‘Anything a little more recent?’ Ethan asked.
‘There is the case of an elderly Chinese woman in the terminal stages of cancer who reported that her sister and husband visited her bed in visions, urging her to join them. She reported to a nurse that her sister was still alive in China, but they hadn’t met for many years. The nurse told this to the woman’s daughter, and was informed that the long-lost sister had died two days earlier of the same cancer, but the family had decided not to tell the patient to avoid upsetting her.’
Lopez shrugged. ‘Okay, but there’s still nothing here that we can use to try to stop whatever’s killing these victims.’
‘Yes, there is,’ Professor Bowen insisted. ‘I cannot speak for every paranormal event or haunting on our planet but, if there’s one thing that I have discovered over the past twenty five years, it’s that these things happen for a reason. The spirit of somebody is hunting people down and it must have some kind of goal in mind. You have three victims. Something must connect them, and, when you find out what that something is, you’ll be one step closer to figuring out how to stop the wraith.’
Ethan raised an eyebrow. ‘You think we can stop it? We can’t even see it.’
‘It’s on a mission,’ Professor Bowen insisted, ‘just as some hauntings seem to involve spirits unable to move on from injustice and murder, so maybe this wraith cannot move on. It’s your call — let the killings continue, or find out why they’re happening and try to put a stop to it.’
31
‘Tell me you’ve got something.’
Karina Thorne pulled out into the stream of traffic as Ethan and Lopez settled into the rear seat, the university disappearing behind them. Lopez had called her as soon as they walked out of the university, eager to share the new information. Jarvis had climbed into the front seat, but Ethan had noticed that the old man had remained mysteriously quiet for some time.
‘We have,’ Lopez replied, ‘but you’re not going to like it.’
Karina sighed as she glanced in the mirror.
‘You’ve got fifteen minutes before we get back to the station. Shoot.’
Ethan filled her in on the details they’d learned from Professor Bowen. Karina seemed to take it all in well enough, but the response when Ethan was finished betrayed her disbelief.
‘You seriously think it’s a spook hunting down these victims?’
‘Supposedly so,’ Lopez confirmed, ‘and it fits what we saw in that courthouse. There was something with us.’
‘What the hell am I supposed to do with that?’ Karina asked. ‘Issue an arrest warrant for a poltergeist?’
‘Maybe,’ Ethan replied, ‘but right now, we need to get back to the station and look into the case and see if there’s a connection between the dead men in the warehouse and the dead clerk.’
Karina frowned.
‘You think that Wesley Hicks and Connor Reece were with Gladstone and Earl Thomas, the guys who hit the Pay-Go and caused the accident?’
‘Is there a reason why they shouldn’t be?’ Lopez challenged.
‘Sure there is,’ Karina replied. ‘The men who hit the Pay-Go were hardened criminals, professionals, backed up by the two men we caught. Reece and Hicks were small fish, not the type capable of arranging a major heist.’
‘There wasn’t much major about the attack on the Pay-Go,’ Ethan pointed out, ‘in case you hadn’t noticed. Brute-force impact to rupture the armoured truck was enough to extract the cash, wasn’t it?’
‘Sure,’ Karina agreed, ‘it wasn’t graceful, but the men responsible would need serious connections or experience to make use of the money. The cases it’s sealed into on those trucks are equipped with trackers and ink dispensers that allow them to be followed and render the cash useless if the cases are forced open.’
Ethan thought for a moment. ‘I’ve read about the spate of bank robberies down the east coast. It could be a copy-cat robbery, somebody mimicking the original gang in the hopes of avoiding arrest themselves if the original gang ends up being caught.’
Karina shrugged. ‘I guess, but that’s speculation, and Donovan’s not going to let you just walk in and start sifting through the evidence.’
‘Donovan’s not going to have much choice,’ Jarvis said to Karina. ‘He starts obstructing us, I’ll have him removed from his office until we’re done.’
‘Jesus,’ Karina muttered, ‘this just gets better and better. He’ll hit the goddamned roof if you try that on him.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Ethan pointed out.
‘Tell Donovan that,’ Karina complained. ‘He’s losing control of a case that could cost us our jobs now that the media’s getting involved and budget cuts are being made. There’s a good chance that the mayor will make an example of our unit if things don’t turn out for the best real soon. Last thing we need is a serial-killer scare hitting the headlines.’
‘Let me handle Donovan,’ Jarvis said, as Karina turned into a parking lot near the 5th Precinct. ‘I’ll make sure he sees sense.’
Karina said nothing in reply as she parked and led them up into the precinct offices. They were halfway across the room when they spotted Donovan standing in the doorway to his office, glaring at them and beckoning Karina with one hooked finger.
‘See what I mean?’ she said.
They filed into the office, Ethan closing the door behind them, as Donovan sat at his desk, folded his arms and glowered at Jarvis.
‘You want to tell me why you’re really here, Mr. Jarvis? Right now, you’re the asshole who’s taken this case from us for no good reason that I can figure.’
‘I am that asshole,’ Jarvis replied. ‘And you don’t need to know anything else.’
Donovan stood up abruptly and towered over Jarvis. ‘I’ve got ten staff working with me, all of whom might see their jobs on the line if we get chopped from the precinct, and I’m damned if I’m going to let someone like you come in here and steal this from under us—’
‘Your jobs are safe,’ Jarvis interrupted. ‘Nobody’s going anywhere.’
Donovan’s eyes narrowed. ‘You can’t know that or force the mayor to secure our positions.’
‘I can’t control the mayor,’ Jarvis replied evenly, ‘that much is true. However, our presence here is covert. Any breakthroughs made during this investigation will be announced by yourselves, not us. So the faster we solve this case, the safer your jobs will be, agreed?’
Donovan, apparently stumped, seemed to lighten up a little. ‘Agreed,’ he said suspiciously. ‘What’s your interest in this?’
‘A long-running investigation,’ Jarvis said airily, ‘the less about which you know the better.’
‘I don’t like being kept in the dark,’ Donovan rumbled.
‘You won’t be,’ Jarvis replied, ‘as far as the case you’re investigating is concerned. Right now, our priority is analyzing the closed-circuit-television camera footage obtained from the Williamsburg Bridge.’
Donovan raised an eyebrow. ‘The footage? Why would you need that? I thought you were here for the Aaron Lymes’ case?’
Karina stepped forward.
‘They think that the two men we found in the warehouse on Hell Gate were involved in the auto wreck.’
Donovan appeared surprised. ‘They didn’t fit the profile of professional armed robbers.’
‘It’s not profiles we’re interested in,’ Ethan said, ‘it’s connections. All of the murders share similar characteristics that seem impossible, especially the absence of forensic evidence and the presence of extreme force. Maybe there’s a reason why they were all targeted. Find that reason and we might just find our killer.’