Phantoms Can Be Murder: Charlie Parker Mystery #13

by Connie Shelton

  One more scoop or so and then I would tell Louisa it was time to move on to something more productive. But when the tip of my spade went into the ground the next time I heard a distinct clank.

  Chapter 11

  “Whoa!” The word popped out before I’d even lifted the spade. “What’s this?”

  Louisa rushed over, hammer still in hand, and stared down at the square of freshly turned earth.

  I raised the spade again and jammed the blade of it into the dirt. The clanking sound came louder this time. Metallic, like I’d hit a large iron box. I moved the spade around, testing. The metal object was nearly as big as the hole I’d been digging.

  “Let’s see, let’s see it!” Louisa urged.

  I scraped at the remaining thin layer of dirt, then we both dropped to our knees and began wiping it away with our hands. Sure enough, there was a round metal object beneath. I felt some raised areas, like an insignia or lettering.

  “Get that flashlight we brought,” I said, brushing like crazy at the dirt.

  Louisa came back with the light and aimed it at the floor. “Drat,” she said.

  I was still sweeping with my hands, clearing the metal surface.

  “Don’t bother,” she said. “See the wording?”

  I could make out B. ST. EDMS MUNI.

  “It’s an access for the water works. Like a manhole cover.”

  “What’s it doing under a building?” I demanded, miffed that my treasure was turning out to be nothing.

  “Who knows? This town has been under construction for a thousand years or more. There are probably water and gas lines running every which way.”

  My sense of neatness could not fathom such a plan but I had to accept it. Obviously, Dolly’s guess that the dug-up earth had something to do with a water leak must have been correct. My treasure chest was a goner.

  I heaved a sigh and began to shovel the dirt back over the space.

  Louisa stood back, a little dejected that her tapping efforts hadn’t yielded anything either. When I’d covered the hole as neatly as possible I glanced at my watch. It was nearly ten.

  “I hate to say this, but I think we’d better quit making noises until we can be sure they’ve fallen asleep upstairs.”

  “I guess you’re right,” she said. “This wasn’t nearly as much fun as the tombs of Egypt, I must say.”

  We set the tools aside. I walked up the stairs to the shop level and took a look around. The tiny night light did nothing more than illuminate the top of the table on which it sat, but ambient light from the street showed the familiar shapes of the merchandise and nothing more. For good measure I walked through the shop and shined the flashlight into the darker corners. Nothing appeared out of place.

  In the stock room, Louisa had poked around in our tote bag of goodies and she brought out the bread and cheese for dinner, plus the thermos of tea and packet of cookies. We carried them down to the cellar in order to stay as quiet as possible and made ourselves at home on the long leather sofa.

  “Okay, I have to ask. What tombs of Egypt?”

  She gave a half-shrug. “Oh, just another little ghost hunt. I was twenty-seven and someone mentioned a dig. I got all my shots, grabbed up my pack and went along.”

  “And?”

  “Didn’t find a ghost. But the place was loaded with urns and gold jewelry and such. Paintings all over the walls. You know.”

  Well, I didn’t exactly know but I got a pretty vivid picture. I could see a young Louisa trooping along behind an archaeology team, pestering them the way I’d pestered a certain detective with the Albuquerque police back home. I was beginning to see a lot of myself in her.

  She gave me a lopsided smile, along with another wedge of cheese.

  “There has to be something here,” I said, turning my attention back to the present. “There’s a reason someone wants to scare Dolly out of this shop.”

  But a glance around the cellar full of furniture told me that searching nooks and crannies was probably futile. How would we ever discover just which section of the rock walls or which portion of stone flooring hid the object the intruder was seeking? Unless the cartons and furniture were all removed and we had a way to see the space as a whole, we could spend weeks poking around in here.

  When I voiced those thoughts to Louisa she gave a little smile.

  “Spirits don’t need treasures,” she said. “They may want Dolly out of the shop for another reason.”

  I had no comeback for that, so I offered to check on things upstairs.

  As quietly as possible I climbed the stairs to the apartment, walking near the edges of the wooden steps and hoping a loud squeak wouldn’t give me away. At the top, all was silent, the television set apparently shut off for the evening. If we allowed the residents an hour or so to fall soundly asleep we could probably resume our search. Meanwhile, I decided to post myself where I could keep an eye on the shop from the dark shadows.

  Staying still and quiet while doing nothing is harder than you’d think. Within an hour I felt myself nodding. The whole idea of watching for paranormal activity had begun to grate on me. Whether the incidents had been caused by spirits or people, they were smart enough to stay away while someone kept guard, that was for sure.

  I wandered back down to the cellar where I found Louisa running her fingers over a section of the rock wall at the back of the building.

  “Finding anything?” I asked.

  “Come here and feel this. There is a draft of air coming through a very small opening here.”

  I joined her and examined the area. Sure enough, a crack showed in the mortar between the small rocks. When I held my hand near it I could feel cold air.

  “Where do you think it comes from?” I asked.

  “No idea. But it seems there would have to be an open space behind it, right?”

  Seemed logical to me.

  “I think I’ll give it go with the hammer,” she said.

  I doubted that the small household hammer would make much of a dent against a rock wall. “The apartment is right above this wall,” I said. “Better try to keep it quiet.”

  She experimented with a few small taps and I had to admit that the spot immediately beside the tiny crack did seem to resound with a little more reverberation than the rest of the wall. But it would take a sledge hammer and a lot of work to open much of a hole.

  With another reminder to her to work quietly I drifted over to the leather sofa, the one soft spot in the room that wasn’t stacked with boxes. A woven throw lay there and I stretched out, pulling it over me. Just closing my eyes for a minute, I told myself. Only one minute.

  The sofa was comfortable and I soon imagined Drake’s arms around me and that we were snuggled together there. Soon his lips were on my neck and I wanted more than just a snuggle. I woke with a moan of frustration.

  “Nice dreams?” Louisa asked from the bottom of the stairs.

  I blushed in the dim light and tossed the woven cover aside.

  “I went up to the shop for a look around again. Didn’t see anything,” she said. “Brought sodas and some crisps back with me.”

  The can of cola gave me a slight energy burst but by the time I’d finished it I also needed a bathroom break. I went up to use the one just off the stock room, took a peek through the shop and came to a dead stop.

  I could see the outline of someone standing at the door. There was a small metallic rattle as he tried the knob. I grabbed up the long flashlight I’d left in the stock room earlier and dashed for the door. Hitting the button and reaching for the window shade at the door at the same moment, I aimed the light to hit the person right in the eyes.

  But when the shade rose no one was there.

  I fiddled with the lock for a moment and flung the door open. The step was vacant. Quick glances left and right. At the corner, about four doors away a man strolled with his back to me, swinging a nightstick and wearing the distinctive cap of a police officer.

  I backed into the sho
p and closed the door as quietly as I could. When I turned around Louisa stood about a foot behind me.

  “What happened?” she whispered.

  I told her about the cop testing to see that the door was secure, then moving on. “Do you think I made enough noise to wake Dolly?”

  “No, you were pretty quiet. What got my attention was when you opened the door. The cold air rushed through the cellar.”

  “So that crack in the wall does go somewhere,” I mused. “It’s a large enough opening to draw a decent breeze.”

  “I guess so.”

  We made our way back down the stairs as quietly as possible. It was three in the morning.

  “Let’s take turns resting and watching,” I suggested.

  With no treasure to be found I just wanted to get this long night over with. But I didn’t want to waste the entire next day sleeping off the adventure. I offered to take the watch since I’d already had a nap, but Louisa was bright-eyed and insisted she wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. I sat in Dolly’s desk chair maneuvering to a spot where I could lean back in it and still see the front of the shop without being seen, I hoped, in case the policeman made his rounds again.

  At some point I wandered down the cellar stairs to find Louisa asleep on the sofa so I left her there. Eventually, the sky lightened and I began to hear sounds of movement above.

  A very long night and nothing to show for it.

  I went to fetch Louisa and had to rouse her out of a sound sleep to do so.

  “Oh, goodness!” she said. “What time is it?”

  “Almost seven.”

  “I’ve got work this morning,” she said, looking a little frazzled.

  “You go on home,” I insisted. “I can stay long enough to tell Dolly what we did, just so she doesn’t think we vanished, then I’ll be along behind you.”

  She seemed ready to protest my having to stay behind but it only made sense that she get home and have first chance at the shower. She gathered the tools since she was driving and I helped her carry them to her car.

  Back in the shop I ran my fingers through my hair and ate two breath mints. I don’t think either measure made much difference. The sounds from upstairs were gradually increasing—water running, pots and dishes clanking, the smell of coffee. Above me, the door to the apartment opened.

  “No, Arch, don’t bother. I’ll go down myself,” came Dolly’s voice.

  But she was too late, or he didn’t hear her, because he came down the stairs with a zippered bank bag in his hand. He came to a screeching halt when he spotted me.

  “Bloody hell!”

  “I—”

  But I didn’t get the explanation out. He took the stairs two at a time and charged into the apartment where Dolly met him at the door. She started explaining and both their voices rose.

  I picked up my purse, caught Dolly’s glance from the top of the steps, and mouthed goodbye. Even from the middle of the shop I could hear their argument.

  “What are you thinking?” he shouted. “An investigator?”

  “I want to know—”

  “I bloody well will not have it! You’ll stop it this instant!”

  Her voice dropped. “I can afford—”

  But he cut her off with more cursing.

  I opened the shop door as silently as possible and closed it behind me. A deep breath of fresh morning air and I started toward Louisa’s house. At the corner, the Really Rather Good Coffee House was opening and the aroma pulled me in before I gave it a second thought. Two take-away cups and a small bag with two strawberry pastries found their way into my hands.

  Ten minutes later I walked into Louisa’s house to the sound of the telephone ringing. No answering machine came on and I debated. I could hear the shower running upstairs. I set the breakfast on the kitchen table and picked up the phone, remembering belatedly that it would probably be either Dolly letting me know that I was fired from my little volunteer stint as investigator, or it would be Archie reading me the riot act.

  Luckily, it was neither. “Hey, babe,” said Drake’s voice.

  I was so glad to actually be talking to him that I had to swallow back the emotion that rose in my throat.

  “Isn’t it the middle of the night there?” I asked after I’d gotten past the I-miss-you-so-much stuff.

  “Nearly,” he said. “But the time apart is killing me.”

  “Me too.” I confessed to the semi-erotic dream I’d had where I imagined myself snuggled on the sofa with him.

  He told me about a dream of his own and we were about to get carried away when I heard Louisa emerge from the upstairs bathroom.

  “We’ll have to revisit this subject later,” I cautioned. I asked about Freckles and about the job he was doing for his demanding customer.

  “She’s grown some more,” he said about the dog. About the job, he told me the money was in the bank and he was glad he’d stayed behind to do the work.

  “There’s something more,” he said. “I’ve got a job offer in Alaska.”

  I felt a little whimper escape me. I’d always wanted to go there.

  “I’d have to start now. I didn’t want to give them an answer until I talked to you.”

  “How long would you be there?”

  “It’s recon for seismic work on a potential new oil field. A week or two now, but the main reason I’m leaning toward taking it is that it could easily lead to summer-long work next year. And the pay is very good.”

  “When?”

  “I have to call the guy first thing in the morning with an answer. I’d have to leave Saturday.”

  “That’s in two days! Wh—” My mind raced with all the who-what-where-when.

  “You could either join me in Anchorage when you leave England or go on home and I’ll get back when I can.”

  My heart felt pulled three ways. I was loving the visit to Bury. But my commitment to help Dolly was quickly reaching a dead end. I could leave earlier than planned. I wanted to be with Drake but what exactly would I do in Alaska? Aside from the obvious making-up-for-lost-time in the bedroom, I’d had no training in seismic work and they were only hiring one pilot at this point, not two. I thought of the long plane flight across the Atlantic followed by another one to reach him. He sensed my wavering.

  “Think about it tonight—or I guess that’s today where you are,” he said. “I’ll call you when I have more details. I need to get some sleep now. There’s a quick photo shoot on schedule for tomorrow morning and I’ll need to spend a full day getting ready to head north.”

  I sent him a kiss over the line and hung up the phone, a little dazed with the rapidity with which the plans had changed. It wasn’t so much that we couldn’t handle time apart—his work often required him to be away for days or even weeks. It was just that this felt so far away.

  Chapter 12

  I was standing next to the phone when Louisa came into the room, her hair still a little damp from her shower.

  “I thought I heard you talking,” she said, with a glance toward the phone.

  “Drake called,” I said a little absentmindedly.

  “All is well at home?” Then she spotted the bag and cups from the coffee shop. “Ooh—you brought breakfast!”

  No sense in letting the coffee go cold. I handed one to her and picked up the other. Between bites of the strawberry pastry, she chattered about the night we’d just spent in the Trahorn Building. I could tell she was operating on that particular kind of adrenaline rush that comes with sleep deprivation. She was probably going to crash, right in the middle of her workday.

  I envisioned going to bed after she left, hoping for a couple hours of catch-up sleep, but it was not to be. I’d just finished throwing the cups from our quick coffee into the trash when the phone rang. Hoping that Drake had decided to call back, I dashed for it.

  It was Dolly.

  “Hi,” I said. “Sorry I ran out so quickly this morning. It didn’t seem like the right time to hang around.”

 
She cleared her throat. “No problem. Archie and I discussed everything. It’s straight now.”

  I got the impression he was not in the room with her.

  “I don’t want to cause any problems for you,” I said. “I’ll just drop—”

  “Oh, no. That’s not at all why I called. I absolutely want you to keep investigating. I can pay whatever your normal fee is.”

  “No. I wouldn’t want you to do that.” Not to mention that I had no idea what complications I could get into by accepting paid work in another country. Better to keep the whole arrangement informal and off the books.

  “Would it be convenient for you to drop by sometime this morning? Before eleven, if possible? I’d like to hear how the night went.”

  I could probably tell her the sum total of it in two words: Nothing happened. But maybe it would be better if I saw her in person. A real conversation might help me sort out the various information I’d found over the past couple of days, as well as getting a better read on Dolly herself.

  “I’ll try to get there around ten, if that works for you,” I said. Before I did anything else at all, I must have a shower.

  Later, as I aimed the dryer at my hair, I wondered at Dolly’s insistence that I come before eleven o’clock. Were things with Archie really smoothed over, or was she just hiding the fact that she still wanted me around? I found myself alternating between thoughts of her situation and what was going on back at home with Drake’s new job. I should probably be booking a flight home rather than poking around in old buildings here. If only I’d figured out how to have myself cloned so I could be in two places at once.

  Dolly was alone in the store when I arrived and she had heated the kettle just minutes earlier, so she poured Earl Grey for me in a delicate china cup.