A Cup of Death

by K. J. Emrick

  The woman threw her hands up in the air and marched right past Miranda. “You just make sure you do that. I have an elderly aunt here, as you know, and I’m trying to keep her safe. I can’t do that if you keep bringing trouble to our lives!”

  The door slammed shut behind her as she went into the house.

  “Such a nice lady,” Kyle said sarcastically. “I’m so glad that we live next door to her.”

  “Next time give me more warning if you see her coming, will you?” Miranda was already cutting back across the lawn to her house, taking a shortcut, stepping as quickly as she could. She could see the flashing lights of the patrol cars and the ambulance in her driveway. “I’m guessing Jack is already waiting for us.”

  “No doubt,” Kyle agreed. “The man moves like a panther when he wants.”

  “Uh-huh. Just remember he’s mine, Kyle.”

  They found him standing at the front door of Ragged Rest, their rental van parked back in the drive next to two patrol cars. He was directing officers in uniform as they took pictures and investigated the scene. Those words… the scene… sounded odd in Miranda’s mind. Her home was now a crime scene. Deirdre’s words to her a moment ago had been harsh, but there was a bit of truth to them. This place where her family had lived for generations, with its grand stone walls and peaked roofs, had seen far more than its fair share of mysteries and death.

  Jack was in the same clothes that he’d been in all day, just like her. There hadn’t been time to change when they’d gotten home and found that someone had broken in. After making sure the rest of the house was empty and that he wasn’t leaving Miranda alone with a burglar he’d gone to the police station. He still looked good though no matter what he was wearing.

  He turned to look at her now, just as she was taking a moment to admire how he looked in the lights from the house and the headlights from the patrol cars. It was like he sensed her coming even though he didn’t have any sort of those abilities himself. There was a connection between them, to be sure, it just wasn’t supernatural. She’d felt it any number of times. She felt it now, when he turned his amazing eyes on her.

  Coming across the lawn to meet her, Jack put his arm around Miranda’s shoulders and held her tight. “Here we go again, right?”

  “Yes,” Miranda said and was unable to keep from looking over towards where the paramedics were putting Leon Peniston into the ambulance. “I don’t understand, Jack. He was grey and sweaty but talking one minute, and then he was just dead the next. He was gone before he dropped. His eyes just went kind of wide, and he stared at me, but I knew he couldn’t see me anymore. There was nothing there.”

  “Okay. We’ll figure this out,” Jack promised her. “Where were you? I thought you would be right here with him.”

  “I went over to our neighbors. Don’t worry, I left Kyle here to watch over everything.”

  “All right, well, that’s a good thing.”

  From where he stood a little distance away, Kyle flicked him a salute. “You bet it is, boy-O.”

  “But,” Jack continued, oblivious to Kyle’s sarcasm, “why didn’t you stay here, too?”

  “I wanted to tell Deirdre and Isabel what happened, and ask them if they saw anything, or knew anything. I mean, with the break in and now this, I thought they might have seen something, or that maybe they might even known Leon Peniston here.”

  “That’s his name?”

  Miranda nodded. “Yes. He told me that much before he… you know.”

  “Did you know him?”

  She shook her head. “No, I didn’t, but he knew my name. He also told me he was here to confess something. Then, he died.”

  Jack looked pensive. “That’s mysterious.”

  “Yes, I thought so too. Then again, Isabel and Deirdre’s new boarder knew who I was right off too, so…”

  “They’ve got someone living with them now?” Jack’s brow furrowed in concern. “I don’t like the timing of that coincidence. Not when all of this stuff about your Aunt Connie, and Josh Bates, and all the rest of it is starting to come to a head. I mean, someone broke into your house, Miranda. Now this guy just shows up?”

  “I know,” she said, nodding into his shoulder as he held her. “I thought the same thing at first. I didn’t have a lot of time to talk to him before Kyle came to tell me you were here, but he seems all right. It’s just all a little overwhelming, you know?”

  “Okay, okay,” he said to her, leaning back just far enough to look into her eyes. “I’ve got about a thousand questions, but they’ll wait. I’m glad you left Kyle here with the body. Now I can say nothing was tampered with.”

  With a bow more dramatic than his salute, Kyle said, “You’re welcome, oh Captain, my Captain.”

  Miranda rolled her eyes at him, but he was already speeding off to get a closer look at what the detectives were doing. He was still dressed like Sherlock Holmes and his cape was flapping in the breeze.

  “Speaking of ghosts,” Jack said, bringing her attention back to him, “I don’t suppose you’ve seen…?”

  He didn’t have to finish the question for her to know what he meant. He was asking if Leon’s ghost had arrived, full of clues and insights about how he had died. It very rarely worked that way, and most of the times when Miranda had encountered ghosts, they very rarely remembered who killed them, or why, or anything of that sort that would be truly useful. Even when Kyle had died and come back to haunt her, Miranda had found it necessary to help him solve his death because he didn’t have a clue.

  In this case, Leon hadn’t made his presence known to her. Whatever Leon did or didn’t know was going to remain a mystery.

  “No, Jack, I’m sorry. I haven’t seen Leon’s spirit anywhere. For all I know he’s already moved on.”

  “After dying so suspiciously?”

  “It happens that way sometimes,” she reminded him. “And besides, we don’t really know that this was a murder. He could have had a heart condition for all we know.”

  “Sure,” he said with a skeptical grin. “He just decided to show up on your doorstep to confess something on the very day he was about to buy the farm.”

  “Jack, this is serious.”

  “You don’t think I’m being serious? Someone has broken into your house, and there’s people trying to dredge up your Aunt Connie, and oh let’s not forget how Josh Bates is running around loose after we found out that he was nothing but a lowlife criminal and he shot me. You don’t think I’m taking this seriously?”

  “Well, you did just describe the dead man as having bought the farm.”

  “Alright, alright.” Jack pulled her back into him. Miranda was aware of the uniformed officers watching them, but she didn’t care. Let them watch. “Look, when we’re finished here, why don’t you just come home with me? I think it would do us both good.”

  She thought about it, but she didn’t have to think for very long. She didn’t like the idea of anyone pushing her out of her home, but she didn’t want to be here if the intruder came back, either. Plus, a sleepover at Jack’s? She was definitely up for that. “Yes, I think I’d like that. We’ll have to collect Kyle and let him know what we’re doing.”

  His face took on a definite look of disappointment. “Do we have to? You don’t think Kyle would be all right here for one night by himself?”

  “Jack, he’s our friend. We can’t just leave him behind.”

  “Fine,” he said with a big sigh. “I’ll call Jean-Paul and Sapphire to let them know what’s going on, too. They might have to keep Butter a little while longer.”

  Butter, their lovable golden retriever, was staying with their friends after all of them came back from their camping trip. Jean-Paul and Sapphire were in the early stages of what promised to be a whirlwind romance. They were good people, and they would take care of the dog like one of their own.

  “Look, take the keys and wait for me in the van,” Jack said, digging in his pocket for the key ring. “I’ll be as quick as I can and th
en we’ll grab some coffee and head back to my place, okay?”

  “I could use something to eat along with that coffee. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.” Jack nodded in agreement and kissed her cheek before heading back to speak with the other officers. For her part, Miranda turned and slowly walked her way to the van, her mind swirling with thoughts. So much death lately. So much death. Maybe Deidre was right, maybe Miranda was cursed.

  With a deep sigh, Miranda opened the car door and sat in the front passenger seat. She waited there patiently while the paramedics finished putting Leon Peniston’s body into the ambulance and closed the back doors. The officers were still on her doorstep taking measurements and writing notes. They were almost done. It just seemed to Miranda like there should be more to it. A man died here. Shouldn’t there be more to the end of a man’s life than a few pictures and some handwritten notes and a ride to the morgue?

  “Ahem,” Kyle said.

  “Geez, don’t do that!” Miranda felt her heart leap into her throat as Kyle slid into the seat beside her, just appearing through the car door. “I swear I’m going to figure out how to put a bell around your neck.”

  “Oh, I’m afraid not. I’m a ghost. Spooky is in my nature.” He crossed his arms and leaned back into the seat, obviously very proud of himself. “So, I listened in on everyone. Now, if the paramedics are right, it looks as if he’s been poisoned.”

  Miranda mouthed the word silently. Poisoned. Yes. That made sense. Leon’s gray appearance, and the way he was sweating and so very thirsty, and how he had just dropped right in front of her. All of that did seem to indicate poison.

  But who had poisoned him, and how, and what made him want to come find her when he was on death’s door?

  For now, she had no answers.

  Chapter 3

  Jack got into the van less than ten minutes later. Kyle made sure to vacate his seat before Jack literally sat down in his lap. He took a seat in the back, obviously not happy about being displaced but fully understanding that ghosts couldn’t drive. At his best and most ghostly he could open and close doors or shove chairs across rooms, after all. The day that ghosts started driving cars was the day Miranda hung up her psychic club membership card.

  Not that she actually had one, but it was the principle of the thing.

  “What did you find out?” she asked Jack.

  “Hmph,” Kyle said from behind her. “What’s the matter? You don’t trust what I told you?”

  “Near as the paramedics can determine,” Jack answered her, “he was poisoned.”

  “See?” Kyle snarked.

  “Yes, Kyle,” she told him. “You’re amazing as always. You’re doing that deerstalker cap proud.”

  Jack gave her a look as he started the van. “I take it Kyle was out there investigating on his own again?”

  “Yes,” Miranda confirmed.

  “And he’s dressed like Sherlock Holmes? Deerstalker cap and all?”

  “Right again.”

  “Wow. Wish I could see that,” he chuckled softly, and turned the car toward the road.

  “You two,” Kyle sighed. “Neither of you appreciate good fashion.”

  From the corner of her eye Miranda saw him adjust the earflaps of his hat. He looked ridiculous, but she was going to let him have his moment. “Jack, did you find out who Leon Peniston is? I mean, is he a local resident?”

  “No. We haven’t been able to find that out yet.” Jack shrugged. “His name doesn’t show up in our database. Nobody I talked to seems to know him, same as you. There’s a wedding ring on his finger though. We’re assuming he has a wife. Or maybe had a wife. Some people wear their rings long after a spouse dies.”

  “That’s true.” Miranda leaned in closer. “Would you wear yours? After I died, I mean?”

  His smile turned a little goofy. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

  She hadn’t been, at least not really, but now the thought filled her mind. She could. Right here and now, in this rented van, she could ask Jack Travis to marry her. Just buck all the old traditions where it had to be the guy doing the asking, and seize the moment.

  Ask him, she told herself. Ask him, ask him, ask him!

  “Um,” she stuttered, “I’d have to have a ring first, right? I don’t have a ring. So… let’s table that discussion for later. Um. Yes. Later. Um. What about Leon? Did he have anything else with him?”

  The change of subject was awkward, and she was glad for the dark interior of the car because she could feel her face heating up. Thankfully Jack was enough of a gentleman not to make her more embarrassed than she already was.

  “Yes, to answer your question, Leon had a mobile in his pocket. No wallet or ID, but a phone. There are lots of numbers programmed into it, lots of calls made, and the dialing codes are from all over the map. All different areas. 02, 03, 07… just everywhere.”

  “Maybe he travels? You know, moves around a lot and knows people from all over?” Miranda mused.

  “Yes, that’s what I was thinking, too.” Jack nodded his head thoughtfully. “Oh, and he also had a key in his pocket. Well, two keys actually. One was for a car and the other was a plastic pass key for a motel room at the Slumber Way Motel.”

  The motel room made sense. If he wasn’t local he had to be staying somewhere, but… “Where is his car?” Miranda said, looking all around them as if it would suddenly appear on the road around them.

  Then, up the street, a car turned on its headlights.

  “Who’s that?” she asked Jack. “Is that one of your officers?”

  Jack shook his head. “No, it most certainly is not.”

  As they watched the vehicle it did a quick three-point turn and headed off the other way, the taillights starting to disappear before Jack sped up to get closer. It was dark enough that Miranda couldn’t make out the color of the little two-door. Black, maybe. Or blue. It wasn’t possible to see inside, either.

  But she could see the license plate just fine.

  She flipped open the glove compartment on her side and rummaged inside until she found a pen. There was no paper, so she wrote down the tag number of the car on the palm of her hand.

  “Miranda, what are you doing?” Kyle asked her. “Now you won’t be able to wash your hands again until the investigation is over!”

  The car ahead of them took a right turn, and Jack let him go.

  “You aren’t going to follow it?” Miranda asked. She was surprised when they cruised right by the intersection.

  “I’m not in a patrol car,” he pointed out. “This is a rental van designed for carrying all that camping gear in the back, not for running down suspects on the open highway. I don’t have any way of getting that car to stop unless you want me to run it off the road. We can check out the plate number later and find out who it was.”

  Miranda had to admit that did make a lot more sense. A lot more than trying to force a car to stop when the driver might have just been pulled over to make a phone call. “Have I ever told you how smart you are?”

  “No need,” he joked. “I know it already. By the way, you might want to try putting that tag number into your mobile instead of keeping it on your hand. It works a lot better.”

  “Huh,” Kyle said. “I wonder why I didn’t think of that. Holmes would’ve thought of it.”

  “Sherlock didn’t have a mobile,” Miranda mumbled, taking out her phone to do as Jack suggested. He really was a smart man.

  As Miranda was finishing putting the number into her phone, Jack’s buzzed. One handed, he pulled it out and tapped the speaker button to answer. “Not supposed to be on the phone while I’m driving,” he said jokingly. “I’ll get a ticket.”

  It was one of the Moonlight Bay officers, telling him that they’d found Leon Peniston’s car, parked a few streets over from Ragged Rest.

  Jack hung up and put the phone away. “Leon Peniston drove halfway to Ragged Rest but then parks his car and walks the rest of the way, just to die on your doorst
ep. Before he buys the farm,” he said, emphasizing the words to make her smile, “he tells you that he wants to confess. He just never tells you what for. I find that highly suspicious. Looks like we have another mystery on our hands.”

  “Moonlight Bay is full of them.”

  “At least, it has been since you arrived.” He said it kindly, but it was obvious that he meant it.

  He wasn’t wrong. Bad things seemed to follow her like leaves dragged along by a spring breeze. It was something to do with her gift. Ghosts. Murder. Mystery. Those things pretty much summed up her life.

  That, and the love she felt for Jack Travis.

  “You know,” she said after another moment of silent thought, “if we’re going to solve this mystery, then we might have to put off having a nice quiet night together. We should just go to the motel where Leon was staying and see what we can find.”

  “Miranda, it’s late. We can let the patrols handle that. I’m not even technically on duty.”

  Kyle patted her shoulder, a humming and soft sensation that was there and yet not really. “He’s right, Miranda. After what happened at the Blue Jay Bed and Breakfast this weekend, do you really want to go charging into another place full of rented rooms and murder mystery?”

  It was a fair question. Jack had been shot at the Blue Jay, and that had only been half a day ago. She certainly had been hoping to come home, and drop into bed, and sleep for a day and a half. That had proven impossible when they found Ragged Rest had been invaded by someone, and her private papers rifled through and stolen. Now, on top of that, a man had died under very suspicious circumstances.

  Sleep could wait.

  “We need to know what’s going on here,” she said to Jack, “or I may never sleep again. You know this is all connected to my Aunt Connie’s life. All of it. Maybe not Leon’s death, but then again maybe that is too, somehow. Maybe he wanted to confess something to do with Connie’s disappearance. I don’t know. That’s what’s killing me, though, the fact that I just don’t know. Can you understand that?”