“The guy might have been a bit aggressive,” she admitted.
I looked back at Kane and gave him a knowing look. “He sounds like a perfect gentleman to me. But if you guys really want to tag along, you should keep your distance. And no, before you ask, I’m not wearing a wire.”
Kane looked crestfallen. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
“Are you sure you’re not a psychic as well as a ghost whisperer?”
“Pretty sure. Now if you guys will excuse me, I have a date to prepare for.”
“Ugh,” I said when I looked at myself in the mirror. “He’ll never open up to…this.”
Rebecca flew from behind and took a closer look at my reflection. Sadly, she had no reflection at all. I often joked with her that she was like a vampire in that regard. Let’s just say she wasn’t amused.
“Don’t you have anything a bit more…modern to wear?” Rebecca asked reluctantly as if she was stepping on eggshells.
I looked at her and her bell bottom jeans. “Really?”
“I’m dead, so that’s my excuse. What’s yours?”
She certainly had a point there.
I looked at the clock. I had forty-five minutes to kill until Jonah picked me up.
“I’ll just text Sarah and hope she has something fancy for me to wear. Who knew I’d need something fancy to wear in Silver Bells of all places.”
Sarah texted me back. Her text included a lot of exclamation marks. But she did say she was on her way with just the right “stuff”, whatever that meant.
“Girls’ night!” Rebecca said excitedly as she flew in a circle around the room.
Then there was a knock on the door and she abruptly stopped.
We looked at each other. It couldn’t have been Sarah. Not that fast, unless she’d gained some super speed powers while I was away.
“Come in,” I said.
Gran came in and looked me over. “I haven’t seen those clothes in quite some time.”
“I know, I know. Sarah is coming to the rescue.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Gran asked.
I knew she wasn’t a fan of Jonah. She didn’t even know about the books and Kane’s suspicions.
“It’s a win-win. I get to grill him about the murders and I get to eat in a fancy restaurant. Fancy for Silver Bells anyway.”
When I told her what restaurant she nodded approvingly. “I know the chef. He knows what he’s doing. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Gran, I told you not to worry. Plus, Kane will be close by and Donna as well. Not to mention Rebecca. Even Bart might be there. Oh,” I gasped as I grasped the situation. There was still a possibility that Jonah and I would have a double date, only of the ghostly variety.
“What is it?” Gran asked, obviously worried.
“It’s nothing. Just a funny thought.”
Rebecca didn’t look amused. It seemed she had caught on. “I don’t like him!” She complained.
“Put your big girl pants on and get over it. It’s for the case.”
“Excuse me?” Gran looked flabbergasted.
“I was talking to Rebecca,” I said.
“So there’s nothing I can tell you to make you stop this?”
“Gran, you worry too much. I do this kind of stuff all the time. Well, maybe not this kind of stuff, but kind of similar. I’ll be fine. If anything happens, Kane will be there. Plus, it’s a public place so nothing will happen.”
“But first you have to get there. In his car,” she reminded me.
Gran certainly had a point there. Maybe I should have said we’d meet at the restaurant? Was it too late to change my mind?
Just then we all heard the doorbell and jumped in shock.
“He’s early,” Gran said.
“It’s not Jonah, Gran. It’s Sarah. As you can clearly see I have a fashion emergency.”
Gran went downstairs to let Sarah in.
“Was I too harsh?” I asked Rebecca. It had been so long since I’d seen my grandma face to face, it was hard to judge how I acted around her.
“No, I don’t think so,” Rebecca said. “You just have a disagreement on this particular subject.”
That made me feel a bit better. And I felt even better when Sarah appeared with a couple of outfits in her hand.
“Let’s get this party started!” Sarah said after she laid the outfits on the bed.
“We only have half an hour,” I reminded her. “So let’s be quick!”
A few tries later I was looking in the mirror and I was pretty happy with what I was seeing.
I wore an elegant black dress that went past my knees and an auburn pleather jacket. Some high heels and the look was done. Then Sarah helped make my hair representable, which actually took longer than picking out the actual outfit. I decided to wear my hair down and on one side. Sarah let me borrow a couple of pins that kept everything in place. The makeup was just a quick dab of red lipstick and some eyeshadow. I never wore anything much more complicated than that. Who had the time? And it’s not like ghosts cared one way or another how you looked. Well, most of them.
The doorbell rang just after I finished one eye.
“Make sure Gran is okay!” I told Rebecca and she flew down the stairs immediately.
Sarah helped pick out some earrings as a finishing touch for my look.
“Perfect!” She said after she was done. “Twirl around.”
I twirled around a couple of times.
“Go get him, cousin!”
“It’s for the case,” I reminded her.
“I’m sure it is,” she said and winked at me.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t totally about the case. Could you really blame me? The man was gorgeous.
A small elegant purse which I didn’t even know I owned later, and I was making my way downstairs.
Jonah had on a wide smile as he talked to Gran, who didn’t sport a smile at all.
He looked up and grinned even wider when he saw me coming down the stairs.
“Wow. You look beautiful. Not that you usually don’t, just…”
“It’s fine,” I quickly said. “Don’t wait up, Gran.”
“Drive carefully, young man,” Gran said to Jonah.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said in the most adorable way.
I quickly pushed Jonah out of the house before Gran had any more chances to interrogate him.
“Sorry about that,” I said as we made our way to his fancy car.
“It’s all right. I get that a lot from the locals. What can you do? It comes with the territory.”
Jonah opened the passenger door like the gentleman I knew he was.
I got in the car and prepared myself for what was to come. How could I bring up the murders and the accounts when Jonah was being so perfectly nice? There was only one way to find out.
Twenty
The restaurant was almost as good as any fancy restaurant I had occasion to visit in the cities I passed through. Almost. But having Jonah there made the experience that much better.
We sat down and Jonah ordered some expensive wine for us while we waited for our food. He asked about my work, I asked about his. Jonah had this strange way of looking at you that made you feel like you were the only person in the room. At first, it was a bit intimidating, but now it just made me blush. Was he really that interested or was he like this with all the girls he took to dinner?
“But enough about that. I don’t want to talk about work the whole night. Do you?” Jonah asked.
I knew what the right answer was. I knew what the answer he was expecting was. I should have laughed and touched my hair. Maybe put that stray strand of hair behind my ear. I should have told him that he was completely right. But I didn’t. I couldn’t.
“There have been two murders connected to your work. And not to mention that your boss hired me to solve them.”
Jonah smiled, but it was the kind of smile that did not reach his eyes.
/> He took a sip of his wine. “I thought we could forget about all of that. Just for tonight.”
I smiled, though my smile wasn’t any more genuine than his. “It’s hard in my line of work. The dead are kind of attracted to me if you haven’t noticed.”
“I assure you Ms. Good, I’m very much alive and don’t plan on dying anytime soon.”
I got a terrible flash in my head of Jonah lying dead, his head bashed in. His ghost stood next to the body and asked me: “Why?”
I took a quick sip of the wine, trying to get that image out of my head. It was a good thing that I wasn’t a psychic. I was just able to see spirits; I wasn’t able to foretell the future.
“He’s as confident as I remember,” Bart said as he suddenly appeared behind Jonah. I almost jumped up in fright. Rebecca appeared not soon after.
“I told you not to interrupt their date!” She admonished the new ghost.
“What is it?” Jonah asked. “You look like you’ve seen a…”
“…a ghost?” I finished for him.
“Once I realized what I was about to say, I realized just how silly it sounded.” He fidgeted in his seat, looking around himself. “Is it here now?”
I nodded. There was no use in lying.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else? Who knew a restaurant could be haunted?”
I laughed at that. “You’d be surprised. But this one isn’t. It’s just Bart.”
“Oh,” Jonah said, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
Then our food arrived and he relaxed somewhat. As we slowly enjoyed our delicious meal, Jonah decided to speak up.
He leaned in.
“Is he still here?” He whispered.
I looked behind him at the imposing figure. Bart had his arms across his chest and he did not look happy to be there.
“Get on with it,” he told me. “Ask him about the damn books.”
I sighed. This was going to be harder than I thought. The apologetic look Rebecca gave me didn’t make me feel any better. I knew it was too much to ask for her to keep him in line. Bart didn’t seem like the kind of man that listened to anyone but himself.
“Unfortunately,” I said to Jonah. “He’s pretty restless. He seems to think that someone was embezzling money from the projects your boss was financing. He thinks that maybe that’s why he was murdered.”
The look on Jonah’s face was blank. Almost too neutral. He chose his next words carefully.
“To be honest,” he continued whispering. “I always thought someone in that office was doing something like that but I could never prove it. Now that both Bart and Derek are dead, I’m starting to think I was suspecting the wrong people.”
“Does Crane know about any of this?”
“God no. The man is all about the facts and if I didn’t have any evidence to back up my theories, he would have just dismissed me and probably thought less of me.”
“Sounds like a tough man to please.”
“He sure is. He’s a perfectionist. I guess that’s one of the reasons he’s so successful.”
That and the willingness to destroy anything and anyone in his way, but I didn’t say that out loud. It was clear that Jonah was more than aware of that side of things.
While we looked over the dessert menu, I tried to tell Rebecca, without saying any words out loud, to get a handle on Bart. With each whisper from Jonah, Bart grew more and more agitated.
He let out a stream of expletives that I was thankful that only I could hear.
“He thought I was stealing from Mr. Crane?” Bart raged, and I couldn’t really blame him.
Once Jonah and I agreed on the dessert, we resumed our conversation.
“So who do you think might be responsible?” I asked him.
“Honestly, now I have no clue. Mr. Crane has plenty of accountants and lawyers on the payroll, so they kind of cancel each other out. One checks the work of the other and so on. So unless they colluded together to steal from Crane, I can’t really see it being any of them.”
“And what about him?” Bart spat. “Ask him about that.”
“Bart…is asking if maybe…”
“…I had something to do with it?” Jonah finished, his eyebrows raised. “No, I didn’t. Mr. Crane gave me an opportunity and I would never betray him like that. I can’t even put a price on everything he’s done for me.”
I believed Jonah, even as Bart rolled his eyes at everything Jonah was saying.
After we were done, Jonah walked me back to his car and opened the door like a gentleman.
“It didn’t exactly go as I wanted it to. I didn’t expect Bart to interlope, if you know what I mean.”
“There’s always someone around. The trick is not thinking too much about it,” I said.
Jonah smiled and started the car. Then he looked like he just got an idea. “I know a place where ghosts can’t follow us. I think.”
“I’d be very much interested in seeing that,” I said and laughed.
It felt good being alone with Jonah, at least for the time being. Then I had the chance to look in the rearview mirror and I saw a familiar car in the distance. Kane’s van. He was following us.
I quickly took out my phone. “I just want to tell my grandma I’ll be late,” I quickly said. That certainly made Jonah look pleased. I wondered what exactly he thought was going to happen tonight.
“Stop following me!” I texted Kane. Almost immediately, I got a reply: “not a chance” Then: “he might be a murderer”
I took in a deep breath and tried to relax.
“Is everything okay?” Jonah asked.
“Yeah, everything’s perfectly fine,” I said through a forced smile.
“Whatever is troubling you will soon be forgotten,” Jonah said ominously and for the first time that night I kind of liked the idea of having some backup.
Not soon after, Jonah pulled into a dark parking lot. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Kane’s car was gone. But how could that be? Maybe he had just turned his lights off? One could hope.
My heart beat faster as I waited for Jonah’s next move. Instead of leaning in for a grab and a kiss or trying to choke the life out of me, Jonah just smiled and got out of the car. Not soon after he was opening my car door.
I looked around and didn’t see much of anything.
“What is this place?”
He took my hand without a word and led me behind some bushes. Pretty soon a path appeared. It looked like we were in some kind of park.
I silently pleaded for Rebecca to appear and she was there.
I immediately felt a bit better.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I told Bart to stay behind.”
I didn’t know whether that was a comfort or not. Having a ghost around who could do some physical feats, no matter how weak, wouldn’t have hurt. I just hoped that Kane was somewhere nearby in case Jonah tried to give me the Bart/Derek treatment.
We walked through the dark woods until we reached a clearing. Jonah held my hand tighter as he led me to the middle of a field. I looked around and didn’t see any rocks lying about so that made me sigh in relief.
“Look up,” Jonah said.
I looked up and realized why he had brought me here.
“Wow,” I said.
“Wow indeed. It’s one of the best starry skies I’ve seen,” he said.
I felt a chill go through me and Jonah held me closer. “Do you want my jacket?”
“No, no, I’m fine. I’ve forgotten how beautiful Silver Bells can be.”
“Too bad Crane plans on building a mall right in this spot,” Jonah said.
I looked at him but it didn’t seem like he was joking.
“I hope he gets run out of town,” I said. Then I remembered who I was with. “Sorry if that was too harsh.”
Jonah laughed. Even his laugh was sexy. I blushed in the darkness like a schoolgirl getting a glimpse of her secret crush looking her way. What was getting into me?
“
No offense taken. Maybe I could try whispering a few words in Crane’s ear?”
“I would love to see that,” I said. “He doesn’t seem like a man that’s easily influenced.”
“With everything that’s happened recently, I’m sure he’s having second thoughts about coming here at all. I just hope they catch the person or people responsible.”
“Me too,” I said and meant it.
I looked up into Jonah’s eyes and he looked into mine. Suddenly the whole world disappeared. My eyes had adjusted to the night and now I could clearly see the wanting look in his eyes. He leaned in for a kiss and I reciprocated.
It was magical. That was the only word that came to mind. Under the starry Silver Bells sky. Then I heard a sound. My phone just got a message and I had a pretty good idea who it was from.
The moment was broken.
“Sorry. I really should have put it on silence.”
“That’s all right,” Jonah said. “Believe it or not, my phone just started vibrating as well.”
I looked at the text while he checked his phone.
“be careful”
I looked around to see if I could spot Kane somewhere in the bushes, but it was too dark. Still, the thought of him spying on me somewhere out there put a smile on my face.
“Everything all right?” Jonah asked.
“Yeah, it was just my cousin wondering how the date was going.”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to cut it short. Mr. Crane is having some kind of emergency that I absolutely must attend to. But I’m more than happy to pick this up later if you are.”
I nodded. “I’d like that. I do have a question, though.”
“Shoot,” he said as we made our way back to his vehicle.
“Does Crane disrupt a lot of your dates? Is that why you’re single?”
“He does keep me on my toes, I can’t lie about that. Plus, this job involves a lot of travel so it’s really hard to build a life with someone. That’s why it would be perfect if you worked for him, too. We’d travel to the same places.”
“And what would happen if we had a nasty breakup?”
Jonah laughed. “I’ll have you know that all my relationships have ended on amicable terms. Yours?”
I had to think about that. “I guess. Or I just ended up moving and avoided the whole thing that way. It’s much easier to move on if you don’t see the person anymore.”
Ghostly Apparitions (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 1) Page 13
