Krewe Of Hunters: Haunted Destiny Part 7

The ship has many beautiful young women aboard. A veritable feast for the so-called Archangel.

Clara shivered again, then managed a smile. "I'm going to stick close to all of you."

"The cops aren't sharing much information," Simon said. "I read somewhere that the women weren't just found in churches, but that they were all posed, with saints' medallions around their necks. What do you suppose it means?"

"I didn't hear about that," Ralph said. "I'll bet the cops weren't supposed to give out that information. I guess some of 'em talk when they're off duty. And once the media gets hold of something...well, you know! Of course, I don't think anyone could miss the news that he leaves his victims in churches. Or sometimes on the steps."

Jude was intent on watching their faces and was startled when Alexi Cromwell suddenly rose. Her meal was only half-eaten.

She seemed to notice that everyone was staring at her.

She was thinking fast, Jude thought, looking for a plausible lie. Why, he wasn't sure yet.

"I just saw someone you need to meet," Alexi said, turning to Jude. "Ralph, would you mind returning our trays? Um, Mr. McCoy, would you come with me?"

"No problem," Ralph said, but he watched curiously as Jude excused himself and followed Alexi out of the cafeteria.

Then Jude saw why she'd left so abruptly, why she'd summoned him.

The man in the hooded sweatshirt was moving along the hallway.

"Wait, please!" Alexi called out. The young man who'd tried so hard to speak to her-who'd disappeared at Jude McCoy's arrival last night-had popped his head into the cafeteria.

Now he was hurrying down the hallway.

If nothing else, she somehow had to convince the FBI man that she was telling the truth.

His quarry was a dead man.

"Please!" she called again.

He stopped and glanced back at her and then nervously scanned the hallway.

Alexi realized that Jude McCoy-once again-saw him, too.

"I need to speak with you," the agent said. His voice was calm and even.

The young man remained where he was.

Alexi kept walking toward him, with Jude a few steps behind. There was no one in the hallway just then, but at any minute there could be workers coming through, either to get to their gigs or to eat or return to their cabins if their shifts were during the off-hours.

"My cabin," she whispered.

She reached her door and used her key card to open it. The young man paused, looked at her-and then at Jude McCoy.

Then he stepped into her cabin; McCoy followed.

"Who are you and what's going on?" McCoy asked.

Alexi stared at him. He still didn't know. He still didn't get it. But the ghost, whose name she didn't know yet, answered him.

"Byron Grant," he said.

The name was vaguely familiar to her; she wasn't sure why.

The FBI agent knew it instantly, though, and his tension and anger were unmistakable.

"Byron Grant is dead, killed in his attempt to save Elizabeth Williams."

"Yes."

Jude McCoy stood completely still, green eyes with their flecks of gold focused on the ghost.

Alexi clutched the edge of the built-in wardrobe as she sank to the foot of her bed. Now she knew. Now she understood.

Jude McCoy continued to watch the man in disbelief and anger. She thought, not for the first time, that he knew the truth-he knew it-but didn't want to accept it.

Suddenly, his face changed. He reached out as if to place a hand on the ghost's shoulders.

And, of course, he touched nothing.

Ghosts could surprise you. They could learn to make noise, to displace air about, to move objects...but they weren't there in substance, as flesh and blood. They were energy, capable of so much-and yet never again would they have bodies that could be touched.

"My G.o.d," Jude breathed.

He didn't sag onto the floor. He just stared at the man, almost as though he wished Byron would disappear.

He seemed to hope that the ghost's presence was impossible, a figment of his imagination.

Alexi thought she saw him wince. Saw a slight trembling seize his body.

And then he looked at the ghost again, at Byron Grant, and said, "I don't suppose you're going to be able to tell me who killed you?"

"No," the ghost said. "There's only one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty."

"What's that?" Jude McCoy asked.

"The killer is on this ship."

4.

Jude managed to sit, to put aside his own past, his emotions, his disbelief and worse...

The fact that he could see the dead- And speak with a ghost.

The essence, soul or whatever remained of Byron Grant perched next to Alexi on the bed, while Jude took the chair at the dressing table. And he listened as Byron Grant told his story.

"I loved Elizabeth. I'd loved her...since high school. We'd been together ever since then," he said. "We were a good couple, a great couple. We would've been married this Christmas." He paused, obviously pained. "She had her wedding dress picked out."

"I'm so sorry you lost her," Alexi said in a whisper. "And I'm sorry about what happened to you."

"I will be with her again. I know I will. I..." He paused and gazed at Alexi in obvious distress. "I don't know why I'm here, and she's not. But I have to believe..."

"You will be with her," Alexi a.s.sured him. "Soon."

"You're here right now to help us," Jude said.

Oh, G.o.d, that had to be the truth. Otherwise he'd completely lost his mind and entered into some grand delusion with this young woman. "You brought Jackson Crow and me onto this ship," Jude continued.

d.a.m.n it! He should have recognized the man immediately. He'd seen pictures of all the victims. And he finally put the facts together.

Byron Grant had been an actor. He'd had stage makeup on when he was killed. Jude berated himself- why hadn't he figured it out, put the facts together more quickly?

"Yes, I knew he'd be on this ship." Byron hesitated once more. "I didn't know he'd kill again before the ship sailed."

"You were playing Cyrano!" Jude said. "My G.o.d, I'm an idiot. That was in the police reports. I just didn't connect it with the makeup...or realize that the man I was chasing was really one of the victims."

Byron Grant studied him, head at a slight angle. "Yes, I was playing Cyrano de Bergerac." He paused. "I had a hard time getting that makeup off. As a ghost, I mean," he added glumly.

Alexi Cromwell was silent as she watched the exchange.

But Jude could tell she wasn't afraid. She was, if anything, glad that she'd finally managed to get Jude to admit there was a ghost-and the ghost to realize he needed to speak with Jude.

"I suppose," Jude said. I wouldn't know. I don't really know anything about ghosts.

"Okay," he went on, "you've got the two of us here-and you have Jackson Crow and me aboard the ship. Now we need your help. You must remember something, or you couldn't have known that the Archangel would be on the Destiny. You're certain of this?"

Byron Grant nodded. He was, minus the stage makeup, a handsome, fit young man who-other than being dead!-seemed somber and sincere. Blue eyes, sandy-blond hair. The boy next door. The kind of guy who'd marry his high school sweetheart.

"I never really saw the killer," Byron admitted. "He took me pretty quickly."

"What made you so sure he'd be on the ship?" Jude demanded. "Tell me what happened, step by step."

Alexi gave Byron an encouraging smile and he smiled back at her. Then he turned to Jude.

"I was doing the play. Anyway, it ended at around 10 p.m. I usually stayed to take off my makeup at the theater, but I got a call from Elizabeth at around ten twenty. She said the lights were off at the house and thought she'd left them on. I told her to wait for me, said I'd leave right away. I got out of my costume, but didn't bother with the makeup, just grabbed my hoodie and I was out the door." He frowned as he described what had happened that night. "I phoned her back after I left the theater. She didn't answer. I probably should've called the police right away but I drove home as fast as I could. Her car was in the driveway, and the lights were on in the house. I was a little p.i.s.sed at her, figuring she'd decided to go in but hadn't bothered to call me. I walked up to the door, which was unlocked, and threw it open. I got as far as the entry."

He bit down on his lip and shook his head.

"I saw her. I saw her on the floor," he said. "I ran over to her, but I was just thinking she'd fallen. Then I saw the blood."

Alexi lifted a hand as if she'd reach out to comfort him.

She lowered her hand to her lap, her eyes filled with sympathy.

"I hurried to her, bent down...and then he was behind me," Byron said. "He had a knife at my throat, ripping, even as I tried to turn to see his face. I flailed out at him-got him in the jaw. The knife sliced through my arm when I did that. Defensive wound, I guess they call it. But...I was bleeding out. And I only saw one thing."

"What?" Jude asked, determined not to let his question sound impatient.

"A ticket. It stuck out from his pocket. He was wearing some kind of suit jacket, pocket on the right. The ticket was for the Destiny-out of NOLA. And this sailing date was on it, so I knew. I knew he'd be on this ship."

"I see," Jude murmured. "And then?"

"And then I was dead. I didn't realize it-or have any awareness of it or anything else-until I seemed to rise over my body where the b.a.s.t.a.r.d had stuffed it inside a Dumpster in an alley."

They were all quiet for a minute.

Jude suddenly blurted, "But you-you were hovering around the crime scene in NOLA. You jumped on a bar. A drunk girl tried to give you money."

Byron shrugged. "Some people see me. I don't always know who sees me, though. I tried hitchhiking and eventually found someone who saw me and drove me to NOLA. It's only a couple of hours, and I don't think he ever knew I wasn't...alive. And then...hey, if I hurt that dude who got me to the ship, man, I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt anyone. I just... I just want to stop more people from being killed."

Jude let out a long breath, still unable to grasp that he was sitting in Alexi Cromwell's tiny cabin on the Destiny discussing the case with a ghost-a victim of the killer.

And feeling disturbed by the fact that he did believe he was talking to a ghost.

"We have a list of people who might've been in the areas where the women were killed," he said. "May I show you the pictures, see if any of them seem familiar?"

Byron Grant nodded. "Of course."

Alexi rose, leaving her perch for Jude. Drawing his phone from his pocket, he slipped by her to sit next to the ghost.

He brushed against her and was startled to feel sparks racing through his system. She was a very attractive woman, and he was feeling a strong physical pull toward her. And that made things more complicated... He held his thoughts in check and carefully displayed the photos Angela Hawkins had emailed him and Jackson; one by one he went through them all.

"I wish I knew," Byron said. He hesitated. "This guy..."

"This one? David Beach? He's head of security on the ship."

"Right. No, you can eliminate him. I've seen him. He's huge. The guy who got me was probably about six feet tall."

"Good. That helps," Jude said. He rose and paced the few steps to the cabin door. "Can you think of anything else? A scent-was he wearing aftershave or cologne? Did he smoke? Anything odd about his hands? Did you see his hands?"

He turned back to look at Byron Grant.

But the ghost was gone.

And for a moment he felt absolutely ridiculous, as if he was the b.u.t.t of a ma.s.sive joke. He was standing there, talking away, carrying on a conversation with...no one.

An illusion.

Alexi Cromwell was still there, leaning against the wardrobe, eyes enormous.