“Who?”
“The woman your aunt saw at your window the night our Jane Doe was killed.”
“You saw her?”
He nodded.
“And you chased her?”
He nodded again, then waited as the waitress delivered their drinks.
“And you...spoke with her?”
“No. She disappeared.”
“Well, that’s not really helpful. But...are you sure it was her?”
“I’m sure. I think I scared her, but she didn’t disappear right away. She let me follow her down to Derby Street first, which makes me think she wants to talk.”
Her eyes were on his, glinting like sapphires in the light of the little candle that burned on their table.
“Then why did she disappear?” Devin asked.
“Because,” he said softly, lifting his beer in a salute, “I think she wants to talk to you.”
7
Dinner was actually nice.
Almost like two people who liked each other being out on a...
A date.
They talked about things that had nothing to do with ghosts and murder. He told her he’d lost his dad, who he’d adored, and had always wanted to go into law enforcement because of him. His mom, who he saw as often as his schedule allowed, was happily remarried and living in Arizona.
“Doesn’t she worry about you—about your job?” Devin asked.
“She married an ex-sheriff and then a retired cop. She’s accustomed to it. She’d probably be more worried if I worked in a convenience store. What about you?”
So she told him about her parents, that they were happily retired and she saw them several times a year—sadly, the last time being not so long ago, for her aunt’s funeral.
As they talked, Rocky said that there were times when he really missed the area. When she asked him if he would ever move back, he shook his head slowly. “Not in the near future. I’ve just gotten where I really want to be, and that’s based in Virginia.”
“Another state with a lot of interesting history,” she said with a smile. “Jamestown, Williamsburg, revolutionaries, pirates, the Civil War...”
He laughed. “Yep.”
Eventually they left the restaurant. She had a feeling they were both sorry to go.
“Are you still planning to meet up with your friends?” she asked him. “Now that your ‘people’ are here?”
He paused at that. Essex Street was quiet. Most of the ghost tour guests had headed back to their lodgings. A few late-night bars were still open, but at that hour Essex Street wasn’t the hotbed of activity it was by day.
Until Haunted Happenings, of course, but that would come with the fall.
He nodded, looking around. “Not a creature is stirring,” he murmured, then smiled at her. “But do you think they’re watching?”
“Ghosts?” she asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Probably,” she said softly.
“And yet most people never even know they exist—or think about it on a daily basis. Anyway, back to your question,” he said, walking again in the direction of the car. “Yes. My ‘people’ are all nice, and two of them are from the area—assigned to the case for precisely that reason. They’ll have fun with my old crowd. You liked Jane and Angela, didn’t you?”
“Very much,” she told him, getting into the car.
“Good. That’s two people you’ll already know,” he said, and moved around to the driver’s side. “And Jack, of course.”
“Jack?”
“Detective Grail.”
“Oh! That’s right,” she said, remembering. “You two are old friends.”
“Yep. Never thought he’d be a cop. Another of our friends—the biggest slacker of us all—went to law school, and now he’s a successful attorney.”
Devin laughed. “All my friends, it seems, embraced the history of this town and opened stores or became guides. Or both.”
“You could certainly be a guide if you wanted to.”
“I love what I do, but who knows what the future will hold?”
As they drove back toward her cottage, Devin looked out at the streets of Salem. Yes, it was commercial. Yes, it was a tourist town. But people here also remembered their real history. And they honored it.
When they reached the house, he walked her up the path without asking.
Devin opened the door and looked in. “Auntie Mina?” she called.
There was no reply from her aunt, so she stepped in, and Rocky followed her.
“I’ll do the check-out-the-house thing,” he said.
As he’d done before, he went through every room, looking in closets and under the beds. When he finished and rejoined her by the door, he said, “I don’t want to make you paranoid, but it’s always a good idea to be careful. I just wish you weren’t out here alone.”
“I’m not alone. I have Poe and Aunt Mina,” she told him.
He gave a halfhearted smile. “You were pretty amazing tonight.”
“Pardon?”