Chapter 12
I took a seat on Dane’s couch. It really was not as comfortable as the one I’d left behind in my room. The phone’s beeps indicated an incoming email, so I opened the app and scanned my messages.
Lonny Horwitz, CEO of Southern Hospitality Tours, stuck out in the sender list.
“Lonny just sent me an email,” I said to Dane as he handed me a bottle of water.
He took the seat next to me. “Are you going to open it?”
Obviously. But it was weird because we’d just left there. What could he have come up with in such a short time?
“Duh.” I clicked on the email but held the phone so he couldn’t see.
He got up right after and returned to the kitchen area, so it didn’t matter, anyway.
I skimmed the quick email.
Hey Darlin’,
Donna Lee said I should send this your way. It’s a file from William from the night he died. He sent it to me himself. William was much sicker than any of us realized. I’ll spend the rest of my life feeling like I let him down.
—L
Attached to the email was a video file. I clicked on it and turned up the volume.
The picture was fuzzy and dark at first, but then the camera moved away and the video’s imagery came into focus. I sat cross-legged on the couch and increased the brightness on my phone to make up for the dark surroundings of the video.
“Anything good?” Dane asked.
I shushed him and paused the video.
He laughed. “I’m gonna jump in for a quick shower since I didn’t get one this morning.”
“Okay,” I grunted and then immediately did my best to put that knowledge out of my head. I could not work on solving this case while thinking of Dane naked just a few feet away. We hadn’t talked about our kiss the previous night, and I refused to be the one to bring it up.
He kissed me, so he had to mention it. Those were the rules.
The shower turned on, the condo quiet except for the water in the upstairs bathroom. I sucked in a slow breath. This video might break the case wide open.
I hit play.
The video picked up with shaky camerawork. Probably from someone’s phone.
I squinted, trying to see the area. The first plane came into focus, and I gasped. I recognized the images on the screen.
The location was unmistakable.
The USS Yorktown. On the deck where they had the planes.
We’d been there just a few days ago. The planes tied down on the main airway deck were the same as when Dane and I walked through them.
The massive aircraft carrier loomed in a ghostly night with a full moon. It reminded me of the moon on the night before over the waters beside the Battery. The video panned slowly across the main flight deck. Shadows crawled between the various aircraft.
“Tonight’s the night,” a deep male voice said.
I shivered. It had to be William.
Then, there he was.
William Drake.
He turned the phone on himself and smiled at the camera. His position resembled my own cross-legged position, but he was between two jets. William adjusted the phone. It seemed like maybe he had placed it on a tripod.
His arms rested on his knees. William’s eyes were open, but it was almost like his attention was beyond the camera, unfocused. His mouth moved, but I couldn’t make out the words.
I turned up the volume and brought the phone closer. My heart thundered in my chest.
William leaned closer to the camera. The microphone picked up a gust of wind. Metal on the ship’s deck creaked.
I’d watched scary movies that weren’t as creepy as William’s video.
“They’re loud tonight.” William’s voice came through, low but steady. “They know I’m here and listening.”
What in the fuck was this?
I moved the phone away as my eyes crossed.
He paused, and so did my heart.
Goosebumps crawled up my arms.
“Listen,” William whispered as he stared directly into the camera.
As if the night was listening to his commands, metal creaked at a nearby ship. They’d made the same noise when we’d been on our tour, but I didn’t remember it being so loud.
William tilted his head. “They say the fire wasn’t an accident.”
His voice was calm, collected. Too calm. Too collected.
It was as if he’d been possessed.
“He says they sealed the corridor too fast. Three men scream behind the door. The burns are still here.”
I swallowed. Did we see burn marks on our tour? I didn’t remember them.
The corners of William’s lips tipped up in a faint smile. As if he were remembering the tragic fire.
“The flames never leave. They just circle the ship. Circles and circles.” He held up his index finger and twirled it in a circle.
A noise came from the kitchen, and I jumped, almost dropping the phone. I paused the video, held my hand against my chest and listened. Was the killer here? Another sound came—that of water, and I let go of my breath. It was only the ice maker refilling.
I took a calming breath and released it. It’s only a video.
William’s voice came through as soon as I unpaused the video. His eyes were still distant, but he’d started swaying. “They don’t all want help. Some just want to be heard.”
Was he talking to ghosts?
“She said I had to be with them. That it was my time to go. They take me with them. Keep me warm. It’s so cold.” He shivered.
If this was the night he died, William took this video in April out on the water. It’s possible the night was chilly. Or there were other reasons for his temporary issues.
He looked to the right suddenly. Something off camera.
At nothing.
The camera jolted and then steadied.
William nodded. “Yes, I’m here. I feel it. Don’t you?”
Who was he talking to? Well, who did he think he was talking to?
Nothing but a heavy pause as we both waited for what happened next.
What was that? I turned my ear toward the phone to hear better.
A humming. Was it coming from William? His mouth wasn’t moving.
Another chill slid down my spine. What was happening to William? Was he always this way? From the message Lonny sent with the file, it didn’t seem like this was normal behavior for the thirty-year-old.
The video wobbled. Possibly the wind blew it onto the phone stand. William whispered something, but I couldn’t hear it. A heavy clanging noise echoed. Like metallic thunder.
I flinched, but William didn’t move.
“They get angry when we come here,” he said, speaking just loudly enough to be barely heard. “Especially the ones below deck. You can’t keep the bodies hidden. They float right back up to be with the living.”
He’d been looking out over the water, but he turned quickly and stared right into the camera.
Where the hell was Dane? Why hadn’t he stayed to watch this video with me? I was freaking myself out like a baby. But this wasn’t right. Something was seriously wrong with William Drake.
“I shouldn’t have come here,” he said, his eyes dead set on the camera, not blinking.
The video ended there. A deep cut to black that had me jumping again.
I stared at the screen, my pulse pounding. What the hell was that? I wanted to restart the video to watch for more clues, but my brain wouldn’t let my finger hit the replay button. It was too freaky.
If this was video footage from the night of his death, I understood why the police and Lonny believed it was a suicide.
It still didn’t explain the lack of water in his lungs, but William did not seem lucid.
He was clearly not in his right mind. If this was the last night of William’s life, it left more questions than answers.
“Dane!” I yelled. “You need to see this.”
And I needed someone to watch it with me if I replayed it.
I’d never taken the ghost theory too seriously, but what if William was talking to ghosts? Or at least he believed he was? Did they push him over the edge? Either physically or through mental collusion?
Dane ran down the spiral staircase, not worried about his life like I was every time I walked down the shaky steps. “What? Are you okay? What happened?”
We watched the video again.
“Where’d you hear that William had no water in his lungs? Did they publish that in the papers?” he asked after a moment of thought.
I shook my head. “No, we requested the autopsy report. It’s standard procedure. Once the initial reports of his death passed, I don’t think his results got much notice. Few people concern themselves with the death of an unmarried guy.”
He wasn’t the heartbroken bride story the city clung to so deeply. Anything with couples or kids got attention. And women. Audiences loved a woman killer.
“Send me the file,” he said. “I want Spencer to review it. Make sure it’s legit.”
“Who’s Spencer?” Was he another muscular SEAL running around the country wooing women?
Dane took my phone and sent himself the email when I didn’t move fast enough. “He’s our IT guy.”
“You think it’s a fake?” It didn’t seem fake, but I’d also seen some really believable AI in the last year.
Dane shrugged. “Just covering our bases.”
“Better safe than sorry.” I sat back against the couch. “We have to solve this, Dane. For William.” This was about more than finding myself recognition for solving the case. We needed to figure out what had happened to William so he could rest.
He put his hand on my knee. “I’m going to help you, but it’s important to keep you safe. We have to go about things smartly now that it seems the killer is aware we’re here and active.”
I swallowed hard.