The Ghost Detective Books 1-3 Special Boxed Edition: Three Fun Cozy Mysteries With Bonus Holiday Story (The Ghost Detective Collection)

by Jane Hinchey

  “Oh.” That was puzzling. Because the piece I’d brought home for Thor had. Well, at least Thor thought so. Maybe his taste buds were defective.

  “Except for the one found in her hand.” He added. I jerked my head up.

  “Really?”

  He laughed. “You’re not meant to sound happy about it.”

  I punched him in the arm. “You know what I mean. This was intentional. Someone spiked a noodle cup, knowing she was allergic! I’m right, aren’t I?” I didn’t tell him I was already up and running with that theory.

  He squeezed me tight. “It’s looking like that, Sherlock.” Releasing me, he turned to the coffee machine. “Better tell me what you got up to today, Fitz.” His back was to me while he prepped the machine, so he missed the sight of my jaw dropping open.

  “What do you mean?” I knew what he meant, but I was buying time.

  He snorted. “Don’t tell me you weren’t investigating Anita’s death. I’m not that naïve.”

  I sucked my lips in, releasing them with a popping noise. “Okay, then.”

  He threw me a look over his shoulder, his eyes twinkling with laughter. “Come on. Spill. Who knows, you may save me some time with my investigation.”

  “What are you suggesting, Detective?” I cocked my head. “That we pool resources?”

  “Not the worst idea.”

  I studied his broad shoulders, then his tight butt encased in denim, my mind wandering until he swiveled at the waist and snapped his fingers under my nose. “Eyes up here, Fitz,” he teased, then dropped a kiss on my cheek. “But seriously. Your exam is Monday. That gives us oh, about thirty-six hours to solve this case, so you’re not distracted. Plus, we have to carve out some time for your family dinner.”

  My eyes narrowed. Family dinner?

  “Did I forget to mention your mom called me today?” he said, feigning innocence. “Inviting me to family dinner. Tomorrow night.”

  I gasped, hand to my chest. “She didn’t!”

  His smile was full-blown. “She did.”

  “The rat,” I grumbled. I still wasn’t sure I was ready to subject Galloway to my family. I’m not sure what worried me most, that they’d scare him off with all the horrendous stories they’d saved up for such an occasion, or they’d go overboard in their approval of him and have us married off and picking out china patterns before the meal was over. Neither option was appealing.

  “Why are you so bothered over this?” Wrapping a hand around my nape, he massaged my neck, the long soothing strokes of his fingers working magic on my tense muscles.

  “I’m not.” I lied.

  “I can cancel if you don’t want them to meet me.”

  “My mom would never let you cancel. And it’s not that I don’t want them to meet you. It’s more… I’m not sure I’m ready to subject you to them. They can be a bit full-on.”

  He snorted. “I can handle full-on. But if you really don’t want me to come…”

  Now I felt like a heel. “It’s fine. Please come. I suppose I have to get it over with, eventually.”

  He barked out a laugh. “Like ripping off a band-aid?”

  “A lot like that.” I conceded. He turned his attention back to the coffee machine. “Tell me what you got up to this afternoon after you left the Kelsh farm.”

  I filled him in on my trip to the Finley house, how Keagan, Lacey, and Noreen were already there, and my theory on Lacey.

  “And Ben and Anita are there now?” Galloway handed me my coffee, then waited for me to precede him to the sofa.

  “Yeah. When I was leaving, I caught Lacey eavesdropping on the upstairs landing. At least I assume that’s what she was doing. When the others left, rather than leaving, she said she was going upstairs to say goodbye to Tyler. Then he came downstairs without her. I didn’t really give her a moment’s thought, to be honest, but then I looked up as I was heading out, and she was there.”

  “So you’ve pegged Lacey as a suspect?” Galloway took a sip of his coffee and watched me over the brim.

  “She’s on my list. Anita told me it was Lacey who kept saying she thought Logan was having an affair. Anita didn’t think he was, but she knew something was bothering him. But I can’t help but wonder, after I saw how affectionate and comfortable Lacey was with Logan, touching his arm, going upstairs to say goodbye to Tyler, how close she was with the family, that maybe it was Lacey Logan was having an affair with. If he is even having an affair.”

  “You’ve jumped back and forth on that. What does your gut tell you?”

  “That he was a man devastated at the loss of his wife. He was a bit shell shocked. And he didn’t pay Lacey any attention. Despite her touching his arm and being domestic, for want of a better word, it all went over his head. What if Lacey had feelings for Logan, but they weren’t reciprocated? So Lacey hatched a plan to get rid of what she saw as her competition? Get rid of the wife, insinuate herself into Logan’s life, eventually win him over.”

  Galloway nodded, face grim. “Plausible. What does Ben think?”

  “He says nine times out of ten, it’s the husband or wife who murdered their spouse.”

  “Yeah, but that’s just statistics. Does he have anything to back that up? A suspicion? Did he see something? Hear something? Find something?”

  I sighed. “We have nothing other than speculation. But—” I held up a finger, “I think I caught Keagan out in a lie.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I dropped by the museum slash historical society to look for Anita this morning, and he said he hadn’t seen her. Only she’d called in on the way out to the Kelsh estate. But,” I gnawed on my lower lip, “she did admit they may not have seen her, that she didn’t stick her head in and say hello.”

  “Why did she call in there?”

  I looked at him with wide eyes. “To pick up the noodle cups.”

  He leaned forward, eyes intent. “Lemme get this straight. Anita and Lacey were last to leave last night. And they stored the noodle cups in the fridge, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “And this morning, Keagan was at the museum, cleaning up, I assume?”

  “Yes. Him and Noreen. Lacey was meant to be there too, but apparently, she didn’t turn up.”

  Drumming his fingers against his lips, Galloway mulled over everything I’d told him. “Okay, so motive aside, let’s look at opportunity. The noodle cups must have been tampered with either last night or this morning. Lacey didn’t turn up this morning, which means, if it was her, she’d have had to do so last night.”

  “But Anita was with her the whole time.” I pointed out.

  “The whole time? You’d only need a minute or two to sprinkle oyster sauce onto a noodle cup. Could she have distracted Anita long enough to do that?”

  I shot a look at Thor, who was curled up asleep in an armchair. Seems his taste buds had been spot on after all. Then I remembered what Anita had told me.

  “They didn’t leave together!” I leaned forward and slammed my cup down on the coffee table so hard the liquid sloshed over the rim. “Anita said they exited the building, locked up, but Lacey stopped to answer her phone. She was still in the parking lot when Anita drove away. She could have ducked back inside and administered the oyster sauce.”

  Galloway nodded. “So Lacey had the opportunity, but at this stage, no motive that we know about. What’s also a little murky here is if Lacey is the guilty party, why spike her own noodle cups? She’s pointing the finger at herself! She’d have been better off spiking something else. Okay, let’s move on. Who was there this morning?”

  “Keagan Dunn and Noreen Bellamy. And either one of them could have ducked next door and tampered with the noodle cups.”

  “So we have three suspects all with opportunity. What about Logan?”

  “Opportunity? Well, I guess he could have ducked out in the middle of the night, taken Anita’s keys, let himself into the historical society, spiked the noodle cups, then returned home, Anita none-the-wiser.”r />
  “Four suspects then. All with opportunity.” Galloway paused.

  “Right, so I guess we need to look at motive. And alibis. Narrow down our suspect pool.”

  “How do you suggest we go about that?” I knew he was testing me. Ordinarily, Galloway would guide me, but I have my private investigator exam coming up, and what better way to swat for it than to investigate a real murder?

  “A couple of things kept coming up. One is that Logan is keeping a secret. Anita is absolutely convinced something was up with him, so we need to get to the bottom of that.”

  Galloway frowned. “You’re saying you think the affair angle could be true?”

  I shook my head. “No. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lacey had a crush on him, but no, I’m trusting Anita’s instincts on the affair front. What are the two things couples fight over?”

  “You tell me.”

  I ticked them off on my fingers. “Money and sex. And if I temporarily shelve the sex angle, that leaves money. Tyler said his hours from the family business had been cut. Logan said business was slow. What if Logan was having money issues? Issues that he didn’t want to worry his wife with. What if his business was in trouble?”

  Galloway was nodding and pulling out his phone. “Good call. I’m going to get a warrant to go over his accounts and phone records.” When he finished typing, he looked up at me. “You said two things?”

  “Oh, yes. The other was the painting that Anita found at the Kelsh farm. Keagan, Logan, and Tyler all said the same thing—that it was amateur and worthless.”

  “You think differently?”

  “It couldn’t hurt to take a look for ourselves, right? Anita had been really excited about that find. What if the painting was actually worth something? Or, what if there was another treasure out at the farm and someone wanted to stop her from finding it? Dudley Kelsh left the contents of his estate to the historical society for a reason. It doesn’t make sense that all he owns is worthless junk, there has to be something more to it.”

  Galloway slowly nodded, deep in thought. “Valid.” Then he tossed his phone on the table. “We’ll visit Dunn tomorrow and get a look at that painting for ourselves. And I’ve put in a subpoena for Logan’s business and personal accounts.”

  “I can help with that—you know I’m a whiz at spreadsheets.” I offered.

  “Sounds like a plan.” His lips curled in a wicked grin, and I knew his mind had gone from spreadsheets to bed sheets. Tugging me to my feet, he planted a hard kiss on my lips and growled, “about that body search?” I laughed and then squealed when he scooped me up in his arms and carried me upstairs.

  9

  Being woken up with a trail of soft kisses across your shoulder was something I could get used to. Stretching my arms over my head and arching my back off the mattress, I turned in Galloway’s arms.

  “Morning.” I garbled through clenched lips. Galloway pulled back and stared at my face, brows puckered in a frown.

  “What’s wrong? Why do you sound funny?”

  “Morning breath.” I pointed at my mouth. “Lemme just go brush my teeth.” He chuckled and nuzzled his face into my neck. “I don’t care about morning breath. I’ll just keep my face here… or lower.”

  I arched against him, my pulse picking up speed. “I like the sound of that.” I purred.

  “Are you two still in bed?” Ben asked from the foot of the bed. I squealed and jerked the covers to my chin. Galloway sat up, searching the room for intruders.

  “Ben!” I yelled. “Get out. The bedroom is off-limits.” I could feel the heat in my face as embarrassment washed over me. What if we’d been… you know? And Ben had just come wandering in? Good Lord, having a ghost was worse than having kids. At least with small humans, you’d hear their footsteps and would have some semblance of warning. As it was, I’d had to keep the bedroom door shut to keep Thor from joining us. A situation he protested loudly about.

  Galloway barked out a laugh and dropped back against the pillows. “Ben turned up, huh?”

  I glared at Ben. “He certainly did. And now he’s going to leave. Out!” I pointed to the door.

  “Okay, okay, don’t get your panties in a wad.” Ben headed toward the door. “Oh wait, you’re not wearing any!” He chortled at his own joke before disappearing.

  Galloway turned his head to look at me. “Mood ruined?” I could tell by the hopeful tone in his voice that while he knew what my answer would be, he was hoping otherwise. Lifting my hand to his face, I gently patted his cheek. “Mood totally ruined.”

  After a shower, alone, and getting dressed, also alone, I followed my nose to the coffee I knew would be waiting for me. Sure enough, sitting on the kitchen counter was not only my coffee but Ben. Galloway was on a bar stool, flicking through his phone. Padding up to him on bare feet, I dropped a kiss on his bristly cheek and picked up my coffee. “News?” I asked.

  “Warrant came through for Logan’s financials.”

  “Cool, I can start going through them.” I took a sip of coffee. There is nothing quite like that first kick of caffeine from your first coffee of the day. Well, nothing aside from morning sex, which Ben had put the dampeners on. I scowled at the ghost perched on the breakfast bar.

  “Hey!” He protested, catching my look. “Don’t get all mad at me, ‘cos I interrupted your nookie.”

  “Nookie?” I snorted. “What are you, twelve?”

  “I’m going to leave you to chat with Ben while I take a shower.” Galloway stood and swatted my butt as he walked past.

  “So?” I cocked my head, taking another sip of coffee. “Anything happen at the Finley’s?”

  Ben lifted one shoulder. “Nah. Other than the endless stream of neighbors dropping off food and condolences.”

  “Did Lacey leave?”

  “She did. Just after you actually. Said she had to get ready for the evening shift at the hotel.”

  “You and Anita stayed there all night?” I glanced around, searching for the other ghost currently haunting me. “Where is she, by the way?”

  “She’s with Logan. He’s pretty cut up.”

  “What do you think? Was he having an affair?”

  “Hard to say. He is genuinely heartbroken that his wife is dead. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t having an affair. Married men having affairs can still love their wives.” I narrowed my eyes. I wasn’t so sure about that. If you truly loved someone, you wouldn’t cheat. Not in my book. And not in the books of most women I know, either.

  “But Anita doesn’t think so.” I pointed out.

  He shook his head. “No, she doesn’t.”

  “What about Tyler? I caught him out in a lie yesterday. He said he slept till noon, but when I turned up at ten, he was up and dressed as if he were waiting for someone.” I recalled the eager anticipation on his face when he’d opened the door, and the crushing disappointment when he discovered it was me and not whoever he’d been waiting for.

  “He was on his phone most of the evening. Text messaging someone. I tried to get a look, but he was pretty secretive. He went out around midnight.”

  “Do you know where?”

  “Nope. To hang with his friends, I presume. Logan had gone to bed; Anita and I were looking for her necklace—more as something to do than expecting to actually find it.”

  I chewed my lip. “That necklace bugs me. She’s adamant she couldn’t have lost it because the last time she saw it was in its jewelry box. Both Logan and Tyler mentioned the broken clasp, but it couldn’t have fallen from her neck if she wasn’t wearing it.”

  “You think someone stole it?” Ben looked at me in surprise.

  “I’m saying I’m not ruling it out.”

  Ben jumped down from the counter and wandered to the back window, staring out at the garden and woods beyond. “Lawn needs mowing.” He said absently.

  “Yeah. I think I’ll hire someone.”

  He looked at me over my shoulder. “Really? Why not do it yourself?”

  “Ti
me, for one. And I don’t know how to use a mower.” I admitted. I’d never mown grass in my life. Growing up, that had been my brother’s or my dad’s job. Not to mention the thought of whirling blades scared me. What if I lopped off a toe?

  “Hire someone for what?” Galloway reappeared fresh from his shower, hair damp, smelling of my soap, and his own personal brand of sexiness.

  “Mow the lawn.”

  “I’ll do it.” He offered, picking up my coffee and stealing a sip.

  “Really?” I hadn’t expected that, and my face must have shown my surprise. He chuckled and playfully bopped my chin with his knuckle. “Sure. What else do big brawny males do but mow lawns?”

  I grinned. “Well, I could think of other things…”

  “Ewwwwww.” Ben screwed up his face. “You guys are the worst.”

  “Feel free to go and watch the shopping channel somewhere.” I offered.

  “That was a cheap shot, Fitz.” Ben pouted, then winked, making me laugh. “Ask Galloway what the plan is for today.”

  I obliged. “Ben wants to know what the plan is for today?”

  Galloway held up his hand and counted off on his fingers. “Visit Keagan Dunn’s art gallery and get a look at that painting. Take a look at Finley’s finances. Then dinner at the Fitzgerald’s.”

  “Dinner with your folks?” Ben hooted. “Priceless. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  “You’re not invited,” I grumbled.

  “Too bad. I’m coming anyway.”

  Ignoring him, I took my coffee back from Galloway and finished it. “Let’s go. I’m keen to see what all the fuss is about this painting.”

  The Artistic Affair Art Gallery was surprisingly busy for a Sunday. I hadn’t expected it to be open at all, but Abigail, the assistant manager, told us that weekends were their busiest time. Abigail was exactly what I expected an artsy person to be. Her hair was pitch black, piled on top of her head in a messy bun, her bangs cut so ultra-short that she reminded me of Suzi from the Tiger comic strip. She wore a tie-dye T-shirt knotted on one side, with striped cotton wide-legged pants and sequined ballet flats. Red glasses perched upon her nose, and her lips were painted a matching red. She looked fashionably on-trend, whereas I felt positively frumpy in comparison in my standard jeans and T-shirt.