Red Velvet Revenge

by Stephanie Damore

  "Leave the ghost hunting business to me. You talk to the deputy and tell him whatever he needs to know. In the meantime, tell Ellen and Amelia what's going on, and maybe you should take your mother out shopping"

  "I'd rather take on a murderous ghost," I replied. That was a true statement.

  "I'm serious, Claire. There are some pretty nasty spooks in this world. You don't want to come face-to-face with one of them. Heck, I don't even want to come face-to-face with one of them."

  "Okay, let me talk with everyone and give them a heads-up about what is potentially going on. As for you," I said pointing directly at Nick. "You better tell me as soon as you know something. Don't go off trying to be a hero either."

  "Who, me?" Nick feigned innocence, and I knew that I was right to threaten him.

  "I'm serious. You and your poker buddies better not try rounding up whatever nasty spirit is haunting these halls." I knew that was exactly what Nick was planning to do. I could just see Nick and his paranormal friends taking on the bad ghost.

  3

  Deputy Preston Stevens was the first to report on the scene. I didn't really know the young deputy well. He wasn't from here, not born and raised like most of the residents, but he did stop in at the bakery from time to time. Usually, it was to grab a doughnut and a coffee before heading to the lake to do some fishing. The deputy had a nice bay boat. You pretty much had to like water, and winter, to live in Bleu Clair Bay.

  Ellen, the deputy, and I congregated in the entryway to talk. We explained that we thought it would be a good idea for Amelia to stay upstairs with Jacob, and he readily agreed. As for my mother, well, who knew where she was in the house at the moment. I highly doubted she would be much help right now anyway.

  "So, you found him?" the deputy asked me. I walked through how I had come downstairs in the morning to start cleaning and get my coffee when I stumbled upon Derek's body.

  "This home has an alarm system, doesn't it?" Deputy Stevens asked.

  I nodded. "Yes, it does." I thought back to last night after the final guest had left and I groggily locked the doors and set the alarm before trudging up the stairs. "I know I set it, but with having such a big party last night, I could have set the alarm with the killer still inside the house." I shivered at the thought.

  "Wouldn't the alarm have gone off if the killer left the house afterward?" Deputy Stevens asked.

  I looked to Ellen before agreeing that was true.

  "Unless he’s still hiding in this house, sweetie," Ellen said gravely. I looked at Deputy Stevens, and he went on high alert. London Manor was no little home, with six bedrooms upstairs, a full gourmet kitchen, parlor, library, family room, and five bathrooms, not to mention a full basement—there were plenty of places for a killer to hide. The only thing that kept me from freaking out at the prospect was remembering Nick's hunch about another ghost on the premises. Was a murderous ghost better than a murderous person hiding out in the house?

  Deputy Stevens radioed in for backup to secure the house. I ran upstairs to round everyone up and get them ready to leave before meeting Ellen and the deputy back downstairs. When I returned, the deputy had a few more questions for me.

  "What about the knife? Is it yours?" he asked.

  "I didn't even look close enough. It could be. There's a knife block on the kitchen counter. Is it from there?" I asked.

  "I'll go check." While the deputy went down the hallway into the kitchen, I gave Ellen a serious look. She was rubbing her hands nervously together.

  "We can't stay here," I said.

  "You just read my mind," Ellen replied.

  "Nick has a theory," I said, but had to leave it at that as the deputy rejoined us.

  "You were right. The butcher knife is missing right out of the center of block."

  I nodded at that information but didn't say a word.

  "Back to the alarm, who else has a passcode to get in?" Deputy Stevens asked.

  "Let me think … other than me and Ellen?" I said, motioning to her with my thumb. "Amelia has it and her mom, Margaret, who is our housekeeper. My mom knows it and so does my sister, Autumn." I was pretty sure that was it. "I changed it from the previous code after we moved in last month." The alarm code had formally been Nick's birthday, which he had shared with his grandmother, the previous owner of London Manor. Now, I had switched the code over to our wedding date, September twenty-third, 0923.

  Autumn arrived not twenty minutes after her counterpart. When I opened the door to let her in, Deputy Stevens turned to see who had arrived.

  "Autumn," he said before correcting himself. "I mean, Deputy Sinclair. Did the sheriff call you in?" Autumn was the senior deputy of the two.

  Autumn shook her head. "No, I just couldn't believe it. I had to see it for myself.”

  "You know the vic?" Deputy Stevens seemed to reassess the situation, meaning he seemed to become more concerned for Autumn, not suspicious of her, like I would have expected.

  "Yes, I do. He's my ex-fiancé—from way back," she quickly added. "The fact that he was murdered in my sister's house last night after he and I had words? Well, let's just say that you and the sheriff are going to want to talk to me, pronto."

  Deputy Stevens stopped securing the crime scene.

  "Are you serious?" he asked.

  Autumn looked up at the ceiling. "I wish I wasn't. I'm going to tell you that I'm innocent right now, but you're going to do your job and you're going question me. You understand?" My sister was one heck of a sheriff deputy and she took pride in that. She expected Deputy Stevens to do the same.

  "Oh my girls! I just can't believe this!" our mother interrupted from the top of the staircase, her arms outstretched, as if expecting us to run up and embrace her. Instead, Autumn and I looked at one another and fought the urge to roll our eyes. Mom was wearing a black pantsuit with a dark silk scarf styled just so around her neck and a pair of oversized sunglasses perched on top of her head. It wasn't so much that she was in mourning as styled and ready to go out and about, no doubt knowing that she—well, our family anyway—would be the talk of the town. With a designer handbag in tow and high heels on her feet, she carefully navigated the wooden staircase until she was in front of Deputy Stevens.

  "Y'all have my number. I'm sure you won't need to reach me, but feel free to call it if you do." Autumn and I noticed the southern accent our mother seemed to turn on for the young and handsome Deputy Stevens. Again, I had to fight an eye roll.

  Deputy Stevens just nodded and let our mother leave the manor in her rental car. In fact, after repeating a couple of my answers, we were all free to leave, including my roommate Amelia. She had packed an overnight bag for her and Jacob. They were planning to stay at her mom's house in town for a few days. I didn't blame Amelia one bit for whisking herself and her son away after someone was murdered in our home last night. Amelia may be young, and the thought of another ghost in the manor was way cool, but she was also one heck of a fine mother. Her son came above everything else. This was even before Amelia knew what Nick and I were speculating.

  Out front, a few cars were left along the driveway, much like the parking lot of Carol’s bar back in town on a Saturday morning.

  "Call me in a little bit, okay?" I said to Amelia from the front porch.

  "Sure thing," Amelia replied as she buckled Jacob into his car seat and walked around to the driver's side door.

  I watched them drive off before asking Ellen if she was ready to go.

  "Oh, well … I have a little coffee date here this morning."

  "Coffee date? With who?"

  "Father Thompson," Ellen said, the blush returning to her cheek.

  “Father Thompson?” I replied.

  “Episcopal ministers are allowed to date you know,” Ellen replied.

  “Yes, I know. I just didn’t know he dated. No wonder you were acting shy last night.”

  "I was not acting shy!" Ellen's face blushed even deeper.

  "Sure you weren't."

 
; "Anyway, he's supposed to pick me up in a few minutes. Do you mind taking my bag with you? I'll have him drop me off at the bakery afterward."

  I told Ellen that was just fine and resisted the urge to tease her anymore. As far as I knew, this was the first date Ellen had been on in a decade.

  4

  It wasn't hard to convince my mom to stay at a hotel. In fact, I saved her the trouble and booked her room at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa before calling to tell her where she'd be staying. Thankfully, with January second falling on a Monday, the hotel had plenty of available rooms and even spa appointments at the ready. My old apartment above the bakery was still a bit of a mess, but at least I had the radiator and electrical fixed. Ellen and I could stay there with Milo until we were sure the manor was safe.

  I was new to this whole psychic medium business, having only been able to see ghosts since Nick died. I knew there could be bad ghosts. I mean, it made sense that an evil person would create a rather evil spirit when they died, but I just hadn't run across any. In fact, I was hoping I never would.

  Alone at the bakery, I felt jittery. Even with Milo there snoozing on his favorite step and the oven warming the kitchen, I couldn't get the sight of Derek's dead body or the thought of a murderous ghost running around my home out of my mind. Why had he targeted Derek? Then again, did a ghost really need a motive? It appeared my good luck had run out.

  I decided to bake to soothe my mind. I had been planning on coming in this afternoon to prep for tomorrow anyway. I worked together the cinnamon roll dough first, leaving the sweet dough to form a pillowy soft ball before rolling it out and spreading the filing on top.

  A knock on the bakery's backdoor had my heart leaping into my throat.

  It was Amelia.

  "Sorry, I saw your car out front and thought I'd just stop in and chat with you."

  "No, that's okay. I was just lost in my thoughts," I said, locking the door behind her. "Jacob doing okay?" I asked, getting back to my cinnamon rolls. I rolled the dough and filling up jelly-roll style and started to slice it into individual rolls.

  "Oh, yeah … he thought it was super cool to see the police this morning. Thankfully, no one mentioned anything about dead bodies in front him, not that he would know what that was. Not really. How are you holding up?"

  "To be honest, I'm a bit freaked out," I admitted. "Nick and I were talking this morning before the deputy arrived, and he was speculating that the other ghost could've been the one to kill Derek."

  "Are you serious? Can ghosts do that?"

  "They can manipulate objects. You know, like poltergeists? They can make things move. If a ghost was strong enough, had enough energy behind it, it could definitely make a knife go flying in the air and land in someone's back." The thought of a ghost strong enough to not only stab someone in the back but also stuff him in the closet had me seriously worried.

  "That is super freaky," Amelia replied.

  "I know, which is why we're all going to keep out of London Manor until we figure this one out."

  Amelia nodded solemnly.

  "What happened last night with Savannah?" I asked, bringing the conversation back to the land of the living.

  "Man, she was pretty upset. I guess your sister has been a sticking point in her and Derek's relationship."

  "She has?"

  "Oh yeah, a big one. Derek was always comparing Savannah to your sister, saying things like she wasn't as smart as Autumn or as pretty."

  "Well, that's a horrible thing to say."

  "Tell me about it. Then when your sister showed up last night, and Savannah saw how strongly Derek reacted to her, she knew that she’d never be able to compare."

  "Well, I don't know about that. I would hope she'd see what a jerk Derek was and decide that she deserved better than that."

  "You're giving Savannah too much credit and self-esteem for that," Amelia said sadly. "Honestly, your sister was just the icing on the cake. It was Emily that started it."

  "The caterer?" I asked, making sure I was following correctly.

  "Yes, her. Savannah hates Emily."

  "And why is that exactly?" I asked.

  "She's Derek's other ex-girlfriend."

  I looked up at the ceiling. Talk about a small world. That could explain why Emily's nerves seemed to unravel after he arrived. Perhaps Milo's antics weren't to blame. Well, weren’t entirely to blame.

  "Savannah kept watching Derek approach Emily throughout the night whenever he thought she wasn't looking. Then, as the night progressed, he didn't even bother to hide it anymore. I have to admit, it was super uncomfortable to watch him openly flirt with Emily when Savannah was there. It was completely humiliating for Savannah, too, even if Emily was ready to punch him.”

  "When did Savannah leave last night?"

  "Honestly, I don't know. I assume she left with Tina. I rang in the new year with Jacob and ended up falling asleep with him while putting him to bed."

  "Tina is your other girlfriend who was there, right?"

  "Right. The three of us were best friends all through high school."

  "Did you talk to either one of them today?" I asked.

  "No, that's the crazy thing. I've texted both of them to tell them about Derek, but neither one has gotten back with me."

  I raised my eyebrows. "That's kind of suspicious, don't you think?"

  Amelia blinked back at me. "You mean like they could've killed Derek?" she said.

  I held my palm up in an I-don't-know sort of gesture.

  "No, they couldn't have. I mean ... no." But even I could see the thought process working in Amelia's brain. Second by second, she seemed to realize that it could be a real possibility. "Oh my gosh! What if you don't have a murderous ghost at your house, but I have murderous best friends!" she said.

  I didn't want to break it to Amelia, but that's what I was rooting for.

  "Did they ride with Phil last night too?" I remembered seeing Derek's friend with the car keys.

  "No, Tina drove them here. The guys followed." Amelia grabbed her cellphone out of her pocket and checked to see if she had any missed texts. "They still haven't messaged me back." She then opened up social media and searched for something. "See, they ended up at the casino last night. Their last selfie was posted just after four o'clock at Turtle Creek." Amelia turned her phone around to show me.

  "Who are those guys?" I asked, pointing at the two men who were posing in the pictures with them.

  Amelia laughed. "I have no idea. That's just the way they are."

  It looked to me like Savannah was just as big of a flirt as Derek had been.

  "We need to track them down and talk to Phil. The last I remember seeing him was out front talking to Autumn." Phil wouldn't have just forgotten Derek.

  "Speaking of which, look who's at the back door," Amelia said. I turned around thinking it was going to be Phil, but instead saw that it was Autumn.

  "She looks good," Amelia said. I had to agree with my roommate. For being up all night, Autumn looked rather refreshed, polished even. I unlocked the door, opened it for her to enter and told her as much.

  "You look good. How are you holding up?" I said.

  "I'm glad you think so because on the inside, I'm a total mess."

  "You totally don't look like it," Amelia said.

  "Thanks. I just can't believe Derek's dead. I mean the man was a jerk and he got under my skin more than anyone else in my whole entire life."

  I looked side-eyed at Autumn.

  "Okay, under my skin, the same as our mother. But I mean, man, it's just crazy to think that he's dead, and murdered on top of that."

  "Have you talked to your boss?" I asked.

  "Of course. I drove right to work after leaving your house to talk to him. Can you believe he looked at me like I had two heads? He said he didn't need a statement from me or even my alibi. When I asked him why in the heck not, he replied that he knows I didn't kill Derek. So I had a blowup with my ex-boyfriend; the sheriff knows me
better than that. I was getting mighty upset with this type of lax police work until the sheriff also reminded me that he knows for a fact that Derek was alive and well when I left your house, and my cruiser's GPS confirmed that I never went back to London Manor that night."

  "Oh, yeah. They can track police cars, can't they? That's way cool and it totally saves your butt from being a suspect," Amelia said. "Maybe Nick's right and it is a murderous go—"

  I shot Amelia a look that cut her off. Then I quickly interrupted. "We were just talking about Derek's girlfriend, Savannah, and Phil. We were thinking how we could track them down and see what happened last night. The last Amelia knows, Savannah and Tina were at Turtle Creek until the wee hours of the morning. We have no idea where Phil and Malcolm ended up.

  "I suppose I can call him," Autumn said.

  "Who?" I asked.

  "Phil. He gave me his number last night."

  "Oh, did he now?" I joked with my sister.

  Autumn shook her head as if to say that was never happening.

  "And why is that, he's pretty cute," Amelia said. "Bit old for me," she had to add.

  Autumn rolled her eyes. "I guess you can say that I've never been attracted to him like that.

  "I get it, you like the bad boy. Me too," Amelia said. From what I knew of Amelia's husband, soon to be ex-husband, that was all too true.

  "I told the sheriff that I wouldn't interfere with the investigation. He didn't ask that of me, but I felt that was my professional duty, seeing my relationship with Derek and the murder taking place in your house." See, what did I say earlier about my sister's love of following the rules and taking her job seriously?

  "Okay, well then, hand the number over." I motioned with my hand.

  Autumn hesitated.

  "It's not like the sheriff is going to find out that you gave your sister Phil's number," Amelia said. "I mean, like, I'm totally not going to tell. Are you Claire?"

  I crossed my heart with my finger. "Not a soul." Well, except for Nick maybe. Speaking of which, I hadn't seen my beloved ghost all afternoon. I was trying not to worry about him, but his absence was starting to unnerve me a bit.