Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(106)

“Yeah, I kind of have.” She gave her aunt a quick glance and then looked back at Feng.

He frowned. “Okay, not to worry. I think I can get you through this without being arrested. And if I can’t, I’ll say I forced you.”

She wasn’t sure if he was joking, but she said, “Okay.”

“Now, can I ask you a question?” He swiped his hand over the windshield. “Who the hell is in the backseat with us?”

*

“Come on, let’s go finish what we started,” Burnett said to Chase.

Chase looked away from the house and back at Burnett. It was after five. Della’s father had returned to his house. Briefcase in hand, as if he’d been working all day and not hanging out at Starbucks.

“What if Della comes back?”

“My agent will stop her. And I’ve got someone combing the streets. Our time is better spent finding Stone. And we need to go by another address that we have on our expensive-tennis-shoe wearer. If we catch him, the police can’t suspect Della for the murder.”

“Since this guy was in the gang, he might be with Stone,” Chase offered.

“The others who we are pretty damn sure participated in the murder got left behind. I’m following my gut that he got left behind too. I’m thinking Stone had people around Della’s house, and a couple of his guys lost it and committed the murders. This might even be why they got left behind. Stone doesn’t want to draw attention to himself right now.”

“Okay,” Chase said, seeing logic. “But why don’t we separate? We’ll get more done.”

“Too dangerous.” Burnett started walking back to Chase’s car.

“I’m not one of your students anymore. I’m an agent.” He pulled on the label of his jacket. “In case you haven’t noticed the suit.”

“You think I’d send a junior agent out alone on a case?”

“I’m not a junior. I worked two years for the council.”

“Yeah, but oddly they have failed to send over your files.” Burnett stopped by his car.

Chase frowned. “Can I at least drive my own car?”

“No,” Burnett said. “You aren’t thinking about selling this, are you?”

“No.” Chase got in the passenger seat and called Della. It went to voice mail. Again. Where the hell was she?

*

Della felt her phone in her pocket vibrate again. Who was it this time? Not that she’d check. As long as she didn’t know, she wouldn’t feel guilty. Or too guilty.

Holiday was going to hate her. Burnett was going to whip her butt. Kylie and Miranda wouldn’t speak to her. Chase was …

Not now.

Della’s gaze shifted to the sky painted with reds, purples, and grays. Only a sliver of big orange sun hung over the western horizon. It reminded her of the few fishing trips she’d taken with her dad. She hated fishing, but being with him all day, just sitting by the water and discussing everything from fish to future boyfriends, had been some of her best childhood memories.

“You gonna tell me? Who’s back there?” her uncle asked again.

Della inhaled. “Do you have a firm grip on the wheel?”

“Yeah. Why?” She saw his hands tighten.

“Because … I’ve seen her do crazy things to cars.” Della swallowed and gave the girl in the backseat another quick glance. She looked so young and completely innocent, popping gum and enjoying the ride. This wasn’t the same spirit who’d destroyed St. Mary’s file room. Was it Feng, or was it seeing her childhood home that had changed her?

She glanced back at her uncle. “So you can feel ghosts too?”

“Feel them, not so much. But I can feel temperature, and it’s colder than a witch’s tit in here. Plus, you’ve been eyeing someone back there this whole time.”

“It’s Bao Yu,” Della said.

Della saw her uncle’s shoulders drop an inch as if the weight of the world had just sat on them. “I thought she would leave after you and Chase found her daughter.”

“She needs answers too.” Della suddenly realized that her uncle might be able to give them to her.

“Tell her I’m so sorry. I’m responsible. They did it because of me. I wouldn’t do what they asked. I went to help, but I got there too late.”

Della shot her aunt another glance. She was older now, but not wearing the white bloody gown. It seemed that when she had the gown on was when she got out of control.

He was dead. How can he be alive? Bao Yu asked.

“He wasn’t dead. I told you. He’s a vampire like me. Like Natasha.”

Her uncle looked at Della, then glanced in the rearview mirror. “Do you see her?”

“Yeah.” Della answered and hesitated to bring it up, but decided it had to be done. “She thinks my father killed her.”

He did! He even admitted it! When I found him at the hospital. He told the doctor.

Della inhaled. “In the doctor’s notes. When my father was hospitalized, he admitted it too.”

Her uncle shook his head. “No. Douglas Stone did that.”

“You saw it?” Della glanced over her shoulder and as expected, the bloody gown was back.

“No … not exactly. But when I got there Chao was unconscious, on the floor by the phone. I heard someone in my old room. I found … Stone was standing over her. She had the knife in her chest. It was my knife.” The sound of grief echoed in his voice. “I chased him out of the room.”