I wonder if today is the day I’m going to die. I couldn’t stop the thought, but I could do my best not to get killed.
“Come here,” he said.
I froze, not sure what to do. He was standing only about five feet away from me, and my back was to the wall. I had nowhere to go, but there was no way I was going to make this easy for him. I don’t want to die, I’m not ready. Not yet. I thought of my mother and father, my brother and Sparky. I thought of Stanley and everything that might have been.
Linwood took a step toward me, and my breath caught in my throat. I had to do something. As I started to tense my muscles to leap onto the bed, a cloud of gray appeared between us.
What the …?
The gray mist began to take a form, and I stood stock still for a moment, trying to process what I was seeing. Ethel? But Ethel was dead, and I didn’t believe in ghosts.
Run, a voice in my head commanded. I didn’t need to hear it twice.
I threw myself onto Ethel’s bed, rolled over and off the other side, and landed on the floor with a solid thump. I didn’t stop to assess whether or not I’d been hurt, instead lunging for the door and flinging myself into the hallway. Without looking behind me, I raced down the hall and practically fell down the staircase.
“Giuseppe!” I shouted. “Help!”
Things were not normal. Like a bad dream, nobody paid any attention to me.
A man wearing a hideous Hawaiian print shirt called out to me. “Can you see her? She’s here, you know.” I didn’t know this guy, but I had a moment’s confusion. Was he talking about the shape I’d just seen?
“I need help,” I said, grabbing his arm.
“It’s amazing, she’s here, right over there,” he pointed to the far corner of the room, completely ignoring my distressed plea.
I started to get nervous, wondering if everyone had gone crazy. “What are you talking about?”
I heard the voice I knew all too well, the voice from the phone and the previous ghost hunt. “Ethel is here. She has come with a message from beyond.”
Crap-a-roni, just who I needed. Debbee was nuts. I glanced over to the bottom of the staircase, wondering when Linwood was going to come thundering down to try and kill us all.
“Can I have your attention, please? We have a situation.”
Giuseppe ran into the room. “They see her, they really see her, can you believe it?”
“G, thank God you’re here.” I grabbed onto him, relieved. “I found …”
“This is so much better than anything Kenny’s group could come up with,” he interrupted. “Think of the press we can get out of this. Think of our reputation. We might even get our own show out of this.”
My brother clearly was having trouble focusing. “Listen to me, Linwood is upstairs, we need to …” The voices of everyone around us grew louder, drowning me out, and my brother began walking away from me.
“She hasn’t crossed over.”
“She wants to speak with us, she has something to say.”
“There are others with her, we must pay attention.”
Finally, I saw a police cruiser pull up outside, lights flashing, and park right in the middle of the street. I watched as Rob ran from the car to the front of the house.
“Police, everyone freeze!”
You would think people would stop what they were doing when an armed officer burst through the door, but it was as if they couldn’t hear him.
“I said, freeze! Everyone stop what you’re doing right now!”
I caught Rob’s eye and shook my head. By now I was more than a little panicked and made my way over to him.
“What is wrong with these people?” he asked me. “It’s as if they can’t hear me.”
Thirty-six people that I could see, and not one of them was acting normal. To my utter horror, I felt the beginnings of tears. It was all too much. “I don’t know, Rob. All I know is that Linwood is upstairs in Ethel’s bedroom, and he told me he killed her, and when I came downstairs nobody would listen to me. It’s as if they’ve all become zombies or something.”
By that time other police officers had come in behind Rob, including Oliver, and they heard my last statement.
“Has anyone taken any drugs tonight?” Oliver asked me.
I shook my head. “No, not that I’m aware of. That’s not something Giuseppe would approve of, and I’ve never seen that kind of thing on a ghost hunt before.”
“I’m calling for back-up, and I’m requesting medical personnel just in case,” Oliver said to Rob. “Take Ava outside, and keep her safe. She’s our only witness right now.”
My stomach dropped, and my legs felt weak. I thought I was going to throw up, and it was only the thought of how embarrassing that would be that stopped me from losing my lunch. This was real. A killer was upstairs, and for the first time I wondered if Linwood had done something to everyone here. Could he have poisoned them all somehow?
I went outside with an officer I didn’t know, grabbing hold of Giuseppe’s sleeve on the way out and dragging him with me.
“What’s going on?” he demanded as I pulled him along. “Why are the police here, and why are you pulling on me?”
“You’re coming outside where it’s safe. I don’t want to have to explain to your son when he gets older how you died a weird death at the hands of ghost-hunting crazies.” Holding onto my brother calmed me somewhat, but I had to ask him to see if he’d been affected. “G, can you see Ethel?”
“Stop calling me that. Does it really matter if I can see her?”
“Yes, it matters. Just tell me the truth, and stop worrying about what others will think.”
My brother pouted for a moment, then leaned in and spoke in a low voice. “No, I can’t see her, but I don’t think that makes much of a difference since everyone else can. Clearly we’ve found something, right?”
I was so relieved, the tears I’d been holding back spilled over. I couldn’t help but hug him. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“What are you talking about?”
By this time we were standing on the front lawn of Ethel’s house, and the police had started ushering people out, keeping them sorted in groups. I wondered if they were sorted according to levels of craziness but suddenly found myself too tired even to ask anyone. The adrenaline rush I’d had upstairs must have worn me out.
I looked around, hoping that Oliver and Rob had gotten Linwood and that neither of them was hurt. Right then I saw Linwood coming around from the back of the house. He was moving at a fast pace, striding with purpose, coming straight for me.
I froze. Where was Oliver? Where was Rob? Even Giuseppe had moved away from me and was talking to other people in his group.
Suddenly Linwood stood in front of me, taller than I remembered, shaking his head. “You must be a spy, just like her. I have reason to believe you’ve gone over to enemy territory, and for reasons of national security you must be eliminated.”
I saw the piece of glass from the picture frame, which he still held in his right hand, and watched as he raised his arm. Everything slowed as my mind screamed at me to run. Before I could move, though, a big blur ran into Linwood from the left side, knocking him to the ground.
I stared at the two men on the ground, watching as the weapon was pried from his hands and cuffs were put on Linwood.
Oliver had saved my life.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“You have that let-down feeling,” Charlie said, pulling a bottle of pinot noir from the refrigerator. “You gathered all this evidence and tried to solve the case, and it turns out to be the old guy with Alzheimer’s disease who did it.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” I said, watching her pour the wine into two glasses. What I didn’t tell her was everything that had happened in that bedroom. Part of me wondered if I’d made up the gray mist in order to save myself, but mostly I knew what I’d seen. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about all that, so I decided not to think about it at al
l. Ever.
“Of course we know he did it,” she said. “The doctor all but told you that. It’s one of those things you didn’t see coming, so you’re bound to feel confused.”
“Confused?” A tail thump from the corner echoed my question. Sparky must have thought I’d said, “Let’s go for a walk and get some treats,” because he was suddenly on his feet and chasing his tail.
“He is a cutie,” Charlie said. “Sure, bewilderment, confusion, all that. For what it’s worth, I think you’d make a great detective. You were asking all the right questions.”
“I’m not sure I did enough,” I said, handing Sparky a chew toy. “I’m not sure I’d be good at that kind of work. When the you-know-what started hitting the fan at Ethel’s house, I didn’t know what to do.”
“Yes, you did,” Charlie said. “You called it in and got out of the room. What else were you supposed to do? Handcuff him yourself?”
I smiled, basking in the knowledge that my friend Charlie was always my champion. I was a lucky woman. I had the unwavering support of my family, and I had a super-amazing friend who believed in me. What more could I want?
Before I could answer her, a sharp knock sounded at the door, making me jump. “Have you patched things up with Fred?”
She shook her head. “Nope. No way, not after what he said to me. He’s going to have to come crawling back and offer up a big old heaping portion of sorry, because, because …” She stopped to take a swallow of her wine, and the knock sounded again.
“Want me to get it?” I asked, wondering if it was Fred with a bouquet of sorry flowers. I would be happy for her if it was him at the door. It was easy to see that those two belonged together.
Banging her glass down onto the side table she answered, “No, I’ve got this.” I was surprised she didn’t break the glass, but I didn’t say anything as she strode to answer the insistent knock.
Before I could say, “Make sure you check to see who it is,” Charlie had thrown the door open and started yelling before she realized who was standing in front of her.
“What the hell do … oh, sorry. Hi, Detective, can I help you?”
Oliver looked around Charlie. “When she didn’t answer her house phone, I suspected Ava might be here, so I took a chance and came over. Can we talk for a minute?”
I nodded, watching him as he came in. He was a very handsome man who had just saved my life. I was beyond grateful for that, but there was more. His good looks, his obvious intelligence, it all added up to one heck of a package.
One very mysterious package.
I really liked Oliver. I thought he was an interesting and vibrant person. There was absolutely no chemistry between us, but I knew we were destined to become friends. I don’t know if he knew that, but he’d figure it out eventually. I didn’t actually hate him, which was sort of a surprise to me after all the nasty thoughts I’d had during the case.
He looked a bit surprised at my wide smile, but given the fact that someone had tried to kill me earlier that night, I didn’t blame him. He was probably wondering how much wine Charlie and I had been drinking.
“I’m sorry to do this, but I have a few questions I have to ask. It won’t take long, and I thought you might be more comfortable here instead of at the station.”
I nodded and put down my wine glass. “No problem, I’ll tell you anything you need to know. Just let me use the bathroom first.”
As I went to use the bathroom, I could hear Charlie playing hostess. “Can I get you something to drink? Maybe you’d like a cup of coffee?”
“No, thank you, ma’am, I’m fine.”
I sighed as I shut the door to Charlie’s bathroom, mostly out of a sense of awe. Every time I went in there I was happy-envious. Charlie has a wonderful decorating style, and she’s turned her bathroom into a spa-like oasis. I relaxed into the mint green and sky blue luxury and admired the fluffy towels. Where did she get them? They reminded me of cotton candy. I was marveling at the cobalt-blue vessel sink—I loved that bowl-look in a bathroom sink—when I heard a loud crash.
I turned off the water and wondered what to do. If someone had broken in, surely Charlie would be fine, because Oliver was out there with her. After all, he was armed and trained for dangerous situations. But I couldn’t hear anything else, and that was not a good sign. What if this was some type of home invasion, and Oliver was taken by surprise, unable to help Charlie? I couldn’t leave my friend at the hands of criminals.
Something’s wrong. I’d hear Charlie and Oliver talking if they’d knocked something off the counter. It’s too quiet out there.
I slowly opened the bathroom door, sending out a prayer of thanks that the hinges didn’t squeak, and I could be stealthy. Silence coated the house. I made my way down the hallway in a half-crouch position, wondering for the second time that day what the heck I could use as a weapon.
When I reached the end of the hall, I dared to look around the corner into the living room on the right.
Oliver was flat on the floor, arms out to his sides, eyes closed.
Chapter Forty
“It’s not what you think,” Charlie said, looking over at me. “He’ll be fine, I’m sure. We’ve just got to get him up.”
“What did you do?”
“Charlie didn’t do anything,” a voice to my left said.
I recognized the voice, but I still jumped. “Geez, you scared me. What the heck is going on?” I said. Oliver’s eyes were closed, and I wondered if I needed to get him to a hospital or something. “Someone better start talking, and quick.”
“It was my fault,” Fred said. Charlie’s boyfriend stood in the kitchen, looking like a scared five-year-old. “I thought he … I thought they … I didn’t …”
“Spit it out,” I said, kneeling next to Oliver and putting my hands on his face. Oh, God, what were we going to do if something really bad happened to Oliver? His skin felt warm to the touch, but I didn’t know how to check for brain damage or anything serious. I looked at his chest to see if it was moving, if he was breathing.
“I’m fine,” Oliver said, closing his eyes, “but I’ll probably have a black eye, and my hip is a little sore from falling down, and right now I don’t think I want to move.” He cracked one eye open to look at me. “You can take your hands off my face. Body temperature takes a while to decrease after death, so you’d have no way of knowing right now by touching me if I were alive or dead.”
How the heck did he know what I was thinking? I sat back on the floor, relieved that Oliver was alive and annoyed that he could read me so well.
“Ohmigod, am I going to jail? Because I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to assault an officer, I thought that … it looked like … when I came in there were these wine glasses, and Charlie looked so sexy and …”
“You thought I looked sexy?” Charlie asked.
“Of course I thought that, I always think that,” Fred said, gazing at her with anguish. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known and the most amazing.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but can we get to the part where Oliver ended up on the floor?” I said. At this point I didn’t care if I was being rude. I needed answers. The man who’d saved my life earlier today was lying on the floor, and I wanted to know why.
“I came to see Charlie so we could talk things through. I’ve missed her so much,” Fred said, his words sounding rushed. “I wasn’t really thinking, I just let myself in. I usually do that, we both do that with each other’s places. So when I came in here and saw two glasses of wine and heard the soft music and saw the detective, I thought … I thought …”
“You thought I was having a romantic evening with your girlfriend and decided to punch me in the face,” Oliver finished.
“I’m so sorry,” Fred stammered. “I shouldn’t have done that. Even if you were here on a date or something, that was a stupid thing to do. I let my emotions get away with me, and I am so sorry. If I’ve caused any injury I’ll pay the bill. I am …”
A brief image of the newspaper article flashed through my mind. Was he referring to that incident? What had really happened to Oliver’s wife? Was she still alive somewhere?
The sound of Charlie’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “How about I get you a glass of that wine? You might need it now.”
“No, thank you, I’m still on duty,” Oliver said, standing. I stood, as well, not wanting to be the only person sitting on the floor. “Ava, let’s go get some pizza and talk.”
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry.”
“I don’t care. Let’s go get some pizza and talk,” Oliver said. “Get your purse, and let’s go.” He nodded at Charlie and Fred, who were standing with their arms around each other. I wasn’t sure why the heck either of them needed comfort when it was Oliver who had gotten punched in the face, but clearly the two of them weren’t paying any attention to Oliver and me.
“Sparky can stay with Charlie for now. You and I have things we need to discuss,” Oliver said, holding the door open for me.
Chapter Forty-One
The pizza restaurant around the corner from Charlie’s house has amazing food. Their pizza is great. The crust is perfect, and it always smells like garlic when you walk in. They have great sandwiches, too, and they make a sub sandwich with chicken cutlets, eggplant and melted cheese. It makes me happy just to think about it.
We got a table pretty quickly, and after ordering two Dr. Peppers Oliver began to study my face. I waited a full second before squirming. “What?” I asked. “Is something wrong?”
“How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine,” I said, mostly because that’s what you said no matter what was happening in the world.
Madness in Brewster Square Page 19
