Mele's Ghostly Halloween Caper: Plus Sami's Story by J.D. Winters and Dakota Kahn (Destiny Bay Cozies Mysteries Book 6)

by J. D. Winters

  Even if he was just a ghost.

  Which was a shame. He was probably the most gorgeous man I’d ever known, with his creamy tan skin and his brilliant eyes, with just a single lock of his thick brown hair hanging over his forehead. Yummy.

  “Dante! You pop up at the strangest times!”

  He shrugged his wide shoulders and smiled. “I come when you call me.”

  “Really? How do you know?”

  “I feel compelled to find you at times when your emotions are at boiling point.”

  I frowned. “Well, you’ve missed some of them, believe me.”

  He looked like he disagreed. “I come when you call.”

  I gave him a frown. “That is pretty hard to believe. I’ve called you in my mind a hundred times when you didn’t show up at all.”

  He put his handsome head to the side, considering. His dark eyes seemed to be searching mine. “It doesn’t work that way. And sometimes I’m involved in other places. But I try to be there for you when you really need me.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to let him know that I needed him all the time, but that was childish and selfish and thank goodness I held it back. The fact was, he had been there for me at crucial times over and over and I had no right to complain, just because I wished it was more often.

  He was a ghost, for Pete’s sake, and I knew it was self destructive to fixate on him too much. He wasn’t human. He wasn’t a man.

  There were actually times I told myself to stop thinking about him, stop relying on him. I had to face real life without supernatural help along the way. It would be better if I concentrated on my relationship with Roy McKnight. And I would probably do that, if only Roy acted like he wanted us to grow closer and more serious. I thought I was ready. But then, having Dante at my beck and call wasn’t helping that, was it? It was a tug in the opposite direction.

  Funny. When we first knew each other, he never said a word to me. Little by little, he began to talk. Now he was a regular chatterbox.

  “What drew you here this time?” I asked him, curious. “I’m not in any sort of emotional distress.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  Reaching out, he trailed his fingers down the side of my neck and suddenly I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. “You may have something coming at you soon,” he said. “Be prepared.”

  “Okay,” I said a bit breathlessly, and he smiled.

  “You look beautiful in that dress. I should take you back in time to see what it was like for real belly dancers in the palaces of the sheiks.”

  I shivered, both from the overwhelming sense of his nearness and the thought of time travel.

  “I think I’ll pass,” I said. “Old style harems don’t seem like very welcoming places for women of this century.”

  But I softened my dismissal with a smile that I couldn’t contain. He just made me happy. I couldn’t help it. Then I wondered… “Could you really do that? Go back in time?”

  “What do you think?”

  “You hardly ever answer my questions.” I pretended to glare at him. “You kind of throw them out there and then you fade away.”

  Exactly as he was doing now. All that was left was a trace of his smile.

  “I’ll be back,” I heard as even that image disappeared.

  And then I remembered. He’d already done it. He’d taken me back in a dream to get new insights into my mother and her situation. And he’d been obliquely promising to do it again for a long time.

  “I’m waiting,” I whispered, knowing he wasn’t still there, but also knowing he would probably know what I’d said.

  I sighed and turned, getting back to my project. Another few minutes with Dante and I might have forgotten all about it. But I had a responsibility and I was taking it seriously.

  Chapter Five

  The noise from the party began to recede as I found various rooms, most of them obviously not visited much, and mainly used to store things. One room was full of beach gear—surfboards and a volleyball net, an entertainment tent, rubber rafts and fishing poles. Another seemed to be an art studio. One side of the room was covered with watercolor paintings of boats on the water. The other was filled with easels holding oil paintings of houses and flower gardens—all done with a lot of passion and at least some talent. I wondered if this was Debbie’s work, or Carlton’s. I lingered there for awhile, enjoying the art, then remembered I was on a mission and it was time to get back to it. I clicked off the light and went back into the walkway just in time to see a dark shadow disappear around a corner.

  Everything in me went on alert. Adrenalin began to surge. Somebody else was skulking around.

  I walked as quietly as I could, cursing those darn belly dancing bells that jangled with every step, trying to mute them with my hands. I stepped around the corner and stopped, listening. There was too much music from below to hear much of anything, but that was lucky for me, as it helped mask my bells as well.

  But then I heard something. A door closed in the next room. A closet? An adjoining bathroom? I took a step closer, my heart beating. Somebody was moving around in the room. Very slowly, very carefully, I leaned into the doorway to take a look.

  What I saw made me gasp. A man in a tall black hat and a black witches’ robe was leaning over a display case. My gasp was soft, but it was enough to make him jump, turn, and begin to come at me. I backed away, ready to run, but he called my name.

  “Hey Mele! It’s me.”

  I looked again and sagged with relief. It was Wayne, dressed as a male witch. He even had warts on his nose.

  “What…what happened to Batman?” I said a bit breathlessly.

  He looked surprised, then laughed. “Oh, I spilled punch all over that costume. And since Carlton had a room full of things to wear, I came up here to pick one out and change into it. Like me as a witch?”

  He twisted his face and made witchy sounds. I smiled, still feeling jumpy.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Batman is at least a good guy. A male witch…”

  “Hey, I’m a good guy.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “What are you doing up here anyway?”

  “Checking things out,” I said, trying to sound official. “Watching for any suspicious behavior. Speaking of which…why aren’t you watching the front area like you’re supposed to be?”

  “I gave it a shot,” he said dismissively. “Boring. I couldn’t keep my mind on the job.”

  Wayne was annoying me more and more. I was itching to catch him at something so that we could wrap this case up. The changing costumes thing was suspicious, but I couldn’t pin anything on him yet. I looked around the room. It was filled with display cases.

  “So what’s going on in here?” I asked.

  “Oh, you want to see? This is where Carlton keeps his coin collection. It’s really pretty spectacular. Come on over here. Take a look at his latest additions. He’s bought a whole passel of those Gold Rush coins from that shipwrecked treasure find. The U.S.S. Central America? Beautiful stuff.”

  I went over and gazed down at the coins. They were stunning. But I couldn’t really enjoy them. I was too busy wondering what Wayne was doing here and whether or not he was planning plunder. Hard to tell.

  But when I realized he was trying to slip his arm around my shoulders and cuddle closer, I cried out, “Eow!” and backed away from him. “What are you doing?”

  “Hey, it’s a party,” he said, leering at me. “And you look so damn sexy in that outfit…”

  “Keep your hands to yourself, buddy,” I snapped at him. “I don’t mess around with witches.”

  “Oh yeah? Then all those rumors about you having some sort of magic powers are just hogwash?”

  I frowned at him. “Hey, we never met before tonight. How would you know about that?”

  “People talk. I’ve heard about you before. And Debbie told me a lot tonight when she said she’d invited you to come.”

  Hmm. And why was he so interested? Could it b
e because he knew he might need to know where I stood and what my methods were? That he might have to thwart me, so he was checking out what sort of adversary I might be? Or was I going off in wild directions? Wouldn’t be the first time.

  “Well, you know what rumors are worth. Not a lot.” I glanced around the room. “But I would think these coin collections would be worth a lot of money. And they seem to be vulnerable if some have already gone missing. Why would Carlton leave them out like this where anyone could grab them?”

  He shook his head and led me over to check out some of the casings. “Look at this. Things have already changed since the thefts. Carlton had new titanium locks made for the cases, installed unbreakable glass and security cameras with alarms all over the room. It’s not going to be so easy anymore.” He frowned, his hand on his chin. “But there has got to be a way….” He muttered to himself as he considered.

  I stared at him. Was he really so cocky that he would speculate on how to steal from Carlton right there in front of me? It seemed he would.

  “I would think Carlton would hire a full time armed guard,” I said, glaring at him. “That would be the next step, wouldn’t it?”

  He looked at me and laughed. “You think I’m plotting against him? No way. Listen, Mele my dear, I plan to marry the daughter of the house. She digs me and you can’t expect me to leave all that money on the table when I have a chance to cash in, can you?”

  He laughed and leaned toward me like he was coming in for a kiss. I dodged him, but it would be awhile before I would be able to erase the vision of that wart coming at me.

  But nothing seemed to phase Wayne. He went on with his plans, blocking my pathway to the open door but not doing anything expressly threatening.

  “I’m just wondering if I should apply to be the armed guard myself. The only thing holding me back is that I don’t think I could get a carry permit that fast. I’ve got a few things in my background….”

  I gave up. If security really was that tight, I didn’t think I needed to stand around defending the treasure from an amorous witch. I managed to squeeze past him and headed out toward the rest of that floor.

  He laughed. “See you later, cutie. Save a belly dance for me!”

  I gave him a perfunctory wave and walked quickly away. If anyone deserved to be the guilty party, it was that guy, but I still didn’t have anything solid to use against him. What I needed was one of my spirit beings who had helped me in this house before. You’d think a Halloween party would be right down their alley, but so far, I hadn’t felt any of those vibes.

  A door opened and I caught a glimpse of two people with wet hair in luxurious terry cloth robes. The door closed too quickly for me to make a positive id, but I was pretty sure it was Carlton and Marilyn, back from their romp in the pool. I turned back down the next stairway, wondering how many floors this huge house really had.

  Exploring got tedious and I headed back toward the main party. Looking down on the people below, I made out Ginny Genera again. And there was her brother. I saw Captain Stone and Bebe and they seemed to be arguing. Ouch. I felt bad for Bebe.

  There was Jill, still contending with a few admirers. And there was Jagger, trying to fend them off by putting an arm around her and frowning fiercely. That made me laugh. He was a romantically handsome guy in the artistic tradition (think Lord Byron—I know he was a poet, but you get what I mean) and Jill was crazy about him. He really didn’t need to worry—and Jill deserved a night filled with admirers. She worked so hard and hardly ever got out at night like this. I was glad for her and she was shining like a star.

  I wandered, wondering why Wayne hadn’t shown up again, wondering if Roy was still working. It was getting late. I was about to stop by the refreshment table and see what was left of the food when--suddenly—a blast from the past.

  There was my little Siamese ghost kitty, lashing her tail and staring at me from the top of the next stairway.

  “Hey,” I called, waving at her. I took the stairs as fast as my harem pants would let me and she waited, then darted away just as I reached the landing.

  “Come back here, you,” I called to her, chasing her around the corner and into a sitting room I hadn’t seen before. It was beautiful, rich brocade, shining mahogany, antique wall hangings and lots of gold trim. You would have thought royalty lived there. I turned and stared in wonder at it all, then looked for the kitty again.

  She was watching me, her head barely visible around another corner. I started off after her and off we went, dashing around and around, and finally back down the stairs to the first floor, near the entryway.

  “What are you doing, you little crazy?” I called to her.

  She laughed at me, I swear. Then she got very slinky, leading me into a darkened room I hadn’t seen before.

  I realized immediately that it was the coatroom. There were a number of racks set up and coats hung everywhere. Then I noticed that someone had come in before me. A rack shook, the coats all swinging. I didn’t hear a sound; the music was much too loud. I shrank back along the wall, trying to be invisible, and staring into the room toward where I thought the other person was. My heart was in my throat. Instinctively, I knew this person was up to no good. But who was it?

  There. I saw an arm for just a moment. I slipped back behind another rack, hoping he or she hadn’t noticed me yet. And then he moved closer. I could barely make him out in the dark, but the person seemed to have a large black cloak covering everything, and suddenly they were sweeping toward me, crashing against racks that began to fall around me, leaping over dropped coats, running right past me and out the door, knocking me against the wall, hard, as he went by.

  “Hey!” I called out, catching myself before I could fall on one of the racks. I leaned toward the wall and felt for the light switch. Once I’d found it, I flooded the room with warm white light. And that was when I saw the wallet lying on the floor.

  “Uh oh.” I leaned down and picked it up. Someone had already begun to go through it. A credit card was sticking half way out and some ten and twenty dollar bills were scattered across the floor.

  “Wow,” I said, talking to the kitty. “I think we caught someone red handed here. Don’t you?”

  The kitty meowed and I began to look around the room for other evidence of malfeasance, the wallet in my hand. I was trying to figure out which coat the wallet had come from. Was it the one lying on the floor? Or the one draped across the bed. Leaning down, I began to look through the other pockets of that coat.

  “Mele Keahi, what the hell are you doing?”

  I froze. I couldn’t even look up. Everything in me was screaming, “No!” But that couldn’t keep the inevitable from happening.

  I knew who that voice belonged to and I knew exactly what was going through his mind right now.

  Captain Stone. Why did it have to be Captain Stone?

  Chapter Six

  Here was the one man in the world who was sure I was guilty of something. And he’d finally caught me with that something in my hand. This was his lucky day. And my most unlucky.

  I turned to look at him. “I…I was just…”

  His eyes were steely cold and his voice was cool and unforgiving. “Drop it. Right there.”

  I dropped the wallet on the bed and took a deep breath. “Listen, I know what this looks like, but I just got here myself. Someone was in here and before I turned on the light, they ran out that door.” I pointed toward the open door on the other side of the room. “I saw the wallet on the floor and I picked it up and…”

  He was looking through the wallet and he barely glanced at me. “Sit in the chair, please,” he said coldly. “I’ll take your statement in a few minutes. Right now, I want to find out who this belongs to.”

  I looked at the chair. My heart was racing. I couldn’t believe this was happening. If I could just get him to listen…

  “Captain Stone, will you listen to me? I was not going through the coats looking for wallets. That’s not somethin
g I’ve ever done, or would ever think of doing. If you’ll just let me explain…”

  “Sit.”

  I sighed, but I sat.

  He’d given the wallet a quick going over, and now he moved it from one hand to the other as he looked at me.

  “Mr. Gregory Templeton,” he said evenly. “Who is he?”

  I looked up at him. “I have no idea.”

  “Then what are you doing with his wallet?”

  I took a deep breath and tried again. “I was walking past this room and I noticed a shadowy figure in here, in the dark. That seemed strange, so I came in, reaching for the light switch. But before I found it, that shadowy figure, wrapped in a large black cloak, came shooting past me, knocking me against the wall. On his…or her… way out, they dropped this wallet. I got the light switch turned on and saw it there on the floor. I picked it up and began to try to see where it might have come from. And that was when you walked in and yelled at me.”

  He didn’t say anything. He just stood there, balancing the wallet from one hand to the other, staring at me. I tried to stare back. After all, I was innocent. But he was too much for me. I had to look down—quickly swearing at myself for looking guilty.

  “You were just walking by?” he said at last.

  I looked up. That was a lie and he could see it, couldn’t he? But I couldn’t tell him about my ghost Siamese. He’d never believe that one. How could I make this more believable? I thought about it feverishly, but nothing worked in my mind.

  And then my Aunt Bebe was standing in the doorway, looking cute as ever in her tiger suit.

  “What’s going on?” she said, eyes wide.

  Stone’s head raised and he frowned. “Go on back. This is police business.”

  But she didn’t go back. She stepped into the room.

  “Police business?” she said in disbelief. “This is my niece. My family. What do you mean, police business?”

  He took a step toward her, his hand raised almost in supplication.

  “Please Bebe, leave us alone. We have to get through this and….”