“An allergy to me?” I glared at him. “I think you both are just plain mean,” I said haughtily. “I can’t help it if I get around a lot more than you two do. I just happen to be there when….”
Roy burst into another round of laughter. “I’ve got to stop this,” he said, still wiping at tears. “I’ve got to get control before the captain gets here. But I’ve also got to get your statements.”
“We weren’t here for the murder, you know,” I told him tartly. I was really tired of everyone assuming I somehow facilitated the local death rate. “From the looks of things, I’d say the deed itself happened hours ago. And since I’d never even met the man….”
He nodded, beginning to sober up. “Right. But you did know Celinda.”
“Of course.”
He looked at me, started to say something, then choked it back, took a deep breath, then looked back again and grinned.
“We were walking up the steps to the house,” he said softly, “and my partner said, ‘What do you want to bet Mele will be in there?’ and I said…..” He started to laugh again.
“Alright, enough.” I grabbed Jill’s hand and pulled her toward the garden gate.
“I’m supposed to be over at that Victorian next door, evaluating it’s potential for the city. That’s why we’re here.” I glared at him. “We’ll be over there if you want our statements.”
He just sat there grinning and chuckling and we left, slamming the gate behind us.
“Poor guy,” Jill murmured, trying to hold back a grin.
I turned on her. “Poor guy! How about poor me? I’m the one who gets dead bodies dumped in her space like cats dump dead mice on your doorstep.”
As you can see, I was feeling a little sorry for myself by now. It seemed like I was being blamed for being a victim.
“At least he could hold back laughing at me until I’m out of earshot.”
“Oh Mele, come on. He’s not laughing at you. He’s laughing at the situation.” She gave me a hug as we started up the steps to the big front door. “Give the guy a break. You know he’s crazy about you.”
That turned my head and gave me a start. “Is he? How do you know?”
“I just… I mean… He’s always…”
“Yeah, you see? Hard to tell, isn’t it? Some days I think he is, and then the next time I see him, I wonder.”
“Oh Mele!”
Before I had a chance to wallow any longer in my own discontent, a sound came from the old Victorian structure. It stopped us both in our tracks. The next thing I knew, we were clinging together like kids about to enter a Halloween haunted house.
“What was that?” Jill whispered, her eyes huge as she stared at the door.
“I don’t know,” I said, working hard to keep my voice steady. I was supposed to be the brave and experienced one. “It sounded like a…like a…”
There it was again.
“Like a moan,” we both said at the same time and clung together like we’d been sticky-glued.
Chapter Five
“No,” I said as I got my senses back. “No, look.” I pointed to a large hole in the gingerbread décor attached to the eaves above the porch. “It’s the wind going through that. Look.”
A stiff breeze came sweeping through and there it was again. It was enough like a moan to keep the hair on the back of my neck rising, but I knew it had no supernatural explanations. It was just the wind.
Jill shook her head, marveling at it. “You don’t expect that from a light autumn breeze,” she noted, giving me a quick smile. “My gosh, we’d better settle down. We haven’t even gone in yet and already we’re jumping at every noise. It doesn’t even take a real ghost to get to us.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” I muttered as I unlocked the door. But my confidence was coming back. I led her inside as though I was the homeowner himself. And in a way, I was tied to the place. After all, it was my project.
And it was fun showing off the lovely old mansion to her. She was an appreciative audience, speculating on the history and imagining how things had been once, in the days when the house was young.
“Wow,” she said when I ushered her into the large room I’d decided was once a ballroom.
“Nowadays, you would probably turn it into a home gym,” I said. “But I’ll bet this place was wonderful once upon a time. Can’t you imagine the strains of a Strauss waltz echoing in these halls? Can’t you picture the beautiful gowns? The handsome gentlemen?”
“Oh yes, imagine the events they must have had here, the receptions, the soirees. The dinner table full of great people of that age.”
I laughed at her. “What great people?”
“I don’t know. It just has that feel to it.”
I had my own opinion, from what I knew of the Penningtons. I somehow doubted that too many “great people” might have been on their guest list. I sighed, looking around the room. Piles of broken chairs and plundered couch cushions were stacked against the far exit.
“It would have a lot more of that feel if it had some of the old furniture left in decent shape.”
“Who took it away?”
“You got me.” I frowned. “I don’t know enough about all the circumstances to make a good guess. But…” I hesitated. I really had no reason or right to speculate at this point, but Jill was my sounding board for most things. Why not this too?
“Mr. Pennington died about two years ago. Celinda’s antiques consultant told me he thought the old man had spent years before that slowly pawning or selling the good furniture, piece by piece, to pay the bills. But I wonder…”
Jill looked wise. “If that consultant knew a bit more than he was telling?”
I shrugged. “Or Celinda’s husband even. He’s some sort of collector.”
“Or was.”
We exchanged a rueful glance.
“True.”
I showed her the morning room and the library and the dining room and the den—which had been fixed up as an office with a huge old secretary against the wall. It was in bad shape, but it still had all its little drawers.
“I’ve always wanted one of these,” I said, smiling at it.
“Can you imagine all the things you could put in those drawers?” Jill agreed.
“And probably never find them again,” I said. “But it’s good to organize. Organization is the key to everything.”
She gave me a thumbs up and we headed for the kitchen. My heart began to beat a little faster as I anticipated seeing the baseball fan ghost sitting at the old radio again, but when we turned the corner and walked in, the place was empty. In fact, I hadn’t seen the hint of a ghost anywhere today.
A thought flickered into my mind. What if just the fact that I had Jill with me was shielding me from the spirit world? Could be. If so, I was going to bring her every time I came.
On to the laundry porch. An ancient washer and drier sat side by side.
“These must be about fifty years old,” I said. “You’d think they would have updated at some point.”
“Maybe they sent all their laundry out,” Jill said. “Lots of rich people used to do that.”
For some unknown reason I pulled open the dryer and we both stared at the contents. Reaching in, I pulled out a beautiful negligee and held it up. We gaped at each other.
“What the heck?”
“This isn’t old,” I pointed out needlessly. “In fact, I’d say someone bought it at Victoria’s Secret last week or so.”
Jill nodded, eyes sparkling. “Do ghosts wear sexy lingerie?” she asked.
“Not that I’ve ever noticed.” I threw the item back into the drier and closed the door. “I have a feeling this belongs to a real live woman. But who?”
“There’s no heir to the property, right? Didn’t old man Pennington give it to the city?”
I nodded. “The strange thing is, Celinda told me that her husband thought he should be the heir.”
“That man who was just murdered?”
“Right. He claimed to be Pennington’s illegitimate child. He even went to court, but his case was dismissed or denied or something like that. So I guess that will no longer be an issue.”
“Unless Celinda decides to fight for it.”
We looked at each other and both sighed at the same time.
“I wonder if she’s back yet,” I said.
“Was she planning to come back today?”
“I don’t know. Actually, I doubt it. She was talking like this was going to be a whole weekend worth of selling art stuff for her.”
“Poor thing. Can you imagine? Coming home from something like that to find that your husband has been killed in your own living room.”
“Library,” I corrected.
“Library,” she repeated with a shrug. “It must be a shock. Unless of course she did it.”
My jaw dropped. “What are you saying? She was in Cambria.”
“Was she?” Jill gave me a wise look. “You’ve taught me enough about this murder business to know you can’t count on surface evidence.”
And you know what? She was right.
But I didn’t want to think about that. I was going to have nothing to do with this little murder. Let someone else take the bit and run with it. Not me. It was none of my business.
“Bite your tongue,” I told her. “We’re not involved and that’s the way I hope it will stay.”
“I’m just sayin’,” she said with a sassy smile.
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s go upstairs,” I said, remembering the bedroom that had looked like it was currently being used by someone. Which was odd. No one else was supposed to have keys to this house. “I think I may know where our negligee-wearing bimbo spends her nights.”
We turned to go up and something flashed by, almost like a butterfly sailing through the air, leaving a shiver behind. My breath caught in my throat and I gasped softly. I knew my holiday from ghosts was probably over.
“What is it?” Jill said. To my surprise, she seemed to be completely attuned to my reactions.
“Did you see that?” I asked her warily.
“No. But I saw you.” She grabbed my arm. “You saw something didn’t you?”
I managed a smile and shook my head. “No, it was nothing,” I lied.
She didn’t buy it but she wasn’t going to push me, not yet anyway.
“Are we going upstairs?”
I hesitated. I had an impulse to call it a day and get out of there, but that would be silly. I would just have to come back again later. I might as well get this inspection finished while I had a chance of doing it with Jill by my side.
“Sure,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We went. From the look of things, most of the bedrooms had been emptied out long ago—all except for a couple just off the landing, including the one that looked as though someone had slept there lately. We wandered down the hall and into one empty room after another, not talking much.
Finally, she turned and looked at me. “Is this the floor you fell from?”
I nodded.
“Which room?”
I took her into it and gestured toward the still-open door to the balcony. You could see where the railing had bent and crumbled. My heart beat faster just looking at it.
“Don’t go out there. In fact, we should board the doorway up so no one else goes out there.”
“Good plan.”
We stared at the balcony for awhile, each thinking her own thoughts. I was wondering if I’d imagined what had happened.
I don’t mean the fall. That was real. But had some force, some resenting spiritual entity, really pushed me out? Or had my emotions gotten tangled up with my fears and made me think it had happened that way?
Finally, Jill turned and looked at me, her head to the side and her mouth curved into a tiny smile.
“No ghosts,” she noted. “I haven’t seen the evidence of even one.”
I shook my head. “No ghosts,” I agreed, ignoring the hints I’d had.
She sighed. “But you’re strung too tightly to enjoy the release that gives you, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?” I protested.
She shrugged. “The dog that didn’t bark. The shoe that didn’t drop. The ghost that didn’t show up. You’re disappointed and relieved at the same time. But you’re jumpy too, expecting something to leap out at you from some dark corner at any moment. Right?”
I laughed softly, then said with pure affection, “Oh Jill, you know me so well.”
She nodded. “You better believe it, sweetie. Sometimes I think I know what you’re going to say before you say it.”
I pretended to be offended. “I guess I’ll have to try to think deeper and make my conversation a little more interesting for you.”
“Forget it.” She laughed at me. “But I am pretty bummed to be cheated out of a little haunting action.” She stood in the middle of the floor. “Tell you what. Let’s give them a chance to make good on their scariness.”
She threw back her head and said in a loud voice, “Okay, ghosts. Here’s your chance. You’ve been messing with my BFF and that is not allowed. So come on out and try your tricks on me, okay?” She spread her arms out as though issuing a welcome. “Right now! I’m ready for you.”
She was so earnest, she made me grin, but I held it back. Back to back, we both turned slowly, Jill surveying one side of the house, and I the other, looking for any sign of action, listening for any sound. The silence was thick and eerie, even though I knew very well there were beings nearby. I could feel them.
Suddenly, I had goosebumps. Something was very close. But what?
We turned back, facing each other again. Jill looked triumphant.
“There! They don’t want to mess with us. Right? I think we showed them.”
That would have been all well and good, except that her voice was shaking a little bit and I could tell that the whole concept of what she was doing was beginning to get to her. I wanted to tell her to leave off the taunting stuff. You never did know how a ghost would take your words and it didn’t pay to get too cocky.
But before I got a proper statement clarified in my mind, she grabbed my hand.
“What was that?” she whispered, eyes huge and dark.
I was going to laugh at her, but instead I listened. She was right. Something was moving downstairs. Just a small noise at first, then louder, like something scraping across the floor. I grabbed her hand back.
“I don’t know,” I whispered urgently.
In less than a second we were clinging to each other again.
“Did you hear it too?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Like someone dragging a ball and chain,” she said, her melodramatic nature in full sway. “Or…or a body.”
Going hysterical wasn’t going to get us anywhere. I stiffened my spine and said, “Let’s go look down the staircase and see what we can see.”
“No!” she said, clutching me. “Let’s hide in a closet.”
There was a new sound.
“It’s coming up the stairs!”
It was! Clump, clump, clump…
I didn’t know what it was, but there was no denying it was something. And fear is contagious.
Chapter Six
“Okay,” I said breathlessly. “The closet it is.”
Before we got more than two steps, a voice rang out.
“Mele? Are you up there?”
We stopped and stared at each other.
“It’s only Roy,” I cried, relief beginning to drain the adrenalin away. “Up here, Roy,” I called out, and Jill and I backed away from each other and pulled ourselves together.
“Hi,” I said as his head appeared on the stairway. I was hoping to get away with a complete cover-up on how skittish we’d just been. “We were just exploring and…”
“And you scared us to death!” Jill cried accusingly, totally destroying any pretenses. “Why were you making those scraping noises?”
“What?” He grinned at us knowingly. “Spooky, huh? I was just trying to get a clear place to the wall so I could get a look at some of the woodwork downstairs. There’s so much junk piled everywhere.”
“It sounded like….like…”
“Bodies being dragged across the floor,” Jill told him sternly. “But now we know it was only you.”
“Yeah, I heard that as I was coming up,” he said, giving me a sidelong glance. “It’s only Roy. Thanks a lot, ladies.”
I wasn’t going to dignify that with a response.
“Do you want to see where Mele fell from?” Jill asked him in her bright-eyed way.
“Fell from?” He turned and looked at me, alarmed. “What are you talking about? Are you okay?”
I flashed Jill a “thanks a lot” look and shook my head. “I’m fine. I just fell out of….”
Jill blatantly ignored my sign that I didn’t want to talk about it with Roy and grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the bedroom. “Right in here. Look at that railing. She thinks a ghost might have pushed her.”
“Jill!”
“He has to know, Mele. We’re your friends and we are the only ones who can protect you.”
“You’re into that ghost stuff again, huh?” He looked mystified. “Tell me about it, Mele. What’s going on?”
I gave him a quick explanation of what had happened, trying to downplay the spooky angle as much as I could, and he was happy to take ghost talk with a grain of skeptical salt.
“Okay, bottom line, you shouldn’t be messing around in old wrecks like this. They’re dangerous.”
I rolled my eyes his way. “It’s my job. Just like yours is to accost bad guys who are set to try to hurt you. We each have to deal with what we have to deal with. The way of the world.”
He grunted and went into the bedroom to secure the door so that no one would be tempted to go out there again. Jill went downstairs, so we had a quick moment alone when he came out onto the landing again, and he took advantage of it, pulling me into a hug and dropping a kiss on my lips.
Little Ghost Lost (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 5) Page 5
