by Elle Adams
“Oh, that’s horrible,” she said. “My mum says he’s a grumpy old man who deserves to be alone.”
“Normally I give people the benefit of the doubt, but he’s officially tied with Detective Drew as to who can annoy me the most today,” I said. “And that’s saying a lot.”
“Didn’t go well?” Allie joined us at the table. “Sorry. I didn’t think Harold would listen to you, but it’s always worth a try. I wondered if he might behave differently with someone who shares his gift for seeing ghosts.”
“Does he throw things at all his visitors?” I asked.
“Oh, all the time,” she said. “Sometimes he threatens to use his scythe on them, too.”
“Even that’s an improvement on using it to hang his coat on.” I rolled my eyes. “He refused to answer a single question about Mrs Renner and claimed total ignorance of her death.”
“He knows,” she said. “Even if he wasn’t the Reaper, he lives next to the graveyard and he was there for her funeral.”
“Doesn’t mean he knows if her death was an accident or not, though,” I said. “Who came to her funeral if she didn’t have family?”
“A few polite residents from the local nursing home,” said Allie. “None of whom she actually got along with when she was alive. Also, she does have family, but they aren’t local and clearly aren’t fond of her either. I’d feel sorry for the woman, but she was quite unpleasant to anyone who tried to be friendly to her and it doesn’t surprise me that she’s causing trouble from beyond the grave, too.”
“Detective Drew doesn’t seem to believe it,” I commented. “How can he not believe in ghosts? He lives in a paranormal town.”
I was getting more and more convinced that the detective was some busybody who had no business masquerading as a paranormal investigator, but I still hadn’t the faintest clue what kind of paranormal he was.
“I spoke to him earlier and I’m not sure he doesn’t believe in ghosts,” she said. “But in Mrs Renner’s case, no spirit has actually been seen.”
So it was just me he had a problem with. Good to know. “Either way, there’s going to be a problem if he keeps showing up at Mrs Renner’s house and stopping anyone from getting rid of her ghost. Unless he has his own official ghost hunter on backup.”
Allie blew out a breath. “He’ll come around. He’s not usually this suspicious of new visitors, and I don’t want you to walk away feeling unwelcome here.”
Hmm. I did have an idea of how to get inside the house without being interrupted, but it meant tossing away my plan to spend as little time here as possible. “Everyone else I’ve met here has been lovely. I mean, except the Reaper.”
“Glad to hear it.” Allie gave me a bright smile. “Tell you what, you can order whatever you like off the dinner menu and I’ll get Hayley to bring it to you. You’ve been stuck here all day because of this ghastly weather, after all.”
I shouldn’t stay any longer. I should fly home… but a warm bed and a hot meal sounded heavenly, and I never did have that drink.
I nodded. “All right.”
A hot meal was just what I needed, and by late evening, I was starting to thoroughly enjoy myself. Hayley, whose shift had finished, came to join Carey and me at our table, followed by Allie herself. Casper lapped at a saucer of milk next to the table while the rest of us chatted about the latest result of the national Sky Hopper championships. I might remain estranged from the magical world, but that didn’t make Mart and I any less prone to arguing about magical sports. It was nice to have someone living to talk to for once rather than rehashing the same old arguments with my stubborn brother.
“So are you staying in town?” Hayley asked.
“Just overnight,” I said. “The rain threw off my schedule. I flew here on a broomstick, and I’m not up for getting blown off-course over Wales.”
“There’s a reason we don’t have many flying contests compared to some other magical communities,” said Allie. “It’s all this mist. Plays havoc with visibility.”
Maybe if the ghosts went, so would the mist. Not that there was much chance of that happening with a nonentity of a town Reaper. It’d be a miracle if I could get rid of one ghost, especially with this so-called detective insisting on standing in my way.
“I bet.” I finished my drink. “I think I’m going to have an early night.”
Carey looked up. “Will you be staying in our inn, then?”
“I’m told there’s a room with my name on it,” I responded. “I should probably check in.”
I wouldn’t be going to bed for a while, but I needed to come up with a plan to get into that house other than wandering in that direction and hoping the detective wasn’t there. The Reaper wasn’t interested in the case, so there was zero chance of him being there, at least.
“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Carey walked in step with me through the glass doors connecting the restaurant to the inn’s reception area. “But… what about the ghost?”
“Detective Drew is more problematic,” I said. “He’ll probably be there first thing in the morning in all likelihood, so I doubt he’ll let us get into the house. But I have an alternative.”
“You’re going after the ghost tonight,” she said, the truth dawning on her.
“You bet.” I cracked a grin. “Set your alarm. We have a ghost to catch.”
5
While the bed in my hotel room was much more comfortable than the one back at my apartment, I didn’t manage more than a power nap before my alarm woke me up for our midnight ghost-hunting mission. I rolled off the bed, smoothed my wrinkled clothes, and conjured up my warmest coat from back home with a wave of my wand. Then I went downstairs to meet Carey.
Mart flew alongside me. “You haven’t asked if I had a nice nap, too.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you found another guest to haunt.”
He snickered. “It’s a wasted opportunity. Why live in a town full of ghosts and not use it as a selling point?”
“Not everyone wants a ghost in their room, Mart.” I climbed down the stairs into the hotel lobby. “Now shush. I don’t want Carey to know you’re here.”
He pouted. “Why not?”
“Because you’re a menace.” And because she’d be put out to say the least if I told her she couldn’t share anything about him on her ghost blog. The risks of drawing the attention of the Reaper Council via that route were low, but they still existed.
He made a sceptical noise. “Have you asked her mother’s permission to take her on a night-time ghost-hunting jaunt?”
“Of course I have.” I was hoping that wouldn’t turn out to be a bad idea. Given my previous experience with this particular ghost, it might be a risky move, but on the other hand, I didn’t have the heart to leave Carey behind. I’d promised to let her record the experience for her blog, and besides, it would be a good idea to have someone to keep an eye out for trouble. Like that detective.
I halted, spotting Carey waiting in the lobby. The last thing we needed was for my brother’s ghost to draw a trail of other unwanted spirits after us, but to my surprise, he held back and didn’t get in my way for once. Maybe he’d taken my comments seriously… or he’d decided he’d prefer to haunt the hotel guests. Whichever.
“Hey, Maura.” Carey wore her ghost goggles again, though she’d changed out of her school uniform into a thick coat and jeans. “Ready to go?”
“You bet.” I led the way out of the automatic doors. “Let’s go find us a ghost.”
Carey was wide awake and skipped alongside me as I walked back towards the grand old house. Hardly anyone was on the streets—hardly anyone living, anyway—but Carey kept pulling her ghost goggles over her eyes and trying to identify any passing spirits.
“Was that a ghost?” She pointed at a nearby shadow.
“Nope, just a cat.” I watched the black fluffy shape saunter away. “Probably someone’s familiar. Have you ever trained Casper to ghost-hunt with you? It might be worth thinkin
g about.”
She shrugged. “He’s too scared. There are rooms at the inn he won’t even go into.”
“You could play up the whole ghost angle if you wanted to get more tourists to visit the inn,” I told her. “I know that kind of thing is more popular with normals than it is with people like us, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Good idea.” She halted in front of the manor house. “I’ll ask my mum tomorrow.”
The gate creaked open at my touch, and we walked through the garden to the front door. Carey hovered on the balls of her feet as she unlocked the door with her homemade key.
“Okay, we’re in,” I whispered. “I think we’ll need to keep quiet if we want to get the ghost’s attention without spooking her.”
“Us, spooking her?” she said. “Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
“You’d be surprised.” I doubted this ghost had any particular fear of the living, but a fair few spirits were terrified to face up to the fact that they were dead. It was the Reaper’s job to convince them otherwise.
I was no Reaper, but I was the closest this town had to one, so the ghost would just have to deal with it.
“Mrs Renner?” I whispered into the dark hallway. I pulled out my wand and conjured up a spark of light in order to see where I was going. “Are you here?”
Silence. Carey edged into the hallway behind me, leaving the door partially open. I trod forward, using my wand to light my way, and caught sight of a human-shaped shadow in the middle of the hallway.
“Mrs Renner?”
I moved closer, but the shadow had vanished. With a flicker of unease, I recalled that this was the doorway where she’d met her untimely death. The frame had been cleared of debris, but parts of the ceiling looked unsteady to say the least. Maybe it’d been an accident after all and she had another reason for sticking around, but that didn’t bring me any closer to convincing her ghost to move on to the world beyond.
A distinct thudding noise came from upstairs, like someone knocking into a heavy piece of furniture.
“Anyone up there?” I peered up into the gloom. The stairs were as dark as the rest of the house, as was the upper landing. No way was the detective stumbling around in the dark, so if the sound came from a person, it wasn’t a living one.
The hairs rose on my arms, confirming my guess.
“Is she there?” Carey whispered.
“I’d say yes,” I returned. “Stay close behind me.”
She gripped both sides of her goggles and stuck to me like glue as I climbed the stairs. Silence followed us, though I kept my ears pricked for any further sounds from the ghost. My steps halted when I reached the top of the stairs, and a faint creaking noise came from nearby. I pressed my finger to my lips and took a step forward.
That’s when my foot went through the floorboards.
“Ack.” I stifled a yelp as the wooden boards scraped at my skin, and I found myself with one leg on solid ground and the other suspended in empty air.
Carey cried out. “Maura!”
“Hang on, I’m okay.” I hopped forward on my other foot, but my knee had jammed in the hole in the floorboards, jagged wooden splinters pressing against my shin. “Stay back, or you might fall, too.”
“But you’re stuck.” She caught my hands, and I half-shuffled across the floorboards, attempting to tug my leg out of the gap.
Something on the other side caught my foot and pulled back.
“Hey!” I kicked out at empty air, unbalanced, and my chin smacked into the floorboards, making stars flash before my eyes. The alarming thudding noises from below pushed me to the brink of using my Reaper powers to get out of the hole—but I wouldn’t do that if I had any other choice in the matter.
Carey lost her grip on me, sitting down with a gasp. “There’s someone coming upstairs.”
I twisted around on the spot and saw a large hulking shadow at the foot of the stairs. This time, I didn’t mistake it for a ghost, because it figured that the universe would send Detective Drew to torment me again. Just the person I wanted to see with my foot stuck in the floorboards and a cranky ghost on the loose.
“You again?” He tapped the light switch, banishing the darkness from the hallway and stairs.
“A little help, please?” I put on an ingratiating smile.
“What are you doing here?” He advanced upstairs, and Carey scrambled out of the way to let him pass by.
“Just hanging around.” Almost literally. I shuffle-hopped forward in an attempt to tug my leg out of the hole and succeeded only in whacking my knee on the edge of the wooden board. The curse that escaped my lips made Carey blush furiously and the detective raise an eyebrow.
“I’d feel pity for you,” he said, “but you’re the one who trespassed in a deceased woman’s home.”
“It’s not trespassing if you don’t get rid of that ghost.” I slumped down to catch my breath, and then looked up to find Detective Drew’s outstretched hand ahead of me. “You’re not going to give me a shove, are you?”
“Why would I do that?” He climbed past Carey, his hand still outstretched.
Oh, well. Not like I’ve got anything to lose at this point. I accepted his offered hand and let him help me tug my leg loose from the floorboards. I winced again when the boards scraped against my knee, and awkwardly placed my foot down on the top step. “Thanks.”
“So you’re not entirely without any manners.”
“Shocking, I know.” I held the banister for balance as I pulled myself upright. “Why are you here? Do you have nothing better to do with your time?”
“I had an inkling you might come back here, and it looks like my guess was right,” he responded. “You’re that sort.”
I propped a hand on my hip. “Excuse me? What sort am I?”
Did I really want to know?
“Trouble.” He stepped closer until we stood almost nose to nose.
Carey cleared her throat. “Um… what about the ghost? Was she upstairs?”
The detective broke his gaze away from mine and considered Carey. “Does your mum know you’re out here in the middle of the night?”
“Yes,” I told him. “I’m taking care of her.”
He eyed the hole in the floorboards. “Right.”
Annoyance flared within me. “Look, you don’t believe in ghosts, but let me tell you that you have one seriously stubborn spirit in here. If you ever want this house to be habitable for anyone else, someone is going to have to get rid of it.”
“And you’re volunteering yourself for the cause out of the goodness of your heart?” His words dripped with sarcasm.
“What does it matter to you?” You’d think someone who worked as a paranormal detective would play nicer with other people. “You’re the one who’s investigating a murder without even considering speaking to the victim herself, despite the fact that I offered to help you do so. Out of the goodness of my heart.” I returned his sarcasm in kind.
“You don’t seem to be making much progress with her.” He backed down the stairs, while I followed his path before our spirit took offence at him denying her existence by sending me flying downstairs or something.
Thankfully, the ghost stayed quiet. It seemed she was about as fond of the detective as I was—that is to say, not at all. He kept looking at me with that stern expression until I obligingly walked out of the front door into the garden, Carey trailing alongside me.
“How long have you been on this case, anyway?” I asked. “Because if all you’re doing is hanging around her house and not questioning people who knew her, you won’t get very far if you can’t see her ghost.”
His mouth tightened. “I came back to the house because her family has proven difficult to get hold of. It’s taken a week for her grandson to get in touch and confirm he’s coming to town to have a look at the house.”
“So someone is going to inherit the house?” I asked. “Good to know. Might he have been the one who bumped off the old woman?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “He’s not from Hawkwood Hollow and didn’t know she’d left no will dictating who gets her property until after her death. He didn’t even come to the funeral, and he isn’t due to arrive in town for another day.”
“Doesn’t make him innocent.” In truth, I knew nothing about the guy, but anything that brought me one step closer to figuring out the reason for Mrs Renner’s presence here was more than welcome.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss the details of my investigation with a stranger.”
“Don’t like outsiders, huh.” I glanced at Carey. “Do you have anyone involved in your case who can actually see and talk to ghosts? Because I thought it was pretty standard.”
Not strictly true. In most normal magical communities, the dead didn’t stick around for long enough to be of any use in a murder investigation. But in a place like this, where the dead seemed to have taken up permanent residence here alongside the living, then you’d think the law enforcement would have adapted.
“Standard?” he echoed. “We don’t get many homicides here at all. Not enough to make it worth involving outsiders and troublemakers.”
My brow arched. “You mean the Reaper? What’s his problem, anyway?”
He tutted. “I should have guessed you’d have decided to start bothering the other residents.”
“She isn’t bothering anyone,” Carey protested.
“She’s bothering me,” said Detective Drew. “What possessed you to send her after that old fool of a gravedigger? Let me guess… he ordered you to leave, too.”
“I see you’ve been taking tips from someone,” I said. “He refused to talk to me, uses his scythe as an ornament, and when I tried to ask him if he had an apprentice to take over from him after his retirement, he threw a cigarette at me. He makes even you look like a gentleman. Why’d he stop doing his job?”