“You heard right,” Tanner told him. “He’s fine. His grandparents are traveling down from Germany, he’ll be going home with them.”
“Do you know if she had a boyfriend?” Levi asked the couple.
“When I last spoke to her just over a week ago, she was single, and happy to be,” said Janelle. “If she’d met anyone within that small timeframe, she wouldn’t have brought him home. Not so soon. She didn’t introduce her partners to Toby until she was positive the relationship was serious. She put her boy first.”
“Did you notice anyone come or go at any point over the past five days?” asked Tanner.
Janelle’s brow pinched. “No. No one at all.”
Clyde pursed his lips and shook his head. “Not that I saw. But then, I don’t live with Janelle, so I’m not here every day.”
“Did either of you hear any noises?” asked Levi. “See any cars parked outside?”
Again, the couple answered in the negative.
“Whoever took her from Toby needs to pay for it,” said Janelle, her eyes welling up. “I-I—” She promptly burst into tears.
Clyde held her close as he led her back into her house.
Tanner’s gold eyes drifted over Levi’s face. “You sure you want to do this?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t,” said Levi. He followed Tanner into the hallway, where two of the lair’s Force, Enzo and Dez, stood holding a stretcher on which a long, black body bag lay. A bag that clearly wasn’t empty.
Both Force members nodded at Levi and Tanner.
“Knox is waiting for you in the living room,” Enzo told them. “He asked us to wait here so Levi could examine the body.”
Having an affinity for the dead, Levi didn’t need to open the bag and take a look at Diem to know how she died. He rested his hand on her head, and instantly he simply knew the cause of death and exactly how long she’d been gone. Dropping his hand, he glanced from Enzo to Dez. “You can take her now.”
Enzo slid his gaze toward the living room. “I don’t need to tell you to brace yourself, because it’s not like your typical scene. There’s no mess at all. There are no traces of blood. Nothing’s been broken—”
“Other than her neck,” said Levi, surprised by the flatness of his tone.
Enzo winced. “Yeah, other than that.” He and Dez then left the house.
Levi walked into the living area … where he came to an abrupt halt as emotions slammed into him so hard they almost stole his breath. The dominant one was terror. So much paralyzing, gut-wrenching, heart-twisting terror. It permeated and pulsed through the air in waves.
More, snatches of a woman’s disembodied voice reached him.
… Toby, where are …
… answer me …
… don’t hide from …
In the center of the room, Knox looked his way. “I’d ask if you’re all right, but that would be a stupid question.”
Refusing to think about his aunt and if she’d been wracked by that same debilitating fear, Levi forced himself to box up his past so he could concentrate on the present. Diem and Toby needed that from him. “Diem’s soul is still here, but she doesn’t seem to see us. She’s only concerned for Toby. She’s searching for him.”
Knox’s brows dipped. “She doesn’t know she’s dead?”
“She knows, but she’s refusing to acknowledge it.” Levi had found that it often happened that way with parents. They didn’t want to accept that they’d been forced to leave their children behind, and so they simply didn’t face it.
Still, Levi repeatedly tried snaring Diem’s attention by psychically reaching out to her. It would be difficult to have an actual conversation with her—souls didn’t usually answer or even pose questions. They yelled or whined or cried, battering you with information in the hope of getting justice, but properly converse? Have a clear, two-way psychic conversation with you? That hardly ever happened.
However, he could get some information from Diem if only she’d yell details at him or something … except she refused to acknowledge his presence. He sighed. “I can’t make her see us.”
“Did you touch her body?” asked Knox.
“Yes. The break to her neck killed her. She’s been dead just over five days, much like the Force members estimated.”
“What are your reaper senses picking up?”
“Blind terror. Helplessness. Fury. Despair.” The emotions all held a feminine vibe, which meant … “They were Diem’s emotions.”
“And whoever killed her?”
Levi frowned. “It’s strange. There’s satisfaction. Not a bloodthirsty kind. It’s more like genuine contentment. But other emotions override it. A building frustration. Disappointment. Anger. And then a sort of bleakness. Loneliness, even.”
Tanner’s brow furrowed. “So … it’s as if everything was fine at first. At least for him, anyway, since you don’t sense any contentment coming from Diem. I’m guessing it was a ‘him’?”
Levi nodded. “The emotions have a masculine feel to them. And something made him increasingly irritated until—finally—he felt ‘done’ with Diem and killed her. But then he felt lonely.”