Those of the Margin: a Paranormal Suspense Thriller (Derek Cole Suspense Thriller Book 2) (21 page)

It showed a man, probably in his early forties, standing beside a teenage boy. The boy held a blank stare at whoever was taking the picture, while the man slightly behind and slightly to the boy's right, was smiling broadly. His hair was light brown and was beginning to gray at its edges. His eyes, dark brown and set deep within his face, were surrounded by sunburned skin. John could tell that the man was intentionally sucking in his paunchy belly and was hopeful he'd soon be able to relax his abdominal muscles the moment the shutter sounded.

"Who is this?" John asked.

"That, I believe, is Jack and his father," Derek said.
 

"So you are saying that Robby's Phillip is Jack's father," John asked.

"Does the background look familiar to you, Father? Look closely."

John studied the surroundings behind Jack and his father. He strained his mind to recall when and, more importantly, where he had seen this place before.

"It looks familiar, but I can't place it," John said.

"Head into Ogunquit."

#####

The roads were deserted. Passing only an occasional police vehicle and a single plow, Derek and John inched towards the center of Ogunquit.
 

"I'm going to try Maggie's cell," Derek said after having already dialed all but two numbers.
 

His call went right to voice mail, suggesting that either Maggie's phone was turned off or she was in an area of poor cell coverage.
 
Derek turned to John who was struggling to see the road through the blowing snow. "Father, you never told me if you believe that ghosts are real. All you told me was that the Catholic Church's teachings are a bit hard to pin down, but you never told me what you believe."

"Why are my beliefs important?" John asked.

"Because, unless I'm wrong, the fact that you are driving me to where I think we will find Phillip and that you're not demanding that we spend our time and mental energies trying to find Maggie, tells me that you believe that this whole Phillip thing isn't something Robby made up or something that someone put into his head."

"Or maybe because I honestly have no idea what to do but feel I should be doing something. Anything that may help Maggie and Robby. Plus, you said that you know where Jack is. I assume, perhaps erroneously, that where you are leading me is where we will find both Phillip and the rest of the party."

"I think it's more than that, Father. I think that you either suspect something or may even know something about Phillip that you haven't told me yet. If so, I think now is the time to tell me."

John was quiet. His eyes were locked in a losing battle against the storm as he struggled to keep the road in his view. He sighed deeply and readjusted his hands on the steering wheel.

"I knew Jack's father," John said.

"You what?" Derek exclaimed. "You knew his father? That means that you've known Jack for quite a long time."

"I've been a priest for almost 30 years, and I've been assigned to different parishes all over Maine. I spent 13 years serving as a priest in churches in and around Portland. The first church where I was the pastor was Our Lady of the Sea, and Luke Bryant and his family were parishioners.
 

"Luke and I were the same age. In fact, our birthdays are six days apart. He and I became friends. Good friends. We used to talk for hours about all sorts of things. And, before you ask, yes, we both shared an interest in ghosts and in the paranormal. I grew interested in all things paranormal while I was in the seminary that was supposedly haunted. Though I never saw anything, I did have some strange experiences while I was there.

"Luke fancied himself to be somewhat of an amateur paranormal investigator, and I went on several of his investigations with him. He would always say that having a priest in tow made people feel better and gave him instant credibility.

"Over the years, we kept in touch, but he developed a pretty serious drinking habit. I tried to help him but couldn't. He told me that he drank so that he could forget something that he saw on one of his investigations. He never told me what he saw that affected him so much, but whatever it was, it must have been powerful. He was a good man. A good husband and a good father. But after years of abusing alcohol, he changed into someone that, I have to believe, he hated being.

"I tried to talk with his son, Jack, about how he felt about his father's alcoholism, but Jack just closed up and blocked everything out. He was such a good kid. Full of life, always willing to help and never had a bad word to say about anyone.
 

"A few months after his dad was killed, and the police investigation and rumors calmed down, I called Jack to see how he was doing and if there was anything I could do. All he said to me was to pretend that we never knew each other and to keep my nose out of his business. I think he used more colorful language, but you get the general idea.
 

"Do I believe in ghosts? There was a time when I was obsessed with ghosts. I thought that if I could verify their existence, then doing so would prove that there is an afterlife. I would know that everything I stand for and everything that I preach is somehow proven – that God exists and that our earthly deaths are not the end but only a transition.

"I'm what you could call a reluctant believer now, a wishful believer in the paranormal. I want to believe in ghosts so much. Too much, probably. And as for Robby's 'Phillip,' my training says that it is a result of some psychological challenge or a sign that Robby is crying for attention. But my gut tells me that Phillip is as real as a ghost can be. And that is why, Derek, I am willing to risk my life driving in this blizzard so that you can chase a ghost around the coast of Maine.

"Do I believe in ghosts? Reluctantly, yes. I almost have to, don't I?"

Derek was quietly staring at John, listening to every word. His mind was so locked in to the conversation that when he noticed that they had missed the turn that headed to the parking area for Ogunquit beach, he practically yelled at John to turn around and head towards the beach.

"Christ almighty!" John said. "Nearly scared me half to death."

"Sorry, Father. I need you fully alive for what we are about to do."

"And what is it that we are about to do?" John asked as he turned the car down the road towards the Ogunquit beach.

"Recognize and return."

CHAPTER THIRTY

Trooper Mark Irish assembled his team in the Bryant home. He had been studying every file, photograph, and note on the Bryant case for well over eight hours before an idea came to him. That was how things worked with Mark Irish. He would spend hours making little or no progress before something small turned everything around. For this case, Mark was stuck trying to figure out why Jack Bryant would have killed Ron White.
 

It didn't make sense. Sure, it was clear that Ron White was running his own "amateur" investigation into the murder of Luke Bryant, and it was obvious, based on the notes and files that were retrieved from White's laptop, that Ron White fully believed that Jack Bryant had murdered Luke Bryant. But Ron's investigation was flawed in many ways. First off, White started his investigation under the premise that Jack was the murderer. Having that mindset prejudiced everything that he learned, read, or found out about the case. Second, White totally and completely neglected to consider that Jack was as much of a victim of his father's murder as was his dad. If Mark was right and someone took Jack's father from him, and in such a vicious way, few would be surprised if Jack didn't have some lasting emotional challenges.

But even as Mark was pouring through the case notes, he was still missing something. Even though he kept an open mind, the evidence still pointed to Jack Bryant as Luke Bryant's killer and to Jack Bryant as the man who killed Ron White in order to shut him up. However, it was when he started looking into Vanessa Jones, the woman beaten nearly to death outside of Portland, that Mark put the pieces together.
 

As his team assembled, Mark knew that there were still plenty of questions that needed answering and that Robby and Maggie Bryant and Matthew Jones were still in serious danger.

"Vanessa Jones," he announced to his assembled team of troopers and investigators as they gathered in the Bryant's home, "is not Jack Bryant's mistress, and her son, whose name is Matthew, is not Bryant's son. Vanessa Jones is Jack Bryant's sister, making her son Jack Bryant's nephew. Seems Jack's father, Luke Bryant, was the one who had a mistress.
 

"Looking back into the murder case of Jack's father, I discovered that all the evidence pointed to Jack as being the killer: the confession/suicide note found -- by illegal search -- tucked into his dresser drawer, his fingerprints all over the baseball bat that was covered in his father's blood, his father's hair samples, and Jack's lack of an alibi. The investigators fingered Jack for the murder, but without an eyewitness or the ability to use the confession note, they were stuck.

"But they didn't know about Vanessa Jones. They didn't know that Jack's father had a mistress and that she had given birth to her daughter eight days before Luke Bryant was murdered. Now," Mark said, pausing intentionally to see which members of his assembled team were following the trail he was leading them on, "if we take a closer look at the Luke Bryant murder, who are our suspects?"

"Are you suggesting that it wasn't Jack Bryant?" a trooper asked.

"I'm saying that just because he was the prime suspect that we shouldn't be blind to looking at others as the killer. If we take Jack out of the equation, who is left?"

"Jack Bryant's mother," one trooper offered.

"Vanessa Jones's mother," suggested another. "What was her name?"

"Her name was Michelle Jones. She passed away three years ago. Why do you ask?" Mark questioned.

"Was Michelle Jones married at the time she and Luke Bryant started their little fling? If she was, we'd have to start looking at her husband for the murder."

"Excellent," Mark said. "But unfortunately, Michelle Jones was not married. Never was and never got married."

"That leaves either Jack Bryant, his mother, or an unknown suspect. Didn't Bryant claim that an intruder killed his father?"

"He did make that claim, but there was zero evidence of an intruder. Considering the brutality of the murder and the fact that Luke Bryant was dragged through his home and left to die in a pile of snow in his own backyard, it makes it hard to believe that an intruder could have pulled off the murder and left no traces of himself or herself behind at the scene."

"So that just leaves Jack and Jack's mother," a trooper surmised.

"And where is Jack's mother today?" Mark asked.

The room was silent except for a few mumbles and the sound a turning head makes when brushing up against a collared shirt.

"Jack Bryant's mother, Rita Bryant, was all but forgotten about once the investigators turned all their attention onto her son, Jack. She became background noise. But she lives right down the street in Ogunquit in a little house overlooking the Marginal Way. She received a rather sizable life insurance check after she was cleared from the murder of her husband. Seems Rita was good at real estate and bought a small house on the Marginal Way. Zillow puts the home's worth at just under three million."

"You saying that Rita Bryant killed her husband for money?"

"I don't know the motive. Based on case files, Rita Bryant was abused several times in the years leading up to the murder. Maybe she killed him in self-defense, maybe she killed him once she found out about his affair, or maybe for the money. I don't know. But what I do know is that I think she was behind the murder of Luke Bryant and the murder of Ron White. White had plenty of information on his laptop about the Luke Bryant murder. Seems he was doing his own investigation into it. I suspect that Rita found out that Ron White was getting close to finding out the truth behind her husband's murder and needed to end his investigation."

"Based on what I've seen," a trooper said, "Ron White was fingering Jack Bryant for the murder."

"He was, but if he continued his investigation, I think he would have changed his mind. There was a retired Portland cop named Henry Turck who White interviewed. According to the notes on White's computer, Turck was the lead investigator in the Luke Bryant murder. Turck was leaning towards Rita Bryant as the murderer and was doing his own investigation. Unfortunately, Turck was either pushed down a flight of stairs or fell and when he was killed. He was leaving the apartment of Vanessa Jones when his life ended. We know that he didn't meet with Vanessa since she was out of town when he called on her, and do we know what he wanted to find out from her. All we know is that evidence points to him being pushed and that Jack Bryant couldn't have done the pushing."

"Why not?"

"He was on a job site in Kittery. Had at least 20 witnesses that would testify to him being nowhere near the apartment building of Vanessa Jones," Mark replied. "What I also found out is that Rita Bryant's car was reported to be seen leaving the apartment complex shortly before Turck's body was discovered."

"So an elderly woman got the best of Henry Turck?" a trooper remarked.

"Rita turned 60 years old a few months back and according to reports, walks three miles a day and spends 30 minutes a day working out in a gym outside of town. In other words, she's in great shape. The few people I spoke to who know Rita, told me that she's a bit of a religious nut, always going on about the 'end of days' and how sinners will pay for their indiscretions." Ron continued. "We found a single, bloody fingerprint in the laundry room of the nursing home Ron White was killed in. Any guesses as to who that fingerprint belongs to?"

"Then what are we waiting for?" a trooper demanded. "If we have evidence that Rita Bryant killed Ron White, why is she not in custody?"

"Great point," Mark said. "And actually, there are a few reasons why. First, it took longer than expected to find the fingerprint and get it matched to Rita Bryant. Second, when we did identify the fingerprint as Rita's, Robby Bryant had already been abducted by his father, Jack Bryant. Third, Vanessa Jones was discovered in a bloody mess and her son, Matthew was also missing. If we arrested Rita as soon as we figured she was our prime suspect, we might never get the kids back. I don't know if Jack is involved with this whole mess yet, but since he abducted his own kid we needed to proceed with extreme caution.