Free The Traveler: Book 5, The Eddie McCloskey Paranormal Mystery Series (The Unearthed) by Evan Ronan Page A

someone? Maybe. A woman? I doubt it.”
    Eddie nodded. “Every time I investigate, there’s at least one thing that challenges my worldview.”
    “That’s because you only take on paranormal cases,” she said, a bit of a challenge in her voice. “So that’s what you see. If you worked regular cases, you’d see how often things repeat themselves and how likely your first hunch is to be correct. It’s always somebody who knew the victim. If they were married, it’s the spouse nine times out of ten. People are people.”
    “I get that. But like you said, I only take paranormal cases. And if that’s what this is, we need to think outside the box.”
    She put the car in REVERSE and backed out of the spot. Christie didn’t speak until they were out of the parking lot.
    “You’re preaching to the choir, Eddie.” She made a right. “I am the one that called you, remember?”
    He smiled. “Yeah. Thanks a lot for getting me into this mess.”
    One corner of her mouth smiled back. “I’m taking you to see Daria first.”
    He got a feeling she was asserting her control of the investigation. Fine with him. At the end of the day, it was her job on the line, not his. Besides, he liked her take-charge attitude.
    “Can I ask you something personal?” Eddie said.
    “You can ask.”
    “Are you married?”
    “What does that matter?”
    He couldn’t get a read on her. She asked not too quickly, not too slow.
    “Your last name,” he said. “Christie isn’t exactly an Asian name.”
    “I’m divorced. Getting your name changed is a process.”
    “I’ll bet.” Eddie stretched out in the passenger seat. He was exhausted after a night of so little sleep. In his twenties, a few hours of shut-eye would have been enough. But these days it knocked him on his ass.
    “By the way, I wanted to see Daria first thing too.”
    She glanced over at him.
    He winked. “Great minds.”

Ten
     
    Eddie liked Christie’s driving.
    She stuck to the speed limit and accelerated evenly and moved confidently through traffic. He’d seen her in action now and she had shown competence in every situation. He liked her. A lot.
    It didn’t hurt that she was very easy on the eyes.
    “Alright, now you can tell me,” he said.
    She consulted the GPS and took the next turn.
    “You want to know why we thought Perks might be working with somebody.”
    “Yes.”
    “Pictures.”
    “You found pictures?”
    She nodded. “In his apartment. He’d carved out a hollow on the floor of his closet.”
    “Jesus.” Eddie grimaced.
    “Yes. He had pictures taken of himself with the women.”
    “And you thought somebody took them?”
    Christie nodded. “I did. The chief was at least willing to consider it, unlike some of the other guys.”
    “Knotts likes you.”
    “Yes. As a woman on the police force, that means a lot.”
    “Old boys’ club?”
    “Yes and no. Most men don’t even realize how they are.”
    “And how are we?” He smiled.
    “You can be pretty dismissive when a female point of view is being offered.”
    “Is that what you think of me?”
    He was laying it on thick again. Christie, as always, remained professional and pretended not to pick up on his undertones.
    “I think you know what you’re doing. That’s all that matters right now.”
    Eddie liked that answer. “So back to the pictures. Couldn’t he have just set up a camera himself?”
    “The shots changed.”
    Eddie went quiet.
    “The angles changed significantly. So he would have had to stop what he was doing and move the camera.”
    “Not impossible.”
    “Nothing is impossible,” she said. “I asked the women if he had a habit of stopping during the act and only one remembered him doing that.”
    Eddie hated the mental pictures forming in his mind, that of a masked man forcing himself on women he’d tied to beds. The photographs took it to a whole new level.
    Christie said, “The other women didn’t have great recall.”
    “Not surprising. Their brains