Ivy stilled. “What do you mean?”
“Ivy, I think you’re missing a very important piece of this puzzle,” Felicity said. “The gun used to shoot Jack … and the police officer in Bellaire … and you … was thought to have burned up in the same fiery car crash that claimed Jack’s former partner.”
“How do you know that?”
“I called Brian because I wanted information on your shooting,” Felicity replied, not missing a beat.
“So you knew about all of this before I told you? Why did you make me go through the entire story again?”
“Because I wanted to see what kind of spin you put on it. You could be a human carousel.”
“Oh, whatever,” Ivy muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. “If that gun was supposed to be destroyed, how did someone get it?”
Felicity internally chuckled. Ivy was finally thinking things through clearly. “That’s one of the important questions we need answers to,” she conceded. “The other one involves Jack’s partner. This is obviously retribution for what happened in Detroit. Someone is sending Jack a message, although we can’t be sure what it is yet. So, what we need to ask ourselves is who loved Jack’s partner enough to want revenge?”
“Huh.” Ivy was lost in thought. She hated it when her aunt was right. “How can we find out the answers to those questions?”
Felicity’s eyes twinkled. “I was hoping you would ask that. I have an idea.”
JACK sucked in a deep breath and then punched in Laura Simmons’ phone number. He hadn’t seen the amiable woman since her brother shot him and left him for dead in the street. She didn’t come to see him in the hospital – although he didn’t blame her for that – and he didn’t go to Marcus’ funeral.
They met several times throughout his three-year partnership with Marcus, mostly at family barbecues and the like. She’d always been pleasant, if a little scattered, and a few times Jack worried she developed a crush on him. He didn’t think that would be a problem this time.
“Hello.”
“Laura?”
“Yes, this is Laura. Who is this?”
Jack had only a split-second to decide if he was going to retreat. When Ivy’s sad face flitted through his mind, he forced himself to be strong. “It’s Jack Harker.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a full thirty seconds. Jack was almost convinced she hung up on him when she found her voice. “I … wow, Jack. It’s been a long time.”
“It has,” Jack agreed. “I … um … how have you been?” As much as he wanted to get straight to the point he knew he would turn Laura off if he immediately started grilling her on the disposition of her brother’s body and what happened to his personal belongings.
“I’m okay,” Laura said. “It’s been … difficult … but I’m managing. How are you? I heard you moved.”
“I did,” Jack said. “I moved to a small town called Shadow Lake. It’s in the northwestern part of the lower peninsula.”
“That sounds … very different … from what you were doing down here.”
“I needed something different,” Jack said. “I needed a change. I needed a place where the pressure was lessened.”
“Did you find that in Shadow Lake?”
“I did.”
“Well, I’m happy for you,” Laura said. “Listen, Jack, I probably should’ve come to see you in the hospital after what happened. After Marcus died, it didn’t seem right and my mother was having trouble understanding everything the cops were saying. She didn’t believe he could possibly be guilty. It was a horrible time.”
“I understand that, Laura. I didn’t expect you to visit me. I wasn’t really in the mood to see people.”
“I’m sure you weren’t. I still should’ve made the effort to come and see you. It was just too hard.”
“It was hard on all of us,” Jack said, his discomfort rising. This was not what he wanted to talk about. “Laura, I didn’t just call to catch up on old times. I need to know what happened to your brother’s body after the explosion.”
Silence.
“Laura?”
“That’s a really strange question, Jack.”
“I’m sorry,” Jack offered. “There’s been a spot of trouble up here … two shootings in fact … and the ballistics came back as a match for Marcus’ gun. I need to know how that’s possible.”
“I’m not sure I have an answer for you, Jack. I never even wondered about what happened to his gun. I always assumed it burned up with him in the fire.”
“I did, too,” Jack said. “It doesn’t seem to be the case, though. What about Marcus’ body?”
“You don’t think he’s behind this, do you?” Laura asked. “I can assure you that he died in that fire. They ran dental records.”
“I don’t think it’s him,” Jack clarified. “I’m just getting all of my ducks in a row.”
“Well, he was cremated,” Laura explained. “He was burned pretty badly and they recommended we not see him … so we didn’t. We had him cremated and my mother put his ashes in an urn. It’s on the mantle above her fireplace.”
“And you have no idea what happened to his gun?”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I don’t.”
“Well, I didn’t expect you to know,” Jack said. “I had to give it a shot, though. I’m sorry to have bugged you. I’m glad you’re doing okay. I hope things continue to get better for you.”
“You, too.”
Eleven
“This is the dumbest idea you’ve ever had.” Ivy glanced around her aunt’s small living room with a disgusted look on her face. “Seriously? How can you possibly think this is a good idea?”
Felicity reminded herself that Ivy was recuperating from a trauma – the one to her heart more painful than the one to her body – and continued lighting candles in a circle around her niece. “Do you have a better idea?”
“Than a séance? Yeah, I think I can come up with a few.”
“What are they?”
Ivy stilled. “What do you mean?”
“If you can come up with a
