Ghostly Rules

by K E O'Connor

  “It’s no more than you deserved,” said Sylvia. “Now, tell me what you were doing to Lorna?”

  “We weren’t doing anything,” said Chelsea. “We were just worried—”

  Sylvia held her hand up. “Not from you. I want to hear what my son was doing. Lorna is a valuable member of staff, and I will not have her mistreated.”

  “I wasn’t treating her badly.” Ignatius’s shoulders slumped as if he knew he’d been defeated. “But you don’t even know her.”

  “I know you. And you were up to no good.” Sylvia beckoned me towards her and away from Ignatius.

  “I was giving her a bit of a scare,” said Ignatius. “She’s nosy and keeps asking questions, trying to get into our business.”

  “No scaring the staff,” said Sylvia. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

  “It’s not fair. You take away the things I enjoy.” Ignatius was sounding more like a spoiled child and less like a lethal gangster.

  “Lorna is off-limits,” said Sylvia. “She’s under my protection now.”

  That seemed to clinch it for Ignatius. He gave a single nod. “I won’t touch her.”

  I let out a breath I’d been holding, happy to hear those words. Now, for the difficult bit, getting a confession out of Ignatius. “From what I heard of your conversation with Chelsea, it sounds like you were up to no good.”

  Ignatius glared at me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Chelsea frowned. “Lorna, you’re supposed to be on our side.”

  “I’m not on anyone’s side.” I glanced at Sylvia.

  “Spit it out, girl,” said Sylvia. “Get him to tell you everything.”

  Ignatius glowered at his mom. “What’s going on?”

  I took a deep breath. “We think you killed Lonnie.”

  Chapter 21

  Ignatius’s hands fell to his sides. “I’d never kill my brother.”

  “You were just talking about finishing the job,” I said. “You murdered Lonnie, so you can get your hands on his gold and his wife.”

  “I wouldn’t do that.” Ignatius glanced at Chelsea. “Fine. I was having a bit of fun with Chelsea, but it’s nothing serious.”

  “What are you talking about?” Chelsea jammed her hands on her hips. “You love me!”

  Ignatius shrugged. “You’re fun to be around, but I was never serious about you.”

  “Of course you are!” Chelsea’s eyes narrowed. “We’re leaving this horrible place and going away together.”

  “I’m leaving,” said Ignatius. “But there’s not a chance in hell that we’re going anywhere together.”

  Chelsea sputtered out some unintelligible words, her face growing redder by the second.

  Ignatius shrugged again and looked at me. “I had my problems with Lonnie, but we settled them like men. I’d never wimp out and throw a radio in the bath to get rid of him. Lonnie wouldn’t want to die like that. He wanted to be remembered for what he was, a successful gangster. Someone who beat the police, got what he wanted, and didn’t care who got hurt along the way.”

  “That’s not my Lonnie,” said Sylvia. “He was turning over a new leaf, making some good changes in his life. Although, not all of them were good.” Her gaze slid to Chelsea, who was now standing with her mouth open.

  “I don’t understand what’s going on,” said Chelsea. “What about the gold? What about our new life in Mexico?”

  “Sweetheart, you can go to Mexico if you want to,” said Ignatius. “Sell your half of this house to Elita, and you’ll be set for life. You can get a little house, as much tequila as you like, and life will be perfect.”

  “That wasn’t the plan,” said Chelsea through gritted teeth. “You said you wanted to make Elita pay.”

  “I wanted to make her pay for leaving me for Lonnie,” said Ignatius. “I don’t want her to leave this house, though. You, however, were a temporary addition to this family. Lonnie regretted marrying you almost as soon as he put the ring on your finger.”

  “And he only did it because you pretended you were pregnant,” said Sylvia. “You knew how badly Lonnie wanted a child of his own, so you tricked him.”

  A sob shot out of Chelsea. “I thought I was.”

  “Only until you got married,” said Sylvia.

  “I made a mistake.”

  “One you’re going to regret,” said Ignatius.

  Chelsea’s bottom lip jutted out. “We have to be together. We have a plan.”

  “I have my plan, but it’s different from yours.” Ignatius turned away from Chelsea. “Why don’t you go pack your bag? I can book you a flight out of this country, leaving tonight.”

  “I’m not leaving without my money,” said Chelsea. “I put up with Lonnie and had to force myself to fake being in love with you. I’m owed because of that.”

  “You’ll get what’s due to you.” Ignatius’s tone made me think Chelsea would be lucky to get away with her life.

  Chelsea also seemed to recognize the tone because she backed away and hurried to the door. “You’re going to pay for this.”

  “Do your worst,” said Ignatius.

  Chelsea gave an angry squeak before shoving past me and out into the hallway. I heard her thumping up the stairs and slamming a door.

  “Now that annoyance has gone,” said Ignatius, as he removed his peed on jacket, “why don’t you tell me what you know about Lonnie’s death. Why do you think I killed him?”

  “Because you have the most to gain,” I said. “Lonnie refused to tell you what he’d done with the gold, and you hate him for that.”

  Ignatius looked at his mom. “You believe this crazy theory?”

  “I know something happened to Lonnie,” said Sylvia. “I see him around the house every day, and he wouldn’t be here if he’d simply had an accident.”

  “And you see him too?” asked Ignatius, looking straight at me.

  Sylvia waved her hand at me. “Don’t be shy around him, girl.”

  I still wasn’t used to people believing I could see ghosts. “I’ve seen Lonnie’s ghost around the house. And he convinced me his death wasn’t an accident.”

  “And he’s pointing the finger at me?” asked Ignatius.

  “Not exactly,” I said. “Lonnie’s not sure who killed him. He just knows somebody did.”

  “So, you’ve got no proof,” said Ignatius. “I had nothing to do with it.”

  Having seen how good a liar Ignatius was when it came to his interest in Chelsea, I wasn’t going to believe that. “You must want to get your hands on the gold.”

  “Of course,” said Ignatius. “Half the criminal underworld wants the gold. Are you going to add them to your list of suspects?”

  I bit my lip. Annoyingly, what Ignatius said was true. It wasn’t just this family who’d like to get their hands on the stolen goodies.

  “Don’t keep things from us, boy,” said Sylvia. “Tell Lorna everything. I trust her.”

  Ignatius examined his damaged finger and then leaned against the back of a chair. “I’ll admit, we wanted different things when it came to the gold. I wanted to ship it overseas, liquidate what we could, and invest in property. We could hold tight on the investments for a few years, and when the police lost interest, sell the investments and reap the rewards. But Lonnie had gotten all goody-two-shoes and wanted to give the gold away and set up that ridiculous charity.”

  “Which was a noble thing to do,” said Sylvia. “And your brother had my full support.”

  “But the gold was also mine. Lonnie didn’t get to spend it how he wanted to.”

  “You would have gotten your share,” said Sylvia. “Lonnie hoped that, when you saw the good his charity was doing, you’d invest your money into it, as well.”

  “Never going to happen,” said Ignatius. “I was thinking about going away. I planned to buy a few properties and spend my time in the sun. I hear there’s an expanding extortion ring in Belize.”

  “And leave the fami
ly?” asked Sylvia.

  “You’d do alright without me,” said Ignatius.

  “We need someone to head up this family,” said Sylvia.

  “I was never good at any of that.” Ignatius looked at his chewed finger. “That was Lonnie’s thing.”

  “You need to step up and do your bit,” said Sylvia, “learn to be a better man. Lonnie was our public face, and his warm handshake and easy manner meant others joined us and kept quiet when we needed them to. He’s not here anymore, and we need somebody to keep doing that.”

  “I thought the Cornells had retired from a life of crime?” I asked.

  Sylvia frowned at me. “We still have our moments.”

  Ignatius looked at the floor. “That’s not who I am, Mom.”

  “Then learn to be like that,” said Sylvia. “I know you’ve got it in you. And you can’t go abandoning us for hot sand and bimbos in bikinis. You’d get bored of that.”

  “I wouldn’t get too bored.” Ignatius grinned at his mom.

  “I can still spank you if I have to,” said Sylvia.

  Ignatius raised his hands in mock surrender. “Spare me the slipper.”

  “Do you know where the gold is?” I asked Ignatius. “You have to have some idea, or you wouldn’t have killed Lonnie.”

  “For the last time, I didn’t kill Lonnie!” said Ignatius. “I have no idea where the gold is.”

  “Where were you going to get the money to leave?” I asked. “Without the gold, what would you live on?”

  “I wasn’t dependent on Lonnie for money.” Ignatius looked at his fingernails. “I make my own cash.”

  “You were,” said Sylvia. “You’re terrible with money. It goes on the horses or women.”

  Ignatius frowned. “If you must know, I was going to get Chelsea to sell her share of this house and then take the money. I want the gold, but I’ve looked everywhere for it, and it’s vanished. Lonnie has taken that secret to his grave.”

  I shared a look with Sylvia. That wasn’t true. With Lonnie’s ghost still in the house, there was a way to find the gold. I just needed to convince Lonnie to show me where the rest was hidden and then figure out just how involved Ignatius was in Lonnie’s death.

  Chapter 22

  “And then Sylvia intervened and stopped me getting my first pair of concrete shoes, courtesy of her charming son.” I sat opposite Helen in my bedroom, having just finished updating her about my unpleasant encounter with Ignatius and Chelsea.

  “Ignatius threatened to kill you, Chelsea tried to bribe you, and Sylvia and Reggie saved your life.” Helen shook her head. “That’s quite a day you’ve had.”

  “Sylvia was amazing,” I said. “She put Ignatius in his place. You can tell who’s in charge in this family. And it’s not the men.”

  “So, how were things left?” asked Helen.

  “Ignatius muttered something about having business to attend to and skulked away. We’re no closer to finding the gold, though, or getting proof of who killed Lonnie.” I ran my hand along Flipper’s back. “But if Sylvia hadn’t been there, the outcome would have been different.”

  “Should we get Zach and Gunner to come rescue us?” asked Helen. “The Cornells aren’t messing around when it comes to this gold.”

  I was tempted by the idea. “Let’s give it twenty-four hours, and if we’re no closer to figuring out who killed Lonnie, I think we should go.”

  “Still convinced it was Ignatius?”

  I shrugged. “I’m still leaning towards him, despite his protests. He’s got so much to gain from Lonnie’s death.”

  “There’s always Carson,” said Helen. “I wandered into a bedroom yesterday and caught him rifling through the drawers. He said he was looking for a clean shirt, but it wasn’t his room. I bet he’s on the hunt for the gold.”

  “I’ve barely seen Carson since I’ve been here,” I said. “He keeps below the radar. It won’t do any harm to check him out.” And by investigating him, I could keep away from Ignatius and his poorly veiled threats to get rid of me.

  “It’s getting late. Carson’s probably in his annex having dinner,” said Helen, “which is what we should be doing. I’ve been dealing with laundry and darning all day. Some of the stuff I’ve been pulling out of the laundry hampers has been odd, to say the least.”

  “What have you found?”

  “I was in Chelsea’s room,” said Helen. “She’d left a note saying she needed some items altered, and I decided to sort through her laundry as well and make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I pulled out a set of handcuffs covered in pink fur!”

  “Sounds like Ignatius and Chelsea have kinky tastes.”

  “I dropped them right back in the laundry hamper.” Helen shuddered. “I hate to think what has happened to the people wearing them.”

  “So long as they enjoyed themselves, I guess it’s not our business.”

  Helen’s nose wrinkled. “She should keep her toys somewhere private.”

  I grinned at Helen. “Let’s go see what Carson’s doing. It won’t surprise me if he’s involved with Lonnie’s murder, as well. Everyone in this family has trouble keeping on the straight and narrow.”

  Helen followed me out of my bedroom, along with Flipper, who’d remained glued to my side ever since he’d discovered me being hassled by Ignatius and Chelsea. I think it was his way of an apology for not being there to protect me. He didn’t need to worry; with Sylvia and Reggie on my side, I had good backup.

  We left the house through the back door, keeping to the late evening shadows as we hurried to Carson’s annex. I hit two cold spots as we walked, and stopped so fast Helen ran into me.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You feel that?” I held my hands out, the tips of my fingers going numb.

  “The chill?”

  “Yes. I keep walking through them when I’m in the garden.”

  “A ghost?”

  “If it is they never show up.” I rubbed my arms. “Maybe all the criminal vibes are setting me on edge.”

  “Or being so close to Carson.” Helen gestured me over to the annex. It was a large single-story structure, covered in trailing roses and ivy. It didn’t suit his tough guy persona. I’d expected a minimalist sleek structure, all chrome, and glass, with flashy cars sitting out front. Maybe Sylvia had decorated it for him, so he didn’t like to complain.

  One of the windows was open, and I stopped by it and had a look inside. There were half a dozen men sitting around a table playing cards, all dressed in similar dark suits. The room was fitted out with pale green sofas and a widescreen TV. Country and western music played in the background.

  “Anything interesting?” whispered Helen.

  “Just a poker game by the looks of it,” I said.

  “No master plan to steal the gold pinned on the wall?”

  “If only it were that easy.”

  We listened by the window for five minutes, but all I could hear were the sounds of laughter and the occasional crude joke.

  “We should try to get inside,” said Helen. “There could be something incriminating in there. And if we don’t find anything, we can rule out Carson and focus on the others.”

  I didn’t like the idea of being discovered searching through Carson’s things, but Helen had a point. I couldn’t avoid investigating him just because he was a bit of a slime bag.

  The sound of something being scraped over gravel made me turn my head, and I spotted Sylvia pushing her wheelchair along the pathway away from the house. I squinted, seeing something glinting on her lap. And wedged on the handlebars of her chair was a black duffel bag. I took a few steps away from Carson’s annex, and my mouth fell open.

  “Sylvia’s got a gold bar on her lap,” I said, barely believing the words as they came out of my mouth.

  “Are you sure it’s not Reggie?” asked Helen. “She takes that dog everywhere.”

  I pointed at Sylvia as she continued to push herself away from the house. “I’ve never seen a d
og look like that.”

  Helen’s eyes widened as she stared at Sylvia. “She must have known where the gold was all the time.”

  “And now, she’s stealing it.” I continued to watch Sylvia’s slow progress.

  “Does that mean Sylvia killed Lonnie so she can have the gold for herself?”

  “We need to find out.” I clenched my fists. Sylvia had been lying to me; she knew all about the gold; she knew where it was hidden, and now, she was making off with it. And the whole time, she’d fooled me into thinking Ignatius was Lonnie’s killer.

  I ran across the grass with Helen and Flipper, determined to stop Sylvia.

  Sylvia’s head whipped around as she heard us approaching, and her eyes narrowed.

  “No, you don’t.” I grabbed the handles of her wheelchair. “Where are you going? And why have you got a gold bar on your lap?”

  “I’m keeping it safe.” Sylvia’s hands covered the bar of gold.

  I yanked the duffel bag off the handlebars and opened it to discover three more gold bars. “You were trying to escape.”

  “I was doing no such thing.” Sylvia let out a sigh. “But I need to protect the gold. Ignatius is insistent he has it, and I can’t risk that. He only needs one gold bar in order to escape, and then I’ll never see him again.”

  “You know where all the gold is?” I asked Sylvia.

  “What if I do?”

  “You killed Lonnie to get your hands on it,” said Helen.

  Sylvia shook her head. “Keep your voice down. I’d do no such thing. I loved my boy.”

  “Perhaps you love the gold more,” I said.

  “You’re going to accuse me of killing Lonnie?” Sylvia spun her wheelchair around and glared at me. “First, you accuse Ignatius and now me. I’m beginning to think you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  She was right there. “You certainly do, though. Sneaking off at night with the stolen goods. That’s not going to look good to the police.”

  “Don’t get them involved with this,” said Sylvia. “They’re not welcome here.”