“They get angry when we come here,” he said, speaking just loudly enough to be barely heard. “Especially the ones below deck. You can’t keep the bodies hidden. They float right back up to be with the living.”
He’d been looking out over the water, but he turned quickly and stared right into the camera.
Where the hell was Dane? Why hadn’t he stayed to watch this video with me? I was freaking myself out like a baby. But this wasn’t right. Something was seriously wrong with William Drake.
“I shouldn’t have come here,” he said, his eyes dead set on the camera, not blinking.
The video ended there. A deep cut to black that had me jumping again.
I stared at the screen, my pulse pounding. What the hell was that? I wanted to restart the video to watch for more clues, but my brain wouldn’t let my finger hit the replay button. It was too freaky.
If this was video footage from the night of his death, I understood why the police and Lonny believed it was a suicide. It still didn’t explain the lack of water in his lungs, but William did not seem lucid. He was clearly not in his right mind. If this was the last night of William’s life, it left more questions than answers.
“Dane!” I yelled. “You need to see this.”
And I needed someone to watch it with me if I replayed it.
I’d never taken the ghost theory too seriously, but what if William was talking to ghosts? Or at least he believed he was? Did they push him over the edge? Either physically or through mental collusion?
Dane ran down the spiral staircase, not worried about his life like I was every time I walked down the shaky steps. “What? Are you okay? What happened?”
We watched the video again.
“Where’d you hear that William had no water in his lungs? Did they publish that in the papers?” he asked after a moment of thought.
I shook my head. “No, we requested the autopsy report. It’s standard procedure. Once the initial reports of his death passed, I don’t think his results got much notice. Few people concern themselves with the death of an unmarried guy.”
He wasn’t the heartbroken bride story the city clung to so deeply. Anything with couples or kids got attention. And women. Audiences loved a woman killer.
“Send me the file,” he said. “I want Spencer to review it. Make sure it’s legit.”
“Who’s Spencer?” Was he another muscular SEAL running around the country wooing women?
Dane took my phone and sent himself the email when I didn’t move fast enough. “He’s our IT guy.”
“You think it’s a fake?” It didn’t seem fake, but I’d also seen some really believable AI in the last year.
Dane shrugged. “Just covering our bases.”
“Better safe than sorry.” I sat back against the couch. “We have to solve this, Dane. For William.” This was about more than finding myself recognition for solving the case. We needed to figure out what had happened to William so he could rest.
He put his hand on my knee. “I’m going to help you, but it’s important to keep you safe. We have to go about things smartly now that it seems the killer is aware we’re here and active.”
I swallowed hard.
13
“I agree. We need to be smart about this case,” I said as Dane gave me a quick pat.
It seemed we were so close to learning what actually happened to Drake. We just needed to find the missing piece.
Or figure out who broke into my room.
Or learn the identity of the person who got the job at Boone Hall after William’s death.
Okay, fine. We were missing a few pieces of the puzzle.
Ugh, why was solving a murder so difficult?
