by Jana DeLeon
Neely Kate’s mouth dropped open. “You honestly think I killed her over fifty bucks? Are you crazy? I’m gonna be a mother. What kind of example would I be setting for Ronnie Junior?” She rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust. “I don’t know how y’all do things down here in New Orleans, but in Henryetta, Arkansas, we don’t just run around killin’ people unless it’s over something important like cheerleading slots.”
“Did you go to her shop to collect the money she owed you?” Detective Savoy asked. “Did she refuse to pay?”
“What? No! She didn’t finish my readin’ and I wanted a refund. That’s all.”
Detective Savoy didn’t look remotely convinced. “That was an awfully strong reaction over an unfinished reading.”
Neely Kate started to reply, then clamped her mouth shut. Rose leaned forward. “She’s pregnant and worried about her baby. We went to see Madame Serafine so she could tell Neely Kate that Ronnie Junior is fine, but she kicked us out before answerin’. Neely Kate was just upset.” Rose waved her hand dismissively. “It’s a hormone thing.”
Taylor looked back and forth from Detective Savoy to Rose and Neely Kate. She didn’t doubt for a minute that the two women were telling the truth. Nothing in their body language indicated differently, but she also knew they weren’t telling him everything. People never did, but that didn’t mean what they were holding back was relevant. Usually it was simply personal and they didn’t want others to know.
“Well, what about her?” Neely Kate pointed at Taylor. “She practically burned the place down before we got there. That’s gotta be worse than leavin’ a message on voice mail.”
Detective Savoy turned to look at Taylor. “Is that true? Are you the one responsible for the fire at the shop?”
“Well, yes, but it was an accident.” Taylor scrambled for an explanation that didn’t include Helena. Speaking of which, where the hell was Helena? “I was looking in Madame Serafine’s crystal ball and dropped it. When I scrambled to catch it before it hit the ground, I landed on the table and broke it. A piece of the table knocked the candle over and caught the tablecloth on fire.”
Detective Savoy cocked his head to the side. “You expect me to believe that ridiculous story?”
Taylor felt her spine stiffen. The detective was just doing his job, but he’d rubbed her wrong from the moment he’d banged on her door. “If I were going to make something up,” she said, “it would sound a lot more plausible, so yes, I expect you to believe me, but mainly because I have no reason to lie.”
“Unless you came back to the shop after it closed and finished the job,” Detective Savoy said.
“Are you placing me under arrest?”
“Not at this time.”
Taylor rose from her chair. “Then I’m done here. I’m sorry about what happened, but I left the shop and went straight home. Aside from the clerk and these two women, I didn’t see anyone else in the shop and didn’t pay attention to anyone on the street.”
Neely Kate jumped up. “If she gets to leave, we’re goin’ too. C’mon, Rose.” She tugged at Rose’s sleeve.
Taylor looked at Detective Savoy. “I suggest the next time you bring any of us in for harassment that you establish motive, because accidentally breaking a table and wanting a refund are hardly the type of things people kill a perfect stranger over. And might I also suggest you work on your attitude. People are far more likely to offer you information if you’re not treating them like criminals.”
“See that you don’t leave town. Any of you,” Detective Savoy said.
Taylor didn’t even bother to respond. She stalked out of the interrogation room and left the police station. She heard scrambling behind her and glanced back to see Neely Kate practically pulling Rose out of the building. Still no sign of Helena, but Taylor was too angry to care. She set off at a fast clip down the sidewalk, already unhappy at the choice of either paying for a taxi or making the mile walk home.
“Wait!” Neely Kate yelled as Taylor was about to turn the corner.
Taylor stopped and looked at them.
“How’d you know he’d let us leave?” Neely Kate asked.
“I’m a private investigator. I know my rights. He’s fishing. If he had anything concrete, he would have placed someone under arrest.”
Neely Kate’s eyes widened. “A private investigator? Rose, did you hear that?” She shot Rose a conspiratorial smile before turning her attention back to Taylor. “So do you think he’s gonna leave us alone now?”
Taylor frowned. “No. Detective Savoy has somewhat of a reputation for building cases on circumstantial evidence so that he can get a quick close.” A fact she knew all too well, as she’d gotten a friend off a trumped-up embezzlement charge that Savoy had pegged her for. Taylor had never had the pleasure of meeting the detective in person, but she had no doubt he was still hacked that she got her friend off and another detective ended up catching the real bad guy.
“Why on earth would he want to do that?” Rose asked. “I’d expect that in Henryetta, but not in the city. Doesn’t he care about catching the real killer?”
Taylor shook her head. “I think he only cares about being promoted.”
Rose shot a nervous glance at Neely Kate. “So what are we gonna do? You threatened the woman.”
“Only because she wouldn’t give me my money back,” Neely Kate argued. “I’m unemployed now and pregnant. I can’t go throwin’ my money away.”
“It doesn’t sound like Detective Savoy gives a tinker’s damn,” Rose said. “In fact, he sounds an awful lot like Detective Taylor in Henryetta, and we both know what he’s like.”
Neely Kate looked at Taylor. “So if Detective Savoy isn’t gonna do his job, then you do it for him. You’re a PI. You know all about this stuff. And Rose and I have solved a couple of mysteries ourselves. We can help.”
Taylor had decided to pursue her own investigation when she’d left the police station, but she wasn’t about to take on partners, especially amateurs. She already had her hands full with Helena. And speak of the devil, the ghost finally appeared in the alleyway and hurried toward them.
“Do you have to walk so fast?” Helena bitched as she huffed up.
Neely Kate pointed. “You. You yelled ‘Next’ last night at Madame Serafine’s shop. I remember your voice.”
Taylor and Helena froze, staring at Neely Kate. Rose scrunched her brow. “Who exactly are you talkin’ to?”
Neely Kate shook her finger. “The woman right in front of you. Dressed like Christmas Sherlock Holmes. Right there, Rose.”
Rose stared past Neely Kate’s finger, then looked back at her friend, a worried expression on her face. “There’s no one there,” she said.
Neely Kate threw her hands up in the air and looked at Taylor. “She was talkin’ directly to you. Are you gonna tell me you don’t see her, either? I may be pregnant, but I still have my wits about me.”
A rush of thoughts raced through Taylor’s mind. None of them good. What possible explanation could she give that made sense other than the truth, which technically made no sense at all?
“Yes,” Taylor said. “I see her, but most people don’t. She’s a ghost.”
Chapter Four
Taylor stared at Neely Kate, waiting for her to call her crazy.
Neely Kate’s mouth dropped open, then she yelled, grinning ear to ear. “Woo hoo! Rose, I told you I had paranormal gift. I see dead people!”
Rose stared at her, clearly convinced the entire lot of them had lost their mind. Taylor bit her lower lip, trying to decide what to do about the monkey wrench she’d never seen coming. She’d had no intention of including the two women in her investigation, but if Neely Kate could see Helena, then Taylor had to make sure she remained safe. Then Neely Kate’s words registered with Taylor.
“You’ve been looking for a paranormal gift?” Taylor asked.
“Yes,” Neely Kate said, her excitement clear. “It runs in my family. My grandmother can read t
ea leaves. I just knew I had an ability, and I’ve been lookin’ for it for years.”
Rose didn’t look convinced. “Your grandmother has about a twenty percent accuracy, which is why we were seein’ the psychic in the first place. And there’s dead people all over the place back home,” Rose said, “but you’ve never seen a one of ’em before.”
“How do you know?” Neely Kate said, putting her hand on her hip and giving her a haughty gaze. “Maybe I talk to dead people all the time and I just don’t know it ’cause they look real. Like that Sixth Sense movie.”
“Actually,” Taylor said, “Helena is one of a kind. Most ghosts have limited communication skills. They are mostly emotionally charged.”
“You see ghosts?” Neely Kate asked.
“Obviously, she does,” Rose said, “unless you two are havin’ a shared delusion.”
Taylor waved a hand to stop the argument that was inevitably coming. “There’s no delusion. Helena is real. Apparently Neely Kate can see her. And while all of that is interesting, we have a bigger problem.”
Taylor looked at Helena. “Did you find out anything at the police station?”
Helena nodded. “That girl with the purple hair was in there. She had a knot on her head. She told that rude detective that after those two left, she went to lock the front door and someone shoved it open and knocked her on the head. She didn’t get a good look at him and doesn’t know what happened until she came to early this morning, found Madame Serafine dead in her reading room, and called the police.”
Neely Kate translated what Helena said for Rose and then grabbed her friend. “You said she’d be robbed. That must be what happened!”
Taylor turned to Rose, confused. “Why would you say that?”
“I have these visions sometimes,” Rose said, her voice practically apologetic. “It’s a family sort of thing. I don’t know when they’ll come and I can’t control blurting out what I see.” She sighed. “It puts me in more messes than I’d like.”
“I understand,” Taylor said. “I come from a family with…uh, unique abilities as well.”
“Really?” Rose perked up a bit.
“Yeah. Maybe when all this is over, we’ll sit and talk about it.”
“But in the meantime,” Neely Kate said, “we need to know what was stolen from Madame Serafine’s shop. That could lead us to the bad guy, right?”
“How are we supposed to find that out?” Rose asked. “I’m sure the shop is a crime scene, and that Detective Savoy isn’t gonna tell us a thing.”
“There is a way,” Taylor said and looked at Helena. “Detective Savoy had a case file in the interrogation room. Find out what’s in that file.”
“I don’t want to go back in there,” Helena whined. “It’s depressing and it stinks. Plus that detective is a douche bag.”
Neely Kate laughed and Rose shot her a questioning glance.
“Yes,” Taylor agreed. “A douche bag who wants to send one of us to prison. If it’s me, you’re out of a place to live.”
“All right,” Helena grumbled. “But could you at least stand closer to the building? All this exercise is killing me.”
Taylor scanned the alley, taking in a large clump of cypress trees located diagonally across from the back of the police station. “We’ll wait for you there,” she said, and pointed.
Helena headed off for the police station, and Taylor, Rose, and Neely Kate made their way over to the bunch of trees, slipping behind them where they had a peek of the back of the police station but couldn’t be easily seen by anyone exiting that way or looking out a window.
“That is so amazin’,” Neely Kate said. “Helena can do all kinds of things you can’t do for yourself. You must be an awesome detective with her as a secret weapon.”
“I do all right,” Taylor said. It would take a month to explain all the trouble Helena caused while attempting her version of help. And that wouldn’t even scratch the surface of the trouble she caused when she wanted something to eat.
Neely Kate looked at Rose. “When we get home, I’m gonna find me a ghost like Helena. Just think, Rose. We could start our own detective agency and the ghost could do all the work.”
Rose glanced at Taylor. “I’m going to guess that’s not exactly how it works.”
“Still,” Neely Kate said, her enthusiasm not the least bit waned, “it’s a great plan. Even if we had to do some of the work. We already know how, but a ghost would give us a leg up that no one else has…well, except Taylor, but she’s not in Henryetta.”
“We can talk about it later,” Rose said, then looked at Taylor. “How long do you think she’ll be gone?”
Taylor shrugged. “It depends on how long it takes her to find the file, then how long it takes for her to open it. Helena is very inconsistent with things like touch. Sometimes it doesn’t work the way she’d like.”
The words had barely left Taylor’s mouth when Helena ran through the wall of the police building, clutching a folder in her right hand. “Oh no,” Taylor said as the ghost ran toward them.
Rose whirled around and her eyes widened, probably because all she saw was a floating folder racing toward them. Helena slid to a stop in the loose dirt under the trees and handed the folder to Taylor, before bending over and clutching her chest.
“I didn’t tell you to steal it,” Taylor said.
Helena looked up. “What did you expect? It’s not like I can shoot Xerox copies out of my butt,” she wheezed.
“I expected you to read it and tell me what it said.”
Helena rose up, her face flushed red. “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”
Taylor stuffed the folder under her shirt. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” She took off through the building behind them and rounded the corner into a small park area behind a stone wall. She checked to make sure the area was clear before sitting on a park bench and pulling out the folder. As she read the report, her pulse ticked up a notch.
“What’s wrong?” Rose asked.
Taylor struggled to find a nice way to convey the information, but couldn’t latch onto one. “She was tortured.”
Rose sucked in a breath. “Oh my word! Who would do such an awful thing?”
“Someone with a personal ax to grind,” Taylor said. “Someone trying to get information out of her. Maybe just someone crazy.”
“What was stolen?” Neely Kate asked.
Taylor scanned the report and shook her head. “The report says the store was tossed, but the clerk couldn’t identify anything missing.”
“But Rose said she’d be robbed,” Neely Kate said.
“The shop was full of merchandise,” Taylor said, “and since the clerk was cracked pretty good on the head and it was probably a mess from whoever was there to rob them, she may not realize yet what was removed.”
“I guess you’re right,” Neely Kate said. “So what do we do now?”
Taylor blew out a breath. “You two go back to your hotel. I start making calls to see if there’s any word on the street.”
“But we wanna help,” Neely Kate argued.
Taylor shook her head. “The kind of people I need to talk to don’t like crowds.”
“Oh.” Neely Kate’s hopeful expression turned to one of disappointment, but she didn’t argue. “So how do we find you?”
Taylor pulled her wallet out and handed her a business card. “That’s my cell number. Text me your contact information. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something.”
“What are you gonna do about that?” Neely Kate pointed at the folder.
Taylor stuffed it under her shirt again. “It’s going to take a dip in the Mississippi. We better get going. If one of those cops comes across us all here together, it’s not going to look good. You guys head out first.”
They jumped up from their bench and headed around the stone wall. Taylor waited a couple of minutes before looking at Helena. “This is not good.”
Even Helena managed to grasp the severity
of the situation. “Why didn’t you warn her about me?”
“Because if paranormal gifts really run in her family, it could be nothing. I don’t want to scare the hell out of a pregnant woman. According to Rose, she’s already worried about her baby. The last thing I want to do is cause more stress when I’m not certain it’s necessary.”
“That makes sense. So what now?”
“Now I step under rocks and talk to some people who don’t like talking. You stick behind and see if the conversations go anywhere else after I leave.”
Helena nodded. “We got this.”
Taylor rose from the bench, the folder digging into her rib cage. Did they have it? It certainly didn’t feel like they did. It felt more like a train racing out of control toward a ravine where the track had fallen. Taylor hoped she could find the brakes before they went over the edge.
Chapter Five
“How is it that you find trouble wherever you go?” Neely Kate asked as she and Rose walked back to the hotel.
“Me?” Rose stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, her hands on her hips. “You’re the one under suspicion for murder.”
Neely Kate pursed her lips, deep in thought. “Huh. Now that you mention it, this is a switch. Detective Taylor usually thinks you’re the guilty one.”
Rose scowled. “Through no fault of my own.”
“Maybe so, but he’s usually gunnin’ for you just the same.” She shrugged. “I’m starvin’ and I remember seeing a restaurant on the way back to the hotel that looked like it had good po’boy sandwiches.”
Rose laughed despite the anxiety in the pit of her stomach. “I swear you’re gonna eat your way through New Orleans.”
Neely Kate looped her arm through Rose’s. “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”
“Hey, it sounds like as good a plan as any. Besides, I’m hungry too.” She tried to sound lighthearted, but she was worried that Neely Kate was in serious trouble. At least in Henryetta, Rose had her boyfriend, Mason Deveraux, the Fenton County assistant DA, or Joe Simmons, her ex-boyfriend and now nursery business partner, who used to work for the Arkansas State Police until recently taking over the vacated chief deputy sheriff position in Fenton County. In New Orleans, their only ally was a woman who claimed to be a PI.
