Hacking Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 5) Read online

  “Someone thought they cleaned up.” Carson opened the closet doors that led to the bedroom instead of the way they entered from the bathroom.

  I lifted my gaze to Carson’s. “Did you bring my meds?”

  “Yeah, they’re in the other room. Let me grab them,” Carson said, leaving me and Ford alone.

  “If any of the blood belongs to the killer how many people will you have in your head then?”

  “Five.” I had four people living in my head, not including myself, and I was about to risk making that six. “One day, you might not even recognize me.”

  “You’re wrong about that,” Ford said just as Carson returned, wearing the deepest frown I’d ever seen.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, pushing to stand.

  “Looks like someone forgot to pack the most important item,” Martin teased.

  Just how long had the ghost been watching me without me being able to see him in the room? A shiver skirted my spine. If I couldn’t see Martin, whose to say there weren’t more in the room and watching from nearby. Was Martin and Sloan the only ghost’s around or the only ones I could actually see? I was never going to be alone again.

  “Now you understand why I worry about her,” Sloan’s words were tense as he gestured to the group.

  “Your meds aren’t in my bag.”

  I raised a brow. “How did that happen?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea, but I hope you didn’t touch it yet. We might have to wait until the morning when I can have Noah expedite us some vials.”

  I glanced down at the blood once more. “Okay. Why don’t you guys go back to the room? I need to call and check in with Sam.”

  “You sure you don’t want me to stay?” Ford asked.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. I’m going to video chat with him and show him the place. He’d lived with Raul in college. He might notice if something is wrong or out of place.”

  Ford kissed my forehead before following Carson out the door.

  Chapter 15

  “You guys have got to knock it off. I can’t concentrate, and it’s damn near annoying that I can’t talk back with others in the room.” The ghosts of my exes had stayed behind and I took them to task.

  “We’re just watching out for you,” Martin said.

  “He’s got a point.” Sloan wagged his finger at me. “Someone has to.”

  I sighed. “What is it that you two want from me? You want closure. You want to see that I’ve moved on…I have. You saw me and Ford,” I reassured. “They won’t let me go back to that dark place.”

  Sloan floated closer, and he looked as though he wanted to reach out and touch me. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I was the one not ready to let you go?”

  “Sloan, you're dead.”

  “God, Lucy, you don’t have to remind the guy,” Martin said.

  “And what’s your excuse? Why are you here? It’s not because you’re still madly in love with me.”

  Martin’s brows dipped. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  I tossed my hands up, refusing to go there. Martin had left me high and dry in Vegas. He didn’t know the meaning of the word love.

  “You haven’t used that key yet.”

  I pointed at Martin. “It would have helped if you’d tell me what bank it goes to.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Martin grinned and shrugged.

  I let my head fall back on my shoulders and stared up at the ceiling. “Fine. If I use your key, will you leave?”

  “Absolutely,” Martin said.

  I met Sloan’s gaze. “And what about you? If I’m your unfinished business, then you might be stuck here, because I’m really going to try with Ford, and I know if you watch that, then you’ll be miserable. So please…”

  Sloan eyed me stonily. “I can’t turn it off, Lucy. You, of all people, know that. I can’t not care what happens to you.”

  “Both of you, just go.”

  Martin held up his hands. “I’m going. I’m going.”

  He vanished.

  Sloan remained and stared at me for a lingering second. Love and determination glinted in his eyes. “I won’t be far.”

  I was almost positive he’d always be just a thought away.

  I needed the short reprieve when I sent them on their way. I rested my hand on the wall and lowered my head as the oncoming headache and vision formed hard and fast.

  The woman in the red dress was sitting in a convertible. Her long black hair floated on the breeze behind her as the picturesque scenery flew by. She was laughing as she reached over the car’s center console and touched the suit-covered arm.

  The man looked in the mirror. A menacing smile split the guy’s lips as anger started to build in his body.

  I shook my head and started building the wall to block the scene and stifle the voice. It lasted only a matter of seconds, but it left me sweating through the pain piercing my head. The mumbled voices were getting quieter in my ears. This addition was thanks to the new blood in my veins. People I’d eventually have to deal with if I had any hope of reclaiming my sanity.

  The voices had turned to a dull roar like the sound of traffic on a freeway through a closed window when my phone rang.

  Sam’s name was on the caller ID. I answered.

  Swiping the sweat on my forehead, I took a deep breath. I had a job to do before I could chase down the blood donors and figure out a cure.

  Chapter 16

  “Lucy, where are you?” Sam asked.

  “I’m in Raul’s penthouse.” I rubbed my temples, hoping to stave off the blooming migraine. The pinpricks into my brain felt like a brain freeze with an aftertaste of metal.

  ‘You all right, Lucy? You sound…distracted.”

  “I’m fine.” I cleared my throat. “I’m about to shoot some video around Raul’s place, and I’ll email it to you. If you notice anything out of the ordinary, let me know.”

  “Okay, but what did you find?” Sam asked.

  “It looks like someone already confiscated the computer. His video game controller was sitting out on the table. The television had been left on. There wasn’t any blood where the body was found. We believe he was attacked in the bathroom and hid in the closet, where he died, and his body was moved after the fact.”

  “Who the hell would do that?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, Sam. Someone who wanted him found is my guess,” I said with a sigh.

  “Okay, so if his computer is gone, did you find his backup?”

  My brows dipped. “What backup?”

  “In college, he was anal about creating a backup. Almost paranoid about it. He’d send a copy of his computer files, of course, to the cloud, but he always had a hidden backup around the dorm, where it downloaded without him having to do anything. It was his backup to his backup.”

  “Okay,” I said, looking around the room. “Any idea of what it might look like?”

  “I’m not sure. The one he used in college was an object that sat on the table and looked like a digital picture frame, only the data contained beneath the picture was his mainframe.”

  “You mean like those frames for grandparents where family members can send new pictures without ever having to do anything?”

  “Exactly, only the picture was of him and his girlfriend, and it wasn’t family members uploading the pictures. His computer was sending out data regularly. Let’s just say Raul was never worried about the blue screen of death.”

  “That’s convenient.” I walked into the living room and glanced around. There were no picture frames.

  I moved back into his bedroom and picked up the picture of him and his grandfather again. Looking at the bottom of the frame was where I found a data port.

  “Okay, I’ve got it,” I said, clutching it to my chest. My gaze landed on the spot for the missing figurine.

  “This guy collects figurines, and one is missing based on the crime scene picture.”

  “The killer went back?” Sam gawked.


  “Someone went back, not sure if it was the killer. It could have been the same person.”

  “Which figurine is missing?” Sam asked.

  “I’ll send you the photo and point it out. They all look the same to me.”

  “Okay, and you say the TV was on?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” I walked into the living room and picked up the remote.

  “Is the remote on?”

  “It’s lit up.”

  “That’s odd,” Sam said. “Normally, after such a long period of inactivity, the console and the TV will shut off.”

  “Okay.” I used my glove and moved the gaming remote to bring the screen to life. “He left it on some game.”

  “What game?” Sam’s voice rose, as though excited.

  “How the hell should I know,” I asked and gestured to the screen. “There’s a troll with a hammer standing in a room that looks like it’s in a medieval castle.”

  “Raulsamtonia,” Sam said.

  “Raul what?” I asked.

  “It’s a world that Raul and I created in college. We used to pass information in that world when we didn’t want to get caught and thrown into jail.”

  “Sounds juicy.” I grinned. “Okay, so the fact the game is on is probably important,” I asked, moving to the TV. “You need me to expedite the gaming console to you?”

  “Yeah, but I should be able to access it online.”

  I reached behind the online console and was pulling one connection when there was movement on the TV screen. I paused, stepping in front of the TV again.

  “There’s movement on the screen after I pulled one of the cables,” I said, my voice just about a whisper.

  The screen flashed black and then clicked back on, only it wasn’t the game I was looking at. It was a picture of me standing in the room staring at the TV.

  I turned and followed the line of sight to some abstract wall art hanging behind me.

  “What do you mean movement?”

  “It looks like he has it somehow connected to a security camera that’s attached to the painting.”

  Could we be so lucky to have caught the killer in the act?

  “That explains everything,” Sam said with a gleeful chuckle. “He was the king of pranks, but if he had the same system set up in college, it explains why we could never pull one over on him. He must have seen us coming.”

  “I’m going to take both.”

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  The unease swirling in my gut was telling me that nothing about this case, or these hackers, would be easy.

  Chapter 17

  I used a screwdriver to unscrew the camera that had been hidden in a cubbyhole behind the abstract artwork. Someone else might think to hide a safe in the spot, but Raul had been paranoid enough to hide his video camera, and if we were lucky, it had caught the killer in the act.

  It took two trips to carry over the picture frame, the gaming console, and the security camera.

  “Raul was a suspicious guy,” Carson called out.

  “Seems he had reason to be. I wonder what other kind of illegal stuff he was into that he felt the need,” I answered.

  “Good job on finding it,” Ford said, resting his arm over my shoulders.

  “It was a fluke.” I said, stepping away from his touch.

  “We’re leaving in five minutes,” Carson said, shoving to his feet.

  “We’ll be ready,” Ford answered for both of us as he led me to the bedroom we’d been planning to share.

  He closed the door behind us and leaned against it, blocking my exit. “You promised no second thoughts about us.”

  I walked farther into the room, giving him my back. “I don’t have any second thoughts. I just…I need…”

  “What?” he asked. “Tell me what you need.”

  I turned to face him. “I need to keep my head in the game. Sam’s life could depend on it.”

  “Am I distracting you?” His gaze searched mine.

  “Yes, no.” I tossed my hand up. “This is important, Ford. We need to stay focused.”

  “You’re afraid that if you don’t, then you’ll lose someone else you care about?”

  “Aren’t you worried?” I swallowed hard and sat on the bed.

  “No doubt life is going to throw obstacles in our way, Doc. We can’t control everything. That’s why we need to appreciate this while we have it,” Ford said, resting his palm on my cheek. “That’s why it’s important we talk to each other, no matter what.”

  He was right. Secrets had a way of destroying things.

  I lifted my gaze and swallowed hard. “The voices are getting louder and harder to block, and sometimes I tune in enough to see what they’re doing, but I’ve found a way to block it. It works sometimes.”

  “Just sometimes?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  He sat beside me and took my hand, remaining quiet.

  “The more I try to block them, the worse the headaches are getting.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t touch the blood tomorrow in case it’s the killers. Maybe Carson forgetting your meds was our saving grace.”

  “Hopefully, it’s just Raul’s blood. The memories don’t linger when the blood belongs to a deceased person.”

  “We’ll figure it out together.” Ford’s gaze softened against mine.

  I smiled up at him, knowing, one way or another, I was going to have to deal with these people and their blood if I didn’t want a repeat trip back to the psych ward. I squeezed his hand harder. “There’s something else you should know.”

  Ford’s gaze softened. “What?”

  “I can see ghosts.”

  Confusion clouded Ford’s face. “Ghosts? As in Casper?”

  “Not quite Casper,” I answered. “More like Sloan and Martin Steinbuckle.”

  “Your dead boyfriend and your deceased husband?” Ford gasped. “Lucy, maybe we should get you looked at.”

  “I’m not crazy,” I said, swallowing around the lump in my throat. “I don’t know why they’re here, but they are.”

  “Maybe it’s from when you died,” Ford offered, his look turned more of concern than anything else. “I’ve heard that people who have near-death experiences sometimes come back and their senses are heightened.”

  “Either that or the blood,” I said, meeting his gaze.

  He cupped my cheek and pressed his lips to mine in a soft whisper. “Whatever is going on, we’ll figure it out together. Always.”

  “See. He loves her,” Martin said.

  Sloan harrumphed, and they vanished before I could even tell Ford they’d appeared.

  “Let’s go, you guys,” Carson called up the stairs.

  “Okay, so we handle this case first by helping Sam, and then we’ll deal with figuring out how to fix your issue with the donors and the ghosts.”

  I wasn’t use to asking for help or even admitting I needed it. Knowing there was one more person in the world I could count on besides my sister eased the tension strung tight throughout my body. I needed Ford in more ways than I would have ever admitted.

  We jogged down the stairs to find Carson lounging with his feet propped up on the expensive table and his arms crossed over his chest.

  “So, you two are a thing now?” Carson asked me, holding my gaze.

  “We’re figuring it out,” I answered, unsure what to say.

  If my answer agitated Ford, he didn’t say. Instead, he directed his own question back at Carson. “You got a problem if we are?”

  “Nope,” Carson said, dropping his feet to the ground and standing. “Just know that if you hurt her, we’ll have problems.”

  Ford lifted his brow. “And if she hurts me?”

  Carson’s lips twitched. “Then I’m sure you deserved it.”

  Ford chuckled. “You’re probably right.”

  FORD

  Chapter 18

  Ford watched Lucy from across the room while she and Carson boxed up the frame, camera, and console from R
aul’s room. They’d overnight the items to Sam and Noah. What she’d told him had seemed impossible and alarming. She’d always had to make an effort to tune into the blood connection, and now, these connections were invading her headspace. This wasn’t natural, not even for her. Apprehension ate at his gut. The need to whisk her away someplace safe sat heavy in his chest. Some people might consider her crazy, but not him.

  Lucy was living on borrowed lives. The blood in her veins was no longer her own, and the worst part was, there was no way of cleaning her pipes and returning her back to the woman she’d once been. Well, there was one way. Killing the people that were starting to take over.

  The thought of taking a life made his stomach drop like lead. Stopping a killer was one thing, but getting rid of all the voices? That was something he wasn’t sure he could do.

  Still, he had no idea how to get rid of the ghosts of her exes. Ford rubbed his palm over his face. There were too many unknowns to even try devising a plan. Not that he had one.

  Once the items were shipped, they headed over to the sheriff’s department to announce their arrival. The detectives and officers had already been informed.

  That meeting took less time than it took to garner the information they’d already obtained.

  They already had a copy of the crime scene pictures, and for all intents and purposes, Lucy and Carson knew more than the local PD. It was going to be up to Noah if he wanted to share.

  Lucy

  Chapter 19

  The restaurant they’d chosen was just outside of the retirement community. Families with children sat at tables nearby. A group of women with planners in front of them were seated several feet away. At another table a woman worked on her laptop. She looked to be writing a book while drinking coffee. Her gaze slowly scanned the room before settling on me, and the eye candy seated with me. I smiled and wiggled my brows.

  The woman dropped her gaze, and began typing as if she’d been gifted the story of her life.

  “I have to check in with my sister and see how my mom is,” Ford said, kissing my lips as he rose.