Deja New Read online

  PRAISE FOR DEJA WHO

  “Brisk pacing; knife-edge danger; heart-pounding, chilling suspense; compelling, complicated characters; and a surprising romance all mix together into one electrifying story . . . Scary, explosive, and captivating, Deja Who will snare you into its tangled web and won’t let you go!”

  —Romance Junkies

  “[A] suspenseful and witty series launch.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “You can always count on Davidson to take a premise and then yank it hilariously sideways, and she doesn’t disappoint with her new reincarnation-themed Insighter series . . . This new tale has all the snappy dialogue and off-kilter humor that is a Davidson trademark, so settle in and enjoy!”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “[A] cool urban fantasy series with a murder mystery at the heart of the plot . . . [A] great concept that ultimately delivered.”

  —Smart Bitches Trashy Books

  “Deja Who had all the silliness and wacky fun I’d expect out of a book by MaryJanice Davidson. Plus, it had a complicated, tangled storyline that kept me wondering who the bad guy was until almost the very end.”

  —Harlequin Junkie

  PRAISE FOR MARYJANICE DAVIDSON

  “Delightful, wicked fun!”

  —Christine Feehan, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  “No one does humorous romantic fantasy better.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “[Davidson’s] adventures are laugh-out-loud entertainment.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “[Her] prose zings from wisecrack to wisecrack.”

  —Detroit Free Press

  “Sexy, steamy, and laugh-out-loud funny.”

  —Booklist

  Titles by MaryJanice Davidson

  UNDEAD AND UNWED

  UNDEAD AND UNEMPLOYED

  UNDEAD AND UNAPPRECIATED

  UNDEAD AND UNRETURNABLE

  UNDEAD AND UNPOPULAR

  UNDEAD AND UNEASY

  UNDEAD AND UNWORTHY

  UNDEAD AND UNWELCOME

  UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED

  UNDEAD AND UNDERMINED

  UNDEAD AND UNSTABLE

  UNDEAD AND UNSURE

  UNDEAD AND UNWARY

  UNDEAD AND UNFORGIVEN

  UNDEAD AND DONE

  DERIK’S BANE

  WOLF AT THE DOOR

  SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES

  SWIMMING WITHOUT A NET

  FISH OUT OF WATER

  DEJA WHO

  DEJA NEW

  Titles by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

  JENNIFER SCALES AND THE ANCIENT FURNACE

  JENNIFER SCALES AND THE MESSENGER OF LIGHT

  THE SILVER MOON ELM: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  SERAPH OF SORROW: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  RISE OF THE POISON MOON: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  EVANGELINA: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

  Anthologies

  CRAVINGS

  (with Laurell K. Hamilton, Rebecca York, Eileen Wilks)

  BITE

  (with Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris,

  Angela Knight, Vickie Taylor)

  KICK ASS

  (with Maggie Shayne, Angela Knight, Jacey Ford)

  MEN AT WORK

  (with Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs)

  DEAD AND LOVING IT

  SURF’S UP

  (with Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs)

  MYSTERIA

  (with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

  OVER THE MOON

  (with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, Sunny)

  DEMON’S DELIGHT

  (with Emma Holly, Vickie Taylor, Catherine Spangler)

  DEAD OVER HEELS

  MYSTERIA LANE

  (with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

  MYSTERIA NIGHTS

  (includes Mysteria and Mysteria Lane, with P. C. Cast, Susan Grant,

  Gena Showalter)

  UNDERWATER LOVE

  (includes Sleeping with the Fishes, Swimming Without a Net,

  and Fish out of Water)

  DYING FOR YOU

  UNDEAD AND UNDERWATER

  BERKLEY

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  Copyright © 2017 by MaryJanice Davidson

  Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

  BERKLEY is a registered trademark and the B colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Davidson, MaryJanice, author.

  Title: Deja new / MaryJanice Davidson.

  Description: New York : Berkley, 2017. | Series: An insighter novel ; 2

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017026990 (print) | LCCN 2017030071 (ebook) | ISBN

  9780399585432 (eBook) | ISBN 9780425270417 (softcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Murder—Investigation—Fiction. | Private

  investigators—Fiction. | Reincarnation—Fiction. | Paranormal romance

  stories. | BISAC: FICTION / Romance / Paranormal. | FICTION / Fantasy /

  Contemporary. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction. | Love stories.

  Classification: LCC PS3604.A949 (ebook) | LCC PS3604.A949 D44 2017 (print) |

  DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026990

  First Edition: November 2017

  Cover art by Blake Morrow

  Cover design by Katie Anderson

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  For anyone who ever had that unshakable feeling of déjà vu and secretly worried they were going insane.

  Contents

  Praise for MaryJanice Davidson

  Titles by MaryJanice Davidson

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Epigraph

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  About the Author

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Mozart loved poop jokes. It’s true! He wrote entire songs about poop, which he shared with his friends (sang to? played for? I must find the answer!). This is how I know my love of profanity means I’m really a genius. Mom and Dad, you were wrong about me. And my genius.

  The great state of Illinois has dozens of prisons. For the purposes of this story, I’ve made up the Illinois Correctional Campus, mostly because this is a world that accommodates Insighters and past lives, and the rules are a little different than the prisons in our world. Also, I wanted a prison with an acronym that would be pronounced “ick.” Because who wouldn’t?

  Edward Gorey wrote some of the most wonderful and disturbing stories in the history of the written word. He wrote about lonesome socks, but he also wrote about sociopaths who killed children. Even now, I have no idea if his work was intended for children (like the first three Harry Potter books) or adults (like the last three Harry Potter books).

  I also have no idea if he was some kind of literary/theater snob (he wrote and directed shows for which he made papier-mâché puppets, and he called this scripted weirdness Le Theatricule Stoique), or a giddy pop-culture fan (he liked The X-Files . . . and Buffy the Vampire Slayer!).

  It’s probably some combo of all of them, but no one’s ever going to be sure. This is the same man whose work has earned major critical props over the years, which is cool, but he also described his work as “literary nonsense,” which is cooler.

  Basically Mr. Gorey is a mystery to me, which is why he’s wonderful. Check out The Gashlycrumb Tinies or The Beastly Baby, if you get the chance, but be warned: His stories are like nachos. Strange, surreal nachos. You can’t stop with one.

  Joseph Vacher was a French serial killer nicknamed l’éventreur du Sud-Est. (I don’t speak French, but I’m assuming that translates to something terrible.) Before he started killing people, he tried to kill himself, so it’s doubly tragic that he was better at murder than suicide. He committed violent acts against unsuspecting shepherds and was finally, thankfully caught in 1897 and executed the winter of 1898. He pled insanity, and while I’m no psychiatrist, I think the guy who heard voices, ate most of his meals out of garbage bins, and killed shepherds in a frenzy was completely crazy. Detective Kline is right to dismiss the idea of being Vacher in another life, but for all the wrong reasons.

  The frosting Angela drools over exists and it’s specifically for frosting brownies. And not just regular brownies, still-hot-just-out-of-the-oven brownies. The secret ingredient is honey, which pulls it all together. It’s friggin’ exquisite.

  Chief Leschi was chief of the Nisqually tribe in the 1800s, who were screwed out of land by the United States government. And when Chief Leschi dared protest, he was unjustly hanged in 1858 on a charge most people—the hangman included—knew was false. He went bravely to his death and was vindicated by a Historical Court of Inquiry and Justice in 2004. For whatever that’s worth.

  The Donner Party. Wow. Where to even start? Their bravery? Their despair? The fact that virtually every decision they made was the wrong one? For those who don’t know, the Donner Party was a group of families trying to make a fresh start in the mid-nineteenth century. Through a series of setbacks, which at the time didn’t seem fatal but, like a Michael Crichton novel, were actually a domino effect of disaster, half the party died. The survivors lived through the disaster because they dined on oxen, horses, their own belts, and their dead travel companions.

  The first of the dominos to flip: They got a late start. In the twenty-first century, a late start can mean missing a plane. Back in the day? It could cost you everything, up to and including your life. A late start meant they were trapped on the wrong side of the mountains when winter closed in.

  The exciting new path guaranteed to be a shortcut? Not only was it a lie pitched by someone who had never taken that route, others tried to warn the Donner Party it was no good, but the warning letters—and there were several—either didn’t make it in time, were lost entirely, or—worst of all—were deliberately withheld.

  Every chance the Donner Party had to abandon the new, untried route and get back on track with the old one was vetoed because, ironically, they felt they were losing too much time. Going back and getting reorganized would, they thought, be riskier than keeping with the “shortcut.” They told themselves the worst was over. Repeatedly.

  For an excellent account of the entire horrifying/courageous story, give Ethan Rarick’s Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West a try. Mr. Rarick doesn’t sensationalize the lurid details, but he doesn’t pull any punches, either, which is exactly the treatment such a terrible, ultimately triumphant story of survival demands. Be warned: If you’re anything like me, you’ll need frequent breaks from the book to go stand in front of your fridge and reassure yourself with the sight of food. And you’ll probably want to wrap yourself in a blanket first.

  BBC’s Sherlock fanfic is the greatest thing in the history of things. Archive of Our Own has devoured so many hours of my life. (Worth it.)

  Colonel Charles Rowan was a British Army officer and the first Commissioner of Metropolitan Police. He and his bestie, Richard Mayne, helped found what would later be known as Scotland Yard. In three months, they found, hired, and trained close to a thousand men. (They must have been champion delegators. Or micromanagers.) In that same period of time, they arranged for uniforms, equipment, and a place to work (and furniture and supplies!) for their recruits, and then they really went to work. Rowan retired at the tender age of sixty-eight, but only because cancer made him.

  Jesse Tafero, convicted murderer, was executed on May 4, 1990, in Raiford, Florida. He was exonerated later that year by his former friend, Walter Rhodes, who confessed to the murders of Highway Patrol Officer Phillip Black and Constable Donald Irwin. And though he lied to put two people behind bars, one of whom was executed, Mr. Rhodes served no additional time after confessing. For the purpose of this book, I moved Mr. Tafero’s execution back to May 1985.

  All the past-life flashbacks are based on real historical events and people, but John Perry’s case is an amalgam of several instances when people were convicted of murder, only for the “victim” to show up alive and well. Which is horrifying to contemplate.

  The rules for visiting ICC were taken directly from the Illinois Department of Corrections website.

  I’ve somehow made it into my forties without having to visit anyone in prison (which, given my distinguished family history of trailer-park-dwelling substance abusers, is odd), so I was amazed at all the hoops visitors have to jump through to see incarcerated loved ones. I came away from my research with respect for the pain these families must endure year after year after year. I’d heard the cliché that “nobody does time alone,” and after researching this book, I think that’s true.

  Elizabeth “Betty” Parris was nine when she started accusing random townsfolk of witchcraft. This “I’m bored and the Internet hasn’t been invented yet” mind-set led directly to seventy-two trials and twenty state-sanction
ed murders. And though I gave her (and her father) a motive in my book, I don’t know if that’s how it all started.

  I am not a historian and this is total, uneducated speculation, but I found it odd that many of those accused were rich, or owned multiple businesses, or had been in monetary disputes with their accusers’ families, or had vast land holdings in the area, and after their trials and deaths, a lot of townspeople made out pretty well.

  Curious. And maybe just a coincidence.

  The graveyards of history are littered with merciful men.

  —UNKNOWN

  This is the happiest moment of my life.

  —GEORGE ENGEL, NOVEMBER 11, 1887, MOMENTS BEFORE HIS EXECUTION

  I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy.

  —ROBERT BURTON, THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY

  Cold Case: “For the Illinois State Police, a case becomes ‘cold’ when an investigation for a murder, kidnapping, abduction or missing person ‘is pending due to insufficient solvability factors.’”

  —GERRY SMITH, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, “RECENT ARRESTS SHINE LIGHT ON CHICAGO-AREA COLD CASES”

  You are a liar! I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink.

  —SARAH GOOD, JULY 19, 1692

  I felt then I was hanging an innocent man, and I believe it yet.

  —CHIEF LESCHI’S HANGMAN, FEBRUARY 19, 1858

  Problem-solving is hunting; it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.

  —THOMAS HARRIS, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

  Grief is a selfish emotion.

  —SOME GUY

  Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!

  —FROM THE JOURNAL OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, C. 1825

  The black dog I hope always to resist, and in time to drive, though I am deprived of almost all those that used to help me . . . when I rise my breakfast is solitary, the black dog waits to share it, from breakfast to dinner he continues barking . . . night comes at last, and some hours of restlessness and confusion bring me again to a day of solitude. What shall exclude the black dog from an habitation like this?