Case of the Vanishing Visitor

by Shanna Swendson

  This was Hugo’s cue to contradict her, to tell her he hadn’t been cheating all along, that his current affair was something different and special, a reconnection with someone who meant a lot to him, a realization that he should have been with Cissy all along and he couldn’t help himself. But apparently he hadn’t seen any of the movies I had and he really was a jerk because he said, “And that’s my fault? Maybe if you made yourself more exciting, I wouldn’t have forgotten you.”

  “Don’t you think I tried?” Florrie said, the last word bubbling up into a sob. My heart went out to her. I didn’t think she knew anything about her talent, so she must have gone through life feeling utterly invisible and not understanding why. “I don’t know how many makeovers I got. I tried every hair color the salon offered, and you didn’t even notice when I dyed my hair bright red. I bought sexy lingerie. I tried perfume. You didn’t notice any of it, so I gave up. Why bother remaking myself to please you when nothing got your attention?”

  “You dyed your hair red?” he asked, his forehead creasing as he tried to remember. “When was that?”

  “Three years ago, during the winter holidays, before the Chamber of Commerce New Year’s Eve party, the one where you left me alone and spent the whole night flirting with the new beauty salon owner—the one who dyed my hair. But don’t worry, no one else noticed, either. None of my students said a word when school started again after the break. You also didn’t notice when I went blond the summer before that.”

  “I’d have remembered blond,” Hugo said, shaking his head.

  “Nope. You didn’t notice. I have pictures, if you want to see them. Then there was the blue phase, just to see if anyone said anything, but I didn’t like it, so I changed that quickly. Supposedly, it was against the school dress code, and yet no one cared.”

  “Now you’re pulling my leg,” he said with a scoff. “You’ve never had blue hair.”

  “I have pictures of that, too. Do you know how it feels to be invisible to your own husband? It was like you didn’t even want me in your life.”

  “This is about Vegas, isn’t it? You were mad that I didn’t want you coming along.”

  “No, it’s not just about Vegas,” she screamed. I hoped maybe the neighbors would hear the fight and do something. She went on more softly, adding, “Though I was mad about that. It’s not as if you would have noticed whether or not I was there, but at least I might have had some fun. The thing I’m mad about is that you told me you were going to Vegas but instead you were shacked up with your old girlfriend.” She gave a bitter laugh. “I guess that explains why you didn’t want me going to Vegas with you. You might not notice me, but I’d have figured out that you weren’t there.”

  “How did you even find out? No one knew.”

  “Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about, how I found out? I’m a reasonably intelligent woman, Hugo. I found out you hadn’t made any travel plans for Vegas, and I saw you at your reunion with your old girlfriend. I did the math. And then I saw your car in her driveway.”

  “I told her she should have cleaned out her garage so I could park inside,” he muttered.

  All of this was interesting and probably therapeutic for Florrie, but I was still facing the barrel of a gun and wanted to get out of this situation as soon as possible. “Why don’t you put the gun down so we can discuss this like civilized people?” I asked Hugo. “You’re scaring the dog.”

  “Yeah, Hugo,” Florrie said. “That dog is a traumatized rescue. That’s why Alice needed a house sitter. She can’t board him and she can’t leave him alone. You’re setting back his recovery.”

  “I can’t believe this. You’re worried about the dog at a time like this?” Hugo said with a sneer that made me want to slug him.

  “Yes, I’m worried about the dog because I’m not a terrible person, Hugo.”

  He gave a sharp, short bark of a laugh, which made Bowser whimper again and lean his weight against my legs. “You’re not a terrible person? You set me up to go to prison for murder!”

  Florrie gave an exasperated sigh. “Don’t be so dramatic. I just left some vague clues that someone could interpret as being suspicious. As soon as the newspaper back home came out with a story about me being missing and your car with evidence in it being found at your girlfriend’s house, I was planning to make sure everyone knew I was okay. Since they towed my car, I was going to call the police about my car being missing, and I’d be surprised that there had been all that fuss about me. You wouldn’t have been in trouble at all if you hadn’t lied to the cops, so don’t put that on me.”

  “And then what? You think you’d get a better deal in the divorce?”

  “Maybe not in court, but in town, yes. They’ll all know what you did, why we split up. And then maybe I’d be able to keep the friends. I know how things go. If we’d just split up quietly, you’d have glad-handed everyone while they all forgot I existed, and then I’d have ended up utterly alone, even though you were the one in the wrong. I wanted to make sure everyone knew so I’d get all the sympathy.”

  It sounded as crazy when she said it like that as it had when she’d explained her plan to me earlier, but knowing what her uncanny talent probably was, I could understand her desperation. What would it be like to go through life feeling utterly invisible, to worry that the people you cared about might forget you existed the moment you were out of sight? If she got away with blue hair at school, she must really have it bad. I wondered if maybe there was a part of her that was afraid of being seen and that ramped up her power. It would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’d remembered her because she wanted me to notice when she went missing.

  But I could analyze her talent and how it worked when I wasn’t being held at gunpoint. At the moment, the bigger concern was getting Hugo to put the gun down and relax before he hurt someone. I didn’t want to have to write the story of a murder I’d witnessed. It was bad enough finding a body after a murder. I most certainly did not want to witness one.

  “Come on, Hugo, what would Cissy think about this?” I asked. “She reunites with her first love, only to lose him when he goes to prison for murdering his wife. That would really suck for her, wouldn’t it? But if you let us go now without anyone getting hurt, the worst you’ll face is a fine or maybe probation.”

  “But what if no one knows I killed her? They already think she’s missing and don’t think I had anything to do with it, regardless of what the newspaper says. No one has to know she died later.”

  This guy was a real piece of work. I had to wonder what Florrie had ever seen in him, unless it was the fact that he saw her and remembered her long enough to marry her—before he forgot her again. “The cops here are smarter than that,” I said. “They’ll know. And if you shoot her here, the neighbors will hear it. Have you heard about the neighborhood watch around here? They know everything. You wouldn’t be able to get her body away from here without them noticing. The only way out of this for you is if you just turn around and leave, and we can all pretend this never happened.”

  “Then I’ll be a laughingstock,” he said. I thought he was wavering, but it was hard to tell since I didn’t know him.

  “That’s worse than being a murderer?” Florrie asked. “Even if they don’t ever officially tie this to you, you know people will always assume you did it. You’ll never escape from that if I don’t turn up safe and sound.”

  I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, coming from the house. Wes must have finally shown up and kicked the door in. Rescued at last! I forced myself not to look because I didn’t want to alert Hugo, who was so focused on Florrie that he didn’t seem to have noticed.

  But when the approaching figure came into view, I saw that it wasn’t Wes. It was the ghost I’d seen in the alley the night before, still dressed like a 1950s housewife, from back in the day when these houses were new. In the late afternoon daylight, she was nearly transparent, but I could still tell that she was furious, and she was heading straight
for Hugo.

  It was a pity that I was likely the only person present who could see and hear ghosts because she would have made the perfect diversion. If he did get distracted enough for me to be able to take action, I wondered what I should do. He was a lot more solid than I was, so I didn’t think I could tackle him and wrestle the gun away from him. Trying that would be taking a big chance. I needed another plan. I glanced around as well as I could without moving my head, looking for anything I could use as a weapon. There was a long-handled skimmer lying beside the pool, I recalled. If I could get to it, I might be able to knock the gun out of his hands from a distance. I thought it might be long enough to reach. If I got in the water, I could squeeze against the side of the pool for cover.

  But it was probably a moot point because Hugo didn’t seem to see the ghost at all, even though she was right on him. “Leave women alone!” she shouted, her voice coming out as a howl. I couldn’t help but wince at the sound.

  Hugo didn’t hear her, but when she got close enough to touch him, he shivered visibly. “Is a front coming through?” he asked, looking around.

  That meant he took his eyes off us, so I dove for the pool. I grabbed the skimmer on my way over the edge into the water. Hugo was still flailing around as the ghost tried to wrestle with him. “Florrie, take cover!” I called out, sweeping the skimmer around to hit his legs. The skimmer wasn’t heavy enough, and I didn’t have enough leverage, to get in a good blow, but it distracted him still further, so I was able to whack him on the wrist and make him drop the gun.

  Meanwhile, the ghost seemed to be working out her issues on him, shouting things like, “Don’t hurt women!” and “I hate men!” I was definitely going to have to look up the story of what happened in this house when I got back to the office, assuming I survived.

  I tried to get the skimmer net around the gun to pull it away from Hugo, but I wasn’t very good at controlling the skimmer, and Hugo recovered his composure more quickly than I’d expected. He picked up the gun, yanked the skimmer out of my grasp, and looked around for Florrie, who’d taken cover behind one of the lounge chairs, Bowser at her side. She was reaching for the gun on the table, and I hoped she’d remember that it wasn’t loaded. If she and Hugo had a shootout, she’d lose.

  Now that Hugo was armed again, I slid deeper into the water so that my head was below the edge of the pool. He’d have to come over to the pool to get to me, which might give Florrie time to run into the house. But which of us would he go for first, the witness determined to thwart him or the wife he was angry at?

  A quick peek above the pool showed that he was heading for his wife. The ghost was still taking out all her frustrations on him, with the only effect being to make him shiver. He was focused and determined, and I couldn’t think of anything to do to stop him, short of tackling him, myself.

  I couldn’t let him kill Florrie, so I boosted myself up on the side of the pool and dragged myself out of the water, then sprinted across the lawn to jump on his back and wrap my arms around his neck. The ghost joined me, and he shouted, “I’m definitely going to kill you, too!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I didn’t think Hugo could shoot me while I was clinging to his back, and I hoped he wasn’t a good enough shot to be able to aim at Florrie while the ghost and I were distracting him, but I didn’t know how long I could hang on.

  Bowser jumped up and ran toward us. I thought for a moment that he was going to join in and help defend me, but he ran past us toward the gate. I didn’t dare turn to see who might be there. Given that Bowser had noticed me when I was outside the fence, he could have been running because someone was in the alley.

  But someone in the alley could help. This was, after all, the neighborhood watch hot zone. “Put down that gun!” I shrieked at the top of my lungs. If that didn’t bring some kind of help, this neighborhood would have to give up its watchfulness reputation.

  A moment later, I heard Wes say from behind me, “You heard the lady. Put the gun down.”

  I wanted to go weak with relief now that the cavalry had arrived, but I couldn’t afford to until Hugo surrendered, so I kept my grip on him. Still, I felt a lot better knowing Wes was there.

  Hugo froze, but he didn’t put the gun down. “If you’ve got a gun, you can’t shoot me without shooting the girl on my back,” he said.

  “True, but anything you do now, you’ll be doing in front of the police. Do you really want to do that?” Wes said.

  Hugo slowly turned around and saw Wes standing there, in uniform, his gun pointing at him. “Oh,” Hugo said.

  “Lex, let the man go so I’ll have a clear shot at him,” Wes ordered.

  I released my grip on Hugo’s neck and slid down his back to the ground. My feet squelched in my wet shoes as they took my weight once more. My legs were a little shaky in the aftermath of all the excitement, so I probably wobbled as I moved farther away from Hugo.

  “Ma’am, I would prefer that you didn’t,” Wes said to Florrie. “I’ve got this under control.” I glanced over to see that Florrie was reaching for her gun. She looked up at Wes, then backed away, raising her hands.

  Hugo finally seemed to realize he was beaten. He bent and put the gun on the ground.

  “Kick it to me,” Wes said, and Hugo did so.

  That was when more cops came running through the gate. Bowser barked once and ran to me, keeping my legs between him and the men. Wes instructed the cops to take Hugo into custody, and they handcuffed him and hauled him away. I felt a lot better once Hugo was gone. That was when I finally allowed myself a sigh of relief.

  Wes holstered his gun and turned to face me. I braced myself for a scolding but was entirely unprepared for the raw emotion I saw on his face. He looked truly concerned. “You okay, Lex?” he said, his voice rough.

  “Yeah, more or less,” I said. “Wet, mostly.”

  Florrie grabbed a towel from the nearest lounge chair and brought it to me. “Here you go, dear. You were so brave. I think he might really have shot me if you hadn’t stopped him.”

  Wes must have regained his equilibrium because he had his usual exasperated tone when he said, “Now, could someone tell me what happened here that led to Hugo Marz holding a gun on you?”

  “Wes Mosby, meet Florrie Marz,” I said as I blotted my dripping hair with the towel. “She’s been here all along. Hugo figured that out and decided that if he was going to be accused of her murder, he’d really do it.”

  “He wasn’t going to be accused of her murder,” Wes said, frowning in confusion. “There was no evidence.”

  “Exactly what I told him. He wasn’t convinced.”

  “Why don’t we all sit down to have this conversation?” Florrie said. “I’ll get another glass, and we can have some lemonade.” Wes started to object, but she interrupted to say, “I won’t go anywhere, I promise. Besides, you towed my car. I wouldn’t get very far.”

  While she went inside, I went to sit on one of the patio chairs and took off my shoes so they would have a better chance of drying. Fortunately, they were nylon slip-on sneakers, so the water wouldn’t do them any harm. Bowser stuck beside me.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Wes asked, taking the chair beside me.

  “I’m fine. I take it you got my message.”

  “Yeah. Plus the neighborhood watch called about a strange car parked in the alley.”

  “I was hoping that might happen.”

  “I’d have preferred that you let me handle it.”

  “Well, you didn’t call me back, and I needed to make sure she was here before the paper in her town went to press with a story about her being missing. I was perfectly okay until Hugo showed up.” Well, sort of, but I’d decided I wasn’t going to say anything about what Florrie had done. I supposed it wasn’t that different from what Hugo had done, but her gun wasn’t loaded and she’d given up on her own without me tackling her. She’d also apologized and seemed contrite. Hugo had doubled down on the awfulness.

  Wes
bent to pet Bowser, but the dog whimpered and slunk under my chair. “I think he’s afraid of men,” I said. “Florrie said he was a rescue. He’s the reason her friend needed a house sitter.” To the dog, I said, “It’s okay, buddy, he’s a friend.”

  Wes leaned over and offered a hand for the dog to sniff. A moment later, the dog came out of hiding and tentatively approached Wes, wagging his tail. Wes gave him a good scratch behind the ears, and if I hadn’t been sitting down, I might have gone a little weak in the knees. I already knew Wes was a good guy, but this was another positive sign. Even a traumatized dog trusted him.

  Florrie returned with fresh glasses and another pitcher, served us all lemonade, and then she told her whole story about what she’d learned about her husband and her plans for dealing with him. The two of us then tag-teamed on telling about Hugo showing up, angry and with a gun. Florrie shook her head sadly. “I never intended for it to go this far. I didn’t think he’d get into any real trouble. I only wanted everyone to know about him cheating. There wasn’t any crime, so there was nothing for him to be arrested for, was there?”

  “I have to say, this is an unusual situation, but if he hadn’t lied to me and if he hadn’t threatened you, there wouldn’t have been any crime. He was the one who reacted badly, and that was what got him in trouble,” Wes said.

  “I knew he was a jerk. I had no idea he could get violent. And I don’t know where he got a gun. We don’t have one.”

  Wes glanced at the one sitting on the table, next to the lemonade pitcher.

  “That’s Alice’s. It’s not loaded. I’m here by myself, so I felt better having it there.”

  “In the future, I would recommend not having a gun you’re not prepared to use,” Wes said. “It’s as likely to get you shot as it is to scare anyone away.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. Hesitantly and a little bashfully, she asked “Am I in any trouble?” She gave me a quick sidelong glance that I hoped he didn’t catch. I kept my face perfectly neutral.