Wicked or Treat! (Paranormal in Manhattan Mystery: A Cozy Mystery Book 16)

by Lotta Smith

  “But you told her about Christina’s death benefits, right?”

  “No.” Matt’s small eyes widened. “I’ve never told anyone about my family’s insurance. That’s not something to be discussed with outsiders.”

  “Does Ellis have a copy of the key to this apartment?” Rochester didn’t give up. “Have you ever loaned it to her?”

  “No. Never,” Matt said firmly. “Detective, I’m surrendering to you. I admit to killing my wife, the mother of my two children.”

  Rochester took a deep breath. Such an abrupt twist wasn’t something he’d expected, but now that the prime suspect had confessed to murdering his wife, he couldn’t just ignore it. Then again, all he had were Matt’s words that weren’t good enough to make an arrest, much less prosecute him, but he definitely needed to dig deeper.

  When he asked Matt to come to the precinct with him for further questioning, he didn’t argue. Based on his story, it didn’t sound easy to make a case, as Christina’s death could be ruled as an accident. So he ended up escorting Matt to the precinct.

  Under normal circumstances, he’d have to call child protective services, but Matt turned out to be very helpful—he called his parents to look after the kids.

  CHAPTER 8

  “So, it really was the husband who killed Christina?” I said, not quite convinced about the sudden twists and turns of this case.

  “That’s what Matt told Detective Rochester.” Rick shrugged, feeding Sophie a spoonful of pumpkin mousse.

  “Really?” I tilted my head, catching the clock in the corner of my eye. “Oh my God, they’re coming soon. Sophie and I need to freshen up, and I’ve got to call Jackie and Clara back.”

  “Oh, you’re right.” He nodded and then cocked his head. “By the way, how do we call them back?”

  “Well….” I furrowed my eyebrows. I had no idea how to contact dead people.

  “Oops,” Rick muttered. “Let me call Brian. He’s closer to Brooklyn.”

  “Wait a minute.” I raised my hand. “Let me try channeling Jackie.” I shut my eyes, listening to Sophie excitedly giggling as I mentioned her favorite ghostly auntie.

  When I caught the familiar voice saying, “Did you call me?” at my side, I gasped. “Jackie! Welcome back. And you, Clara!” Being ghosts, they didn’t appear tired at all despite the surveillance all-nighter. On the contrary, they looked fresh in new clothes.

  “What do you think about my new dress?” Jackie turned around to show off her long turquoise dress.

  “You look amazing, Jackie,” I said. “I love your dress, and look at your shoes. Those matching platform heels are definitely a pair to drool over.”

  “Thanks!” She beamed. “And don’t forget my witchy hat.”

  “How fabulous is that?” I offered a smile and looked at Clara. “Ooh, Clara! I love your gold dress.”

  “Thank you!” She giggled like a teenage girl. “I’m dressed to the nines to see your family.”

  “Are they back?” Rick looked at me excitedly.

  “Yes, we are, darling.” Clara did a little finger wave at him and Sophie in his lap. “I wish you could see us, but it’s lovely that Sophie can.” She smiled as her granddaughter waved back at her.

  “Yes, they are,” I replied to Rick, who grinned widely.

  “Hey, I’m so glad to have both of you back.” he said in greeting.

  “Jackie, Clara, we’re really sorry to tell you this, but Matt Hepburn, Christina’s husband, has fessed up to killing her, and he’s currently being questioned at the precinct,” I said. “And, according to Detective Rochester, Matt is insisting he killed Christina on his own.”

  “Get out!” Jackie’s jaw dropped. “Does that mean Ellis had nothing to do with the murder?”

  “It’s okay. On the plus side, doing a stakeout on her was really fun.” Clara patted Jackie’s arm.

  “You’re right.” Jackie nodded. “It was so much fun. Also, we got to make a new friend.”

  “Really?” My eyes widened.

  “What did they say?” When Rick asked, Sophie babbled something, and he smiled at her. “Yeah, you’re curious about that too.”

  “Jackie and Clara say they’ve made a new friend.” I turned to Jackie. “Is that new friend a ghost?”

  “Of course Ilona is a ghost,” Jackie replied.

  Clara added, “She used to live in Ellis’s apartment, and she likes to return to her old home every Halloween season.”

  “That’s impressive.” My phone rang, and I excused myself to answer.

  “Hi, Mandy, good morning,” Nana’s voice boomed from the other end of the line.

  “Hi, Nana, how are you?” I tried to sound perky while feeling slightly panicky for not being ready yet.

  “I’m great. The traffic is rather heavy today, so it could take thirty minutes or so.”

  “Oh really?” I said, mentally pumping my fists. “Take your time. We’re looking forward to seeing you. Ciao!”

  “Good thing we still have time,” Rick commented, standing up. “Let’s get ourselves ready quickly.”

  * * *

  Two hours later, we were at the table with our stomachs full and the plates cleaned up. With Sophie playing with the ghostly duo and Alicia’s daughters, Emma and Minty, in the play space at the corner of the living room, I found myself enjoying chatting with adults who weren’t Rick. Not that I didn’t enjoy talking to my husband, but I realized it had been a while since I’d talked to other adults who weren’t cops or former law enforcement agents.

  “So, Mandy, will you be going back to work anytime soon?” Nana asked me casually.

  “Actually, I’ve just sort of worked on a case. Though it was nothing official because the client is Clara.”

  “Rick’s late mom? I see. It’s Halloween season.” She nodded knowingly. “Sounds like fun. So, was it a murder case?”

  “It was a tricky one,” I said.

  “At first, it was presumed to be suicide, then an accident,” Rick explained, “but the victim’s husband just confessed to killing his wife.”

  “Considering you’ve just closed a case, you don’t look that happy about the outcome,” Alicia commented. Even though she immediately became a stay-at-home mom once she’d conceived Emma while still in junior college and tied the knot with Tony, she was still a lawyer, and she rocked at reading people’s facial expressions and subtle body language. I was sure she’d have made a great detective herself.

  “Actually, the husband’s confession came unexpectedly,” Rick said, and I walked her through the case.

  “I’ve been wondering why Christina insisted she suddenly had vertigo, but failed to mention Matt’s words to look down.” I knitted my eyebrows. “Could it be possible she tried to cover up for him?”

  “Maybe she really had a terrible vertigo attack,” Dad interjected.

  “But if she was having such bad dizziness, she must have been seeing a doctor,” Mom said.

  Rick crossed his arms. “Hmm, it looks like Christina was lying about the vertigo part. Even the detective on the case, who happened to be a hardcore supporter of the theory that the hubby killed off the wife while in cahoots with another woman, sounded confused about Matt’s confession. To be honest, I’m not fully convinced about him doing everything from plotting to executing the plan in this case. The only difference I had with the detective was the part about motive. I thought it was a murder for life insurance money, and he was a fan of a crime of passion.”

  “And you, Mandy?” Alicia leaned in. “I’m so curious about your opinion, because you’re the only person who met the victim’s ghost.”

  “Oh, right. That’s a good point.” I clapped my hands together. “Aside from Matt having a solid alibi, Christina seemed at least fifty pounds heavier than her husband, and with the fencing and the handrail, him lifting her and tossing her over it would be impossible. On the other hand, adults don’t fall that easily, so I’m guessing the most likely method would be pushing her from behind
when she was standing on the stool and looking down at the ground.”

  “Yeah, that makes it even more likely that Matt and Ellis worked as a team,” Rick chimed in. “If Ellis snuck in from behind and pushed the victim as Matt distracted her on the phone while she was looking over the balcony railing, things would work like magic. Setting up the exact time to call Christina and then pushing her wouldn’t have been that difficult, right?”

  “Right.” Tony nodded. “That sounds like a classic tactic for a murderous duo. Except under normal circumstances, when either one of a murderous duo gets caught, he or she starts singing like a canary, just to be the better criminal. I don’t see why Matt insists he did everything on his own.”

  “I know,” Nana agreed. “Also, if the mistress was the killer, I don’t see why Christina’s not screaming about bringing justice by catching her too.”

  “Exactly.” Rick nodded, then looked at me, Nana, Mom, and finally Alicia. “Suppose your husband kills you with his mistress. Would you try to protect that woman?”

  “Of course not.” The Meyer and former-Meyer women shook our heads simultaneously, with Nana adding, “Except my husband’s already moved to a better world.”

  “Okay.” A corner of Rick’s lips quirked up into a lopsided grin while Dad and Tony chuckled a little uncomfortably.

  “Oh, I think I can explain why Christina didn’t mention the other woman,” Dad said abruptly. “It’s simple. She didn’t know what the other woman looked like. That’s why the victim didn’t rat on her killer.”

  “If that’s the case, the killer looks more like a total lunatic rather than a mistress with a vicious plan,” Mom pointed out.

  “Why bother to cover up for a lunatic?” Nana charged.

  “Dad, I’m glad you’re an accountant,” Alicia said knowingly.

  Always a good daughter who’d jump in to defend her dad, I said, “So true. If he was a lawyer or cop, we’d have been in trouble.”

  Dad crossed his arms and looked at his sons-in-law with a solemn face. “Rick, Tony, in case you haven’t noticed, the Meyer women are big on sarcasm and cynicism.”

  “I know that, Steve!” Tony cracked up laughing.

  “Ditto,” Rick said, pulling me close to him.

  “Anyway, there’s no reason for the victim to protect her killer,” Mom commented. “Besides, considering Christina knew where Ellis had her eatery, she should have known what the mistress looked like.”

  “That’s a good point,” Nana agreed. “I can’t imagine any woman who wouldn’t go take a look at the other woman. That’s called due diligence.”

  “So, the hypothesis with the hubby and the mistress working in cahoots won’t work. Then again, killing off Christina with just a phone conversation doesn’t sound quite right either,” Rick muttered, twirling locks of my hair with his fingers.

  As we talked about theories that got us nowhere, I listened to Sophie giggling happily as she played with her cousins. Then Jackie and Clara flew over to me.

  “Mandy, there’s something I forgot to tell you,” Jackie said breathlessly. “At first, I thought it wasn’t relevant.”

  “But when the girls started playing with a key-motif toy, we decided it was a sign,” Clara followed her words.

  “A sign? What sign?” I asked, then informed Rick, “Jackie and Clara have something to share with us.”

  “What’s that, Mom, Jackie?” he asked.

  “Can you talk to Jackie?” Nana’s eyes widened.

  “No, I can’t.” He chuckled. “But I can guess where she is when I follow Mandy’s gaze, and both Mom and Jackie can hear me.”

  “Oh, I’m impressed.” Nana smiled.

  “So, we’d been hanging around with Ellis at the tavern for a while, and then she closed the shop and went back to her residence,” Jackie started.

  “After she went back to her apartment and took a shower, she looked really crestfallen. Jackie and I tried to cheer her up, but it didn’t work. After all, she’s part of the majority of people who can’t communicate with people like us,” Clara took over.

  “All of a sudden, she started searching her writing desk.” Jackie lowered her voice.

  “And this is the part where the key comes in,” Clara interjected. “She found an envelope with cute abstract patterns. She clutched it in her hands for a while and then opened it.”

  “And inside was a key, right?” Rick chimed in after I passed on the ghosts’ words.

  “Yes, it was,” Clara and Jackie said in unison.

  “It was an ordinary, no-frills key,” Jackie added.

  “It looked like one of those copied keys, as it had serial numbers. I don’t remember the combination of the digits though.” Clara looked at Sophie and chuckled. “Oh, she’s so happy.”

  Sophie was clapping her hands and started to laugh hysterically the moment her daddy uttered her favorite word.

  “Sophie, love, is everything all right?” Dad craned his neck at his granddaughter.

  “She’s fine,” I informed him. “Whenever Rick says ‘right,’ she can’t help laughing.”

  “She must be a daddy’s girl.” He winked.

  “I hope so,” Rick said earnestly. Then he asked, “Did she make a call or anything?”

  “No.” Jackie shook her head. “After staring at it for a while, she buried it back in her desk drawer.”

  “Okay.” I nodded. “Jackie says Ellis was staring at the key for a while and then buried it back in the desk drawer.”

  “Really?” Rick reached for his phone.

  “Not so fast, Rick,” Clara interjected.

  “Clara says not so fast.” I touched his arm.

  “All right. So what happened next, Mom?” he asked, rolling his eyes.

  “Darling, stop doing that,” Clara said teasingly. “The juiciest part is that Ellis dug out the envelope again from the drawer, stuffed it inside her purse, and then went out to the convenience store.”

  “The weird part was that she went to the one three blocks away from her place,” Jackie said. “There was the same convenience store just in front of her apartment building, but she went to the other one.”

  “And all she purchased was a trashy tabloid magazine that you can find at any convenience store or grocery store, and a cup of apparently stale coffee. I know for a fact that no convenience store serves decent coffee. Anyway, I’m sure she went to that place just to throw away the key,” Clara concluded.

  “Did she discard the key at the store?” I asked.

  “Yes, she did,” the ghostly duo replied in unison.

  Jackie went on. “The convenience store had a sitting area with tables and chairs, and they had a trash can. I think she’d purchased a coffee so she wouldn’t look weird when she tossed the key into the trash can. Otherwise, who would purchase a stale coffee when you have a topnotch coffee machine that’s selling for five hundred bucks in your kitchen?”

  “And I saw her sneaking the envelope with the key inside the paper cup before she crushed it and tossed it into the trash can,” Clara added.

  “Rick, you’ll want to inform Detective Rochester to search for the key in a trash can,” I said. “Ellis went to a convenience store that’s located three blocks away from her apartment building. Jackie and Clara saw her tossing the key in a paper cup before throwing it away.”

  Rick whistled. “Holy shit! He lied through his teeth without being caught by the detective? He must be a really seasoned liar.”

  “Rick.” Clara furrowed her delicate eyebrows disapprovingly. “Swear jar.”

  “Clara says it’s time for a swear jar,” I relayed.

  “Oops, my bad.” He glanced at Sophie. “Hopefully she didn’t catch that. Okay, let me make a call.”

  “You don’t understand, Rick.” Jackie shook her head. “Kids are listening to you very carefully when you utter the least appropriate words and phrases.”

  She had a good point.

  When the call ended, Rick snapped his fingers. “All
right then. Detective Rochester just sent people to look inside the trash can. Let’s cross our fingers that the trash hasn’t been taken out already.”

  “Wow!” Nana’s eyes widened. “Jackie, Clara, the two of you are so awesome! I’m sure you guys make a fabulous detective duo.”

  “Thank you, Leonora!” Jackie blew a kiss at her. “The only problem is Clara will be going back to her side of the world soon.”

  “Oh yes. What a shame.” Clara tilted her head thoughtfully. “Then again, visiting this side of the world periodically makes it even more exciting.”

  Twenty minutes later, Rick’s phone beeped. It was Detective Rochester, informing us that the police had found the key from the trash and it was indeed a key to the Hepburns’ apartment.

  CHAPTER 9

  The next day, Rick, Sophie, and I went to the NYPD precinct to see how things with the case of Christina’s death had turned out. At first, I wasn’t sure if it’d be appropriate to bring an eleven-month-old child with us, but Rick said, “She’ll most likely be working with FBI agents and the cops in the future, so why not let her become accustomed to some of them?”

  “Look at that, darling. That guy who looks like a homeless man is actually an undercover cop.” Clara was referring to a guy in a filthy getup gulping coffee, lecturing our little daughter who looked at the undercover cop with wide eyes.

  “Oh, look at you, Sophie!” Jackie cooed. “You look so comfortable at the precinct. No wonder your daddy and granddaddy are super eager to welcome you as the successor of USCAB. According to them, it’s customary for every Rowling to work with the FBI for a while before joining USCAB, and you already look like a seasoned detective.”

  While the ghosts entertained her, Rick and I were talking to Detective Rochester.

  “How did Matt Hepburn react when you delivered the news about the copied key to their condo?” Rick asked.

  “With the solid evidence, I confronted him to fess up for the murder and Ellis’s involvement in the plot, but noooo. The guy is so stubborn.” The detective shrugged. “He’s still saying Ellis had no involvement, going so far as to insist that his mistress shouldn’t have had a copy of the key to their residence. Can you believe that? Anyway, I’ll go back to the interrogation. You guys can observe from the adjacent room.”