by Ritter Ames
“Why could I see the ghosts last night? I’ve only seen family in the past.”
“As you guessed, it was All Hallow’s Eve, when the veil between worlds is thinnest, but it was also Jitty’s need. You grew in your abilities to meet her need, to help her.”
“Fat lot of good my growth did.”
“You’re wrong. You stopped Coker from taking an action which would have condemned his soul forever. You delayed him long enough for the spiral of events to unwind. Jitty owes you a lot. I wish she could tell you herself.”
I swallowed, because I didn’t want to be a crybaby in front of a woman who’d overcome so much. “Will I ever see her again?”
“I can’t answer that. Perhaps if you said how much you need her.”
“I do need her. Dahlia House is so empty. Jitty was…is so much a part of who I am.”
“Even when she torments you?” Alice asked gently.
“Even then. Even when I want to strangle her, I love her. And now she’s gone and I’m alone at Dahlia House.”
“By your choice, Sarah Booth.”
I cocked an eye at her. She was sounding way too much like Jitty. Then again, they had grown up and grown old together. “You’re saying I want to be alone?”
“I’m saying you could change that at any moment if you really wished to.” She pretended to hold a phone to her ear and used a digit to mock dial. “Phone a friend,” she said.
I sat forward, really paying attention. “Phone a friend?” My many-generations-old grandmother knew nothing of telephones. Something was off, and a glimmer of hope surged through me. “Jitty?”
She cackled like a hen laying an egg, and before my very eyes she transformed from Grandma Alice to Tormenter Jitty. “I’m ba-a-a-ck,” she said.
“I should kick your ass all the way back to Dahlia House.” But I was laughing as I made my threat. “Jitty! You are back! For real?”
“Yep, I’m on the job again. On probation, as it were.”
“Don’t you ever do that again. I thought you were gone.”
“And you missed me. Say it again.”
She was a devil, a torment, a trouble-maker, and so much more. Haint, spirit guide, conscience—all of those things, but mostly my friend.
“And Coker?”
“He’s in big trouble, but not nearly as much as he would be if you hadn’t intervened. Sarah Booth, he would have been shut out of the Great Beyond forever. But you talked sense into him. At least enough to stop him from making a terrible mistake. It isn’t our place to revenge past deeds.”
“Good to know. I also don’t think it’s your place to try to impregnate people in the future. Would you agree?” I had her over a barrel and I needed to make hay while the sun shone.
“There’s no harm in that now. Not a single rule to prevent a bit of influence in the realm of amore.”
“Amore?” Since when did my haint speak Italian?
“You know, ridin’ the two-backed beast, bumping uglies, doin’ the horizontal tango. You need to find you a man and seal the deal, Sarah Booth. You want me hangin’ around, then get me an heir to inherit. I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to get back to Dahlia House for you, now you need to do this for me.”
Oh, dear, god. I had whined and cried to get this back. I’d mourned the loss of this outrageous torment? There was something seriously wrong with my mental abilities. “Jitty, I’ve been through hell for you. And then I thought you were gone. You let me go on and on about how much I missed you. And here you are, aggravating as ever.”
“It’s all part of my devastating charm,” Jitty said. “Now I’ve got remedial ghosting classes to attend, so I have to go. Besides, company’s here.” She started to fade on the lemony scent of magnolias, and then I heard the words to a classic Etta James tune. “At last, my love has come along.”
The strong, powerful voice filled the space around me, and I knew though Jitty had appeared, my mother was watching over me. Etta James was one of her favorites.
“Sarah Booth! Sarah Booth! Where are you?”
Before I could answer Chablis came down the path, barking and grumbling, and leaped into my arms. Whatever ill will her mistress held toward me for skunking out on my friends, Chablis had forgiven me, as I had forgiven Jitty.
“I’m here.”
“What in the world are you doing down here? I would never have found you if Chablis hadn’t caught scent of your trail.”
I whistled up Sweetie Pie and gave Pluto a pat. “Let’s head to Dahlia House.” I felt a hundred pounds lighter. Jitty was home. She was still a boil on my backside but she had returned to Dahlia House.
“What are you doing down here?” Tinkie looked around with suspicion. “It has to do with that Jitty person, doesn’t it?”
“Jitty is dead.” I didn’t elaborate.
“She well may be, but she isn’t gone.” Tinkie fell into step beside me. “I heard you were a witness to a suicide last night. You went to that creepy plantation with that voodoo woman all by yourself. I would have gone with you.”
“I know. Leila called me with some urgency. I didn’t want to ruin Cece’s party.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I had to rush to Cliburn. It was an emergency.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I didn’t think I’d need help.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Would you stop saying that like you think I’m lying?”
“Oh, you aren’t lying, but you also aren’t telling the complete truth.” She put her arm around my waist. “But it’s okay, Sarah Booth. I have my own secrets.”
Tinkie was worse at keeping a secret than I was. “Like what?”
“Oscar has agreed to talk with an adoption agency.”
This was big news—a bombshell. We grabbed each other’s hands and jumped up and down squealing, just like second graders. Chablis, Sweetie Pie, and Pluto angled down the path away from us.
“I’m thrilled.” And I was. I had Jitty back, my family. Tinkie wanted a baby more than anything. “I’m so glad for both of you.”
“We owe it all to you. When you allowed us to keep the infant someone left on your front porch, it opened Oscar’s heart.”
“The best news I’ve heard all year.” I put my arm around her shoulders, and we walked toward the big white house where my family had resided for generations. “It’s a happy ending, all around.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of the Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series and a number of other dark crime and mystery stories. She also writes as R. B. Chesterton. Learn more about Carolyn and her animal rescue, Good Fortune Farm Refuge, at www.carolynhaines.com Please sign up for her newsletter and follow her on FB at https://www.facebook.com/Carolyn.Haines.is.R.B.Chesterton. Follow her Amazon page at www.amazon.com/Carolyn-Haines/e/B000APAUTG and see all her books. The latest in the Sarah Booth Delaney series is Rock-a-Bye Bones, and the first book in her Pluto’s Snitch series, The Book of Beloved, was recently released by Thomas & Mercer.
Contents
Table of Contents
Frightening Features – A Nichelle Clarke Mystery #5.5
SALAD DAYS, HALLOWEEN NIGHTS By Eleanor Cawood Jones
SPELLBOUND SWEETS A Samantha Sweet Magical Cozy Mystery By Connie Shelton
WEEPING MOON A short story in the Lella York Mysteries series By Maria Grazia Swan
IT TAKES A GHOST By Karen Cantwell
THE VIGILANTE VIGNETTE A Cherry Tucker Mystery #5.5 By Larissa Reinhart
NO TIME TO WITCH By Morgana Best
ORGANIZED FOR MASKED MOTIVES An Organized Short Mystery By Ritter Ames
CLACKING BONES A Sarah Booth Delaney Halloween Tale By Carolyn Haines
