When he arrived at the hospital, both Debbie and J.J. were pleased to see him. And Debbie was relieved about his plan to take them to the hotel where his unit was staying.
Because of his nature—which was both protective and suspicious—and perhaps because of his work, he found that he was keeping a close eye on Debbie, too. She’d been close to Wendy Appleby. But J.J. evidently loved and trusted her; she’d been his mother’s best friend. And she appeared to be grateful that she was going to be at the hotel with the agents and the police. It made her feel safe, she said.
“I couldn’t tell J.J., of course, but I’ve been worried about leaving the hospital, about being alone with him. We could’ve gone to my apartment instead of his house, but I’m still scared. The only thing is...I can’t pay for the hotel. I haven’t worked since it all happened, and if I want to keep J.J., I don’t even have a job to go to anymore.”
“We’re taking care of it. J.J. is a material witness, so you don’t need to worry,” Aidan assured her.
They waited while the doctor came and signed the papers to release the boy. Then J.J. said goodbye to the medical staff who’d come to care about him. Finally, they walked down to Aidan’s car.
“Where’s Mo?” J.J. asked Aidan as they drove off.
“She’s working at the Haunted Mausoleum tonight,” Aidan told him.
“I wish you had Rollo,” J.J. mumbled.
“I’m sure you can see him tomorrow,” Aidan said. He called Logan again and found out that he’d gotten the room for Debbie and J.J. It was attached to his room. Detective Voorhaven would meet them downstairs and take them up.
Voorhaven was in the parking lot to meet them with keys. He took the bag of clothing and toiletries Wendy had brought and led the way.
Before he let her go up to their room with J.J. and Voorhaven, Aidan stopped Debbie. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“Yes?”
“I need you to think of any reason at all that someone would want Wendy dead. And what her connection with Richard might have been.”
“I will. Oh, my God, yes, I will!” Debbie vowed.
He escorted her up to the room where Voorhaven waited with J.J. Once they’d settled in, Voorhaven met him at the door. “I want to apologize,” he said in a low voice.
“For what?”
“For being an ass. You know, touchy over the federal-local thing. Your guys here—and Jane!—are great. I’m sorry. We never could have handled this without you. We just don’t deal with this kind of situation very often. Thank God.”
“It’s okay, Voorhaven.” Aidan smiled.
“James or Jimmy.”
“Jimmy, it’s okay,” he said.
But when Aidan went to Logan’s suite to catch up with the others and work on their future strategy, he was dismayed that Jimmy joined them. He wasn’t ready to talk about the ghosts he didn’t actually see—but Mo did—in front of someone who wasn’t a part of the Krewe.
But that was easily solved. J.J. wanted to go to the hotel’s game room. Voorhaven volunteered for the duty of accompanying him and Debbie down to play games. “I don’t show mercy, even to kids,” Voorhaven warned J.J. “And I’m a kick-ass air hockey player.”
“You’re on!” J.J. told him.
When he was alone in the room with Logan, Sloan, Jane and Will, Aidan went over everything that had occurred that day.
“All the local legends coming to the fore,” Jane said. “The headless horseman, Andre’s ghost and the Woman in White. But why would anyone kill over any of them?”
“Revenge?” Will asked. “Yeah, I know, revenge for a two-hundred-year-old death may be crazy—but there are crazies out there. And as for Elizabeth Hampton and her family—Lizzie was a murder victim! If you were out to avenge her death, you wouldn’t kill her descendant.”
“There has to be an answer. I believe Richard did find out about Lizzie grave,” Aidan said. “But even if a man found out he was related to a woman who had been killed for her association with a Revolutionary-era spy, what would that mean today? Half the population around here can trace their ancestry back to the founding days.”
“Maybe this goes deeper,” Sloan suggested.
“People kill for love, hate, jealousy and money. I don’t see here where money enters into this. Richard poured his life’s earnings into his work. And Wendy was barely getting by,” Aidan said. “But, maybe that’s an angle to look into.”
Will stood up suddenly. “Doors opening on the Taylor Branch floor,” he said. He pointed to the screens. “Yes, there’s Branch, out in the hallway, and there’s Jillian Durfey. They’re meeting up to go out together.”
“I’m on it,” Sloan said. “I’ll be out in the car, watching them, and I’ll tail them when they leave.”
“More movement,” Jane noted. “The security guys are heading out, too. Looks like they’re surprised to see Taylor and Jillian in the hall—like it’s a coincidence that they’re all out there now.”
“Go down and be ready to leave, too,” Logan told Will.