Hallow Be the Haunt (Krewe of Hunters #22.5)(36)

But she was there.

“Shelley,” Ashley breathed.

“Help me,” Shelley whispered. “Lord, I’m praying I can…can help you help me.”





“I wound up talking to Nate Gallen, one of our patrol officers,” Captain Raoul Peterson told Jake and Jude. They’d easily made their way to Baton Rouge and were discussing the case in the captain’s office. “He’s not a detective, but he was first on the scene. It wasn’t quite a month ago. October 1st, to be exact. Gallen came upon a murder. Terrible site, blood everywhere. And when he reported to me, he told me that he saw ghosts leaving the scene. So naturally, he took a lot of ribbings. Whoever the murderer was, the victim was one slippery eel. He’d just gotten let out on a murder charge himself. I remember the case. Judge declared the evidence against him was ‘fruit of the poisonous tree,’ something about a warrant not being right. Anyway, the dead man had supposedly left a few dead men behind. But we didn’t have evidence—except for that obtained before a search warrant was granted. Thing is, my officer swore that he saw three ghosts. Even when his buddies all teased the bloody hell out of him. And it wasn’t the ghosts that got to me so much. It was the fact that he’d seen three of them.”

Jake glanced at Jude.

Ghosts. Three of them.

“Anyway, I have the case files in hard copy there for you, and we can email anything else that you may want as well,” the captain said. “It sounds like they’re out of our jurisdiction now, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I hope to hell you get those ghosts. Oh, and one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, my officer was babbling. That’s why no one took him seriously. But he was babbling about Halloween. About Halloween night being some kind of a grand finale to what the ghosts did.”

“Can we see him?” Jake asked.

“Poor fellow—we had to put him on leave. Doctors have him somewhere in Montana right now. I can arrange it, if you like.”

Jake’s phone buzzed. “Excuse me,” he murmured. He didn’t recognize the number.

“Special Agent Mallory,” he said.

“Mallory, Jake… You gave me your card. This is Richard Showalter.”

Jake could barely hear, since the man was almost whispering.

“Yes, what is it? What’s happened?”

“There was supposed to be an officer watching me. He…he’s not here. He was here. He went out to check on a noise… And he’s gone.”

“All right, stay calm. I’m a distance away. I’m having Detective Parks get someone there right away. Are you inside? Is the alarm on?”

There was no answer.

“Captain, thank you,” Jake said, rising. Jude did the same. They both shook hands with the captain and Jake led them out at double speed.

“What’s going on?” Jude asked.

“That was Richard Showalter. He can’t find his cop.”

“He might be doing rounds.”

“Showalter’s phone cut out.”

Jude swore softly.

As they headed to the car, Jake called Parks, and then Jackson.

And they drove like hell toward New Orleans.





“Why were you labeled a traitor? Who did this to you?” Ashley asked.

Shelley smiled sweetly. “I don’t know.”

“I know your killer came up from behind, but… Why a traitor?”

“I didn’t want to be involved.”

“In what?”

Shelley waved a hand in the air. “Whatever it was that they were doing. We’d have all these ridiculous meetings—as if we were back in high school trying to pledge for some kind of a club. I wanted to do other things. I didn’t want to be a part of them.” She closed her eyes. “I guess that means they killed me.”

“They?”

“And the other two, Samantha Perkins and Emily Dupont. They told me they were part of the League of Reformation, and that I needed to be one of them. And to do that, I had to learn to behave and obey. I laughed them off a few times. I got angry a few times.”

Ashley’s phone started ringing. She dug in her pocket for it. As she did so, the image of Shelley began to fade away. “No, no, no,” Ashley said.

But Shelley was gone.

She answered the phone.

It was Beth. “Come on down. The gates are open. You’re helping out tonight, right?”

“Yes, on my way.”

She silently swore as she dressed hastily—in the witch costume—and hurried downstairs. She’d had Shelley with her. She was so close. And now she knew. She knew that the girls that Shelley had lived with were in on her murder. She called Jake as quickly as she could, heading down the stairs.

“Jake, I saw her—I saw Shelley. And the women she lived with are in on it. I think that makes Nick Nicholson the head of it all.”

“I’ll have them picked up. Right now… Right now we have a cop down. He isn’t dead. He was guarding Richard Showalter.”

“Is Showalter dead?”

“We don’t know. He’s gone. There’s a lot of blood. We—we don’t know if it’s his blood mixed in there or not. Ashley, be careful. Don’t leave the property.”