"Haunted In Death" was originally published as part of the Bump in the Night anthology.
Plot Summary
Bump in the Night:
Enter a world where no boundaries exist -- and where every seduction is supernatural
Follow four of today’s most provocative authors to a place where love can transform reality -- and anything can happen. Here they present stories of ethereal circumstances, magical romance, and otherworldly suspense. Beginning with an all-new tale from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb -- and featuring lieutenant-of-the-future Eve Dallas -- this collection will take you on a breathtaking journey through the passions of the heart and its power to transcend the everyday...
--The Penguin Group
"Haunted in Death":
Number Twelve is an urban legend in 2060 New York City. The hot club in the 1960s, it is now reported to be haunted…and cursed. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is called there to investigate the apparent murder of Radcliff Hopkins, its new owner and the grandson of the man who made Number Twelve a cultural icon. Several bullets from a banned gun end his dream of returning the building to its former glory. With everyone around her talking about the supernatural, pragmatic Eve won’t let rumors of ghosts distract her from hard evidence. The case becomes even more bizarre when it appears to be linked to the suspicious disappearance of a rock star eighty-five years ago. As Eve searches for the connection, logic clashes with the unexplainable. She may be forced to face the threat of something more dangerous than a flesh-and-blood killer.
Map
Please reference the Haunted in Death Map for locations or approximate locations of sites listed here.
Timeline
| Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode. |
Approximate Story Start Date: January, 2060[1]
Day 1
- Eve and Peabody stand over the dead body of Radcliff C. Hopkins III. He had been shot multiple times.
- Peabody recounts Hopkins’ claim to fame. His grandfather was Hop Hopkins, a 1960’s rock star, whose third wife, Bobbie Bray, also a rock star, had disappeared without a trace. Hopkins had turned into a recluse and had ended up dead after overdosing on some drug. His apartment, where he had died, was said to be haunted and had passed from one owner to another. Eve confirms that this building, where Radcliff Hopkins had died, was indeed the eerie Number Twelve.
- Eve and Peabody try to reconstruct the murder and conclude that, since Hopkins’ belongings were still intact, this wasn’t a robbery gone wrong. They hear a faint, windy sound, followed by a husky female voice whispering. Peabody is convinced that the building is haunted.
- Eve explores the building, looking for a second exit that the killer could have used. She finds an unlocked window on the second floor. A little smear of blood on the windowsill confirms that the window had been used for escape.
- Eve also finds a hairclip, clean and with diamonds on it. Sounds coming from the floor above lead her to a skeleton, hidden inside a hole in the wall. The skeleton holds the pair to the diamond clip and a gun.
- Peabody thinks that the skeleton is Bobbie Bray’s. They discuss Hopkins’ family, that consisted of three ex-wives and a son. He had bought Number Twelve six months ago, but had stalled the renovation work on it until some days ago.
- They speak to the doorman of the building where Hopkins lived. In the apartment, they find conversations and papers related to the club he wanted to open in Number Twelve.
- They head to the Gill School of Dance, run by Hopkins’ second ex-wife Fanny Gill and their son, Cliff. Fanny hates Hopkins, who cheated on her and lost all her money when they were married. Cliff had last met him some months ago and had lent him some money. Both claim to have been in bed.
- At the morgue, Morris describes the nine gun wounds. After the first shot, Hopkins had tried to crawl away but the killer kept shooting. The final ninth shot to his head was made after he was dead.
- Feeney tells Eve that the last incoming call on Hopkins’ link, as well as the 911 call from it, match Bobbie Bray’s voice. He also finds some calls to and from a place called Bygones. Hopkins was trying to sell some of his belongings to Bygones to raise money for his club.
- Peabody discovers that gun was really an antique. The make was discontinued in the nineteen-eighties.
- At the lab, Dickie Berenski confirms that the skeleton’s height and weight match Bobbie Bray’s when she disappeared. He was looking for medical records to verify and a sculptor was working on reconstructing the face. He also confirmed that the same gun had been used to kill both victims.
- As Eve heads towards the antique shop, Roarke calls and she agrees to meet him there.
- They are met by Maeve Buchanan, the daughter of Bygones’ proprietor. She confirms that Hopkins had sold several items from the 1960-80s to them. Her father and she are shocked to hear about his death. They discuss Hopkins’ plans for the club and the curse of Number Twelve. Buchanan shows Eve a portrait of Bobbie Bray in which she was wearing the clips Eve had recovered earlier.
- Roarke and Eve stop by Number Twelve on their way home. Eve thinks that Hop Hopkins killed Bray, built a wall to hide her body and paid the cops away. She figures that Hopkins was going to meet the killer to give him something. When he turned up without it, the killer shot him.
- They hear a song being sung on the upper floor, as the temperature drops dramatically in the house. A woman screams, they hear a gunshot and a thud, and, as they reach the spot, for a brief moment, both see a blonde woman standing by the broken wall. Eve insists it was all a trick.
- After a shower, Eve heads to her office to find Roarke, in his, digging up information on Bobbie Bray. Over pizza, he tells her about the young Bobbie, who was discovered by Hop Hopkins. Hop became her agent, manager and producer, as well as her drug supplier. Eve and Roarke argue about Bobbie Bray’s ghost.
- Eve starts a search on Bobbie’s family. She finds a sister, Serenity Bray, in a care center in Arizona. Noting Bobbie's age when she was born (22), Eve realises that Serenity Bray was, in fact, Bobbie’s daughter. Eve goes to fill in Roarke, and they resolve their argument and have sex.
Day 2
- Eve is amazed to hear that the sweepers and EDD couldn’t find anything electronic that could explain Eve and Roarke’s experience the last evening.
- Eve calls Serenity Bray’s daughter, who admits that she and her mother know about their relationship with Bobbie. Ms Sawyer, however, tries to hide the fact. She had letters from Bobbie talking about Serenity, but says that Rad Hopkins took them from her.
- Eve and Peabody go back to Hopkins’ apartment to look for the letters but they don’t find anything. On their way to Bygones, Eve asks the police artist to age the picture of Serenity Bray’ son John Massey.
- They find Bygones closed, so they head to the Buchanans’ home address. They ask Maeve but she doesn’t know about the letters. She does, however, mention that Rad Hopkins had tried to flirt with her and had asked her out, but she had turned him down.
- Buchanan doesn’t remember any letters of the sort, either, but he brings up Cliff Gill, who was looking for letters, too.
- They go to the Gill School of Dance to find it shut as well. So, they head to the apartment above to find a harassed Cliff because his mother and he had been getting threatening phone calls. Cliff claims to be looking for letters that his father had mentioned.
- Peabody goes to update Whitney, while Eve visits Mira. They discuss Bobbie Bray’s family, Serenity, her daughter and her son, who disappeared during the Urban Wars.
- Eve and Roarke recognise the man in Yancy’s photo of an older John Massey. She sends Roarke in to Bygones.
- Roarke chats with Maeve about Bobbie Bray’s murder finally being solved. Mr. Buchanan arrives with Bobbie’s necklace that Roarke is supposedly looking for. He mentions, in passing, a bank box that Eve and her team have found, containing letters.
- At Number Twelve, Eve and Peabody wait for the killer. EDD and Roarke wait outside with all the equipment.
- They all hear a buzzing, but EDD’s equipment picks up nothing. Then all the equipment goes off and the temperature drops. Eve, in her position on the top floor, sees (the ghost of?) Bobbie Bray walk out. Eve follows her, as she walks about, talking to an invisible Hop Hopkins. She announces that she is leaving as she is tired of the drugs and she wants her daughter. Eve watches them argue, and at the climax, a gunshot sounds and a hole appears on Bobbie’s forehead.
- Eve turns at another sound and sees Maeve Buchanan step out. The killer wasn’t, as Eve suspected, John Massey, but his daughter.
- Maeve claims that Bobbie is inside her and she killed Rad Hopkins as revenge. She attacks Eve with a knife; and as Eve stuns her, she feels cold blows on her back. Eve promises to charge Hop Hopkins posthumously with the murder of Bobbie Bray.
- The wind dies just as Peabody and the rest of the team burst in.
- Peabody recounts how she couldn’t get past a ‘wall of bodies’ and up the stairs to Eve; Feeney’s equipment all died and they couldn’t open the door. Then suddenly, the locks clicked open and they could all move towards Eve.
- Peabody supervises the uniforms as they get Maeve to Cop Central. Eve and Roarke ride together and she fills him in on what happened. She still insists on it being some sort of technological act.
- At Cop Central, Eve and Peabody decide to question Buchanan first. He tells them that he planted his ID and walked away from the Urban Wars. He hadn’t told Maeve about his past, but she had figured it out. Eve blames him for knowing that Maeve was out on the night of the murder but not telling them.
- They decide that Massey wasn't directly at fault, but they could get him on accessory for murder, after they break Maeve.
- They take Maeve next. She still believes that she is Bobbie Bray and claims that Rad was Hop Hopkins reincarnated. Rad and Maeve had uncovered Bobbie Bray’s body together. Maeve had returned and collected the hairclips, the gun and ammunition. She had called Rad Hopkins to Number Twelve and shot him.
Epilogue
- Mira declares that Maeve is legally insane and needs help. Eve claims not to care, as long as she gets that help in a cage.
- Eve wonders how Maeve found out about her ancestry. Mira hints at Eve’s earlier brush with the supernatural, but that possibility is set aside.
- Eve finds Roarke in her office. He tells her to tend to her injury and leaves.
- Alone, Eve files her report. She also puts in a request for Bobbie Bray’s remains to be released to her, so that Bobbie would get a proper burial.
Memorable Quotes
Template:HauntedQuotes
Character List
List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book
List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book
List of Recurring Characters Appearing in this Book
List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book
List of Peripheral Characters Appearing in this Book
Trivia
Other Covers
| US Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles | US LP Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles | German Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles | German Book Club Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles | Hungarian edition cover | 
|
Brilliance Audio unabridged for the 3 Anthology Titles |
| US Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles | US Large Print Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles | German Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles: "Midnight," "Interlude," and "Haunted" | German Book Club Cover for the 3 Anthology Titles: "Midnight," "Interlude," and "Haunted" | Hungarian edition cover | Brilliance Audio unabridged edition cover | Brilliance Audio unabridged: "Midnight," "Interlude," and "Haunted" |
Other Releases
Footnotes
- ↑ Chapter 1, second paragraph: "In the first two weeks of January 2060 - post-holiday - bitch winter was a contributing factor to the sharp rise in domestic disturbance calls to the New York City Police and Security Department.".
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