“The cemetery.”
She didn’t ask why but remained silent as they drove. He was keenly aware of her beside him. Her head was high, the angle emphasizing the fine lines of her features. He inhaled her scent and for some reason, the fact that she was beautiful and poised and possessing such a demeanor of strength began to irritate him.
When they reached the site and parked, she led the way up the hill, weaving through the stones and memorials with the dog and coming to a halt before the tomb.
She turned to look at him. “Why are we here?”
He answered her question with another. “Why did you come here yesterday?” he asked.
“You saw. Rollo was on the scent!”
“Yes, I saw. But how did you get to the head? Richard’s head,” he added, as if there was any risk she might misunderstand.
She flushed. “I’m...not sure,” she said.
“I think you are.”
“Really? And what are you? Psychic?”
“No. I don’t read minds, and neither do you. But you have...something.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Tarrytown, Irving, Sleepy Hollow—there’s a fair amount of territory. Miles of woods, streams, water and, hell, there’s a damned big river. But you immediately homed in on the right area. You found a head. Kind of like finding a needle in a haystack.”
“Someone would have found it soon enough.”
“Yes, but someone didn’t have to. Because you did.”
She waved one hand airily.
“You see the dead,” he told her.
“Yes, we saw the dead!” she snapped. “Two heads—and two bodies!”
He struggled to keep his distance from her. He wanted to grasp her shoulders at that moment and shake her.
He wouldn’t, of course. He still had that much control.
He almost smiled; if he made a move toward her, the wolfhound, friendly to him or not, would be on him in a flash, ready to tear him to pieces.
She inhaled deeply, then released her breath. He didn’t have to say more, and he wondered what he must have looked like, standing there, because she suddenly gave up.
“There’s nothing here,” she said softly. “No one.”
“You can’t see him, feel him?” he whispered.
She shook her head. Her response seemed odd to him, though. “I don’t know why you think that...that a dead man would hang around in the cemetery where his body was dumped. I mean, if such things were real—as in revenants, ghosts, what have you—they’d be here for a reason. And how productive would it be to hang around here?”
He glanced at his watch yet again. Maybe this had been a foolish idea. He had to be at the task force meeting.
“I’ll take you home,” he told her. Then he managed a stiff, “Thank you for obliging my whim.”
She nodded. “Rollo always enjoys an excursion,” she said.
He was quiet as he drove. When they reached the cottage he stepped out of the car to open the door for her, but she’d exited the passenger side before he could come around.
He let Rollo out.
“You might want to go inside while I’m still here,” he said.
“It’s daylight. I have to be able to walk into and out of my own house in broad daylight.” She gestured around her. “And if anyone was here, Rollo would tell me.”
“Yeah. Well, be careful.”
“Of course.” She started to walk toward her front door but paused, turning back. He still stood by the car, watching her.
“If you think I have something,” she told him, “it has to be because you have something.”
“If I ever did, it’s long gone,” he said.
“You just want it to be gone. But that doesn’t make any difference. It’s not something you get rid of. Because you can’t get rid of what you are—tall, short, dark, light, hearing, deaf, sighted or blind—and you can’t get rid of this. All you can do is lie to yourself. Deny it all—and mess yourself up pretty good.”
She met his eyes, but obviously wasn’t expecting an answer. Then she went into her house with Rollo and closed and locked the door.
*
Mo leaned against the door, shaking. It took her a minute to catch her breath and calm her heart.
She wasn’t sure why she’d gotten so angry. Yes, she was. Aidan Mahoney was a jerk who was dishonest with himself and others, trying to protect himself from a reality he feared.
Most of the world didn’t see the dead—the majority of the world didn’t see them. To all those people, that meant they weren’t there and if they were there, it was imagination. Or fantasy. Or, worse, lunacy.
Apparently, he didn’t remember that once upon a time the so-called sane world believed the Earth was flat.
Rollo barked at her and wagged his tail expectantly.
“Sorry, boy! Want a treat? My dog food and dog treat bill is probably as high as someone else’s rent!”