Chapter Eighteen
Destiny Darthmouth’s
Home
Crime Scene
A crime scene was a crime scene to her, but to be honest, Honor Littlemoon had a suspiciously large pain in her ass, and it was pretty much exactly what she always had annoying her—family.
Well, in-laws to be exact.
Had anyone told her she’d be breaking ALL of the rules, and letting her private investigator in-laws walk around a crime scene like they owned it…
She would have laughed and then punched them in the face. Only, here she was, and Frick and Frack were right behind her the whole time.
Oh, and they were getting looks.
Crazy ones.
Most of them, she suspected, were because everyone knew that her favorite and least favorite things shared a name.
The Littlemoons.
It was a thin line she walked on a daily basis by being stupid in love with Booth Littlemoon and having to ignore that not only was she hot for the man, but she had to play nice with the family.
Don’t get her wrong.
They were great people.
All she wished was that they weren’t private investigators in her town.
Because it was…tricky.
“Please don’t touch anything,” she said for the fourth time, as she was walking the scene.
That amused Tori.
“Honor, you realize that both of us worked for the FBI at one time, and that badge made yours look fake.”
She pointed at her.
“Don’t get spicy. We have crime scene techs here who are going to run their mouths, and my boss is going to be up my ass.”
They were aware.
That was why they offered to stay in their car, but she’d come and got them after sending them there.
The last thing either of them wanted to do was make Honor’s and Bishop’s jobs more difficult.
They got that it was difficult for the women when they were tied to the local law’s biggest public enemy number one. There was bad blood there, since the Littlemoons had a reputation for making the local cops and their bosses, look bad.
You’d think they’d appreciate all the cases they closed, but that wasn’t the case.
Not.
Even.
Close.
“We promise not to touch anything, or to say anything when you talk to the ME.”
She hoped not.
Keeping her voice low, she went there.
“Anything?” she asked.
Truthfully, after banishing them to their car, she realized that they were ‘kind of’ helpful when it came to the things she couldn’t see.
Because of that, she went and got them.
At her question, Tori played dumb.
Why?
It was fun.
“Anything, what?” she asked.
Honor kept whispering.
“You know. Spooks? The dead? Ghosties?” she asked, looking around.
Tori was amused.
“Are you asking if the place is haunted or filthy with the dead, Detective?” she asked, knowing it hadn’t changed since when they showed up there.
She lifted an eyebrow.
“Contrary to what you might believe, Victoria, I will punch a pregnant woman.”
Julian laughed.
“Someone is angsty today.”
Yeah, well, she was tired, annoyed, and behind the eight ball. Those were her three least favorite things. What she would prefer was fed, caffeinated, and beneath Booth.
Sue her.
Her witch had magical hands.
Because she got it, Tori let her off the hook.
“Still nothing. He’s definitely sucked them out of here, and that makes me nervous. Thank God Raven locked ours up where they’re safe,” she admitted.
On that, they all could agree. Despite hating the woo-woo shit, she did like her mother’s spirit haunting her house. Yeah, she was goddamn crazy too.
Seeing the ME was done with his preliminary check, they headed outside to talk to him.
When they reached the ME, Honor wanted to get this done, because she was itching to head over to the lawyer’s house to find out why he’d had pentacles delivered to his home.
And why he had been tied to Lonnie Jackson, his LONG-TIME friend?
Yeah, he had a great deal of explaining to do.
“Doc, what do you have?” Honor asked, holding her little notebook, ready to go.
When he looked up, he saw the Littlemoons and was curious.
“Weren’t you two on a different crime scene?” the ME asked, seeing them.
Honor handled this.
“I was on my way to have lunch with my in-laws, and some dude flagged me down, telling me he needed a well-visit for a friend. I had to bring them with me. Now, I’m keeping an eye on them. You know how PIs can get into trouble when you don’t babysit them.”
Tori smiled.
“We’re like toddlers. We get into everything. Can I touch the body?” she asked, sarcastically.
Honor stared at her.
“Really?”
It made Elias laugh.
“I get it. It’s nice to see you guys again. I’ve heard a lot about you guys,” he stated. “Most of it good, unless it comes from the detective,” he joked. “Bishop always says nice things.”
Tori winked at Honor.
“She’s stuck with us.”
Yeah, tell her about it.
“How about our victim?” Honor said.
Before answering them, Elias tucked his pen into the pocket of his scrubs.
“All I’m going to say for now is this town has a lot of suicides going on. At my last job, I got a few, but this is two in less than a week.”
Yeah, they were aware, but only because NONE of them were suicides.
“So, you’re calling it that?”
He stopped Honor.
“I’m new, but not that new,” he stated. “Bodhi warned me about you, Detective. You’ll have my official COD after the autopsy.”
She sighed.
“Foiled by Bo again.”
Yeah, that happened a lot.
Honor had hoped that when they were getting a new ME in town, he’d play ball.
This one absolutely didn’t.
“How about you give us a little something for me to mull over as I’m having lunch with my brother and sister-in-law?” she asked.
He gave in a little.
“Well, there are no signs of trauma, except her neck is broken. It looks as if she climbed and jumped. Is this tied to your other case?”
Oh, someone was putting two and two together, and she didn’t like that.
Not.
At.
All.
“Nah, like I said, some dude saw me with my badge and asked me to do a well visit. Like you said, there are just a lot of suicides in Salem, as of late.”
She hoped he bought that.
The last thing she needed was their ME suspicious and up in her business. She didn’t know enough about the man to trust him like they trusted Bodhi.
“Well, I’ll have more later.”
That was her sign he was done.
“Get me a report. Email it, if you can,” she stated. “I’m going off duty later,” she stated. “I’ve been on for a while.”
He simply nodded.
“Can do.”
After they watched Destiny being bagged up, they headed out, following her as she was hoisted into the back of the city van.
They now had an audience out on the street, and it wasn’t lost on her that people were watching Tori and Julian.
It was time to get out of there.
As they headed for the vehicle, they got in, and Honor got them away from there.
“Did you find out anything on the attorney?” she asked. “Because he’s our next stop.”
Tori had texted Bexley and asked her to do a deep dive while they were walking the scene with Honor.
“Yeah, we did.”
Pulling up the email from Bexley, she read over the information on Trent Stevens.
“Bex found the basics, and nothing that’s going to blow us out of the water.”
Honor didn’t care. She liked all the information before heading to the enemy’s lair to accuse him of…oh, say, homicide and other crimes.
She was crazy like that.
“What did you find?” she asked. “Or Bexley, in this case,” she added.
Tori shared.
“He’s from around here, was married once, and then he got a divorce. His ex lives in Boston, and he lives here. He owns his own home.”
Well, that sounded pretty standard.
“He isn’t a slouch when it comes to his education,” Tori admitted. “He’s a Harvard man,” she stated. “Undergrad and law.”
Honor navigated the streets, heading to the address where Trent called home.
“He said he grew up here, and with Lonnie,” she stated. “I’m going to say he’s a little too close to the fire on this one,” Honor stated.
As investigators, they knew why she was saying that. He’d kicked this whole thing off by pulling them in with a job.
That was suspicious.
Tori kept reading over the information that Bexley had found on him.
“His parents are dead, and he has money,” she stated. “Then again, we could have assumed that. He lives not far from us, and we know how much the real estate in that part of Salem costs.”
Yeah, a pretty penny.
She and Booth lived in a less expensive part of Salem.
“Okay, so money. Most ambulance-chasing attorneys have money,” Honor admitted. “You know…from being the dregs of society.”
Julian laughed.
“How do you really feel?” he asked.
She was to the point.
“We catch, and he tries to release. No cop is going to want to be friends with someone who does that. I’m not saying the really innocent people, but finding technicalities…”
Julian said nothing.
Why?
They had a bail bond agency and were investigating a man that Bishop and Honor had charged with homicide—when he hadn’t been guilty.
So, everyone’s role in society was important as a checks and balances of sorts.
Even Trent’s.
As they approached, the man’s home loomed up in the distance. It was a damn nice home, too. It was one of the Victorians down the street from The Captain and Agatha’s home.
“How much money are we talking?” Honor asked, as they saw the Jaguar in the driveway. “Because that car cost more than my salary for two years.”
Tori told her.
“Well, to answer that, he likely has shoes that cost more than your car. A lot of his wealth seems to be from his parents. They owned this house before him.”
Well, that was horrifying.
“Okay, here’s how we’re playing it.”
Only, Honor didn’t get to say anything more because Tori and Julian had jumped out and were already walking down the man’s driveway to the house.
“Goddamn Littlemoons,” she muttered, hauling ass to catch up.
“Before you say shit,” Tori said, “We took his case for his client. We’re hitting him up first.”
Honor was about to argue when Tori and Julian stopped dead in their tracks.
“What?” Honor asked.
Tori told her.
“This place is filthy with the dead. The yard is full,” she admitted, with her doors wide open.
Julian agreed.
“I see ten in just the yard,” he admitted. “We found a spot where they still are in this town. Thank God!”
Tori stared at her husband.