The Ghost of a Chance (Krewe of Hunters #38.7)

Chapter 10

“She knew. She knew!” the ghost of Captain David Clancy told Jackson. “The red hair. As soon as Angela heard a red hair had been discovered, she knew who the third person was.”

“Elise? Elise Benton?” Jackson said, still furious with himself. Why hadn’t any of them seen it? Suspected? Why hadn’t they determined right away that someone in the bank might have been involved?

Especially Elise Benton, whose office had the entry to the tunnel.

He could argue with himself that there had been no reason to suspect that anyone in the bank had been involved.

They had caught Kenneth and Billy in the act.

That didn’t matter now. Because he knew Elise Benton had a gun to Angela’s forehead.

They were in the car, getting to the tunnel entrance as quickly as possible. Bruce sat next to Jackson.

David Clancy was in the back seat.

“Should you have gotten a slew of agents or officers out?” David asked. “I mean, I guess it’s just one woman—”

“Exactly, David, but one woman who has a gun pressed to my wife’s head. And you said Angela had her talking, right?”

“Right. From what I heard, I guess Elise Benton just cracked. She gave her whole life to that bank, and then they promoted Peter Grafton over her. The final straw in her mind? She believes they promoted a man over her, even though she had better qualifications and greater seniority.”

“She might have been right on that. But it seems she managed to snap with a plan in mind,” Bruce commented.

“Angela has her talking,” Jackson said, then glanced at Bruce, who nodded.

“If we go in and accost her,” Bruce explained to David, “she could decide she’s finished and might as well take Angela with her.”

“But…Angela needs help.”

“And we intend to help her. Geography won’t be a great help,” Jackson said dryly. “What we’ll do is try to get into positions where”—he glanced at Bruce again—“we can take action if we need to. We’ll have to find positions where we have clear shots—shots that can take her out instantly. But you don’t know Angela. She’s pretty amazing. She may be able to talk Elise down to a point where she can end this without any more death.”

In the rearview mirror, Jackson saw the captain’s ghost looking perplexed.

“Maybe she should die,” he said softly.

“We aren’t judges or a jury,” Jackson said quietly. “But—”

“You’d let Angela die?” David demanded.

“No. But I also know her, David. She’s my wife, the mother of our kids, and she’s been my partner in all this since we began. I know her. And to save her, we’re going to make sure we’re silent, in position, and—”

“I can help,” David said.

“You’ve been helping us every step of the way,” Jackson assured him.

“No. I mean, I may be able to distract the woman,” David said. “She shivered.”

“She sensed you?” Jackson asked.

“Yes. So, maybe…”

“Let’s get there and pray that Angela is as good as we think she is and has managed to keep Elise talking,” Bruce said, then looked at Jackson. “You know, if we weren’t the Krewe—”

“I’d be asked to step down because my wife is involved. If we weren’t the Krewe, Angela and I couldn’t even be in the same unit,” Jackson reminded him. He looked at Bruce solemnly. “I’m all right. I can do this. Because we all know what we’re doing.”

Bruce nodded and smiled.

“Right. And we all love Angela and hate killing—even a killer.”

“And maybe, just maybe, Angela is getting the answers we all need. All right. We’re there. A few forensic folks are still here, but we’re going in as dark as possible. No orange suits. Thankfully, we have a tendency to wear dark suits. Lights kept down.”

“And I’ll show you the way,” David said. “They’re behind where you broke the wall to get to Cassie. One of us—well, one of you —will need to slither flat at the broken point in absolute silence. That will be the only way to get a gun trained on the woman.”

They were at the entrance.

Jackson looked at Bruce.

“Let’s do this.”

* * * *

“I knew Billy,” Elise said. “Because, of course, his parents did their banking with us.”

“So, did you think Billy wanted his parents dead?” Angela asked. “Did you go to him with this idea? How did Kenneth get in on it?”

Elise started to laugh. “You think Billy was the one who provoked the whole thing?”

“I told you, we haven’t known what to think. I mean, we figured someone else had to be in on it, but Elise, we had no idea. I mean, no idea in the world that you might have been in on it.”

Elise laughed softly again.

But thus far, neither her pleasure in explaining how clever she was, her laughter, nor her reactions had caused her to move the nose of the gun from Angela’s head.

“No, no, no. But Kenneth is good, right? Really good. He had you convinced that it might be true. That stellar boy Billy might have been ready to revolt, see his parents dead, quit being such a Goody Two-shoes, and head off to an island filled with beautiful women with a ton of money. He’s almost as good an actor as I am. Seriously, I’m not calling you stupid, but it was something you needed to consider.”

“So, Billy is entirely innocent.”

“Yes, but it will never play out that way.”

“How did you meet Kenneth?”

Elise smiled. “Oh, you people. You never knew. Kenneth escaped free and clear, stole clothing off a clothesline, and broke into a house—and I mean to tell you, that man was clever. He watched. Knew how to get clothing without it being noticed and where to slip into a house to steal a bank card without being seen or anyone even knowing he was there. He changed his appearance.” She laughed. “He could even steal razors and hair dye without being noticed. And then he came into the bank with that bank card, not expecting to meet anyone more clever than him.”

“You.”

“Indeed. Despite the disguise, I knew who he was, and it hadn’t been that long since I’d been passed over for the promotion. After all the years I put in…well, I managed to get a message to him.”

“You wrote him a message?”

“Oh, come on, what do you think I am? Stupid?”

“No. Obviously, you’re not,” Angela assured her.

Elise nodded. “Obviously,” she agreed. “I saw him at the teller’s station and walked up as if I were being the ever- charming assistant manager, welcoming him to the branch, suggesting that he might want to speak with me in my office.”

“Very clever. So, when you got him into the office, you suggested the bank robbery and told him about the tunnel. Because you knew.”

“Of course, I knew the tunnel was there. I read. I went to school. I got a college degree back when they taught something other than how to play video games and get on the dark net to enjoy porn. I read about the tunnels that had existed years ago and knew how to manipulate our cameras and security. I knew the building had changed through the years: it had originally been built back in the 1850s. And I searched. When I discovered there was an entrance from my office, it was like a sign.”

“I guess that would have been like a sign,” Angela said.

“Oh, it was. And with Kenneth in my office, I was so perfect, explaining all the benefits of our bank but managing to arrange a meeting with him far from the bank.” She smiled. “We had coffee. He really is a charming man. And so good-looking.”

“So, you two hit it off right away,” Angela said.

“We did. And when I explained we’d need a second robber so I could appear to be one of the hostages, desperately hoping just to live and save others’ lives…well, that’s when we came up with the Mendelson family.”

“That’s why you killed the parents and spared Billy. You needed him off balance, and then…did you get him in on it right away?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t do the killing.”

That might be important, Angela thought.

“Kenneth was good at it, I guess,” Angela said.

Elise shrugged. “Well, he could shoot someone without the slightest compunction. Of course, we had to make sure we totally terrified Billy first so he was broken and pliable once his parents were dead.”

“But that wasn’t enough. Because while Billy might have hated the world, that didn’t mean you could totally manipulate him. When cornered, he might have broken. He might have turned you both in. Except…” Angela paused. “Except I don’t think Billy ever knew you were involved, did he?” she asked.

Again, Elise chuckled. “I told you. I could have been an actor. He never saw me out of the mask. He never even realized I was a woman and the real power behind everything. But come on. You must get that. You’re so good at what you do, but Jackson Crow is the boss.”

“You know, Elise, in my case, I love the way we do things. Jackson has his hands full. Between the States and Europe, we have dozens of Krewe agents. And he’s not the boss of bosses. There’s the fellow who started the whole thing. A man named Adam Harrison. When Jackson is there, he manages the mess of people around the world. When he’s gone, I’m in charge. And when I’m gone, we have a special agent named Bruce McFadden who holds down the fort. He has two brothers who also take over. We are all good at what we do, but…history. Research. That’s my love. That’s what I do. And I keep all that running. And as you know better than most people out there now, research—history—is incredibly important. To tell you the truth, in my dreams, the person who gets the job is just the best person for the job, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, color, creed—you name it. Just the right person. Of course, I realize that didn’t happen for you, and it was wrong. So very wrong.”

“Yes it was. And you see that,” Elise told her.

Angela gave her a smile. “Oh, Elise. Billy never knew who you were. So, you watched after everything happened. Watched Billy. You tore apart his home and knew Cassie was a dear friend, someone who really mattered to him. And then you waited, biding your time, watching when he went to that hotel. And you were prepared. So brilliant. You and Kenneth were ready, dressed in your monster costumes. You went after Cassie so you’d have something to hold over Billy. And you kept her alive in the far reaches of the tunnels so you could prove to Billy that you hadn’t killed her so he’d know it was up to him to save her life.”

“Hell of a plan, wasn’t it?”

“Hell of a plan,” Angela agreed.

Where the hell did she go from here?

“Did you know about the bodies in the tunnels?”

Elise swore softly. “No. My one mistake. No one knows about these stupid tunnels. It was a perfect plan. And that’s why I’m so sorry. You’re the only one who would have put a single red hair together with it being me who was the insider on the job. Those other idiots will keep believing—”

“Hey!” Angela said suddenly.

David was back. Which meant Jackson had arrived.

Elise frowned, her hand tightening on the gun.

But she didn’t slip.

“Hey, what?” Elise demanded.

“Okay, I’m sure you researched us. The Krewe—”

“Called in for occult and weird cases. Yes, of course. Voodoo, witchcraft, all that—yes, I’ve researched you.”

“Well, we’re weirder than that.”

“How?”

Angela smiled sweetly. “We don’t just handle weird cases. We are weird. We can see the dead and talk to them, too. There’s a great guy who stayed behind. His name is

Captain David Clancy. He once had to escape slavery through these tunnels. And he became a force in the Civil War. Thankfully, he lived a nice long life after that. But he knew all about the buildings that existed back then, as well as the changes, the sewers…and that they attached to the old tunnels. Anyway, I said, ‘ Hey ,’ because he’s back with us now.”

Elise was shivering.

“A dead man is with us?” she said, starting to laugh. “You’re whacko. It’s amazing that you have a job at all.”

David was there, and Jackson was there. A tiny glitter of light at the far end of the space let her know that Jackson had somehow slipped in. He was getting a good bead on Elise, ready to shoot if need be.

And if she couldn’t distract Elise soon…

“You feel him. You know he’s here.”

“I don’t feel him.”

“Yes, you do. You’re shivering. Oh, Elise, you’re not just brilliant; you’re also like us,” Angela exclaimed. “You know, I can help you. Forensics has that single strand of red hair, and other people might note you’re one of the few redheads who might have been around, but come on. I can help you. Look at you. You know the captain is here.”

“No. No, that can’t be true. It’s cold in here. That’s all it is.”

“I’m telling you the absolute truth. The ghost of Captain David Clancy is here with us.”

“Where?” Elise demanded.

Angela was running out of chances. She wanted to live. And if she could keep Elise alive, as well, they had a chance to really give Billy Mendelson the hope he needed to learn to live a new life.

“He’s over there, in the corner,” Angela told her.

Jackson made a noise, startling Elise and making her turn.

Angela made her move. She grabbed the woman’s wrist and aimed the gun toward the back wall.

It went off.

But Angela brought Elise down. Jackson was instantly at her side, kicking Elise’s gun far from her grasp and hunching down to read the woman her rights as he handcuffed her.

Angela looked across the room at David Clancy.

“Thank you,” she said aloud.

The man nodded, giving her a tremendous smile.

Elise was screaming and protesting, but Bruce McFadden had stepped into the space, as well. He and Jackson were ready to deal with their suspect.

It was over. Really over.

They’d stopped the bank robbery.

They’d gotten all the people who were involved.

And they’d solved the murder of Billy’s parents.

Now…

Now, they could finally give Billy some peace and maybe, just maybe, his great friendship with Cassie would lead to more.

Definitely a reason for Billy to live.