Soul Destroyer: Soul Collector Series Book 2

CHAPTER 2: MAKING PLANS

Shane stood in front of Sophia Whitley’s home and took his time lighting a fresh cigarette.

The house’s faded paint absorbed the midday sun, and the warped glass of the Victorian windows appeared to glow. The unkempt lawn and the leaning mailbox a ll gave an air of desperation to the property, and Shane understood why.

The family had never recovered from the tragedy of the girl’s vanishing.

Neither had the house.

A few people had tried to live in it after the Whitleys sold it. But the house wouldn’t let them. There was too much sadness in it, and that sadness had affected the residents.

Shane had heard of a pair of suicides over the decades, failed marriages, and financial ruin. No one said the house was haunted by Sophia Whitley’s spirit. The home, people believed, had merely taken in the grief of the Whitley family. A grief that was never-ending.

For a moment, Shane wondered if that grief would fade when he found her body. If he was able to give the family a body to bury. He lit the cigarette and co ntinued his walk to Edgewood Cemetery.

Shane moved along the streets, and past houses, nodded to people working in their yards, and said hello to dogs. Soon, he entered Edgewood through the back gate and came to a stop at the crypt where Jo slept.

He took a seat on the ground, fieldstripped his cigarette, and slipped the remnants into his pocket. For a short time, he looked out over the cemetery, watching the dead linger around their graves. Finally, he reached out and nudged the iron door to the crypt open.

After a few minutes of silence, the air chilled around him, and Jo’s broken form stepped out. She sat down beside him and folded her arms over her knees.

“You’re still alive.”

“And you’re still dead,” Shane replied.

The dead woman laughed. “Yup. No doubt about it. What’s the occasion?”

“I’m about to leave,” he told her.

“Suicide?”

Shane grinned. “Not yet. Soon enough, I suppose.”

She looked at him, and when he didn’t elaborate, she shrugged. “Where you headed to?”

“Arizona.”

Jo tapped on her teeth with a fingernail, an act disturbingly devoid of sound. “You hunting?”

“Yup.”

“The club?”

He nodded.

“They’ll probably go to ground,” she advised.

“You think?”

“Yeah.” She leaned back and came to rest on her elbows, looking down over the cemetery. “They were always good when I had to deal with them. Real professional.

Pretty sure they had a few cops on the payroll. It was the only way they could move bodies, especially kids’ bodies so easily.”

“Didn’t think of that.” Shane sighed. “I hate dealing with dirty cops.”

“Is there any other kind?”

Shane glanced at her and observed she wasn’t joking. “Of course. They’re theexception to the rule, Jo.”

She shrugged. “If you say so. Just all the cops I ever dealt with, they were all dirty.”

“When did you deal with them?”

“Whenever I was moving a body.”