A Ghostly Suspect

by Tonya Kappes

  I jerked around and stared at Debbie with wide eyes.

  “She’s here, isn’t she.” The young girl put her pointer finger in her mouth and started to gnaw on what little nail she had left. “I knew it.” She smiled with a look of relief on her face.

  “Jody. Her name is Jody. Invite her in,” Debbie was insistent.

  My phone chirped a text deep in my bag.

  “I really need to ask her something. Please. I’ll still pay for the full hour,” she pleaded.

  I let out a long sigh and took my phone out to buy me some time to think about if I should tell Jody to go or do what Debbie had wanted me to do.

  “It’ll be all fine, Emma Lee.” Debbie’s soft-spoken voice had always appealed to me. It was one thing that made me feel comfortable in her presence. I should’ve known when she was talking so fast and insistently earlier this afternoon when she wanted me to confirm my gift. “I’ll guide you.”

  I looked down at my phone and saw there was a text from Jack Henry.

  What is going on down there? I heard on the scanner there was someone dead in the square. Who is it?

  “Emma.” Debbie caught my attention. “She’s waiting.”

  I glanced up and looked at her, but she wasn’t alone. There was another ghost standing next to her, only she was more of a light and less of a form, like the rest of my clients. There was no definition to the form. I could see it was a woman but not her eyes or even what she was wearing.

  “Don’t worry.” Debbie must’ve seen the look on my face. “She’s not murdered. These are my clients.”

  Debbie lifted her hands in the air, and when she did, it was like lifting a veil away from my eyes, and all sorts of wispy ghosts were moving about her property.

  “This is what I see. Souls who want to connect with family and friends. Jody is here to connect with her grandmother. She’s looking for the brooch. Her grandmother’s brooch. According to her grandmother—” Debbie started to say but was interrupted in midsentence by the figure.

  “Jody sold my brooch. I just couldn’t believe it. It’s worth a lot of money. She lost her mind and sold it when she was dating this guy who needed some money. I didn’t trust him and haunted him until he finally broke it off with her.” The elderly woman’s features started to come into focus the more she talked to me.

  “The grandmother is ready to tell Jody about the brooch. Jody needs to get the brooch for the family. That’s why you need to pretend to be me for just a few minutes. That’s all,” Debbie said and looked at the fairy statue. “The key.”

  I gulped, decided to text Jack Henry back after this little stunt of pretending to be Debbie, and stalked over to the mailbox to retrieve the key from underneath the fairy.

  “Just a quick minute since you’re late.” I didn’t confirm Jody’s suspicions about how her grandmother was there.

  With the key in my hand and Jody on my heels, along with Debbie floating beside me, I unlocked the door and stepped inside.

  “Turn the light on by the chain.” Debbie and the grandmother ghost had moved into the room on the right. It was where Debbie always took me when I came to see her. “Tell her to wait next to the door.”

  “Wait by the door, please,” I told Jody and added a little bit of southern manners. “I’ll be right with you. I’ve got to summon all the people.”

  “Seriously? Summon who?” Debbie stood next to the light she wanted me to turn on. “Her grandmother is here.”

  “I know that, but I didn’t know if I was supposed to tell her,” I whispered and walked past Debbie on my way over to the light.

  “Now you have to light the incense and use the feather to wave it around.” Debbie pointed to the middle of the table, where she kept a candle along with the triangular-shaped incense she’d burn when I was here.

  “Really?” I asked, keeping my voice down. “Why? She’s here. Let’s get this over with.”

  “No. I might be dead, and Jody might be my last client, but you have to give her a good reading. It has to be done right. My reputation depends on it, and David will have to live with what others have said about me.” Debbie wasn’t budging. “Light the candle. Light the incense.”

  I jerked the chain of the lamp and lit up the room. There were so many ghosts walking around. None of them appeared to see the others. They walked through each other and just wandered around.

  “Don’t mind them. They are just waiting for their loved ones to find me.” Debbie shrugged. “I guess they’ll leave once I don’t come back.”

  I grabbed the long lighter off the table and did exactly what she’d told me to do, even though I wasn’t doing it with pride like she wanted me to.

  My hand shook when I lit the incense.

  “What’s wrong?” Debbie asked.

  “I’m nervous. I don’t like pretending to be you or even pretending to tell Jody anything from her grandmother.” I picked up the small plate the incense was sitting on with one hand and the feather in the other. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

  “I’ll tell you everything you need to do for a reading. Step by step.” Debbie didn’t make me any less nervous. “Hold up the incense plate and swipe the smoke with the feather. Do it around the door and in all the corners.” She showed me how to do it. “This will clear out the other spirits from this room, giving the grandmother her own space to be seen and heard. It filters the noise.”

  It was like Debbie had trained the wandering souls. Before I finished the first corner, the souls had disappeared, leaving the grandmother standing alone in the doorway.

  “You will ask Jody to come in and have a seat, just like I do you.” Debbie was so good at making me feel comfortable when I came to see her. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to translate the same to Jody, but I’d try.

  “After this, you’ve got some questions to answer.” I had to use every opportunity I could to make sure she didn’t disappear like my other Betweener clients loved to do. When the questioning began, it was like they didn’t want to answer them.

  It was the darnedest thing. They came to me for help, but when it was time for them to help me, they ghosted.

  “Jody, you can come on in here,” I called toward the door where I’d left her.

  “You have to sit down like I do.” Debbie pointed to her chair.

  “Can’t I just stand?” Goosebumps crawled up my spine at the thought of sitting in her space. She was a psychic, and I was not. I was just a simple undertaker.

  “I found this in the door when I got here and forgot I took it.” Jody’s arm was extended, and her fingers pinched a business card. “It looks like the Sleepy Hollow sheriff stopped by to see you. He wants you to call him.”

  I gulped and took the card, trying not to shake or give her an alarm that I wasn’t Debbie, and he was here because Debbie was dead. I was sure he was looking for the next of kin, which would let him release a statement to the public once Vernon Baxter gave him the preliminary report of how Debbie was murdered.

  “Thank you.” I took the card and tucked it into my front pocket. “Please, have a seat.”

  I waited for her to walk to her side of the table and sit down before I sat down.

  “Your grandmother is here.” I smiled across the table and saw the relief in Jody’s eyes. “I’m guessing you’re here for the brooch?”

  “Yes,” she gasped and brought her hands up to her chest. “Please tell her I’m so sorry. I should’ve seen all the signs she’d given. The broken leg, the girlfriend, not to mention the little incident with the police.”

  “We aren’t here to discuss that.” The grandmother stood next to Jody. “We are going to discuss your future.”

  “Can’t you just tell me where the brooch is?” I asked the grandmother. “I mean, with all that’s going on and all.” I pointed between me and Debbie’s ghost, suggesting she’d better make use of the time we had today since it was the last time Jody would get guidance from Debbie.

  “Is that old bat not
telling you where it is?” Jody’s attitude suddenly went really south. “My Nana told me she was a real first-class biddy.”

  “Ummm…” Frantically I looked at Debbie. “What’s going on here?”

  “Souls can be tricky if you don’t proceed the right way. They love to hold grudges. Especially with the living they left behind and who want something from them.” Debbie casually nodded Jody’s way like she didn’t want Jody to notice. “You should’ve asked Jody about her grandmother. Bring up loving memories.”

  “Geesh.” This wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped it was going to be. “Listen, she’s here, and she wants to connect with you, but you’ve got to be a nice granddaughter.”

  “I’m her great-granddaughter. She was a real you-know-what to my nana and my mother. She was a ball-breaker if you know what I mean.” Jody wasn’t helping her case any. “They gave me this stupid brooch. I sold it, and now I want it back. I know she knows where it ended up because I got her little messages from the beyond.” She waved her hand in the air. “I want her to stop ruining my life by haunting me. All the three a.m. wake-up calls with the water and other electronics, real cute!” Jody talked with her chin up to the sky.

  “She’s standing next to you,” I told Jody, making her jump the opposite way out of her seat.

  “Tell her to stop haunting me. If she tells me where the brooch is, then I’ll give it to Billy.” Jody used her finger to cross her heart.

  “She said that last time.” Grandmother didn’t look so convinced. “I’ve got a stipulation.”

  “She said you didn’t do that last time, and it’s on one condition.” I wanted to hurry this thing along.

  “Yeah, what is it?” Jody questioned, crossing her arms.

  “She has to go visit Billy. Then she can come back, and I’ll tell her how to get the brooch back from the person she sold it to.” It seemed like a reasonable request, only I wasn’t going to be here when Jody got back, but I didn’t care, so I relayed the message.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me?” Jody smacked the table.

  “Emma Lee?” The voice from the doorway made the grandmother disappear.

  “Oh my!” Jody screamed and held her chest like she was going to have a heart attack. “You scared the crap out of me, kid.”

  “David.” My eyes popped open, and my mouth went dry. “You’re home.”

  “David,” Debbie’s voice cracked, and she ghosted over to him.

  “A little help here,” I said like Debbie was going to save the sinking ship I’d found myself on.

  “Emma Lee, where’s my mom?” He walked through Debbie toward me. “Are you doing a reading or something?”

  “Who is Emma Lee?” Jody asked, her eyes darted between me and David.

  “Jody, go see your brother. Granny said.” I grabbed an unlighted incense and smacked it in the palm of her hand as I guided her toward the door. “Take this and put it in your house. Light it when you need to vent to your grandmother.”

  “Emma Lee, where is my mom?” David asked when I shoved past him.

  “Who is Emma Lee, Debbie?” Jody jerked away from me and glanced over her shoulder and over mine at David.

  “That’s not my mom.” David started to laugh. “My mom is Debbie.”

  “Kids.” I rolled my eyes and opened the door to literally push her out. Debbie was no help. She stood there in silence staring at David like she’d never seen him before.

  “Who are you?” Jody asked and planted herself on the small front porch after I had to give her a little nudge forward.

  “Look at my baby,” Debbie whined. “I can’t believe he’s so…” she paused. “Grown. College man.”

  “I’ll see you once you get back from your brother’s. Bye-bye.” I shut the door and planted my back up against it. “David,” I sighed and pushed off the door. “I’ve got something to tell you.”

  “Why were you just trying to act like my mom?” he asked.

  “Tell him Emma. Just be there for him. Promise me.” Debbie continued to float between me and David.

  There was a solid knock on the front door.

  “Don’t get hung up on that.” I tried to move around his questioning and get straight to the point.

  The pounding on the door got louder.

  “Listen, lady.” I jerked the door open to give Jody a good piece of my mind. “I don’t have time to…”

  “Emma Lee?” Trevor stood on the other side of the door. Jody stood behind him.

  “Emma Lee? Who is this Emma Lee?” She demanded. “Debbie, what’s going on?”

  “Debbie?” David and Trevor said in unison.

  “That’s Debbie Dually. She told me my great-grandmother is forcing me to go see my brother before she tells me where the brooch is so I can go back and get it so she’ll stop haunting me.” Jody sounded like a full bucket of crazy. “I gave her the sheriff card that was stuck in the door. Did you stick it in the door?”

  “Is your great-grandmother in there?” Trevor asked her and tried to glance inside of Debbie’s front door.

  “She’s dead. Debbie had called her from wherever it is their souls go.” Jody pointed to me.

  “Heaven.” I nodded. “They go to heaven.”

  “Let me get this straight.” Trevor leaned to one hip and rested his hand on the butt of his gun, which was stuck down into the holster around his waist. “Emma Lee told you your great-grandmother—”

  “Debbie told me,” Jody interrupted and folded her arms and shifted her tiny body to one side. “Right, Debbie?”

  “Emma Lee Raines, you are under arrest for impersonation of a deceased person.” Trevor ripped the cuffs right off his belt and reached to grab my wrist.

  “Deceased?” David moved in front of me, not letting Trevor cuff me just yet. “My mom is Debbie Dually, and this is her client Emma Lee.”

  “David,” I turned him to face me. “I came here to let you know that your mom has died.”

  “I came here to tell you that your mother has been murdered.” Trevor could’ve been a little more sympathetic. David blinked a few times as if he were trying to process what was happening. “Emma Lee Raines was the last person seen with your mother, and they were arguing. Your mother was found deceased in the town square in Sleepy Hollow. On my way up here, the coroner called and informed me your mother had a large amount of cyanide in her system. She’d been poisoned.”

  “Emma? Did you?” David started to ask me, but I stopped him really fast.

  “No. No, I didn’t, and I think she knew someone was going to because she…” I stopped when I realized I was going to sound crazy if I told them how Debbie had insisted I tell her I could see dead people. “She said she was in fear of her life.”

  “Is that right?” Trevor asked and took another step closer.

  David stepped aside like he was going to let Trevor take me.

  “I’m so confused.” David ran his hand over his head. “Mom called and asked me to come home early. I took my finals, and now she’s gone.”

  “Emma, we have some business to take care of since you didn’t come to the station to give a statement like I’d asked you, then I’ll just go on and haul you down now for impersonation.” Trevor gave no room for argument.

  He slapped the cuffs on me, and on our way to his sheriff’s car, he read me my rights.

  “David, please drive the hearse back to Sleepy Hollow. Follow us,” I yelled just as Trevor put his hand on top of my head and put in the car. “I’ll tell you everything!” I gave one last plea before Trevor slammed the door.

  I stared out the window at David, completely ignoring Jody. Debbie was next to him and trying to comfort him the best way a ghost mother could. He was sobbing. When Jody stepped over to touch him, Debbie glared at her.

  I flipped my body around to watch David from the back window of the sheriff’s car in hopes he’d jump in the hearse and follow me like I’d asked. He simply stood there and watched.

  This had not turned out like I
’d rehearsed in my head on the road trip to Lexington.

  Not a bit.

  Chapter Six

  “I’m going to ask you one more time.” The lines around Trevor’s mouth deepened as the look of dissatisfaction about my one-word answers for the past two hours of his interrogating me had worn on him. “What were you doing impersonating Debbie Dually?”

  “We were friends.” I decided to give him a little more of an answer than a shrug. “I wanted to tell David about his mother before you did.”

  “You impersonated her. That doesn’t look good. Do you understand, Emma Lee?” He didn’t understand how him treating me like a three-year-old wasn’t going to get him far. “I’ve got Debbie’s client list, and we are interviewing every one of them. How many times have you pretended to be Debbie Dually? Are you sick? I mean, if you’re… well… you know.” He alluded to the fact my Funeral Trauma was back, and I didn’t appreciate that at all.

  “When is my lawyer going to get here?” I asked him through my gritted teeth.

  After about a half hour of the initial interrogation and my lips staying shut, I could see this wasn’t going well, so I’d lawyered up by calling Granny to get me an attorney, since I couldn’t wait all day on a public defender.

  “You didn’t find any cyanide in my funeral home. You can’t keep me,” I told him after I made my phone call and Granny told me to tell him he had to charge me to keep me.

  Technically, he could keep me for twenty-four hours, but I was going to use any tactic to get out of here.

  “The public defender will get here when they can.” Trevor was standing on the opposite side of the table, leaning on his fisted hands. “In the meantime, why don’t you answer my question about what subject matter you and Ms. Dually were arguing over earlier this afternoon?”

  “Trevor, you do know that you could stand to get a haircut. It just doesn’t look good for the sheriff to be running around with longer-than-normal cop hair.” It was time to buy more time.

  There was no way I was going to tell him about why Debbie had come to see me.

  “Emma Lee, I’ve about had it up to here with you.” He had gone a little higher on the neckline than he’d done an hour ago when he’d said the same exact thing.