“Something tells me they won’t,” said Billy.
Probably not, I thought to myself, I know I wouldn’t.
Greg came up to me the moment I left the room. “You okay?”
“Fine,” I said. “What happened?”
“I asked Billy if he would help you,” said Greg. “I didn’t know if he was close enough to hear me, but thought it was worth a shot.”
“That was kind of fun,” said Billy to me. “Can I do it again?”
“No,” I said to Billy, and then mimed to Greg that I was talking to the ghost, not him.
“Why is it he acts like I’m not around?” said Billy, pointing at Greg.
“Because he doesn’t know you’re here,” I replied. “You could make yourself visible.”
“Oh.”
We searched the remaining rooms, but found no sign of the ruby, or anything that would tie someone to Billy’s, or Matherson’s, murder. Exhausted, Greg and I decided to just go to bed, since most of the guests had trickled up the stairs, deciding to do the same thing.
I didn’t know what else to do and hoped that the next morning would bring new insight into the case.
Chapter 9
Two in the morning. No matter how much I tried, I was not able to get to sleep. I managed about two hours, but now lay wide awake, staring at the dimpled ceiling, wondering if I would ever get any sleep. I looked at the clock. It was now two minutes past.
Unable to get back to sleep, I sat up and rubbed my face, while listening to Greg’s even breathing as he slept. A closing door caught my attention. It wasn’t the fact that the door had closed that alerted me to its presence, but the fact that the one closing it had tried to do so in a manner that would not attract anyone’s notice. Most people just allowed their doors to slam shut, but this person was trying to not make any noise, except that I heard the distinct click of the latch.
Curious as to who would be going out at this hour, I got out of bed—Greg shifted, but never opened his eyes—and went to the door, opening it a crack to peek out. All I saw was the back of a woman in a white sweatshirt and knit hat pulled past the tips of her ears. Where could she be going? The kitchen in the resort and the restaurant were closed. Most of the staff had gone home, except for the person who manned the front desk, meaning that the massage parlor, sauna, and lounge were also shut up tight. Everything in town would be closed as well.
Another scuffle sounded down the hall, forcing the woman to pause before hurrying down the steps, again trying to make no noise. Letting my curiosity dictate my movements, I slipped on my boots and coat, snatched my keycard, and left the room. I tiptoed down the hall, grateful that there was a rug to muffle the sounds of my feet.
I reached the edge of the stairs and looked down just in time to see a speck of white disappear. Not wanting to lose her, I hurried down the stairs and out the door, diving behind a pillar to avoid detection. The woman had paused to text someone. I craned my neck for a better look. If only I could see her face. My foot slipped and plopped on the solid ground, making a sudden noise that echoed. The woman whipped around just as I managed to hide. I cursed at my lack of stealth, but it had allowed me see the woman’s face: Aimie.
What was she doing? And where was Patrick? Aimie looked at her phone, reading another text and replied, before taking off down the walk and heading for the hiking trail that led to the local town. I followed. I couldn’t think of a reason for her to be out here in the middle of the night.
I kept my distance as I walked after her. She never looked behind. Her phone beeped and she looked at it. A frown formed on her face. Something had upset her. She fired off another text and rammed her phone into her pocket, continuing her trek through the small wooded area.
I maintained my pace and distance from her. She wasn’t acting like the Aimie I had spoken with hours earlier. The farther away we got from the resort, the more I wished that I had remembered to wake Greg. I reached in my coat pocket for my phone. Nothing. In my haste, I had forgotten to grab it.
“Billy,” I whispered, not sure if he would show up when called, or if he could even hear me. “Billy?”
No response. I hadn’t expected there to be any, but it was worth a try. The clear, moonless night made it difficult for me to keep Aimie within sight, despite the white jacket she wore. I had thought about turning around and going back, torn between learning what Aimie was up to and wanting to get back to Greg. I settled on returning to the resort. My curiosity would have to wait for another time.
Just as I turned around, my foot found a patch of ice and I slipped, landing hard on the ground. My fall had alerted Aimie to my presence. She whirled around, holding something in her gloved hand, and yelled, “Who’s there?”
I didn’t say anything.
“I know you’re there! Come closer.”
Unable to pretend that I wasn’t sitting on my bruised bottom in the middle of snow and ice, I stood up and walked towards Aimie.
“Mel?” she said, confused. “What are you doing here?”
“I… I heard you leave your room.”
“And you followed me?”
“It seemed odd that you would be sneaking out in the middle of the night, alone.” I spotted the gun in her hand and finally put it together. All of her friendliness and open invitations were just an act. “Why did you kill Billy?” I asked her.
“Billy?”
“The janitor?”
Aimie seemed shocked that I even knew. “How did you know?”
“You just told me,” I replied.
“I never meant… he just… he caught Patrick and I snooping through the lockers. I grabbed the first thing I could find and hit him over the head. I only meant to knock him out. He wasn’t supposed to die!”
“And Matherson? Were you and Patrick his accomplices during that New York heist when the ruby went missing?”
“How did you… she began. “I should have known. Patrick said he saw you snooping around.”
“Why kill him, Aimie?”
“Patrick said it was an accident,” replied Aimie. Her phone beeped, but she ignored it. “Matherson recognized us the moment we ran into you at the restaurant. We had helped him steal that ruby and he had promised to split the profits from selling it with us, but then he disappeared with it. We have spent the last two years trying to track him down. During our search, we learned that he had changed his face and spent his days working at some getaway place on the east coast. So, Patrick and I have been visiting every resort in an effort to find him.”
“Why kill him?” I asked, trying to buy time while I thought of a way out of this situation.
“He wasn’t supposed to! We were searching the lockers for a reason, but learned that you had somehow ended up with the ruby. Patrick saw it in your pocket when we went to dinner. We thought he could slip into your cabin and get it before anyone noticed, but Matherson must have had the same idea. He surprised Patrick and a fight ensued. No one was supposed to die! Patrick panicked.”
“And hiding the murder weapon in Chad’s locker?”
“With the cops coming around, and people on edge because of a murder, we thought it best to try and throw the suspicion on someone else. Patrick wiped my prints off of the weapon and placed it in a locker; he didn’t know whose.”
“Aimie, where’s Patrick?”
“Waiting for me in town.” Her phone beeped again. “I liked you, Mel”—she aimed the gun at me—“I really did.”
“You could just let me go,” I said.
“You’ll tell the cops.”
“I don’t have my phone with me,” I said. “By the time I make it back to the main building and phone the police, you and Patrick could be halfway to Canada.”
I could tell that Aimie considered what I had said. She didn’t want to shoot me, but she also didn’t want to go to prison. I took a step back. Her grip on the weapon tightened.
“Mel, don’t.”
“Just let me go,” I said.
“D
on’t make me…”
At that moment, a low-hanging branch pulled back, on its own, and snapped, striking Aimie in the head. Seizing the opportunity, I tackled her, knocking the gun out of her hands. We rolled across the snow-encrusted ground, each trying to get the upper hand. The gun didn’t lie far. Together, we bolted for it, but before Aimie got to her knees, something hit her on the head, knocking her out.
Billy materialized the moment Aimie dropped to the ground. “I did it! I got my revenge!”
“Uh… thanks, Billy,” I said, while checking to make certain that Aimie wasn’t injured. She was just unconscious.
“Do you think you could keep an eye on her, while I go call the police?” I asked him.
“No problem. She won’t get away from me.” Billy crossed his arms in a triumphant stance, making me laugh.
I jumped to my feet and ran back to the resort, not caring how tired my legs were. Once I reached it, I burst into the main building and rushed the front desk. “I need a phone!”
The lady there gave me a strange look.
“Now!”
She handed me the desk phone and I dialed 911. Once someone answered, I explained everything in a rush and hung up.
“Mel!” Greg ran towards me in his pajamas and untied shoes. “Where’ve you…”
“It was Aimie and Patrick,” I said, interrupting him. “They killed Billy and Matherson. Aimie is out there, now, unconscious.”
Sirens wailed outside. “How did they get here so fast?”
“I woke up and you were missing,” Greg answered. “When I noticed your coat missing as well, but your phone was still on the night stand, I called the police, afraid that you were in trouble.”
When the police pulled up, I took them to where I had left Aimie. She was still lying in the snow unconscious with a triumphant Billy lording over her, not that anyone, but me, saw him.
“I did good, didn’t I?” Billy asked in excitement, pleased that he had stopped Aimie.
“Yes,” I whispered, hoping no one, but Billy, heard me, “you did well.”
“I knew it was her and that twitchy boyfriend of hers.”
I glared at him. Only hours before, he had been certain that it was Chad who had killed him.
Aimie was taken into custody, but they never found Patrick. Greg must have noticed my frustration because he said to me, “Don’t worry. They’ll get him.”
Once the detectives had finished questioning us, and the other guests went back inside, having gotten bored from watching another incident with the police, Greg and I went back to our room, where I finally fell asleep.
Chapter 10
When I awoke the next morning, the entire place was abuzz over last night’s events. Greg and I had decided to check out. We had had enough of this romantic getaway, which had turned out to be anything, but romantic. As I folded one of Greg’s pairs of jeans, a small, velvet box fell out of the pocket; the same box that I had noticed him trying to hide from me earlier. I picked it up.
“Greg,” I said.
He poked his half-shaven face out of the bathroom.
“What is this?” I held up the tiny box.
“Um…”
“You’ve been hiding this from me all weekend.”
“I, uh…”
“What is it?” I asked.
He put his razor down and took the box from me. “I had hoped to make this a very special weekend.”
“But I messed it up.”
“No! Things have not gone as planned, but… I don’t know why spirits seek you out, but it proves what I’ve always known: that you are a very special person.” Greg opened the box, revealing a small, diamond ring. “I had hoped to give this to you under better circumstances. Will you…”
“Yes!” I jumped at him, embracing him in a giant hug and giving him a long kiss.
“Well, if you ask me, it’s about time,” said Billy, appearing before us. He must have decided to allow Greg to see him, since Greg jumped back in surprise.
“Billy,” I said, “what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to apologize,” replied Billy, “for ruining your weekend.”
“It’s fine,” I told him.
“You should know that they caught Patrick,” said Billy. “I guess when Aimie didn’t show up, he decided to turn himself in.”
“And Chad?”
“He’s been released.”
I gave him a look.
“And I promise not to hurt him.”
“So, what are your plans now?” I asked.
“I think I will stick around. This place needs a resident ghost,” Billy replied.
“You could move on, you know.”
“Yeah, but Rachel says…”
“You’ve seen Rachel!” both Greg and I said together.
“When?” I demanded.
Billy didn’t answer me. “I’ve got to go. Bye!”
I watched as he vanished in front of me, wanting to know what Rachel was up to. Knowing that she could be very unpredictable, I finished packing. In an hour, we left our room and trooped down to the front desk to check out, running into Morgan and Burt.
“Oh, I knew you two would be leaving engaged,” said Morgan, noticing the ring on my finger.
I blushed a little at her outburst.
“He proposed!” Rachel burst into the hallway, fully visible to everyone, and snatched my hand, jumping up and down, while twisting me in circles. “I knew he would. I mean, you guys are the perfect couple, aside from the whole ghost and solving a murder thing. Oh, but you’re engaged!”
She stopped. Her eyes moved from Burt to Morgan and back to Burt, realizing that they actually saw her. With an embarrassed smile she vanished.
Before I could say anything, both Burt and Morgan ran down the hallway to get away from us. “I think we better leave,” I said to Greg.
And that’s exactly what we did. He checked us out and I put our bags in the trunk of the car, ready to get on the road with my new fiancé. I just hoped that Rachel hadn’t planned some big surprise party back home.
Look For...
Double, Double, Nothing But Trouble
Thank you for reading!
I hope you enjoyed Roses Are Red; He’s Dead. I know it took me a while to write this one, and I apologize to those of you who had to wait for it. I was so busy working on my Solaris Series, that I’m afraid I forgot about Mel and her friends.
Fans have written me, wondering what other adventures are in store for Mel. There are plenty, and now she has a fiancé. If you have ideas on what trouble she should get into, or just want to tell me what you liked and didn’t like, feel free to contact me at [email protected] and you can always visit my web page. Feel free to sign up for my newsletter, to learn more about my upcoming works and promotions.
Finally, I need to ask a small favor. Reviews are hard to come by for authors and you, as a reader, have the power to either make, or break, a book. If you are so inclined, please take about five minutes to leave a review for Roses Are Red; He’s Dead. Whether you loved it or hated it—I’d enjoy your feedback.
Thank you so much for reading Roses Are Red; He’s Dead and for spending time with me.
In gratitude,
About the Author
Ms. McNulty began writing short stories at an early age. That passion continued through college until she published her first book: Legends Lost: Amborese under the pen name of Nova Rose. Since then, she has gone on to publish a mystery series, children's books, and even a dystopian series.
Recently, her grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, causing her to visit her grandparents and record her grandfather's memoirs before they become lost. The final result is Grandpa's Stories: The 20th Century as My Grandfather Lived It. She did this to preserve her family history before it becomes lost.
Ms. McNulty currently lives in West Virginia, where she enjoys hiking, being outside, crocheting, or simply sitting around and doing nothing. She continues writing an
d is busy working on the next book in her Mellow Summers Series as well as her science fiction adventure series: Solaris.
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Get the entire series.
Sugar And Spice And Not So Nice (Free!)
Frogs, Snails, And A Lot Of Wails
An Apple A Day Keeps Murder Away
Three Little Ghosts
Oh Holy Ghost
Where Trouble Roams
Two Ghosts Haunt A Grove
Trick Or Treat Or Murder
Roses Are Red; He’s Dead
Double, Double, Nothing But Trouble
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Roses Are Red; He's Dead (A Mellow Summers Paranormal Mystery Book 9) Page 8
