Emma started to get excited. “How about a boy and girl about the same age, dressed in clothing from your time?”
Again the ghost gave it thought, driving Emma crazy as each precious second passed and his form dissolved. “Yah, I seen them.”
“Can you tell me where they are?” Emma asked. “I’d very much like to meet them. Their family is looking for them.”
Again the ghost paused, his form barely hanging on.
“Please, Mr. Dodd,” Emma begged. “Please tell me before you go.” But he was gone.
Excited but disappointed, Emma told Gino everything Alexander Dodd had told her.
“So they are around?” Gino said, matching her excitement.
“Not just around, but likely they are around here or not very far from here,” she explained. “Let’s tell the others. We should be checking in anyway.”
Emma pulled out her phone to call Phil. While she was on the phone with him, Gino received a call on his phone. He walked several paces away to take his call.
• CHAPTER TWENTY •
WHEN Emma finished conferring with the other search party, she found Gino sitting on one of the taller boulders. His phone was in his hand, forgotten, as he stared into space. Immediately, she became alarmed.
“Gino, what is it?” she asked, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong? Is it Tanisha? Vanessa?”
It took him several seconds before he was even aware she was there. “Nothing like that. Nothing tragic, at least I don’t think so. That was Neil, my agent.” He turned to look up at her and she was relieved to see his face displayed surprise and curiosity, not grief or shock. Behind his eyes she saw his active mind working to process and analyze whatever his agent had told him. “He said he saw Vanessa yesterday in New York.”
“But you knew she was there,” Emma noted. “Was she with Brindisi?”
Gino shook his head slowly back and forth. “No, she was with Leroy.”
Emma took a step back in surprise. “Leroy? Is he sure?” She suddenly remembered Granny’s feeling about the man, and was glad she was keeping an eye on him.
“Yes. He saw them at the Plaza in the bar. He thought maybe I was in New York, too, even though he didn’t see me with them. He said he started to approach but saw they were having a heated discussion, so left without saying anything. He said he’s been wondering if he should call me or not. I told him I was glad he did.”
“So he doesn’t know that Vanessa left you?”
“He does now.” Gino took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly. “I’m more curious about why Leroy lied to me about his whereabouts and why they were meeting behind my back.” He got to his feet, his jaw clenched. Surprise was being replaced by anger. “I’m sorry to disrupt this search party, but I think I need to go back to the house and have a chat with my loyal assistant.”
“Of course,” Emma said, wondering if she should say something to Gino about Granny’s gut feeling. She decided against it for now. It wouldn’t help Gino unless Granny learned something. If anything, it might make Gino more perturbed, and he was doing fine on that by himself.
“We’re calling off the search for the day anyway,” she told him. “We’re thinking that since we have a lead on the twins being in this area somewhere, we’ll come back tomorrow bright and early. We can cover more area faster if we concentrate our efforts here.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he answered automatically.
“Please, Gino,” she said with concern. “Don’t feel obligated to come along. It sounds like you have a lot on your plate without running around the countryside.”
“We’ll see how everything goes.” Gino consulted the GPS on his phone. “The car is this way,” he said, and started marching in that direction. Emma caught up to him and they walked back to the car in silence.
Once they were on the road heading back to Misty Hollow, Emma said with caution, “The others are on their way to Misty Hollow, too, to drop off Phil. He and I will head out for a while, to give you and Leroy some privacy.”
“No,” Gino said, surprising her. He was staring out the windshield. “I’d like you and Phil to be there, to keep tabs on me so I don’t blow my top.” He turned to her. “Please.”
Emma nodded her agreement. It was probably better that she and Phil be there for that reason and, as she admitted to herself privately, she really wanted to hear what Leroy had to say. Granny was right, she was just as nosy as the old ghost.
“Maybe,” Emma suggested, “Vanessa called Leroy to tell him she left you and he drove to New York to try and talk her out of it.”
“That’s a three to four hour drive one way,” Gino noted. “And when Leroy came in this morning, he acted like he didn’t know about Vanessa. Remember?”
Emma nodded again. “I’d forgotten that.” She worked the details of that morning’s conversation over in her head, then asked, “Do you suspect that Leroy never went to Boston to see his friend?”
“It’s sure a good possibility.” He continued staring out the window, then abruptly turned to Emma. “Would you mind pulling over for a minute.”
Without a word, Emma pulled to the side of the road, even though they weren’t far from Misty Hollow. She watched while Gino made a call. Seconds later, they heard a short honk from a vehicle and a white compact SUV pulled up behind them. It was Phil with Fran and Heddy. Emma got out of the car and went back to talk to them.
“Anything the matter, Emma?” Phil asked from the backseat. “Is the car okay?”
“The car is fine,” she told them. “Something has come up with Gino.”
“About his wife?” asked Fran, who was driving.
“Yes,” Emma answered.
“I hope she’s okay,” added Heddy.
“She’s fine,” Emma quickly assured them. “But he needed to make a quick call before he got back to the house, that’s all.” They looked at her with curiosity, but all had the good manners not to press further.
“Phil,” Emma said, “why don’t you come with us from here? No sense Fran and Heddy driving all the way to the house.”
“Good idea,” Phil said, opening the back door and climbing out.
“Are we still on for tomorrow morning?” asked Fran.
“Yes, of course,” Emma answered. “We may be without Gino, but the four of us can continue. I’ll call you to set a time and place to meet.”
With a wave, the ladies did a U-turn and headed back toward town. Once they were gone, Phil asked, “What’s really going on?” Emma filled him in while they gave Gino privacy to make his call.
“Do you think,” Phil said after churning the information around in his head, “that maybe Leroy and Vanessa are having an affair?”
“I wondered that myself,” Emma said. “It wouldn’t be the first time a couple pretended to dislike each other to cover their feelings. But Vanessa did buy a ticket to Italy today, so it looks like the affair was with Brindisi.”
“Hey, you guys,” Gino called from the car. He’d opened his door and was standing half in, half out. “How do you feel about running me back to the car rental place?”
“Are you going to rent another car?” asked Phil once they were on their way back to Worcester. “You know you’re free to use ours until Marta gets back.”
“Maybe, but one thing at a time,” Gino said, looking straight ahead. “When Vanessa called this morning she told me she’d left the original leased SUV at the airport. I called the rental place right after I spoke with her and they assured me that they would find it and check it back in for me. When I said I wasn’t sure in which parking lot she’d dumped it, they told me not to worry because they could track all their vehicles.” He turned and looked at Emma and Phil in turn, letting the information sink in.
“So,” said Emma, putting the pieces together, “if they could track that vehicle
, they could track the one Leroy was using.”
“That’s right,” Gino confirmed with a wide grin. “I just have to look at this like I would one of my books and act like a detective.”
“Smart thinking, Gino,” said Phil from the back.
“I just called the rental place,” Gino told them, “and they told me I had to come in and talk to them. They wouldn’t do any of it over the phone.” He shrugged. “Who knows, they might not even do it then since the rental agreement is back with the car, but maybe I can schmooze them.”
As before, Emma and Phil stayed behind in the car while Gino went inside. This time it took him much longer, but eventually he emerged, grinning and waving a wad of paper as he approached.
“This place must make me hungry,” he announced as he slid into the passenger’s seat. “How about lunch?” He looked at Phil. “I kind of promised Emma more fried seafood.” Phil gave him a thumbs-up and Emma headed the car back to Whitefield.
“You’re in a good mood,” Phil said once they were on their way back to Frank’s restaurant. “Leroy must have passed the sniff test.”
“On the contrary,” Gino said, shaking the papers in his hand, “he stinks to high heaven, but I’m like one of those hounds you love, Phil. I’m happiest when I’m on the scent of something juicy.”
“So the rental place didn’t have a problem giving you that information?” asked Emma.
“It was the same young guy at the counter as yesterday. He was reluctant at first and wanted to wait until he could check with his supervisor, who was out.” Gino chuckled and shot a wink at Emma. “Isn’t it amazing how a Ben Franklin or two can grease the wheels of bureaucracy?”
Seated once more at Frank’s, but this time at a table on the outside patio, Gino went through the printout the rental agency had provided. It was chilly out and everyone was bundled in their jackets, but they stayed outside since most of the other diners were inside. “I asked the rental guy to pull the records on all of the vehicles leased under my name. Vanessa’s car is already back with the agency and they gave me a receipt for it.” He put that paperwork aside, popped a plump fried clam into his mouth, and moved to the next printout with the methodical movements of a man on a mission. “The SUV I leased yesterday, the one Marta took, is right where it should be. It traveled from here to Connecticut and has hardly moved since.”
Emma washed down an onion ring with some iced tea. “Glad to hear that. I’d hate to think all your household is under suspicion.”
“Me, too.” Gino glanced up. “By the way, I called Marta and told her to take another day off if she wanted it. I didn’t tell her what was going on, just that we didn’t need her right now so to enjoy being with her friend. I don’t want her in the middle of all this drama.”
“Good call,” noted Phil. “By the way, how does she get along with Leroy?”
Gino shrugged. “Okay, I guess. She doesn’t seem to mind him but she doesn’t go out of her way for him either. It’s more like she ignores him.” He paused, then asked, “Should I text T and tell her and Kelly to hold off coming?”
Emma shook her head. “Unless you have a plausible explanation, that will send up all kinds of red flags to the girls. They just might drive down tonight to see what’s going on.”
“I tend to agree with Emma,” Phil said. “Today’s Tuesday and they aren’t arriving until Thursday. Hopefully, this Leroy and Otis business will be cleared up by then. If not, then we can tell them to hold off coming until maybe Friday or Saturday.”
Gino moved the paperwork for Marta’s vehicle aside. “Now for the interesting stuff,” he announced with the glee of a child finding buried treasure. He gulped some coffee from his mug before continuing. “This is the printout for the car Leroy was using. I glanced at it at the agency but haven’t studied it thoroughly.”
Emma and Phil ate their lunch on autopilot while they waited with anticipation. Gino ran a finger down the vehicle’s history, then jabbed hard at one of the entries. “It says here he never went north toward Boston. He went instead to New York. Straight to New York the night he left.”
“Does that say exactly where?” asked Phil.
“Not an address,” Gino said, “but the general location. It looks like the car was parked somewhere in the city and left there until last night. It was probably left at a public garage while he did whatever he did. The garage isn’t near the Plaza Hotel but it isn’t that far either. Once he parked it, he could take a cab or the subway or even walk wherever he needed to go.”
“So he spent two nights in New York?” asked Emma.
“It looks like he only spent one night,” Gino noted, reading more of the report. “Last night he drove back up north and stayed somewhere just south of here on Highway 84.” He looked up. “Could one of you check this intersection on your phone?”
After putting on his reading glasses, Phil whipped out his smart phone and pulled up the map app. “Not much there except for a couple of gas stations, a diner, and a motel. It looks like one of those service turnoffs for travelers. It seems to be only about a thirty minute drive from here.”
“But that’s not very far away,” noted Emma looking at Phil’s phone. “Why would Leroy stop there when he could have come here, where he already had a nice place to sleep? Was it the middle of the night when he stopped? Maybe he didn’t want to bother any of us coming in late.”
“I don’t think so, Emma,” Gino told her. “But here’s the really interesting part. It says here the car stopped there last night from six until about nine thirty, then it drove up here to Whitefield.” He studied the information again. “In fact, it looks like it came to Misty Hollow.” Everyone looked around the table with surprise. Gino held up a finger. “Then it went back to the place on 84 around midnight and stayed there until later this morning, when it traveled back to Misty Hollow again. That was about the time we saw Leroy.”
Again, everyone looked around the table, hoping to find answers in their companions’ faces. Gino spoke first. “So, who’s going to say what’s on all our minds?”
Again, eyes darted about, then Phil said, “Okay, I’ll say it. It looks like Leroy might have had something to do with Otis’s murder.”
“He could have come back to Misty Hollow to get something, then went back to the motel to spend the rest of the night,” Emma said. “But why? The guesthouse is private. He wouldn’t have disturbed any of us coming in late, and ten isn’t that late.”
“He could have had a rendezvous at the motel,” suggested Phil, “and came back to get something he forgot. But we were all still up until around eleven. We stayed in the library talking about our meeting with the Browns after Fran left. You’d think we’d have heard the car or seen Leroy out the back windows.”
“Unless the storm last night masked his arrival and departure,” noted Gino. “Later in the night, right after Fran left, it got quite nasty. Remember?”
“You know,” Phil said slowly as he dangled a fried scallop from his fork, “there were two sets of tire tracks at the old farmhouse this morning. And they looked fairly fresh to me. One probably belonged to Otis’s vehicle and the other might have belonged to the car Leroy was driving.” He popped the scallop into his mouth and chewed slowly while he continued to think.
Emma pushed aside her plate. “There is still the matter of Leroy’s meeting with Vanessa. Do you think the two are related somehow?”
“One thing is for sure,” Phil said, twirling his fork around in the coleslaw on his plate. “We need to let Sergeant Johnson know about this. Did you tell him that Leroy was out of the area when he questioned you, Gino?”
Gino nodded. “Yes. Johnson asked me about everyone staying at the house. I told him Marta was in Connecticut and Leroy was up near Boston.” He paused. “But I want to get to Leroy before the cops do. I have some questions I want answered now, not later.”
“Hold
on a minute,” Phil said as he poked at the screen on his phone. “Did any of us bother to look up William Otis in all the hoopla this morning?” He looked from Emma to Gino. Both shook their heads.
Phil kept poking at his screen until he hit information that caught his eye. “Here’s something interesting,” he announced. “Seems Otis is an author of crime fiction.” He looked over the top of his glasses at Gino. “Are you sure you’ve never heard of him?”
“Positive,” Gino said. “He may be new on the scene. Dozens of new authors are hitting the streets every day.”
Phil did more searching. “It looks like he just has one book titled Broken Asphalt and it’s not out yet. It says here that it was recently sold to a major publisher for a very nice advance.” Phil read more. “According to Otis’s website, Broken Asphalt ‘is the gripping story of a disgraced alcoholic cop who hits bottom after killing a family in a drunk driving accident.’”
Gino immediately got up and started piling their dirty dishes on the tray they’d used. “Let’s hit the road. I’m going to get answers if I have to kill that little S.O.B.”
“What’s up?” Emma asked with surprise. Gino had been angry before, but now his face was flushed with rage.
“That’s the premise of one of my unfinished manuscripts,” Gino answered with fire in his eyes. He stopped fussing with the trash and looked out across the street, staring at nothing in particular. “It’s the book I was working on when Janelle died. Different title, but same premise. It was almost done but I shoved it aside because I couldn’t work on it without thinking of her.”
Emma took over the cleaning up and took the tray to the trash area, dumping the garbage and leaving the tray with its reusable items on top of a nearby counter. When she got back to the table Gino was sitting down, his head supported by one hand. A strangled sound came from his throat—half anguish, half anger. “Janelle was killed by a drunk driver—an off-duty cop. It was just too close to home to work on the book so I stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it.”
The Ghosts of Misty Hollow Page 19
