Krewe of Hunters: The Hidden Part 32

Then they'd headed to the museum, reset the alarm after entering and called up to Lara, Matt and Meg to let them know that they were downstairs.

But Brett had paused to question her before going up.

"Surprisingly okay," she a.s.sured him. "I just wonder, how could anyone have rigged that moose head? I don't want to believe Ben is doing this, but it has to be him. He and Trisha bought the heads. It's their house. He was working in the dining room, painting, today."

"I'd say this has all been in the works for a long time. Daniel was killed months ago, and we don't even know for sure that was the beginning. That means any number of people had the chance to rig the moose. Not to mention there's been nothing resembling security around here until this week, and there's still no alarm up at the main house. In a way, the fact that so much evidence points at Ben suggests that he's being set up." He hesitated.

"What? What else?" she asked him.

"We talked to Will Chan today. He's still working on your camera, but he thinks someone did mess with it, that they took pictures of pictures in a book and then hacked the workings so they'd be erased two minutes after being viewed. So it's almost certain that the killer rigged both your camera and the moose head."

"Actually, that's a relief," she told him. "Because I just don't think Ben could have faked his reaction to those pictures."

"I agree. We're moving forward, we really are."

She studied Brett. "I keep wondering... The pictures on my camera, they were an illusion. Do you think it's possible that something else is going on here, that it's all really an illusion? That the murders of Nathan Kendall's descendants are a smoke screen for something else? I mean, this far down the line, how do we really know who's descended from Nathan and who's not? Someone might have fooled around outside of marriage, so there could be descendants who aren't on record, or supposed descendants who really aren't. How can we ever know the truth?"

"We can't, not really. But if the killings are a smoke screen, we still have to figure out for what. I don't know. Maybe there is something here at the ranch that someone wants. But it's late now, and none of us will be any good without sleep. Are you ready to head up?"

"In a few minutes. I just need a little time alone first."

"All right," Brett said. He walked over and made sure that the door was locked and that the "armed" light on the alarm was blinking as it should be.

When he was gone, she stood alone in the museum. She looked around at the display cases and the many mannequins.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly, thinking of all the tragedy that had invaded Nathan's life and the lives of so many of his descendants now.

She felt Daniel's presence even before he spoke to her.

"Do you play the slot machines?" he asked her.

"Pardon?" She frowned as she stared at him. He was good; he looked as solid as any man on the street.

He smiled. "Slots. I love them. Loved them, that is. And they have all kinds of bonuses that really increase your payoff. But the thing is, there's no way to walk into a casino and know that a slot machine is ready to give. You can sit at one forever and ever, and that bonus just won't kick in. Other times, you just sit down and the bonus triggers and triggers and triggers. And the thing is, life is like that. Some men just touch money and it makes more money. They get sick, but they always get well. Some people do atrocious things to others and get away with it. Sometimes your life is like the machine that pays off nonstop. Other lives, there just isn't going to be a bonus. That was me, Scarlet. And Ca.s.sandra," he added softly. "We just weren't meant to have a bonus."

"Oh, Daniel, I'm so sorry. But," she said, and then hesitated. "You are here-as a ghost, true, but still you're here. We're talking. You met Ca.s.sandra. Maybe life is like a slot machine. Your first life wasn't your day for the bonus. But now you have another life, and maybe this time you'll get the bonus."

He grinned. "I wish I could give you a hug," he said. Then he went quiet and nodded toward the stairs and the pedestal where Nathan's statue stood. "He's here," he said quietly.

Scarlet turned and stared at the mannequin. As she watched, Nathan Kendall stepped around it and started walking toward her.

"h.e.l.lo, Nathan," she said quietly.

He looked at her for a long moment. Then his eyes narrowed as he turned and stared at Daniel.

Daniel grinned. "Hey, Gramps!" he said.

Scarlet ignored Daniel and addressed Nathan. "You've been here all along, haven't you?"

He nodded.

"Do you move the mannequin?" she asked. "Not up the stairs-we know Terry did that. But when it fell over, that was you, wasn't it?"

Nathan seemed to wince. He nodded. She realized that he'd been there for years and years, watching and waiting, but apparently he'd never tried to communicate before. He might be an old ghost, but he wasn't at all a practiced ghost.

He was a ghost, just as Daniel was. But the spirit that remained was the essence of the man, and some men were outgoing, like Daniel, and others were introverted, dealing privately with the demons that had plagued their lives, and clearly Nathan was the latter.

She smiled and moved closer to him. "You've been trying to help us, haven't you? You pushed your statue over because you were trying to tell us that what's happening now is connected to what happened to you."

"Yes," he said, and his voice was like the wind blowing over brittle leaves in winter. "I can push," he said, and he almost managed a smile. "But I cannot carry."

"It's all right, we know that Terry moved the statue upstairs," she said. "But what we don't know and hope you do is who killed you. Was it Rollo?"

She knew that it was painful for him to speak, but she felt she had no choice but to press him. This was important. Crucial.

"I don't know. I never knew, I only knew that I was going to die. All I saw was the burlap bag he wore over his head," he said, and winced. "A mask like the ones we wore when we were robbing banks and stagecoaches. I did bad things, things that hurt people. Perhaps I deserved what happened to me, but..."

"Did you recognize his voice?" Scarlet asked.

"I felt as if I should have, but...I didn't. He might have disguised it. I don't know."

"Do you know what he wanted from you? Was he looking for the gold?"

He nodded. "Yes. He kept demanding to know where it was. I tried to play for time, but the pain..." A shadow crossed his face as he remembered. "I prayed that someone would come, that Jillian and the baby would escape." His voice grew stronger as he spoke. "But she must have heard, and she rushed out and surprised him, so he turned and shot her, and for the love of G.o.d, all I could do was scream her name until... Until I realized I wasn't making a sound. That was when I realized I was dead."

"Why didn't you just give him the gold?" Scarlet asked.

"Because I never knew where Jillian had hidden it," he said softly. "I found it by accident, after a hard rain that revealed a vein of pure riches-what Rollo was looking for, I imagine. So I dug it out and gave it to her, told her to put it where I wouldn't know and couldn't be tempted. Maybe she left it with her father, I don't know. It was for a rainy day, for our son."

"It was Rollo-it must have been Rollo," Scarlet said. "I can't believe it was your father-in-law." She'd meant the words as a statement, but they came out sounding more like a question.

The ghost of Nathan Kendall shook his head sadly. "Never Tom Vickers. He may not have liked me, but never would the man have killed his own daughter."

"Do you know if the gold is connected to what's happening now?" she asked. "Could someone know you found gold and that it's somewhere here, on the ranch?"

"I wish I'd never found it," Nathan said. He looked at Daniel and shook his head sadly. "So much tragedy because of man's greed."

"Well, I didn't have any gold. I wasn't worth more than what I had in my pockets," Daniel said.

"I think every bit of this has been planned- starting with your death, Daniel," Scarlet said. "The killer is looking for the gold, pure and simple, but he wants it to look like someone has gone crazy and started killing descendants of Nathan Kendall. I think his original plan was for Ben to be arrested for the murders, but when it became clear that wasn't going to work he switched tactics and started finding ways to ruin Ben's business, like that trick with the moose head. Either way, the business would end up closed down and the place would be abandoned, maybe forever. But even if it was only temporary, while Trisha tried to sell the property, the killer would be free to rip it apart from stem to stern until he found the gold."

Nathan Kendall nodded and looked at Daniel, but he was fading. "I'm so sorry," he said. He was almost gone, but before he faded entirely he approached Scarlet, who felt a gentle touch on her cheek.

Then he was gone.

Daniel met her eyes and asked, "Did you hear him?"

"Just now?"

"Yes."

"I heard him tell you he was sorry."

"Perhaps the dead hear the dead speak more clearly than the living. Because he told you to be careful. He's afraid for you, Scarlet. So am I."

"You don't need to be, either of you. I am careful," she promised, then thought about the past-and the present.

"And I have Diego," she said.

But did she?

Maybe not forever. Maybe he was only here because he was an honorable man who had sworn to serve and protect.

"Daniel," she said.

But he was gone, too.

She looked around the quiet museum and a chill settled into her bones.

She prayed there were no more horrors to come.

But as she ran upstairs to join the others, she knew in her gut that her prayers would go unanswered.

17.

It was getting late. Diego saw to it that the guests left-escorted-and got rooms at a brand-new name-brand hotel down by the highway. Lieutenant Gray promised that officers would be a.s.signed to watch both couples and Terry Ballantree, tracking their movements 24/7. He shook his head like a sad old bulldog when he took his leave. "Hope you know what you're doing, Agent McCullough. Hope you know what you're doing."

"Lieutenant Gray, I always hope that myself," Diego said drily.

After Linda, Ben and Trisha went up to bed, Diego joined Matt and Meg, who had returned to the main house, along with Adam and Jane. They sat up late, discussing the events of the night and their plan to keep watch through the hours ahead.

"I was here most of the day, and other than Ben, I didn't see anyone in the dining room," Adam told them. "It would have taken a while to set up such an elaborate weapon, so my money is on it having been in place for a while."

"Yes, but until today," Jane said, "no one knew we were going to have a seance."

"True," Diego admitted, "which means whoever rigged that moose head was playing the long game."

"And that points to Ben," Adam said.

"Too conveniently?" Matt suggested.

Diego turned to Adam. "Scarlet believes that Nathan Kendall was killed by Rollo Conway, the original owner of this property. She thinks Rollo was bitter about having to sell, certain that Nathan had found the gold Rollo had spent years looking for with no luck. Rollo never found anything worthwhile on his other property, so it must have burned him up to think Nathan had gotten rich on what should have been his gold. So Rollo tortured Nathan to get him to give up the location of the gold. I think Rollo wore the burlap bag over his head to look like one of the thugs Nathan had ridden with. He probably didn't know they were all dead at that point. If that theory's true, our killer might not have any connection to Nathan Kendall, he might be distantly related to Rollo Conway. Can we get our researchers on that?"

"I'll make the call now," Adam said.

"I think it's about three in the morning back East," Diego said.

"The Krewe never sleeps," Adam said lightly.

Meg grinned at Diego. "Our tech office is staffed 24/7-just waiting to hear what we might need."

"Nice," Diego said.

The Krewe of Hunters. He liked it. What the h.e.l.l had he been thinking, not to jump right on immediately with Brett?

He'd been thinking that if he just stuck to his comfortable life in Miami and worked hard, somehow he would learn to live, really live, again without Scarlet.

"Do you think we'll find out that someone in our suspect pool is a descendant of Rollo Conway?" Matt asked.

Diego mulled that over for a moment. "I don't know. But there's real logic to the theory, so let's just say I wouldn't be surprised."

"I keep wondering if we should have cleared this place out at the start," Adam said.

"I don't think we'd have saved any lives," Diego said. "In fact, I think we would have made it easier for the killer to search this place for the gold or whatever it is he's after, and that he still would have killed people, because that's his cover for what he really wants. Anyway, I'm hoping we scared our killer tonight, and a scared killer makes mistakes."

"Ready to run, or do something desperate because he believes the ghost really saw something and Scarlet knows what it is?" Jane asked.

"Except that if she does know something, it seems pretty clear she has no idea what it is," Meg said thoughtfully.

"I have no idea whether she knows anything or not," Diego said, "but after tonight everyone will think she does, and I have to admit that worries me."

"We're missing something-something we should know from the journals," Jane said.

Diego nodded, feeling his throat tighten. "I need to get back," he said huskily.

"Brett and Lara are at the apartment with her, and the alarm is set. She's all right," Meg said firmly.

"I know. I just need to get back anyway," Diego said.

"Go," Adam told him.

Diego nodded. He headed for the door and then paused. "Tomorrow I'm going to talk to Lieutenant Gray about taking Ben and Trisha in."

"So now you do think they're guilty?" Jane asked.

"No. I think they're innocent. But I think they're in danger-just as Scarlet and Terry and Gray himself are-and making it look like we suspect them is the best way to protect them. Ben will understand if you explain it and if it means he's helping the investigation, not to mention I think he's finally realized his wife might be in danger, too."

"What about Linda Reagan?" Meg asked.

"I think she bears watching," Adam said.

Diego nodded.