Wicked Haunts (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 12)

by Lily Harper Hart

  Even though he was worried about her, Jack felt the knot in his stomach relaxing. Ivy always turned dramatic when it came to talk of her abilities. She couldn’t seem to stop herself. He wasn’t nearly as worked up about the fact that her magic seemed to be evolving as she was. In fact, he was downright intrigued. “Tell me what happened.”

  “I saw a witch.”

  Jack pursed his lips. “Where?”

  “In the woods, by the shack.”

  “An actual witch or … .” He broke off, something occurring to him. “Did you see Phoebe?” He was excited by the prospect. “Was she out there?”

  “I don’t think it was Phoebe.”

  “You don’t think?”

  Ivy told him the story in halting tones, butterflies flapping through her stomach. When she was done, she expected him to melt down, toss her over his shoulder, and transport her to the nearest locked ward.

  Instead, he merely ran his hands up and down her arms as he considered the new development. “Did she look corporeal?”

  Ivy was taken aback by the question. “I don’t know. I … are you asking if I could see through her?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It all happened too fast.” The frustration she thought bottled and shelved bubbled up. “You know when you think you see something out of the corner of your eye and you assume it’s one thing and when you turn to actually look it’s another?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It was like that. I assumed I was going to see a tree. Instead, she was standing there and smiling at me. It was creepy. If she’d been wearing clown makeup, I would’ve turned on my heel and started screaming as I ran.”

  “I have to admire your clown dislike,” Jack teased. “It’s only one of the many things I love about you.”

  Ivy rolled her eyes. “Jack … .”

  “I’m not making fun of you,” he insisted. “I’m seriously trying to figure things out. You need to give me a second. I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before. I don’t want to say the wrong thing.”

  “I understand.” And, because she did, Ivy decided to let it go. “Can you think over dinner? I missed lunch and I’m officially starving. The diner is right there and I thought we could head over to the crafts fair for a quick look around when we were finished … I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

  “That’s perfectly fine with me. In fact, I think it will be good for both of us to have a little time together that doesn’t revolve around a police investigation.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  THEY HAD VEGETARIAN pasta salad on the menu, which Ivy paired with a pita pocket. She was happy to focus on food while Jack munched on his burger and fries. He was thoughtful, and he wanted to react in the way she obviously needed, but he was having a hard time seeing it as the bugaboo Ivy held it out to be.

  “Well, I’ve given it some thought,” he said as he wiped his hands on a napkin. “I think you’re even more amazing than I ever realized. I don’t know how it’s possible, but you’re like the most awesome woman in the world.”

  Ivy’s smile was saccharine. “Jack, you know I love you, right?” She didn’t wait for his answer before barreling forward. “You need to stop saying stuff like that, though. I mean … don’t totally stop. I like hearing how I’m the be all and end all of your universe, but it doesn’t help when things like what happened today pop up.”

  “Fair enough. What do you think happened today?”

  “Aunt Felicity thinks I saw the ghost of Susan Bishop.”

  “And who is Susan Bishop?”

  “The woman who lived in the shack until the 1940s, then she disappeared in the middle of the night and no one knows what happened to her.”

  Jack cocked an eyebrow. “It seems you’ve figured out more than you let on earlier. I thought you didn’t know anything about the woman who supposedly lived in that house other than what Max told you when you were a kid, stories that were designed to scare you.”

  “Well, it turns out some of his stories were true and some weren’t,” Ivy explained. “He actually went to the library and looked up the history of the house. He couldn’t find a lot, but Aunt Felicity had more.”

  “What did she tell you?”

  “After calling me a touch knell, um, she said that Susan Bishop was an independent woman and all the men in the area were afraid of her because she wasn’t meek and mild. She didn’t need their help, and they thought that sent a bad message.”

  “I see that got your feminist ire up.” Jack’s smile was mischievous. “We’re going to come back to the touch knell thing in a second. You mentioned earlier that this woman disappeared in the middle of the night. If she lived alone, how did people find out?”

  “Some writer interviewed her. He wrote a journal. Aunt Felicity gave it to me so I can go through it. It seems like a waste of time to me, though, because we’re supposed to be looking for Phoebe, not a woman who died years ago under suspicious circumstances.”

  Jack was officially intrigued. “Why do you think the circumstances were suspicious?”

  “Because she lived by herself and the men in the area were frightened of her. They probably killed her because they didn’t want any of their women getting ideas. That’s why her body was never discovered.”

  “Or she went for a walk in the woods, had a heart attack, and she happened to be in a place no one ever looked,” he suggested. “We don’t know that something nefarious happened.”

  Ivy thought back to the smiling woman she saw in the woods. “I guess not. The thing is, if the person I saw today was Susan, she was a lot younger than she would’ve been when she died. According to the journal, she was still getting around on her own until she hit eighty. Why would I see a younger woman if it was her?”

  “Maybe she prefers being hot. I know I would go that route if I had the power to control how my ghost looked.”

  Ivy furrowed her brow and glanced around, lowering her voice as she fixed Jack with a pointed glare. “Don’t say the G-word so loud. People will think I’m crazy. I don’t want to be crazy.”

  “Honey, people already know you’re different. I don’t see why this is such a big deal. I’m proud of you, and what you can do. I love you no matter what. You usually don’t care what people say about you behind your back. Why is this different?”

  “Because … .” Ivy didn’t have an answer, and that bothered her more than she wanted to admit. “Because it does. I don’t know why. I need to think about it.”

  Jack’s lips twitched because she repeated his words back to him. “Okay. I think that’s fair. We’ll go to the crafts fair and you can think about it there.”

  “Great.”

  “I thought you would like that.”

  JACK DIDN’T THINK HE’D ever been to a crafts festival before. Maybe when he was back in the city, although Shadow Lake’s version of the beloved event was much smaller than anything he’d ever seen. He found the entire thing quaint and was beyond amused as they moved from booth to booth.

  “So … why would someone take old wine bottles and paint them like this?” He held up a bottle with the image of a castle on it. “I don’t get it.”

  Ivy smiled as she watched him marvel at the small-town kitsch. “I believe those are for garden walls.”

  “Wine bottles as garden walls? I definitely don’t get that.”

  Ivy took the bottle from him and flipped it over so Jack could get a clear view of what she was talking about. “You plant them in the ground like this. You get a bunch of them, line them one right next to the other, and when you’re done it’s a colorful ridge that separates flowers from the rest of the yard.”

  Jack snorted. “You’re messing with me.”

  “I’m not.”

  “If I saw a line of wine bottles like that I would assume the homeowner had a drinking problem and should be watched.”

  “That’s because you’re a cynical man.” She returned the bottle to the display and moved to the next table down
the line. It featured numerous ceramic offerings, and one bowl in particular caught her attention. “This is nice.”

  Jack leaned over her shoulder and stared at the bowl. “We have bowls.”

  “Yes, but this is a decorative bowl.”

  “Where would you put it?”

  “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Maybe by the front door. We could put our keys in it.”

  “You mean instead of just throwing our keys on top of that console table? That would be much more convenient.”

  Ivy rolled her eyes and returned the bowl to its spot. “Never mind.”

  Sensing he’d annoyed her, Jack quickly worked to fix the potential rift. “I was kidding. I think the bowl is a great idea.” He retrieved it and handed it to the woman behind the table. “Can you wrap this up for us? It’s lovely work.”

  The blonde boasted a flirty smile as she winked at Jack. “Absolutely, Detective Harker.”

  “Oh, geez,” Ivy muttered under her breath. “You know he’s with me, don’t you, Maxie?”

  The woman graced Ivy with a different sort of smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m merely wrapping up the bowl I made for your friend.”

  Ivy, who thought she was used to women hitting on Jack, was in no mood to play games. “Oh, please. We both know your mother made that bowl. You probably made the matching ashtray.” She gestured toward the misshapen smaller bowl in the same colors. “Thankfully we don’t smoke.”

  “Except you’re smoking hot,” Jack offered, grinning when Ivy shot him a look. “Oh, honey, you need to perk up. I don’t like this mood.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a twirl. “Come on. We’re at a crafts festival. This is a first for me. I want to enjoy it.”

  “If you want to enjoy something, you should drop her,” Maxie suggested, handing Jack the wrapped bowl and accepting the money he slid in her direction. “She’s always been unpleasant.”

  “I happen to love her dearly.” Jack wrapped an arm around Ivy’s waist and directed her away from the tables and toward a bench on the opposite side of the town square. “Thank your mother for the bowl. Our keys are going to love it.”

  He kept Ivy pinned to his side until they reached the bench, fighting a smile as she let loose an exasperated sigh and flopped into a sitting position with enough attitude that Jack wanted to kiss her senseless.

  “I think you’re ready to talk about what’s bothering you,” he noted as he got comfortable next to her, making sure to keep the bowl out of her reach in case she decided she needed to throw something.

  Ivy balked. “I didn’t say I was ready.”

  “No, but you’re acting out and that’s a sure sign you’re ready.”

  Ivy muttered something under her breath that Jack couldn’t make out, but it sounded a lot like “know-it-all.”

  “Tell me,” he prodded. “I can take anything you dish out.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Ivy wasn’t certain that was true. “Okay, here it is … I’m afraid that either I’m going to get so weird you want to run away or so out of control I want to run away. I’m afraid that this is going to change things for both of us and it’s paralyzing me. Also, it could be making me a little cranky. I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

  Jack’s heart pinched at her earnest expression. “Oh, honey, that’s never going to happen. You’re it for me. That’s not going to change. I can promise you that.”

  He said the right words, but Ivy wasn’t certain they were the truth instead of a reflex. “What if it becomes too much? What if I suddenly start spurting fire out of my eyes and little sparks of magic come out of the tips of my fingers? That’s a thing. There are books all over the place showing stuff like that.”

  Jack pressed his lips together, giving himself a moment to rein in the laughter that threatened to bubble up. When he finally spoke, it was from the heart. “If you start setting fires with your eyes, that’s going to be convenient during bonfire season. If you spurt magic out of your fingertips, I’m going to insist you give me a massage because that sounds nifty.

  “As for the rest, nothing will ever change how I feel about you,” he continued. “I didn’t know it was possible to love someone as much as I love you. I promise it’s going to be okay. Please don’t make yourself crazy about this. Please. I can’t take it.”

  Ivy’s eyes glazed as she moved closer to him, pressing her face into the hollow between his neck and chest. “I’m sorry I’m so nutty. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “You’re afraid.” He stroked her hair, smoothing it. “I don’t want you afraid. Not ever. I swear this is going to be okay. You need to take a step back, calm yourself, and lean on me. That’s why I’m here.”

  “And you have such big shoulders so it makes it easy.” Ivy’s smile was back when she leaned back and met his gaze. “Thank you for not shaking me to stop the nonsense.”

  “I only shake you when you put yourself in danger. I don’t foresee that changing.”

  “I can live with that.”

  They lapsed into amiable silence, Jack rubbing her back as she forced dark thoughts to the back of her brain. When she was finally ready to return to shopping, she felt a bit idiotic about her meltdown.

  “Let’s pick out something for you as a reward for being the best fiancé ever,” she suggested.

  “Another bowl?”

  “I was thinking a pretty necklace with a bottle cap on it.”

  “Sold.” Jack pulled her to a standing position, grinning at her sheepish expression as he handed her the bowl he purchased. After a minute, he realized her attention had drifted to a point over his left shoulder. When he followed her gaze, he found Brad and Nikki standing at one of the booths. Given the over-the-top gesturing, they looked to be arguing.

  “What do you think that’s about?” Jack asked after a beat.

  “I don’t know.” Ivy frowned when Brad lifted a menacing hand, as if he was going to backhand his wife. “He’s not going to hit her, is he?”

  “He’d better not.” Jack was ready for action as he watched the scene. He wasn’t sure if he should intervene, but if it became necessary, he could spring to action without wasting a moment.

  “Just knock it off!” Brad exploded, drawing multiple sets of eyes to where he stood with a tearful Nikki. “Why do you always have to make things worse? Why can’t you just let it go? I mean … shut up!”

  Jack took a step toward them, the movement purposeful enough to draw Brad’s attention. The instant the man saw the police officer, he lowered his hands and wiped the angry expression off his face. He didn’t speak, instead licking his lips as he glanced between Nikki and Jack. Finally, he shook his head and stalked in the direction of the parking lot, leaving Nikki behind to fend off the embarrassment herself.

  “Are you okay?” Ivy asked. She didn’t like the woman, but whatever was happening with Brad looked terrifying. She wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

  Instead of thanking Ivy for her concern, Nikki glared. “Is it any of your business? Either of you? Stop bothering us. Geez.” When she left, she walked in a different direction. She didn’t look back.

  Ivy waited until she was certain that Nikki was out of earshot. “That was weird, right?”

  “Definitely. It’s too bad you didn’t have those fire eyes you mentioned. You could’ve set Brad’s pants on fire.”

  “Next time.”

  “I’m looking forward to that.”

  Nine

  Ivy and Jack spent more time at the crafts fair than they initially envisioned. While Ivy shopped – and found numerous things she wanted for the newly-updated basement – Jack had his eyes peeled for glimpses of Brad and Nikki. He came up empty for both.

  Finally, when dusk started to descend, they walked back to the police station so they could reclaim their vehicles.

  “Why don’t you just leave your car here and ride back with me?” Jack suggested.

  “Why would I do that? Then I’ll have to find a way t
o get here tomorrow to pick up my car.”

  “You can ride with me.”

  “Or I can just take my car home now. What’s the big deal?”

  “Maybe I simply want to spend time with my favorite girl in the world. Have you ever considered that?”

  Ivy recognized the game he was playing. “Jack, I’m not going to fall apart again. It takes three minutes to get home. I’m taking my car.”

  “I wasn’t suggesting you were going to fall apart.”

  “Then what were you suggesting?”

  Jack opened his mouth to answer and thought better of it. In truth, he simply wanted her close because he loved her. He was also vaguely worried about Brad loitering around town, perhaps hiding in a bush and going after the woman he loved because he was losing his grip on reality. Still, Ivy was an adult. She wouldn’t be open to his overprotective nature if she thought it might cramp her style. In fact, it could very well cause a huge fight. That was the last thing he wanted.

  “I’m suggesting that you drive your own car,” he said after a beat. “In fact, I will even leave you to pack all your treasures since my truck is behind the station. Maybe we can race home. The first one back gets the massage tonight.”

  “Oh, I’m getting a massage. I’ve had a rough day.”

  “Fair enough.” Jack gave her a soft kiss. “I’ll see you at home. Don’t dawdle.”

  “I have no intention of dawdling. The quicker I get home, the longer you can massage me.”

  “Good thinking.”

  Ivy waved until he was out of sight and then turned her attention to the treasures she purchased. Some of them were breakable and she wanted to be careful about loading them. She spent a few minutes divvying up the bags and had finished with the breakable stuff when she caught a hint of movement through the window on the passenger side of the car and raised her head, certain Jack was back so he could follow her home. He was often overbearing and that sounded exactly like something he would do.

  Instead, she saw the same woman she briefly caught sight of at the shack earlier in the day and her mouth dropped open as they snagged gazes. “What the … ?”