- -
- 100%
- +
…offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.
—Romans 6:13
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
EPILOGUE
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
ONE
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
He’d never given marriage much thought. At least, not for himself. And especially not since God had seen fit to bless him with a grandmother like Dorothea Stevens Latham, a passionate and determined matchmaker. In fact, avoidance of the subject was one of David’s favorite hobbies.
At the red light, he brought his vintage electric-blue Camaro to a stop, and watched a few snowflakes melt on the windshield. It hadn’t felt all that cold earlier in the day, but years in Philly had taught him to expect anything from the weather. It was the twelfth of December, after all.
He flicked on his radio, and smiled at the sound of Miles Davis’s mellow trumpet. It filled the car with its richness; it flowed over him like melted fudge. He loved music, especially the lushness of jazz.
The cell phone rang; he looped on his hands-free headset. “Latham.”
“So how was dinner with the lovebirds?” asked Dan Maddox, a fellow agent with the FBI’s Philadelphia Organized Crime Unit.
The light turned green. David pressed the gas pedal. “Honeymooning agrees with J.Z., and Maryanne’s just as radiant as on their wedding day.”
“Wish I could’ve been there.”
“Well, someone had to mind the store. Since I took the day off, and you are supposed to be on duty—oh, that’s right. You’re on ‘sit and watch’ detail.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m on surveillance. Don’t rub it in. So how was dinner? Can the bride cook?”
David took the next turn. “You missed out, man. Homemade lasagna, garlic bread, the best green bean dish I’ve had in years and tiramisu. Eat your heart out.”
Dan groaned.
David remembered how he’d felt the entire evening. Good food, good friends, good atmosphere. J.Z. and Maryanne’s happiness had made a unique fourth at the dinner table.
And while his thoughts hadn’t veered into dangerous territory during the visit, the minute he walked out of the cozy condo, a question had elbowed its way into his brain. It didn’t want to take a hike.
What would happiness like what he saw tonight be like?
How would it feel to close the door behind a visitor, and turn around to find himself in the company of the person who brought him that kind of joy?
“…earth to Latham!”
He blinked. “Sorry. Guess I lost track of our conversation. I’m on my way to pick up Grandma Dottie.”
“What’s wrong with her brand-new Hummer?”
“Beats me. She just said it was in the shop, that she needed a ride home.” Her request had stunk like a fine, tire-flattened polecat on a hot summer day. His grandmother was nothing if not independent.
But he’d rather discuss her than think of marriage. He muttered, “That only leads to danger, my man.”
“Come again?” Dan asked.
David blushed. “Nothing. Just wondering what Gram’s up to this time.”
“Yeah, well. With her you can be sure she’s up to something every time. Where is she?”
“I’ll tell you, but don’t you dare make any stupid comments, Maddox. She’s at the latest Lady Look Lovely makeup party.”
Dan’s guffaws threatened David’s eardrum. “Oh, yeah. She’s up to something all right. She wants great-grandchildren, Latham, and she’s lured you to an event peopled with women of all ages, sizes, shapes and interests. But there is one interest they all share, you know. Men, single men. Like you.”
“That’s not funny. I’d rather suffer bubonic plague than face that crew.”
“Better you than me.”
“Maybe that’s what I should do. Have you pick her up. Sometimes I think she loves you better than she does me.”
“Can’t blame the woman for her good taste.”
“Give me a break. Just for that, I’m gonna turn around and call her. Tell her I’m sending you in my place. You should face the ‘sweethearts’ she hangs around with. Especially those who aren’t till-death-do-us-part attached to a sucker of the male persuasion.”
With Dan’s indignant squawks in the background, a niggle of discomfort crossed David’s mind. That was how he’d viewed the lot of the average married man. Until tonight.
He murmured a few “Mmm-hmms” and a few “Huhs,” which kept Dan happy and blathering.
David’s thoughts ran rampant.
Maybe Dan was his best defense against Gram’s zealous efforts, now that J.Z. and Maryanne had infected him with curiosity…and, if he were completely honest with himself, something he always tried to be, with a weird kind of emptiness in the pit of his—was that his gut that felt so jittery? Or was it his heart that made him feel strange, on edge?
He’d always thought the heart did nothing more than pump blood. He’d always rejected love-sloppy poets and schmaltzy chick flicks with their throbbing hearts and broken hearts and mended hearts. He’d always believed that the Lord would guide him to the woman he was meant to marry—if he was even meant to commit such lunacy in the first place.
“…are you okay, David? I’ve never known you to space out like this, and you’ve done it twice now. You still driving?”
“I’m fine. Just irritated with myself. I can’t help the soft spot I have for Gram. You should’ve heard her. She was in fine form this morning. ‘Oh, Davey, it’s not a problem. I’ll just have Bea drive me home after the party. She only lives two houses down from me, you know.’”
Dan hooted. “Sure, as if we didn’t know that Bea Woodward has more driving citations than a stray mutt has fleas. I don’t blame you. I don’t want your grandmother careening down Philadelphia’s wintry streets in that white-haired maniac’s car any more than you do.”
“And she knows how I feel.”
“Too well.” Dan gave another chuckle. “She’s a special one, all right. But you’re gonna have to brave the females and pick her up yourself. I’m on duty, remember?”
It was his turn to say, “Too well.”
Four long blocks away from Lorna Endicott’s palatial, old-money mansion, another red light made him stop. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, and “Uh-huhed” some more.
He sighed. How did Dad do it? How did the man handle such a mother? Was that why the moment he saw his chance back at the ripe old age of eighteen, his father bolted to the wild, wild West, and settled in Seattle?
Had that been the only way for Dad to find a mate on his own?
Maybe.
A car honked behind him, and David realized he’d been so caught up in his freaked-out thoughts, that he hadn’t seen the light go green. He pulled forward with a jerk, his blush hot all the way to his forehead.
“…you know why you’re on your way to pick up Grandma Dottie. You’re nuts about her. And I am, too—everyone is. She’s the sassiest, sweetest, smartest woman I’ve ever met. And you’d do anything for your grandmother.”
“I already admitted to my weakness, Maddox. So what’s your point?”
“Just that I wish I could be there to see you face a crowd of women who just spent hours and beaucoup de bucks turning themselves into traps for unsuspecting guys.”
At the next stop sign he looked both ways, relieved by the lack of traffic. True, it was ten o’clock on a Wednesday night, and he was driving down a posh residential neighborhood now, but you never knew when a speed demon would come at you with total lack of forewarning.
David tuned out Dan’s teasing again, and started into the intersection. Headlights appeared in his rearview mirror. He wondered if it might be another sucker roped into an appearance at the Lady Look Lovely party. Maybe the two of them could commiserate—
A woman stepped into the crosswalk.
He honked, yelled, “NO!”
Dan’s gibberish turned anxious.
The headlights pulled up to his left side. The gray Lexus roared ahead.
Twin beams limned the woman and a child she pushed behind. She stumbled on.
“Get off the street!” David yelled. He slammed the horn and stomped on his brakes.
Dan squawked some more.
David ignored him, tried to block the gray car with his.
The woman froze.
The Lexus swerved to avoid him then veered back, its aim sure, deadly. It hit her.
David skidded toward the sidewalk. “Call 911,” he yelled at Dan. “Ambulance, too.”
The car slowed. He gave Dan his location. Almost before he came to a full stop, David jumped out.
His temples pounded. He wanted to yell again, but something took hold of his throat. He rushed to the woman, who now lay on the road, the little boy frozen at her side.
An urgent prayer accompanied him down to his knees. “Are you all right?”
He took her pulse. Fast, too fast, but strong.
The woman, younger than he’d initially thought, gave him a wobbly grin. “Yes…no—maybe.”
He forced a smile when he saw no blood. “Now there’s a definite answer for ya.”
“It’s kind of hard to say….” She worked her way up to a sitting position, her shadowed features twisted in pain. “I think everything’s where it should be, and probably in working order, too. The car didn’t hit me hard.”
Her words contrasted with the fear in her eyes and the tremor in her hands. She held out her arms, and the boy crumpled into her embrace. Over the child’s head, she met David’s gaze. “Umm…you see—”
The boy’s sobs cut her off. She turned her attention to the scared kid, who couldn’t have been more than five or six. She murmured reassurances in a soft, musical voice, and her hands in turn dried tears, smoothed hair, checked for any sign of injury.
“He seems fine…right?” What did he know about kids?
She gave a tight nod. “The car didn’t hit him. I made sure of that.”
It struck him then that he’d failed to take note of the license plate on the Lexus. He made a face.
The woman inched away from him.
Great. He’d scared her. “Sorry. I just thought of something…important.”
She scooted away a little more. “Please. Don’t let me keep you. I’m sure you have somewhere to go. We’re fine.”
Considering they were sprawled all over the middle of the street, David didn’t agree. But she did have a point—one, only one. “That reminds me…”
He thanked the Lord for the lack of traffic, pulled his cell phone from his pocket, and dialed his grandmother. In a few, terse sentences he let her know an emergency had come up and that he’d be late. She knew him well enough not to doubt the tone of his voice.
As he turned back to the victims, he heard distant sirens. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re going to be okay,” he told the frightened two.
The little boy’s eyes looked like huge dark holes in the poor light. “You a doctor, mister?”
David grinned. “No, but my mother sure wanted me to be one.”
The tyke frowned. “Did she make you time-out ’cause you dinn’t ’bey?”
“No, not for that. But I spent hours and hours doing time-outs for all kinds of other things.”
A spark of mischief rang in his “Really?”
“Don’t bother the nice man, Marky. I’m sure he has to get going.”
“Aunt Lauren! You know you shouldn’t call me that.”
The sirens wailed louder even than the boy’s complaint.
Lauren tsk-tsked—nervously, to David’s ear. “I’m so sorry, dear. Aunt Lauren forgot this time. It won’t happen again. I promise.”
Mark aimed narrowed eyes at his aunt. “Double-dip promise, with a cherry and whip cream on top?”
“Double-dip promise, with a cherry and whipped cream on top.”
David was charmed, but not so much that he forgot what had to come next.
“Don’t you think you’d better call his parents?” he asked. “The investigating officer will be here soon, and he’ll want to ask you a million questions. The boy, too. The police will need parental permission to question him.”
The smile the banter had brought to Lauren’s face vanished. “Oh, dear. We don’t need the police. I’m fine, and so is Mark. Nothing happened here.”
“What do you mean, nothing happened here? That idiot ran right at you—and hit you! Then he pulled a hit-and-run. In my book that’s two for one. Crimes, that is.”
Alarm again filled her face. “Oh, no. Really. I’m sure the driver just skidded on the wet pavement. It gets slippery when it starts to snow like this.”
David snorted. “Look, lady—Lauren?” When she nodded, he continued. “The guy started out behind me. The minute you stepped into the crosswalk—on a green light for me, mind you—he hit the gas good and swerved around me. He was heading for you, and there’s no other way to call it. This was no accident.”
“You must be mistaken,” she argued in a shaky voice. “It couldn’t have happened that way. I’m sure it was the snow and…”
She stopped.
Shook her head.
Tightened her hold on Mark.
“Please,” she whispered. “Send them…all of them—” she gave a little wave “—away. I’m fine. Nothing happened here….”
Despite her urgent denials, David heard no conviction behind Lauren’s words. Something wasn’t right. Why was she so determined to avoid the paramedics and the police?
What had really happened before his eyes?
“Look, lady. I know what I saw. And I investigate crime for a living. My powers of observation are pretty sharp. So why don’t you stop all this nothing-happened nonsense, and tell me what’s coming down?”
“Nothing—”
“I’m a witness to your stepping into traffic with a child. I can press charges for child endangerment.”
“No…” Her voice broke on a sob. “Please. I’m all Mark has left. His mother died three years ago, and it’s only been three weeks since we buried my brother.”
David gave a brief nod. “I’m sorry to hear that.” He took a deep breath and withdrew his ID. “But that doesn’t change what I saw. I’m with the FBI. Please tell me what just happened here, why you’re so determined to avoid an investigation.”
Another sob ripped through her. Fear left her features drawn, pale, eerie-looking in the weak glow of the streetlight on the opposite corner across the street. Unless he was much mistaken, her shivers intensified.
She began to shake her head.
He glared.
Mark reached up to pat her cheek. “You ’kay, Aunt Lauren?”
She tried to smile at the boy, but failed. “Fine, Marky. I’m fine.”
“Lady—”
“My name’s Lauren, Lauren DiStefano.”
“Okay, Lauren DiStefano. I’m David Latham. Now why don’t you tell me what you think happened here? What you really think happened here.”
She took a deep breath, forced a…maybe she meant it as a smile, but from his point of view, it looked more like a grimace. She met his gaze.
“My brother’s—” She shut her eyes, shook herself, then squared her shoulders. When she looked at him again, some corner of David’s mind took note of her clear green eyes.
But it was her words that took him by surprise.
With a heavy dose of audible determination, she said, “My brother’s ghost just tried to kill me.”
TWO
David rolled his eyes. “Let me get this straight. Nothing really happened here, you say. It was just a driver who slid on wet pavement. And that driver was…your brother’s ghost?”
Lauren bit her lower lip. Then she squared her shoulders and nodded. “Yes. That’s what I said.”
But she didn’t meet his gaze.
The ambulance shrieked up and came to a complete stop a few inches from David’s feet. Two squad cars careered around the corner behind the siren-blaring, light-flashing, foot-threatening white-and-yellow menace. He scrambled upright, if for no other reason than to protect his feet.
But it was good. Reinforcements just when he needed them. He didn’t know what to make of his accident victim.
Two officers approached. David nodded at them. “Glad to see you guys.”
Officer Radford, as per his name tag, returned the nod. “Can you tell me what happened? The dispatcher wasn’t long on details.”
David withdrew his ID and turned it over to the two cops. “I was on my way down the street when a gray Lexus swerved around me and aimed straight at the woman and child. It hit and ran, and although she says she’s fine, I think she might have a concussion or something. At the very least, she must’ve rattled her head.”
The EMT who’d come up behind Officer Sherman, Radford’s partner, waved her own partner toward Lauren then said, “Why her head? Did you see evidence of trauma?”
“No, but she’s talking crazy.”
With a puzzled look for him, the medic turned to Lauren.
Radford took out a notepad. “What do you mean, talking crazy?”
David snorted. “I feel stupid just telling you what she said. She tried to tell me her brother’s ghost was behind the wheel. And that’s after she insisted again and again that the driver had only skidded on the damp road.”
Radford didn’t look up from his scribbles, but his right eyebrow rose. “So we’re talking criminal ghosts, are we?”
David ran a hand through his hair. He’d known better than to agree to come after Gram. Now he was making a fool of himself thanks to a pretty blonde who might have rocks in her head.
“That’s what she said.”
“Did you get a good look at the driver?”
“It happened so fast, I didn’t even get a good look at the license plate, much less the driver.”
“But you’re sure it was a gray Lexus?”
“That I’m sure. My grandmother just traded in one just like it only in pink.”
The eyebrow rose higher. “A pink Lexus. What’d she get? A pink Caddie instead?”
David’s cheeks flamed. “No. A purple Hummer.”
Radford’s left eyebrow joined his right. He turned to Officer Sherman. “Is that ID for real, or did he get it in a gumball machine?”
Sherman scanned it again. “Looks plenty kosher to me.”
David glared at Lauren. “Call the office. I’m for real. I’m just not sure what she is.”
“She,” said the female EMT as she returned, “is just fine. Oh, she’ll have a doozy of a bruise on her hip by tomorrow, all right, and I’ll bet she scraped her knees good under those pants, but otherwise she’s fine. Not even a bump on her head.”
“Then she’s nuts,” David said before he could stop himself.
Lauren glared back. “I’m not crazy, but I am fine, as I told you over and over again.” She turned to Radford. “He shouldn’t have made such a fuss. I’m sorry he bothered you, sir. But as you heard, I’m fine. You can all go home now. It’s getting late, especially for my nephew.”
Radford glanced at David. In that quick look, he saw the same alarm he’d felt at Lauren’s urgent objections. Something was up with this woman. And he wasn’t about to let her go until he had a good idea what it might be.
David crossed his arms and pinned Lauren with his stare. “Listen. I don’t buy a word of your ghost story, so why don’t you try telling me the truth? What’s going on here? What are you trying to hide?”
At his side, Radford cleared his throat.
David winced. He was stepping on the locals’ toes, and he was off duty, but by now he’d lost his patience. He had to know what Lauren DiStefano was up to.
Instead of answering, though, she helped her nephew stand before she stood, as well. Only then did she meet David’s gaze. “I’m sorry. I’m absolutely exhausted. And I’ve been under a great deal of stress these last few weeks. I’m sure it’s all taken its toll on my sanity.”
David caught himself before the spontaneous “Yeah, right” popped out. “So in your world exhaustion and stress lead to hit-and-runs and ghosts.”
She had the decency to blush. “I suppose it does sound stupid when you put it that way.”
“What way would you rather I put it?”
The shrug made her wince. She was hurt, no matter how hard she tried to deny it. What he wanted to know was why she was so determined to do so.
“Well?” he prodded.
Radford’s pencil scratched across paper.
The ambulance pulled away, this time minus the theatrics.
Officer Sherman joined them.
Still, Lauren didn’t speak. By now, she’d grown visibly uncomfortable with the triple scrutiny—just what David had hoped for. Maybe that discomfort would make her decide to talk.
She took a deep breath, clasped her nephew’s shoulders, pulled the boy close to her side. “The last three weeks have been very hard on us. My older brother Ric died twenty-three days ago. A car accident.”
That did explain stress, and the stress probably explained the exhaustion.
“But how do we get from grief and mourning to a Lexus-wielding ghost?” he asked. “Are you sure your brother’s dead? That you didn’t…uh—”
“No, Mr. Latham,” she cut in, her green eyes bright with indignation. “I didn’t imagine my brother’s death. I could never have done that. Besides, I have plenty of evidence of his passing.”
“I didn’t mean that you might have imagined his death.” David shifted his weight from one to the other foot. “That evidence you mentioned would be…?”
“The usual,” she countered. “I have a death certificate, the obit from the newspaper, the tasteful gravestone I had to order, a casket and fresh burial plot, the unending funeral bills I still have to pay and none of those is even the most heartbreaking bit of proof you could ever want. I have a grieving five-year-old nephew who only wants to know where his daddy went.”
David’s gaze dropped to the boy. The tears in Mark’s large green eyes, so like those of his aunt, filled him with guilt. “I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t be asking these questions with…ah…him here.”
“You shouldn’t be asking them period,” she said.
“Amen,” added Radford.
Although their objections didn’t have the same meaning, David got where they were coming from. He shot the cop an apologetic glance, but then his attention flew back to the woman and child in the blink of an eye. “Maybe you shouldn’t be talking ghost stories, either.”
To his satisfaction, she glanced down at the boy, and frowned. “You’re right. I’m going home.”
“Not so fast, lady,” Radford said. “I need your name, address, telephone number, and the full name of that maybe-dead, maybe-not-so-dead brother of yours.”
David didn’t let his gaze stray as Lauren responded. But then, when she got to her brother’s name, a touch of recognition tickled the backside of his memory.
Ric DiStefano.
He knew the name. But he couldn’t quite place it. Not right away, at any rate. He’d have to think about where he’d heard it, how he came to know it.
Then, to his surprise, after Radford’s okay, Lauren walked to the large, three-story brownstone mansion two doors from the corner, unlocked the door and slipped inside. She lived there and she complained about funeral bills?
Something still didn’t add up.
While he stared at the double mahogany doors, someone tugged on the back of his shirt. He turned around and groaned.
“You okay, Davey?” his grandmother asked.
Oh, boy. Was he ever in trouble now! His grandmother at the scene of a crime.
“I’m fine, Gram. What are you doing here?”
“Sure you’re fine?”