Page 26 of Ghost Walk
Jamie’s expression darkened. “Gregory Maxwell wasnotthe sodding Hero of Yorktown and I didnotkill anyone, Grace.”
“The first serial killings in America all happen within a week of each other.” She pointed out, warming to her topic. “That’s the behavior of a perpetrator who’s gotten a taste for it.Someone who’s going to keep escalating, until he’s caught.” She paused. “Then you’re hanged and there were no more killings.”
“Except I. Didn’t. Bloody.Do it.” Each word was bit off like a bullet. “What can I say to make you believe that?”
“Idobelieve it.” Really, she did. She’d met killers and this man wasn’t one of them. “It’s just hard to separate these crimes from seeing…” Grace trailed off and shook her head. “Never mind. Forget it.”
Jamie didn’t look ready to forget it. “Separate them from seeing what?”
“Bad things.” Anyone with half a brain would’ve heard the finality of those words.
Jamie frowned, not pleased with her refusal to confide in him. Centuries of isolation had obviously left him desperate for some kind of human connection and she was his only option. The man wanted to know everything about her. If he was corporeal, he’d no doubt be reading her diary and searching through her underwear drawer. “You know, there’s no harm in telling me your secrets. I’m the very best friend you have.”
“You’vegotto be kidding me.”
“It’s true! You are more important to me than anyone else, alive or dead. It would be safe to need me back, just a bit. I wouldn’t mind, a’tall.” He paused and tacked on with a suspicious amount of innocence: “I truly could be a grand partner.”
“You’renotmy Partner, Jamie.” He couldn’t be. “You don’t even understand what it really means.” The Riveras were the ones who gave the word all its capitalized subtext. It was their family shorthand for the best kind of magic. Even Grace respected Partners and she worked hard to distance herself from the supernatural.
“Well, explain it then! What’s the point of keeping things from me? It’s not as if I can share your confidences with anybody else, is it?”
“Not everyone likes to blurt out every thought in their head.”
“Usually, that’s only because they’re hiding something.”
Grace pointedly ignored that, because there was nothing to say. She reached Lucinda’s door and pushed it open with a bit more force than necessary.
The bedroom was being used as storage, with piles of cardboard boxes and random furniture. Grace hoped they weren’t planning to throw out any of the old knickknacks that were haphazardly arranged on every surface. A little glue and paint and most of them could be saved. She hated to see old things just tossed away, like they’d never meant anything to anyone. Like they had no purpose, just because they’d gotten a few dings.
Everything deserved a second chance at life.
Jamie looked around, an amazed expression on his face. “It looks so different.” He whispered.
Grace cleared her throat. “So this is the last place Lucinda Ann Wentworth was seen. Sunday, June 28th, 1789.” She began, like it was any other crime scene. “Did you meet with her at all that day?”
“Aye. I saw her in the morning, while the rest of the household was at church. She pleaded a headache and begged off. I stopped by to pay my respects and inquire after her well-being.”
Grace sifted through that garbage. “She played sick, so you could sneak in and have sex?”
He shot her a sideways look, amused by her bluntness. “Aye.”
“What time did you leave?”
“Just before ten. It was the last I ever saw her.”
“You’re sure?”
“I was nearly caught pant-less by her sister Eugenia, so I recall it well. The pinched-lipped little thing came back early and I had to hide in the kitchen, with only a flour sack to cover me.” He made a face. “Believe me, that part sticks in my mind.”
Despite herself, Grace’s mouth twitched upward. “You’re completely blowing my image of staid and respectable Olde Harrisonburg, I hope you know that.”
Jamie shrugged unrepentant. “Lucinda had a laugh over my predicament, too. She finally tossed me my clothes out the window and I saw her wave goodbye. The next day, I heard she’d disappeared in the night.”
“Were you worried?”
“Yes and no. At first, I wondered if she’d left with some man. We all did. Eugenia heard her sneaking out, sometime after midnight. There’d been whispers of Lucinda seeing someone far more important than me.”
“Do you have any idea who?”
