Scene Of The Crime: Who Killed Shelly Sinclair?. Carla Cassidy

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      Daniel joined her by the side of her car. “Bo worked the night shift at Bo’s Place and Shelly worked the night shift at The Pirate’s Inn. Before she went into work, Bo often sneaked away and the two of them would meet here for a few minutes before they each returned to work.”

      “So Shelly showed up that night, but according to the message that she got from Bo, he didn’t come.” Olivia stared at the bench where a young, beautiful woman had spent the last minutes of her life. Who had met Shelly here in the middle of the night and strangled her to death then threw her body in the nearby lagoon?

      They crossed the street. Beyond the bushes and the stone bench was a grassy area that ran from one edge of the swampy growth to the other side, and beyond that the lagoon water sparkled darkly in the waning sunlight.

      “No evidence was found?” Olivia asked.

      “The bushes on the left side of the bench were trampled down, indicating that the struggle occurred there, but we didn’t find anything in the way of evidence.” His voice held a wealth of frustration.

      “From the minute I read this file, I’ve been haunted by her,” Olivia said softly.

      “You aren’t the only one. I’ve spent two years with her ghost haunting my dreams, begging for justice. In the last year, Shelly’s sister, Savannah, kept her sister relevant by dressing up like a ghost and walking on the grassy area just in front of the lagoon.”

      Olivia looked at him in surprise. “Really?”

      “On Friday nights teenagers would gather and hide behind the bushes, waiting for the ghost of Shelly to appear. Savannah used a tunnel that runs from her backyard to the base of a tree.” He pointed to the right of the grassy area where a cypress tree rose up. “She’d wear some gauzy white dress with a flashlight tied to her waist beneath to give her a ghostly glow. She’d walk across to the other side where a cave led back to the tunnel that would take her home.”

      “Why would she do such a thing?” Olivia asked, wanting to know all the ins and outs of this case.

      Daniel shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the dark lagoon water. He appeared haunted, his eyes fixed in the distance and his posture one of faint defeat.

      “When Shelly was buried, Savannah’s parents moved away and left her and her brother, Mac, the family house. Mac married and moved out soon after that. According to Shelly, she wasn’t allowed to speak of her sister, either to her parents or to her brother. She did her ghostly walks to hear the teenagers behind the bushes gasp and shout out Shelly’s name. It was her way of keeping her sister alive.”

      He pulled his hands from his pockets and turned back to gaze at Olivia. “Thankfully, Josh caught on to what she was doing and with his love she’s healing. But she needs closure. She needs her sister’s killer behind bars to fully embrace the life she’s building with Josh.”

      “Tomorrow I’d like you to go with me to interview Bo McBride. I know small towns and that often people are hostile or suspicious of strangers. I think I’ll get more answers if you’re with me.”

      Daniel nodded. “Just tell me when and I’ll be glad to go with you.”

      Olivia walked forward and sat on the bench, as if she could somehow pick up something from the horror of the crime that had happened so long ago.

      It was darker here, the sinking sun unable to penetrate the shadows formed by the swamp vegetation and the trees with thick Spanish moss dripping from their branches.

      Daniel sat next to her. His spicy cologne was familiar as it wafted to her. It wasn’t just a familiar scent she’d noticed over the last couple of days, but one she remembered from a night that shouldn’t have happened. It was a night that should have been erased from her memory bank long ago.

      “Tell me about Bo McBride,” she said in an effort to keep away memories that had no place in her head.

      “Bo was one of the golden boys in town. He was liked and respected by everyone. He was handsome and had a beautiful girlfriend. His business was extremely successful and at least on the surface it appeared he had the world by the tail.”

      “Do you think he killed Shelly?”

      His features were dappled by shadows and his eyes glowed silvery green in the falling of twilight. They had glowed like that when he’d taken possession of her body. Darn it, she had to stop remembering him naked and filled with desire for her.

      He raked a hand through his thick short hair and leaned back against the bench. “Do I think Bo killed Shelly? My gut instinct is that he didn’t.”

      “And how good is your gut instinct?”

      He grinned at her, his perfect white teeth flashing bright. “Better than most, but in this case I guess time and more investigation will tell us if it’s on the money.”

      “Who found her body? I didn’t see anything in the report.”

      “An early morning jogger named Tom Dempsey. Tom is sixty-seven years old and jogs at odd times of the day and night. It was four in the morning when he saw Shelly floating in the swamp and called it in. Thankfully, we managed to retrieve her before any gators or other wildlife got to her.”

      Olivia had been involved in many homicide cases in Natchez, but for some reason the case of Shelly Sinclair was hitting her hard. She rose from the bench, not wanting to sit another minute in this place of death.

      Daniel stood, as well. “I have a favor to ask you,” she said as they walked back to their cars. She paused and gazed up at him. “I’ve been watching the way you interact among the men and it’s obvious they look up to you. What I need to know is if I can trust you completely?”

      She held his gaze steadily. She might be making a mistake, but she needed somebody on the inside, somebody who had worked closely with the other men in the department.

      She had no real reason to trust Daniel. A single night in bed certainly wasn’t the basis to build trust on, but her gut instinct told her he was the one man in the department who was an upright, by-the-book lawman.

      “Of course you can trust me completely,” he replied. The earnestness in his eyes comforted her.

      “Then what I’d like to do is meet you for coffee one evening soon at the café and have a talk about some of your fellow officers,” she said.

      He frowned. “I’d really rather not do that at the café where people can see us together or might overhear the conversation. I don’t want the men to think I’m being a snitch.”

      “Of course, I didn’t think about that.”

      “Why don’t you follow me to my place now and we can talk privately there?”

      Olivia thought about all the questions she had about some of the deputies. “Okay,” she agreed a bit reluctantly.

      It was only when she was back in her car and following him to his place that she thought this might be a bad idea. First and foremost she was running only on a gut instinct and his word that he was trustworthy.

      More important, she feared that in the privacy of his home he might bring up that night СКАЧАТЬ