Page 6 of Ghost
Ray liked the banter; it reminded himof his time in the Marines. He missed that kind of camaraderie. Hehad friends on the force back in Seattle, but it never felt asclose to when he’d been with his military unit.
“So, what’s the plan? ShowRay the sights of Marshall?” Ghost asked. “Before heleaves.”
“Hell, he knows Marshallbetter than any of us,” Elias said. “He grew up here. A thirdgeneration born and raised. His grandfather and father were bothsheriffs of Marshall before me.”
“You didn’t want to becomesheriff?” Conor asked.
“No,” Ray said, hoping thatwould end any further talk of it.
“Better life out in Seattleas a detective,” Fletcher said. “I get it; small-town life ain’tfor everyone.”
“Yeah, something likethat,” Ray responded. “Seattle keeps me pretty busy.”
“What was it like growingup in Marshall?”
“Same old story as everysmall town. You knew everyone and everything that happened. Youcouldn’t wipe your ass with new toilet paper without the neighborsknowing. But it wasn’t all bad.”
“Wait, if you grew up hereand members of your family served as the local sheriff, then you’dknow Great-Aunt Sophia and Father Henry Jones,” Julia said with anoverly excited expression.
Well, shit. Digging up olddirt didn’t take long at all for this crew.
“Yeah, my family and I havelived in Marshall for over two hundred years. I knew Brick’s auntand her family.”
“That’s great. We’ve beentrying to pull together information on a mystery involving theshooting of Jericho Miles back when Sophia was in her earlytwenties,” she explained.
“That’s a long time ago.Don’t know how much help I’d be. That was more of my grandfather’sand father’s time, and Elias mentioned another detective namedWoodley is on your team. Why are you so interested in a shootingthat took place generations ago, Julia?”
“It’s as a favor to me,”Brick spoke up, his voice calm, but something about his behaviorhad Ray paying closer attention. “You see, my great-aunt left methis place, and when we began fixing it up, we found boxes of oldrecords on the case. Hell, probably some from your grandfather’soffice, as he would have been acting sheriff at the time. DetectiveWoodley is out of town on a family matter, but more importantly,he’s unfamiliar with the area.”
“Still, what’s a couple ofold boxes of paper got to do with an old, closed case?” Rayenquired.
“At first, it appeared asthough Sophia had kept the information for a specific reason, butwe came up empty when we visited Father Jones in the penitentiary.After his death, we figured it would all remain a mystery as to whySophia was so interested in the case. We knew Jericho Miles wasfound out here on Fire Lake and arrested a couple of times fortrespassing, but that’s all,” Julia explained.
“Then we met a guy onApollo’s team in New Orleans. He goes by the name of Hendrix and isalso a survivor. There’s another member of our team named Stryker.He’s another retired SEAL from our unit, and we discovered he and Iare related by DNA testing while in the service,” Brick explained.“Which was all fine and good; we figured distant cousins by somefluke, an aunt thirteen generations ago or some shit like that,ended up on the same team. We’re all related somewhere down theline, they say. That was until we met this Hendrix.”
“One of Hendrix’s abilitiesis to see a person’s lineage in his mind. Like a genealogistwithout the equipment and map-out-their-family-tree sort of thing,”Conor said. “When he met Brick and Stryker, Hendrix immediatelyknew they were much closer, first or second cousins on Brick’sfather’s side.”
“Meaning?” It was allinteresting but still didn’t lead to the old case.
“Means that with Brickbeing the only child of William Matthews, son of Sophia’s brotherand grandfather to Brick, and Sophia never getting married orstarting a family, if Hendrix is to be believed, and we have noreason not to believe his ability based on past confirmed reports,Sophia would then had to have had a child at some point in her lifefor Stryker to be her grandchild. A child that was never reportedor declared.”
“Ah, okay, I see.” Ray laidit out as he saw it. “So, with Brick’s grandfather and Great-AuntSophia being brother and sister, and Brick’s grandfather onlyhaving one child, then for Stryker and Brick to be related soclosely, Sophia would have had to give birth to a child who wouldbe Stryker’s mother or father.”
“Yep,” Brickconfirmed.
“Holy shit. I might needanother diagram for this one,” Fletcher groaned, rubbing his head.“Are we trying to uncover whether the priest shot the town drunk orwhether Sophia had a child and who that child was?”
“No kidding. It’sconfusing, but it all comes down to this simple fact,” another mansaid as he entered the room. “Great-Aunt Sophia had a child andnever told anyone. We must figure out whether that child could bemy dad or mom and what happened back around the same time as theshooting. It could all be related somehow.”
Elias waved a hand. “Ray, this isStryker and his partner, John.”
Ray stood and shook both men’s offeredhands. “Good to meet you. Are you the person who can see throughthings?” Ray asked the second man at Stryker’s side.
“That’s me,” John said witha wry smile.
“I hear you savedeveryone’s lives with your ability. That’s amazing,” Ray said,meaning every word. He’d hate for his old Marine buddy, Elias, tobe taken out by this Noah Group.
“Thank you,” John said.“I’m still getting the hang of it.”
