by Неизвестный
“It’s all right, Anya.” Kyle was clearly trying very hard to soothe her, and Miranda remembered why it was that she loved her old friend so very much. “Everything is going to be all right.”
Now Anya’s gaze focused on Kyle, with a blur of motion as she twisted her head. “I’m a ghost. I’m a ghost and you’re a ghost. I’m dead and I’m a ghost and you’re a ghost and I’m a ghost.”
“Right, exactly,” Kyle said. “Now, just take it easy. You need to calm down.”
“Calm down! Are you insane! I’m a ghost and you’re a ghost and no one can see us because we’re ghosts. You’re a ghost and I’m a ghost and you’re a ghost and I’m a ghost…!”
Miranda took a step closer, starting to call on her inner reserves, that place where she would call energy from if she needed to do an exorcism. But then Kyle reached out, and his hand touched Anya’s, and that connection seemed to ground Anya in reality again.
She was a ghost.
She was dead.
“I’m going to help you move on,” Kyle said to her, “but I need you to calm down so that I can explain it all to you. We’re not going to get anywhere like this, Anya.”
“I don’t… understand what happened to me.” There were tears in her eyes now, shimmering in a halo of blue light.
“We’ll help you,” he repeated, getting her to finally stop moving back and forth.
“He’s right, Anya,” Miranda said, and both ghosts turned sharply to look at her. “We’re both here to help you.”
“You’re not a ghost,” Anya said, floating closer to Miranda, her feet barely skimming the floor. “You’re still alive, I can feel it.”
“That’s right, Anya. I’m still alive.”
“But you can see me.”
“Yes, I can see you. But I’m the only one here who can. I’m a psychic/medium, you see.”
“Oh,” she said, as if that made all the sense in the world. “You really can see me? I’m not alone? We’re not alone?”
That last question was directed at Kyle. It seemed to comfort her somehow to know she wasn’t going to be invisible, and alone, for all eternity.
“Yes, Anya,” Miranda said, letting her inner energies ebb away again, “you’re not alone. We’re going to help you but to do that we’re going to need you to try and remember a little bit about what happened to you. Do you have anything at all to tell us?”
Anya settled over to one side of the room, folding—more or less—into a chair. “I don’t. I mean I do, but I don’t. The weird thing is, everything feels a bit fuzzy. I know there was something going on, like a party or something.”
“Yes, that’s right. It was a birthday party,” Miranda said encouragingly.
Anya ignored her, lost in what was left of her memories. “I was out in the kitchen, yes, at a party… and I was sneaking a few sips of wine… and then someone came in. Now, that’s weird.” She blinked at Kyle, and then at Miranda. “I don’t know who it was. How odd is that? I remember being there, and I remember that person coming in, but I don’t remember who it was. They gave me a piece of cake. Chocolate cake.”
“Did you eat it?” Miranda asked, trying to keep Anya on the right track.
“I did. It was my birthday after all. Oh,” she said suddenly, her eyes going wide. “I remember it was my birthday. How odd. It was my birthday, and they gave me chocolate cake and I ate it. No, I ate about half of it, and I felt really strange. Like my throat was tightening up, I think. It felt like somebody was choking me. Then I was on the floor and I was really struggling to breathe. Then somebody was there, somebody knelt down, and touched my face.”
“Do you know who it was?”
“No, I don’t.” Her fuzzy appearance distorted like she was made of static, before coming back into focus. “I ate the cake, and I fell to the floor, and then everything went black. I love chocolate cake. It’s my favorite. The next thing I knew, I woke up alone and I screamed. Thomas couldn’t see me. Marvin couldn’t see me. There were police here and they couldn’t see me either. Then you were here, and you can see me.”
People always responded differently to waking up dead. Some screamed, some cried, some were too angry to do anything but rampage through the world of the living. Others were able to make sense of their afterlife. Still, every ghost Miranda had ever encountered forgot part of their past. Usually, the very moment of their death.
Anya’s experience wasn’t unique. She didn’t remember much of what happened to her, and there weren’t many clues there for them to go on.
“Do you remember everybody who was in the house?” Miranda asked next. She had Thomas’s version. She wanted Anya’s.
“Yes,” she answered. “The same old people. Me, Thomas, Barbara. Oh yes, Millie was here, obviously.”
“And Marvin Locke?” Miranda coaxed.
“Oh yes, Marvin came. Quite out of the blue, really. He shouldn’t have come here on my birthday. He and I had broken up so long ago. He shouldn’t be here, but I thought I ought to invite him in anyway.”
“Okay. Let’s go over your guests, one at a time,” Miranda said, hoping this might lead them somewhere. “Tell me a little about Barbara.”
“Did I hear my name called?” Suddenly a woman with curly gray hair and a knitted shawl over her blue dress, wearing a very angry expression on her face, appeared in the open door of the room.
Chapter 5
Realizing that she was simply standing there on her own—to normal eyes at least—Miranda felt like she’d been caught stealing. Why would she be standing in this house, talking about a woman she’d never met before? She racked her brain for an excuse while she wondered exactly how much of the conversation Barbara had heard.
“I’m so sorry,” Miranda said, when no good excuse came to mind. “I think I just had your name stuck in my head. Thomas mentioned you when I first came in. He invited us. My boyfriend and I, that is. Jack Travis. Detective Jack Travis, that is.”
“Is that so?” Barbara looked suddenly very concerned. “Thomas brought you here?”
“Yes. He did. Anyway, I think I got turned around. I certainly lost my way to the restroom and now I should be getting back.”
“Smooth,” Kyle joked with her. “You should give lessons in how not to have someone believe you.”
Anya began pacing again at the edges of Miranda’s vision. “This is the woman who’s supposed to help me?”
“Believe me,” Kyle told her, “she’s aces when it comes to helping. Just not so much when it comes to lying.”
Miranda put her hand behind her back so she could point at him very sternly.
“Well,” Barbara said to her with a wintry smile, “let me guide you back to the others. What did you say your name was?”
“Miranda. Miranda Wylder.”
“I’d say it’s good to meet you, if my good friend hadn’t just passed away.” Barbara showed her into the hallway, waving her hand back toward the front of the house. “Anya is dead, and I don’t know why Thomas is taking in visitors now. Perhaps you should leave.”
“Well, that will be up to Thomas, I think,” Miranda said lightly, as they walked with the ghosts trailing behind them. “So, how do you know Anya?”
“Oh, I’ve known Anya and Thomas for years. I suppose you could call us best friends, really. I suppose I’m something of a motherly figure for them.”
“I see. Do you live here?”
“My, but you’re a nosy one.” Barbara chuckled, but it was a strained sound. “No I don’t live here, but I stay here a lot. I still have my own place, but I rattle around in it these days and I do so like company. That’s why I enjoyed being over here at Thomas and Anya’s home.”
“Funny,” Anya said, whispering to Miranda even though she could have screamed and Barbara still wouldn’t have heard it. “Whenever she came over she always ignored me. If she liked coming here, it was because of my boyfriend. Or his money!”
Miranda listened, tucking that information away, but wanting to
ask Barbara more questions before they got back to Jack and Thomas and she missed her opportunity. “So how did you know Marvin Locke?”
“I only met him yesterday at the party. But that was enough to know I don’t trust him.” Barbara’s face darkened a little. “I mean, showing up like that, completely out of the blue, and on Anya’s birthday. He had to know how awkward that would be.”
“There was no explanation?”
“Well, I’m not one to spread gossip,” she told Miranda, rather unconvincingly, “but I got the impression that he seemed rather upset with Thomas. Almost as if he didn’t expect to see him here.” Barbara shrugged. “Anyway, here’s the front room… oh my. Thomas isn’t here. Well. You just stay put while I go find him and then we’ll see if you’re staying or not, won’t we?”
“What do you think of Barbara?” Kyle said once the older woman had left. Miranda had the impression the question was being asked equally to her, and to Anya.
“I think she’s definitely hiding something,” Miranda said, folding her arms. “Anya, could Barbara have been the one who brought you the piece of cake?”
“I’ve no idea,” Anya said, throwing her hands up in the air and beginning to pace again. “I don’t know. I’m dead, and I don’t know who killed me. I’m dead, and no one can see me, and I can’t do anything about it because I’m dead and—”
“Whoa,” Kyle said in a soft voice. “It’s all right. Really. Let us help you.”
“What’s that?” Anya abruptly asked.
For a moment Miranda thought that maybe the ghost was drifting out of touch with reality again, but then she realized that Anya was staring at the baseboard on the far wall. Now that Miranda followed the spirit’s gaze, she saw that the board there was set loosely in place, not quite square. Like someone had removed it and then hastily put it back in place.
The ghost knelt on the floor, and reached out for that piece of board on the wall. She reached out a hand for it, but of course her fingers passed right through the solid object.
“Here,” Miranda offered. “Allow me…”
As she took a step, the house tilted.
She was sure she was falling, sliding across the floor as the whole structure pitched sideways. Falling to her knees she scrabbled for balance, for a handhold, for anything that would keep her from falling.
Then everything was fine again. It took her only a heartbeat to understand it had been a psychic vision, just like the one she’d had when she first saw the house. Was it a warning? Was it a message telling her that the house was in danger, or the people were in danger?
Or just that everything here was topsy-turvy?
Anya looked over at Kyle. “Are you sure she knows what she’s doing?”
“Usually,” Kyle said, a little doubtfully.
“Shut up,” Miranda told him. “I had a vision, that’s all. Just… shut up.”
She reached for the board and it easily came away in her hand. Behind it, in a shallow space, was a small wooden box. Surprised, Miranda picked it up. She set the board back in place and then stood up to scrutinize her find.
Just then the door to the room opened again and she had no time to do anything but drop the box in her purse so she could examine it later. If it was important enough for Anya to focus on, when she was having such a hard time focusing on anything else, then it was important enough for her to investigate.
Turning, she saw Barbara coming back into the room, her expression catty as she led Jack and Thomas in behind her. “I told her that she shouldn’t be here, Thomas. This is a house of mourning now.”
Jack slid past the other two and came right to Miranda’s side, holding her hand and giving her a quick hug. “Wait until you hear what I found out,” he leaned in closer to whisper in her ear.
Thomas heaved a heavy sigh, looking at the two of them. “Barbara, Jack Travis and his, er, acquaintance are here at my invitation. My girlfriend is dead. I don’t think it was natural causes. I don’t want to wait for the bumbling police around here to get a toxicology report. I don’t want them bungling the whole thing. I want a man who has some investment in this and who isn’t afraid to crack a few skulls in the process. I want Jack, here.”
Miranda’s eyes went wide at the way he had worded that. Crack skulls.
“Hey now,” Kyle said from behind her. “Is that a reference to the barfight Jack told us about?”
“Oh, yes,” Thomas said with a smug nod as he saw the expressions on Jack’s and Miranda’s faces. “I know all about the incident that got you kicked off the police force in the Northern Territory. Anya and I didn’t have any secrets. You were a bad boy in your younger days, Detective. I hope you’ve settled down a bit so you can give your full attention to my Anya’s death. Just not settled down too much.”
It wasn’t lost on Miranda that Thomas had called her “his Anya.” He knew that she used to date Jack, and Marvin for that matter. Marvin knew all about that part of Jack’s past, too. So then, why come asking Jack to look into this? He was still hiding something, Miranda was sure of it.
And why had Marvin come here on Anya’s birthday?
Those were all good questions that ran through her mind, she realized. If only Marvin were here for her to ask them directly…
“Hello?” a voice called out. A woman’s voice that Miranda didn’t recognize.
“Oh, for the love of God,” Thomas grumbled. “I forgot about paying our caterer. That will be Millie. Barbara, would you mind telling her to come back some other time for her check? I truly don’t want her here right now.”
Barbara seemed eager to throw someone out of the house and went to the door of the room like a woman on a mission. She wasn’t two steps, however, before a woman in a prim green dress and thick horn-rimmed glasses came walking in.
Right behind her, was Marvin.
“Hello Thomas, Barbara,” the woman said, “and uh, hello people I don’t know. Thomas, I found Marvin here wandering around outside. I remembered he was at the party yesterday so I figured you wouldn’t mind if I invited him in.”
“Marvin, what are you doing here?” Thomas asked, in a voice that definitely said he minded that he had been invited in.
“I used to be with Anya, too,” Marvin said by way of explanation. “I have a right to be here.”
“No,” Thomas insisted, “you don’t. But hey, what’s one more? Millie if you’ll come with me I’ll get you the check for your services and then I’d like you to leave, please. Barbara, if you wouldn’t mind escorting Marvin out of here? Perhaps then Jack and I will be able to speak more about the matter at hand.”
“Are you sure?” Millie asked Thomas, putting on a very suggestive smile. “I know how hard it can be to lose a loved one. I wouldn’t mind staying around longer, if you needed someone to… talk to.”
“That little vixen!” Anya exploded behind Miranda, in a voice loud enough to make her ears pop and rock her forward a step.
“What is it?” Jack asked her quietly, tightening his grip on her hand.
Of course, he didn’t hear that. No one did, except Miranda.
“It’s nothing,” she told him as she watched Thomas firmly rebuff Millie’s offer, and turn her toward the door to leave. “I’ll explain it later.”
She watched the expressions of all those involved. Millie looked disappointed, like she actually had expected Thomas to jump at the chance to be with her now that Anya had been dead for a day. She had to wonder if that wouldn’t make an excellent motive for murder. Women had killed for men since the beginning of time.
Marvin looked annoyed that he was being given the bum’s rush. What was his real reason for being back here, Miranda wondered.
And Barbara just seemed thrilled to be removing everyone she could, so she and Thomas could have the house to themselves again to mourn the loss of Anya.
Possible motives danced in Miranda’s head like sugarplums on Christmas morning. Too many, and not enough clues to point to just one suspect.
&
nbsp; The wooden box in her purse felt heavy. Could that have something to do with it?
Anya’s spirit dropped to her knees on the floor, and then sank a few inches through the floor itself. Her hands held tightly to either side of her head. “I want them all gone. This is my house. My house!”
Miranda felt for her, but she knew that wasn’t exactly correct. “It’s not your house though, is it? It was Thomas’s house.”
Jack looked at her in confusion, staring around the room that appeared to have just him and Miranda in it. “Who are you talking to? Kyle?”
“No, it’s Anya’s ghost,” Miranda explained, knowing they were going to have so much to talk about whenever they solved this mystery and went back home. “She’s here now, too.”
“Great!” Jack exclaimed. “Find out who killed her.”
“It doesn’t work that way…”
Anya flew up off the floor and right into Jack’s face. “Doesn’t he think that if I could tell someone who killed me I would! You always were so dense, Jack Travis!”
Jack blinked, and waved a hand through the air like he had just walked into a spider web. “Anya?” he asked weakly.
Miranda swallowed a lump of sour emotions. This was his ex-girlfriend. This was a woman who had meant so much to him that he had lost his job up in the Northern Territory over her. Now here they were, solving her death. The irony could choke a horse. “Jack, listen. I’ll try to explain all of this later but for now we don’t have much time. What did you find out?”
He blinked at her. “Uh, right. It turns out my old flame was broker than broke, according to Thomas. No money in the bank. No job. She’s been living off him. So I don’t think Thomas is our killer. There’s no financial motive, and there doesn’t seem to be any hint she was cheating on him. Not even with Marvin. Thomas confirmed what Marvin said; the first time he’d seen Anya in years was yesterday.”
“So,” Miranda wondered aloud, “why did he come here now?”
She turned to look at Anya, and Jack tried his best to do the same, even though he didn’t have a chance of seeing anything other than empty air.