by Elle Adams
At least not with a teenager in tow, anyway.
She nodded. “It’s a tricky case, and a pity all around. Carey might have mentioned Mrs Renner was supposed to be staying here at the inn on the day of her death. The weather prevented the construction workers from going in and she really wasn’t in a fit state to go wandering around that old house.”
“I didn’t know the construction workers were supposed to be there.” I thought back to the rat shifter’s terrified expression when he’d seen poor old Dolores lying dead on the ground. “So she went back there alone… why?”
To prevent Dolores from going to the house and knocking it down while she wasn’t there, she’d said, but Dolores herself had claimed not to have been there and the goblin’s reports had backed her up.
“I don’t know, but she was attached to her home,” she said. “There wasn’t anything I could do to convince her to stay away while it was under repair.”
Hmm. “The construction workers mentioned there might have been sabotage. Of the magical sort, I mean.”
“I haven’t spoken to the construction workers, so I wouldn’t know,” she said. “As for sabotage… she certainly made enough enemies. I wonder what that Dolores was doing at her house earlier. It seems a strange time for her to visit.”
“That’s what I don’t get.” Even if Mrs Renner had somehow caused her death, why had she been there in the first place?
“Whatever the case, I’m sure the police will get to the bottom of it,” she said. “As for you, Maura, you don’t have to worry about paying for your room while you stay here. I gather that it might take a few more days to draw out Mrs Renner’s ghost and deal with her, what with there being an active investigation on at the house.”
“You don’t have to let me stay here for free,” I protested. “You can take it out of my payment for dealing with the ghost, I don’t mind.”
“We have the rooms to spare, and you don’t cause trouble, dear,” she said. “And you’ve been good to Carey, too.”
I looked down, embarrassed. “Not to pry, but I’ve noticed the town is overrun with ghosts. Has… I mean, has her father’s ghost ever been seen?”
“No, he died on a work trip outside of the town,” she said. “A freak accident. It hit Carey hard, I think, as she’s an only child and she’s always been sensitive.”
“Did you know about the local ghosts, though?” I asked. “I don’t mean to be nosy, but I’ve lived in quite a few magical communities and there’s usually a Reaper assigned to each region who is typically tuned in to everything happening within the area. If there isn’t one, then the Reaper Council tends to show up and send their own people in. This place feels abandoned, almost, despite having its own Reaper. It’s not typical.”
“The Reaper has been retired for a long while.” She lowered her gaze, but not before I caught a flash of emotion in her eyes. “You’ll have to ask him if you want to know why.”
“I doubt that’s a good idea.” Given his reaction to my earlier questions, anyway. He wasn’t a friendly person and was doubtless as secretive about his past as he was about his reasons for spurning his duty and letting the ghosts of the town’s citizens stay here long past their sell-by dates.
Come to think of it, Dolores’s ghost might be the next to show up. Not right away—there was often a gap between someone’s death and their ghost making an appearance, even without a Reaper in charge of taking people’s souls away—but soon. Within the next day. As for whether her ghost would appear at the house or not, though… I doubted Mrs Renner would take kindly to a second ghost moving in, especially her mortal enemy.
Given the little I knew about Dolores, it seemed more likely that her ghost would show up at the retirement home. Even if she wasn’t already there, talking to the other resident spirits might be a fruitful line of enquiry if I wanted to find out why Dolores had made her sudden, fateful decision to pay a visit to Mrs Renner’s house.
No doubt the staff at the retirement home would be talking to the police right now, but the image of the ghosts flocking around the place filled my mind. What with the recent shock and my fixation on Mrs Renner, I’d forgotten all about the other ghosts for the first time since I’d arrived in town. Except for Mart, of course.
That settled it. After saying goodbye to Carey’s mother, I left the hotel and called Mart to my side. “Fancy meeting some of the other ghosts?”
“Which ghosts?” he asked. “I’ve already met the ones at the inn.”
“We’re going to the retirement home,” I said. “I want to see if any of the ghosts there saw Dolores leave. Or if Dolores herself showed up yet.”
He pulled a face. “Why not ask the detective instead?”
“He’s busy,” I said. “Besides, I don’t need to ask his permission.”
He snorted. “If you ask me, he’s waiting for your permission to ask you out.”
“Just where are you getting this from?” I said. “Since when were you so interested in my non-existent love life, anyway?”
“Since the chemistry between you two practically set Mrs Renner’s house on fire. It made me need a cold shower, and I’m a ghost.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
I didn’t like the detective. We barely knew one another, and he refused to tell me anything about himself. Okay, we hadn’t exactly had many chances for a chat outside of the ongoing investigation, but my entire life was overshadowed by the dead. It was part and parcel of being a Reaper.
And to be honest, most of the time, it was easier to stick with the ghosts than attempt to understand the living.
10
I took my time walking back to the retirement home, part of me expecting to see the police gathering there, too. Instead, nobody appeared to be around. Nobody living, anyway. A few ghosts drifted about, and I looked around for a promising target who might be willing to talk to me. The high fence surrounding the building prevented me from seeing inside the back garden, so I didn’t know if old Dolores’s ghost might be hanging out in the same spot she’d occupied when I’d last spoken to her.
I was about to knock on the front door when the ghost of an old man walked out with a purposeful stride. He turned around to close the door and, since it was already shut, fell through it. He caught his balance, saw me looking, and his expression turned sheepish.
“Sometimes I forget,” he said. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“I am,” I said. “How’d you know I can see you?”
He couldn’t know I was a Reaper, or else he’d have run for the hills at the very sight of me. Most spirits couldn’t tell until I deliberately showed off my talents and started waving around my shadowy magic. Without a scythe, I looked like any other ordinary witch.
“Oh, you have a look about you, know what I mean?” he said. “Were you here to visit someone?”
“Dolores Malone died earlier today,” I said. “Have you seen her?”
“Alive or dead?”
“Either,” I said. “She died at Mrs Renner’s house. Did you see her leave the retirement home?”
“Who?” he said. “Oh, her. Nasty woman. Never had a kind word to say to anyone. Whenever we tried to invite her to live here and leave that awful old house behind, she responded with nothing but anger and ingratitude.”
“So this has been going on for a while?” I asked. “People asking her to move out of the house?”
“Yes, you’d think we were all after that property for our own use, the way she kept banging on about it,” he said. “The truth is, everyone knows it’s on its last legs. If her grandson actually fixes it up, he might have a chance of selling it to one of the coven members, but that’s assuming he sticks around this time.”
So Mr Renner had been here in Hawkwood Hollow before? He’d given me the impression this was his first time here.
“He met his grandmother before her death?” I asked casually. “I thought he’d never been here before.”
“He tried to convi
nce her to move out, I heard, but gave up and left town,” he said. “This was two years or more back, mind.”
“What are you doing?” said a voice.
I spun around. The Reaper of all people stood behind me, arms folded and a scowl on his face. A cigarette hung from his lips, and I eyed it warily in case he threw it at me again. He didn’t have his scythe, at least, but why was he looking at me like I’d committed a crime?
“Talking.” There was no use denying I’d been speaking to a ghost. “About the recent death of Dolores Malone. Which I suppose you’d know about.”
Reapers had a kind of sixth sense which told them when someone in the vicinity had died even when they were nowhere nearby. Mine had faded for the most part—which was frankly a relief, considering life was difficult enough without adding a built-in alarm that alerted you every time someone died—but he must still be able to detect when someone within his region passed away.
He grunted. “Why are you so interested in her death?”
“It happened while I was there,” I told him. “Have you seen Dolores’s ghost? Can you call her back to speak to me?”
“Certainly not.” His vehemence made me take a step back, and his cigarette fell from his mouth. “You don’t live here. Leave now, if you know what’s good for you.”
“Whoa.” I held up my hands. “I’m not doing anything wrong. You’re the one who accosted me. If you won’t enlighten me on what your issue is, please go and bother someone else.”
I pointedly turned away, but of course the ghost of the old man was long gone. He might not have known about my Reaper powers, but he must have recognised the old retired Reaper and scarpered.
“I have a problem with nosy good-for-nothing outsiders telling me how to do my job,” he growled.
“You’re not doing your job. That’s the point.” I decided not to press the issue, and with the ghost gone, there was little point in me staying here. Of all the times for him to show an interest in the citizen’s lives—or deaths—he had to pick now. Strange, really, given his apparent reluctance to put that scythe of his to the proper use.
I walked away, feeling the Reaper glaring at me until I turned the street corner and he was lost to sight. Exhaling a relieved breath, I startled when I spotted someone else entirely on the other side of the road, heading for the nursing home.
Mr Renner. What was he doing here? It wasn’t like he had any other retired grandparents to visit. None that I’d known about, anyway. It was weird to see him so soon after the ghost of the old man had mentioned this wasn’t his first visit here to Hawkwood Hollow, too, but I couldn’t exactly stop and speak to him with the Reaper still glaring daggers at me, so I left him to it and made my way back to the Riverside Inn.
Nobody was around when I entered the lobby. I could hear chatter from the restaurant, but I wasn’t really in the mood for socialising. Carey must still be in her room, and she probably didn’t want to be disturbed after her earlier scare. I explored the lower floor of the inn instead, finding an unoccupied games room through a door adjoining the lobby.
“Hey, I like this game.” Mart appeared hovering by the games table in the corner. “It’s one I can actually play.”
He didn’t have much firepower as a ghost, but he could use simple telekinesis well enough to pick up a floating ball and levitate it around the board. He always beat me, too. Sometimes I let him win, just to let him have his small amusements.
“Want a game?” I pulled out my wand and levitated the ball into the air.
“Sure.” He held up his hands and mimicked holding a wand, and the game began.
Playing an intense competition with Mart did make me feel better. Marginally, anyway. I’d just lost my third game in a row when Mart suddenly looked up, exclaimed, and vanished, the ball dropping to the floor.
I turned around and saw Detective Drew was watching me from beside the half-open door to the lobby. “What are you doing here?”
“Are you playing against yourself?” His gaze followed the ball as it rolled to a stop.
“Yes.” I drew myself upright. “Got a problem with that? I had some spare time and nothing else to do.”
Thanks to the Reaper. Not that I really had much in the way of hobbies, anyway. I’d been cut off from the magical world for too long to keep up with recent events and gossip, and the ghosts made it difficult to socialise even in the normal world. The one time I’d joined a local hiking club, I’d been pursued halfway across the Yorkshire moors by a wandering spirit. Even in the middle of nowhere, the dead managed to hound me.
“I’m surprised you didn’t go back to Mrs Renner’s house after dropping Carey at home,” he said.
“Didn’t seem appropriate with the police around,” I said. “Since, you know, I’m not supposed to be involved with the investigation.”
“The police have left the house by now,” he said. “The construction crew have, too. You asked for an update, so I brought one.”
So I had. Though I’d hoped to find out more from Dolores’s friends about her presence at the house, and even Drew might be hard-pressed to get the Reaper to tell him what he was doing lurking around the retirement home.
Mart reappeared beside me. “Ask him out. You know you want to.”
I ignored him. “What’s the verdict? Was Dolores’s death an accident?”
“I was hoping you could ask the ghost that.”
He wanted me to speak to the ghost? For the second time in a day? “I thought the house was off-limits.”
“Not in the slightest,” he said. “Want to go there now?”
Mart snickered. “He should have just asked you to see a movie with him, but I guess he already gets your vibe.”
I closed my eyes, wishing I could tune him out, and said, “I can’t really take Carey with me again, and I feel bad for leaving her out of it.”
Surprise flashed in his eyes. “I thought you were here to get rid of Mrs Renner’s ghost, whether you had company or not. Why can’t you bring her with you?”
“Because I’m almost certain Mrs Renner didn’t die of natural causes, and now a second person is dead. If it turns out she did do it, then I don’t know what she’ll do when we show up there again.”
She’d already tried to crush a woman underneath a sofa and possibly killed another one with fallen roof tiles. It was difficult not to wonder if things would have turned out differently for all of us if I’d just banished her on my first time in the house.
“Seems like a good argument for making another trip to the house before the construction workers get back,” he said. “What do you think?”
“All right.” I picked up the ball and put it back on the game table. “I’ll see what I can do.”
If nothing else, I might be able to talk to her again. She’d spoken to Mart earlier, which ought to prove she was open to conversation. It bothered me—a lot—that she might have murdered someone on her property, but the only way to know what Dolores had been doing there was to ask the woman herself.
“Oh, you’re just going to leave me here?” Mart yelled behind me.
I gave him an eye-roll and followed Drew before those sharp eyes of his noticed I was communicating with someone invisible. The sun had begun to sink below the buildings, although we still had a few hours left until it got fully dark. I walked alongside Drew, surprised to find myself relieved to have his company to go back to Mrs Renner’s house. Even though I’d really prefer not to expose my Reaper talents in front of him. I still didn’t know what he was, and I wanted… I didn’t know what I wanted. A normal night.
Even if it did involve visiting a haunted house. Again.
The police and the construction workers had left Mrs Renner’s house, as Drew had said, leaving the place deserted. I assumed Mr Renner was back at the inn with his wife, though I hadn’t seen them come in. Maybe they’d returned while Mart and I had been messing around in the games room.
“What happened after I left?” I asked Drew.
&
nbsp; “The police interrogated the construction crew, but didn’t come to any conclusions,” he said. “Mr Renner wanted to press charges against Louis, but there’s no evidence to show he was responsible for the roof tiles falling off.”
Hmm. “Maybe he wasn’t. It’s hard to tell what’s the ghost’s fault and what isn’t.”
Talking to her again would be a good place to start. The two of us entered the house using the key under the porch and stepped into the dark hallway. Drew turned on the light, closing the door behind us.
“Mrs Renner?” I called out. “We’re here to talk to you.”
I cast Drew a sideways look, half expecting his expression to change, but he looked serious. He really did believe me, and he trusted me to do this. With a new resolve, I headed down the hallway towards the stairs.
A sudden, roaring wind rattled through the house, blowing open every door until they rattled in their frames.
“Get out!” yelled Mrs Renner’s ghost.
Not again. “We just want to talk to you!”
“Where is she?” Drew asked.
“I think she might be upstairs again.” Not that I could tell, with her creepy voice echoing throughout the whole house. “Mrs Renner, we’re just here to ask you a question.”
“Get out!” Her words were accompanied by another blast of air, followed by an alarming crash from outside.
Dread clutched at me as I turned my back and ran for the door, crossing my fingers that nobody had been in the line of fire this time around. “Where’d that come from?”
“There.” Drew halted in the dark garden and pointed to the ground beneath one of the boarded-up windows, where the wooden boards had fallen out and scattered onto the grass. “It’s okay—nobody is here but us.”
“And she doesn’t want us here.” She hadn’t yelled at me when I’d spoken to her alone. In fact, come to think of it, she’d only screamed at me to get out of the house when the detective had been there. “It’s you she’s yelling at, isn’t it?”
