"You understand someone murdered Derek at my house last night, right? People are bound to be a bit on edge. You can't go around talking about how happy you are that the victim is dead."
"Yeah, yeah. Bud said the same thing."
I was liking the sheriff more and more, even if he had made my sister work overtime for the holidays.
"Well, I am glad to see you anyway. I needed to tell you that you have a date tomorrow night, with Phil," Caroline said.
I about swerved off the road.
"What in the world are you talking about?" I demanded.
"You know, a date? A social engagement with a member of the opposite sex?"
"I know what a date is, and I didn't enter into any such social engagement," I calmly reminded my mother. Amelia laughed in the backseat.
"Obviously. If we waited for you to do that, you'd be perpetually single."
Single. But I wasn't single. I still had Nick, even if our relationship was now strictly platonic. A downfall to having a ghost as a husband.
"Mom, he doesn't even like me," I said.
"Of course he does. Look at you. You're gorgeous, or you would be if you let me put some highlights in that mousy brown hair of yours."
"My hair is not mousy!"
"I'm not arguing facts with you. If I say your hair is mousy, it's mousy."
"Oh, your hair would look awesome with some highlights, like caramel ones?" Amelia said.
"Any color, darling," Caroline replied.
"Whatever. Listen, Phil has a thing for Autumn, everyone knows that. Why don't you set her up?" I said.
"Because everyone knows your sister's a lost cause in the dating department. Plus, she's what they call advanced maternal age. You're my best shot at a grandbaby."
My mouth was left hanging open.
"Besides, I told Phil that all you needed was a little encouragement," Caroline added.
"Ah, so that's what he meant this morning," I said, thinking back to Phil's comment on the phone.
"You talked to him?" My mother seemed hopeful.
"Yeah, about Derek, not a date," I replied.
"Every relationship has to start somewhere, Claire,” Caroline said.
"Your mom does have a point," Amelia chimed in again. I glared at her in my rearview mirror.
We drove a few minutes in silence, a lull that I was grateful for. In that time, I decided that I would just call Phil back this afternoon and cancel whatever plans my mother had arranged on my behalf. Surely, he wouldn't feel like dinner or whatever, since finding out about Derek.
I spoke too soon.
Just then, a text came across my phone. It was from Phil.
Hey, I forgot to ask, but are we still on for tomorrow afternoon? Your mom said 4PM at Apache Trout?
"Apache Trout, huh?" I said to my mother when I read the text at the next red light.
"What? You love that place," Caroline replied.
"Oh, they have that goat cheese and apple dip. It is so yummy," Amelia added.
"Zip it, Amelia!"
"You'll notice I made it for four o'clock," Caroline said all proud like.
"Why so early?" Amelia asked.
"Because Claire goes to bed at eight o'clock and the bakery closes at three. She should be perfectly free come four o'clock. Plus, it's happy hour."
"Brilliant," I replied sarcastically.
I left Phil's text message unanswered and we drove back to the diner, where my mother had left her rental car parked.
"Just go to your hotel room and promise me you won't cause any more trouble," I said to my mother as she got out of my vehicle.
"Claire, I'm a grown woman. I know how to take care of myself."
I was seriously doubting that, but I didn't say anything else.
Through the diner's window, I could see that Ellen was still enjoying her date with Father Thompson, and a slice of pie—lemon by the looks of all that meringue. The scene brought a smile to my face. I was happy that Ellen was having a good time. She deserved it.
“Maybe Phil likes pie?” Caroline said, following my line of vision.
“Mother!” I shot back. She smiled and gave a little wave before walking off.
I turned to Amelia. “Do you want me to just drop you off at your mom’s?" I asked her. The bakery was just a little way up the street. and Margaret's house was around the corner from that.
"Yeah, sure. But call me if you hear anything else. I'm serious,” Amelia said.
I promised Amelia I would and then drove to her mom's house and dropped her off.
6
I didn't sleep well that night. I kept waking up, either wondering where in the world Nick was and worried about him or freaking out that somebody was going to break in to the apartment and attack us or that I'd wake to find another dead body in closet. For her part, Ellen seemed content as could be, snoring happily away on the couch. Milo, little traitor that he was, was sleeping curled up with her.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: ghosts are terrible at keeping track of time. When you have an eternity sprawled out before you, who can be bothered to watch the clock? It wasn't unusual for Nick to disappear for a day or two, but I had a feeling he was intentionally avoiding me while attempting to tackle the evil ghost on his own. You could bet he was going to hear an earful from me when I saw him next—whenever that may be.
I was still tossing and turning come four o'clock in the morning. I decided to just go downstairs and get to work. Today was a regular workday, which meant the bakery would be opening in a few hours. I tucked my feet into my slippers and threw on a sweatshirt, jogging down the back staircase into the bakery's kitchen.
I hoped that that bakery was going to be busy, because with the baking we did before and after the casino visit, and now my early morning bake-fest, we were going to have to sell a lot of dough. Either that, or I'd be donating more than my usual leftovers to the soup kitchen.
Autumn knocked on the bakery's backdoor before six o'clock. I unlocked it and let her in. She was back in her full deputy uniform with the stainless-steel coffee mug in hand.
"I saw the light on, thought I'd stop by. I'd say from the look of all these cookies and pies that you couldn't sleep last night."
"I could say the same thing about the bags under your eyes, but I won't," I joked back.
The fact of the matter was that my sister was coming off another third shift, and one couldn't fault her for looking a bit tired.
"How was work last night?" I asked, making small talk while putting on a fresh pot of coffee for her.
Autumn didn't answer me.
"Autumn, what is it?"
My sister was at a loss for words, and it really started to scare me. "Seriously, you better just spit it out," I said, facing her with the coffee can still in my hand.
"They found another body." Autumn’s words ran together.
"What?" A million other questions raced through my head but none of them found their way out of my mouth. Such as who was it? Where was the body found? I just looked at Autumn, waiting for her to fill in the details.
"It was Emily, the caterer. They found her at the bottom of the basement stairs at your house."
"What? That can't be! I swear I saw her leave," I said.
"Are you sure about that? Did you actually see her leave the house?" I thought back to the party. I remembered her getting her coat on and getting some things together, but then I lost track of her as she rounded up her crew.
"I guess not. I guess I just assumed when I didn't see her the rest of the night that she had left." I thought about it some more. "What about the catering van? I didn't see it there yesterday morning with the rest of the cars."
"She didn't drive it there. Gus, one of her workers, did. He said that Emily told him she was just going to run in and grab a few more of her things and that she would see him the next day. He drove the van back to the restaurant and didn't think anything else of it."
"So you're telling me that two peop
le were murdered in my house on New Year's Eve?" If the situation could get more dire, it just did.
Ellen chose that moment to join us in the kitchen. "Autumn, is everything okay?" she asked, looking back and forth between the two of us. She was still in her pajamas, but her hair wasn't as rough as yesterday morning.
I answered. "Emily was found dead in the basement at London Manor."
Ellen's hand shot up to her mouth. "Oh no," she said. "How awful."
A double homicide in my house? Now more than ever, I needed to talk to Nick.
"None of this is public knowledge yet. I'm telling you because you're the homeowner," Autumn said to me. "However, Sheriff Daniels has asked that you keep this under wraps for a day or two. That will allow us to just focus on this case and not have to deal with the public relations nightmare this is bound to cause."
"You have my word," I said.
Ellen nodded. "Of course, dear."
"Thanks, guys. I better get going." Autumn turned to walk out.
"Here, at least let me give you some fresh coffee and a croissant," I said. Make that a whole bunch of croissants, and some muffins as well. I kept placing baked goods inside a pastry box for her to take back to the sheriff’s department.
While I got that together, Ellen disappeared back upstairs. She came back after Autumn was gone. This time she was dressed for the day and had a plastic shopping bag in her hand.
"Good thing I stopped at that New Age store down in Traverse City yesterday," she said as she dumped the contents of her shopping bag on the counter. White candles, bundles of dried herbs, and numerous crystals fell out.
"What's all that?" I asked.
"Supplies. I talked to the store’s manager and she told me that we what needed to do was to cleanse London Manor."
"Cleanse?" I asked.
"You know, clean the energy. Darkness can't thrive in light, or so she said."
"Where did you ever get the idea to stop there?” I asked.
"Ron." The blush returned to Ellen's face.
"Father Thompson?" I asked.
"He has a very open mind," Ellen replied.
I thought back to the last murder I was involved in. "That he does," I replied, remembering the pastor's comments regarding Nick. Speaking of which, "Let's see what Nick has to say about all of this first."
"Have you seen him?" Ellen asked.
"No. He's on my list at the moment." I tried unsuccessfully not to frown.
"Men, they'll drive you crazy until the day they die and then some,” Ellen said.
"Ain't that the truth?"
It was a blessing and a curse that we were so busy at the bakery. A blessing because I was able to sell all of the baked goods, a curse because I forgot to call and cancel with Phil. I didn't even think about it until I looked up and saw him walking through the bakery doors shortly before three o'clock. Amelia caught my eye with an expression that looked an awful lot like oh no! It was too late to hide, and I was absolutely horrible at lying.
"Hey, Phil. I thought we were going to meet at four o'clock, that is unless you need to cancel?" I tried not to sound too hopeful.
"No, I thought I could stop by here and we could drive together?" I noticed that Phil had dressed up in freshly pressed khakis and a cream-colored sweater. His loafers even had pennies in them. It made my faded blue jeans and black T-shirt look sloppy. I couldn't believe I was about to go run upstairs and look for something nice to throw on to go on a date with a man I wasn't even remotely interested in. Curse you, mother.
I realized Phil was waiting for a response from me. "Oh, sure. Why don't you have a seat while we close things up here."
"Are you sure? Is there anything I can help you with?" Phil offered.
"No, we're good. Thanks." I went back to the kitchen and tried to give myself a pep talk. Amelia followed after me.
"Did you ever get ahold of Savannah?" I asked while taking off my apron.
"Yeah, finally. She was super hungover yesterday. Swears she doesn't even remember the whole casino bit."
"What about Derek?"
"She just found out and she's a total mess over it. Hysterical. She definitely didn't kill him."
"Shoot," I said. Amelia looked surprised. "Sorry, it just would have made things a bit easier." I exhaled.
Maybe we'd be cleansing London Manor after all.
I started to say something to Amelia about it, but I realized I hadn't told her about Ellen's idea or about the sheriff’s department finding Emily's body. Then I remembered my promise to Autumn and decided to keep my mouth shut. I had to admit, as much as people were talking and gossiping about Derek's murder today, not one person mentioned Emily. It seemed like Ellen and I were the only two people outside of the investigators that knew anything. I was going to keep it that way.
I went upstairs in an attempt to find something decent to put on with the limited wardrobe that I had packed. Opening my suitcase, I rifled through a couple of sweatshirts and came up with the one decent sweater that I had thrown in. It wasn't fancy, but it was black cashmere, so therefore I deemed it appropriate. I threw the sweater on over my head, dusted some powdered sugar off my jeans, and looked in the mirror, deciding this was as good as it got. My reflection, however, was not impressed.
I couldn't do it. I couldn't go on a date, not even the pretense of one.
"Hey, what you are doing?" Nick popped up beside me.
"Nicholas James! I swear I would ring your neck if I could. Where have you been? Scratch that, I don't care. You should have checked in with me. I have been worried about you, not to mention the fact that they found a second body at the house!"
"Another body?"
"Emily, the caterer. She was also Derek's ex-girlfriend." Then I thought of something. "Hey, could Emily's ghost be the other energy you picked up?"
"I don't know. This seemed older, stronger, if that makes sense. But that doesn't mean that her ghost isn't there hanging around." Nick looked off in the distance and I knew he wanted to zip over there and check things out.
"Fine, go check it out, but please come right back."
"Geez, you don't have to be so bossy," Nick joked. "By the way, you look cute," he added.
"Thanks. It's for my hot date downstairs."
Nick's expression was priceless. I don't think I could have shocked him more if I tried.
"My mother's doing, of course. But it's okay. I’ve decided that I’m going to pass on the offer."
Ellen was out front talking with Phil when I came back downstairs.
"You ready to go?" Phil asked when I joined them.
"Actually, no," I said, sitting down across from him. "Listen, I just want to say that while I appreciate you coming to get me and being willing to go out to lunch, I'm really not looking to date anyone right now." I saw Ellen quietly disappear into the kitchen.
"Can I be honest?" Phil asked.
"Absolutely."
"I'm head over heels in love with your sister. I've been since the eighth grade."
"Ha, I knew it!"
"You did?"
"It was pretty obvious. I told her as much."
"Really? What did she say?"
I wasn't about to tell Phil that Autumn just wasn't into him. Instead, I said, "Not much. She's married to her job at the moment." Phil's expression fell. "But I'll put in a good word for you," I offered.
"Thanks. I appreciate it." I could tell Phil was down.
"With my mother as well. She has more pull than you'll ever know," I laughed.
"She can be pretty persuasive," Phil replied. I knew he meant it because we had been about to go out on a date that neither one of us was interested in.
Phil got up to leave, and I followed after him to lock the door.
"Well, that went well, dear," Ellen said.
"I thought so too. I will put in a good word for him to Autumn. I honestly think that they would really get along," I said.
"Yeah, did you see his khakis? There wasn't wrinkle in sight!
That man knows how to wield an iron," Amelia said. That got a laugh out of all of us.
I was still standing near the door when Deputy Stevens walked by. He used his hand to shield his eyes and peer into the bakery. I gave him a little wave and retraced my steps to unlock the door so he could enter.
"Hi, Deputy Stevens. How are you?" I asked.
"I was going to stop in and ask the same of you ladies. Autumn told me she stopped by this morning," Deputy Stevens said with a knowing look. I looked over to Amelia, who was wiping down the coffee bar, and gave a slight shake of my head, indicating that she didn't know about Emily. Deputy Stevens replied with a small nod.
At that moment, I saw Nick's blue orb come back in through the bakery's front window. He hovered around Deputy Stevens for a minute, and to my surprise, the deputy turned and watched it. There was no mistaking it—he saw Nick's orb. I tried to ignore Nick much like Ellen and Amelia naturally were, as they couldn't see it, but I was failing at it miserably as the deputy was so intent on following it.
"There is something else I wanted to talk to you about." Deputy Stevens motioned to Nick's orb. "You can see that too, right? I've heard a few rumors," he added.
Here's the thing. I could've lied to Deputy Stevens and pretended like I had no idea what he was talking about, but one, you know I'm a horrible liar, and two, I had never met another person who could see orbs.
"Yes, I can see it." Amelia and Ellen stopped righting the bakery and looked over at us.
"Can they see it?" Deputy Stevens asked, referring to them.
"No, they can't. But they know that we get visitors from time to time," I said.
"That's your husband, right?"
I stared back at the deputy, not expecting him to know that much. He clarified, "I've seen him here from time to time."
"Not just his orb?" I asked hesitantly.
"No, I see him probably the same as you do. A little blue, mostly transparent. Handsome guy," Deputy Stevens said with a laugh.
"That is super cool! You can see ghosts too? I'm so jealous," Amelia said.
"Well I’ll be," was all that Ellen said.
"Can Autumn ..." The deputy let his question trail off.
Red Velvet Revenge Page 5
