“Yes, so you are. And even if I had this boozy juice, or whatever you think it is called, there is no way in hell that I’d bring you back. Want to know why?” Zack nodded. “Because you’re fucking dead.”
When she shouted out the last part of her statement to Zack, Chandler lost it. He was laughing too hard to hear what else was being said to Zack because he had to leave the room. Christ, he’d not laughed as hard as he had in the last few days than he thought he had in his entire adult life.
He was in the hallway when Sawyer reached out to him again. After telling him that Zack was there with them, he had him ask where the husband was of the officer that he’d killed. Going into the office again, he saw that Zack was still arguing with Sasha, who looked as if she was ignoring him. He didn’t know how that was working for her—Zack was right up in her face.
“Where is the husband of the officer that was in your car when you killed yourself?” Zack said he didn’t know what he was talking about. “Of course you do. You might be dead, but you have a good enough memory to know that your sister can talk to you. Where is he?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Chandler nearly walked away, then had a sudden thought. If they could get angry and hurt someone, why couldn’t he? Letting his cat take him, Chandler lunged at the ghost and felt the impact of their anger meeting.
Chandler might have thought about this more had he more time, or had even guessed what was going to happen. Or even had a small clue of what might take place when his formed cat hit the body of a pissed off ghost.
It wasn’t like he’d seen in the movies where he got all slimed up. No, it was much worse than that. Chandler saw every movement of Zack’s death. The way he’d been flipped over and over in the car until he flew out the front windshield. Hitting the pavement and having his already broken body torn up from the gravel and other things that tore into him. There was no pain to what he witnessed, but he could control it. He knew too that the woman in the car with him had been dead before Zack had left the garage where she’d parked the cruiser.
Backing himself up, like one would rewind a movie, he went back further and further in the dream-like state he was in. He saw where the woman suddenly appeared in front of him and went back slowly. This was by far the strangest thing he’d ever done.
Chandler did wonder for a moment what was going on with his body. Did he look dead? Was he still his cat? Regardless, he thought to himself, he was getting information that he didn’t think he’d get any other way.
The woman came out of her house, kissing her husband goodbye. Once he had knowledge of the man, he let it go ahead now. Just a frame or two at a time. The man’s death, a horrid thing, had Chandler cringing from it. Zack had killed them both right there on the front stoop of the house. Chandler knew where the man’s body was and how he’d murdered him.
“Chandler.” He looked up at Sasha when she said his name. She asked him if he was all right, and as his cat, he realized, he told her that he was just fine. “Good. Zack disappeared as soon as you hit the floor just now. I don’t know what you did, but it must have hurt him quite a bit. I’ve never seen anyone go through a ghost like that before. Did it hurt you?”
“No. How long was I out?” Sasha asked him what he meant. “I must have been out for a while. I got to see, like you would on a reel to reel movie, everything that Zack did in the last few hours. I wonder if I could have seen more if I had thought about it. I could even rewind like I would a movie. It was fucking strange.”
“You didn’t do anything but just jump through him and land right there. Zack sort of paused as you were about halfway through him, then he exploded, like fireworks on the Fourth. What do you think might have happened?” He told her what he’d seen. “He killed them both then. I guess I knew that he had, but I didn’t want to believe it. Now, what do you have to do? Besides call Sawyer.”
Chandler looked up at the grandfather clock when it dinged the half-hour. They had thirty minutes to get to the courthouse. He told Sasha that he’d tell his brother then. If he didn’t make it to the wedding, then he’d use their link.
Rushing around, they were thankful that the baby was going to stay there with the nanny they’d hired. His mom would come and get her after the wedding, but for now, having to figure out the car seat and the diaper bag again would have surely made them late.
They were pulling up in front of the big building just as the clock was dinging in the big clock over the courthouse. Not only was Sawyer there, but there were state police as well as cops from a few jurisdictions that he’d never heard of. But today, he didn’t care. He was getting married. Whatever happened now could wait. He had his wedding to attend, and he was finished with Zack as far as he was concerned.
~*~
Sasha listened to what Chandler was saying to the officers that were there. Sawyer said that he wasn’t working the case but helping out because he knew the area so well. It was a time like this that having someone know the area would not help at all. Al Windermere was not just dead, but while the police had been chasing Zack, he’d thrown out the man’s body parts as he drove. Chandler had witnessed it all once he figured out what her brother had done.
“He must have known just where he was going because he not only knew where everything was in the garage to make it happen, but he also had it figured out what time Cindy left for work.” One of the officers asked why he’d hit them and not one of the other twenty cops that lived closer to the station. “She was on the arresting team that was there when he was taken down. I guess he figured that he’d get some payback before he was put in prison.”
“Now, he’s dead.” The officer shook his head as he stood there, asking questions. “What sort of person does that to another human being? I know that there are sick individuals out there, but to take a man who did nothing more than be married to a cop and do that to them? I just can’t think about it too hard. It breaks my heart to have to tell that couple’s parents what a horrible thing has been done to them. I have a good mind not to tell them at all. Just let them know that their son died in the execution of a crime and leave it at that. If they ask me if they need to identify him? Well, then I’ll just explain to them that there is no need for that. His body was badly damaged in the accident. Not a lie, just stretching the truth a little bit.”
Sasha thought that was a good way to go with breaking the news to the family. However, from what she’d seen already on the news, not only did she think that the family knew that their loved ones were dead, they had a good idea who had done it as well. She had seen her brother after he was dead and thought that seeing another man in worse shape might be more than she could handle.
Zack had made a name for himself as he went out, not just from the mutilation of the man and his wife, but the fact that he’d killed three officers as well as stolen a car. Sasha thought that if he did come back, she’d ask him about it. She even said that to Chandler.
“Don’t. That’s what he wants, I think. To have people talking about him. Saying his name. I think that what the captain said to Sawyer before the news media arrived about not saying his name is the best way to handle this. Don’t give him anything he wants. Even dead, you know that he’s out there someplace bragging about his kills and what he did to that couple. Just don’t mention it at all. Honey, I’d be more worried about what you’re going to tell your mother and sister.”
“That he’s dead and nothing more. If they want more, they can ask about it. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s all I’m going to say. They had to know, both of them, that this was where he was headed. Zack has never been not in trouble. From the time—it doesn’t matter now. He’s gone, and it’s over with.” She smiled up at him. “I’m going to go do it now, I think. While the wedding is still fresh in my mind. I’m not going to let them take my good feelings away by telling them what we did, but I am going to tell them both that Za
ck is gone and that there will be no funeral services for him. I can’t afford it anyway.”
Chandler knew that any one or all of his family would pay for the funeral. They’d even have a big one should Sasha want it. But to him, this was the best way to deal with it. Have him cremated with no mention of it in the paper at all. It would be hard enough having a funeral for someone that the community would hate when they found out eventually anyway.
He went with her to the jail. One of the cops had made it so that her sister and mother were in the same room when they went to see them. The recording of the accident hadn’t been released yet to the general public, and he wondered if it would be. He got permission from the captain to show it to Zack’s sister and mother so that they’d know what had happened. Chandler had a feeling that they’d believe that Sasha was lying. And that just would break her heart, he thought.
“So, you’ve come to bail us out. I think that is only fitting since you’re the one that put us in here anyway. What do you have to say for yourself, Sasha? I’m sure that you should begin by saying how sorry you are that you got us into trouble.” Sasha told them that they’d done the trouble all on their own. “And we would have kept right on doing well for ourselves if you’d just kept your fucking nose out of our shit. You even made your sister cry. They embarrassed her when they told her that she’d have to have a reinforced cot. Not to mention bigger blankets. You’re nothing but a fucking whore. That’s all you are. A whore that should have been strangled at birth.”
“I worked really hard to lose all that weight too, and they just had to make fun of me like I didn’t slim down a great deal. You’re just a bitch. You always have been jealous of my being able to shed the pounds when you had to work so hard at it.” Sasha rolled her eyes at her sister when she started wailing about how she’d lost hundreds of pounds, and now she was in here. “They said that I’d have to go on a program and lose more weight. How the hell am I going to lose anything, Sasha? I’m going to waste away to nothing because of you.”
“Oh, fucking stop lying to yourself. You’ve not lost a single pound, Pearl. You’re fat, get over yourself. And you’ll be fat until someone starts giving you only food that is good for you. You’ve not lost hundreds of pounds. It would take years—no, decades—for you to waste away to nothing. Holy Christ, you both drive me insane.” She looked at her mother. “You have no right to say those things to me. None at all. I’ve not given you a single reason to blame me for whatever shit you’ve gotten yourself into.”
Chandler wanted to tell her family for her. He’d told her that all the way here. When she turned to him now, he could see the pleading in her eyes, begging him to do what she just couldn’t.
When she turned and left him there to do this, Chandler drew in a deep breath. Just tell them, his mind screamed at him. But his heart thought that he could do it calmer. However, when Katie told him to shit or get off the pot, his heart simply froze up for them.
“Zack is dead. He killed three officers this morning, as well as a civilian. After taking off in a patrol car right after he killed the first officer, he went to the Windermere’s home and killed them both.” Katie told him he was a liar. “Believe what you will, but he’s dead. He would have been executed by the state for his actions today anyway, so this will save the state some money on having to house and take care of the idiot. Yes, he was an idiot. Who in the world thinks that they can outrun the police after murdering one of their brothers? No one. And if you call my wife a whore again, I will hunt you down and make what happened to your son look like you’re trying out for the beauty pageant. And you—” He looked at Pearl. “Grow the fuck up and look at yourself in the mirror. The only person shoving food in your face is yourself. Zack is dead. Blame that on yourself if you want to. But never my wife again.”
He let his cat take him, not caring at all that he was in his only good suit, or that there were cameras rolling all around him, and several officers nearby. He snapped at them both, letting them see the large and dangerous teeth that he had. Then when he thought they had screamed enough about what he’d done, he lifted his leg up and pissed on both of them. Not just on their feet, but all the way up to their laps. Fucking bitches needed to be taught more of a lesson, but he wanted to go on his short honeymoon. With his wife. Hell, he might not even read a single paper when he was gone.
Walking out of the station, he heard someone applauding. Pausing long enough to look around, there were more people doing the same thing. Not just officers, but there were undercover cops, as well as his wife and family. They were cheering him on for what he’d said to the other two, but also how he’d handled pissing on them.
Immature? Yes, yes, it was. But he didn’t regret it at all. He might not ever do anything like that again, but he sure was feeling pretty good about himself for doing it today. Until he looked at his mom. She stood there, tapping her foot at him.
“Did you enjoy that?” He nodded at her, putting his forehead on her knee to show her how sorry he was. “Well, I did not. I wanted to piss on them too. To call my daughter a whore? Well, if they do it again, I’m going to be the one peeing on them. You got that, Chandler?”
Yes, ma’am. He looked up at her. You cursed. I don’t think I’ve never heard you curse before in all my life.
“I’m about as mad as I’ve ever been before.” He told her that he’d been that way too. “Good. I love you to pieces, Chandler, but you need to do that more often. You’re the softest one of my sons, not a girly soft, but you have a tender heart. Don’t let those people railroad you into feeling sorry for them. You keep on showing that you’re a tiger and not a man who wouldn’t hurt a fly. All right?”
I can do that.
She scratched him behind the ear before turning her back to him. When she told someone to go out to their car and get him something to put on, all five of his brothers and his dad took off running. Chandler thought that they were just as shocked as he was about hearing their mom curse. It was going to be marked on his calendar when he got home. He might, someday, make it a special holiday or something on his own personal calendar. He’d have to give that some thought.
He changed into some jeans and a T-shirt before leaving the courthouse. When a limo pulled up in front of the steps where they were standing, he kissed Sasha and told her that he loved her. After getting into the car and it driving away, she turned to him.
“I love you, Chandler. Thank you for today. It was beautiful. All the flowers and the cake. The pictures were a nice touch too.” He told her that he loved her, as well. “I have an idea. Let’s head to the hotel and have some fun, then tomorrow let’s go get Pip and take a long drive to Amish country. I’ve not been there in ages. It’ll be a nice way for us to forget about all the shit that is going on.”
“Excellent idea, my dear. Excellent. We’ll have to get some things while there. I know that my mom loves to get some of their cheeses and such. Dad will murder us if we don’t bring him back some jerky.” Sasha giggled. “I love you more with each beat of my heart, Sasha Bishop.”
“And I love you more than that, Chandler Bishop.”
They were both laughing all the way to the hotel. He had plans for his little bride after he fortified himself with a nice thick steak with all the trimmings. His parents had gotten him a gift card, and he planned to use it all tonight with Sasha.
Chapter 8
Gunner had brought Sasha out the morning that he’d told her he would, and now he was digging up places that he had marked himself. There were forty graves out here—not graves, he supposed, but plots of ground that held the dead. The saying that the dead didn’t tell you much, or something like that, wasn’t true. They were telling them plenty today. Sasha had contacted a couple of the ghosts so that they’d be prepared to be dug up today.
“Why did you have to tell them?” Sasha just looked at him, a look of confusion on her face. “The dead. Why did you warn th
em that they’d be found today? I’m sure that there is a good reason. No one has to know it, but I am curious.”
“Most of these dead have been in the ground for a great many years. I wanted to make sure that they were all dug up before we left. So I contacted a couple of the younger ones that I knew had been put here and asked them to let the others know. That way, if they want, they can be ready to move on if they wish it. A great many of the people out here have hung around only because they wanted their bodies to be accounted for. I guess they wanted to make sure that Gauthier got what he deserved.” Gunner asked her if she thought he would. “If not from the police, then he will get it when he passes from this world to the other. They aren’t to harm the living, the dead aren’t. But they can take care that whoever killed them—and it must be murder—they get their piece of him. And by that, I mean they do get their piece of him. It’s brutal, Hailey told me.”
Gunner watched the sun coming up over the trees and wondered what the dead would do to him. He’d not been a good person at all, much less kind to the deceased. Gunner wasn’t known to be kind to himself. But with this, he hoped that it might help someone that had a loved one lost here.
“Not all the dead are from Gauthier. Did you know that?” Gunner told Sasha that he’d had a feeling that he’d opened up his land for others to bury people there. “I don’t know if it can help you or not, but they know who it was that killed them. I can give you that information if you want it. Also, you should know that there are more bodies than these. There are a lot of others under the sunporch that was put on twenty years ago. You’ll need to get that dug up as well.”
“Yes, that will be helpful. When you find out a name, all you need to do is log it in here if it’s not on the list of missing people. The list is fairly long, I’m sorry. It’s from about nineteen twenty until recently. None of us think that he did all this on his own, so it’s good to know that he had some help with the amount out here.”
Chandler: Bishop’s Snowy Leap – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance (Bishop's Snowy Leap Book 2) Page 10
