Spirited 1 (39 page)

Seth glanced behind him, then back to her.

“It’s just the two of us in here right now.” She smiled briefly, then said, “I found the diamonds because Aimee-Lynn Masters’s ghost showed them to me.”

Seth had never had an out-of-body experience before. He’d heard about them in movies, read about them in books, but had always considered such things nonsense. Listening to Jules talk about the ghost telling her their purses had been switched and that Jules had been carrying one with diamonds sewn into the lining for days, he felt his mind disconnect from his body and float up to the ceiling, where he looked down at himself and her.

“So then Dev came by and I gave the purse to him.” That sentence snapped him back to himself.

“You’re telling me,” he said in a voice so calm it frightened
him
, “you’ve brought stolen diamonds into my home repeatedly. You called the police to report it. Jones was here, collected them, and has now taken them?”

“Well, not exactly.” Her eyes widened and she paled. “I called the station looking for you. Dev, um . . . Detective Jones came over because he was worried when he heard I was alone. I hadn’t planned to give them to anyone but you. Except the ghost said Dev was safe.”

“The ghost of the woman from the Dumpster?” he asked. “The ghost of one of the thieves?”

“Aimee-Lynn wasn’t a thief! She was tricked. The Knight, whoever that is, had her and Mason convinced they were part of some crack team sent to test security systems. The moment she realized what happened, she hid the diamonds until she could figure out who to trust.” Jules pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Aimee-Lynn thought you and Dev were trustworthy.”

The dull ache between his brows spread to encompass his entire forehead. He rubbed the growing spot with his thumb and forefinger.

I’m in love with a beautiful nut case.

“You said your ex gave you that purse.” His jaw ached from clenching it. “How could you not know you’ve been carrying the wrong one since Friday night?”

“I’m not sure how I missed it.” She conceded the point, proving she wasn’t completely out of touch with reality. “Except like I told you, I never used it before last Friday night. When the purses were switched at the reunion, I hadn’t noticed probably because I barely recognized my own.”

“So you expect me to believe that you happened to be at a party where your
old friend
,
Mason Hart, happened to be with his fiancée?” he asked, his frustration mounting. He doubted she’d seen a ghost, but it was far more likely that she’d been in on the theft from the start. “Hart, who you’ve just implicated in multiple robberies? But we’ll get back to that because you and Aimee-Lynn Masters accidentally switched purses but you didn’t know it. And you just
happened
to be discovered in a Dumpster with her body. Added to that, you
just happened
to find the stolen gems in your purse. Because a
ghost
told you to rip away the lining?” He whistled between his teeth. “Did I get everything?”

“Yes.” Jules swallowed audibly and closed her eyes briefly, then whispered through a sob, “Tell me you believe me.”

“I’m a detective, honey,” he said. “I need proof. Can you ask Aimee-Lynn a question for me?”

She shook her head. “I can’t. Aimee-Lynn crossed over before you came home.”

“Crossed over?” he asked, then wished he hadn’t.

“Went into the light.” Jules nibbled on her lip, then said, “At least, I think she went into a light. She talked about seeing it. But she talked about her nana too. Hmmm . . .” She shrugged. “Either way, Aimee-Lynn’s not here anymore.”

She’s crazy.

Why had he fallen for
her
? Was every woman crazy or just the ones that held the most attraction for him? Damn, he didn’t just suck at relationships; he hoovered at them.

“Seth . . .” She reached for him but he jerked away from her touch. A desolate look washed over her beautiful face, followed by a strange sort of expression of acceptance. “Ask Dev if you don’t believe me. He’ll confirm what I’ve told you.”

“Yeah, well . . . I’ve been trying to call him all night.” The hard edge to his words appeared to physically hurt her. Her head whipped back as if he’d slapped her. Jules’s reaction served to amp up his rioting emotions from frustration to rage. He growled the next sentence. “Stay in town until this is sorted out.”

She blanched. “Are you going to arrest me?”

“Not without the diamonds.” He shook his head. “Right now, the only proof I have is that you’re a certifiable nutcase.”

Tears sprang to her eyes, clung to her lashes, but went no farther. She rose to her feet and bent over. Seth, unsure of her intent, snatched his gun from the coffee table, keeping it out of her reach.

Jules flinched; agony flashed across her face. Her eyes swam more, threatening a waterfall of tears, but not a single drop fell. With her gaze on the gun he held loosely in his hand, she retrieved her clothing from the floor.

With the grace of a queen—or of someone completely comfortable in her delusion—Jules crossed the room. She opened the door a crack, then turned back, “One more thing. Aimee-Lynn said to tell you to beware the Knight.”

The door closed behind her with a
snick
. The sound pierced his ballooning anger. It radiated through him, echoing, reverberating, stealing the strength from his body. He sunk to the couch. A hollow ache in the center of his chest opened up and he wanted to howl in grief.

The front door slammed open and bounced against the wall.

Jones’s big body nearly filled the frame.

CHAPTER 20

“A
RE YOU OUT
of your ever-lovin’ mind?” Jones slammed the door closed and stomped across Seth’s floor. His face contorted with rage and he practically vibrated. “Did you just call her a nut case?”

“Where the hell have you been all night?” Seth ground his teeth in an effort to reign in his temper, then said, “It’s none of your damned business what I said to her. If you’d heard what she just told me, you’d have said it too!”

“She told you about the diamonds?” Jones’s eyebrows knitted together.

“So she did have them all along?” Seth shot a quick glance at the younger man’s hands. “If she gave them to you, where are they? And where in the hell have you been?”

“I went to my car for my field kit and to document the discovery of evidence while it was still fresh in my head.” Jones reached into the interior pocket of his expensive blazer and withdrew a plastic evidence bag. Loose white diamonds, a red diamond ring, and a now-tattered black purse were sealed inside.

The bag slapped to the coffee table. Jones glared at him. “Anything else you want to ask me?”

Not quite trusting the younger man, Seth continued to dangle his weapon between his fingers and asked, “Did you send me on that wild-goose chase? Are you part of the Diamond Gang?”

Jones blinked. “You
are
out of your mind! Of course I’m not part of it. I’m your
partner
. You know, the one who’s barely slept the past few nights trying to help you solve this mystery. The one who worked this afternoon and all night tonight going over those cryptic ass-licking diaries while you made time with the very woman whose heart you just crushed! Why the hell would I give up my entire fucking week to work on this case if I were in on it?”

For a taciturn fellow, Jones certainly has a way with words.

“Then why did you tell me I needed to come into the station?”

Jones goggled at him, then spoke through his clenched teeth. “Because Harmon handed me a note from the captain. The note even said, ‘
No more screw-ups.’
”

No more screw-ups.

The phrase rang in his ears. He’d heard it before. Where?

“But you didn’t show up. Where the hell
did
you go?” Jones continued. “You left Jules alone for hours after telling me you weren’t comfortable doing that for twenty minutes. I
thought
I was doing you a favor by coming over here to keep an eye on your girlfriend.”

Jones’s agitation was too raw to be faked. Or was it?

Seth’s mind raced over the details of his case.

“Someone claiming to be Peterson called me while I was on my way to the station,” Seth admitted, but watched Jones carefully for any signs of guilt. An eye twitch, an averted gaze, anything to indicate he’d been the one to make the call. “The guy did a great impersonation. Why would someone do that?”

Jones’s eyes widened but he didn’t so much as flinch. If he hid something, he hid it well. Could he trust his partner after all?

Jones pointed to the purse. “Maybe someone wanted you out of the way to steal this?”

“Jules’s purse?”

“No. Not
her
purse,” Jones growled the last word. “It belonged to Aimee-Lynn Masters. I thought Jules told you what happened. Or were you too busy judging her to listen?”

Seth growled low in his throat at the insult. He closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders. “Shit. I must’ve handed that purse to her at least three times since we met.”

In a flash, he saw the future: Jules arrested for obstruction of justice at best if not conspiracy, burglary, and accomplice to murder. But he was her alibi for the murder.

A lead ball clearly labeled
End-of-Seth’s-Career
sank in his stomach. No sergeant’s exam. No promotion. He might as well hand in his resignation now and apply for a job at McDonald’s.

Unbelievable. Where his ex-wife had failed to destroy him, his new lover had just succeeded.

He reached inside his jacket pocket and retrieved his handcuffs, striding toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To arrest her.” The words tasted bitter on his tongue.

“For what?” Jones stepped between Seth and the exit.

“For burglary, for obstruction of justice, for being a crazy pain in my ass!” Seth glared at the younger man. “Move!”

Jones folded his arms. “Until this moment I had a lot of respect for you. But now I wonder if you aren’t just trying to save your own ass by arresting her for crimes you
know
she didn’t commit. And there’s no law against being a pain in the ass, or I’d arrest you!”

Seth had never wanted to hit another human being as badly as he wanted to punch Jones now. Clenching his free hand into a fist, he warned, “I don’t give a damn who you respect. This is not about saving my ass. It’s about justice.”

“Think about what you’re saying, Detective,” Jones said, his tone considerably calmer. “Does Jules seem the type to have a half million dollars in stolen diamonds in her purse
and
be stupid enough to hang around the very people searching for them? Did she even once ask you about your case?”

“No.” She hadn’t. “But she was still hiding something, I felt it in my gut.”

“Did she hide from you how she got the purse? Did she tell you that she and the Masters woman met hours before the murder? That they collided in a restroom?” Jones went on, not bothering to wait for Seth to answer. “Did she tell you that she believes that’s when Masters got her cell phone and the purses were switched?”

“Yes,” Seth admitted, grinding his teeth. This young man had the power to destroy him and Jules. Although why he worried about her, Seth didn’t know.

“Tell me,
Detective
, in all the times you handled the purse, you never once noticed the diamonds sewn into the lining?”

“No,” he said, resigned. “But I had no reason to believe there would be diamonds in there.”

“So why do you think Jules did?”

Good question.

“Jules had seemed genuinely surprised when she noticed the purse was a fake. She even showed it to me.” The now familiar sensation of bands wrapping around him, squeezed his chest. “I suppose it’s possible that she didn’t know about the diamonds. If I didn’t see them and
if
she has no prior history with Masters, it could have been a simple case of wrong place, wrong time.”

“Thank you!” Jones said in clipped tones.

“But then why did Jules start spouting that psychic mumbo-jumbo about seeing Masters’s ghost?” Seth shook his head. “I could have believed it if not for the
I see dead people
reference.”

“I swear you’re so rigid you make cold iron look pliable!” Jones cursed and threw his hands in the air. “No wonder your other partners wanted transfers.”

Jones paced back and forth in front of the door twice, then stopped in front of Seth again. “Listen to me carefully. Jules is a psychic. She does see ghosts. Sees them, talks to them. Gets messages from them. Aimee-Lynn’s ghost told her where and how to find the diamonds.”

Seth sighed his disgust. “And you believed her.”

“Yes, I believe her, and you should too.” Jones ran a hand through his sand-colored hair and added, “Years ago I was like you. If I couldn’t see it, touch it, smell it, or taste it, it didn’t exist. Then I met an amazing woman who could do the scientifically inexplicable.”

“Jules?”

“No. Her sister, Shelley.”

 • • •