Celeste Files: Unjust (6 page)

Only Denis wanted revenge, not justice.

After she’d spoken with Maxine, who’d promised to look into cases where spirits had physically harmed the living, John had called Lola. Although Celeste figured her future stepsister would probably think she was insane, Lola had promised to look into Denis Comeaux’s background, and to also speak with her contacts with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Why Lola would go to that length, Celeste wasn’t sure. The man had drowned during a storm, and Celeste wasn’t even sure if the bound and gagged woman had been real, or a figment of her over-active imagination.

“Do you honestly care if Lola or anyone else from ATL thinks you’re crazy?” John asked.

“No. But I don’t want them losing respect for you because you’re married to me.”

“I care about you, not what they think of me. We need this ghost gone.”

“Yes, he’s definitely ruining our vacation,” she said in an attempt to crack a lame joke.

“Not mine. Based on the cars in the driveway, it looks like everyone is already here. After we talk about the dead captain, you and Barney can take off for the airboat tour, and I’ll get our training session started early. I want to finish in good time.” He grinned. “I plan on seeing you in a bikini later.”

Although Barney was part of ATL, he never worked in the field, so it hadn’t been necessary for him to stick around for John’s training sessions to learn the proper way to work a crime scene. Other than describing his role as Jack-of-all-trades, he’d said very little about what he did for ATL, or the organization’s agents.

“Beach or pool?” she asked, grateful John still planned to make the most of their trip. Then again, she would prefer to not hang out at their condo, since the three times Denis had made his presence known had been there.

“I haven’t been to the beach yet, so I’d love to go there. Ryan recommended a beach bar we can walk to. He said the place serves the best fresh seafood in Everglades City.”

“Beach, cocktails and seafood. Sounds like the perfect plan to me.” She exited their rental car. “What time do you think you’ll be finished here?”

He took her hand as they made their way across the beautifully landscaped yard, toward the large front porch. “I’m hoping we’ll be to the beach by one.”

“The timing works. Barney has to give tours starting around then.” She stopped when they reached the porch. “I love how they have the ferns hanging above the rails. I’d love to find a house in Chicago that has a porch even half this size.”

He kissed her cheek. “I thought we had a deal.”

Yesterday, after they’d made love in the shower, they’d dressed, then had gone to dinner. As they’d enjoyed a delicious meal and a bottle of wine, they had discussed how to alleviate not only her stress, but John’s, too. As they’d talked, Celeste had realized she wasn’t the only one under pressure, and that they needed to work together to help give each other well-needed breaks. They’d also decided to avoid certain topics during the rest of their vacation. Money and moving—two of their biggest stressors—were off limits until they returned to Chicago. Her psychic stuff was supposed to be, too, but unfortunately that had changed.

“I was simply making an observation,” she said.

“Like you had during breakfast when you brought up Olivia’s college fund?”

She sighed. “Sorry. I have issues.”

He knocked on the front door. “Trust me. I know,” he said with a grin, then chuckled when she gave his arm a light slug.

Carrying his alligator, the Russian, Vlad Aristov, opened the door and smiled. “Vlad happy to see John and Celeste. Come. Vlad have made coffee.”

They followed Vlad into the living room. In there were the rest of the ATL team, minus Ryan’s brother, Shane Monahan, who was taking care of the airboat business during the training sessions. She’d met the man yesterday, and had learned that Shane had his own air charter business. Since his role with ATL was transportation, like Barney, he didn’t need to take part in John’s training course.

Celeste waved to them. “Morning.”

“How are you?” Lola asked, concern in her almond-shaped eyes. She stood and approached Celeste, her gaze locked on the marks along Celeste’s neck. “Oh, my God, Celeste.”

Celeste glanced around the table and realized everyone was staring at her. “I’m fine. Really.”

Barney cleared his throat. “I ain’t. Lola told me what happened last night, but only because I might’ve told everyone about your vision,” he said, making imaginary quotation marks in the air. “Sorry, I know you asked me to keep it to myself.”

“Vlad have vision once,” the Russian said, and handed her and John coffee mugs.

“You’re so full of it,” Harrison Fairclough, ATL’s computer guy, said. Harrison had trained under CORE’s computer forensic analyst prior to moving to Florida to join ATL. From what Celeste gathered, he hadn’t needed much training, and had served time for hacking. He also lived in Polina’s Paradise with Vlad.

“Vlad tell truth. When Vlad small child—”

“Wait.” Melanie Scarlett, another ATL agent, who also worked as the ice cream lady at the boat tour company, glanced to the wood floors. “Where’s your gator?” she asked with a thick southern drawl.

Vlad shrugged his massive shoulders. “Vlad let Polina exercise. No worry, Vlad wrap band around Polina snout.”

Everyone looked to the floor, then under the table. “She’s over by the bay window,” Lola said, and turned to Vlad. “You can’t let that gator run loose in the house. She’s getting too big. What if her band breaks?”

“Try living here,” Harrison said. “I sleep with the door locked.”

Ryan, Lola’s fiancé, grinned. “Has Vlad taught Polina how to open doors?”

“You’re a real frickin’ riot, dude. You try living with a three-foot alligator and a Vlad, and see how well you sleep.”

Good Lord, had Ian any idea of what his southern-based operation was all about? She looked to John, who was grinning and obviously enjoying himself. She could understand why. In comparison to the agency in Chicago, the people down here were relaxed and acted more like a dysfunctional family than a group of badass agents.

Once Polina was put in her cage, Barney grew serious. “Can we get back to me apologizing to Celeste?”

“There’s no need,” Celeste said. “As it is, I don’t want to hold you guys up from your training. You do have an airboat business to run.”

“Does your dad know what happened?” Lola asked. “He called this morning about something he wants us to look into for him, but made no mention of it, so I didn’t.”

“No, and I’d like to be the one to tell him.” She glanced to the others at the table. “Okay, so everyone knows what happened during the night?”

“Only Ryan and Barney know the details. Harrison has been doing research, but doesn’t know why.”

“Since when am I on a need-to-know basis?” Harrison asked. “But I’m glad the guy you had me looking into is dead. From what I’ve found so far, it sounds as if he was one mean son of a bitch.”

John folded his arms across his chest. “Explain.”

“Denis Comeaux was fifty-one when he died, but he’d probably spent half his life in prison. He did time for burglary, assault, rape, drugs and attempted murder. Most of his prison stays were either in Louisiana or Alabama. I found an old newspaper article about him and the woman he’d raped. Took place in Lafayette, Louisiana, about eighteen years ago. Comeaux would choke her until she passed out, then he’d revive her and do it again.” He looked up from his laptop and stared at Celeste’s neck. “The woman said she’d lost count after the sixth time. What happened to your neck?”

“Denis choked me last night.”

“Celeste sit.” Vlad pulled out a chair for her. “Florida heat get best of Vlad, too.”

Once she was seated, she looked up at the Russian. “The heat didn’t do this, or this,” she said, pointing to her throat and showing him her wrists.

Barney let out a low whistle. “Damn, girl. I’ve known a few hauntings myself, but nothing like that. Why, back when I was in ‘Nam—”

“Tell us about it later,” Ryan said, keeping his attention on Celeste. “What happened?”

“You seriously believe a ghost did that?” Harrison asked.

“I believe my wife.” John rested his hand on her shoulder. “You don’t?”

“No offense, it’s just…forget it.”

The Russian grinned. “Vlad believe Psychic Celeste.”

“Boys, not now,” Lola said to Vlad and Harrison, but kept her gaze locked on Celeste’s. “Tell them what you saw.”

Celeste explained what she’d seen in the initial vision, what had happened at the condo before John had come home, and then later in the shower. She also told them about the ghost’s calling card. “I’m not one hundred percent sure about that part,” she said. “But each time he made his presence known the temperature rose and I got that same suffocating feeling. So I’m thinking that’s a definite sign.” She then told them what had happened during the night, and about the bound woman. “This scares me the most.” She pulled their camera from her purse and passed it around for everyone to see. “That was taken last night, when we were the only ones in the condo.”

Harrison shivered. “This is so messed up.”

She let out tired sigh. “Look, I get that you don’t believe—”

“It’s not that, and it doesn’t matter what I believe anyway,” he continued. “I honestly don’t want you to prove me wrong about ghosts, because if one was suffocating me every time it came around, or choking me during the night, or taking pictures of me, I think I’d need to be drooling and sedated to make it through the day. What bothers me is if you really have a ghost hanging around, and if it’s Denis Comeaux, then you’re not dealing with Casper.”

“Vlad know not this Casper.”

“It’s an old cartoon, and Casper is a friendly ghost.”

“If the ghost is Denis we obviously know he’s not friendly,” John said.

Celeste let out a sigh. “What concerns me is that he’s looking for revenge, and I don’t understand why. He died during a storm and went down with his ship. It wasn’t as if he was murdered.”

Barney lifted his ball cap and scratched his head. “See, now that’s why Lola wanted you to come by Polina’s Paradise this morning.”

The worry in Barney’s good eye made Celeste’s stomach clench. “Are you telling me Denis
was
murdered?”

“No, that’s what detectives think. I don’t believe it, but they think Gabe killed Denis before the boat sank.”

“Gabe? The deckhand?”

“We’re acquainted with a few detectives with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office,” Lola began, “and I asked them if they could give us the details from the medical examiner’s report. Turns out, Denis Comeaux had been stabbed in the chest. There’s also evidence of blunt force trauma to the head, but that could have happened when he fell off the boat. Since water was found in his lungs, the ultimate cause of death was drowning.”

John puffed his cheeks and blew out a breath. “But if he hadn’t been stabbed, he might not have drowned.”

Anger burned in Celeste’s belly. She let go of John’s hand and stood. “Oh, come on,” she said, with disbelief. This was utter bullshit. It had to be. She was in Florida—child free—to relax with her husband and hopefully make another baby. She was ovulating and no damned ghost or murder was going to mess with that—not after they’d been trying for the past three months with zero success. “Maybe Denis was hit by a passing boat. Wouldn’t a propeller make stab wounds? Besides, if these detectives already have Gabe in custody, and Denis wants revenge, there’s no need to bother me. His killer has been caught.”

Lola stared at her, sympathy in her eyes. “The ME considered the propeller being the cause. Unfortunately for Gabe, the
single
stab wound was too deep and too concise to be from a propeller. Here’s what’s not helping Gabe, or Denis…Gabe confessed to killing Denis over a lifejacket.”

“When?”

“Shortly before midnight. But around three-thirty this morning, he woke up in his cell screaming that he didn’t do it.”

Celeste looked to John. “Three-thirty? It was four o’clock when I finally snapped out of the vision or nightmare.”

“Why did he recant?” John asked.

Lola shrugged. “The detectives weren’t sure. When they spoke with him this morning, he said he didn’t kill Denis, that he was innocent and that there were plenty of lifejackets on the boat. Something else to consider, Gabe passed a polygraph before he even confessed, which was why the detectives were surprised when he claimed to have murdered Denis.”

Celeste turned to Barney. “You said you know Gabe. Do you believe he killed the captain?”

Barney shook his head. “Hard to say what a man is capable of doing in the heat of the moment. Personally, I was surprised when Gabe signed on with Denis, but that ain’t none of my business.”

“It’s mine now,” Celeste said. “Why were you surprised?”

“I told you I didn’t much care for Denis. He was one of those guys who always had an angle, if you know what I mean.”

“Barney need explain for Vlad,” the Russian said with a frown.

“The man was a schemer,” Barney began. “Shady and secretive, too. When I heard Gabe was gonna start working for him, I wasn’t too surprised. Gabe has always been the trustin’ type. He’s a hard worker and does what he’s told. He also ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. He can read and write, but he never made it past the sixth grade.”