Page 37 of Spark
“You canseeme?Hearme?” the ghost asked in a soft, resonant voice. He sounded surprised.
“S-silvio Ornelas?” she asked. She was pretty sure of his identity, but thought it was a good idea just to make certain.
The jaguar-helmeted figure nodded slowly. “That's me. And who are you?”
“M-my name is Sophie Markidis, and I wanted t-to ask you a few questions,” she stammered. “If you don’t mind.”
“Sure. Ask,” Silvio said, in the same soft voice. “It’s been such a long time since I actually spoke to anyone.”
Sophie took a deep breath. “Did you kill Laura Tringstad?”
“No!” Silvio’s vehemence rocked Sophie back on her heels. Matt’s steadying arm around her shoulders supported her.
The ghost continued, “She was my mate. I couldneverhurt her!”
“All right,” Sophie said, in the most soothing tone that she could muster. “Can you tell us what happened on the night she died?”
Silvio nodded. “After the wedding, we went to the hotel for the reception,” he began. “Laura went up to our honeymoon room, but her uncle Sven held me back. He told me that he wanted bygones to be bygones since we were all family now, and offered to buy me a drink at the hotel bar. I didn’t want to keep Laura waiting, but her family hadn’t been happy when we told them that we were mated, and her uncle had been one of the loudest protestors. I was hoping that maybe they had started to accept that our mating was a done deal, and maybe they were willing to come around.” The ghost paused. “Plus, he insisted that Laura would need some time to change out of her wedding dress and slip into something more comfortable.”
“What happened next?” The question came from Mary.
“I was on my way to the room when I felt our mate bond tear apart.” Sophie saw a shudder rack the ghostly form. “I—I rushed to the room and—and I found her there. I don’t remember much of what happened afterwards. I was crazy with pain and grief—you can’t imagine how much it hurts when your mate bond was severed. The police arrested me, Alejandro, and Luis for the murder.”
It occurred to Sophie that maybe Silvio didn’t know what had happened after that. “They were acquitted at their trials,” she told him.
“Oh, thank God,” breathed the ghost. “Anyway, the police questioned me. I tried to tell them what had really happened, but the sheriff was part of the same wolf pack as my mate, and they were all eager for revenge, so no one listened to me. Most of Laura’s family were dead-set against our mating, with her uncle and his two daughters complaining the loudest. Though to tell the truth, no one in my clan was terribly happy about it either, mostly because they worried about all the trouble it would bring.”
“I’m sorry,” Sophie said, feeling immense pity for him.
His shoulders slumped under the jaguar skin cloak. “I knew I would never see justice done, and with my mate gone, I had nothing left to live for. And the pain…it was too much,” Silvio bowed his head. “When I woke up, I was trapped here. No one could see me or hear me talk to them, and I couldn’t leave this place.” His unsettling golden eyes returned to Sophie. “You’re the first one in…how long has it been?”
“Fifty years,” she said,
That rocked him. “Fifty…years?”
She nodded. “Eddy Ornelas owns the hotel now.”
“Eduardo? My little nephew is all grown up?” Silvio shook his head. “And the others?”
Mary, Matt and Sophie spent the next few minutes answering Silvio’s questions about various people that he had been close to. Some, like his parents, were long dead, and Sophie’s heart ached to see how the news affected him.
As they spoke, Sophie noticed that he was growing more and more transparent. Finally, only the barest outline of mist and a hint of golden eyes remained.
“Thank you.” Silvio’s voice was only the faintest breath of sound, and then he was gone.
“Well,” Mary said, sounding impressed. “That wasn’t what I expected.”
“Me neither,” Sophie admitted. Since her powers had first awakened, she had gone around grimly ignoring the weirdness of her new world. She never thought that they would be useful in any way.
“See, I told you that you could do it.” Matt sounded oddly proud of her. His arm tightened briefly around her shoulders in a half-hug, then he released her to follow Mary out of the cell.
She missed his warmth as they left the basement.
“I don’t think he killed her. Didyoubelieve him?” she asked Mary as they climbed the stairs back up to the main floor.
“Yes, I did,” Mary replied. “But that leaves the question of motive and opportunity. It sounds like an awful lot of people on both sides of the family were unhappy about their mating, and no wonder. Shifters were expected to stay in their lanes fifty years ago. We’re definitely going to have to reopen the murder investigation, and I have just the person in mind for this.”
They reached the top of the stairs and re-entered the office area.
