Chapter 40: Ep 10 - Part Two: Digger

“Digger caught a scent,” the K-9 handler said when the cadaver dog barked twice and headed toward one of the houses.

“In the house?” Smitty asked as they followed the handler and her dog.

“Not necessarily,” the handler said as they caught up to the K-9.

Digger started digging at the base of the house, growling and snapping at the building in his way.

“What are you doing?” a man asked as he stepped out of the house.

“Sir, you need to go back inside,” Nash said, looking the man straight in the face.

He knows he can’t blame the owners of the house if there’s a body buried under the structure.

“I asked you what you’re doing,” the man demanded, glaring at Digger and his handler.

“Digger here is a cadaver K-9, and he has found something under your house,” the handler said, looking up at the man.

“This is crazy,” the man argued. “I have never buried anyone, especially not under my house.”

“How long have you lived here, sir?” Smitty asked.

“Six months.”

“I think it’s time to bring in the big guns,” the K-9 handler said as she took hold of Digger and pulled him back.

The dog still wanted to dig under the house; she had to pull hard on his collar.

“The big guns?” The house owner looked at the dog and handler as if they’d lost their rockers.

“That would be me,” a woman said from behind them.

Nash and Smitty turned to the female voice. Nash noticed Airianna turn when she saw them turning.

Nash almost laughed at the look on Smitty’s face. He must have tapped and not called. Because the woman Nash had caught his partner talking to a few days ago—stood before them, the handle of a GPR in her hand. She was giving Smitty the dirtiest look—but at the same time, stayed professional.

“Can that see through the floor of the house and the ground beneath it?” Smitty asked, trying to distract the officer from her anger.

The officer snorted. “This GPR can see through the hardest metal. It’s one step up from Superman.”

Nash held back his laugh but heard Airianna’s giggle. Without saying anything to her, the seer could tell what was going on.

“You’re not taking that into my house,” the house owner growled behind them.

Nash turned and studied the man. He didn’t look like a killer, but who really does?

“We can get a judge involved, or you can let us do our job,” Smitty said.

The owner of the house crossed his arms over his chest. “There is nothing to find….”

“Then you wouldn’t mind us looking. If you keep denying the cops access, they’ll think you’re hiding something,” Airianna informed the house owner.

The man looked at Airianna, then at the officer with the GPR.

“I have nothing to hide,” he said, moving out of their way.

“Thank you,” the officer with the GPR whispered as she passed Airianna.

Nash turned Airianna to him and smiled. He mouthed, ‘thank you,’ she nodded, then turned to Digger, who was trying to dig under the house again.

“Should we check out the other houses?” she asked the handler.

The handler looked at her and smiled. “And who might you be?”

Airianna moved away from Nash and held her hand to the female officer. “Airianna Williams.”

The handler smiled as she shook Airianna’s hand. “The seer.”

Airianna nodded.

“So, do you see other bodies under these houses?” the handler asked as they moved away from the house. She gave Digger a command. The dog turned away from the house and started sniffing again.

Airianna shook her head. “That’s not how my visions work.”

~🔮~

Two hours later, they found six more bodies. Two under two separate houses—including the one they’d started at. Two in plots ready for houses, and two under the park where the children of the community played.

The house owners were upset about the invasion of their privacy until Tammy—the GPR operator—found the first body under the first house.

Everyone started complaining about how they’ve been living over dead bodies, and their children have been playing above them. The property owner was going to get an earful—not to mention a lawsuit.

~🔮~

“I feel like I’m in a Poltergeist movie,” Smitty complained on the way back to the station.

“You only moved the headstones!” Airianna shouted.

Nash chuckled as he turned and looked at her.

Smitty snorted. “How did she know what I said?”

“I can see your mouth in the rearview mirror.”

Smitty chuckled and shook his head.

“Now we need to find out who owns that land,” Nash said, moving to sit forward again.

Smitty nodded and looked at Airianna through the mirror. She looked calm and worried at the same time. He hoped they found her uncle before this happened to him, too.

~🔮~

“Have you found the owner yet?” Airianna asked as she leaned over Nash’s desk to see what he was reading.

He shook his head as he looked up at her. She looked at him and smiled.

“No, not yet. But I think we’re close.”

Airianna read his lips and then kissed him. She pulled away before the kiss got intense and walked over to the water cooler. She poured herself what felt like her hundredth cup of water and sipped it. They may never find her uncle if they don’t find the property owners.

“Found them,” Smitty announced.

Nash looked up from his desk, then over at the water cooler where Airianna stood sipping her water. When she looked at him, he motioned for her to join them.

Airianna moved away from the water cooler and walked over to her detective. She looked from Nash to Smitty and back again.

‘Did they find something?’

“You’re not going to like this,” Smitty said, looking at Airianna so she could read his lips.

Airianna took in a deep breath. “Tell me.”

She watched Smitty look at Nash, then back at her when Nash nodded for him to continue.

“Well, according to the records I found—which was hard to find, by the way. The real owner is a mob boss from New York.”

“Why the fuck does a mob boss from New York own property here?” Nash asked, annoyed that the case couldn’t be an easy one.

Just one easy case, that’s all he asks. Especially so he doesn’t have to see his seer suffer.

Smitty looked at Nash, and Nash saw the worry in his partner’s eyes. This one was getting more and more dangerous by the day, and they were both worried about Airianna. Because now that she has an ID that can get her onto any crime scene, they can’t leave her behind because they know she’ll follow them, anyway. So, if she’s with them, then she’s safe—or so they hope.

Smitty cleared his throat and looked at Airianna. “Nash just asked why a mob boss from New York owns property here,” he said so she could understand what they were talking about. Airianna nodded, and Smitty continued. “The man owns a lot of businesses, and this one I think he uses to get rid of bodies. What better way to get away with murder if no one found the body?”

“But we found them,” she whispered.

“Right.” Smitty nodded. “And the moment the owners of the houses complain, the boss is going to know we know, and he’s going to come after us to shut us down.”

“What about Uncle Berry?”

Nash pulled Airianna to him and looked into her eyes. “We’re going to try our hardest to find him before he’s buried,” he promised her.

She frowned. “What if he’s already buried?”

“Well, we know he’s not buried on that land….”

“What if they buried him somewhere else, and fate brought us here to show us the link?”

Nash looked at his partner.

“She has a point, partner.” Smitty grinned.

Nash chuckled. “That she does.”

“So, what do we do now?” Smitty asked.

Nash looked back at Airianna and told her they agreed with her. She smiled at him, and he pulled her closer so he could kiss her sweet lips.

“Have you three found anything of use?” Captain Dish asked, interrupting the couple’s kiss.

Nash pulled back from the kiss, smiled at Airianna, and then pointed behind her. So she knew someone was there.

Airianna turned to the captain, her cheeks a rosy pink.

“Sorry,” she whispered as she stepped away from Nash.

The captain smiled at her, then looked at Nash. “Well?” he asked.

Airianna looked back at Nash. She hadn’t heard the captain speak when he’d interrupted their kiss, but she assumed he’d asked if they were making progress on the case.

“We have a lead,” Nash said with a nod to the captain.

“And?” Captain Dish asked.

“And the property owner is a mob boss from New York,” Smitty informed their captain.

Airianna was lost in the conversation, but she knew her detectives were filling their captain in on the information they uncovered.

“So, what now?” Nash asked his captain once they finished filling him in.

“Now you three find all the boss’s properties and start searching for more dead bodies.”

Nash watched the captain walk back to his office.

“Do we need a warrant?” Smitty asked.

Nash looked at his partner. “Let’s find the property first because after what we found under those houses—we already have probable cause.”

~🔮~

They found two more properties in their area that belonged to the mob boss and went straight to a judge. The judge signed the warrant once he saw the pictures of the bodies buried on the first property. With the warrant in hand, Nash, Smitty, and their crew searched the two properties. They found three bodies buried on one and nine on the other. Now. They need to prove that the mob boss knows about the bodies buried on his land.

They were running out of time and didn’t know if Berry was already underground.

~🔮~

“Captain,” Airianna said as she entered Captain Dish’s office two days after they’d found the bodies buried under the properties.

“Yes, Miss Williams?” Dish asked, turning to face her.

“I-I was just wondering if I could talk to you.”

“Have a seat,” he said, motioning for her to sit in one of the seats across from his desk.

Airianna sat in one of the seats and looked down at her hands. Why was she here? Did she really need to know the answers to her questions? She knows about his great-great-great-grandmother, isn’t that a good enough reason… She felt a movement in front of her and looked up.

“What is it?” he asked, watching her.

Airianna took a deep breath and let it out. “I was wondering why you’re so keen on solving unsolved cases. Why you begged my father for me to help when there are other Williams seers other than me?”

Captain Michael Dish closed his eyes and relaxed his body. He knew this question was coming sooner or later. He opened his eyes and started to talk when a knock came to the door. He sighed and called for the intruder to come in.

“Sir….” Nash stopped talking when he saw Airianna. “What is she doing here?”

“She came to ask me a question.” Dish looked from Nash to Airianna and back again. “What did you need?”

“Uhm….” Nash looked at his captain. “Smitty and I found the mob boss. He came in today. I think he heard about the bodies being uncovered.”

Captain Dish nodded. “Bring him in.”

Nash looked from his captain to Airianna, and a strange vibration slithered up his spine. He didn’t feel comfortable leaving Airianna here alone with his captain. Nash closed the door and walked over to the chair beside Airianna. She smiled at him as he sat down beside her. He reached out and took her hand in his, then brought it to his lips and kissed it.

Her cheeks turned light pink. Airianna cleared her throat and explained to Nash why she was there and what she was asking of the captain.

Nash looked at his captain. That was something he had wondered himself.

Captain Michael Dish tried not to roll his eyes at his detective. He should have known the man would join them.

“Okay, you both want to know why I want to solve the unsolved cases as if my life depended on it?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Nash grumbled.

Airianna looked at Nash, then at Dish.

Dish closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. When he opened his eye again, the two before him were watching him intently.

“My mother was murdered when I was a teenager, and it took over ten years for her killer to be caught. I don’t like to watch families suffer because we didn’t do our jobs well enough to find out who killed their loved ones. And it brings back memories of my father driving himself crazy trying to find who killed his wife and why.”

Airianna stared at the captain. That was not what she’d expected to hear. She can understand where he’s coming from. If she hadn’t shot the man who killed her mother, she would have also gone insane trying to find her killer. She looked at Nash, her heart beating against her ribs. If anyone here understood the captain, it was Nash. He does know what it’s like for a loved one’s death to go unpunished for too long.

“I didn’t know,” Nash said, still staring at the captain.

Airianna was just barely able to read Nash’s words. For some reason, fate wasn’t letting her hear him.

“Not many do,” the captain said.

“Who caught the killer?” Airianna asked.

“Me.” Dish looked at Airianna. “It was my first case. After taking down the bastard, I promised myself I wouldn’t let others suffer like my father and I did.”

Airianna nodded. “But why me? My grandmother, or one of the other Williams seers, knows so much more than I do.”

The captain smiled. “Because none of them would understand where I’m coming from. Yes, they have deaths in their pasts, but none so close as a mother.” He looked at Nash. “You two understand me better than anyone else. That is why I wanted you two pared off the moment Airianna came into our grasp. Fate stepping in was a huge bonus.” He grinned at them.

Airianna looked at Nash. He turned and looked at her, a sad look in his eyes. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

“That means you would have to put up with me, with or without fate.”

Nash chuckled. “I’m okay with that, sweet seer.”