Murder in Misery (Spook Squad)

This one is for my Mom

Who taught me that no matter how different I was from other people that I was still perfect the way I am and I should never change.

With special thanks to Erika Guidry

She
still knew what her sisters and brother were up to. Every visit to her mother’s home, she was informed of the new goings-on. It made Keegan wonder if her mother did the same to her siblings about her. Or was it different because she was different? After all they’d cast her out. She did not just drift away into her own world like some siblings do when they start their own families. They all still lived around Misery and kept in contact with their mother but Keegan hadn’t actually seen or spoken to her siblings in about ten years.

Today
her mother kept going on and on about how none of her sisters or her brother bothered to visit her anymore, at least not as much as Keegan tried to visit. And Maria Morne was not a woman you ignored. Not if you didn’t want her showing up on your front doorstep while you had company over.

“Why can’t you do something about that, Keegs? I
know that I had to have raised
one
of you right. Apparently I did an okay job on you because you’re the only one out of all my children who takes the time to visit me regularly. So why can’t you call your brother and sisters to tell them that their mother misses them and she would like to see them, hm?” Maria tapped a spoon on the edge of the gumbo pot and set it on the counter before spinning around a pinning her daughter with dark brown eyes. “And while you’re at it, how about you ask them when I’ll ever get grandchildren. I won’t be around forever you know.”

Keegan muffled a snort of am
usement in her glass of ice tea. “I know Ma, but I’m not going to be the one to tell my sisters to get busy with making the babies when they don’t even talk to me in the first place. It’s not like they’re going to take the time to actually listen to anything I say.”

“So I guess now
isn’t the right time to tell you that your brother is stopping by this evening?” Maria pointed out with a wave of her spoon.

Keegan planted her hands on the table
top, ready to stand up and march right out the front door. “You better be joking with me, Ma. We both know that if Gordon is here Jamie will be in tow and I am
not
dealing with her. Not on my one night off. All I wanted was to come see you before the craziness of the holidays started. I wanted to spend some time with my mother before they all monopolized your time and I lose the opportunity to do so.”

“Honey.
” Maria moved to sit across the table and grabbed Keegan’s hand and tugged her back down. “It’s a good thing that I am just messing with you, otherwise you would have just run right out on me and left me to my lonesome tonight. We both know it’s not always your brother and sisters who have the problem with who you are. David? I don’t even want to get started with that man. You and I both know that Jamie already thinks you hate her, so she’s guarding herself from you. You put up walls just as much as they do.”

Keegan sputtered at the look her mother sent
her, “Maybe if the first time I met Jaime she hadn’t asked me why I was alone and proceeded to go on about how I could fix that, then maybe,
just
maybe, she wouldn’t think I hated her. I’m sorry and I know that everyone has their faults, even me, but I don’t like the way she acts around Gordon or the way she treated any of us. She’s so” Keegan motioned as if she were strangling the air, “controlling. Plus, she’s a bitch.”

Maria muffled her laughter in her hand. Keegan grinned, “I see I’m not the only one who
has fallen victim to that line of thought.”

“Shush up
, Keegan.” Maria rolled her lips together trying to hold back the laughter. “I’m not supposed to be the bad guy here. You are. I am supposed to be the supportive mother.”

“I know they love me Ma,
or that they did.” Keegan shrugged, “I just feel like they don’t miss me as much as I miss them.”

Maria smirked before
standing from the table and attending her gumbo. “Maybe if you weren’t alone, you wouldn’t miss your family so much.”

“Ma!” Keegan smacked a hand down on the table.
She had just about had it with the way this evening’s visit was going. It was supposed to be a night off from the SIU so that she could kick back, relax and get a nice hot free meal.

“I’m just saying. If I don’t have the ability to
nag the majority of my children about grandkids then I will nag who ever I can about still being single at twenty-eight while the rest of your siblings are married.”

“I’ll get married when the time is rig
ht. Until then,” Keegan answered with an eye-roll, “whatever happens, happens.”

“You
don’t have time for anyone but that squad of yours. That’s who you’re married to,” Maria muttered. “You love them more than you love your own family.”

“Oh Mom,” Keegan stood up to do something
to reassure her mother that her way of thinking was just not true, but then her phone started playing the
Ghostbusters
theme. Keegan grimaced as her mother turned around as if to say, “See I told you so!”

“Detective Morne,” Keegan answered before she was digging through the drawers in the kitchen for a piece of paper and a pen. She settled on a pen and a paper napkin
to scribble on, “What’s the address? Mhm, how long has homicide been on the scene? Right, well they are going to have to wait a little bit longer. I’m right outside of town so I’ll be there in about twenty and tell Cassidy he can shut his trap and be patient.”

Keegan set her phone in the holster on her belt and
pulled her hair back into a tight pony-tail before she turned towards her mom with a pleading look on her face, “Save some gumbo for me?”

“Talk to your brother and sisters and
then maybe I’ll freeze half the pot for you and drop it off at your place tomorrow.”

Keegan rushed towards her mom, pressing a kiss to her cheek, “You’re the best
Ma. I love you.”

“I know you do sweetheart.”

Keegan stood just outside the bright yellow police line with her hands resting
above her hips. Her jacket fluttered with the gust of wind as she shifted her belt and gun to a more comfortable position. Lost in her self, Keegan ignored the loud hustle and bustle of uniformed cops trying to hold back the reporters who were itching for a new story along with the neighbors of the murdered who were hoping for a juicy piece of gossip that they could share with their friends.

Keegan stared up at the two s
tory house and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath to center herself and she opened her senses to what was around her. The house was unobtrusive, almost tucked away in a copse of pine trees. Two white cars sat innocently in the driveway and decorations for the holidays were dotted around the yard. The only thing that stood out was the gas lights along the driveway that were still burning bright during the daylight.

Shaking her head clear she darted
up towards the yellow police line and an officer held out a hand stopping her, “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to step back.”

Glancing down at the man’s name badge before she pulled the lanyard holding her badge out from the folds of her coat Keega
n gave him a grim look, “Officer Bayard, I do believe they are expecting me.”

“Oh sorry
Detective Morne, I didn’t realize that had called SIU in,” He lifted up the yellow tape and allowed her to duck beneath it and pass into the territory only cops were allowed. She paused at the foot of the front steps. Her muscles tensed from the echoes of what had happened in this house. There had been so much terror and pain. It lingered behind the scene like scars. She could taste the panic harsh and sour at the back of her throat.

Willing her
self forward and into the house she brushed passed detectives rushing out of the house and out of sight of reporters. She listened to the sound of retching for just a moment before she felt her mind being pulled towards what had happened. The screams, the sounds of furniture overturning and glass shattering assaulted her ears. The loud crack of bone and the crunch of someone stepping on glass tore the breath from her lungs.

“
I thought they were joking when they said they were sending someone from the spook squad over. A family was murdered, besides that there isn’t anything abnormal about this.” Detective Cassidy spat out as he wiped the corner of his lips clean. Keegan took a moment to really look at the man. He stood a few inches shorter than her self, balding and he wouldn’t stop fidgeting as if he would rather be anywhere else but here.

Keegan couldn’t help the spark of anger that shot up from her chest and pulled her face into an angry glare, “I hope you’ve been wearing gloves D
etective. You and I both know that the only reason SIU would have been called in to a crime scene this early on would be if your victims were known supernaturals.”

“Oh fuck, you’ve got to be kidding me,” He growled out as he headed back out t
he house muttering to him self, “This day just keeps getting better and better.”

“Morne! Are you
going to stand there all day or are you going to head up here and decided how we should handle the bodies?”

Keegan looked up the stairs to see Matthew Hollis staring down at her with dark rimmed eyes. His hair was a mess and his jacket was tugged off kilter. There were only a few times she had seen the seasoned investigator so disheveled. Those times usually were the crime scenes that sent even the most grizzly of men to their wives and family in search of comfort.

As she moved through the living room her eyes took in every detail she could manage. The fabric had been ripped on the couch and some of the stuffing protruded and littered the floor around it. A recliner lay on its side, scratches on the floor from where metal moved angrily against wood. Pictures had fallen from the wall, frames splintering with its glass shattering across the floor leaving happy memories a distant thought.

A cool breeze filtering through the room sent papers dancing along the floor. Following the movement, Keegan saw the haggard window. Spikes of glass stood out
from the window frame and broken shards of glass covered the wooden floor before the window. That had to be how the killer got into the house. Unafraid of leaving evidence behind as he climbed through the window and tracked tiny pieces of glass along with him, marking the path he took.

Gripping the stair rail sh
e rolled her eyes at the man, “I just had to get the usual trash out of the way Hollis.”

“Cassidy giving you trouble again?” He asked over his shoulder as he led her towards the main scene.

“I think it’s because I’m taller than he his,” Keegan shrugged and grinned at the smile she got out of him. They stopped just outside the door to what looked like a nursery. There were bright wooden letters spelling out the name
Connor
.