Haunted Homicide

by Constance Barker

  “Where to go from here?” He asked Abel.

  “Well, it’s got to be one of the Paranormalists,” Abel responded. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.” It was late and only a few people were left in the station. They weren’t even close to being ready to go home for the night.

  “There’s no physical evidence at all,” Gideon sighed. “No DNA, no fingerprints, it’s as if a ghost really did kill the poor fellow.”

  “With what Cici told us, I think we should look into Cody as our primary suspect. Besides, I don’t think that one of the two women could have thrown Simon over the railing like that. If anything they’re both too petite to have been able to do it,” Abel said.

  Technically, he was studying under Gideon, but he had more experience in some ways. He was meant to replace him one day when Gideon retired, but that time didn’t seem like it was ever going to come. Gideon had spent his entire life as a detective in a small town. The most he took care of was drunkards, the occasional scandal and some rivalries gone too far. Abel worked in a city for some time as a cop and then a detective for a few years. No one really knew why he had transferred to such a sleepy town, but he definitely had more experience in homicide than Gideon did.

  “I agree,” Gideon said. “I think we ought to get some of our people looking into their blog, maybe they’ll find something that Cici and her boyfriend weren’t able to.”

  “Maybe someone can look into any financial motives, maybe since Simon started the blog, he took a bigger cut and one of them decided it was time to even the score,” Abel suggested. “I’d buy finances over love any day for a murder.”

  “Can’t disagree with you there,” Gideon said. “I still want to look into the others who were on the tour with them. I don’t want us to get stuck on one theory.”

  “Aside from the people we know, the only people were the high school students, the family and the Paranormalists,” Abel said. “You think someone outside of the Paranormalists could be responsible?”

  “Not really,” Gideon admitted. “It doesn’t seem likely that a high school kid would be responsible, unless they were some crazed fan or kids fooling around and things got out of hand. The family I don’t think I’d even consider. They were just tourists here for the tour.”

  “They were with their son the whole evening too,” Abel agreed. “No one saw anything then?” He asked looking at a few of the statements made by witnesses.

  “No, it seems like there was arguing and then a thud and he was dead. Lightning says he heard the argument clearly – but he only heard Simon, not whoever he was having an argument with. He didn’t want to get in the middle of a simple argument, which is what he thought it was, and only realized that he was wrong when it was too late.

  “Cici, Verny and Cookie woke up after Simon had died, when Avery began screaming after finding the body. Josie couldn’t sleep at all though, she was too frightened of being in the haunted house. She didn’t hear the argument until it got very loud though because she put on headphones to listen to music. She assumed, like Lightning that it was just an argument and by the time she could hear it, it was too late. Simon was seconds away from being killed,” Gideon went over the statements they had. The others had all slept through it the same as Cici, Verny and Cookie. The family had been awake but dealing with their son who had gotten sick and was crying because of it. I doubt they even noticed what was going on with a sick kid to take care of,” Gideon sighed. There was something they were missing, but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was.

  “I’d have bet my hat that the caretaker did it,” Abel said, echoing Gideon’s thoughts from earlier. “Everyone said that he made them feel uncomfortable. Hell, even bringing him in for questioning he made me uncomfortable.”

  “Gave me the heebie-jeebies too,” Gideon agreed. “His alibi is his wife, who’s to say she’s not covering for him?” He suggested.

  “What was it he said?” Abel asked. “Didn’t much like visitors...that he hated what’s become of the Charleston House.”

  “Yeah, something to that extent. He gave his alibi but was definitely not too broken up about Simon’s death. He worked there his whole life, his family worked there before him and he hated that the house had become a tourist attraction. He felt like it was dishonoring the Charleston name or something to that effect. Definitely hated the paranormal investigators even more than the normal tourists,” Gideon said reading over Nigel’s file.

  “Is that enough to want to kill someone, though?” Abel poured another cup of stale coffee, knowing they would probably be there for another few hours. He wished he could go home and get some rest, but Gideon didn’t seem to be too familiar with the concept.

  “It could be,” Gideon replied. He took the mug from Abel’s hand before Abel had the chance to take a sip. Abel rolled his eyes and got himself another mug. “People have killed for a lot less.”

  “I guess that’s true,” Abel agreed. “We’ll bring him in again, see if his story stays the same. I still think we ought to be looking at Cody.”

  “We will,” Gideon assured him.

  NIGEL SAT WITH HIS arms crossed in the interrogation room. His sunken eyes were only more pronounced by the harsh lighting. You could have dug up a corpse and put it in the chair and not have noticed a difference.

  “Why am I back here?” He asked with some annoyance. Not only was he difficult to look at, he was a very ornery man. It seemed the only thing he cared about was the house he was charged with and possibly his wife.

  “We just have a few more questions is all,” Gideon explained calmly.

  “I’ve already answered all of your questions and I couldn’t possibly know anything else,” Nigel replied. “I was asleep through the whole thing.”

  “We just want to make sure that there’s nothing we missed,” Abel said sitting across from the man. Gideon sat down next to him, his chair scraped loudly against the floor as he pulled it out. “Or that nothing has been left out.”

  “I haven’t left anything out,” Nigel insisted.

  “You were in your apartment on the grounds of the Charleston House, not too far from the garage or the side exit,” Gideon started.

  “And because of your sleep apnea machine you neglected to hear a murder taking place a few yards away,” Abel finished.

  “It’s a very loud machine,” Nigel said.

  “Aren’t you meant to be on call, just in case something happens at the house?” Abel asked him, falling once again into their good cop versus bad cop routine.

  “Receiving a phone call within the confines of my apartment and hearing something going on inside of the main house are very different things,” Nigel explained as though he were talking to a fool. “Maybe if they had called, I would have known what was going on.”

  “What about when all the screaming started, what about the sirens?” Abel pressed. “You didn’t hear any of that?”

  “I heard the sirens, but I never thought they were at the main house. I assumed they were at the house next door or across the street. They seem to call the police often.” Nigel leaned back in his chair, frustrated that he was there in the first place. Gideon gave Abel a look, and Abel nodded understanding. He left the room to check and see if what Nigel said was accurate.

  “So you heard the sirens but didn’t respond to them?” Gideon asked.

  “I didn’t think they were at the main house,” Nigel said with a shrug. “I don’t know what you expect to hear that’s any different than what I said before.”

  “I know this feels like a waste of time, but it could be really helpful.”

  “You mean you think that I did it.”

  “We’re exploring all the possibilities,” Gideon said.

  “I have an alibi,” Nigel said. “Should I have a lawyer too?”

  “You have the right to one if you want,” Gideon said as Abel opened the door and came back inside the interrogation room. “If you have nothing to hide, I don’t see why you
would though.” Abel gave Gideon a small nod, indicating that Nigel’s claim that the neighbors call the police often was true.

  “It feels like you want me to be guilty whether I have something to hide or not,” Nigel said. “I can have my wife bring the sleep apnea machine if you don’t believe how loud it is.”

  “Okay,” Gideon said. “Let’s do that then.” Abel gave him a look, not understanding why he wanted to do that. The man’s story was as air tight as could be, even if he looked like he might be good for the murder, at this point it was likely that he wasn’t. It took Nigel’s wife, Maria about a half an hour to get the machine and bring it to the station.

  “I just want to make sure his story is as air tight as it seems,” Gideon explained to Abel outside the interrogation room.

  “Checking all of our bases, then?”

  “At least trying too,” Gideon nodded. “I’m not sure that a machine could have been loud enough to drown out all the commotion. If it isn’t then we need to look into him more. I know that his wife said he was asleep the whole night, but spouses lie for each other.”

  “Where should I put this?” Maria asked. She was carrying a large, awkward and clearly heavy piece of machinery. She grunted with the effort of lifting it up.

  “Let me take that for you,” Abel said, walking quickly towards her. He took the machine and nearly dropped it not realizing how heavy the contraption really was. “Oh, wow,” he muttered under his breath.

  “We’ll take it into the interrogation room,” Gideon said. “If you can just wait here for a few moments, ma’am?” He asked Maria as though she had a choice in the matter. She nodded pleasantly. She starkly contrasted with her husband. For one she was beautiful and for another she was incredibly kind and friendly.

  “I see Maria brought my machine for you,” Nigel said. “I hope that this will be enough proof for you both. If it’s not, call my lawyer next time you want to talk to me.”

  “Hopefully, we won’t need to,” Abel said.

  “How does this work?” Gideon asked looking at the heavy machine Abel had lifted with a grunt onto the metal table.

  “Just plug it in and flip the switch,” Nigel said. Abel pulled the cord as far as he could, but it wasn’t quite long enough to reach. With a sigh and a glare at the machine he picked it up once more and brought it closer to the plug, leaving it on the floor this time. He looked up at Gideon and Nigel before plugging it in.

  “Just flip the switch?” He asked pointing to the large power button.

  “That should do it.” The three of them waited in anticipation as Abel moved to flip the switch. As soon as he did, Gideon and Abel lifted their hands to cover their ears. Nigel looked at them smugly. It wasn’t as loud as they had expected but it made an awful sucking, gurgling and whistling noises that were unpleasant enough. Abel switched it off as quickly as he could.

  “I guess I can see how if this is on your face next to you as you sleep you might miss out on some noises in the guest house,” Abel conceded.

  “You’re free to go,” Gideon said agreeing.

  “Thanks,” Nigel said. “I’ll be needing that.” He picked up the machine with ease and left without another word. Abel and Gideon stared at each other for a moment before busting out into laughter.

  “I don’t know how he got himself a wife like that in the first place, let alone with that kind of noise on every night,” Gideon said with a smile.

  “I can’t imagine having to sleep with that every night,” Abel laughed.

  “I guess that means we need to focus on Cody,” Gideon said with a sigh, the laughter dying out. “Let’s see if we can find anything out as far as the financial angle goes. Maybe they had some kind of offer to go full-time or get bigger and Simon wasn’t interested so Cody wanted to get him out of the way.”

  “I’ll make sure to get someone tech savvy to look into it. I think we’ll need someone a little more sophisticated to find anything as it might be hidden,” Abel said, thinking it over. They did have someone in tech who might be able to dig something up. He was almost certain that Cici would find something better and faster than anyone in their department. From what he’d heard about her boyfriend, he might be just as good.

  Chapter Ten

  Josie was worried about the lack of business The Lucky Dill had in the last few days. There were ups and downs with every business, but Josie could count the number of customers they had on two hands. They weren’t struggling with how busy they had been in the last couple months, but she hoped that it wasn’t a new trend.

  “Think anyone will come in today?” Cookie asked staring at the door. They’d been open for a few hours and they’d only had one person wanting coffee.

  “I hope so,” Josie said with a groan. Buttercup nudged her leg as though she was trying to comfort her. They’d left the dog out of the backroom because of the lack of traffic. It wasn’t worth keeping her locked up all day. Josie smiled as she pet the dog who wagged her tail happily in response.

  “As long as the Paranormalists aren’t the ones who do, I’m happy,” Verny complained. They had been in multiple times the last day and were probably going to be their main customers for today. It was hard having them around, no one quite knew what to say. There were more than a few awkward moments when Verny asked again about what they thought happened, and another when Josie accidentally implied Cody’s guilt.

  “They are perfectly nice,” Cookie reprimanded Verny. “They’ve gone through a lot of trauma and feel comfortable here, we should take it as a compliment.”

  “I’d rather not,” Verny said.

  “It’s not fair to judge them, innocent until proven guilty,” Cookie reminded her.

  “Even if I didn’t think that Cody was the killer, I still don’t want them around,” Verny retorted. Buttercup whined at the two women and their argument. She didn’t like it when they raised their voices and that happened often enough that it had become a pattern. They would start to bicker, and Buttercup would inevitably begin to whine.

  “You’re bothering the dog,” Josie said. She appreciated Buttercups sentiments and wished she could whine every time Cookie and Verny fought as well. “They do seem very nice, but I find it draining when they're here,” Josie admitted. It was difficult, and she felt like she was walking on egg shells around them. You could say the wrong thing and poor Avery would burst into tears or get very angry.

  “Thank you!” Verny exclaimed.

  “I don’t agree with you completely,” Josie responded quickly. “I just think you’re too quick to judge them.”

  “I’m not the only one,” Verny replied. “Gideon and Abel think he’s guilty too. We all do, I’m just the only one actually saying it.” What she said was true. Everyone was certain that it was Cody, whether he was guilty or not.

  “I guess we'll just have to wait until actual proof shows up,” Josie said. She kept on prepping ingredients, though there wasn’t any reason to prep much, with the way business was going. She’d already done too much for the number of customers they had. Their conversation came to a close at the right moment, because the door chimed and the remaining Paranormalists walked in.

  “Welcome back,” Josie said, putting on a bright smile, but trying to make sure it wasn’t too bright considering the tragedy they were all dealing with. Attempting to get yourself in the right mood was exhausting.

  “Thank you,” Cody said with a small smile.

  “Sorry to keep bothering you all, but we feel trapped in the inn and don’t know where else to go,” Sam said making them wonder if they heard their previous conversation.

  “It’s totally fine,” Cookie answered, actually meaning it. “Make yourselves at home.”

  “Can we get some coffee and maybe a sandwich?” Cody asked. Avery did very little talking unless it had to do with the ghost in the Charleston House and Simon’s death.

  “What sandwich can I make you?” Josie asked. Verny started a new pot of coffee for their visitors.

&n
bsp; “Surprise us,” Sam said sounding tired. None of them were in the mood to make decisions. It hadn’t escaped them that they were the obvious suspects in their friend's death, which was almost as traumatic as the death itself. Josie decided to play it as safe as she could and went with her leveled up grilled cheese, the simplest sandwich on the menu. It was a grilled cheese, but elevated because she used homemade sourdough bread with a blend of pepper-jack and strong white cheddar cheeses.

  Avery sat staring at Cody the entire time they ate. They hardly spoke at all only opening their mouths to eat their sandwiches or drink coffee. Their presence was enough to fill the entire room with tension, but as Josie observed it was different than the day prior. The tension wasn’t between herself, Verny and Cookie and the Paranormalists, but within their own group. Cody was looking everywhere but at Avery, and Avery never took her eyes off him and Sam looked between the two of them nervously.

  “I don’t know if you heard, but Cody is a person of interest in Simon’s murder. The murder of my boyfriend, Sam’s best friend and his own business partner,” Avery said still glowering at Cody. Clearly, she was taking the accusation seriously.

  “And, I’m innocent,” Cody hissed at her. “I wouldn’t have hurt Simon.”

  “You didn’t even like him,” Avery hissed right back. Verny, Josie and Cookie exchanged glances. All of them felt awkward witnessing an argument like this, but none of them wanted to walk away either. Cookie even sidled over a little closer.

  “I liked him,” Cody disagreed weakly. “We never really got along, no, but I didn’t want him dead or anything like that! I don’t even know how you can think I did it.”

  “You were the one who talked me out of believing that it was Nathaniel Charleston.”

  “Why would I do that if I was guilty?” Cody practically growled. This was not the first time they had this conversation and no matter what Sam or Cody said, Avery now seemed convinced that Cody had killed Simon.