A Ghost and a Hard Place (A Reaper Witch Mystery Book 3)

by Elle Adams

  It was growing dark by now, and several more ghosts appeared on the road as we walked closer to the town. At least Shelton’s presence hadn’t scared them off, if nothing else.

  Drew slowed his pace as we neared the high street. “I think it’s safe to say we’re back at the drawing board as far as the two missing ghosts are concerned if the Reaper wasn’t responsible.”

  “I’ll have a think,” I said. “Maybe sleep on it.”

  “Good idea,” said Drew. “Or talk with Carey. She comes up with good ideas.”

  “She does,” I allowed. “I hate that she’s dealing with so much crap from those kids. I thought they only got into the ghost-hunting thing to bully her and to make her feel bad about her blog, but I don’t know if that’s all there is to it.”

  “They weren’t even born when the two students died, were they?” he said. “It’s horrible to think that they went out of their way to undermine Carey by trying to summon a ghost, but I doubt they had the foresight to banish Eric and Lara.”

  “True.” I exhaled in a sigh. “Guess I’d better get back to the inn, then.”

  “I’ll walk you back.”

  He did so, and I did my best to enjoy his company and not think too much about the Reaper and how much he got on my nerves. Or those kids, and the question of who’d truly banished the ghosts. The answers would come to me eventually, so I’d have to call on my almost nonexistent Reaper patience until they did so.

  We reached the inn, where I found Carey sitting at her usual table with a pile of notes next to the laptop I’d loaned her while Casper napped under her seat. That was a promising sign: it meant she was working on her blog again.

  “Hey,” said Carey. “You were gone a long time. Did you find the Reaper?”

  “Yeah, we found Shelton,” I said. “Turns out he is with the Reaper Council, on some kind of mission that’s so classified he can’t tell us what it’s about.”

  Her brow wrinkled. “To do what? Banish a ghost?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But he doesn’t seem to know about Lara or Eric. I think he’s innocent of banishing them.”

  “Wait, he didn’t banish them?” said Carey. “Do you… do you think whoever was casting spells in the old house did it instead?”

  “I have no idea,” I admitted. “This one has me stumped. Drew, too. I was so certain Shelton was up to something. And he is, but it’s legal. Even Drew couldn’t get him to admit what his actual mission is, either. It’s classified, apparently.”

  Allie walked over. “What’s classified?”

  “The Reaper’s mission,” I said. “He claims the Reaper Council sent him here for a top-secret reason, except he didn’t actually say that, because he’s not allowed to. I read between the lines.”

  “He can’t tell you, even though you’re a fellow Reaper?” she asked.

  “I’m not an active Reaper, so no,” I said. “Also, he doesn’t like or trust me. Whatever his important mission is, he doesn’t want my help. Which is fine, because I’d be more than happy to leave him to it if he’d stop getting under my feet.”

  But the question remained of who’d banished the two ghosts if not a Reaper.

  “He’s getting under your feet?” said Allie. “I thought you were the one who followed him.”

  “Okay, you’ve got me there,” I admitted. “I thought he was guilty of banishing those two ghosts, so I felt justified in tracking him down. He didn’t exactly act innocent.”

  “You went to speak to him with the detective?” she guessed.

  “Yeah, I hoped he’d speak to an authority figure if not me,” I said. “The Reaper Council does like their secrets. We cleared that part up, but we’re back to square one as far as the suspects are concerned. I doubt he’ll help me find who banished Eric and Lara, anyway. He doesn’t care about the local spirits.”

  “I’ve been reading those newspaper articles of yours,” said Carey. “On Eric and Lara’s deaths, I mean.”

  “You have?” Surprise filled my voice. “I thought you weren’t interested.”

  Her face flushed. “I was always interested, but I didn’t want Cris and her friends getting angry with me for going after the same ghosts they were looking for themselves.”

  “What made you change your mind, then?”

  “They saw me at the house today,” she said. “They already think you and I are hunting for the same ghosts as they are, so I might as well go with it.”

  “If you’re sure,” I said. “I’m not certain there’s a link between the house and the two ghosts, but if it means Cris and her friends are going to stop hanging around the inn, I’m all for it.”

  I looked around the restaurant and saw Mrs Terrence sitting in her usual spot. While I’d learned my lesson about striking up a conversation with her, I did wonder if she’d overreacted to the ghosts’ prank after all. Really, it was the most innocuous of the possible reasons for someone to banish the two ghosts, compared to someone trying to cover up a double murder. Which meant it probably wasn’t true. The universe was unfair in that way.

  “She’s being impossible,” Allie said in an undertone. “I’ve remade her drink four times. We really need someone else to work here and pick up some of the slack.”

  “Drew said he’d put a word in with the pack,” I said. “But I wouldn’t blame him if he forgot to follow up with them, what with everything else we’ve been dealing with lately.”

  “The werewolf pack?” she said. “I suppose it can’t hurt at this stage. We’re not likely to attract anyone else from the coven, or even the witches and wizards outside of it. They don’t want to be viewed as supporting Mina Devlin’s banishment.”

  “Is that the problem?” The hold the former coven leader had had over the town was intact even with her gone, apparently.

  “I have no idea,” said Allie, in weary tones. “It’s anyone’s guess at this point.”

  As she walked off to deal with yet another request from Mrs Terrence, I turned back to Carey and the pile of newspaper clippings. “What did you find? Any mentions of that house?”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t know that it’s haunted, but the shack where Eric and Lara died wasn’t far away, so perhaps that’s why Cris thought they might be there. Also, Mina Devlin owned most of the houses in that area, or other people from the coven did.”

  “Did they?” I frowned. “I wonder why she’d have wanted to pin the blame for the students’ deaths on Ed James. I understand why their parents didn’t want everyone knowing their kids skipped school the day they died, but why would the coven back them up on that?”

  “The coven owned the papers at the time,” Carey said. “Anyway, Ed James was the last person to see them alive, and it sounds like he didn’t bother going back to check on them when they got the alert about the town flooding. The reports claim he fled the town without telling anyone they were missing.”

  “I didn’t know that part.” I moved in to read the article over her shoulder. “I thought he knew they were bunking off school and told tales on them.”

  Not according to the article. Weird. If he’d been a prefect who’d caught them breaking the rules, why hadn’t he reported them to the academy’s staff?

  Was Ed James not so innocent after all?

  12

  The next day was Saturday, and I didn’t have a shift for once, so I slept in late until the detective texted me in response to the update I’d sent after Carey and I had read over the newspaper clippings. I knew I ought to return them to Debora Lowe at some point, but I’d been poring over every detail to gain any clues about whether Ed had really been innocent and what in the world he’d been doing in the time between his confrontation with Lara and Eric and the start of the floods if he hadn’t gone back to school.

  I was finishing a late breakfast down in the restaurant when Drew showed up. “You have something new?”

  “Kind of.” I held up the folder of newspaper clippings. “Carey and I had another look at these yesterday. Turn
s out Ed James didn’t actually tell anyone where Eric and Lara were hiding out after he returned to school. He didn’t even go and check on them when they got the news that the river was flooding.”

  “Really?” Drew raised a brow. “Maybe he figured they’d have left as soon as the flooding started.”

  “Maybe.” The accusatory tone of the articles had rubbed me up the wrong way, though it wasn’t that much of a surprise given that the coven seemed to have been looking for a scapegoat. “I guess the coven was in charge of the newspapers at the time, so they might have fudged the details. I also found out the houses near the river were owned by the coven, including the one those kids were exploring. Thought that was interesting.”

  “I know,” he said. “I went digging for information on that house, too, but there’s nothing in our records mentioning it.”

  “Which means no crimes were committed there, not that there aren’t any ghosts in the house,” I added.

  “Exactly,” he said. “Granted, I only have access to the police’s information, which isn’t compiled by a Reaper.”

  “Reaper files aren’t public,” I said. “Usually I get that kind of info from the ghost-hunting corners of the internet. Not so much from official channels. Also, even if there was something dodgy going on at that house, Mina Devlin might have hidden the evidence.”

  “I figured,” he said. “Regardless, I’m inclined to think the house isn’t connected to Eric and Lara’s deaths, accidental or not.”

  “Then why did those kids decide to summon a ghost there the day after Shelton was sneaking around the place?” I said. “I guess they might’ve followed him there and figured it was a good ghost-hunting spot, but they didn’t mention they knew we had a new Reaper in town. What’re the odds that he knows a random bunch of teenage witches? Reapers are barely allowed to socialise with each other, let alone outsiders.”

  Yet a nagging voice in the back of my mind told me I’d missed something else. There seemed no good reason for both Shelton and Cris to end up exploring the same house unless something in particular had drawn them there.

  “I doubt they knew one another,” Drew agreed. “I would suggest there’s another connecting factor we haven’t found yet. As for the missing ghosts… I can’t say I know for certain how they fit in.”

  “We never checked if Ed James has an alibi for the ghosts’ disappearances, either,” I added. “We can’t necessarily assume guilt, though, not if we believe him over Mina Devlin and the newspapers, which I’m inclined to.”

  “And not if he can’t see ghosts anyway,” said Drew.

  “True,” I acknowledged. “I’m lost. Do you have any new ideas?”

  “Not at the moment. I hoped you would.”

  “I should probably take these newspaper clippings back to Debora Lowe to start off with,” I said. “She gave them to me and not those kids. I guess I should be grateful for that, at least.”

  “I’ll go with you,” he said. “We can check in with Ed James on the way and see if he has an alibi for the time of Eric’s ghost’s disappearance.”

  I had my doubts that he’d be thrilled to get another visit from us, but when we reached the high street, we ran into none other than Ed James himself leaving the library.

  I halted in front of him. “Oh, hey.”

  “You again?” he said, sounding unenthusiastic.

  “That’s me,” I said. “What were you in the library for?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Uh-huh.” Before I could question whether it was wise, I pulled out the clippings from my pocket. “Not these?”

  He blanched. “What are you doing with those? Are you stalking me?”

  “No, I’m looking for gaps in your story,” I said bluntly. “Is it true that you never reported Eric and Lara’s location to the academy when you returned to school, and you didn’t go back and look for them when the town was flooding?”

  “I…” He trailed off. “What does that matter?”

  “It matters because they both ended up dead,” I said. “You said you were a prefect. Why didn’t you tell the staff where they were?”

  “Because the teacher already knew they were skiving, which is why she sent me after them to begin with,” he said defensively. “They refused to accompany me back to class, and I wasn’t about to hang around there all day. Then the news of the flooding came in…”

  “You didn’t go back and check on them?”

  “I thought they ran already,” he said. “I had to get out of there. You have no idea what it was like. The street was practically underwater. The whole town was. I figured that they would have been among the first to notice the floods, since they were hanging out right next to the river.”

  “And the fact that their ghosts have both disappeared now that the case has come to light again is coincidental?” I said.

  “I didn’t even know they were ghosts,” he protested. “I didn’t hear a word until you told me, honest. What are you doing with those articles?”

  “Returning them to the person who loaned them to me.” I jerked my head towards the library. “What were you doing, asking Debora who she told about Eric and Lara’s deaths?”

  “Why do you care?” he said.

  “Some kids from the academy were searching for their ghosts, too,” I said. “Debora’s the one who gave them the details. Did she tell you that, too?”

  “She mentioned someone was looking into the deaths of two ex-students at the academy, but I assumed she meant you,” he said. “Why does it matter to you, anyway?”

  “Because Eric’s ghost asked me to help find Lara when she disappeared,” I said. “I didn’t lie. What were you doing after the last time we spoke to you, anyway?”

  “What?” he said. “Why?”

  “Because Eric’s ghost vanished shortly after our visit,” I said. “Now they’ve both vanished. Call me suspicious, but I think there’s something odd there. Whereabouts were you?”

  “I went to the Crooked Broomstick maybe half an hour after we spoke,” he said. “Ask them if you like.”

  “I’ll do that,” said Drew. “Thank you.”

  Ed James turned around and walked away, his hands in his pockets. I watched him leave, still feeling wrong-footed.

  “That was enlightening,” said Drew.

  “I’m glad one of us thinks so.”

  “I was being sarcastic.”

  “Of course.” I rubbed my forehead. “Ed has an alibi for Eric’s ghost’s disappearance, though. That’ll be easy enough for you to check up on.”

  “Yes, it will,” said Drew. “I think it’s safe to say he didn’t banish the ghosts if he was on the other side of town.”

  “Then who did it?” I didn’t expect an answer, but I was starting to think the ghosts hadn’t been chosen because of their link to a particular case and were random victims instead. My thoughts kept running in circles, unable to pin down an answer.

  “I wouldn’t know,” said Drew. “I’m fairly sure he didn’t kill Eric and Lara, though. He doesn’t strike me as a murderer, and considering the whole town was flooding at the time, it’s not implausible that he would have run off without looking back.”

  “I guess so,” I said. “I’ll hand these papers back to Debora.”

  Drew nodded. “I’ll text you after I confirm Ed James’s alibi, and then we can plan our next move.”

  “See you later.” I waved him off and entered the library.

  Debora Lowe stood in the same place as before. She gave me a smile as I walked over. “Hello, Maura. Is there something you need?”

  “Thanks for these,” I said, handing her the folder of clippings. “I saw Ed James was just in here. Was he asking you about the case as well? I know he was the main suspect…”

  “You spoke to him?” she said. “Poor thing had to deal with the backlash twenty years ago, and he got worried when the case came to the surface again. I tried to reassure him that the police wouldn’t arrest him without proof, but he see
med unnerved by the idea of his former classmates running around as ghosts.”

  “They aren’t anymore.” I wasn’t entirely sure why I was telling her, but I was curious to see how she reacted. “That’s the problem. Both spirits disappeared. Eric and Lara, I mean.”

  Her brows rose into her hairline. “Is that… normal?”

  “Not here,” I said. “I don’t suppose anyone’s recently checked out a book on how to summon and banish ghosts? Like a certain group of teenagers, for instance?”

  Her mouth pursed. “Guilty. In my defence, I thought they were just curious. I didn’t know they’d go ahead and try it out themselves.”

  Great. “I’m not sure why they picked those two ghosts to target, though. Also, I thought they were more interested in filming ghostly activity for their blog, not banishing them.”

  Or rather, sabotaging Carey’s own ghost-hunting ambitions. Would they go as far as to research how to banish a ghost for the purposes of tormenting Carey? Perhaps they would. Cris had struck me as unscrupulous to say the least, but the sheer number of ghosts in town would make banishing them all a difficult prospect even for a Reaper.

  “I’m afraid I can’t speak to what teenagers like to do in their free time,” she said. “I assume their parents aren’t aware of their hobbies.”

  “You probably aren’t wrong,” I admitted. “What did you say to Ed James, then?”

  “I admitted that I may have had a hand in the renewed interest in the case when I humoured those academy students,” she said. “With the ghosts gone, I assume those kids will find something else to do, and it’ll be forgotten soon enough.”

  “Not necessarily,” I said. “Have they been in here since the last time you saw them?”