“You want to grab a bite to eat?” the younger version of Elliot offers and Harper shakes her head at him.
“I’d better get back. If my mother finds out I’ve been running around with a guy, the next time I leave the house it’ll be college move-in day.”
“She’s right,” I whisper and Elliot pulls back and lowers his lids my way.
He smells nice. His cologne is mingling with his soap, along with that new clothes scent lingering to his sweater. Everything about Elliot Greenly is nice, which would be nice in and of itself if he wasn’t so off-putting in far more blatant ways.
“At least your mom isn’t the town nutjob,” Royce says to her and Harper scoffs.
“Just wait until you meet her.” Harper snickers. “She’s been known to go off the rails a time or two.”
I shake my head because she doesn’t know the half of it.
They take off and seal the door shut behind them.
“Is Iona the town nutjob?” I ask as Elliot and I remain frozen inside that dark corridor far longer than necessary. “Wait, don’t answer that. I have a feeling I’m about to dethrone her anyway. No need to bash your ex on my account.”
A dark chuckle bounces through his chest—and mine by proxy since he’s holding me so tightly.
His grip on me loosens. “Are you ready to get back to Main Street?”
“Only if you promise to tell me everything you know about this haunted little town on the way over.”
“No can do,” he says. “The things I have to tell you deserve far more attention than a quick drive into town. But if you want, you can take another stab at explaining how and why you ended up in my shower. That would be appreciated.”
“I could, but with my luck I’d stab us both in the literal sense and land us in the morgue next to your poor friend.”
Elliot pauses at the door and bores those clear eyes to mine.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “That was really insensitive of me.”
He shakes his head. “You’re fine. I wasn’t thinking about Griffin.”
I suck in my lower lip as my gaze rides up and down his body, and suddenly I’m not thinking about Griffin either.
Elliot’s lips twitch. “What’s going through your mind?”
My shoulders ride up a notch. “I was just thinking you look nice with that sweater on.” I press my lips tightly in an effort to keep from saying the words that are begging to bubble out next. “But you didn’t look so bad without it either.” I push past him into the icy night air as something warm and weighted falls over my shoulders from behind. I turn to find Elliot wrapping me with a coat.
“I was thinking you look nice in that dress.” His lips purse as his eyes stay trained on mine. “But I’d rather you not catch your death.”
“Very funny,” I say. “And thank you.”
He slips a coat on himself and gives a sly wink. “I don’t think you’d look so bad without it either.”
We take off for Main Street and the mood between us feels as if it’s loosening.
Elliot is going to spill those secrets this town is holding to the vest like a poker hand. And he thinks I’m about to do the same about my shower trick.
Fat chance.
I’m just as in the dark about my own secrets as he is.
And how I wish I wasn’t.
Chapter 11
The crowd inside Fae Gardens has grown exponentially, and I find both Cash and Mabel at the bar—at opposing ends as it were. There’s a live band playing now and the scent of those grilled burgers has ticked up a notch.
“I’d better head over to Cash,” I say with more than a touch of dread in my voice. “The poor guy thinks I skipped out on him.”
“You did.” Elliott flexes a dry smile. “Why don’t you give me a head start with him? This will only take a few minutes.” He takes off toward the bar just as my slightly see-through niece spots me and begins to float in my direction.
“Billie!” Mabel hisses and her voice reverberates in a ghostly echo. “Where were you? Morgan and Teddy are out scouring the town looking for you. Cash has your purse with him by the bar. He was pretty worried, too.”
“Do you think he’d buy the fact I had a bathroom emergency?”
She winces. “He did a pretty thorough search of both restrooms. He knows you left the building.”
I glance that way and Elliot and Cash seem to be having it out.
Cash glances back this way and I give a timid wave before Elliot steps in and blocks his view of me and the men seem to be going at it again.
“Well, there’s that. I don’t know what to do, Mabel. I ended up in Elliot Greenly’s shower—while he was in there!”
She sucks in a quick breath—one she doesn’t need, might I add.
“Oh, this is getting serious, Billie. We’re going to have to find a way to fix this for you.”
I nod. “And guess what? I didn’t time travel. I just popped into Elliot’s shower unannounced, in another part of town, for no good reason.”
She bites down on her lip as she looks to the bar. “I don’t know that you’d need a good reason to pop into that man’s shower.”
“Mabel,” I hiss just as a body bumps into me from behind and I turn to find a familiar redhead, Silvia Arden, struggling not to drop a tray of dirty dishes. “Whoa,” I say as I help her out by grabbing a few stray glasses that are about to slide right onto the floor.
“Nice save.” She laughs. “Thank you.” She’s about to take off and glances back at me. “Hey? Where did you go? Sheriff Archer was turning this place upside down. You didn’t ditch him, did you?”
“Nope. I just ran into a kerfuffle and sort of got in way over my head with another man.”
She averts her eyes. “Lord knows I’ve been there a time or two.”
“Professor Barker?” I tip my head as her jaw loosens.
“So you know?” Her eyes narrow over mine. “Don’t tell me he came after you, too.”
Mabel floats back a notch. “Came after you? What is that supposed to mean?”
I’d like to know myself.
I nod to the redhead. “Do you have a second?”
She blows out a breath and lands her tray down on the nearest table and we both take a seat.
“Silvia, what was it that Professor Barker was doing?”
She glances over her shoulder a moment. “You mean with those donations?” she says donations in air quotes.
Mabel gives a ghostly moan. “Something tells me you should play along, Billie. You might get more out of her that way.”
I give a slight nod. “Exactly, the donations.” Something Jenny said when I spoke to her comes to mind. She mentioned something about a donation herself. “What kind of donation did he take from you?”
“The same kind he took from everyone else apparently.” Tears come to her eyes and she blinks them back. “At first, I thought I was really special to him. The Chatham House, his private foundation, was doing really great work, but he kept asking for more blood.”
“Blood?” Mabel and I ask in unison.
Silvia gives a quick nod. “He works closely with Winchester General. The Chatham House is one of the venues they use to build their blood bank. Anyway, he seemed more interested in my blood than he did me toward the end. And then, of course, I found out he was two-timing me. Three-timing me, and probably four-timing me, but I gave up on trying to uncover any more dirt on him. I had all I needed.” Her eyes widen past me with a vacant stare.
“What was the dirt, Silvia?”
Her shoulders tremble as a dry laugh strums through her.
“I guess there’s no use in keeping it from the world now. He’s gone. There’s nothing more he can do to keep me quiet about it.”
“Go on,” I say, slipping to the edge of my seat, literally.
“Griffin Barker died forty years ago.” Her dark eyes hook to mine. “Professor Barker was using a stolen identity. I reported it, too.” She shoots a scathing glance
toward the bar. “I told Detective Greenly about it three weeks ago and nothing happened. I thought for sure he’d arrest him, or in the least Professor Barker would be let go from his position at the university. But it was as if it wasn’t important.” She glances back to the bar. “It was almost as if Detective Greenly was covering for him.” She shudders a moment. “Anyway, I decided to take matters into my own hands. That day at that bookstore—I let Professor Barker know that if he didn’t come clean I was going to expose him to everyone in that room right after the taping.”
That conversation I had with Vera comes back to me.
“Silvia, did Vera know about any of this?”
Her features harden. “She was one of his girls. I didn’t tell her about the fake identity, but I told her that I knew about his little harem and that she was just another notch on his bedpost.”
I shake my head. Vera mentioned that Silvia and Griffin had a secret. She seemed pretty glib about it, too. Something’s not adding up.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” I say, looking right at her.
Her gaze drops to the floor and her hand touches her belly for a moment.
“No, there’s nothing more. It was nice talking to you, Billie.” She shrugs. “Sheriff Archer shouted your name out for so long I feel as if we’re old friends. Stop by anytime you want.” She takes off and Mabel sighs in her wake.
“What do you think, Mabel?” I look her way and her face begins to glow a sickly shade.
“I’m sorry, Billie, but I think it’s time you know a thing or two about Glimmerspell.” She glances to the bar. “And from what you’ve told me, you already have a volunteer to tell you everything you need to know. I’ll see you at the Haunted Book Barn where I put the haunt in haunted.” A ghostly laugh echoes from her as she dissipates right before my eyes.
No sooner do I stand than both Cash and Elliot are upon me.
“Cash, I can explain.” I wince. “I mean, I—”
He hands me my purse. “Don’t worry about it, Billie.” He glowers over at Elliot. “He told me everything I needed to know. How about a do-over? I’ll swing by the Haunted Book Barn and we can share a bite there. And that way if an emergency comes up with an inventory delivery, we can tackle it together.”
“Ah yes, the inventory emergency”—I glance to Elliot for a microsecond and his lips twitch with delight my way—“I would love a do-over, Cash. I’ll see you soon.” I offer him a spontaneous hug and his gun butts up against my hip.
He pulls away and shoots Elliot a lethal look. “Don’t believe everything you hear.” He tips his chin up my way. “We’ll have that talk soon.”
He takes off, and I blow out a breath that feels as if I’ve been holding it for hours.
“So, Detective? Are you ready to tell me a thing or two about this one-horse town.”
“Yes. But not tonight. I have class in the morning. I’m officially filling in Professor Barker’s shoes over at Dexter.”
“But it’s not even nine o’clock. Surely you could give me the SparkNotes edition. I promise I’ll make sure you get home before your truck turns into a pumpkin. We can take a seat at the bar. I’ll buy the drinks.”
A growl of a laugh strums through him and his lids hood dangerously low. That spear of heat he seems to sponsor shoots through my belly and into oblivion, leaving me to gasp in its wake.
“The bar wouldn’t be a good idea.” He doubles down on his stubbornness. “And we’ll need more time than just a few hours. What I have planned might just take all night.” He exhales as his gaze digs into mine. “Goodnight, Billie.”
He takes off and leaves me with the fairies that run this place, with their wings flapping frenetically, their glowing blue skin and glittering eyes. The patrons are starting to get a little too rowdy, so I gather my coat and shoot both Morgan and Teddy a quick text to let them know I’m still very much in the present with them.
And oddly, my mind is very much in the past with Elliot in that shower. Now that’s a sight I don’t think I’ll forget for a long time to come.
Silvia said that Elliot knew about Griffin’s false identity and did nothing about it. Was he covering for him? But why?
That heated exchange he had with Griffin the day of the murder comes back to me.
Maybe Glimmerspell isn’t the only one rife with secrets around here.
My guess is Elliot has them, too.
It looks as if I’ll have to winnow out more information from him than either of us bargained for.
Elliot Greenly may be as ornery as they come, but is he a killer?
I’ll get my answer sooner than later, and a part of me wonders how I’ll feel when I do.
I think I already know.
Chapter 12
The snow is falling and the Haunted Book Barn is bustling.
All morning and well into the afternoon, Teddy and I are whipping up one latte after another and dishing out the Danishes as fast as we can, too. And between customers, Teddy and I have been discussing the case—going over our suspects one by one under the watchful eye of Grizabella. It’s not until two-thirty do we catch a breather.
“Is it always this busy?” I ask as we enjoy a couple of Frappuccinos we’ve whipped up for ourselves. Teddy is clad in green today, and I’m liking this verdant ode to nature look on her.
“Not typically, but we’re a hot commodity now that we’ve had the dead guy christen this place.”
Morgan laughs as she and Mabel come up behind her.
“That’s right.” Morgan comes around the counter and steals a cheese Danish from the shelf. “If I knew a corpse would up our value, I would have put out a hit on someone ages ago.”
Teddy glances to the ceiling. “Well, if you’re down and out in the future, and looking to shake things up with a little homicide, my vote is for Iona. She’s been shooting daggers at me all day.”
“I’m pretty sure she’s shooting daggers at me,” I say, frowning in the general direction of the registers where Iona has been flipping me off with her eyes ever since I set foot in here. “Oh no.” I suck in a quick breath. “Do you think she knows about the fact I essentially took a shower with her ex?”
Mabel titters while Morgan picks up Teddy’s hand so that she can hear what the perky poltergeist might have to offer the conversation.
“How I wish I could have seen it.” Mabel shakes her head. “That whole shower scenario happened to me once, too, but the guy never knew I was there.”
I lean in. “Did you run screaming like I wanted to?”
“Do I look insane to you?” A devilish grin rides on her lips. “I didn’t want to scare the poor guy, so I stood there quietly until he finished up. If I’m anything, I’m polite.” She gives a little wink. “I’ll go finish up with the audit.” She looks to her sister. “The numbers may have been lagging last year, but Teddy is right. This last week has been booming. Oh, and by the way, I’d beef up the true crime section. We’re selling out of everything.” She floats off to her desk, not bothering to go around a single material obstacle in her path. I watch amazed and with slight horror as she passes right through tables, bookshelves, and customers alike.
Morgan grunts as she swallows down a bite of her Danish. “I’d better put in that order. We’re filming our next episode of Murder, Mayhem, and Baking this Saturday, and I’m dedicating the episode to Professor Barker. Vera said the students were planning on coming down as sort of a vigil, so we’re going to have a packed house.”
“That’s very nice of you,” I tell her. “What dessert are we making and I’ll be sure to have all the ingredients ready.”
“Better Than Sex Cake,” Teddy offers and both Morgan and I groan. “What? That professor dipped his wick into anything that moved. His harem might even get a kick out of it.”
“You’re not wrong,” I say, giving a wistful tick of the head. “But I say we go for something a little more subtle just in case his family turns up for the makeshift vigil.”
Teddy nods.
“Keeping it classy, huh?” She shrugs as she lifts her drink my way. “Showering with a Hot Guy Shortcake? Seducing the Sheriff Stiff Lemon Meringue?”
Morgan snorts. “I’ll handle this one. I’m thinking bumbleberry Pie.” She shoots a curt look my way. “After what you told me about Detective Greenly last night, I’m starting to think he’s bumbling this case on purpose.”
I make a face because I’m half-afraid she’s right. “Hey, you mentioned you knew his mother. The one that gave you the hourglass that knocked me into last week, literally? I think I’d like to meet her.”
“You will.” She nods. “I spoke with her this morning when I was putting in an order from the dairy. She says she’s heard many things about you already and she can hardly wait to say hello in person. I told her to stop by anytime.”
“Do you think she will?” A shiver runs through me at the thought.
Teddy shakes her head. “I’d be afraid if I were you.”
“Pfft.” A laugh bounces through my chest. “What’s to fear? She runs a dairy, for Pete’s sake.”
Morgan and Teddy exchange a brief glance.
“If you’re lucky, she’ll love you to pieces,” Morgan says, making her way to the other side of the counter once again.
“And if I’m not?” I ask. Because, let’s face it, I never am.
Morgan chortles to herself. “You just might regret your stay in Glimmerspell.”
“A part of me is doing that already,” I mutter just as Teddy elbows me.
“Teen scene alert coming straight at us.”
I look up just as Harper and Sadie descend upon the café.
“I know what you kids like.” Teddy shoots them with her finger. “I’ll go and whip something up for you right now.” She takes off to do just that as I belly up to the counter.
“Hey, girls.” I perk up. Nothing has the power to turn my day around like seeing my daughter’s happy face. “How was school?”
Harper scowls over at me while Sadie rubs her baby belly.
Midlife in Glimmerspell Page 14
