Ghost Shadow (Bone Island Trilogy #1)

Ghost Shadow (Bone Island Trilogy #1) Page 31

She ignored him, thanked Andy again and headed back out into the sunshine.

“What are you trying to do?” Bartholomew demanded.

“I don’t know. But when we were by the hanging tree, I felt that we needed to be looking into more than we’re looking into. Let’s say that these murders were carried out by the same person. That’s kind of crazy in itself. Bizarre murders, or bizarre display of the victims. Over ten years apart. And both when people were suddenly reappearing in town. Sam Barnard is suddenly back. David is suddenly back.”

“That’s two people,” Bartholomew pointed out.

“My brother is due in soon.”

“Three people. What a horde.”

“Don’t be sarcastic. It’s not at all gentlemanly,” Katie told him.

“Hmm. Forgive me. You’re young. I decided that my function in death was to keep you alive, and if it takes sarcasm…”

His voice drifted. She saw that he wasn’t paying the least attention to her. He was looking down the street. “There she goes.”

“Who?”

“My lady in white.”

“From the story you just told me, you were in love with Victoria.”

He nodded.

“Is she Victoria?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know who she is.” He gave Katie his attention again. “Okay, so, you wanted old police records-that’s why we were visiting Liam. But I don’t think you were going to get anything. David might be able to get information from Liam, but they don’t hand out evidence to everyone on the street. We’re not going to get any further on this today so maybe we should look into something else. Maybe we can find out who the lady in white is through old records. Let’s go to the library.”

“Okay, but aren’t you a bit fickle? What about Victoria?” Katie asked.

“I know, in my bones-or lack thereof-that Victoria has moved on, and is happy. The woman in white needs help.” Bartholomew smiled. “She needs me. So…let’s go do some research at the library!”

After spending some time reading the history of Key West, Katie looked up at Bartholomew. She glanced at the book he was reading, and was surprised to note that he had managed to turn a page.

She looked around quickly, but they were the only two seated in that section of the library. Leaning across the table, she saw that he was studying wreckers.

“Anything?” she asked him.

“Yes!”

“What?” Katie asked.

Bartholomew looked at her. “I found my lady in white. Look-look at the picture. That’s her! You can see the picture has her in the same white dress we’ve seen her in. She’s Lucinda-Lucy-Wellington. Her parents died of a fever, and she and her brother were left in penury. The brother earned command of a ship. She watched every day for him to return from a voyage to Boston. Captain Wellington was caught in a storm just off the south side of the island. Lucy’s house was near O’Hara’s, and she spent the storm atop the widow’s walk, praying the ship would come home safely. The wreckers discovered the ship, but not the body of Captain Wellington. Some say that Lucy cast herself to her death from the same widow’s walk she had paced, and others say that she fell, trying to get a better view down to the shore when they were bringing in the flotsam and jetsam-and the bodies that washed up.”

“You were here then,” Katie reminded him.

He nodded. “Yes, I wasn’t hanged until a few years later.”

“But you didn’t know Lucy?”

He shook his head. “She might have been broke, but she was descended from…a better quality of people. I was a gentleman-surely you know that! But back then, social strata were strict. No matter what my demeanor, manners and riches, I wasn’t easily accepted.” He stared hard at Katie. “You have to talk to her for me.”

“Bartholomew, I will try,” she said firmly.

He smiled. “Look, Katie, I’ve turned another page.”

“That’s great. Can we keep reading then?”

“Aha! I just found a reference to your house, Katie. It was sold to Shamus O’Hara in eighteen twenty-nine. He purchased it from a John Moreland, who had bought it from John Whitehead. Am I ever glad I was named Bartholomew! They were all John in those days. Thank the Lord.” He looked up at her suddenly. “Imagine that, Katie. Your ancestors would have watched me on the day that I was hanged. And they certainly didn’t lift a finger to stop the injustice of my execution.”

11

It wasn’t difficult in the least to find Lewis Agaro.

David simply went from bar to bar, and found him in a small but rustic place near Mallory Square.

He sat down on a bar stool next to the slim young man. Lewis Agaro turned, took one look at him and started to bolt.

David set a hand on the kid’s on the bar.

“I’m not here to take you down,” he said.

Lewis looked around. He was looking for his older brother, David thought. But the brother didn’t appear to be here.

Lewis sat. A barmaid came up, and David ordered a beer.

“You’d be a blind and deaf man not to know about the murder,” David said, his tone conversational. “And I’m wondering how it feels. You were the last one with her. She might have been a prostitute and a stripper, but she was a human being and you’d definitely been attracted to her. Even though the cops were trying to bust you for something that she did.”

The kid let out a breath, picked up his drink and swallowed down the remainder. A pulse was ticking at his throat. “She was cool,” he said. “She-she had balls. She ripped me off, and I knew that when I woke up, but she didn’t take all my money-she left me enough to get around. I would have gone back to the club. I would have called her out on it, but I swear, I wouldn’t have hurt her.” He turned to David then, and he did look tortured.

“I don’t think that you killed her, kid,” David said.

Lewis Agaro let out a long breath. “I didn’t. I swear I didn’t. I had a night with her like no other. I woke up and my wallet had been rifled and she was gone. I went back to the club, but she wasn’t there. Then-they found her body.”

“Did you see anyone that night? Did she talk to you about anyone?”

Agaro frowned, shaking his head. He was thoughtful. “She-well, we talked about the fact that I had almost been arrested for a pocket she had picked! She thought it was funny, and she wasn’t afraid-even when I told her the cops thought it was her. She said she knew her way around town, and she knew her away around the law, real well. You-you don’t understand. She wasn’t a bad person. She was cool. She was like one of those folks on that TV show-Survivor! She wasn’t like all-sex. She was affectionate, she had feelings.”

“I’m sure she did.”

“The cops are going to arrest me, aren’t they? They’re going to think that I did it. Billy-my brother-he’s all disgusted with me. He wanted to get the hell off the island. Billy-” He paused, wincing. “Billy didn’t even know that I’d hired her for the night. He wound up hanging out with some of his friends from FSU. He thinks I’ll be called in-along with him-cause we were stopped in the street by that Neanderthal the other night and accused of robbing him.”

“You’re not going to be arrested, Lewis, but they will bring you in for questioning. Just tell them the truth. You’re a kid from out of town, you couldn’t possibly have staged the death scene at the museum. The cops aren’t stupid. They know that.” He pulled a cocktail napkin toward him and reached in his pocket for a pen. He scribbled down a name and handed the paper to the young man. “There’s a name for a good attorney down here-a criminal attorney. If you need help, call him. He’s a good guy.”

“I can’t afford an attorney.”

“Tell him I referred you. He’s older than hell, better than anyone else you’ll ever meet. I know-he stood by me once. He’s an old family friend. You’ll be all right. That’s over with, so… Think. Please, think. Is there anything else you can tell me?”

He perked up suddenly. “There was one thing. There was this guy. He’d been upstairs-during the show. He tried to get Stella to talk to him, but she ripped her arm away from him and hissed something at him. And he told her he was working a whole lot. He was going to get money-she should quit what she was doing. I think that he knew that she had promised to come home with me.”

“What did the guy look like?” David asked, though he was sure he knew the answer.

“Skinny, kind of thin face, about your age. Ah, hell, I’d seen him before around here. My brother’s friends were heckling one of the ghost tours, and he was the guy leading it. He made everybody yell at the hecklers, something like, ‘You’re cursed!’”

David nodded. “Thanks.”

He set a hand on the kid’s shoulder and rose.

Danny Zigler.

But where the hell was he now? David was afraid that he wasn’t going to find Danny. He still didn’t believe that Danny Zigler was capable of murder. But neither was Danny capable of holding down the kind of job that could account for the money he had at his apartment. Danny had known or suspected something-maybe he even knew why and how Stella had died. The police would find the money in Danny’s apartment eventually. Until then, it was something he was going to keep to himself.

He still had to find Danny. He was just afraid that he wasn’t going to find him alive.

Katie’s phone rang in the quiet of the library, making her jump. She answered it quickly, wondering if her heart was thumping because her caller ID read David Beckett, or just because she had been so startled.

“Hey,” she said. “How’s it going?”

“Interesting. Danny Zigler is nowhere to be found.”

“Well, he’ll turn up, I’m certain.”

David didn’t reply to her statement. “Where are you?” he asked instead.