Chapter Twenty #4
“He knows where we are. If you open a doorway, like with scrying, now that he knows where Genesis is, you’ll inadvertently invite him in. Mirrors are doorways.”
Yeah, that was a hell no.
“No scrying,” Julian said, pointing at his brother. “We don’t need you possessed.”
Oh, Honor gasped.
“Absolutely not! I like him witchy, not demon-y!” she stated.
Booth reassured his wife.
“I’m not opening any doorways, my love. Breathe,” he stated, knowing his wife was seconds from a breakdown. Honor got that look on her face when she was ready to lose her mind.
Oh, and it was there.
Bishop finally had an opening, and she was able to share with them what she and Honor had found.
“Well, then, it’s a good thing we found something,” she admitted. “While we were searching online, Honor and I came across something.”
That made Julian curious.
“What?”
She shared.
“We found some things that are suspicious.”
Tori lifted a brow.
“You did?”
Both women nodded.
“Avalon said we each needed to do our part. The cops and investigators had to research, while she and her people did their thing.”
Oh, and the Marines got ready to do theirs.
But she left that out.
“What did you find?” Tori asked.
They both said one word.
“Suicides.”
No one was sure where that was going, so Bishop told them as she focused on the one person this all centered around.
They knew it went back forty years, and beyond, with Genesis’ family, so they focused on her, and only her.
“We found plenty all around the town you lived in. In fact, there were a few outside of the town.”
No one spoke, but Genesis looked…confused.
So, Bishop continued.
“It’s like the game ‘Battleship’. We think that he was taking shots, feeling it out, and feeding at the same time. As he did, you were at the center.”
She blinked.
“What do you mean? I was at the center?”
Bishop kept explaining.
“Did you live in that town at the time of your mom’s death?” she asked.
She shook her head.
“No. After my mom died, my dad moved us to the other side of Utah. In fact, we moved around a lot.”
That fit.
“I’m betting that this person, or whoever was behind this, depending on their age, was trying to find you, and get you.
For the record, we already know where you lived each time your father moved you.
We traced his service record. At first, we thought he was just getting promotions, but a few of those moves…
he went backward in job title from detective to beat cop. ”
Honor agreed.
“NO ONE goes back to beat cop from detective unless there is a damn good reason. He moved and kept moving you, and along the way, he took whatever job he could to keep paying the bills.”
That hit her hard.
“Oh, Dad.”
Well, it was about to get worse.
“Look at the suicides. What if your father did actually eat his gun, but not out of depression? What if he knew what was hunting you could use him to find you? What if it knew what he did, and like we just did, tracked you that way?”
She blinked.
“Oh, God. He didn’t die that many years ago.”
Avalon spoke up.
“I started protecting you a little over ten years ago. That’s about when I felt this thing in the static. Like it transferred power. Like something took over.”
Bishop was curious.
“Like the mantle was passed down? Like how you inherited being Oracle?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
Now, Genesis looked really upset. Honestly, what they just said broke her heart in ways she never believed possible. All these years her father had been gone, she assumed he bailed on her.
But now, did he die so she’d be hidden?
So, she’d be safe?
“So, he died to save me?”
Bishop nodded.
“Yeah, his suicide was the only one near you for years. Three years ago, they all went silent, and last year, they picked up again. We counted four in the town you were a detective in the last year. It was getting closer.”
She swallowed.
Bishop had one more piece of information.
“Also, your partner died three days after you left by suicide.”
Immediately, Booth got it. Everything about how this person worked was infinitely much clearer.
“I bet that it was in his head, trying to find you, like Avalon was just in Tori’s head. Only, he didn’t need a psychic. Didn’t you tell us your partner was depressed and on meds because his wife died of cancer?”
She nodded.
“How much do you want to bet that he’d lost you, and he was going after someone who might know where you were?”
She blinked.
“I didn’t tell anyone. How did it track me back here?” she asked. “I literally left everything behind but Bear and my clothing.”
Oh, well, they knew.
“But you came into contact with Lucian, and that was a big beacon in the static. He went into the static right there in that town, trying to help us save people,” Tori said.
Uh-oh.
Taking that case of the women frozen in the water, and the not-so-dead heiress might have drawn this person in.
“I think we were being watched,” Bishop admitted. “We showed up, he saw us, and then, he knew where to look for you. If Oracle has you blocked, he couldn’t find you in the static, so it had to be out here, so to speak.”
They all looked over at the woman.
“Avalon, could that be what happened?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
She wasn’t saying much, simply because if she deviated even the slightest, giving them anything, Lucian would die. Honestly, she was impressed they figured it out so quickly.
Now, she had to hope she held it together or…
Lucian was lost.
At that moment, they were all teetering on the precarious edge.
While she was watching them through Nate’s eyes, she could feel Raven watching her.
The witch was on her ass now, too.
Great.
What seemed like she was being sketchy to them was her just doing her job to save psychics.
Genesis.
Lucian.
The Littlemoons.
Booth shared what they’d figured out before, since this all seemed to tie together.
“We thought this might be Thomas Vanderbilt, but he’s not here. I scryed before. He’s in Cali. When I was digging into the killer, the crystal flew out of my hand and did that.”
He pointed to the picture on the floor with a two-inch crystal embedded in it.
Tori took a stab at it.
“You opened the door wide enough for a spirit to enter. It was warning us. Thomas Vanderbilt isn’t here, but the killer is. It’s already here.”
Yeah, he did.
“Oh, there’s more,” he offered.
It appeared they were attacking this thing on multiple fronts, like Avalon had suggested.
Booth continued.
“I kept searching, and Thomas Vanderbilt the second had a sister. She married a man by the name of Kennedy Sinclair. She was killed in her house. The Sinclair family was also huge here, as they were also direct descendants to the people who founded this area. They came over on the boat, and both families joined money and power.”
Tori was listening.
Now, she was curious.
“Was she killed by this thing?” she asked.
Booth shook his head.
“Not unless she stabbed herself in the chest about forty times and then lit her house on fire. She died, her husband didn’t.
Later, he remarried to ANOTHER Vanderbilt, and they had a child.
We just can’t find more. The archives…it was a while ago, and a lot of it is suspiciously missing.
If the Sinclairs also had money…they could have bought that anonymity. ”
Tori sat there.
“When?”
He told them.
“It was the same time Genesis’ parents left, heading West. We don’t have an exact day, but we know it was close to the time.”
Tori tapped her fingers.
“What if one of them killed her to slow it down. If there was no child born, yet, maybe they thought that their offspring would be safe? What if they didn’t leave here to escape the entity, as much as one of them killed this person, and they had to go?”
That was possible.
Bishop shrugged.
“I mean, if I knew someone was possessed with evil, and was going to come for my child one day, I’d pack my shit and get the hell out of here. How old are you, Genesis?”
She shared.
“Thirty-two.”
Julian considered it.
“So eight years later, she was born?”
Lucian went there.
“If Genesis’ parents were psychic, they might have known what was coming. What if they warned their children, so then one of them killed Stephanie Sinclair, and managed to get the hell out of here.”
Honor went there.
“Underneath this desire to take spirits for this darkness, could that rage be fueled by that? Revenge?”
Avalon spoke up.
“It could be.”
How did she know?
Because it was.
Oh, it was coming undone, and all she could hope was that Genesis and Lucian were ready to head into the static. The timeline just changed, and she wasn’t sure if Lucian would survive this.
Or not.
There was now nothing more she could do.
“It sounds like they got away with murder, and in the process, pissed someone off. You said he had a child with his second wife, who was also a Vanderbilt. Do we know how long after?” Tori asked.
Bishop shared.
“One year later.”
Lucian considered it.
“So, we’re not looking at an older person, who might be behind this. Is Kennedy Sinclair dead?” he asked.
His wife nodded.
“Yep. Buried here in Salem, at the family plot beside their cousins, the Vanderbilts. We tried to find the child, but again, it’s not showing up on a birth certificate. We were about to run Kennedy Sinclair, and start digging on him when the energy hit the building.”
Julian went there.
“You guys did good work. Need a job?” he asked the two detectives.
They both laughed.
Oh, and that said it all.
Only, before he could ask what was so funny, there was banging on the front door, and they all jumped.
“Jesus!” Lucian stated.
Heading to the door, Julian saw his brother, as he was fumbling with his keys to find the one that opened the door. Instead, he let him in.
“Bro, your timing is wild,” he admitted.
The man and his wife raced in, and they both looked excited.
This was one hell of a roller coaster.
“We found something! We dropped the kids off at Justin’s, and we had to get over here as fast as possible!”
Pryce agreed.
“We know who is here following Genesis! We figured it out!”
Well, holy shit.
Maybe they could do this without their dead.
After all.