Angela turned to me. “It’s three hundred years old, Haunt. Breaking a lock on such an antique item is not an option.”
I understood this, but didn’t like it.
“What if I pick the lock?” Dive asked.
“You can do that?” Angela asked.
“Yeah.”
Angela paced back and forth for a few moments while we watched her before stopping to look at me.
“If this Jeremiah is linked to the box, then we need to open it,” she finally said. “The Mermaid Inn doesn’t deserve this.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed and nodded to Dive.
He yanked some picklocks out of his pocket and crouched down. My club and the GSI hunters crowded around to watch. It took Dive mere moments before we heard the rusty lock click and the padlock dropped off. Dive removed the lamp and stepped back.
“It’s your trunk,” he said to Angela. She stepped forward and then backed away.
“No. One of you can open it; there’s something bad in there.”
I nodded at Dive, and he bent and lifted the lid.
“Well, shit. We’re now aware of what happened to Jeremiah,” he muttered.
I stepped forward and winced. “Holy fuck!”
The trunk contained a man’s remains; he was mostly bone, but shreds of dried, mummified skin were still attached. The bottom of the trunk was stained with what I could only assume were body fluids. Scraps of clothing remained, and I knew we were looking at Jeremiah Bellowes.
“His head was caved in,” Callie said, approaching the trunk.
“Jeremiahwasmurdered, and probably by Thomas. It seems the family had the correct version of the truth. We’ll have to contact law enforcement,” Michelle declared.
“Yeah. Damn, this could cause problems,” I muttered.
“Will they shut down the Inn?” Angela asked, panicked.
“I doubt that. The bones look old, and the cops will remove them for testing,” I replied.
“Gloria found the family plus the trunk? What’s the betting she used clairvoyance to determine what was inside, then called hisspirit? Jeremiah’s probably haunted here and never had notice until Gloria discovered him, giving him a double boost. One from Gloria noticing him, which gave him strength to act up. The second came from the sheer disrespect of his trunk and bones being placed in the room named after his murderer. No wonder this escalated so fast,” Callie said.
“Yeah. I can’t believe they’d do this,” I ground out.
“They did, and we need to stop it,” Reaver stated grimly. “Jeremiah is only going to continue growing stronger. If we don’t stop him now, then he’ll be too strong.”
I saw in his eyes that he was remembering the story of the dead priest. I nodded grimly and pulled out my phone.
The police took their sweet time coming. Darkness set in before they arrived. Two uniformed officers entered the Mermaid Inn during our meal.
“We received word regarding some discovered bones?” the first asked directly.
His gaze shifted to my brothers and me in our cuts, and I understood his train of thought. Angela did too and stiffened indignantly. Ignoring the first, she turned to the second officer, PC Welsh. He met Angela’s eyes with a warm smile.
“Please explain what has happened.”
Angela did, although when she explained about the ghosts, the first cop rolled his eyes. PC Jenners was annoying. Welsh continued listening and paying attention, asking questions until he and Jenners accompanied Angela to the trunk.
“Asshole,” Sunny complained, nodding after Jenners.
