Bone Island 01 - Ghost Shadow by Heather Graham Page A

here isn’t that there was no one on the streets. There were hundreds of people on the streets. And it was a long, long time ago now,” Sam said. He hesitated. “She wasn’t raped. So it’s not as if they can suddenly find a miraculous match with honed DNA science.”
    “No,” David agreed.
    This time, Sam let out a long sigh. “They figured it was some kind of psycho who lived here and then moved on. Hell, he could have driven north that night, or taken a puddle jumper up the state. But you don’t think that a whacko killed my sister?”
    “I don’t know anything. I just don’t think it was a psycho. I think it was someone who knew the area and had an agenda.”
    “Like what?”
    “That’s what I need to find out.”
    “I still don’t understand. I mean, obviously, I really wish we knew what happened-who killed my baby sister. But, what’s different now? The cops swore they chased down every lead, no matter how small. What’s different now? How do you think you can solve anything?”
    David stared at him and smiled tightly. “I’m different now. I’m not a kid. And I don’t intend to stop, or be stopped by anyone. I know that I had nothing to do with her death, and I know that someone did. Someone got away with murder, and I believe that we do know the person who killed her. The truth exists. And I want it.”
     
    “Hey! Where are you?” Katie asked her brother. “Far away still, I take it. It’s great to hear from you.”
    “We talked a week ago on Skype,” he reminded her.
    “Skype is great-when you have a sibling halfway across the world.”
    “I’m in Hawaii now. I’m coming home for a while, kid.”
    “That’s wonderful! It will be like old-home week.”
    “I know,” Sean said.
    She frowned. “How do you know?”
    “David Beckett left me a message about going back.”
    “He left you a message?”
    “E-mail,” Sean explained.
    “But I thought-”
    “I didn’t have access for a few days, but the filming project finished up. I’m in Hawaii, and I head back to California the day after tomorrow. Then Miami the following morning-”
    “I’ll come pick you up.”
    “No, no, I’m going to rent a car. I’ll be there sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday.”
    “That’s wonderful, Sean! Oh, watch the traffic. The first events for Fantasy Fest are starting soon.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I know the traffic. It will just be aggravating. I could hop a puddle jumper in Miami, but I kind of want to drive down. Even with the tourists clogging the road.”
    “Okay. That’s super, Sean!”
    He was quiet. She thought that she had lost the connection. “Katie?” he said then.
    “What?”
    “Don’t go telling anyone that…that you see things.”
    It was her turn to be quiet. Sean had been amused the first time she had seen a ghost. She had been six, in first grade, and they’d been playing at the church. The ghost she had seen had been a nun. Sean had taken it all as a joke. Her feelings had been terribly hurt, but she had quickly realized that he had been trying to defend her. The other kids meant to torment her and laugh at her-which they did, until Sean turned it all around, laughing at them for falling for the joke.
    Later, Katie had been alone at the playground. The nun had come to her, and spoken gently, assuring her that she had a gift, and that she must guard it carefully.
    But when her grandfather had died, her mother’s tears had shaken her. She had seen her grandfather, trying to comfort her mother. She told her mother. Her mother believed she was just trying to comfort her-until she told her mother where Grandpa had left his old gold pocket watch, and that he wanted Katie’s father to have it.
    Her mother had been looking everywhere for the pocket watch.
    Katie was careful then. She didn’t tell anybody about the sailors, servicemen and pirates who roamed the docks.
    She avoided eye contact with the ghosts. It hadn’t worked with Bartholomew.
    She had thought that her brother