The Hidden

12

The living room was already crowded when Matt, Brett and Diego arrived; Adam and Jane were there with Meg and Scarlet, and there was another man standing with his back to them as they entered.

Scarlet jumped up to greet Diego, her smile wide and welcoming. Then the unknown man turned around, and even before Scarlet reached him, Diego froze.

The man appeared to be flesh and blood.

But, he wasn’t. He couldn’t be.

“Daniel Kendall,” Diego said.

“Yes!” Scarlet said, sounding ridiculously happy for a woman who was hosting a dead man. “Yes, this is Daniel, who’s been trying to reach me. Daniel, Agents Diego McCullough, Matt Bosworth and Brett Cody. Guys, meet Daniel Kendall.”

“I’d shake if I could,” the apparition told them, grinning.

“Nice to meet you,” Matt said. “And also sorry to meet you.”

Diego looked over at Adam, then back to Daniel, and sighed. “I don’t suppose you know who killed you, huh? Because if you did, you would have told Meg and Scarlet, and we’d be arresting him now.”

“Believe me, you can’t wish I knew who he was any more than I do.” He shimmered for a moment, then solidified. “Sorry. I vanish now and then, so please bear with me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I can’t really see you anyway,” Adam said. “I can hear you loud and clear, though. I don’t have that extra sense my Krewe do, though over time I’ve grown able to see my son,” he said softly, then turned to Scarlet. “But you...”

“I see him as clearly as a mountaintop on a sunny day,” she said, obviously pleased. Then she took Diego’s hand and led him into the room, urging him into one of the big upholstered chairs.

He wasn’t that good at seeing ghosts yet, either, Diego thought. He didn’t want to say that to Scarlet, though.

But his abilities were firing on all cylinders tonight, though, because there he was, the dead man Jane had drawn, acting as if he was just hanging with friends on a lazy day.

“Any news on Cassandra?” Daniel asked. “I knew her, though she didn’t know me, if you see what I mean.”

“I do. And we know where she was until just before her death,” Diego said. “What can you tell us?”

Daniel went through the same story he’d told Scarlet and Meg earlier. His concern for Cassandra—a woman he’d never met, whom he’d only known as a ghost—was clear.

I would have liked this guy, Diego thought.

When Daniel had finished with his explanation, Meg went on to talk about the discoveries they’d made in the journals.

“Interesting,” Matt said.

“Do you think we’ll ever be able to figure out the truth about something that happened so long ago? We can’t even question the suspects, much less find any forensic evidence,” Scarlet said.

“Maybe we couldn’t take someone into a court of law and prove their guilt,” Diego said, “but that doesn’t matter. We can still put clues together and come up with a truth that we believe, and that truth is what we need to help us solve the present case.”

“I’ll help any way I can,” Daniel announced, then wavered. Seconds later, he was gone, leaving a frustrated “Sorry” hanging in the air.

For a moment everyone else was quiet.

“He’s really gone?” Adam asked.

“Yes,” Scarlet said.

“I guess it doesn’t make much sense for us to go to Lyons anymore,” Adam said. “When Daniel gets back he can tell us everything he did right up to the time when he was killed.”

“In that case, we can all go to the bar tonight,” Diego said.

“We’re going to a bar?” Scarlet asked.

“Cassandra told a coworker she was going to listen to a band, but it looks as if she either never made it or wasn’t there long before the killer got to her,” Diego explained. “We want to talk to the regulars and staff to see if anyone saw anything. A place called the Twisted Antler.”

“The Twisted Antler?” Scarlet repeated.