Who Killed the Ghost in the Library: A Ghost writer Mystery

by Teresa Watson

  I glanced over my shoulder, hoping to get a glimpse of the driver. That’s when it hit me: this was my nightmare coming true. When I faced forward again, I realized where he was steering me. Toward the well. Crap, crap, crap. Reaching into the side pocket of my bag, I pulled out my phone. Have you ever tried to send a text while you’re running for your life? Yeah, it really doesn’t work too well, especially when you fumble the phone and it ends up being flattened by a tire bigger you are.

  The well wasn’t that far ahead. I had to make a decision. If I turned to my right, I could jump the fence, but the driver would probably just crash right through and keep after me. If I went to the left, I didn’t think I could go in that direction fast enough to avoid being crushed like my phone. I could try and pull a u-turn, but I was getting tired of running and there was a sharp pain growing in my right side. Yeah, yeah, no comments about me being out of shape, thank you very much. It looked like I had only one choice. The well.

  Running past the well, I ripped the Velcro straps on the splint, took it off, and tossed it aside. It would just get in the way, and I needed both hands for whatever was about to happen. I went another twenty yards before turning around and going in the opposite direction. The unexpected move seemed to rattle the driver, because they hit the brakes and started sliding sideways. I ran straight to the well, and caught a break. There was a rope still tied to a nearby tree, and it went down into the well. Grabbing it, I swung my legs over the edge of the well and rappelled halfway down.

  I heard the truck come to a stop, the door open and close, followed by footsteps. I moved further down, hoping he couldn’t see me, trying to remember how deep the rescuers had said the well was. Twenty-five, thirty feet? I didn’t want to fall and find out.

  The rope jumped in my hands. Whoever was up there was messing with it. My heart started pounding, and I quickly rappelled further down the well. Surely he wasn’t going to pull me back up. And then the rope went slack and I was falling to the bottom. I landed on my back. I remember hearing a cracking sound right before I hit my head on the hard ground. At that moment, I was very grateful they had removed the bones and Aggie’s body from here the other day. The thought of being down here with them made me want to throw up.

  I heard the rope land with a thump near me, followed by something hard hitting my left leg. Whoever was up there had thrown a rock down! I bit my lip to keep from crying out. Rotten son of a motherless goat herder…when I got out of here, I was going to make them pay. Of course, there was just one problem with this…okay, maybe two problems. The rope was down here with me, and no one knew I was out here, except the idiot that chased me.

  The first thing to do was to check for broken bones. There were rocks digging into various parts of my backside. Thankfully, I had hit my head on dirt, not rocks. But when I sat up, I felt very dizzy and I wanted to throw up. Good thing I am so hard headed or I’d be dead by now. I checked my extremities, and I noticed that my left arm was sore and felt like it had a weird shape to it. It was hard to tell anything for certain with no light. The spot where the rock had hit my left leg was really sore. I saw lots of ice packs in my future.

  “Cam!” a voice from above called out to me. For a moment there, I thought this was either divine intervention, or I was really dead and didn’t realize it yet. I pinched myself and yelled. Still alive. “Cam! It’s Mike! Are you alright?”

  “I’m at the bottom of a well. Do you think you’d be alright if you were in my position?”

  “Help is on the way. Hang tight.”

  “What do you think I’m going to do, run off to another well or something?”

  “Nice to see your sarcastic side is intact. Did you break anything?”

  “Yeah, I think I broke my left arm. I don’t think it’s supposed to feel wavy.”

  “How’s your head?”

  “Fine, as long as I don’t move.”

  “Just keep talking to me.”

  I didn’t want to talk about my nightmare come to life. “What about the secret passage? Did you find anything?”

  “Not really. I mostly got covered with cobwebs.”

  My gut feeling was that passageway was an important part of Stanley’s murder. I was sure that whoever killed him used it to get away so they wouldn’t be seen by Aggie. But that narrowed the list of killers to three: Aggie, Ray or Stanley IV, aka Artie. Artie…was he an innocent bystander or did he really kill his father, then Ray, Aggie and Cliff to cover it up? Why kill Aggie and Cliff after all these years? My head started to throb, and I closed my eyes, gently massaged my temples.

  “Cam? You alright down there?”

  “Just dandy.”

  “Doesn’t sound like it.”

  “I’m just glad it’s dark down here. I don’t think I could handle light right now.”

  I heard some noises from up there. “Cam, help is here. I’ll be down there to get you shortly. Can you move to the back side of the well? I don’t want to rappel down and step on you.”

  “Yeah, I can.” Instead of trying to stand up, I slid backwards until I felt cold concrete against my back. “Not much room down here, you know. And how are you going to come down here with a hole in your arm? Isn’t that a big no-no by doctor’s standards?”

  I heard some arguing going on up top. “I’ll have a flashlight attached to my belt, pointing down. You just let me know when it gets close so I’ll know to be careful.”

  “I will.”

  A few minutes later, another rope was thrown down, but this time, it didn’t land next to me. A tiny light appeared at the top of the well, and it got brighter and bigger as Mike came down. A couple of minutes later, I warned him that he was almost to the bottom. He slowed down and dropped to the ground in front of me. Releasing the caliper, he knelt next to me. “Really, we have to stop meeting like this,” I said. “I told you I don’t like being the damsel in distress.”

  “Stanley saw the truck almost run you over in front of the house. He went upstairs to tell me, and we watched from the back windows. There were a pair of binoculars on the desk next to me, and I grabbed them to keep an eye on you. When you grabbed that rope and went over the edge, my heart dropped into my stomach. What were you thinking?”

  “That I didn’t want to be run over by a monster truck.”

  He ran his hands over my arms and legs. I winced when he touched my left arm. “Isn’t this the one you sprained?” he said. “Where’s your splint?”

  “Out there somewhere. I tossed it before I went over the edge of the well.”

  “I think you broke it this time.” He gently cupped my face in his gloved hands. “I have never been so scared in my life. I called for help as I ran downstairs and out the door. By the time I got around the corner, the truck was driving toward the opposite side of the house. I didn’t get a look at the driver. I kept hoping you were going to pull yourself up once you realized they were gone. Then I got to the well and noticed the rope had been cut.”

  “Could we talk about this later? I really want to get out of…wait a minute, did you say there was a pair of binoculars in the room you were in?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Whoever killed Aggie must have stood there and watched the rescue efforts. They wanted to make sure she was dead.” Another wave of dizziness hit me. “Can we get out of here now? I really want to go home.”

  Mike helped me up, put the extra belt he had brought with him around my waist, and got me hooked up to the rope. I hadn’t noticed he was wearing a pair of sunglasses on his head until he reached up and took them off before handing them to me. He gave it a hard tug, and I started moving up. “Just hang onto the rope. Let them do all the work. I’ll be right behind you.”

  The closer I got to the top, the more grateful I was for the sunglasses. Even with them on, the sunlight was bright and I closed my eyes. When I got to the top, two pairs of hands reached out and helped me out. One of them was Kim Thornton, who held onto me while Oliver Malloy unhooked me and removed the be
lt. She led me away from the well and over to the back end of a white truck. “Where are you hurt?” she asked me as she helped me up onto the tailgate. “What happened?”

  “Shouldn’t that be what doesn’t hurt?” I said before telling her about the rampaging truck chase.

  “Turn sideways so I can get a look at your back.” I did as she asked, and as she lifted my shirt, I heard her gasp. “You’ve got bruises already forming all over your back, girl.”

  “Well, there are rocks down there,” I pointed out, “plus an extra one that someone threw down to make sure I was dead. It hit me on my left leg.”

  Kim got off the truck and knelt in front of me. Lifting my pants leg, she shook her head. “You are going to be really sore for a while. What about your head?”

  “It’s fine, as long as I don’t move or stare directly into the light.”

  “That explains why Mike wanted my shades,” she said, standing up. She gently felt the back of my head. “Another knot. They’re going to have to check that out at the hospital.”

  I started to shake my head, but stopped myself in time. “I know what they are going to say, you know what they’re going to say. I’ve got everything I already need at home. The only thing I want to do is go home and soak in a nice hot bubble bath and forget my troubles for a while.”

  Mike appeared at the top of the well and pulled himself up. He took off the belt, handed it to Oliver, and came over to us. “How is she?”

  “Well, she’s turning black and blue, I’m pretty sure she has a full blown concussion this time, and she is refusing to go to the hospital,” Kim told him.

  “You’re going,” Mike said to me. “What about her arm?”

  “I’m not,” I said stubbornly. “They’re just going to tell me to go home, rest and have someone wake me up every hour.” I looked at Kim. “True or not true?”

  “Probably,” she reluctantly admitted, “but this arm is going to have to be X-rayed because I’m pretty sure you have a bad break.”

  I sighed, hopped off the tailgate, grabbing Mike’s arm to steady myself. I handed Kim her shades, squinting my eyes against the bright sunlight. “Thanks for letting me use them.”

  “Keep them. I’ll get them from you later.”

  Mike wrapped his arm around my waist as we started walking toward the house. “My gun is in my bag.”

  “I’ll take care of it when we get to the truck. I have a locking gun case in my Bronco.”

  “How are we going to get home? That idiot smashed up your Bronco.”

  “Danny is going to let us borrow his truck, and wait for a wrecker to take care of the Bronco.”

  “Thanks. And I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For being a royal pain in the butt this week.”

  “Well, you definitely have been a pain,” he agreed, “but I think I’ve learned more about you in this past week than I ever thought possible.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  “Both,” he said as Danny came toward us.

  They started leading me toward Danny’s Dodge Ram, but I stopped them. “Take me to the house for a minute,” I said.

  “Why?” Mike asked.

  “Please.”

  “Stay here, Danny. Get my gun case out of my truck. It’s in the back end near my tool box,” Mike told him as he took me to the house.

  We walked inside, and Stanley was standing in the foyer. “Are you alright?” he said.

  “A little banged up, but I’ll be okay,” I said. “Mike told me what you did, and I wanted to thank you for saving my life.”

  “You’re welcome,” he replied. “I deeply regret having involved you in this matter. I wish you would reconsider and drop the whole thing.”

  “No,” I said, “I think we’re very close to solving the whole thing. That’s what you hired me to do, and I intend to see it through to the end.”

  He stared at me for a moment. “You are a very strong and determined young woman, Miss Shaw. I must say I am impressed by your fortitude. Thank you.” He turned and walked into the library.

  We walked back outside, where Danny was still waiting. He and Mike helped me into the Ram. Mike gave him the key to the Bronco, and told him to call with a damage report as a wrecker parked nearby. “One more thing, Danny,” Mike said. “I want you to go inside, go upstairs and dust the room that faces the back of the house on the right for fingerprints. “You’ll find mine on a pair of binoculars and a couple of other places, but I believe someone else has been up there in the last three days. Let’s find out who, okay?”

  “Yes, sir, I’ll take care of it right away.”

  Mike told him to call if anything came up, and let him know he’d be at my house until further notice. As we drove away, he said, “You should probably call your parents, let them know you’re safe.”

  “You called them?”

  “Randy said he was going to after I talked to him.”

  “When did you have time to call him?”

  “While I was waiting for rescue to get there.”

  “Weren’t we talking to each other the whole time?” I said, confused.

  “Um, no,” he said, glancing at me sideways. “You got quiet for about ten minutes. I figured you had passed out or something, which scared me.”

  “I can’t call anyone,” I said. “My phone was crushed under the wheels of that monster truck.” He handed me his phone. I called my parents first, letting them know I was safe and sound. My mother insisted on meeting me at the house, but I talked her out of it, knowing I would pay for that later. Then I called Randy, but he didn’t answer.

  Mike parked by the emergency room door and went inside. He came back with a nurse pushing a wheelchair. I started to protest, but the look I got from Nurse Ratchet shut me up. She wheeled me inside and straight to a room while Mike parked the truck.

  He stayed with me for the next three hours as I was poked, prodded, and lit up like a Christmas tree by the X-ray machine. For my troubles, I received a lovely purple cast for the distal radius fracture of my left arm, a definite concussion this time, and strict instructions to stay home for the next three days minimum. I did my best not to snort when the doctor said that; I knew the chances of that were pretty much zilch. I had a murderer to catch.

  Chapter 40

  When we pulled up at my house, Randy was leaning against his car in my driveway. He came over, opened the door of the truck after Mike parked, and started chewing me out. “Are you out of your liver-loving mind? What has gotten into you? Do you have a death wish or something?”

  I closed my eyes as he yelled at me. “Randy, shut up,” Mike said as he got out on his side.

  “And you! How could you let her almost die? Why weren’t you with her?”

  “Randy, shut up,” I said, holding my head in my hands, which wasn’t easy to do with a fresh cast on my left arm. “Please, just shut up.”

  Mike shoved Randy out of the way and helped me down. “My keys are in my bag somewhere,” I told him.

  Randy grabbed the bag before Mike could and found the keys. Mike snatched them out of his hand, put his arm around my waist, and helped me to the door. He opened it and led me to the recliner, where I gratefully sat down and leaned back before Mike went back outside. Randy stomped inside and slammed the door.

  Groaning, I grabbed my head before standing up to face him. “That’s enough,” I said, gritting my teeth as I got dizzy. I held onto the edge of the recliner and took off the shades. “I have had one heck of a morning, Randolph, and I do not need you acting like Stormin’ Norm, demanding answers and making enough noise to wake the dead. I was chased through a field and forced to jump into a well to save myself. I almost died at the bottom of that well, or at least like it felt like it. There isn’t a part of my backside that doesn’t hurt, and my head is playing the timpani part of the 1812 overture so loud that it feels I’m sitting in the orchestra pit with the Boston Pops. I need you to give me moral support right now. You are not
my boyfriend, you are not my father, and while you may be the closest thing to a brother I have, right now I would gladly disown you for some peace and quiet. So, if you want to stay here, keep it down, don’t argue, don’t fight, and just help me. Alright?” He nodded. “Wonderful. Thank you. Now, if you two will excuse me, I am going to go soak in the tub. Try not to kill each other, and if you feel like you need to do that, do it outside so I can’t hear you.”

  I shuffled off to my bathroom, grateful for my beautiful, large garden tub. Unfortunately, when I started to bend over, I almost fell in because I was dizzy. Realizing I needed help, I went back into the living room, where I found Mike on the phone and Randy pacing the floor, shooting dirty looks at him. There was no way Randy could stay here; he had that look on his face that said he wanted to punch something or someone. I was pretty sure who that someone was. “Randy, would you mind going to get us something for lunch? I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning.”

  “Sure, I guess I can do that,” he said. “Anything in particular you want?”

  “Burgers? Chicken? Anything is fine. You decide.”

  He looked over at Mike briefly before looking back at me. “I’ll be back in a little while.” I could tell he didn’t really want to leave me alone with the intrepid police chief, but he gave me a gentle hug. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said.

  Mike got off the phone as Randy closed the door. “I thought you were going to soak in the tub.”

  “Would you mind starting it for me? I hate to ask, but if I bend over again, I might fall in the tub. I’ve had enough falling down for one day.”

  “I don’t mind at all,” he said. We walked back to the bathroom, where he put the plug in and turned on the water. “Need help getting undressed?” His eyes flickered down my body before he gazed into my eyes.

  Did it suddenly get hot in here? Steam. It’s the steam from the water, that’s it. “I…I’m good,” I said. “Why don’t you take a shower while I’m in here?” His eyes got wide. “I mean, take one in the other bathroom.”