Part 37 (2/2)
”Yes, actually, we did,” Matt said.
”Adam has talked about you a lot,” Darcy said.
”So I gathered,” Toni murmured.
”And then, of course, when he discovered the castle was here, and that the owner was Laird Bruce MacNiall...” Darcy said with a shrug.
”Wait a minute. You're going to tell me that Adam knows Bruce MacNiall, too?” Toni demanded.
Matt Stone inclined his head and she realized that the barmaid had come to stand before them. ”I'll take a pint of anything,” Toni said, noting that the two were drinking beer.
”Lamb is great today,” the barmaid suggested. ”And there's a lovely chicken entree.”
The three opted for poultry, and the barmaid smiled and moved on.
”Adam knows Bruce?” Toni repeated.
Matt inclined his head again; her beer was coming. She decided that, with his smooth, cultured Virginian accent, he might have made an interesting twist on James Bond.
She thanked the barmaid for her beer.
”Please. Are you going to answer me?” she asked.
Darcy smiled. ”He doesn't know Bruce MacNiall. He knows of him. He's been watching him. Bruce is actually on our register, as well.”
Toni stared at the two of them with a certain outrage. ”He's on the register? This is beginning to sound a lot like Big Brother!”
Darcy shook her head. ”I never do begin well, do I?” she said to her husband, who smiled. She looked back at Toni. ”It's nothing like that, honestly. Adam is the most humane, caring individual I've ever met. His son was incredibly gifted, so Adam started doing research. Most people who have.. .well, I guess around here they call it 'the touch,' others call it a gift and many call it a curse. Call it what you will, most people who have it are afraid of it. And they don't want to use it.”
Toni inhaled, watching her silently.
”Like you,” Darcy continued. ”What child could endure such things happening, seeing such things in dreams? Adam said that you retreated, but that you were incredibly strong willed and appeared to have put it all behind you. However, he always felt that you would call one day.”
”As I did,” Toni murmured.
”So,” Matt said. ”Want to give us the whole story?”
”In a minute,” Toni said, still wary. ”What were you talking about regarding Bruce? You said that he was on the register.”
Matt leaned forward. ”There was a case here, years ago--”
”Yes, I recently heard about it. He'd been a cop. His work led to the arrest of a serial killer. I think that means he must have been a good cop.”
”An excellent cop. And according to him, he simply used the methods employed by profilers.”
Toni nodded, looking at him expectantly. ”So?”
”There were some articles written at the time that drew Adam's interest,” Darcy explained. ”Apparently, he actually managed to think as the man.”
Toni frowned. ”So,” she said, still skeptical, ”there must be a lot of good cops on that register.”
”Oh, there are,” Darcy a.s.sured her.
Matt smiled. ”You're still looking at us as if we're crazy. But that's what you want to think, isn't it? Toni, if nothing else, we'll listen to you without staring at you as if you're mad, and we may really be able to help.”
She drew her finger along the line of her beer mug, as if it were frosty, which it definitely wasn't. She'd actually grown accustomed to warm beer.
”If Bruce has any of the touch, he certainly denies it,” she said, hoping that her voice didn't sound angry or bitter. ”He thinks that I have nightmares, that I hit my head.. .anything but that I might really have seen a ghost.”
Matt lifted his hands and grimaced. ”Guys don't like to admit that they see ghosts,” he said simply.
”I don't think that he does see this one,” Toni said.
”Different people have sight in different ways. I think that when he was on the force, Bruce wanted to catch the killer--or killers--so desperately, that he was able to call on reserves he'd never want to acknowledge he has,” Darcy explained.
”And probably never will again,” Toni said.
”You never know,” Darcy told her. ”So...please, try to tell us more.”
”Well, for one, they have a very contemporary problem here,” she said. ”There's a serial killer on the loose. He abducts prost.i.tutes from the cities and dumps them in Tillingham.”
”Yes, we know,” Matt said.
”Tell us more about the ghost,” Darcy said. ”Especially if anything new has happened since we spoke on the phone.”
Toni arched a brow, staring at the woman. ”Actually, something very new happened yesterday afternoon, not long before the tour.”
”The entrees are coming,” Matt warned lightly.
So Toni waited. And once the food arrived, she started talking. And to her amazement, she talked and talked.
”A ghost is usually trying very hard to say something,” Darcy told her when she was done.
”Let's say I buy into that,” Toni told her. ”That I can even understand it! History didn't pinpoint him as his wife's killer, but legend and speculation certainly abounded. So now Annalise has been found. They're doing DNA tests, and if it's proved that she is Annalise, she will come back to the castle and be entombed next to her laird. He'll be vindicated. She'll be at rest. So this ghost should be happy and quiet now, right?”
”He should be,” Darcy said.
”Unless...” Matt murmured.
”What?” Toni demanded.
Darcy exhaled softly. ”Apparently, there's something else bothering him. And if you really want him to be at peace, you'll have to figure out what it is.”
”We've company,” Matt murmured suddenly.
Toni turned to find Bruce coming into the pub with Jonathan Tavish. They both looked grim. Toni felt guilty instantly, although she wasn't sure why.
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