by Неизвестный
Ghosts, Miranda thought to herself sarcastically. Which reminded her… she peered sneakily into the bedroom, wondering if there would be any sign of Eleanor’s ghost. Seeing nothing except the officers going about their business, she wondered where the woman’s spirit could be. Perhaps she had already moved on? Perhaps not every ghost in Australia would end up living with her in Ragged Rest after all.
“Jack, there’s a syringe here,” she heard one of the officers say. They’d been searching the room for nearly twenty minutes now and apparently they’d found something.
“Well, leave it just where it is,” Jack directed. “I don’t want you accidentally pricking yourself with it, understood? We’ve logged this pile of paperwork on the bed, haven’t we?”
“Yeah,” a younger officer said, flipping pages in his notebook. “Erm, there’s a will. Then there’s some sort of medical paperwork, something about a transplant. Kidney, by the looks of it.”
Miranda was surprised to hear that everything she had put back in the drawer was now laid out prominently upon the bed. Had the killer gone through that paperwork as well?
As Miranda kept watching, she saw Alice suddenly appear at the side of Eleanor’s body. The young woman looked down at her and sighed sadly.
“I know she was a mean old bat, but she didn’t deserve this,” Alice said, surprising Miranda with her sympathy. “All of this is my fault. All of it. There’s more I need to tell you.”
Miranda stepped away from the door, realizing she’d been pressing her luck anyway. Soon enough one of the officers was going to come along and forcibly remove her if she kept spying on them. Back in the hallway she took a dozen or so steps down the hall and waited for Alice and Kyle to fade through the wall next to her.
When she did, the young woman’s ghostly expression was fuzzier than usual. “I didn’t cheat on Faith because I was in love with Terence. I only did it to get at the family fortune and I was playing the trophy girlfriend. But you see, that wasn’t enough for me. I couldn’t guarantee that Terence would change his will for me. In fact, he didn’t right away.” Alice looked down at the floor again. “Joel did.”
“Joel?” Kyle said, his tone carrying everything that was running through Miranda’s mind. “Joel Stephens? The Crenshaw’s attorney?”
Alice began to rub at her forehead as if the memories were popping in her mind one at a time. “Yes. I seduced him too, you see. It didn’t take much. He’s a bit of a letch, to be honest, and he forged a new will in no time. Anyway, in the end, Terence changed his will anyway. He loved me, and still I could not help myself. I wanted more. I had a copy of the forged will, and even though I no longer needed it, I sent a letter to Joel, blackmailing him. I threatened to show everybody the forgery if he didn’t start sending me money.” She faded in and out of focus, obviously upset by her confession. “Maybe that’s why I can’t move on? Maybe I’m just too evil and too greedy?”
Kyle patted her arm encouragingly. “Just keep going, Alice. We need to get to the end of this. There’s no sense in going into the rights and wrongs of it all now.”
Miranda wasn’t sure she entirely agreed with that, but she let it go.
With a sad smile, Alice continued. “In a minute those cops are going to try to get into that safe in the living room. It has kind of a dead man’s switch. I asked Terence to put it in as a sort of safeguard. I started receiving death threats. In fact, I was receiving them almost from the moment I started seeing Terence.”
“What’s the combination for the safe?” Kyle asked.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know if I’ve forgotten it, or if Terence came up with the combination and I never knew it, or what. He was as keen as I was to have it put in, so maybe the combination is lost forever with his death.”
Miranda turned, hearing footsteps in the corridor. Faith and Olivia were making their way to her, with Joel Stephens wandering along behind. Jack, obviously hearing them approach, made his way out of the bedroom.
“Sorry, folks, we can’t have you all up here.”
“I want to go in and see her,” Olivia insisted in a strident and demanding tone.
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t think you should see her this way.”
Miranda admired the firm but considerate way that Jack spoke to Olivia. She wasn’t sure she would be able to be that steadfast in the face of this rampaging, spoiled girl.
“But I’m family.” Olivia wasn’t giving up. “Don’t you need me to identify her, or something?”
Funny, Miranda thought. Just one hour ago Olivia had insisted that Eleanor was no relation of hers. Next to her, Faith stared down at the floor. She was obviously nervous. The poor woman was sweating and clinging to her friend’s arm.
“Oh, dear me,” Joel Stephens said from behind the two girls. “There’s just no provision for this. Eleanor hadn’t made her will yet, and since she will have inherited everything on the passing of Alice Gill, now the inheritance will switch to the next living relative. That would be Olivia, officer. I’m afraid she owns this entire estate.”
Jack’s smile was thin. “You mean, she will own it. After the estate goes through probate. If she wants to order me around after that, well, we can have a conversation about it then. For right now, this is my crime scene, and if I ask the three of you to step off, I’d suggest that you get to stepping.”
“He’s really impressive,” Kyle whispered meaningfully into Miranda’s ear. “Don’t you think?”
Yes, she did, but that wasn’t the point. She was about to wave him away when suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration. Quite where it come from, she had no idea, but she didn’t want to waste it. Turning her back to everyone so they wouldn’t see what she was doing, she whispered to Alice as quietly she could.
“When did you first meet Terence? I mean, what was the date?”
As soon as Alice gave her answer, Miranda called for Jack to come over, asking if he could help her for a moment.
He walked down to where she was standing, but he didn’t look happy about it. “Miranda, I’m in the middle of something. Whatever new insight or discovery you think you’ve made is going to have to wait.”
“Just listen to me, okay? I know where the most important clue is. I have the combination to that safe in the sitting room. It’s booby trapped. If you try to open it without the combination then you’ll just set everything inside on fire.”
“And who told you that?” Jack asked incredulously.
“Uh, that’s a little hard to explain.” There was no help for it. She was going to have to tell him the truth. “You see, I have certain psychic abilities, and the combination of the safe in the sitting room has just been made known to me. I don’t expect you to believe me, but I’m going to give you the combination, so that’s going to be proof that I’m telling the truth, right?”
“You’re psychic?” Jack hissed under his breath, his eyes wide. “Are you kidding me? This is what you’re laying on me right now?”
“I can only be who I am,” she said with a shrug.
“So all this death around you, this is just another day at the office for you?”
She shrugged a little shyly. “Events seem to find a way of putting me where I’m needed most. I like to think that nothing is coincidence.”
He was still studying her dubiously, but he nodded, and in that moment she knew he was the sort of man she could really trust. “Well, give me the combination. If it works, I’ll have to believe you, won’t I?”
Chapter 7
Finally, everybody was gathered in the sitting room. The safe had opened easily with the combination Miranda had figured out. Nothing burst into flames either, much to Miranda’s relief.
Now the only thing left was to reveal the killer. Just like the end of one of her crime novels. Hmm, she thought idly. Maybe this would make a good book.
Jack stood in the middle of the room, addressing everyone present. “I realize this has been an awful couple of days for all of you, but I think it�
��s best if we get to the bottom of everything now.”
Olivia and Faith sat on the couch. Joel Stephens sat straight-backed in a padded leather chair, his face ashen. Miranda sat in another chair off to the side, Kyle and Alice standing behind her, and Butter the dog laying at her feet. She’d rescued him and brought him inside for some water and a snack of hot dogs she’d found in the fridge. Since Eleanor wasn’t here to object anymore, Miranda figured the lovable mutt would be far more comfortable in here with everyone else.
Not one to mince words, Jack got right to the point. “Now then, Miss Wylder has made some surprising observations, and I’d like her to share them with the room.” He nodded at Miranda.
Miranda took a deep breath. “Well, firstly, Alice Gill was drugged before being killed, having her kidney removed, and then thrown into the sea.”
“Talk about a bad day,” Kyle said from behind her, reaching over to hold Alice’s hand.
Miranda ignored him. “Since a syringe was found in the bedroom with Eleanor’s body, it’s likely she was drugged before being murdered as well. It was obviously done by someone in this house. Connect the dots and I think that whoever killed Eleanor Crenshaw today, I believe also killed Alice Gill yesterday.”
Jack picked up a stack of folded papers from the coffee table. “These are letters that we found in Terence Crenshaw’s safe. They are from Alice’s killer, and I believe they also explain the motive. These are typed, so we won’t be able to get a handwriting match, but I don’t think we need one. Three people here, three suspects.”
Olivia, Faith, and Joel exchanged veiled looks with each other.
“Let’s go one by one,” Jack suggested. “Faith, you had a motive for killing Alice. She was cheating on you.”
The young woman’s face paled even further, and her hands began to shake.
“But,” Jack went on, “you had no motive whatsoever in killing Eleanor Crenshaw.”
Faith blew out an unsteady breath, and slumped back into the couch.
“And then there is Joel Stephens, Terence Crenshaw’s attorney.” Jack stepped closer to tower over the rakish attorney. “Tell me, Mister Stephens, is it true that you forged a will in Alice Gill’s favor after she seduced you?”
“What?” Joel sputtered. “No! I mean, well… but how could you have…?”
“How could we have known?” Miranda said, with a smile. “I don’t think that’s important right now. I think the important thing is that you admit it.”
“Well, yes I did. But that doesn’t mean I killed anyone.”
Jack spun dramatically, pacing the floor. “I believe you. While it’s clear that you would have had a motive to kill the blackmailing Alice Gill, again there seems no motive for you to kill Eleanor. So what we have is lots of people who wanted poor Alice dead and mutilated, but no one with a reason to kill Eleanor. Yes. Everyone seemed to hate Alice.”
“Gee,” Miranda heard Alice saying, “thanks a lot.”
Olivia leaned forward, her hands balled into fists on her knees. “Am I to take it, Detective, that you’re suggesting I am the killer? You’ve eliminated everyone else so you must be pointing the finger at me!”
“Well,” Miranda said, “let’s think about that. I did note, Miss Crenshaw, your rather sour response when I accidentally described Eleanor Crenshaw as your grandmother. Don’t you remember? You barked at me that she was simply your grandfather’s second wife. Obviously, no love lost there.”
“And then” Jack added, “there’s the medical papers. It was clear that your grandfather died when no suitable kidney donor was found for him.”
“So?” Olivia said, thrusting her chin out.
“So, each and every one of these threatening letters demands that Alice Gill should save ‘him’ with a donation of her own kidney, since she was a match. I think it’s fair to say that the ‘him’ described in the letters is your grandfather. You knew Alice had backed out of her promise to give up her kidney. You knew it was the reason your grandfather died. So, you have ample motive to kill Alice Gill.”
Olivia smirked derisively. “But as you said, everyone had a reason to kill her. That hardly puts me at the top of the suspect list.”
“Ah, but you had motive to kill Eleanor Crenshaw as well. You obviously didn’t like her, but that’s not enough to kill, is it? Of course not. You know what is though? Money. You sat through the reading of the will yesterday. You knew full well that with Alice out of the way, every bit of this estate goes to Eleanor. A woman you despised. A woman you considered to be an outsider. You wanted that money for yourself, and you were willing to do anything to get it, weren’t you?”
“I hated Eleanor Crenshaw!” Olivia exploded. “She never respected my grandfather and was always at him to make more money. More money and yet more money. She was just a spiteful, greedy old crow, and if she’d been kinder to him, he would never have fallen into the arms of that dreadful little Alice Gill!”
“I’ll take that as an admission, Miss Crenshaw,” Jack began, but Olivia wasn’t done proudly listing off her exploits.
“And as for Alice, yes, I cut out her kidney. It was vengeance for my grandfather. Justice, of a sort. She let him die when she could have saved him. She’d promised him that kidney, and by God she was going to give it one way or another. So I drugged her, and I strangled her, and I cut that bit of flesh out of her body.”
She giggled, and Miranda realized just how close to insanity the seemingly stone-hearted woman had gone.
“They didn’t love my grandfather! They were greedy, selfish crows, both of them, just trying to milk him for what he was worth. Grandfather was a good and decent man and having those two in his life killed him. I just couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t let them live! You see that, don’t you? You must see that!”
A moment later two of the officers were handcuffing Olivia Crenshaw and leading her away. Faith disappeared. Joel Stephens muttered something about attending to paperwork, and then he was gone as well. Miranda sat in her chair, pondering the question of Eleanor Crenshaw’s ghost. Why had that spirit never shown itself? She wondered why it was that sometimes ghosts appeared to her, and other times not. In all her years living with her abilities, she had never figured that out. Perhaps she would never know.
When the room was empty of everyone else, Jack came and sat down on the end of the couch nearest to Miranda. “Tell me something. Why did you tell me about being psychic? I would think you’d keep something like that to yourself.”
“I didn’t have a choice.” Miranda shrugged. “If I hadn’t told you the truth of it all, how could I have told you about the combination? Sometimes you just have to take a chance on someone.”
For some reason she couldn’t meet his gaze. There was an odd sensation in her chest with him sitting this close. Across the room she saw Kyle beaming at her, and she tried to motion with her head for him to get lost. He studiously ignored her, sending her a wink instead.
“Does anybody else in Moonlight Bay know about your abilities?” Jack asked, obviously interested.
“Just a couple of friends that I’ve met since I’ve been here. There’s Sapphire, she owns a little occult shop in the town. You know, incense and crystals and what-have-you. Obviously, she believes in me. And then there’s a friend of hers, a man called Jean-Paul Devereux. He is completely skeptical, but very nice about it. And they are both very, very discreet.”
Miranda hoped he caught her meaning. This was something she didn’t want to get out. She knew from experience what happened once she got labeled as that crazy woman who thought she could talk to spirits. She preferred to live a simple life where she could just be Miranda Wylder, crime novelist.
“So, I’m guessing,” Jack said to her cautiously, “that the things you were able to tell me about this case actually came from… what? Do you have an open line to the spirit world or what?”
“Well, yes… something like that.” Miranda was surprised that he was being this open-minded about things and i
t was probably best just to leave it at that for now. No use scaring him needlessly with confessions of being able to see and speak to ghosts.
She looked over to where the ghosts were hovering and she was just in time to see Alice smiling as she dissolved away slowly into the air. Alice lifted her hand in a little wave and said, “Please look after Butter for me. I am going to miss that dog…” Her voice trailed away as she dissipated completely. She had found her way to the next plane of existence. Alice Gill had moved on.
Miranda looked back toward Jack with a little smile and found him regarding her intently. The serious look on his face dissolved into an answering smile.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind hearing more about all of… um… that some time,” Jack offered. “I have to admit, I’m very intrigued.”
“I think I’d like that,” Miranda said with a smile. “Maybe, uh, you could call me. Someday. When you’re not working, I mean.”
Suddenly she was babbling like a teenager with a crush. Don’t be silly, Miranda told herself. He’s a guy, you’re a woman, just act your age!
“Here,” he said, taking a card out of his jacket. He turned it over, and produced a pen from another pocket, and began writing. “This is my mobile number. I’m free this Friday. If you’re up for it, give me a call. We’ll grab a coffee or something.”
She took the card from his hand. “I like coffee. I’ll be glad to have another friend in this town, too.”
“Especially such a handsome one,” Kyle added before fading away through a wall. He did that on purpose, Miranda knew, so she couldn’t throw something heavy through his translucent face.
He wasn’t wrong, though.
Jack smiled at her, and she was afraid he was reading her thoughts until he pointed down at Butter. “It looks like you have more than one new friend. You’re going to keep him?”
“Yes, of course.” Miranda reached down to pat the dog’s head. He was quiet, now that Alice’s spirit had moved on. “The poor boy has lost his owner and it would be very unkind to send him to the pound. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else who wants to keep him.”