The Hidden

“What?”


“I was with another woman,” he snapped, then let out a breath. “Yes, I know, I’m on my honeymoon. But with every passing minute, I know...well, I know I made a mistake. I have no excuse. I just... I couldn’t help myself,” he admitted lamely.

Diego sat back, skeptical and wary. “Who is this other woman?” he demanded.

Barton didn’t answer.

There was a knock at the door. Lieutenant Gray had been watching the interview, so Diego excused himself and stepped outside, expecting to see Gray in the hallway.

It wasn’t Lieutenant Gray, however, who had knocked at the door. It was one of his men, a young detective.

“Lieutenant Gray asked me to tell you that the men following the Levins tailed them into town, then lost them somewhere around the old water wheel. Lieutenant Gray has headed out to the Conway Ranch. Ben and Trisha Kendall are here, and Gray thinks Scarlet and Terry Ballantree—who went running right back after we questioned him—should be here, too, for their own safety. The lieutenant’s going to ask Agent Cody and fiancée to come along, too.”

*

Scarlet was staring at the pile of journals on her desk. Lara was sitting across from her, while Brett kept circling the statue of Nathan Kendall.

She was edgy, Scarlet realized, starting when Brett’s phone rang. He looked over at her immediately, and she knew it was Diego again.

Brett spoke in monosyllables. “Yes” and then “No,” and then “Yes” again. When he hung up, he looked at her.

“Lieutenant Gray is on his way. We’re all going down to the station with him,” he said.

“Why? Do they know something new?”

He nodded, then turned his attention back to the mannequin. “So strange,” he murmured.

“What is?” Scarlet asked.

He looked at her and grimaced. “Life and death,” he said. “We have Daniel Kendall, nice easygoing guy, killed relatively recently, and all of us can hear him. Then we have poor Nathan Kendall, who’s been around well over a hundred years, and we needed a séance to hear a few words from him, though he did manage to talk to you later, at least. You’d think he would have found peace by now.”

“They say they stay for a reason,” Lara said. “He probably wanted to see his son grow up, but that was years ago now.”

“I wonder about Jillian,” Scarlet said. “We don’t really even know what she looked like. Her mannequin is gone, and I haven’t seen a likeness of her anywhere.”

“You think he’s looking for Jillian?” Brett asked. “Why? She’s buried next to him.”

“Yes, but let’s face it,” Scarlet said. “Nathan has difficulty as a spirit. Maybe he just can’t figure out how to leave.”

Her eyes traveled to the side window and she jumped up, a scream tearing from her throat.

Angus was there, his face pressed to the glass, blood dripping from a wound on his forehead. He seemed to be trying to cry out for help.

*

Diego walked back into the interrogation room and leaned over the table to stare Charles Barton in the face. “Who?” he asked. “Who is the woman you were seeing?”

“Look, it was stupid. She just came on to me, that’s all. And Gwen is... I was supposed to marry Gwen. We’d been together forever. But she always has a headache. You know that joke about having a headache at night? Well, it’s no joke with Gwen, it’s the truth. It was like I put that ring on her finger, said ‘I do,’ and she did everything known to man to emasculate me. So when this beautiful woman was interested in me...”

“Charles!” Diego said sharply. “Your marital problems are your own problem. Who is the woman you’ve been seeing?”

“Linda,” Charles said. “Linda Reagan. I was with her the night the Parkers were killed, too, and pretty much every night since I’ve been here.”

Diego stared at him in shock for a long moment.