Chapter Seven
Melody paced around Uncle Todd's office. As soon as they had reached the temporary FBI headquarters, he had stuffed her in here while he went to interrogate Oskar. He hadn't even listened when she hissed at him that she had ghostly information that was vital to finding the real killer. Maybe he had been completely serious when he told her he wanted her to stay away from the case.
Maybe he was going to ignore her 'ghostly information' because she wasn't listening to him.
"He's coming back." Cindy's sudden appearance made Melody jump, and the ghost smirked. "You know, for somebody who claims to talk with the dead all the time, you're really jumpy around us."
"Oh, shut up."
Cindy folded her arms and sat on the desk, pouting. Moments later, Uncle Todd came into the office. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was pinched. Melody poured him a cup of coffee, but he only scowled when he took it. He stared at her for a long time before he shook his head.
"When were you going to tell me that Oskar and Cindy had a child together?"
"I only just found out. How do you know?"
"Good question," Cindy muttered.
Uncle Todd sat heavily behind his desk. "Oskar just told me. It's not looking good for him."
"He didn't do it. Cindy was with him at the time of the murder, and she says—"
"Melody!" Uncle Todd put his elbows on the desk and buried his face in his hands. "I can't take the word of a ghost and present it as evidence. We've been over this before. I need facts that I can see. And you're not supposed to be involved in this case, remember?"
Melody put her hands on her hips and glared at her uncle. "So what you're saying is that you would prefer to send an innocent man to jail than listen to what I have to say?"
"I'm saying that you can't keep involving yourself in murders. And as for Cindy collaborating Oskar's alibi, I couldn't trust it even if she was telling me it herself. They had a child together. Fezioni killed her."
"Is he saying I'm lying?" Cindy cried, her perfectly manicured nails digging into her palms. "I'm not lying! Oskar didn't kill Fezioni."
"I believe you," Melody said, turning to Cindy. "Just sit down and shut up. You can't help with this."
"Neither can you," Uncle Todd said firmly. "Go home, Melody. Take a couple days off work. Leave town. Just leave this case behind. I don't want Oskar to have done this, but I have to follow the evidence. No." He shook his head as she opened her mouth. "I don't want to hear it. Go."
Melody glared at her uncle for a moment before she turned on her heel and stormed out of his office. Leave town? Unlikely. If he wasn't going to find out what had really happened, she would! It was the least she could do for Oskar, with his bright blue eyes and charming smile. His cleft chin. His honey-silk voice…
Crap, she thought. I have it bad.
***
It didn't take much for Melody to convince Jane to spill all the gossip she had heard about the murder. In fact, all it took was one juicy tidbit of her own. Melody nearly winced when she told the Old Gossip's owner that she had been on a date–a real date, she emphasized, not a business date–with Oskar when he was arrested, to get the older woman's gums flapping.
Melody learned a few things that she was certain the FBI didn't know. Like how Freddie Truman swore he saw Fezioni's ghost wandering around downtown with a horde of devil wolves following him. Or Skye Johnson's insistence that she saw Betty Easthope sneaking in and out of Fezioni's bedroom and that Betty was pregnant now.
In fact, Melody was certain that even if Uncle Todd had decided to talk with Jane Gardens, he would have been too impatient to weed through all of that nonsense in order to strike gold.
The day before the murder, Elisabeth was seen talking with Fezioni, and she had seemed very shaken by the encounter. Melody wasn't sure if it was relevant, but by this point, she was desperate to figure out what had really happened. Elisabeth was the last person she would suspect to be a murderer, but in her experience, anybody could kill given the right circumstances. In any case, that encounter might be relevant to finding out the truth of what had happened.
The daycare was overrun with kids, as was expected, but Melody managed to get Elisabeth's attention anyway. Luckily, there were a couple of other workers at the daycare, so the two women could chat for a bit.
Melody went straight to the point. "I heard that you and Fezioni had an argument the other day and that it shook you up."
Elisabeth's shoulders tensed, though she had been nothing but happy to see Melody moments before. "Look, I'm really busy."
"I know, and I'm sorry for taking your time, but I'm trying to figure out what happened." Belatedly she realized that could be taken as an accusation, so she was quick to add, "I know that a lot of the guys around here are sweet on you, and if Fezioni threatened you, more than one of them might have taken matters into his own hands."
Elisabeth brushed the hair from her face and looked over the kids. Her arms crossed over her chest and she leaned away from Melody, just enough that the realtor knew it wasn't a conscious act. "It was nothing, okay? He was just complaining about how noisy the kids could be. It has nothing to do with his murder."
"Was there anybody else around? Somebody that might have gotten the wrong—" Melody cut herself off as a five-year-old boy wandered over to them. He eyed Melody warily but flashed Elisabeth a shy smile as he held out a daisy for her. Dimples flashed as his bright blue eyes crinkled.
Melody stared. The little boy was the spitting image of Oskar. The blue eyes, the dimples, the cleft chin. The shape of the nose, his ears, even the color of his hair. Everything about him was Oskar.
She became aware that Cindy was standing behind the boy, tears in her eyes as she twisted her hands.
"Now you know," the ghost whispered. "This is why I'm here and what I wanted to tell Oskar. I didn't know how, though. He never wanted our child. But he doesn't have anybody anymore. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving him up… I was doing the right thing. I would have been a terrible mother. But…"
"Like I was saying," Elisabeth said, as the little boy ran back to join the others, "my talk with David has nothing to do with his murder. I can't help you. I'm sorry that your… friend or whatever he is to you has been arrested, but I'm sure that the FBI will figure out it wasn't him. Now I need to get back to work."
Elisabeth gestured to the gate, staring hard at Melody, but the realtor's gaze was still on the little boy.
"Who is that? I don't think I've ever seen him before."
Elisabeth frowned. "That's Julius. He's new in town. Only moved in three months or so."
"Ask her about his family," Cindy said. Her voice was hard, as though she already knew the answer to the question herself and just wanted Melody to know. "Ask her."
"His family," Melody blurted. "I usually know all the new families moving into Blackcliff. Are they staying with family or something?"
Elisabeth's frown deepened and she folded her arms. "What's this about, Melody? He's a little boy, he had nothing to do with this murder. And I'm not sure I like you asking questions about the kids in my care. Privacy accounts for something."
"I know. I'm sorry." Melody finally stopped staring at little Julius. "It's just that… I know that this is going to sound a little crazy, but he looks exactly like Oskar. And five years ago he had a child with this woman named Cindy. They gave the baby up for adoption, but I think it was a boy. But Fezioni kidnapped and killed Cindy two years ago."
Elisabeth's eyes widened until they were round and bugging slightly from her head. She covered her mouth with her hand and gasped. "Do you think David was here to kidnap Julius? They arrived close to the same time!"
"So he was adopted?"
"Yes." Elisabeth ran a hand through her hair. "Julius was adopted after he was born, but his adoptive parents died in a car crash last year. He's been through a few different foster homes and was just sent here. And I don't know everything, but his foster mother did say something about her birth parents being Shifters. Do you really think David was after him?"
Melody found the little boy again. Her brow furrowed. If Fezioni was after the boy, it just made Oskar's situation all the worse. Julius had to be the reason Cindy was still sticking around. But what did she want? For Oskar to step in and take him back, or what?
And how did this tie back to Fezioni's murder?