“Oh, Aaron.” She frowned as she studied her reflection in the mirror. “Why did you leave this journal on my bed? Why do you want my help?”
Suddenly a light brightened one corner of the mirror. Slowly, Aaron’s face materialized. Her heart quickened as excitement filled her. Once his face was clear, he smiled. It was a good thing she was lying down because his smile had made her melt.
“Aaron,” she sighed with happiness.
“You summoned me?”
There was a hint of laughter in his voice and she grinned. It was good to see him, even if it was only his face, neck and tops of his shoulders.
“Yes, I did.” She lifted the journal. “Why did you leave this on my bed?”
“I wanted to give you some entertaining reading – something that might catch your interest.”
She laughed. “Well, I’m interested. What do you want me to do now?”
“Tomorrow morning, I want you to drive to my grandfather’s estate. He needs to see the journal.”
“But Thomas told me he hasn’t been accepting visitors lately. At least not without appointments. Thomas promised he would contact your grandfather for me, but he hasn’t yet.” She shrugged. “I’m afraid I’ll have to stay here until Thomas gets his act together or your grandfather comes to me, first.”
“No, that won’t work. Both Gramps and Thomas are busy men. They’ll keep you waiting for days – even weeks. Go first thing tomorrow morning, trust me.”
“What do you want me to tell him?”
“Tell him...” Aaron paused, his gaze lingering on her. “Tell him that you’ve talked to me.”
Gasping, she pushed up on her elbows. “Are you nuts? He’ll think I’ve lost my mind.”
Aaron shook his head. “No, he won’t. I’ve visited my grandfather a few times since my death, but I haven’t come right out and told him it’s me. He believes in ghosts. I promise he’ll understand.”
She sighed and relaxed back on the bed. “Fine, but if he thinks I’m crazy and takes me off this assignment, I have only you to blame.”
Aaron swiped his fingers through his hair and nodded. “Then pray that he believes you – that you can make him believe.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, that’s reassuring.”
He chuckled. “Also, there’s one last thing I need you to do for me.”
Cocking her head, she arched an eyebrow. “Catching your killer isn’t enough?”
“No.” His smile widened. “What I need for you to do is walk over to the balcony window, unlatch the door, and walk out. I want someone to share the beautiful sunset with me.”
Butterflies danced in her stomach as warmth filled her. “Are you going to join me?”
“You know I can’t.”
“So how am I supposed to watch it with you then?”
“I want you to watch the sunset and know that I’m watching it with you, even though you can’t see me. I want you to tell me about your hopes and dreams too.”
Was this man real? He couldn’t be. But it didn’t matter if she was dreaming all this, it was such a pleasurable dream.
“Okay, I will. But will you still be able to talk to me so that I can hear you?”
“No, that would take too much of my energy. Take your laptop instead. We’ll communicate the same way we did yesterday.”
“I can do that.” She shifted on the bed to climb off.
“Oh, Beth?”
Her heart tripped, hearing him call her that name. She’d have to tell him why she loved that name someday... She could still hear her father calling her that, even now. “What, Aaron?”
“Thank you for believing, and for trusting me.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “It seemed like the neighborly thing to do.”
His laughter rang through the room as his image in the mirror slowly faded away. She did as he’d asked her and took her laptop out on the balcony. Outside, the sun was a mere streak of orange in the cloudless purple sky.
She quickly opened her laptop and set it on the small iron table attached to the deck. As she watched him bring up the text program again, she wondered how long this could last. Would communicating this way with a ghost satisfy her? She couldn’t stop her heart from melting around him, and yet finding his killer wouldn’t bring him back from the grave.
When he finally passed over to the other side, she would miss him terribly. Perhaps writing his story would be what she needed to keep him with her always. Only that and her memories would be what would comfort her. She must do all she can to help him and to spend as much time as she could with this ghost.
The more memories, the better.
ELEVEN
AARON COULDN’T THINK of a time he had ever enjoyed a sunset more.
After his chat with Beth, he wandered the house, grinning more than he thought he would. But more than that, he found himself wishing that he could take Beth out on a normal date. He wanted to lavish her with attention and gifts, and more importantly, he wanted them to get to know each other better.
She made him laugh, which he hadn’t done for quite a while. She made him look on the bright side of things, even though his future didn’t look very bright at all – unless it was being told to go into the light. He wanted very much to simply be normal with her.
And, heaven help him... he wanted to kiss her.
Aaron sighed. He had been wandering around an hour before she had awoken, but he had made sure to give her time to do her morning rituals. However, he was surprised to hear her returning to her bedroom shortly after she had left. He moved to the place on the wall where he could talk to her and she could see his face. When she finally came in view, he found her grumbling as she stomped into the room.
His chest clenched. What had happened?
Finally, he saw her fling herself on the bed and glance up at the mirror. Her face was red, and her mouth was tight.
“Beth? What’s wrong?”
Her chest moved with the deepness of her breaths, and her nostril flared. “Someone slashed my tires! They’re all flat!” She bunched her fists, clutching the blanket beneath her. “I think it was Sam.”
Frustration shot through Aaron, and visions of him hunting Sam down and wringing his neck filled his mind, but Aaron knew he was incapable of doing such a thing. He gathered his thoughts, trying to calm himself. “Have you called the police yet?”
“No. I’ve only thought about contacting my insurance company and have them send out a truck to fix it for me.”
“Good idea. But when you call the police, make sure and ask for my friend, Chad Howell.”
Her sigh was unsteady. “I will. It just irritates me that Sam would do something like this. It shows you how immature he is.” She took a deep breath. “Not only that, but I won’t be able to drive out and visit your grandfather like I had planned.”
“Actually, you can,” Aaron replied, an idea forming in his mind. “My car is still in the garage. At least I think it is.”
Her face softened. “Aaron, I appreciate you offering up your car, but I’d need the keys...”
“They are in the safe.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Your safe is where you keep your keys? That’s odd.”
“No, but that’s where Nolan put them. I can only assume it’s because he didn’t want anyone stealing my things.”
She nodded. “That makes sense.” She paused for a moment. “Plus, it makes him a good friend for wanting to protect your stuff like that.”
“Yes. Nolan was a great friend.”
She rolled on her side a little and clutched the pillow to her bosom, still watching him in the mirror.
“Do you want to tell me about the argument you and Nolan had about a month before your death?”
Aaron rubbed his forehead. He’d forgotten he’d written about that in his journal. “Nolan suspected that one of my employees was stealing money from me. Nolan suggested I dismiss some of them, but I couldn’t. All of them were a tremendous help with my shows.”
He shrugged. “Nolan and I argued. I told him to leave. He did. He returned. We worked it out two days before someone killed me.”
“But you didn’t write that in your journal.”
“I think I was more concerned about the unknown person who’d been causing all of my accidents.”
“Do you think the person stealing from you was the one who killed you?”
“It’s possible.”
She stared at him in silence. After a few minutes, she exhaled and tossed the pillow to the other side of the bed. “Okay, let’s go look in your safe.”
“Go to the sitting room. The safe is behind the photo of Gramps. The number combination is 22, 19, 45.”
“I’m on it!”
ELIZABETH ROLLED OFF the bed, suddenly full of energy again. As she hurried downstairs toward the room, she repeated the code to the safe out loud. If she’d been thinking earlier, she would have written it down on her hand.
Several family pictures lined the walls in the sitting room, but there was only one large picture of a handsome older man who had Aaron’s eyes. Elizabeth smiled sadly. If Aaron had lived, he would have probably looked like this at Jethro’s age.
Once she opened the safe, she found some papers and a bunch of key rings. Each ring had an emblem of a different style of car, truck, or motorcycle. The Ferrari logo caught her eye, so she snatched that before closing the safe and turning the dial.
As she made her way back upstairs to finish getting ready for her road trip to Scottsdale, she pondered over the words she was going to use to get in to see Jethro.
“Hi, I’m Elizabeth Martin, a distant relative on his mother’s side.” She frowned, hating that line. Jethro would certainly know Aaron’s mother’s family well enough to know that Elizabeth was definitely not a relative.
“I hope you don’t mind me dropping by without an appointment, but I went to school with Aaron, and I just found out...” She grumbled and shook her head. That wouldn’t work, either. After all, Aaron had lived in Scottsdale with Jethro while growing up. Jethro probably knew all his grandson’s friends.
“I was going out with your grandson last year, and...” She frowned. No, that wouldn’t work, either.
She moved into her bedroom and stopped in front of the small mirror on the wall as she fluffed her wavy hair. Telling him the truth would probably be better since he’d eventually find out where she worked, anyway. Besides, Jethro was the one who had requested someone from the law firm so, with any luck, he wouldn’t put her off when she arrived at his home.
Elizabeth grabbed the journal and her purse before leaving her room and heading downstairs again. She paused at the front door, listening for any sounds, and trying to smell if Aaron was around – but couldn’t detect anything.
“Wish me luck, Aaron. I hope your grandfather doesn’t turn me away.”
She hurried to the garage in the back and opened the main door. Inside, she clicked on the lights. Three sleek vehicles and four fancy motorcycles filled the large warehouse-size garage. They were all new and shiny except for one – the red Mustang. The Mustang’s front end was crushed and looked completely undrivable. She examined it just for a moment, remembering it was the car Aaron had been driving when he hit the tree. However, it was the silver convertible Ferrari that she wanted right now, so she resolved to look at the other cars later.
It didn’t take long to get the large garage door open – thanks to the remote – and she climbed into the Ferrari, adjusted the seat, and buckled her seatbelt. Her body fit against the leather seats perfectly. She’d never felt this comfortable in a car before.
Where have you been all my life? She smiled and started the car. Although driving the sports car was a dream-come-true, it was only a momentary pleasure. Complete happiness didn’t come from worldly possessions, but instead, it came from true love... a lasting love. Hopefully, she’d find that one day.
Reaching into the center console, she found a stylish pair of sunglasses – she even noticed they had built-in Bluetooth speakers – and put them on. She then punched Jethro’s address into the car’s GPS system, lowered the top of the convertible, and thundered out of the garage and onto the open road. The thrill of driving the sports car quickly paled in comparison to the beautiful Arizona landscape, which soon absorbed her thoughts.
All the way to Jethro Powers’ estate, her mind replayed the conversation she had with Aaron as they watched the sunset. She couldn’t get over how much her heart hurt because he wasn’t sitting beside her. It didn’t matter if she talked aloud and he answered on her laptop, it wasn’t the same as someone close by, watching the sun disappear over the horizon together.
It was sad to think, but Aaron had been the first man who wanted to share the sunset with her. Little by little, she realized he had been the man she’d always pictured in her mind when thinking about her future, Mr. Wonderful.
She sighed. “He’s perfect.”
The roar of a truck’s engine snapped Elizabeth out of her thoughts. She glanced up to the rearview mirror. A black truck with monster wheels and a tinted windshield was barreling up behind her as though she was standing still.
She tightened her fingers around the steering wheel, pressing her foot harder on the gas pedal. What the crap? Why wasn’t he passing her? There was plenty of room to go around, but the jerk behind the wheel seemed to only want to tailgate her.
For a moment, she thought about slowing down and forcing him to go around her. But what if the driver didn’t see her brake lights? He’d definitely smash into her bumper. This wasn’t her car, and she had to protect one of Aaron’s prized possessions.
With her heart pumping the blood through her body so quickly, panic settled into her chest. She didn’t dare take her hand off the steering wheel long enough to dial 9-1-1 on her phone. The intense moment she was experiencing wouldn’t allow it.
Whoever drove the truck played with her emotions and became more aggressive by the minute. The driver moved the vehicle so close to her bumper that she knew he’d slam into her at any moment. Holding her breath, she waited for the sound of metal crunching against metal.
“Pass me, you jerk!” She glared at the driver in the rearview mirror, but she couldn’t see who it was. Besides the windows being tinted, the sun’s glare from off the glass nearly blinded her.
A sob tore from her throat and she increased her speed. The blasted truck stayed on her like flies on a carcass. Up ahead was a turnoff. She’d take that in hopes of shaking the crazy driver off her tail.
She waited for the very last minute before yanking the wheel to the right. The wheels squealed on the pavement as the Ferrari jumped her around. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white.
The speed was too much, and she began losing control of the car. Keeping her eyes on the road, she turned the steering wheel right and left, as she tried to gain control. She headed for a field and prayed for strength to stay focused.
The car hit a ditch and launched in the air for a few seconds. When it hit the ground again, she bounced in the seat. She slammed on her brakes and her forehead hit the steering wheel. After a few moments, the convertible finally came to a creaking rest.
Dust rose all around her. Her pounding heart boomed through her ears. Her laborious breaths were so fast she felt faint. Her face and chest hurt, but thankfully, that was all. As far as she knew, she couldn’t feel any broken bones.
With a shaky hand, she reached up and touched her forehead. No blood. Sighing, she relaxed against the seat. Removing the sunglasses, she closed her eyes and said a prayer of thanks that she wasn’t hurt. Of course, she still had to see how much damage was done to Aaron’s Ferrari.
In the distance, the wail of sirens grew closer. Whoever called for help, they were on the way, thankfully. She didn’t have a great description of the truck, but she’d tell the police all she knew.
In the back of her mind, something nagged at her conscience. In Aaron’s journal, he had been run off the road b
y a similar truck a month before his death. Had the killer noticed her driving Aaron’s car and decided to frighten her?
That theory was definitely something to ponder.
She concentrated on the sirens growing closer. The sound brought comfort to her scared soul. And yet, another sound was closer – like a car pulling up near her. She didn’t want to open her eyes to see who it was but didn’t want them thinking she was seriously hurt either.
“Elizabeth!”
The man’s familiar voice was panicked. Where had she heard that voice... She snapped to attention and glanced over her shoulder. Nolan rushed toward her, his face tight with fear.
Seeing his face brought tears to her eyes. She fumbled with the seatbelt for a moment, before opening the door and climbing out. Her legs were still quite weak, and she stumbled toward him. He grabbed her before she fell, lifting her up against him. His arms wrapped around her in comfort. This was exactly what she needed right now.
“Elizabeth,” he said, gently wiping the hair out of her face. Frowning, he stared at a spot on her forehead. “You’re forehead is red.”
“I hit it on the steering wheel, but I’m all right.” She lifted a hand and touched the spot again.
His gaze dropped to hers. “What happened? And why...” he glanced at the car, “are you driving Aaron’s Ferrari?”
Embarrassment washed over her as she tried to think of an excuse. She couldn’t exactly tell him that Aaron gave her permission. And yet, she didn’t want to lie to him. She needed an ally in this adventure she’d taken on with finding Aaron’s killer.
And yet... wasn’t Nolan on her suspects’ list? But as she stared into his caring green eyes, her heart told her that these were not the eyes of a murderer.
However, her heart had been wrong before.
TWELVE
IT HAD BEEN THREE MONTHS since Aaron had carried on a normal conversation with a woman – with anyone, really. And now that Beth had gone to visit his grandfather, Aaron realized how lonely the house was... and how lonely he was. Beth’s presence in the house had made a large difference in such a short time, it surprised him. But with her visiting Gramps, hopefully she’d be able to make the old man believe in ghosts.
The Magic of a Billionaire Page 9