A Ghost and a Hard Place (A Reaper Witch Mystery Book 3)

by Elle Adams

  The colour drained from his face. “Lara and Eric, right?”

  “That’s right,” said Drew.

  “Why are you bringing this up now?” he asked. “I was sad they died, but it’s been twenty-odd years.”

  “Because their ghosts have been haunting the inn ever since then,” I said. “I’ve spoken to them myself, in fact.”

  Ed visibly blanched. “What did they say?”

  “For a start, Eric claimed you cornered him and Lara behind the river when you were supposed to be at school and told them off for skiving.”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t corner them. I was a prefect at the academy, so I was supposed to set a good example. I told them to go back to school, that’s all.”

  “And…?” I said with a significant look at him.

  “And what?”

  “That’s the last thing Eric said he remembered before his death,” I said. “He doesn’t recall anything else. Not even the flood.”

  “Maybe his memory is faulty,” Ed said. “After I told the pair of them off, I went back to school. News reached the academy that the town was flooding a few hours later, and I didn’t know they still were by the river at the time.”

  “I understand that you were the main suspect,” Drew told him. “The police brought you in for questioning.”

  “Only because I saw them bunking off school. We were classmates, and we didn’t get along, but I didn’t do anything to either of them. I thought they drowned.”

  Hmm. It seemed Eric had gaps in his memory, unless he’d omitted details on purpose. Or was he just shaken to have been reminded of an old, unpleasant part of his own history? It was impossible to tell, especially with a ghost.

  “They didn’t blame you directly,” I said carefully. “But you were the only suspect listed in the police’s records. Are you sure you have nothing else to say about their deaths that you didn’t tell the police at the time?”

  “Of course not,” he said. “I—I can’t believe they’ve been here in town all this time. I really didn’t know.”

  “Actually, there’s a lot of ghosts in Hawkwood Hollow,” I said. “Since the floods, there’ve been dozens of them in the area. Eric and Lara aren’t that unusual.”

  He looked even more shaken than before. “Right. Good to know. Um, is there anything else? Because I really don’t know anything more.”

  “Did you know Mina Devlin?” I asked.

  “Who, the coven leader?” he asked. “You’re the one who ran her out of town, right?”

  Did everyone in the entire town know? No wonder we’d had so much trouble finding anyone to work at the inn. “I’m the one who exposed the crime she helped cover up, yes. She was the coven leader at the time of the floods, too, wasn’t she?”

  “I think so, but I wasn’t part of the coven, and I didn’t know her,” he said. “Is that all?”

  Hmm. He didn’t seem to know anything about the coven leader, but if she’d helped him cover up a crime, then he might be lying to save face. Unless she’d merely pinned the murder on him because he’d been a convenient scapegoat. I wouldn’t have put anything past her.

  “If we have any other questions, we’ll let you know,” Drew added. “Thanks for speaking to us.”

  As Ed closed the door, Drew and I left the house behind us and walked down the street until we were out of earshot.

  “What do you reckon?” I asked him. “He seemed pretty surprised that you mentioned the murders at all, though I guess anyone would be if they didn’t know how many ghosts were hiding under their feet. Especially people he knew when he was a kid. Do you think he was telling the truth?”

  “I’m inclined to think he was,” he said. “If he did leave the area hours before their deaths, the details of his whereabouts ought to be easy to check, and from what you told me about the reports, it does sound like the coven wanted someone to blame.”

  “Mina Devlin strikes again.” I rolled my eyes. “I guess they couldn’t properly investigate until the floods were cleared up, by which point the perpetrator might have hidden the evidence, if there was any.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “Whether Eric and Lara’s deaths were accidental or not, Lara’s ghost’s disappearance might not necessarily be connected with the way she died or who killed her.”

  “Not if the Reaper’s the one who banished her,” I said. “I doubt he had anything to do with the case. Even if he was an active Reaper at the time, old Harold was actively dealing with the town’s ghosts up until he lost his apprentice. He wouldn’t have let another Reaper run amok around here. Besides, it makes no sense for him to come back here twenty years after their deaths.”

  Which meant there was a good chance the Reaper had another reason for being in town.

  “You’re right,” he said. “Want to go back to the inn, or should we pay the new Reaper a visit? Up to you.”

  “Yes,” I said. “To the second one, I mean. I can’t think of anyone else to ask about missing ghosts. If we can figure out what he’s doing in town, we might be able to strike him off the suspect list.”

  Or elevate him to the top. One way or another, it was past time for us to pin Shelton down and get some real answers about what he was doing here. I was done giving him the benefit of the doubt.

  It’d have been easier for me to fly to the next town on a broomstick rather than walking, but it was a nice day, and I didn’t mind spending some more time with the detective. We chatted as we walked, free from any eavesdroppers. Mart wasn’t around either, but that was to be expected. He’d be better off staying far away from our grumpy Reaper friend in case he got mad at Drew and me for cornering him and pulled out his scythe.

  The neighbouring town turned out to be even smaller than Hawkwood Hollow, consisting of a single cobbled high street and not much else. It felt strange walking among normals after spending the past few weeks entrenched in the paranormal world. While both Drew and I looked ordinary enough most of the time, I had to remember to keep my wand hidden in my pocket. My Reaper side wasn’t visible to most people anyway, so I’d just have to remember not to strike up a conversation with any ghosts.

  We approached the bed-and-breakfast Drew had located, a pleasant brick cottage decorated with curtains of ivy, and walked in. A woman sat behind the desk, plainly dressed in comparison to the magical folk I’d grown accustomed to spending the majority of my time around over the last few weeks.

  “Hey there,” said Drew. “We’re here to speak to one of your guests. He’d have arrived here a couple of days ago. Shelton…” He looked to me as though it’d just occurred to him that I hadn’t mentioned whether Shelton was his first name or surname. With a Reaper, it was lucky we’d got any name from him at all.

  “He’s gone,” the woman answered. “Went out a few hours ago.”

  “What do you mean, he’s not here?” I said. “Will he be staying here tonight, too?”

  The woman looked uncomfortable. “Do you know him? Why do you want to find him?”

  I hadn’t expected it to be easy to find the Reaper, but it looked like we’d come all this way for no reason. Either he’d seen us coming and given us the slip, or he’d gone back into town to do some more poking around. Or worse… ghost hunting.

  “No worries,” said Drew, sidestepping her questions. “Thank you for your help.”

  As soon as Drew had closed the door behind us, I said, “Does she know you’re the chief of police in Hawkwood Hollow?”

  “Probably not,” he said. “We do work with the local authorities when appropriate, but we don’t tend to mingle with normals.”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty typical of a paranormal community,” I said. “The Reaper must have his reasons for picking this place to stay. Aside from not wanting ghosts to bother him, that is.”

  I assumed he’d booked the trip in advance, so he hadn’t seemed to even consider the Riverside Inn as a potential option. Maybe because he’d already known he didn’t want to stay inside the town itself… or m
aybe because he’d had an issue with the place even before he’d known there was a Reaper working there.

  Had he known? I wouldn’t have thought word would have spread outside the town, but something about the way everyone seemed to be avoiding the inn rubbed me up the wrong way. Even someone like him, who wasn’t from Hawkwood Hollow at all and shouldn’t know anything about recent events.

  Drew studied the cobbled street in front of us. “Want to wait here for Shelton to come back? He can’t stay out all day, and I’m inclined to think he’ll be returning to stay the night.”

  “Nah, he’s not worth sticking around for,” I said. “Let’s go back to Hawkwood Hollow. Maybe he’s hanging around at the inn again.”

  I hoped not. Especially with both of us absent at the same time. It wasn’t as if I had someone else watching out for ghost-related trouble… except for Mart, that is, and I didn’t want him going near the Reaper again if I could help it.

  We headed back along the woodland trail connecting the town to Hawkwood Hollow. It was easy to tell when we were back in town when the number of ghosts multiplied, which at least confirmed that they were localised in that area in particular. Old Harold had certainly left a huge mess to clean up. If the Reaper Council ever decided to make the town its target, they’d need to send more than a lone Reaper to deal with it.

  I wasn’t sure that was what was going on here, though. One Reaper couldn’t expel the ghosts of an entire town, true, but was there a reason he’d picked that ghost in particular to send to the afterlife? If so, then perhaps there was some unknown link between him and the case. Or, if he was a rogue, perhaps someone who was involved had hired him to use his scythe to take the ghost out of the picture.

  Neither option signalled anything good.

  8

  Drew and I returned to the inn without running into Shelton on the way back, though not for lack of trying. At least I knew the way to the neighbouring village now if I ever needed to go there again in the future. I’d mostly kept to myself in other towns I’d lived in, and Hawkwood Hollow was more confusing than most due to the bizarre street numbering system, but the route around the town was starting to stick in my memory now I’d walked around so much.

  The more I looked out for our missing Reaper, though, the more frustrated I grew. There were a limited number of places he might be hiding, since there was nothing else in the area except for empty fields. The number of ghosts who appeared on our way back into the town signalled that he hadn’t gone on a banishing spree, at least, but I was pretty sure the guy hadn’t gone to hang out with the witches at the Crooked Broomstick or to a pack party with the local shifters. I doubted he had a single friend in the entire town.

  When we passed by the high street, I veered sideways into the road leading to the cemetery on the off chance that Shelton had decided to visit the old Reaper’s cottage while we’d been gone. You never knew.

  “Want to knock?” asked Drew when I pressed my ear to the door to see if I could hear voices inside.

  “Nah, better not risk it.” I backed away from the door to old Harold’s cottage in case he heard us outside and came out to yell at us to go away. “I don’t think our new Reaper friend is in there, besides.”

  Not that I’d expected him to be, but this game of cat and mouse was getting old.

  I was more than happy to go back to the inn and chill out for the rest of the day, but the universe had other plans. After we crossed the bridge, Mart accosted me at the door to the inn. “There’s trouble.”

  “Trouble?” I said. “Like what?”

  The detective paused behind me. “Is that your brother?”

  “Yes. He says there’s trouble at the inn.” I turned back to face Mart. “What is it?”

  “If you’ll let me speak,” he said, “I’d tell you. The ghosts are getting seriously agitated in there.”

  “Including Eric?” I asked.

  “He’s gone,” said Mart. “Allegedly, he disappeared not long after you left. I was in my room, minding my own business, so I didn’t see, but I heard the other ghosts calling for him, and they couldn’t find him. They searched the whole inn, and the grounds, too.”

  “Eric has gone, too?” Damn. I shouldn’t have turned my back on him, but I’d been at a loss as to how else to find the Reaper. Did Shelton banish them both?

  “According to Pam here,” said Mart. “Come and speak to her.”

  “All right.” I walked into the inn, where another teenage ghost hovered in the corner of the lobby, her eyes big and frightened. “Hey. Mart said Eric’s ghost is gone?”

  “He’s disappeared,” said Pam. “He went outside a couple of hours ago, and I haven’t seen him since.”

  “Did he say where he was going?” I asked.

  “No, but he was looking for Lara,” she said. “That’s all he’s been doing for the last couple of days. He misses her.”

  “I know he does,” I said. “He asked me to find her. Now he’s gone missing, too, apparently. Did you see anyone else outside—anyone living, that is?”

  “I didn’t leave the inn,” she said. “Please, Reaper. Protect us.”

  “I’ll try to.” Not that I’d done a spectacular job so far. One ghost’s disappearance was bad enough, but two? More to the point, both had disappeared outside the inn, suggesting the person who’d banished them had come here for that very purpose, Reaper or not.

  Drew looked at me. “Both ghosts have disappeared?”

  “Looks that way,” I said. “I don’t know when it happened, but if it was a witch who did it, maybe they left some traces behind this time.”

  It was a long shot, I had to admit, but I was starting to wish I’d never left the inn to begin with. Not only had our trip to visit Ed James proven fruitless, but our unwanted guest had gone walkabout as well. I assumed Allie had more sense than to let him into the inn, but the dude could walk through walls if he wanted to.

  Still, so could I. I turned back to face Mart. “Sure you didn’t see anyone come in, through the door or otherwise?”

  “Positive,” he said. “I am a Reaper, you know.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m going to search outside.”

  “I’ll go with you,” said Drew. “Just in case you try to jump into the river again.”

  “Hey, that wasn’t deliberate,” I protested at his reference to an incident a few weeks ago when I’d gone out to do a little solo investigating into a murder case and nearly got myself shoved into the river by the killer. “Anyway, I’m not going that close to the river this time.”

  “Bet he wouldn’t object to having to fish you out.” Mart snickered. “He just wants an excuse to get up close and snuggly with you.”

  I ignored him, walking out in front of the inn. “Stand back. I’m going to check for our Reaper first. Hopefully, he won’t notice.”

  “What do you mean by check?” Drew said.

  “Like this.” Shadows spread out from my feet, though I made sure not to let them touch the detective. “If I look through the afterworld, I’ll be able to see if he’s hiding in the building. I can detect his location if he’s nearby, too.”

  Drew’s response went unheard as the shadows thickened, revealing the glowing light of several ghosts… and no Reaper. He might still be in town but not within reach of my Reaper senses unless I extended them farther, and I preferred not to smother the entire inn in shadows.

  Instead, I let the shadows drop. Drew stood inches from my face, concern pulling at his mouth. “I’m not going to pretend that wasn’t unnerving, Maura. It’s like you vanished into the shadows.”

  “Still here.” I poked him in the arm to prove my point. “Our Reaper, though… he isn’t here. Neither are our missing ghosts. Maybe they eloped together, but can ghosts even do that?”

  “You’re the expert,” said Drew lightly.

  “Not really.” I’d never felt more lost, to be honest. “Right. I’ve searched the afterworld, so all that’s left to do is to search the physic
al world.”

  “Who’s getting physical?” Mart said, floating through the door behind us.

  “Nobody,” I said. “I told you, I’m searching the area for the missing ghost. Coming to help?”

  “No, thanks,” he said. “If there’s a ghost-eating pit hidden outside, I’m not falling into it.”

  “There’s no such thing as a ghost-eating pit, Mart.” I rolled my eyes. “Also, don’t say that in front of the other ghosts, please. I don’t need them panicking even more.”

  “What exactly are we looking for?” asked Drew. “Clues that point to a ghost being banished? I know there’s a few herbs that’ll do the job.”

  “You’ve been researching,” I observed. “Yeah, there’s a few variants. Also, sage is a ghost repellent. That might have been used if they wanted to drive a ghost out of a certain area. Some other herbs will do the trick as well.”

  Drew and I walked around the inn, scanning the ground for any signs of a banishment spell. Other than mud churned up from the overnight rain and the persistently flowing river, we found nothing. I did another check on the afterworld closer to the river, but I saw neither of the spirits we were looking for, nor the Reaper.

  “Nothing?” said Drew.

  “Not so far.” I banished the shadows again. “Either Eric wandered out of his usual zone and is hiding elsewhere in town, or…”

  Or the Reaper had used his scythe on him and then vanished into the shadows before we returned to the inn.

  I spotted Allie watching us from the window of the restaurant and walked back to meet her. “What are you and the detective doing out there?"

  “Another ghost is gone,” I said. “Eric disappeared while we were out searching for our elusive Reaper.”

  Her eyes rounded. “You mean the teenager who was looking for the other missing ghost?”

  “Looks like he did a runner or was banished,” I said. “Who else has been at the inn since we left?”

  “The usual lunch crowd,” she said. “Not many people. Mrs Terrence… a few others.”

  “Not those students?”

  She shook her head. “I’d definitely know if they were around. Besides, they’re at school.”