by Неизвестный
“He’s still running!” Kyle said, smiling at Miranda’s red face and ragged breathing. “Boy, it sure is nice that I don’t have to breathe anymore.”
“Shut up,” Miranda puffed, as she kept after the four-footed ball of golden fur. Butter led them toward an outcrop of black rocks under an overhanging cliff.
Then the dog stopped dead in his tracks when they got there and Miranda had a sinking feeling. Once again, Butter began to whine, except this time it turned into a howl of anguish. Now Miranda could see that he was standing over the lifeless and bloodied body of a young woman.
Butter whined again, and laid his head down on the woman’s chest.
“Oh no,” Miranda said, breathlessly. “I’m guessing we found Alice Gill.”
Chapter 2
Just two hours later the sun had set entirely, huge police searchlights on tall pole stanchions shone everywhere, making the beach look like some sort of strangely unrealistic movie set. As Miranda sat on the back step of the ambulance, a blanket around her shoulders, she stared vacantly across to the two police cars parked side-by-side just feet away, their lights flashing a discordant blue rhythm.
“I thought we were supposed to be leaving all this dead body stuff far behind us,” Kyle said, most unhelpfully. “Isn’t that why we left Melbourne in the first place?”
“Shhh!” Miranda hissed, louder than she had intended to.
“I’m sorry,” a deep and resonant voice, which was not Kyle, said from right beside her. “If you’d rather not talk now, I can come back.”
Her eyes popped open with a start and she turned to see a well-dressed man standing next to her. His neat but very plain suit told Miranda that he was, without a doubt, a police detective. His physique told her that he must work out quite a bit between shifts. He was probably around her age, with dark hair and blue eyes that were highlighted by the backlights of the ambulance.
Miranda bit her bottom lip as she thought for a moment that it was very likely that he was, in many ways, Moonlight Bay’s finest.
Then she told her mind to stop wandering. This wasn’t the time.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t talking to you,” she said, steadfastly ignoring Kyle’s attempts to get her attention.
“So, who were you shushing then?” the man said, his eyes darting from side to side, clearly seeing no one but Miranda.
“Oh, I was just shushing myself,” Miranda said unconvincingly. “You see, I was just wondering what it all meant and I guess my thoughts were getting out of control. And so, I shushed myself.”
“Ha!” Kyle chuckled, floating in between her and the hunky detective. “Now that was smooth. He’s kind of handsome, though, isn’t he?”
“Not helping,” Miranda muttered out of the side of her mouth. The detective heard her anyway.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Um. I’m so sorry, I’ve just had a bit of a shock, you know? My name is Miranda Wylder.” She tried to smile in a way that would indicate she was entirely normal, and not a total loon. “I’m the one who found the body of that poor young woman.”
“Sympathy vote. Nice!” Kyle said.
Miranda stared intently at the police detective, determined not to take any notice of her ghostly friend.
“Sure,” the man nodded sympathetically. “I understand. Since we’re making introductions, my name is Jack Travis, and I’m a detective with the Moonlight Bay PD. I’ve been assigned to this case. I understand you’ve been through a lot, and I know one of our officers has already taken your statement but would you mind sticking around for a little while, just in case I have any more questions for you?”
“Sure, no problem. Erm, I was wondering, actually… how did that poor woman die?”
His expression became hard as stone. “I’m afraid I can’t really go into that right now, Miss Wylder. I’m sorry.”
“Oh yes, of course.” Miranda pulled out a smile for him that she hoped was friendly. “The ongoing investigation and what-have-you. Forgive me.”
“You’re already forgiven.” He returned her smile with a disturbingly cute one of his own before turning to head back in the direction of the crime scene.
“He is tasty!” Kyle said, staring after the departing detective.
“Oh control yourself, Kyle.” Miranda knew this Jack Travis was exactly Kyle’s type, tall and dark and built like an Olympic athlete. Unfortunately, that made him just her type, too. “Listen, Kyle, since you like him so much, why don’t you follow him around for a bit. You know, see what you can find out.”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t mind that at all.” Miranda rolled her eyes when he licked his lips. “I’m sure he’s the type to talk to himself in the shower. Best be prepared to follow him in there, right?”
She tried not to stare at him as she shook her head just a fraction of an inch. “Don’t you dare!”
“Oh, come on. Let a ghost have some fun. It’s not like I have a lot of social contact outside of you!”
“Kyle, so help me God, if I find out you’re snooping on cute guys in their showers I will find a way to lock your spirit into a little wooden box and throw away the key!”
“Bah,” he pouted. “You’re no fun. Fine. I will only follow him when his clothes are on. Most of his clothes.”
“Look,” she said to him, “I don’t need to know if he wears boxers or briefs. I just want to know why this woman was left for dead just up the beach from my uncle’s manor house.”
Kyle nodded his understanding, and with a little wave he floated off to become Jack Travis’s shadow.
Miranda tried to ignore the leering smile on his face as he went.
She heard a noisy scrabbling coming from beneath the ambulance and looked down to see Butter, the golden retriever, crawling his way out. As soon as he spotted her, he whined and joined her, sitting at her side with his head resting heavily on her knee.
“Butter, you poor little doggy,” Miranda said, and gently stroked the top of his head. “I wonder if you saw what happened to your mistress? I wish you could tell me.”
“Here boy! Come on Butter.”
The voice came from just in front of Miranda. It belonged to a young woman with luscious blonde hair and a pretty oval face covered with freckles. She patted her knees to get her dog’s attention, the blue haze around her spirit wispy in the breeze.
This was Alice Gill. At least, this was her ghost.
Butter was suddenly on his feet, his tail wagging furiously as he trundled over to the young woman. Dogs were able to see most ghosts, just like Butter had with Kyle, but this time it was his master. He was thrilled to see her again.
The ghost girl ruffed her hands through Butter’s fur, never really touching him. “We need to get home, don’t we boy… but it’s just the strangest thing.” Alice Gill shook her head from side to side as if trying to shake some sense into herself. “I just can’t seem to remember where I live. I don’t know how to get there. I guess that sounds a bit nuts.”
“No,” Miranda said, “actually that sounds about right. Alice, I need to tell you—”
She was interrupted by Kyle’s ghost appearing ahead of Detective Travis. “Oh!” Kyle said as he floated up to stand next to Miranda. “And here’s our special guest. How are you doing? Can you remember who did this to you? I swear, I still can’t remember the day I died.”
Miranda could have strangled him, if, of course, he had a corporeal neck to strangle. Alice Gill looked suddenly stricken, and the shock on her face almost tore straight into Miranda’s heart.
“What is he saying?” Alice said, directing the question to Miranda.
“I see,” Kyle mumbled. “We still haven’t had that conversation, have we? Well, no fear. Come with me.”
Kyle gently led Alice away and seemed to be hurriedly trying to explain a few facts about being dead to her. As he talked, Alice lifted her hands and stared at the pale blue shimmer that surrounded them. Their conversation was nothing but mumbling in the distance until Alice, s
houting hysterically, slapped Kyle across his face.
The sound of it was so loud that even Detective Travis stopped in his tracks, and turned to look at the empty space the two ghosts were inhabiting.
“How can you say such an awful thing?” Alice shouted. “What sort of cruel and awful man are you? I’m not dead!”
Kyle, for his part, wasn’t ready to give up. He kept murmuring about life, and death, and something about the circle of life.
Detective Travis was standing in front of her now. “Hey, you don’t look so good. Would you like some of this?” He’d brought her an unopened bottle of spring water and—bless his heart—a little packet of Panadol. Miranda took them both gratefully.
“Thank you,” she said, rubbing her temples. “I’ve got a massive headache coming on. Um. From the stress of seeing her like that, I’m sure.”
He nodded at that, and Miranda got the impression that he was seeing her as a weak and pitiful woman, scared by the sight of a little blood. Her hackles rose at that but it wasn’t like she could tell him the real source of her stress was the two ghosts arguing off to his right.
He set his hand on her shoulder, and his touch was warm and soothing. “We actually don’t need you to stay any longer, Miss Wylder, if you’d like to go home. Do you need lift anywhere?”
“No… um, thanks,” she said, oddly disappointed that there was nowhere for him to drive her to. “I actually live up there, in the house known as Ragged Rest. But tell me, what happens now with Butter?”
“Butter?” He blinked in confusion.
“Sorry, the dog. Alice’s dog. I don’t want to leave him here.”
The golden retriever had followed Alice over to where she was speaking with Kyle. His nose was in the air, his head bobbing back and forth between them, looking for all the world like he was tracking a bird to anyone who couldn’t see the ghosts hovering right next to him.
“I guess,” Jack said, scratching at his brow, “the family really ought to have first choice to adopt him, but I don’t see any problem with you taking him for tonight. I guess the poor little fella’s been through enough already.”
“Thank you,” Miranda told him. He smiled, and she thought again about how he might look out of that plain suit.
In casual clothes, jeans and a t-shirt or perhaps a pair of shorts! She amended her thought as quickly as she could, but the damage was done. Now she was picturing him in a towel after a shower, while she stalked him like Kyle was going to.
Thankfully, he left at that point to join his officer’s again, so he didn’t get to see how red her cheeks were getting.
Wanting something to distract her wandering mind, she went over to where Kyle and Alice were still talking. In case anyone was watching her, she bent down next to Butter and scratched under his chin.
“Am I really dead?” she heard Alice ask. Reality was starting to set in.
“If it helps,” Kyle suggested, “you can go and look for yourself. I don’t recommend it, but hey, sometimes seeing is believing.”
Alice put her hands up over her mouth. Her eyes were wide. She wasn’t ready for this.
In a blink, she disappeared from view. It was obviously going to take her a while to accept what had happened.
“Poor girl.” Miranda said, sighing.
Kyle grimaced and shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I didn’t handle that too well.”
“Never mind,” Miranda told him. She gave Butter another good rubdown as he whined for his missing owner. “Anyway, what did you hear about the investigation before you came back here and upset Alice?”
“Well, for starters, they don’t think that she was killed down on the rocks. It looks as if she was thrown down into the sea from the cliffs above, but we were on a good high tide earlier tonight, and it just brought her body right back in.”
“So, somebody out there thinks they got away with murder.”
“Oh definitely,” Kyle said, nodding. “And that’s not all they got away with.”
“Meaning?”
He leaned in closer, relishing his role as gossip-gatherer. “There’s an open wound in her back, and she’s missing a kidney!”
“Oh my God! That’s what killed her?” Miranda gasped.
He spread his hands apart. “Dunno. They said they can’t tell before the autopsy, but her lips and tongue were discolored. One of the medics said that might indicate she was drugged. Maybe she was drugged unconscious, and then had her kidney removed before she was thrown from the cliff?”
“One can only hope it happened in that order. My God, that is awful.”
Alice popped back into view beside them. “I really am dead.”
Miranda jumped. All her life living as a psychic, all her experiences with ghosts and the paranormal, and she still got jumpy sometimes.
Regaining her composure, she reached a hand out to the hazy image of Alice’s spirit. Her fingers slipped through the other woman’s wrist. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “Why don’t you come back home with me and Kyle. We can help you understand.”
Alice looked dubiously at Kyle. “You’re a ghost, too?”
He nodded. “Takes some getting used to, but it’s not that bad once you get used to it.”
“Why are you still here?” Alice asked. “Why am I still here? Shouldn’t we both be floating off to Heaven right about now?”
Kyle’s expression slipped, and the blue light around his eyes grew darker. “I wish I knew,” he said.
Chapter 3
Miranda sipped the hot tea as she watched Butter settle down on the old sweatshirt she had laid in front of the fire for him. Kyle and Alice had been talking quietly for some time, and Miranda found herself finally eavesdropping on the ghost-chat.
“But why are you still here, Kyle? If your murder was solved four months ago, shouldn’t you have already moved on to wherever it is we are supposed to go?”
“To be honest, Alice, I just don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m just worried that Miranda would get bored and lonely without me as a drinking partner.”
“As if!” Miranda called to them. “You can’t even drink anymore!”
“It doesn’t stop you from pouring me out a glass whenever you have a little yourself,” he shot back. Alice chuckled at that, and Miranda was glad to hear it. If nothing else, perhaps a little bit of banter would make her feel better.
“I still don’t understand,” Alice said, turning to look at Miranda. “Why are you trying to help me, Miranda?”
“I’ve had psychic abilities for most of my life. It lets me, among other things, see people’s ghosts. Like you, and Kyle. It’s no fun seeing people restlessly wandering, trying to make their way to the next stop on their journey. I have a gift. I think I should be using it to help when I can.”
“Well. Thank you,” Alice said in a soft voice.
Miranda smiled back. “You’re welcome.”
“Alice,” Kyle said all too brightly, “can you try to think back and see if you can remember why anyone would kill you to take a kidney?”
Miranda found herself once again wincing at his insensitivity. Kyle had a way of questioning that made Miranda’s toes almost curl back on themselves.
“I don’t know.” Alice was shaking her head. “It’s really weird… everything seems kind of foggy. Um, there is one thing I remember. It doesn’t have anything to do with a kidney though.”
“Go on,” Miranda said.
“I’ve got a really strong feeling,” Alice said, “I have just inherited some money that I didn’t deserve.”
“Didn’t deserve?” Miranda asked in disbelief. “How can you get an inheritance you don’t deserve?”
“I think I fooled somebody into it somehow. I can’t exactly remember it, but I think it’s coming back slowly.”
“Well, just keep thinking,” Miranda said, gently.
“Okay, right. Well. There’s a family in Moonlight Bay. Crenshaw is the name.”
“Yes, I’ve heard of them.” Miran
da knew the name from visiting her uncle here in Moonlight Bay in the past. The Crenshaw’s were one of the most influential and wealthy families in the area. They had a fading sort of wealth, but it was still far more than Miranda was likely to see in her lifetime.
“Oh! And I was in a relationship with Terence.” It was as if the thought had literally just popped into her head.
“Terence Crenshaw?” Miranda asked, with a heavy helping of disbelief. “But he’s in his sixties, isn’t he? You’re, what, in your mid-twenties?”
“Twenty-six. Ha. There, I remembered that one.”
Once again, Kyle flung himself into the investigation. “So, was Terence your sugar daddy?”
“No! I would never do that!” Alice said, sounding perhaps just a little too offended. “I’m sure I loved him. We were going to spend forever together only… only Terence died recently.”
A look of such complete grief passed over her translucent features that Miranda knew she was telling the truth. There had been real love there, no matter what the age difference.
“I remember his death was in the news just recently,” Miranda said, not knowing how the young ghost was going to deal with the news. “Some medical condition or other. I don’t think it mentioned exactly what it was in any of the articles I read but I remember it was a big deal for weeks before his passing.”
“Poor Terence. Oh! Maybe someone in the Crenshaw family killed me?” Alice asked. “I can’t imagine them liking me very much, what with the age difference and everything.”
“Know what I wonder?” Kyle asked, tactful as ever. “I’ve got to wonder if this medical condition had anything to do with needing a kidney. If the funeral has only just taken place, maybe the family are still in town.”
“And I’d daresay,” Miranda added, “that there’s a slim chance they might actually be staying at the family home? Especially since it would be empty after Terence’s death.”
Now they were getting somewhere. A visit to the Crenshaw estate the next day might put them on the right track to solving Alice’s murder.