, but I sat down anyway, hoping I didn’t look as uncomfortable as I felt. Dimples sat next to me, and I relaxed.

  “Didn’t you know? Shelby works for us. We’ve got you for kidnapping, attempted rape, and murder.”

  He jerked. “Murder? I didn’t kill anyone.” Realizing his mistake, he continued. “And I didn’t kidnap or rape her. She came willingly, and there was no sex involved. You’ve got nothing.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Dimples said. “Your little friend… your partner in crime… has taken a plea deal. He didn’t like getting charged with murder so he told us all about your scheme. He also told us all about Brock Blackwell and what you did to his wife, Sophie.”

  Dex shook his head in denial. “I don’t believe you. You’re bluffing. Randy would never rat me out.” He was thinking Randy was the perfect partner because he was so afraid of his secret getting out, that he’d never talk.

  I huffed out a derisive breath. “You think keeping his secret is worth more to him than going to jail? If you believe that, you don’t know him very well.”

  He went still and glanced between us, knowing that, if Randy talked, it was over. “I’m not saying another word.”

  I picked up his thoughts of the murder and how it happened. Angry and appalled, I threw them back at him. “We know you drugged Sophie and took her to her room. Things were going fine until her husband showed up. He couldn’t believe what was happening at first. His surprise gave you just enough time to attack him. You were in such a panic, that you stabbed him again and again.

  “As he lay dying, you had an idea to make it look like a lover’s quarrel so Sophie would get the blame. You positioned him on the bed and left Sophie lying next to him in a drugged stupor. You even cleaned yourself up in the bathroom before you left.”

  My hands curled into fists, and my voice shook with emotion. “Did you know it was their anniversary? They loved each other so much, and you took that away from them. You took their whole lives from them.” I swallowed, regaining some control. “But there’s something you don’t know…”

  He had listened with a stone cold face. Now his gaze jerked to mine. Still, he didn’t speak, thinking he wouldn’t let me get under his skin.

  I leaned forward and spoke softly. “Brock is still here.” I was telling the truth. I’d felt Brock’s presence and it was scaring the crap out of me.

  Dex jerked slightly before shaking his head. The man was dead. He’d made sure of that himself.

  “Oh… he’s dead all right. But that doesn’t mean he’s gone, and he’s more than upset with you. His dying wish was to see you pay for what you did. And, one way or another, that’s exactly what you’ll do.”

  Dex sneered, thinking that shit wasn’t going to work on him. How gullible did I think he was?

  The lights flickered a few times. Then the table began to shake. It got worse, with our chairs shaking so badly that they literally danced across the floor. Dex’s chair slipped out from under him and spun across the room. The only thing holding Dex in place were the handcuffs on his wrists attached to the table.

  The shaking stopped, and Dimples and I exchanged a surprised glance. He opened his mouth to speak, and the lights went out.

  CHAPTER 14

  The complete darkness sent my heart racing. I reached for Dimples. Finding his arm, I clutched it tightly. A grunting sound came from across the room, turning into a gut wrenching groan, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

  The chains holding Dex to the table began to clank together, like he was trying to get loose. As he jerked against his bonds, the sound came faster and faster, until I feared he’d break free. Another moan came, higher pitched and increasingly desperate.

  Freaking out, I gripped Dimples even harder. Without even thinking about it, we jumped to our feet and backed away from the awful sounds. Our backs hit the wall, but that didn’t stop me from clutching Dimples and trying to squeeze into a non-existent space behind him.

  We heard another desperate jerk, and Dex began to yell frantically, screaming at something to get away from him. He kept saying the word, no, over and over. Chills ran down my spine, and my legs barely held me up. I wanted nothing more than to get out of that room.

  “Let’s move to the door so we can get out of here,” Dimples said, over the din. He let go of me,
and I plastered myself against his back, wrapping my arms tightly around him. He took one step toward the door, dragging me behind.

  The noises coming from the area where Dex sat suddenly stopped. What had happened to him? It sounded like someone had tortured and killed him. Was he dead? The silence was almost as frightening as the screaming.

  Before Dimples took another step, the lights flashed on.

  We froze in place. My breath came fast and my heart pounded, but I wasn’t about to let go of Dimples. With apprehension, I turned my gaze toward Dex, hoping I wouldn’t find a bloody mess. His hands were still attached to the cuffs, but the rest of him was under the desk, like he’d tried to hide. He poked his head up and glanced around the room, his eyes darting from side to side.

  “He’s alive.” After all that noise he’d made, I could hardly believe it. Dimples straightened, and I reluctantly dropped my arms from around him.

  As Dimples moved back toward the table, I followed closely behind. Dex leaned his arms on the table to relieve the pressure on his wrists and licked his lips. He knelt on his knees in front of the desk, breathing heavily.

  Dimples surveyed the room for a threat. Finding none, he grabbed Dex’s chair and pulled it toward the kneeling man. Dex could barely get his legs under him, and gratefully sat, still out of breath, with his fists clenched and his wrists bruised and bleeding.

  His dark eyes were filled with terror and panic. All of his previous cockiness was gone, replaced by shock and fear. His gaze landed on Dimples, and a surge of anticipation filled him. “I’ll do it,” Dex said. “I’ll confess. I did it all. Just like you said. I’ll even put it in writing. Just. Get. Me. The Hell. Out of here.”

  Dimples glanced my way, wondering if this was for real. I nodded, and he stepped toward our chairs, bringing them both back to the desk. I didn’t want to get too close to Dex, so I stayed in the back corner, closer to the door.

  Dimples stooped to gather the scattered paperwork off the floor and slid a piece of paper toward Dex. Reaching into his suit coat, he pulled out a pen and set it on the paper. “Go ahead. Write it down, and sign it.”

  Exhaling with relief, Dex eagerly grabbed the pen and began to write. I wasn’t sure how legible it would be, since his hand shook so badly.

  “And be sure to include what your friend, Randy, did as well,” Dimples said. “Since he put the drugs in the drinks.”

  Dex didn’t look up, but gave a slight nod and kept writing. Every so often, his body jerked like he’d been slapped, and his eyes darted to look around the room or at the ceiling. At one point, he glanced into the corner where I stood, and I lurched back to my chair.

  With shaking legs, I pulled the chair a little behind Dimples and sat down. Every time Dex jerked, I did too. I even followed his gaze to the corners, but I couldn’t see a thing. That didn’t mean something wasn’t there, especially from what I picked up from Dex’s mind. I’d never felt such fear coming from anyone in my life.

  Finally reaching the bottom of the page, Dex signed his name. He sat hunched over the table, and his gaze kept darting around the room. “There. It’s done.” To the ceiling, he said, “Now leave me alone.”

  Dimples’ brow scrunched together. “I didn’t make you—”

  Dex slammed his fists on the table. “Just get me out of here! Get me the hell out!”

  I jerked to my feet and stepped back to my corner, not sure who scared me the most, Dex or the ghost.

  Dimples stood. “Take it easy man.” He stepped to the door and cracked it open. An officer stood outside, and Dimples motioned to him, pulling the door completely open. “We’re done here. Take this guy back to his cell.”

  The officer came in and unlocked the chain, then took Dex by the arm and led him out. Dex could barely stand, but he shuffled out of the room faster than I could imagine, no longer the confident jerk he was when he entered.

  After he left, Dimples turned to me, his eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar. “What just happened?”

  Before I could answer, a detective poked his head inside. “Are you guys okay?” Dimples and I exchanged glances before we both nodded. “That was some earthquake. It must have been close. I’ve never felt anything like it.”

  “Oh…” Dimples said. “Yeah… crazy.” He caught my gaze, thinking there was a lot more going on than that, right?

  I nodded. Before I could speak, the scent of Armani drifted through the air. Wafting through the room, like a purifying cleanse. Then it was gone. Dimples caught the scent, and his eyes widened. “That was him?” At my nod, he continued. “When Dex was saying to leave him alone, he wasn’t talking about us, was he?”

  “Nope.”

  “But the shaking… that was an earthquake, right?”

  “I guess so… but it’s kind of strange that the earthquake came right at that precise moment, you know?”

  Dimples huffed out a breath and nodded, thinking that experience was way beyond his pay grade, and he hoped nothing like that ever happened to him again. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  It didn’t take much to convince me to step from my corner and follow him out of the room. “That was intense.”

  “No kidding. I’m going to file the report, but I’m putting you down as the driving force behind his arrest. I don’t care what Willow or the chief has to say about it.”

  “Sure, that’s fine.” I was still a little shaky after the ordeal, and it was hard not to grab his arm, but I managed, and followed closely behind him back into the bullpen. The chief was busy inspecting the building for damage, while everyone else looked a little shocked.

  The room didn’t seem any worse for wear. No cracks on the ceiling or fallen artwork with broken glass on the floor. The only damage of significance seemed to be a few paper files lying on the floor, which people quickly picked up.

  Willow stood by the chief. Catching sight of us, she hurried in our direction. As Dimples continued on to his desk, Willow stopped beside me, placing her hand on my arm. She drew me toward the filing cases where no one could hear us.

  Dropping her hand, she leaned toward me like she was sharing a secret. “Wasn’t that earthquake insane? I was in the chief’s office when it hit. It shook everything up for a few seconds before it quit.” She shook her head, thinking it was a sign. One of the clearest signs she’d ever received.

  I picked up an image of tarot cards, and my eyes widened. “Were you giving the chief a card reading?” Her face slackened with shock, but she gave me a slight nod. “What did they say?”

  She shook her head. “That’s just for him, but I tell you… it was the strangest reading I’ve ever given. I’d just pulled out the reversed Tower card when the earthquake hit. Isn’t that crazy?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. What does that mean?”

  “When it’s reversed like that, it can mean that there’s a breakdown or a crisis looming. And just after I pulled it, the earthquake hit.”

  “Oh… wow… that is interesting.”

  “Yes, and with the Wheel of Fortune and the Justice cards both reversed as well… it’s troubling.”

  Since I had no idea what that meant, I just nodded. She caught my gaze and came to a decision. “I think my work here is done.” She thought, with the turmoil surrounding me, and the pull of chaos it brought, she finally understood that this wasn’t the place for her. Not if I was going to stay.

  She realized that she’d been caught up in my circle of influence, and now she was thankful she hadn’t gone through with her plans to tell the chief about my two-faced nature. I must be a Gemini to work for both sides at once. Add that to my ties with the underworld, and it didn’t bode well.

  Her use of the word underworld shocked me at first, but then I picked up that she was mostly thinking of it metaphorically as the mob, since underworld encompassed that whole dark-side thing.

  She glanced my way, thinking that she had to hand it to me… amid the chaos, I was the great equalizer. I brought the balance. It didn’t
make sense to her, but it worked, and she knew better than to interfere, especially after the sign of the earthquake. It didn’t get more powerful than that.

  Holy hell. I wasn’t sure what all of that meant, but it sounded like the earthquake had done more for me than I knew. If she was going to accuse me of helping Uncle Joey during the police investigation targeting him, I’d just dodged a bullet.

  She met my gaze with a tentative smile, wanting to leave on good terms. “It was nice meeting you, Shelby.”

  “Uh… yeah. You too.”

  “You’re one of a kind, but I have to warn you…” She glanced around before speaking. “There’s a black cloud of trouble that seems to follow you, so be careful, okay? I think you’re a force for good, but you’re walking a fine line. One false move and it could come back to haunt you.”

  Why did she have to say haunt? I’d had enough haunting for one day to last a lifetime. I nodded. “Uh… sure. Thanks for the warning.”

  She nodded, and her gaze fell on Dimples. “It looks like Drew is busy. Do you mind telling him goodbye for me?” A heavy urgency to leave washed over her, and she couldn’t wait to get out of the building. Maybe there was an aftershock coming? Whatever it was… she didn’t want to be here when it happened.

  “Yes… of course.”

  “Thanks.” She turned on her heel and headed straight for the exit.

  Whoa. An aftershock? Should I leave too? Dimples sat at his computer, busy writing his report. It didn’t look like he needed me for anything else, so I might as well go.

  I stepped toward his desk, but a commotion in the hallway caught my attention. I heard Bates before I saw him. He was arguing with a young man and dragging him into the room by the crook of his arm. As he continued toward the interrogation room, he caught sight of me. “Shelby. We got him. Why don’t you come with me so we can sort this out?”

  Crap. It was Xavier. Was this the disaster Willow was worried about? “Uh… sure.”

  Filled with misgiving, I followed Bates back into the same room I’d just left. Knowing Brock was gone gave me the courage to go in there, but I still didn’t like it.