Along Came a Ghost: A Beechwood Harbor Novella (Beechwood Habor Magic Mysteries Book 5)

by Danielle Garrett

“Maybe she’d be happy?” I ventured.

  Adam frowned at me. “If Earl is a ghost, why hasn’t he come back to the manor in all this time? Posy’s been dead for over a hundred years. She’s hanging around here because she can’t—or maybe won’t—pass into the Otherworld. If she finds out Earl’s been gallivanting all over the world this whole time, never coming back to find out what happened to her, she’ll flip out! I doubt one stone would be left on the other. We’ll all be homeless.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Bat wings.” I started pacing. Boots trotted behind me. “So what do we do? You said the dispersion thing might not last forever. What if Lenny comes back and Posy’s here? He’d obviously know who she was if his father helped build this place. Posy was very involved in the construction, from everything she’s told me.”

  Adam rubbed a hand over his scruffy jaw. “I don’t know. Maybe we should go see that ghost shrink of hers.”

  Posy had recently started attending a ghost support group at the urging of her friend Gwen. “That’s a good idea.” I nodded. “Any clue where this ghost whisperer lives? Posy hasn’t told me much about the group or how it works.”

  “They meet at that new florist shop on Hydrangea Lane.”

  “They do?” I stopped pacing. “How do you know that?”

  Adam shrugged one shoulder. “I followed her one night.”

  “Adam!”

  “What?”

  “You shouldn’t have done that. If she’d have caught you…”

  Adam folded his arms. “Hey, it’s not like I followed her into the meeting and spied on them or something. Yeesh, Gorgeous.”

  “You’re right.” I buried my face in my hands. “Sorry.”

  “Come on. We’ll go see if there’s anything going on, then we can pick up dinner at McNally’s on the way back.”

  I nodded and then glanced down at myself, remembering that I was still caked in potting soil. “Let me shower first. I’m a grubby mess.”

  Adam gave a half-cocked grin. “The cutest grubby mess I’ve ever seen.”

  I rolled my eyes but smiled as I placed my hand on the kitchen door. “Aw, that’s the sweetest compliment I’ve had all week.”

  Adam chuckled. “You know me, a real Casanova.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Lily Pond Floral Design Studio is a quaint shop nestled between a small art gallery and Mr. Milton’s old-fashioned barber shop. The trio of shops are a newer addition to Beechwood Harbor and were built with small apartments over the shops, likely rented out by the tenants of the respective shops below. As we approached, I slowed to admire the window displays. Lily Pond’s windows were filled to bursting with colorful collections of wildflowers and potted plants. I smiled wistfully, flooded with a longing for spring, my favorite season.

  Adam held the door open for me and jerked his chin to get me to hurry it up. I scurried forward and entered the shop, taking a deep breath to savor the aroma that rivaled the sweet, earthy fragrance of my greenhouse and would likely send allergy-sufferers into shock.

  A tiny bell jangled as Adam let the door fall closed behind us and a bright voice from somewhere behind the counter called out, “Be right there!”

  I glanced around in awe at the variety and quality of the blooms around me and whispered to Adam, “Oh my gosh! It’s so cute! Why haven’t I been in here before?”

  “It just opened a few months ago,” he pointed out, glancing around with disinterest. Flowers weren’t really his thing.

  I sidled up next to him and looped my arm through his. “Is this where you got my Valentine’s bouquet?”

  “Yeah. Although I think your eyes got bigger when you saw the dozen bear claws I got you.”

  I laughed. “That’s entirely possible.”

  A dozen bear claws were stiff competition even for a bouquet of wildflowers.

  “I liked the flowers too, though,” I added, squeezing his arm.

  “Sorry about the wait.” A striking young woman stepped out of the narrow hallway and appeared behind the counter. She had long, copper hair that she kept tied back in a low ponytail. Her bright blue eyes looked like sapphires against her fair complexion. As a fellow redhead, I was envious that she didn’t seem to suffer from freckle outbreaks that cropped up on my face as soon as the sun started hanging around for more than an hour or two a day. Her peaches and cream skin tone was clear, not a freckle or spot in sight. She placed her hands palms down on the glass surface and offered us a warm smile. “How can I help you?”

  Adam took the lead. “This is going to sound … strange … but do you know anything about the support group that meets here on Wednesday nights?”

  The woman bristled but immediately masked her initial reaction with a serene smile. “I’m not sure I know what you mean. My name is Scarlet and I’m a floral designer.” She waved a hand around the shop, as though reminding us of our surroundings. This wasn’t a psychiatrist’s office. There wasn’t a chaise lounge or box of tissues in sight.

  Adam glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. We couldn’t risk blowing our cover if she really didn’t know what went on in her shop once the sun went down on Wednesday nights. There was a chance the ghost whisperer might be another employee or maybe a ghost ran the whole thing. All of it could be happening behind the scenes. After all, ghosts didn’t need keys.

  I stepped forward. “Do you know someone named Posy Williamson?”

  Scarlet’s eyes went wide.

  Bingo.

  “How do you … are you … ?” Scarlet sputtered. “How do you know Posy?”

  “We’re residents of the Beechwood Manor. She’s our landlord,” Adam added carefully. There was still an air of plausible deniability in the statement.

  Scarlet glanced from Adam to me and then back again, skeptical. “Adam and Holly?”

  “So she’s mentioned us,” Adam said with a chuckle.

  I grimaced. “Great.”

  I could only imagine.

  Scarlet hurried around the counter and went to the front of the shop. She flipped over the wooden sign hanging from the door handle and then tugged at the chain attached to the neon Open sign. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about what Posy discusses here; everything is confidential.”

  Adam held up a hand. “Okay, hold on.”

  Scarlet turned, her back flat against the front door.

  “This is all legit?” he asked. “You’re really a ghost … counselor? A ghost hunter?”

  “As a member of the ghost community, I object to that terminology.”

  I snapped around at the voice just as a silver-hued Himalayan cat leapt up onto the counter. It calmly licked its front paw then stroked its face. “I know I’m beautiful, but I’m not some kind of trophy for a hunter.”

  “The cat talks?” Adam said, leaning forward.

  “Endlessly.” Scarlet sighed.

  The cat continued grooming itself, unconcerned.

  Scarlet tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and then gestured at the cat. “This is Flapjack.”

  “I think I’ve officially seen everything,” Adam said.

  “Flapjack was my childhood pet-turned-not-so-imaginary-friend and he’s been with me ever since.”

  Flapjack glowered in Scarlet’s direction. “Unfortunately, Scarlet’s parents let her select my name.”

  “I was five.” Scarlet’s lips twitched. “Would you rather we go back to the first three weeks of your life when we thought you were a girl? I’ve got no problem calling you Annabelle from here on out.”

  Flapjack scowled at her and then continued grooming his feather duster of a tail.

  “Is that a no?” she prodded.

  No response.

  “As to your question,” she continued with a slight smile. “I prefer the term mediator. Most of the time my role is to foster communication between the living and the dead, with the goal of helping both parties find peace.”

  “And she does a simply smashing job of it!” a new voice chimed in, us
ing a cheery British accent.

  A man wearing coattails and a top hat floated through the wall and perched at the opposite end of the counter from the cat. Judging by the wary look in the gentleman’s eyes when he gazed at the cat, that was his preference.

  Without even glancing sidelong at the new arrival, Scarlet said, “And this is Hayward Kensington II.”

  “Kinda crowded back there,” Adam said, gesturing toward the storeroom.

  “You have no idea,” Scarlet replied.

  “You’ve seen ghosts all your life?” I asked her.

  “It started with Flapjack,” she said with a nod. “My parents got him when I was starting kindergarten and, tragically, he died a few years later.”

  “I had a rare genetic disorder,” Flapjack explained, clearly taking issue with being discussed as though he weren’t in the room.

  “That was my first exposure to death.” Scarlet inclined her head toward the fluffy cat. “A few days after we buried him, I saw him in my room. He looked a little different than I remembered, but otherwise, he was my Flapjack. Then I found that he could talk—something I’d often dreamed of, or imagined, I suppose, when he was alive. My parents thought I was working through grief by pretending he was still alive when really he was always with me.”

  I tipped my head toward the genteel human ghost at the other end of the counter.

  Scarlet smiled. “Hayward found me a few years ago. I was traveling overseas on a study-abroad program. Hayward had been haunting one of the London underground tours and when he realized I could see him, decided to follow me all over the city until I finally talked to him.”

  “She was a tough nut to crack,” Hayward said with a gleam in his eye. “She wanted nothing to do with me. But I won her over in the end.”

  “He wanted to see the states,” Scarlet explained.

  “Aha.” I nodded, though I wasn’t entirely sure I understood. “And what brought you to Beechwood Harbor?”

  “A little over a year ago, my grandmother passed away and left me some money. She knew I always wanted to open my own florist shop and earmarked part of her estate for me. It took me a while to find the right location, but when this place came on the market, I just knew it was the right fit.”

  I smiled. “Do you like it so far?”

  “I do.” Scarlet nodded. “Although, to be honest, I hadn’t expected to find so much paranormal activity. I was barely here for a week before Gwen—you know Gwen?”

  Adam and I nodded.

  “Right, she and Posy are thick as thieves.” Scarlet waved a hand. “She introduced me to the local ghosts and we started meeting here once a week. There’ve been a few new ghosts in town over the last couple of months and the support group helps get them up to speed.”

  “How to be a ghost 101?” Adam asked.

  “Something like that.” Scarlet smiled. “Most of the time it feels like trying to referee a baseball team of chimpanzees.”

  “The umpire for the undead.” Adam snorted. “That would look great on a business card, you know.”

  I elbowed him and his laugh turned to a sputter.

  “You mentioned there are some new ghosts in the area. Would you happen to know someone named Lenny Knowles?” I asked Scarlet, trying to ignore the two ghosts that flanked her as she took her place back behind the counter.

  Scarlet considered the question carefully and then shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  Adam explained the encounter with Lenny Knowles. Scarlet cringed when he reached the end. “You dispersed him with a poker?”

  Hayward and Flapjack both shifted angry glares in our direction.

  “He wouldn’t leave,” Adam replied with an unaffected stare.

  “He did give him the opportunity to leave peaceably,” I rushed to add, before they all thought we were complete monsters.

  Scarlet held up a hand. “All right, fair enough, but in the future, there are better ways to ward off unwanted spirits.”

  “I’m all ears,” Adam said.

  “For starters, ghosts are very sensitive to smell,” Scarlet explained casually, as though we were discussing the weather. “If you can find a scent the unwanted intruder doesn’t like, you’ll be able to effectively deter them from places you don’t want them.”

  “I didn’t realize ghosts could even smell things,” I said, nervously eying Hayward and Flapjack. We already had one angry ghost on our trail. I didn’t want to risk alienating Beechwood Harbor’s entire ghost population.

  Scarlet nodded. “The trick is finding out which scents will work. It can take time as it’s all trial and error. What repels one ghost might attract another. For example, Flapjack loves the smell of fish. Hayward would go metaphorically running for his life if a place smelled like that.”

  Hayward shrugged.

  “Thanks for the tip.” I glanced at Adam. “I guess the real reason we’re here is to get your thoughts on Posy’s current state of mind. In the past, when she’s reached a breaking point, the manor itself manifests the energy.”

  “Usually with disastrous results,” Adam added with a wince.

  “That makes sense,” Scarlet replied with a sage nod. “Posy’s soul is intertwined with the manor. I imagine it always will be.”

  I frowned. “You don’t think she’ll ever be able to pass into the Otherworld?”

  Flapjack stretched, his back arching into a half-moon, and breathed a sound that was half purr, half chuckle. “Posy? No.”

  Scarlet shot him a dirty look. “No one asked you.”

  “Fine, fine.” He twitched his feather-duster tail and then jumped down from the counter. He landed soundlessly and trotted across the black-and-white tiled floor. Without another word, he disappeared through the front door.

  “Where’s he going?” Adam asked.

  Hayward scoffed. “Probably to roll around in something unseemly.”

  I grinned at Adam. That was one of his specialties when he was in his dog form.

  “In my opinion, Posy isn’t anywhere near ready to cross over to the Otherworld. She might never be. As it is, she has the manor to run and finds a lot of purpose in that role.” Scarlet shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I suppose the only thing that would motivate her would be if she knew she’d be reunited with her late husband, Earl. But she seems fairly convinced he’s still here in this realm.”

  “And if she were to find out he is?” I ventured.

  Scarlet’s deep blue eyes snapped to mine.

  Adam jumped in. “Before Lenny was … dispersed, he mentioned that Earl would be upset about finding out his manor was inhabited by our kind. The way he said it made it seem like it was more of a threat, not a hypothetical statement.”

  “Do you think Lenny was scouting the manor?” Scarlet asked.

  I shook my head. “We don’t know. He mentioned that his father helped build the manor. He clearly knows Earl, or at least who Earl was. But if Earl is really hanging around, why hasn’t he returned to the manor? He’s been dead for over a hundred years.”

  “The better question is what Posy is going to do once she finds out.” Adam shifted. “Not to sound selfish, but if she goes off the deep end, we might be homeless.”

  Scarlet alternated her glance between us. To her left, Hayward stood, his chest slightly puffed out, surveying us with interest. “To be honest, I’m not sure what would happen. Posy’s not exactly an open book. Most of what I know about her is thanks to Gwen.”

  Adam smirked. “Sounds about right.”

  “I’ll see if I can find out where she’s at. In the meantime, if this Lenny character comes back, I’d recommend steering him clear of Posy until we know how she’ll react. I’ll ask around and see if any of the other ghosts in the group have run into him around town. If I find anything, I’ll let you both know.”

  “Thank you, Scarlet,” I said, inclining my head.

  “Yeah, thanks a lot,” Adam agreed.

  He turned and took a few steps to the shop’s door. He tugged
it open, the bell jangling as we stepped out.

  “Cheerio!” Hayward called after us.

  Adam snickered under his breath. “Cheerio to you, too!”

  We let the door fall closed behind us, then paused on the large, brightly colored welcome mat. For a long moment neither one of us said a word, still marveling over everything that had transpired.

  Adam gave a slight shake of his head. “This town gets weirder every day.”

  I laughed but had to nod in agreement. “Sometimes I wonder if living in the Seattle haven would actually be less odd.”

  “No joke.” Adam pocketed his hands as he considered the dusky streets. The street lamps were starting to come on, one by one, up Hydrangea Lane. A light drizzle started and we were still several blocks from McNally’s, Adam’s favorite go-to eatery. “It’s too bad that Evie and Teddy are out of town for the week. We could use the extra sets of eyeballs.”

  “Yeah. You think we should call Lacey and give her a heads up in case Lenny decides to come back?”

  Adam shrugged. “Let princess figure it out. She can handle herself.”

  I suppressed a smile. “A raging vampiress might be just the ghost antidote we need.”

  “If anyone can scare him off, it’ll be her.” Adam chuckled. “Come on, gorgeous, let’s go get some dinner. I’m starving.”

  “Breaking news out of Beechwood Harbor tonight…” I teased.

  He slid a hand out of his pocket and wound it around my shoulders before dragging me out into the rain. We barely made it two steps, laughing together, before Adam suddenly skidded to a stop.

  I looked up to see what had caught his eye and my stomach clenched into a tight knot.

  “Adam? Holly?”

  Posy was coming down the sidewalk and she didn’t look at all pleased to see us.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “What are you two doing here?” Posy demanded, her thin lips pursed. Her bespectacled eyes moved suspiciously to the logo on the frosted glass window panel on Scarlet’s door. “Were you just in Scarlet’s shop?”

  “Uh, yeah. We were out for a walk and thought we’d stop in,” Adam replied evenly as he pocketed his hands. “You checked this place out yet?”