Dead Man's Lake (The Braddock & Gray Case Files Book 5) Page 20
Sully lifted a brow. “Good one, D.”
“So he’s gone? Walter, I mean?”
Sully reached out with his consciousness, feeling for the ghost. He felt nothing. Nothing beyond his own sickening thoughts about having watched a man die.
Maybe this was justice, of a kind anyway. Not the kind Sully had hoped for, but it was obviously what Walter had so desperately been after. And if the life of one murderer ended up sparing innocent people down the road, perhaps this was a sort of universal justice, after all.
Didn’t really make Sully feel a whole lot better in the here and now, though.
He cast one last look out at the broken ice, watching to see whether anything—Marvin’s body, his ghost or Walter’s spirit—would surface. There was nothing.
For Sully, the reason was clear. In that much, at least, he took some relief.
“Yeah,” he told Dez. “Walter’s gone.”
26
Police sent a team out later that day but failed to find Marvin Poller’s body. Given the risks involved and the fact they were looking at a recovery rather than a rescue effort, a further search was postponed.
Eventually, once the ice on the eastern shore had finished melting away, the police dive team returned to the site.
Forbes provided Dez, Sully and Lachlan with the results of the search via phone while the three PIs were gathered in Lachlan’s office.
“They found Poller’s body,” Forbes said, his voice coming through on speaker so they all could hear. “Creepiest thing about it is they found him next to a big trunk with his foot jammed beneath, holding him there. Any guesses what was inside the trunk?”
Sully bit at the obvious. “Walter’s body?”
“Yep. Least we believe so. Would’ve been jammed in there good and tight. The thing was pretty solid and heavy, but parts had rotted away, and the hinges gave on the lid—which is how the kid was able to snag part of the coat while fishing. Nothing much left of the body for a pathologist to look at for cause of death, though she did find a bullet embedded in a rib. I guess that gives us some clue.”
Not enough of one. If Sully were to guess, based on his study of the ghost, Walter had gone into the water alive. Whether he’d drowned or frozen to death or suffocated, he’d never know. And he was grateful for not knowing.
Lachlan grimaced and eyed Sully and Dez. “Maybe that will make you boys feel a little better about Poller’s final swim.”
Sully still hadn’t gotten the image out of his head, nor the memory of Marvin’s last screams. The man’s ghost wasn’t haunting him, but thoughts of those last moments certainly were.
Sully sought relief by slightly changing the subject. “Think Adam will ever fish Dead Man’s Lake again?”
Dez smiled. “Yeah, but he says he’s setting up on the west side here on out. Harder to get over there, but he doesn’t care. Said he’ll buy himself an ATV if he has to.” He returned his gaze to the phone and Forbes. “What about Brinks? Any word on how he’s holding up under house arrest?”
Peter Brinks had been charged but, thanks to his so-far clean record, he was granted bail while his charges were before the court. The release, though, came with a number of strict conditions—among them twenty four-hour house arrest except for work, medical appointments and court.
Barely a week had passed before the work part became negligible as his business began its inevitable slide into obscurity. The investigation into Walter’s murder had opened up all manner of problems for Brinks and the others connected with the lake deal—including a couple of seedy government officials who were involved in the backroom negotiations. The scandal had made the news all over the country—broken, of course, by none other than Sarah Leffler.
For now, anyway, the lake was safe from development. Sully counted this as great news.
“Brinks isn’t a happy boy,” Forbes said. “Business about to tank and not a damn thing he can do about it. For that matter, his buddy Harrison Craig isn’t doing so well either. All his efforts to distance himself from Brinks haven’t worked, thanks to the information supplied by Greg Waterford. Greg might be the only one who comes out of this with part of his life intact.”
“Suits me just fine,” Lachlan said. “Only crappy thing is, the boys and I still did our jobs here and lost out on the rest of our payment.”
“About that,” Forbes said. “Latimer Bank doesn’t actually exist anymore, but we still had their records on file of the funds lost in the robbery. Best we can tell, we’re out close to eighty thousand dollars. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Lachlan?”
Lachlan eyed the phone. “Now, why would I know anything about that? I mean, come on. Decades have passed since the robbery. Poller obviously spent a wad of it, and you can’t exactly check with him for an accounting of it, right?”
“Fair enough,” Forbes grumbled. “Just checking.”
“What about the cabin fire?” Sully asked. “You ever find out what caused it?”
“Fire investigator went out. Not a whole lot left to study. Certainly, any accelerants are long gone. But based on burn patterns on some of the debris, he’s calling it suspicious. We’ll likely never know for sure, but I don’t think we’d be out to lunch in thinking Poller burned it down to rid himself of any evidence. How much you want to bet he stuffed McCrory into the same trunk he’d used to keep the money?”
“Where’d the rest of the cash end up?” Lachlan asked.
“Walter’s other cabin. Waterford revealed he’d tipped Walter off about the police going for him, then suggested the lake as a place to hide out. Seems Waterford knew all about the cabin. I think the plan was to go and confront McCrory or steal the money one day, but he got cold feet. Idiot’s been digging around there for years, never once realizing McCrory had two places.”
“What about the recordings?” Dez asked. “They usable?”
“Not the one I did given I didn’t have the proper court order, but the one you and Lachlan got was helpful. Might not end up being usable in court, but I suspect it will be enough to secure a guilty plea. Last thing Brinks will want is to chance all of that getting out in the public if a judge rules in our favour. Anyway, I’ve gotta run.”
Lachlan smiled into his phone. “Thanks for the update, Sergeant.” He disconnected, leaning back in his chair with a smirk.
“Lachlan,” Dez said, warning tone in his voice. “You don’t know anything about that money, do you?”
Lachlan knitted his fingers behind his head and rocked in the chair. “Come on, kid. Does this look like the face of a man who knows something?”
“Damn right, it does.”
“Hey, the way I figure it, we nearly died—all three of us—trying to solve this thing. Latimer Bank is gone. Its customers were all insured for any losses. And I was telling the truth—Poller really must have spent most of the missing money.”
“Most of it,” Sully summed up. “But not all of it.”
Lachlan raised a brow. “I might have secured our payment. That’s all, I swear to you. Look at it this way. We solved the Latimer heist. Were the bank still around, its CEO might well have been a client of ours. The fees I took are probably not actually anywhere near the reward they would have paid out.”
Dez shook his head. “Goddammit, Lachlan.”
Sully checked his watch and stood. “Well, I’m going to leave the two of you to duke this out. I’ve got better things to do.”
Dez eyed him. “Oh, really? What, exactly?”
Sully grinned. “I’ve got a date. And I don’t want to keep Sarah waiting.”
Afterword
Thanks so much for reading. I am continuing to work on the next Dez and Sully books, and would be pleased to keep you updated on future projects and release dates if you would like to join my mailing list. As an added bonus, a growing anthology of short stories, entitled Haunted: The Ghosts of Sullivan Gray, is available as a gift to subscribers. Visit my website at hpbayne.com to sign up and grab the curren
t version of Haunted.
The books in The Braddock & Gray Case Files are intended as standalone books, so they can be read independently of each other and from the preceding The Sullivan Gray Series. Braddock & Gray follows the events of Sullivan Gray, so those who have read the previous series will find a few cookies scattered here and there. I will include links below to the books in The Sullivan Gray Series should you wish to check them out (if you haven’t already, of course).
The books in The Sullivan Gray Series can also be read as standalones to some extent, each containing a plot that wraps itself up by book’s end. But there is a deeper plot that threads throughout the seven novels, so for that reason, I always suggest they’re best read in the following order (click the titles to check them out on Amazon):
Black Candle
Harbinger
The Dule Tree
Crawl
Hollow Road
Second Son
Spirit Caller
As mentioned, the books in The Braddock & Gray Case Files can be read as standalone novels, but for those interested, here’s the publishing order:
The Edge Creek Light
The Haunting of Thornview Hall
The Wynne Witch
The Blake Ghost
Dead Man’s Lake
As always, I wanted to take a moment to thank my family and friends for their incredible support. I am so appreciative of all the people in my life who have been at my side throughout this journey.
A big, Dez-sized thanks also to my brilliant editor Hannah Sullivan and to my absolutely stellar team of advance readers, all of whom ensure each of the books is all it can be and more. And thank you as well to my subscribers and my followers on Facebook, especially the Sully’s Spirits among you. I am incredibly grateful to you all.
And, of course, a huge thank you to everyone who’s picked up this and other Sully books. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making my author dreams come true.
About the Author
Fascinated by ghost stories and crime fiction, H.P. has been writing both for well over two decades, drawing on more than fifteen years in a career in a criminal justice setting. Raised on a farm on the Canadian Prairies, H.P. enjoys reading, portrait drawing, travel and spending time with family and friends.
For more information, visit H.P.’s website at hpbayne.com.
Also by H.P. Bayne
Books in The Sullivan Gray Series (best read in the following order):
Black Candle
Harbinger
The Dule Tree
Crawl
Hollow Road
Second Son
Spirit Caller
Or pick up the box sets:
The Sullivan Gray Series Box Set 1
The Sullivan Gray Series Box Set 2
Books in The Braddock & Gray Case Files (can be read in order or as standalone novels):
The Edge Creek Light
The Haunting of Thornview Hall
The Wynne Witch
The Blake Ghost
Dead Man’s Lake