The Ex Who Saw a Ghost (Charley's Ghost Book 4)

by Sally Berneathy

  Jenny clapped her hands together. “Vanilla with chocolate sauce and nuts.”

  “Sorry, no nuts.”

  “There’s one nut here,” Charley said.

  Two. Maybe three. She had just given her bed to Jenny and volunteered to sleep on her uncomfortable sofa.

  Chapter Three

  Jenny devoured her ice cream and looked on longingly as Amanda added a large glass of wine to her late night snack. Rude to drink it in front of somebody who couldn’t have wine, but it was a little rude of that person to invite herself over for the night. Any tiny speck of guilt Amanda might have felt vanished along with the last drop of her wine. She felt quite mellow and even calm in spite of her sister’s presence.

  Jenny toddled off to bed and Amanda brought sheets, a blanket and a pillow to the sofa then lay down on it. Not so bad. She didn’t dare roll over for fear of falling off, but at least it was long enough she could stretch out, and the wine increased the comfort level.

  The biggest problem was that Jenny was still talking. The baby might be stretching her stomach and making her uncomfortable, but nothing interfered with her ability to talk. The bedroom and living room were next to each other, and Jenny had left the connecting door open.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to take care of this baby all alone. I’ve heard about single moms and how hard it is for them.”

  “You’ll be fine. Mother will help you.”

  “I wanted to name this baby after mother, but Davey wanted to name her after his grandmother. He said we should compromise. His grandmother’s name is Doris. Can you imagine? Beverly Doris?” She hiccupped a sob. “I’m the one having this baby so you’d think I could at least name her after my own mother and now I’m going to have to raise her by myself and I don’t know anything about being a mother.”

  “Yeah, I guess babies don’t come with an instruction manual. But you’ll be fine. Remember when we used to play with dolls? You were always so much more maternal than I was.”

  Jenny giggled. “Remember how mad Mother got when you said my dolls robbed a bank and then you hanged them?”

  The hanging had been going quite nicely until Jenny ran crying to their mother. But that was long ago and far away. “Everything’s going to be all right,” Amanda assured her. And it would be. Either Jenny would go back to her husband or home to her mother who would be back from Hawaii in a few days. She’d have the baby, hire a nanny and return to playing bridge. “Get some sleep and everything will look better in the morning.”

  Jenny was quiet for a few minutes, and Amanda drifted into the soothing, incoherent world of sleep.

  “It feels like I’ve been pregnant all my life.” The words jerked Amanda back to full consciousness. “I don’t even remember what my toes look like. Don’t ever get pregnant, Amanda.”

  Amanda didn’t think she had to worry about that as long as Charley was around. Latest birth control device. Her ex-husband’s jealous ghost. Maybe she could lease him out to somebody who needed birth control—

  “...and Davey’s talking about having another baby when we haven’t even had this one yet. I don’t want to ever be like this again but this one’s a girl and he wants a boy. Mother and Daddy didn’t have any boys, and they’re doing just fine. Why do men think they have to have a son to make their life complete?”

  “Can’t you make her shut up?” her birth control device complained. “Your sister has always got on my nerves, but now I can’t even go down to the bar to get away from her like I did when I still had a body.”

  “Isn’t that just too bad that you can’t escape to the bar?”

  “What?” Jenny asked. “Escape to the bar? Why would I want to escape to the bar? I can’t drink. I’m pregnant. I haven’t had a glass of wine for months. That wine you were drinking looked so good.”

  “That wine came in a box. You wouldn’t have liked it. What I said was, too bad having a baby is so hard. You really should try to get some sleep. You’re sleeping for two now.”

  “Oh.” Jenny was silent for a moment as if considering the absurd comment. “I didn’t think of it that way. Okay.”

  Beautiful silence. In the distance a dog barked. An owl hooted. Normal sounds of the night, sounds Amanda could sleep with.

  She pulled the blanket to her chin and closed her eyes.

  “Do you think I’ll ever fit into a size two again? I can’t imagine I ever will. Marcia Benton told me I’ll have to exercise but I don’t like to exercise. It makes you sweaty and tired and it’s boring. I’ve got to go to the bathroom again. I’ll never get any sleep if I can’t stay out of the bathroom.”

  The floor creaked. Jenny groaned.

  “We’re not going to get any sleep either,” Charley said.

  “You don’t sleep.”

  “No, I don’t,” Jenny said. “If I’m not going to the bathroom, the baby’s kicking. I have no idea how somebody so small can kick so hard! I’ve seen her picture on the sonogram, and she’s tiny. The doctor says she’s fine, that’s she’s small because I’m so small, but I’m not small anymore.”

  The toilet flushed and the plumbing groaned.

  Amanda had become accustomed to the sounds of the old plumbing, but now it grated on her nerves, sounded loud enough for the patrons at the bar down the block to hear it. And Jenny had said she would be going to the bathroom several times during the night.

  “Here’s the plan,” Charley said. “I’ll distract her while you throw a sheet over her, then we’ll drag her downstairs, put her in her fancy car, take her home, and dump her on the front porch.”

  Amanda wasn’t sure how Charley planned to distract her, but his crazy plan didn’t sound all that bad. Jenny needed to leave. Maybe Amanda could light a candle under the smoke detector or shoot off a gun and claim they were being bombed.

  “Oh!” A soft touch on her arm startled her.

  Jenny stood beside the sofa. “It means so much to me that you’re taking me in like this. If you ever get pregnant, I’ll be there for you. I’m so glad we have each other. How terrible if we were only children. You’re my sister, and I love you.”

  “Oh, gag,” Charley said.

  Amanda glared at him, took Jenny’s hand and squeezed it. “I love you too. Maybe a cup of hot chocolate would help you sleep.”

  “With whipped cream?”

  “No whipped cream. Sorry.” Amanda got up and headed toward the kitchen. Jenny could have hot chocolate and she’d have another glass of wine.

  Jenny plopped onto the sofa and sighed. “It’s okay. I can skip the whipped cream. I don’t need the extra calories. This baby only weighs five and a half pounds, so I don’t know how they can say I’ll be thin again when she’s born. I’ve gained twenty pounds. Well, twenty-two, to be exact. So I’ll still be seventeen pounds overweight, and I’m so short, I can’t carry that much extra weight. You’re lucky you’re tall like Daddy. I got Mother’s height and her hair. Straight as a string. Mother says you got your curly red hair from Daddy’s grandfather. He doesn’t look like he has red hair, but all those pictures are black and white, so it’s hard to tell.”

  Amanda made hot chocolate while her sister talked. What had her sister said was the problem? That she thought Davey was cheating on her? Her own experience proved that it was impossible to predict who’d have an affair, but Davey seemed an unlikely candidate. He was so reserved, Amanda was amazed the two of them had actually created a baby.

  More likely Jenny was suffering from a surfeit of hormones and would be back to normal when the baby was born. Well, normal for her. In the meantime, it was too bad she didn’t have some Ambien to slip into Jenny’s hot chocolate.

  

  Amanda struggled to wakefulness at the sound of birds and wind chimes. The ring tone had seemed a good idea at the time, but this morning it was annoying. She hadn’t got much sleep and she knew for a fact that Jenny hadn’t either.

  She snatched her cell phone off the coffee table, half expecting to find Jenny call
ing from the bedroom. But Teresa’s picture appeared on the display.

  She accepted the call. “Good morning.”

  “Amanda, are you alone?”

  Amanda sighed and pushed her hair back from her face. “No, I’m not alone. My apartment’s actually quite crowded, but Jake’s not here, if that’s what you’re asking. What’s going on? What time is it?”

  “Ten o’clock. I waited as long as I could because I thought maybe...well, obviously not.”

  “Hi, Teresa!” Charley said. “That was pretty exciting last night, right? Both of us talking to spirits.”

  “Hello, Charley. Amanda, can you come over? I need to talk to somebody. It’s about Ross’ brother.”

  “Ross’ brother? The undead one?”

  “Oh, he’s dead.”

  Not a good start to the day. “Well, my sister’s here. Maybe you could come over—no, never mind. Give me fifteen minutes to shower and I’ll start your way.”

  “Thank you.”

  Amanda disconnected the call and headed through the bedroom door to the bathroom. Jenny was still sleeping. After the restless night both of them had, she didn’t want to wake her.

  But when she finished her shower and came out, Jenny was awake and sitting on the side of the bed. “Good morning, sister of mine. Let’s go down to the Kozy Kitchen and get some breakfast, my treat. I’m ready for one of their wonderful omelets. Carrying this baby around all the time is a lot of work.” She grasped the iron bed frame and pulled herself to her feet.

  “I’d love to, but I’m on my way to visit my friend Teresa.”

  “Oh, girl talk! Sounds like fun! We can take her along for breakfast. Just give me a few minutes to get dressed. It takes me longer now.” She sighed. “Everything takes longer. I’ve turned into such a slug. Even if I could go faster...and I can’t because I’m so big...I worry all the time that I’ll fall or something and hurt the baby. You have no idea how scary it is to be responsible for somebody’s life, somebody you can’t even see.”

  If Teresa needed to talk about communicating with dead people and Jenny was worried about hurting her baby, taking Jenny along would probably not be a good idea.

  “I’m sorry, but Teresa’s having a meltdown, and she doesn’t want to see anybody but me.”

  Jenny made a sad face. “Oh, bless her heart. What’s wrong? I’ll talk to her. I have a lot of experience comforting people who have problems. People say I should be a counselor because I’m so good at it. Maybe I can get a degree in psychology and support my baby when I’m a single mom.” She waddled toward the bathroom. “I’ll just take a quick shower and be right with you, but we can’t go on that awful motorcycle of yours. I’m driving my Mercedes. It’s got the most comfortable ride of all our cars and, believe me, there’s nothing comfortable about being pregnant.” She disappeared into the bathroom, her words muted behind the closed door.

  Amanda dashed to her closet, yanked on blue jeans and motorcycle gear, then waited a moment until she heard the sound of the shower. She opened the bathroom door and leaned in. “Jenny, I just talked to Teresa, and she appreciates your offer, but she would be too humiliated to talk if anybody else was there!”

  “You told a lie,” Charley accused.

  “I have a good teacher.”

  Jenny poked her head out of the shower. “Amanda—”

  “Help yourself to anything you find in the kitchen.”

  “You don’t have anything in the kitchen but ice cream, half a cup of milk, a carton of Cokes, a package of Oreos, and some moldy cheese,” Charley protested. “Your sister’s always talking about eating her greens, and the only green thing you have is that cheese.”

  Amanda darted through the front door and down the stairs. “Moldy cheese won’t hurt her. Nobody dies from eating blue cheese and it’s moldy.”

  

  Teresa was waiting with dark circles under her eyes, a fresh Coke in her hand and an agitated expression on her face. She offered the Coke to Amanda. “I figured you wouldn’t have time for breakfast.”

  “Her sister wanted her to go to Kozy Kitchen.” Charley entered Teresa’s apartment and looked around the room. “Parker’s not here.”

  “Not at the moment. He said he had to check on someone but he’d be right back. Trust me, he’ll be back.” Teresa closed the door behind them. “I’m sorry to take you away from your guest.”

  “It’s okay.” Amanda sank onto the white sofa amidst Teresa’s collection of colorful pillows.

  Charley sat beside her. “Yeah, she doesn’t like her sister very much.”

  “Charley! I love her. She’s my sister. She’s just pregnant and hormonal and a little irritating right now.”

  “She was a whole lot irritating even when she wasn’t pregnant,” he mumbled.

  Teresa reached down to the coffee table, picked up a mug with a colorful fractal design, and took a seat in the white chair facing Amanda. Clutching the cup between both hands, she leaned forward. “Ross’ brother has been here since I got home last night. The man is dead, stone cold dead. No doubt about it.”

  “If he’s dead, who answered Ross’ phone call? Who sent him the text message?”

  “I asked him that.”

  Amanda leaned forward. “And?”

  “He said it wasn’t him, and it’s not important who it was.”

  Amanda sat back. “That’s a strange thing to say. You’d think he’d be outraged that someone was impersonating him.”

  “We’ve only just got started on the strange stuff. Just because I happen to have the ability to talk to dead people, he thinks it’s my responsibility to convince Ross that he’s dead.”

  Amanda flinched. “Your efforts didn’t go over so well last night.”

  “I know.” Teresa shuddered. “Ross was pretty upset. He didn’t even come inside with me. Said he was going home to call his brother. Why couldn’t I have been born with a talent for singing or painting or anything but talking to spirits?”

  “Blow him off,” Charley advised. “You don’t want some guy who treats you like that.”

  Amanda refrained from commenting on how Charley had treated her during their two year marriage. There was no point. Charley was dead and they were no longer married in any sense of the word...except in his tangled, ghostly mind.

  Teresa frowned at Charley. “I don’t want to blow him off. I...” She lifted her chin defiantly. “I care about him.”

  “You know he’s just a cop,” Charley said. “He doesn’t have any money.”

  Amanda looked around for a hole to crawl into. Teresa had been raised with money, then her family lost everything. She’d married a financially successful man and seemed to enjoy the lifestyle until he left her and tried to set her up for murder. Amanda had wondered more than once where an underpaid cop fit into her dreams, but she’d never been rude enough to say it. Death hadn’t improved Charley’s tact.

  “Ross will figure out soon enough that you’re right about his brother and then he’ll accept your talent as genuine.” Amanda wasn’t at all sure about that, but this was no time for a reality check.

  Suddenly the former cheerleader looked insecure and small. “What if he doesn’t?”

  Charley moved through the coffee table and laid a hand halfway into Teresa’s shoulder in a vague semblance of a gesture of consolation. “Then you’re better off without him.”

  “Charley!” Amanda snapped. “Enough! Of course things are going to work out between Ross and Teresa. You’re being selfish because you don’t like sharing her attention.”

  Charley’s mouth twisted as he tried to tell a lie, to deny Amanda’s accusation. Finally he returned to Amanda’s side, folded his arms and sulked.

  Sulking and not talking was good. Maybe she and Teresa could get something accomplished without his constant interruptions. “So tell me about this recent visit with Ross’ brother. Parker? Is that his name?”

  “Parker Romano Minatelli. Named after his maternal and paternal grandfather
s. Hello, Parker. Welcome back.” Teresa gestured toward the big screen TV above the fireplace. “Amanda, meet Parker. He likes to hang out around electronic things. Says it makes it easier to reach me.”

  Charley darted close to the TV. “And I’m Charley Randolph.” He extended a hand then raised it up and down as if shaking hands with someone. That was a little creepy.

  “Uh, pleased to meet you, Parker,” Amanda said. “I guess I’m the only one here who can’t see you.”

  “He says he’s sorry, but he doesn’t know how to make himself any more visible,” Teresa said.

  “It’s okay. One ghost in my life is quite enough.”

  Teresa grimaced. “I should be so lucky. Okay, what we have to discuss is that Parker was murdered—”

  Amanda almost choked on her Coke. “Murdered? By who?”

  “He won’t tell me. Again—it’s not important. What’s important is that he wants me to lead Ross to his body so he can be declared dead.”

  Amanda took another drink of Coke, drawing out the action to give her time to take in everything and think about it. “Well, if you find his body, that will certainly prove...uh...that he’s dead and you were right.”

  “Yeah, but taking Ross to his brother’s lifeless body isn’t likely to give him warm, fuzzy feelings about me.” She dragged a hand through her sleek hair and stared at the blank television screen. “I understand it’s important, Parker, and I understand I’m the only one who can do it.” She paused for a moment, listening. “Yes, I know it isn’t easy for you to come through.”

  “It’s easy for me,” Charley said. “Maybe I could give you some pointers.”

  Teresa glowered at Charley then rose and headed toward the kitchen. “I need more coffee. I didn’t sleep much last night. Do you know what it’s like having a ghost talking to you all night?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do. Would you bring me another Coke?” Amanda called after her. “I didn’t sleep much last night either.”

  “Neither did I,” Charley said. “Your sister even talks in her sleep.”

  Teresa returned from the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee and a fresh Coke. She handed the Coke to Amanda and resumed her seat.