Ghostly Apparitions (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 1)

by Aubrey Harper

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Crane said. “That was actually going to me my first assignment for you if you accepted my offer: solve Bart and Derek’s murders and put their souls to rest.”

  I was glad Crane and I were on the same page. But if he thought this would take him off my suspect list, he was dead wrong. He was still at the top of the list, which was why I needed to solve these murders before making any rash decisions.

  Crane thanked me for my time and told me to keep in touch. Jonah handed me a business card with all of Crane’s info. On the back, I saw a handwritten number. Presumably Jonah’s. He winked at me when I gave him a questioning look.

  Once Kane and I were outside, out of earshot, he finally decided to speak up.

  “You’re not seriously thinking of taking that guy’s offer, are you?”

  “And what if I was?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know. It just seems wrong. I thought you wanted to help people move on. You’ll only be working to line an already very wealthy man’s pockets if you accept that job.”

  Kane had a point but I was tired of struggling just to earn ends meet. Was it so wrong to travel for a couple of years and save some money while using my gift for one purpose?

  Once we were on the road, I asked Rebecca what she thought about all of this.

  “It’s your life, your decision. I’ll always be there to watch your back either way,” she said. But I could sense in the tone of her voice that she wasn’t too keen on the idea.

  Eighteen

  The next morning, I woke up with something akin to hope. I’d never felt so hopeful and excited about what the future might bring. All my waking hours after that conversation with Warwick Crane were spent daydreaming about what my life would be like if I accepted his offer.

  There were some downsides, like working for a billionaire and using my gift to get him the information he wanted. That part might take some getting used to. But then there were so many positives as well: traveling all over the world, actually having money in the bank and actually saving some for the future, and maybe, just maybe, Jonah. He seemed like a well put together man and he seemed friendly enough. Why not give it a shot? I could at least try being friends with him first and see where that led.

  Gran was already at the bakery by the time I woke up around ten AM. That might be another downside to a position with Crane: I probably had to be available at any time of day. There wouldn’t be much time for sleep probably, but who cared about sleep when you were making money?

  Marmalade and Ebony started meowing as soon as they saw me. I replenished their wet food supply and daydreamed some more over my morning coffee.

  “You seem in an awfully good mood,” Rebecca said when she floated into the kitchen.

  “Yeah, I guess I am. Strange isn’t it? What with the murders and all.”

  “Are you going to try talking to Derek today?”

  “That was the plan. Hopefully, the shock of his death has worn off somewhat.”

  “Let’s hope. You know the denial stage can last decades in some cases.”

  I knew that all too well. Most of the hauntings I dealt with over the years were perpetrated by such beings. Either they didn’t realize they were dead or they wanted to cause as much havoc as they could because they were dead and they thought that life (or rather the afterlife) wasn’t fair.

  Before dealing with Derek and his mortality, I decided to stop by my office and work on it a bit. It would have been easy to just abandon the whole thing but I knew that the thing with Crane was more of a long shot than anything. I needed to stay realistic. It was fun to daydream but daydreams didn’t pay the bills.

  Once I got tired of rearranging everything and imagining how it would be when my office opened, I decided it was time for a quick snack. Thankfully, Gran’s bakery was mostly empty so the other girl could take care of things herself.

  Gran sat down with me and I told her what happened yesterday.

  “You can probably guess my thoughts on that,” Gran said.

  “You think it would be a huge mistake, don’t you?”

  “He’s not a good person. At least not from my view and any of the people he probably comes into contact with.”

  “It’s not about good and bad. I know what kind of man he is. It’s about the opportunity to finally make some money.”

  “There are more important things than money,” Gran said. She took my hand in hers. “Like family and self-respect.”

  I smiled. It was clear Gran wouldn’t understand where I was coming from and that was all right with me.

  “I’m just thinking about it and not seriously at that,” I said.

  Gran looked behind me at the street outside. “They act like they own the town. Just because their cars cost more than most of our houses.”

  I looked back and saw a silver gray sports car parked up front. And then I saw the driver as he exited the vehicle. It was Jonah, looking as sharp as ever. He took off his sunglasses that must have cost more than anything I owned. I blushed when I saw him look through the glass straight at me.

  “You’re my granddaughter and you’re a grown woman, but I can tell you now that nothing good will come from letting yourself fall for that man.”

  “I’m not falling for him, Gran,” I lied. “And just because someone has money doesn’t mean they’re a bad person.”

  “It’s not about the money or the cars or the clothes. It’s about how he makes that money. He works for that…man.”

  Gran excused herself and went back behind the counter just as Jonah entered the bakery.

  “This is a nice little place,” he said to me.

  “Didn’t Crane try to buy it?” I asked.

  Jonah smiled a mischievous smile. “Perhaps. He would buy the whole world if he could.”

  I shook my head at that. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” I said as I walked back to my office. I could feel Gran’s disapproving look on the back of my neck. Jonah, for his part, followed like a loyal dog.

  I closed my office door and sat behind the desk. I offered Jonah the lone chair in the corner.

  “I’d rather stand,” he said as he looked around my pitiful office. And he didn’t try to hide the fact that he thought it was pitiful.

  He certainly got points for being honest.

  “So why are you here again? Did Crane send you to talk me into taking the job?”

  “Nothing like that,” Jonah said as he ran his hand through his perfectly slicked back hair. Even the watch he was wearing looked like it cost a fortune. Everything about him was impeccable. “He doesn’t even know I’m here.”

  “Really? I find that hard to believe. Aren’t you his right-hand man?”

  Jonah smirked. “Perhaps he knows I’m out on the town but he doesn’t know I’m with you. I’m here for more…personal reasons.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t know what to say to that. Was Jonah hitting on me?

  “I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner with me tonight?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I’ll have to look at my calendar…”

  Jonah looked around my pitiful office and raised his eyebrows, which somehow made him look even sexier than he already was.

  “Fine, I’ll have dinner with you. Just text me the address and I’ll meet you there.”

  “And here I was looking forward to picking you up in my cool car.”

  I laughed. So he was funny, too. “Is it really yours, though?”

  “No. Well, technically it’s my work vehicle but it’s in Crane’s name. I’m not much of a car enthusiast myself but whatever the boss wants…”

  Jonah said goodbye and I promised to text him the address. As soon as he drove away in that fancy car I thought to myself that I probably made a huge mistake.

  “Are you sure that was wise?” Rebecca chimed in. She’d been quiet and stuck to the background while Jonah was there.

  “Probably not. But this way I could ask him some questions that might help wit
h the case.”

  “Smart thinking,” Rebecca said, looking genuinely impressed. “And here I thought you were just falling for the man’s charm and incredibly good looks.”

  “There was some of that, too,” I admitted.

  There was no need to waste any more time. I drove to where they found Derek’s body. In the light of day, I saw that it was just off the lake but on the opposite side to where Bart was found. What was Derek doing here in the first place?

  I saw him in the distance. Or rather I saw a see-through humanoid shape wheezing back and forth where the police lines were.

  “He looks even worse than yesterday,” Rebecca said. “I don’t think you’ll get much out of this one.”

  “It’s worth a shot at least,” I said as I carefully approached him. He didn’t stop flying past. He didn’t even notice I was there. I thought I could hear wailing in the distance. Was it him? It was hard to tell.

  “Derek, it’s me, Meredith. Remember we talked yesterday? You were walking by the pier while some men were fishing?”

  The buzzing figure didn’t react to that either.

  “Rebecca, can’t you do anything?”

  Rebecca moved in and flew around the buzzing ghost while I stood back and gave them some space.

  “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m not supposed to be here,” Derek started to say over and over. Thankfully, he was slowing down as well, becoming more and more stable in this realm.

  He looked up at Rebecca. “You’re like me?”

  She nodded. “Yes. And she can see us,” she said as she pointed in my direction.

  Derek looked at me. I recognized him now. He looked much like he did when he was alive.

  “Hi Derek,” I said slowly and carefully. “Do you recognize me?”

  “No…yes…maybe. I don’t know…”

  “It’s okay. You only met me once. What’s the last thing you do remember?”

  “I was…I was here…I decided to go for a jog to clear my head. There was someone here…waiting…waiting for me.”

  “Did you recognize this person?”

  “Yes…I think so.”

  Derek looked confused. He looked like he was trying to remember something that happened a very long time ago. It wasn’t uncommon at all with the recently dead. Bart Samuel was an anomaly in that sense.

  “What happened? Can you remember what happened to you?”

  I tried not to mention that he was dead. It often caused new ghosts to shut down and go into denial mode. I definitely didn’t want that to happen to Derek.

  “NO!” Derek screamed at the top of his ghostly lungs while he held on to his head. And then he started buzzing around again.

  “I lost him,” I said. “I don’t think he’ll be of much use to me in this state.”

  “I told you,” Rebecca said. “What now?”

  “I think I’ll need to have a little talk with Jonathan or any other cop will do really.”

  Rebecca laughed like she’d heard a joke. When she realized I was being serious, she looked worried. “I don’t think you’ll be of use to anyone while you’re locked up.”

  “I don’t plan on being locked up,” I said. “I just want to know what they know. And thankfully, you’ll be there as well, if you catch my drift.”

  Just as I was pulling into the police station parking lot, my phone started to ring. I saw that it was Kane.

  “Hello? Please tell me you have good news,” I said.

  “There’s news, I’m not sure how good they’ll be.”

  “Get to the point. I’m a little busy right now.”

  “Fine, fine. But it seems that Donna has found some irregularities in the books. I thought we should check it out together. I can go by myself if you’re so busy, though.”

  “Don’t do anything without me. I’m on my way.”

  I got out of the police parking lot and headed toward the inn.

  “I wonder what she found?” Rebecca said.

  “Something good I hope.”

  I parked in front of the inn and practically ran up to Kane’s room. He was already out the door, waiting for me.

  “Thanks for waiting,” I said.

  Kane smiled. “I’m sure you would have done the same. We’re a team, right?”

  “Right.” He wasn’t subtle at all, that was for certain.

  We knocked on Donna’s door and she let us in. She looked a lot livelier than she did just yesterday after finding out that Derek had been murdered, too.

  As soon as we shut the door behind us, Donna started to talk.

  “You won’t believe what I found. I think this might be the motive!”

  Nineteen

  Kane and I stood behind Donna while she fiddled with charts and worksheets on her computer.

  “Here it is,” she finally said, pointing out some random numbers among what looked like thousands to me. My head was already starting to hurt trying to make sense of what I was seeing.

  “Wow, that’s a great find, Donna,” Kane said. “I’m assuming the pattern repeats fairly regularly throughout the data?”

  “Yes,” Donna said. “I had to do the calculations myself of course. It was well hidden and it was only a few hundred here and a few hundred there at first. Then it became thousands. And now it’s in the tens of thousands of dollars that are unaccounted for.”

  I was glad for the clear lucid explanation. “How did you catch it?” I asked.

  “It wasn’t easy,” Donna breathed in hard. “I had to dig up some old receipts I scanned a while back.”

  “Is there any way to tell who might have done the embezzling or whatever this is?” I asked.

  “Sadly no. It could be anyone working for Crane.”

  Kane looked at me and I could see what he was thinking by the way he raised his eyebrow.

  I pulled him aside. “It could be anyone,” I said. “Just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean that he’s capable of this. Besides, I hardly think he’s hurting for money. Crane practically treats him like a son.”

  Bart slipped in through a wall. Was he there all along or was he just coming back from somewhere? It was hard to tell.

  “What’s happening?” He asked me.

  I quickly explained the situation.

  “I never liked Jonah,” Bart admitted. “But I doubt it’s him. He may be full of himself but I hardly see what he has to gain by stealing from the man that practically raised him.”

  That was something I didn’t know.

  “What do you mean by ‘raised’ him?”

  “Jonah was just a kid on the street when Mr. Crane first gave him a chance. He started out as Crane’s driver and then he moved up from there. That was some fifteen years ago.”

  I asked Donna about it.

  “It’s true,” she said. “Jonah wasn’t always Mr. Crane’s right-hand man.”

  “Then who was?” Kane asked.

  Donna didn’t know, but Bart looked like he had a few tales to tell.

  “He had a falling out with his previous protégé. The man actually became one of his biggest rivals. Still is, in fact.”

  I recognized the name as soon as Bart said it. While not a man nearly as successful as Mr. Crane, he surely was someone who had made a name for himself.

  Not that making a name for himself was a crime. What if Jonah decided to do the same?

  “Mr. Crane might have a thing or two to say about that,” Kane said once I relayed Bart’s message.

  “Still, I don’t think Jonah would do that. He seems really happy with his job,” I quickly said.

  “Anything we need to know? Are you two…dating, or something?” Kane asked though it seemed that he didn’t really want to know.

  “As a matter of fact, I have a date with Jonah later tonight. Maybe I could ask him some leading questions and see how he reacts.”

  “Absolutely not,” Kane was quick to say. “If he indeed is the killer, he has shown that he has no problem killing. He’s already killed two people
!”

  “I can attest to that,” Bart said. “That is if Jonah did do it. I doubt the kid has it in him, though.”

  I didn’t think so either, but it’s not like I really knew the guy. All I knew about him was that he was extremely good looking, that he worked for one of the richest men in the world and that he seemed to be interested in me of all people. Crap…maybe he was a killer after all.

  “What are you thinking?” Rebecca said. She pulled me aside so that the others couldn’t overhear what I was saying.

  I relayed my thoughts to her about Jonah and ulterior motives for our date.

  “Still with the low self-esteem thing? It got old a long time ago, Meredith.”

  “It’s different for you. You’re…you’re dead. I’m alive and with that comes a lot of doubt and suspicion. You never can know what another person is thinking.”

  “What are you babbling on about?” Kane asked as he snuck up behind me.

  I jumped up in fright.

  “That’s hilarious,” he laughed. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

  “Ghosts don’t scare me, Kane. It’s the living, breathing humans, that can cause the most damage. Just ask Bart.”

  “Well, I can’t. I’m not special, remember?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I was having a private conversation with my best friend, so if you don’t mind…”

  “Actually, I kind of do. Donna and I talked it over and we both agree that we can’t let you go on that date alone. Just in case,” Kane added for emphasis.

  “Just in case,” I repeated. “So what, will you guys make this a double date? I don’t think Jonah will open up in front of you guys.”

  “That was my first idea but Donna said the same. It seems Jonah is quite the ladies’ man and he doesn’t like it when others intrude on that. Apparently, he knocked some guy out for just flirting with one of his dates.”

  “There must be more to it than that,” I said, not believing the story. “Right, Donna?”

  Donna looked up from her computer. It was clear that she was listening to me and Kane argue the whole time.