The Walk That Haunts Me

by Rose Pressey

  “Nice hat,” Dana said when I stepped up to the coffee shop counter.

  “I guess I should explain,” I said.

  After filling Dana in on all the news, I took my coffee and I sat at a corner table with my cookie and coffee. I wore the big floppy straw hat that I’d bought last spring for the Kentucky Derby. I’d wanted to wear sunglasses, but considering that it was cloudy, and I was inside, I figured that would attract more attention to me than without the shades.

  I just wanted to avoid talking to anybody about the latest crimes around town. All I wanted was to relax and eat my white-chocolate-chip cookie. No one paid a bit of attention to me as I sat in the corner.

  The bell over the door jingled and I looked up to see that Jessie had entered. Jessie moved across the coffee shop floor as if on a mission. She never looked over at me, or anyone else for that matter. Dana glanced up from her spot behind the display case and saw Jessie headed her way. The women met in the corner of the room. Within seconds it appeared that they were deep in a discussion. What were they talking about?

  A few seconds later they looked over at me. Was I the topic of the conversation? This made me feel uncomfortable. Soon Jessie turned and marched across the coffee shop toward the exit. She stepped out of the coffee shop without even looking over at me and saying a word. I felt a stare on me though. Dana watched me and waved. I waved back and decided it was time for me to get out of there.

  My path toward the library meant I passed a lot of other shops. As I walked past the antique shop, Mr. Byrd was outside sweeping the sidewalk in front of the door.

  “Hello, Ripley,” he said. “Will you be bringing a tour by here soon?”

  “Yes, I’ll be by soon,” I said with a smile. “Anything new happened lately?”

  “It’s been quiet around here. I’d say that’s a good thing for me, but probably a bad thing for you,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Well, there’s no shortage of haunted places in town. If they stay away from your place I’m sure they’ll just move on to another,” I said.

  “I heard about everything at the library and I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Byrd, I appreciate that.”

  “I don’t know how you handle all that you do. You’ve got a lot on your plate.”

  “I just keep doing what I do,” I said with a smile.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what you should do. Just keep doing what you do.” He moved the broom back and forth.

  “Oh, by the way,” Mr. Byrd said. “I thought it was awfully odd the other day when I saw the three people following you.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “There was a woman and two men following you and they were dressed in old fashion clothing. I assumed it was something for the library.”

  I knew immediately what he was talking about, but I didn’t want to scare him.

  “Oh, yes, they’re working on a project for the library,” I said.

  I felt bad for lying. Mr. Byrd was the nicest man I knew, but I was protecting him by keeping the ghosts away from his shop. Then again, maybe he would see the ghosts in his shop and know that I had lied to him. Maybe I needed to come clean after all.

  “Actually, Mr. Byrd, I have to tell you the truth.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, raising his bushy gray eyebrow.

  “They’re not working for the library.”

  “They’re not?”

  “They’re working for the library board, which is technically different than just working for the library.”

  Okay, I’d chickened out and totally made that up.

  “Listen, I have to go now. I’ll see you later, Mr. Byrd,” I said, waving as I walked away.

  He must certainly think I’m weird now. Oh, who was I kidding? He probably thought that a long time ago. Like when I asked to bring people through his shop so that they could see ghosts.

  Every time I walked by the bookstore I had to take a peek inside because, well, books were my favorite thing. I recognized Jenny inside. I didn’t know if I should run the other way or take a closer look. What was she doing in there? Okay, so I guessed it wasn’t such a surprise to see a person in a bookstore. I was being a bit dramatic. I wanted to go inside and find out what she was looking at. Brannon would tell me I needed to stay away from her, but how would staying away solve this crime? I stepped into the bookstore, keeping my eye on Jenny as she stood at the back of the store.

  Thank goodness she didn’t look over at me, so that gave me a chance to get all the way back there. She was in the cookbook section. That was interesting. I had to take a closer look at the book in her hands. I peeked over the side of the aisle. What was she making?

  My heart beat faster at the thought of being caught. Jenny was looking at a book on how to bake pies. That sent a shiver down my spine. Now I had to get out of there before she saw me. I hurried back down the aisle almost knocking over a book display. Thank goodness I was getting out of there.

  Before I reached the door, the bookstore owner called out to me. “It’s nice to see you.” She waved.

  I wanted to head out the door, but she rushed around the counter.

  “I need to ask you a question,” she said.

  “Oh, I’m kind of in a hurry to get to the library.” I gestured. “Maybe stop by there later, okay?”

  She frowned and I knew she was confused by my actions. Normally I was eager to talk to her. We could talk about books for hours. When I glanced back it was too late. Jenny had already seen me. She was headed toward the front of the store. Was she going to confront me right here in the bookstore? Now I definitely had to get out of there. Without saying goodbye, I opened the door and rushed out onto the sidewalk, practically running. Where would I go? I knew she would come after me. I needed to hide in one of the other stores.

  Chapter 14

  As I hurried down the sidewalk toward the library, I gained a few weird glances because of my giant floppy hat. I supposed it wasn’t such a great disguise after all.

  If people wanted to know anything about the current crime spree in town then they should just come up and ask me. Not that I would tell them everything I knew, but I would certainly tell them that I hadn’t kidnapped anyone and that I had nothing to do with the murder. There were plenty of witnesses who knew that I couldn’t have done it. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop people from talking.

  As I walked up to the library doors I stopped in my tracks. There in the graveyard on the front lawn I spotted three wispy mists hovering over the graves. I couldn’t take my eyes off them. It almost looked as if they were dancing or twirling.

  I watched for a moment longer until they moved, zipping around the corner of the library. My heart beat faster as I raced across the yard to the side of the library. When I looked over the edge of the building, I saw nothing. They were gone. They’d disappeared into thin air. What had I seen? It had to be the ghosts. It was the first time I’d ever seen anything like that. Were they from spirits of people buried in the graveyard or from the portal inside the library? Or the three spirits that I’d seen when Lucy Marcus had been murdered? After all, there were three of the mists.

  I wondered if there was a reason why they had been at the graveyard. Could one of the graves be the ghost’s? Were all three buried here? I decided to check the names. There weren’t a lot of graves, but there were enough that it would take me at least ten minutes to walk through and look at everything. I walked up and down the rows checking names one by one for the last name Pennington. But none of the grave markers looked familiar. There had to be some other reason why they were in the graveyard. Maybe I would never know. They certainly weren’t giving me the chance to ask.

  “What are you doing?” a female voice asked.

  I spun around. “Why does everyone keep scaring me like that?”

  Tammy stood over on the path that led to the front door. She rarely stepped over into this area; she thought that one of the ghosts might grab h
er. Tammy did a lot of brave things but hanging around with ghosts wasn’t one of them.

  “Sorry,” Tammy said. “Did you lose something?”

  “Just checking things out,” I said.

  She frowned as if suspicious of my answer, but she didn’t ask more questions.

  Following Tammy, I hurried up the path toward the library, glancing around at the graveyard to see if any ghosts might pop up again. There had been no sign of the ghost trio since last night until seeing the mists in the graveyard. I’d been relieved at their absence, but suspicious at the same time. It was terrible being on edge waiting for them to appear at any moment.

  Tammy and I went through our normal routine as we opened the library for the day. Lights on, computers on, cats fed, and ghosts acknowledged. The man who had installed the cameras was supposed to come back this morning to show me exactly how to work everything. I’d just put my bag away when he walked through the door.

  “I hope I’m not too early,” he said with a wave.

  “Not at all,” I said.

  I directed him to come around the desk while I turned on the computer. Within a few minutes we’d gone over everything. Apparently, the cameras had already been up and running last night and people were sending in images of what they thought was ghostly activity. Every image I looked at so far seemed far from anything paranormal. However, one image I thought for sure showed the back of an old dress. Was that Annie as she walked around the side of one of the stacks? She would probably be excited to know that she’d been captured on film and would try to make as many appearances as possible. She really loved the attention.

  Tammy had gone upstairs. As soon as she came back downstairs, I had a lot to tell her. Plus, I had to show her exactly where the cameras were and how they worked. I knew she would want to avoid the areas if possible. But honestly, it would be almost impossible. It was like being on a reality show while we worked. We would get used to it eventually, I supposed.

  As soon as the man with the cameras left Annie popped up.

  So much action around here. Not enough books being read though.

  I pulled up the camera image that had been sent in and motioned for Annie to come over. “Come here, Annie, I want to show you that you were caught on camera.”

  I forgot that people were wandering around the library right now. They might see me talking to absolutely no one. I held my phone up to my ear like I was talking in case someone saw me on the camera. That way they wouldn’t think I was crazy.

  “It’s you. Isn’t that wonderful?” I pointed at the screen.

  She sent a text message. I moved the phone away from my ear so that I could read it.

  I’m a movie star? That’s absolutely amazing, but I look a mess. I’ll have to make sure to look my best in case people are watching.

  I chuckled. “Annie, you always look beautiful, so I don’t think you have to worry about it.” Her gray hair was always perfectly styled and her rosy cheeks always round from her smile.

  Jane Austen jumped up onto the desk and rubbed against my arm.

  I rubbed her head. “Oh, are you ready for a treat? I’m sorry—all this other stuff is taking all of my attention, isn’t it?”

  She meowed and raised her paw. It looked as if she’d pointed. I turned my attention across the room in the direction of her pointing paw.

  “What is it, Jane?”

  It wasn’t uncommon for animals to pick up on the paranormal when humans couldn’t see it.

  “Okay, I’ll check it out,” I said.

  I moved around the desk and down the hallway. Nothing seemed out of place. I checked up and down the stacks. I saw nothing unusual. There were no people at all. I turned around to go back to the desk. Out of the corner my eye I caught movement. Looking to the left, I thought for sure I saw a man. But it had been so faint. I just couldn’t be sure. I hurried down the aisle anyway to check. Moving up and around the entire section, I saw no one there.

  If anything paranormal had been there, maybe people watching on the surveillance cameras would catch it. Jane Austen had jumped down and wandered off. I guessed she’d lost interest. Once back at the front of the library, I spotted Jessie from the book club headed my way.

  “Any news?” she asked.

  “Um, no, nothing,” I said.

  She’d just asked not long ago. Surely she didn’t think things had changed that quickly.

  “I’m just surprised. I thought they would’ve found something by now. It’s such a tragedy.” She shook her head. “But I guess things must go on, so that’s why I wondered if we can still use the library for the book club?”

  “Yes, of course,” I said. “Just let me know if everything’s still on. I wasn’t sure if the members would want to continue this month.”

  “Oh, I’m sure they will, but I’ll talk to them about it. I know life goes on and Lucy would want us to meet for the club as well.”

  “I’m sure she would,” I said with a smile.

  “I’m surprised there are so many patrons here,” she said. “With everything going on, you know?”

  Yes, I was well aware of what she meant. A patron walked up to the reference desk and handed me her books.

  “I know you,” the woman said. “You came into the restaurant with your boyfriend a couple weeks ago. I was your waitress.”

  I studied her face. “Oh, yes, I remember now. How are you?”

  “I’m doing great.” She looked like she wanted to say something else.

  “Is there anything I can help you find?” I asked.

  She hesitated. “No, nothing, I suppose.”

  Did she want to ask me about the murder or the missing man? Maybe I should mention it just so that she would stop staring at me like that. She seemed like a nice person but probably curious at the same time.

  “Are you curious about the murder that happened here the other day?” I asked.

  Her face turned a bit red. “Well, I didn’t want to say anything because I’m sure it’s very traumatizing for you.”

  “It’s all right, everybody knows. It’s not as if it’s a secret.”

  “Excuse me,” a woman said, peeking around the other woman’s back and interrupting our conversation.

  “Yes?” I said with a smile.

  Then I recognized her. It was Mrs. Mae from the pie contest.

  She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’m just wondering when you’re going to finally announce who won the pie contest.”

  I sighed. “Well, things have been kind of hectic and I guess I forgot.”

  “You shouldn’t neglect your other duties here at the library. It’s very important for a lot of people. They put a lot of work into the pies.”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “I understand.”

  Tammy scoffed from somewhere behind me and mumbled under her breath. Something about where she could put her pie. Mrs. Mae was acting kind of suspicious and she had been at the library when the murder occurred. Could she account for her whereabouts at the exact time of the murder? I eyed her suspiciously. She frowned, probably wondering what I was thinking.

  “I will announce the winner in the morning, okay?”

  “I’ll be back then,” she said as she turned on her heel and marched across the library floors.

  I turned my attention back to the woman from the restaurant. “Sorry about that.”

  “Oh, it’s no problem,” she said.

  “You were just about to tell me something?” I asked.

  “Well, it’s just that…” She pulled a newspaper from her purse. “Did you see today’s paper?”

  “No, I suppose I haven’t had a chance to look yet.” Usually that was one of the first things I saw, but today there had been no time.

  She handed me the newspaper. “Here, took a look.”

  My picture was on the frontpage article. It was about my tour and the missing man. Ugh. That was the last thing I wanted to see.

  “I have actually seen that guy before,” she s
aid, tapping the page.

  My eyes widened. “What? Where have you see him? Was it recent?”

  “He was in the restaurant last week.” She leaned closer. “And he wasn’t alone. He was with the woman who was murdered.”

  My hand flew to my mouth. “Lucy Marcus? What were they doing there together?”

  “I guess they were on a date. And this other woman mentioned in that article.” She pointed at the paper. “What was her name? Jenny? Anyway, she came into the restaurant and caused a big scene. Apparently, she was dating him at some point.”

  “Wow, I had no idea,” I said.

  “Yeah, it was pretty ugly. He wanted to get away from her. Ultimately Lucy left. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m just surprised that she wasn’t the one who killed Lucy instead of that other woman from the pie contest. Imagine all that because of a pie contest.””

  Needless to say I was shocked by what she’d just told me. I had to tell Brannon about this right away. Maybe my instincts about Jenny had been right from the beginning. The thought sent a shiver down my spine.

  “Well, thanks for the library books,” she said as she grabbed the books from the counter.

  “Thanks for letting me know about the newspaper,” I said, handing it back to her.

  “I know it’s not the best news, but I thought I would tell you what I knew.”

  “I really appreciate it more than you know.”

  “I hope they find out what happened soon.”

  “Me too,” I said.

  She turned and walked out the library doors. Thank goodness she’d told me about the incident at the restaurant. Movement caught my attention from the right and I spotted Jessie from the book club again. She had been staring at me. That was really odd. The look on her face was as if she’d been caught ripping pages from one of the books. Guilt was written all over her face.

  Jessie stood beside one of the stacks but didn’t have a book in her hands. When she realized that I’d noticed her, she diverted her attention and walked around the back of the stack. That was really weird. Maybe she had overheard my conversation with the woman from the restaurant and thought my involvement in the case was scary. Perhaps she thought I’d really kidnapped Jonathan. Regardless, I had to get back to work.