“Okay, have a good day,” Petal said, then reached over to hug me.
Lucy and Pam echoed her sentiments while Anna and Katie ignored me. With what I assumed was a “please behave” look from Oz, I headed out into the garden and tunnelled to the canteen. I walked along the corridor and was disappointed to find it was empty of people to sashay in front of. Obviously, I did it anyway because you are who you are, regardless of whether people are watching or not.
“Look at you,” Sabrina said as I joined her at the table with a cup of tea. A cup that was only half full to avoid any accidental spillage down my white jumpsuit since I was out of practice walking in heels. I dusted off my chair and sat next to her. It wouldn’t have bothered me in my old mauve jumpsuit but I really liked my new white one. It reminded me of the white suit I’d died in. I’d loved that suit. Until dead people had bled over it. I felt strangely protective of this new jumpsuit.
“You look pretty, Bridget.” Charlie smiled up at me from his cereal.
“Has Oz seen you?” Pete asked. His buzz cut of greying hair and stony expression made the question sound more serious than it was.
“Yes, Pete. He has. And he told me that I looked amazingly beautiful and should always dress this way.” I very carefully lifted my tea to my mouth and sipped. Yes, I was being overcautious but it had been a while since I had clothes I’d cared about.
Pete winced. “I’m sure he had a lot of things to say but I’m pretty certain that wasn’t one.”
“How’s he doing with all of you under one roof?” Charlie asked. Although they were of an age, Charlie was physically the opposite to Pete, with a full head of hair and a kind face that matched his personality. They were both fully qualified facilitators which was what I’d been training to be before the whole VTP deal. I’d met Charlie on my first official dead day and he’d sort of adopted me.
“Why would that even be a question, Charlie?” Sabrina asked in a deceptively casual tone.
“Because women are emotional and highly strung.” Pete slurped his tea. “And six is a lot of emotional and highly strung in one place.”
Sabrina turned to me. “If I throw something at him would that make me highly strung?”
“Can’t I throw something and you cry? I can’t be the emotional one.” I pointed to my face. “Crying would ruin my eyeliner.”
“I meant with Anna and Katie,” Charlie clarified. “Anna being your old adjustment companion and Katie being recently released. It must be a difficult situation.”
“It’s oddly the same, Charlie. Anna is around a bit more but Katie doesn’t speak so it’s not like she’s contributing to the new dynamic in any way.” I took a sip of my tea. “We do lock ourselves in our rooms at night so we don’t get murdered in our beds, though.”
Charlie gave me a slow nod. “Well, that’s good that it’s working out … I guess.”
“Did you get anything beside the face paint last night?” Pete asked.
I hesitated. “Well—”
“You didn't find another body, right?” Pete interrupted.
“A body? No I didn’t find a body. First, I found his ghost and then his body.”
“And there goes my appetite.” Pete dropped his spoon to his bowl with a clang.
“Someone died while you were shopping?” Sabrina asked.
I nodded. “Of course they did.”
“But you don’t have that defeated expression you always have when you find a body.” Sabrina peered into my face. “Or maybe you do and your makeup is throwing it off.”
“Who died this time?” Charlie asked with a resigned sigh.
“Jeremy Thomas Leith.”
Sabrina reared back. “Shut. Up.”
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Pete mumbled to Charlie.
“So, now he’s dead?” Sabrina asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Killed during a ghost shopping spree when the store was supposed to be closed to the public?” Sabrina asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“When he was most likely meeting with another ghost to get afterlife information to bulk out his shows?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“And the ghost he was meeting likely killed him?” she asked.
I gave a diagonal sort of nod. “Maybe.”
“But you’re not going to get involved with this in any way?” Pete asked.
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Are you lying?” Pete asked.
“Nope. I might get my new jumpsuit dirty. Or smudge my eyeliner,” I said, drawing attention to my beautifully applied eyeliner. I know that Charlie had said I looked pretty but I didn’t feel they really understood the amount of expertise it took to apply cat flick eyeliner with mascara and a homemade brush created from toothbrush bristles.
Pete frowned at me. “I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not.”
“Awww, poor you.” I pulled a sympathetic face as I tapped the table in front of him.
“Why would the ghost Jeremy was meeting want to kill him, though?” Sabrina asked.
“You met him, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, and he was obnoxious but I wouldn’t kill him over it.” Sabrina frowned into her coffee cup. “Maybe he was killed by an alive person.”
“Why would an alive person have more of a motive than a dead person?” I asked.
Sabrina pushed her half eaten plate of toast away from her. “He could be sleeping with someone’s wife and a jealous husband killed him.”
“Once again, you met him. Do you really think he could take his attention away from himself long enough to have an affair?”
Sabrina wagged a finger at me. “That’s a good point. It could be professional jealousy.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why do you want it to be an alive person who killed him?”
“I don’t, necessarily, but it would make a nice change.”
“You both know we’re sitting here, right?” Pete asked, looking between us.
“You’re so right, Pete.” I turned to Sabrina. “We should head to work.”
Before Pete could voice any complaints, Sabrina and I wished them a good day and hastened out of the canteen.
“What didn’t you want to say in front of them?” Sabrina murmured as we walked along the corridor to the tunnelling room.
“Tommy was there.”
Sabrina frowned. “Tommy? He was shopping with you guys?”
“No. Tommy appeared when I found Jeremy’s body. Then some other stuff happened and I ended up back on the floor where Jeremy’s body was and I saw Tommy hovering over it … with Edith. And before you ask, no, I’m not a thousand percent sure it was her because it doesn’t make sense that it would be her. But also, yes, I am sure.”
Sabrina’s eyebrows were all the way up into her hairline. “I can see why you might not have wanted to mention this in front of Pete and Charlie.”
I snapped my fingers and pointed to her. “Oh! And some stupid parole officer called Janice complained about me. Can you check into her, please?”
“Why did she complain about you?”
“She was rude to me.”
Sabrina gave me a sidelong glance. “She complained about you because she was rude to you?”
“Yep. That’s how I remember it.”
“And Edith was with Tommy? Standing over Jeremy’s dead body? Were they together?” Sabrina asked and I could practically hear the gears in her head turning, spitting out possible explanations. “Like they’d come together or more like they both happened to be at the same place at the same time together? And you’re definitely sure it was Edith?”
“I’m pretty sure it was her.” I tried to visualise the memory but the harder I tried the less clear it became. “No, I’m positive it was her but I’m doubting myself because it’s weird that she would be standing over Jeremy’s body and talking to Tommy.”
“That is weird. Did she act like herself? Could someone have done that face morphing thing to l
ook like her?”
“Maybe. I only saw her for a couple of seconds so …” I let the sentence trail off, leaving all the possibilities unsaid. “Also, despite my best efforts of discouragement, all of my housemates want to be involved in this. They’re meeting us at lunch so you can talk them through questioning techniques.”
Sabrina grinned. “To be clear, I like the effect this eyeliner is having on you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I feel like it’s reining in the nicey-nice Bridget, who feels bad and hugs everyone, and giving rebel Bridget a bit more freedom.”
I made a non-committal noise. “Can you check your files for a list of names of everyone who was at the shopping spree last night and get some background on them. And Jeremy’s file—see if there’s anything good. Officer Leonard said he was going to arrange another shopping trip for tonight, so it’d be good to have some information on these people going in so we know who to focus our attention on. And this Janice woman. Oh, and this Officer Treble too. He gave me the warning. I didn’t like him.” I glanced around the room as I tried to think of the other things I needed her to check. “Okay, I think that’s it.”
Sabrina narrowed her eyes at me. “Maybe you shouldn’t do the heels and the eyeliner at the same time?”
“Why?”
“Let’s not obliterate nicey-nice Bridget, who is mostly pretty balanced. Let’s just give her an edge, okay?”
“Look, my housemates have made it clear that they are going to be involved regardless of whether I try to stop them or not, so I’d rather supervise, solve the mystery quickly and go about my day. I think that’s pretty balanced. Oh, and Anna spread a heap of rumours that I was responsible for killing Jeremy, so I’d also like to get it solved before I get arrested.”
“Why would Anna do that?”
“Apparently, she thought that it would make the real killer feel safe.” I held a finger in warning. “And don’t say it makes any sort of sense because all it does is put me squarely back in the frame.”
“Pretty sure you’d be in the frame for this anyway. Did the police question you?”
I shook my head. “The police weren’t involved since it wasn’t ghost on ghost violence. Only the GBs. And they questioned everyone. But not in a ‘did you kill him way’ more like in a what do you know. Except for me. Me they asked if I’d killed him.”
“Standard,” Sabrina said with an indifferent shrug. “Did they let anything slip?”
“No. I’m pretty sure at this point I know more than them.”
“Are we sure this was ghost on livie violence?” Sabrina asked me.
“Sure? No. But how about we cross all our ghosts off the list first and we can worry about livie suspects later.” I thought about that for a moment. “Actually, yes. We are pretty sure this is ghost on livie violence because, otherwise, how would the livie have known to find Jeremy there? And surely, they’d have been freaked out by all the clothes flying around. And why kill him there, anyway? Where there are cameras, and not out in the alley behind or even the dimly lit main street?”
“But all the cameras were turned off in the store, right?” Sabrina asked.
“Yes, but how would a livie know that?” I countered.
“Maybe he was killed by another medium,” Sabrina suggested. “Someone who has their own ghost connection and knew about the shopping trip.”
I shook my head at her. “You always make this overly complicated stuff sound so reasonable.”
“That’s because it is reasonable. First port of call is identifying who Jeremy was meeting, agreed? Then we can make separate livie and ghost investigation plans.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have left you two alone,” Pete said from behind us as we entered the tunnelling room. “What illegalness are you planning now?”
I nodded to Sabrina in agreement with her plan and checked the space on my wrist where a watch would have been if I’d remembered to get one on the shopping trip. “Oh, will you look at the time?”
Chapter Six
“Morning, Bridget.” Sean, a short, dark-haired man in his fifties, clapped one hand against his clipboard and danced from foot to foot. With the disturbingly wide smile, beige chinos and blue polo shirt he reminded me of a holiday rep. I was desperately hoping I wouldn’t have to wear that outfit when I was fully trained.
“Morning,” I said and stepped off the arrival circle with exaggerated movement as to draw attention to my shoes.
“Isn’t this exciting?” Sean had inducted me into the afterlife when I’d died which made me think it wasn’t an accident he was my trainer.
“What?” I looked around the empty room for the source of his excitement. Were we waiting for more people? Was something going on today?
“Just this?” Sean spun on one foot, arms out to the sides.
“I’m not sure I’d go quite as far as exciting.”
“You don’t think a new day is worth any excitement?” Sean asked. His hopping had turned into more of an on the spot shimmy. “Another chance to make someone smile. Another chance to do something nice for someone. Another chance to be the person you want to be.”
“Another chance to tell someone they look pretty?” I adjusted my waist clinching ribbon. Yes, I was fishing for a compliment.
Sean clapped on his clipboard and pointed at me. “Exactly! Now you’re getting it, Bridget. Who do you want to tell they’re pretty?”
“I think everybody should be told they’re pretty.” I wasn’t used to asking people to tell me. They used to do it without prompting.
“Then you should make sure you tell everyone,” Sean said and completely missed my point. “And, yet another reason to be excited—as if you need one—is you’re progressing out of the classroom training phase today. We’re getting a new group of recently transitioned. You and I are going to induct them. Together. Now isn’t that worth a little happy dance? And you can tell them all how pretty they are. So, come on, you crazy trainee inductioneer. Let’s get inducting!”
Sean didn’t wait for me to respond. He walked out of the room, swinging his arms as if he were the Happy dwarf off to work. I followed. Like Grumpy. Only a taller, more attractive version. Something about constantly happy people depressed me. Especially constantly happy oblivious people. He practically skipped down the corridor. It wasn’t natural to be that chipper all the time. It wasn’t.
Two GBs exited a room on the right as we passed. I was pretty sure it was Treble and Richards. I wasn’t sure what Charon had done to them but I was sure they’d likely blame me for not giving them safety stickers. I kept pace with Sean and didn’t look back.
“Hey!” Treble shouted after us. I kept walking because, really, there was no reason to believe he was talking to me. It wasn’t as though he’d addressed me by name.
“Hey, you!” he shouted again.
Sean whirled around, a huge smile on his face. “Are you talking to me, Officer?”
“Her.”
I smothered a sigh and faced him. “Officer Treble. What a delight.”
“Bridget Sway.” He said my name as though I were his nemesis. Eyeliner Bridget revelled in that moment. Nicey-nice Bridget felt her stomach drop for the heap of not good implications.
“Did you manage to hand Jeremy off to the person waiting for him okay last night?” I asked and Treble paled behind his mask. Clearly Eyeliner Bridget was in the driving seat right now.
“Went smoothly,” Richards chimed in with exaggerated confidence.
“Really?” I asked. “Because you didn’t come back with Oz and Officer Leonard seemed to have no idea where you were.”
“Secret GB business.” Officer Richards grinned and fashioned his hand into a gun and fake shot at me. Why did he think that it was okay to fake shoot people all the time?
“Your lack of identification in a secure area warrants a citation.” Treble flipped his notepad open with a flourish that struck me as him metaphorically flipping the page on the Charon topic.
>
Sean stepped in front of me. “I’m sorry, Officer. It was my fault. I didn’t realise we’d be out of the classroom training today. I’ll go and grab her badge right this second.” Sean turned to me. “Don’t you have something you want to say to the officer?”
I nodded at Sean and cranked up the wattage on my smile. “You look very pretty today, Officer Treble.”
“Oh, Bridget!” Sean raised his hand for me to give him a high five. I did. Mainly because I felt that Treble knew I was making fun of him and I wanted to celebrate that.
Sean leaned in to whisper, loudly enough for Treble to hear. “Next time, though, maybe change it to ‘handsome’ when talking to a man. Or happy. You could use ‘happy’. You could use that indiscriminately.”
“Let me try again. Why, Officer Richards, you looked incredibly happy today.” And yes, I did add a little extra sass in my voice so the compliment bordered on flirtation.
“You’re such a fast learner.” Sean’s face lit up as though there were a lightbulb in his skull. He gripped the clipboard between his knees and held up both hands for a high ten. In normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have done it but I was extra pleased with myself.
“Isn’t she?” Treble mumbled and it didn’t sound like a compliment.
“Bridget, will you go and wait over there by the door to the staircase so you don’t get in the nice GB’s way while I nip back to our training room and get your badge?” Sean asked.
“Of course,” I said and turned my back on Treble and Richards.
“Have a good day, Ms Sway,” Officer Richards called after me.
“You too, Officer Richards,” I called back and threw him a smile over my shoulder. Was it a little bit flirty? Yes. But did it achieve my aim of deepening Treble’s scowl? Also yes. So I was okay with that. I headed to the door at the end of the corridor. I might have not quite sashayed but I definitely threw a little more movement through my hips than a regular walk needed.
“Wait for me there, okay?” Sean pointed to the exact spot I was standing on.
“Okay,” I said again with another nod, the picture of the perfect, well-adjusted afterlife citizen.
“Will you accompany me back to the training room, Officer?” Sean asked Treble. I had the impression that Sean didn’t want to leave me alone with the GBs.
Dead and Buried: A Bridget Sway Novel (A Paranormal Ghost Cozy Mystery Series Book 4) Page 6
