“Rosalie thinks your grandmother caused a lot of trouble. She thinks this is what Mintwood deserves after all of that,” said Josephine.
“My grandmother isn’t here any longer,” I said.
“We know, and we’re sorry. I promise, we’re going to help. We already helped put up a fence around the farmhouse. We can do the same for more of the town,” said Josephine.
I didn’t reply right away, I just frowned at my witch friends for a minute or two. Something Josephine said had me thinking.
“That might be a good idea,” I agreed at last. “I’ll look through some of Evenlyn’s books and get back to you. I would greatly appreciate any help at this point, whether it comes from the coven or not.”
Chapter Seventeen
When Charlie came home that evening, she was all excited about the case of the Bridal Shop Murder.
“I’ve been doing some research,” she said. “I called Henrietta again. When she saw the article in the paper today she was thrilled. Two of her friends at the shop know about the case and had been talking to her about it.
“They agreed with Henrietta that not everything went as it should have with the investigation the first time around. They’re hoping that this new attention will inspire someone to take a second look. When I called her, she wanted to talk about the car accident all over again. She also wanted to do a deep dive into information about the couples her sister had been working with the time of her death.”
“There wasn’t just one?” I asked.
Charlie handed me a few newspapers and started opening some of them to the pages with the wedding announcements. “I found these to go along with the information in the binder she gave me.”
I immediately saw a woman who looked familiar, though I couldn’t quite place her.
Paws jumped off his crate and came over to look. “She looks like she borrowed her face from a horse and forgot to give it back,” said Paws.
The woman did have a very long face and dull brown hair, but I frowned at the ghost cat. “No need to be mean.”
“Sometimes there is a need to be mean and sometimes there is not. I think in this case it’s debatable,” he offered.
As I continued to look at the papers, Charlie asked Paws how the afternoon had gone.
“This one has a lot to tell you. I was napping,” said Paws, pointing his little nose in my direction. “The long and short of the story is that I was almost rid of Greer permanently, but now I have to put up with her for a while longer. I must say, she’s probably going to be moving up the wedding.”
Charlie’s expression tightened when Paws mentioned the one thing I hadn’t told Charlie about. My fingers were gripping the newspaper clippings tighter than they had been a few moments before. I looked Charlie in the face and said, “I’ll tell you all about that on the drive over to the cemetery.”
“Okay. Are you all right?” she asked.
I nodded. I was all right. The day had just been very long. “So what do you know about these two couples?” I asked, to keep from having to talk about the incident at Betty’s place just yet.
Charlie shrugged and shook her head. “The anniversary of one of their weddings is coming up in a day or two. They both got married right around the time of year when Haley died. They’re both still married. The one who looks familiar was in the store the other day when we were there. I don’t know if you remember her.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “That must be why I thought I recognized her. I don’t think I know her otherwise,” I concluded after gazing at the picture for a minute.
Charlie shook her head. “I don’t either. They live out in the country, so it’s not as if we’re likely to see them around very often.”
It’s a funny joke about Maine that there are “towns” that would be considered country to most people. But then there are the further-out towns, and then there are the woods with houses in them. Visitors consider the entire state of Maine to be “the country.” Those of us who actually dwell here have a different notion of the distinctions.
“Also, is it okay if Hansen comes with us?” Charlie asked.
“Of course it is,” I said. “Is he on his way?”
She nodded. “I thought I could just give him the bracelet when he gets here. Nothing special. No big deal. Then he can try out seeing ghosts at the cemetery. You’ll be there, so that will help.” She was shifting awkwardly from foot to foot as she spoke. Even Paws was giving her a strange look.
“Okay,” I agreed, trying not to laugh.
She looked relieved.
“So what about the other couple?” I asked.
“That’s where it gets interesting. The other couple is the Robertsons. He was the one who investigated Haley’s accident, because he was subbing in for Detective Cutter at the time. They still live in town, but he has moved on to work as a landscaper. She runs an online business. She bought her wedding dress from Haley, and Haley was helping her as a wedding planner when she died,” Charlie explained.
“That’s interesting. I didn’t realize that the investigator at the time knew the victim,” I said.
“It isn’t a conflict of interest case. It’s just notable,” Charlie agreed.
“We have to find her ghost tonight and ask her about all of this. She can’t keep running away from us,” I said.
Charlie agreed with that as well, and then the conversation shifted to what had happened to Greer and me today at the abandoned house. Charlie was furious, and worried.
“It can’t continue like this! Mintwood is getting to be too dangerous for all of us. The dark ghosts are going to start coming after our friends next, and then what? Anything could have happened to you and Greer today! You barely got away! I can’t believe Rosalie isn’t taking this more seriously. At least Josephine and Scarlett want to help.” Charlie finished on a hopeful note, but she was obviously near the end of her patience.
After I told Charlie about my witch friends’ idea of putting a fence around the entire city of Mintwood, she felt a little bit better. But I could tell she was still worried.
I glanced at Paws, who had been quiet since I left him alone with Hillary. I wondered if she had sewed his mouth shut just to have some peace and quiet, but then he said something and I knew I was wrong.
“What did you two talk about?” I asked Paws.
“To whom are you referring?” he asked.
“You and Hillary,” I said.
“She was offering to assist us in our search for the dark ghosts,” he said.
My mouth dropped open. “No way. That’s amazing. Did you take her up on the offer?”
“I told her I had to discuss it with my lesser assistants. Neither Tank nor Kingfisher would appreciate it if I made decisions without them. Especially ones so monumental as that,” he said.
“How is that so monumental?” I asked.
“Allowing ladies into our midst is a big deal,” he said.
“I am sure she’s an excellent hunter. You’d be lucky to have her,” said Charlie.
“So you say,” said Paws, not giving anything away.
Just then Hansen’s car pulled in. We watched him get out and stroll toward the porch.
“Hey there,” he said, as Charlie shifted nervously and Paws just stared at him, even though he knew Hansen couldn’t see him.
“Hey,” I said. “So you want to come to the cemetery with us?”
“I hear there’s a case afoot, and yes, I would love to come if you don’t mind. Hello, Paws,” Hansen said, looking in the direction of the crate. His dark blue eyes were sparkling. He loved the chase of a good story just as much as Charlie did.
Paws looked surprised but recovered quickly. He stuck out his tongue and licked his chops.
Charlie glared at the shimmering ghost. “You’re behaving poorly,” she said.
“What difference does it make? He can’t see me anyway. We both know you aren’t going to have the guts to give him the bracelet,” Paws taunted.
Charlie took a deep breath. Then, moving swiftly so she wouldn’t have any time for second thoughts, she pulled the bracelet out of her pocket. There was indeed a green stone strung on it, and far from being delicate, it looked more manly than the jewelry the rest of us wore. I could see Hansen wearing it and liking it. He wasn’t the sort of guy who had insecurities that would make him hesitate.
“Here you go. Put it on! Then Lemmi will spell it,” said Charlie, her eyes wide as she moved it in his general direction.
She was staring at Hansen as if she thought she was doing something so scary, he might run away.
“Okay. May I ask what it’s going to do?” Hansen asked, taking the bracelet in a much more relaxed manner than Charlie’s had been as she handed it to him.
I pulled out my wand, and his expression cleared. “Will I be able to see Paws after this? Because that would be an honor.”
“You’re going to be able to see a lot more than that,” I said. “So long as you wear the bracelet.”
Charlie handed it over and sat down on the steps, her expression more like that of a kid at Christmas than anything else. She had given the present, and she really wanted somebody to like it. Meanwhile, Hansen’s expression was hard to read. He put the bracelet on and waited. I stepped forward with my wand and tapped the bracelet.
There was no going back now.
Chapter Eighteen
We watched the reporter closely.
Hansen’s dark blue eyes watched closely as green light flared in the stone around his wrist, and in my wand.
I went back to sit on the creaking porch steps alongside Charlie. After a moment, Hansen raised his eyes to the porch. But he wasn’t looking at me or at Charlie, he was looking at Paws.
The cat remained motionless on his crate.
“Good evening,” said Hansen. He sounded honestly shocked.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Paws. “Everybody stares at first. Everybody is astounded by my beauty and grace. You will get used to it. If you’re lucky.”
Charlie twisted around. “You are the most ridiculous ghost I have ever come across,” she declared. “Sometimes I think you’re trying, and other times I realize you’re not.”
The ghost cat merely shrugged. “I suppose so. Although this doesn’t come naturally to me.” He turned from Charlie to Hansen and demanded, “Why don’t you look around and stop staring?”
The Chronicle reporter finally roused himself to obey Paws. When he looked away from the porch and around the yard, his mouth fell open. The evening was aglitter with ghosts. Karen and the other tea ladies were strolling across the lawn. In the distance there was the shape of a deer. A few birds were flying around, being very careful to stay away from Paws.
Hansen just kept turning and turning, looking this way and that. When Karen finally realized that there was something odd going on, she glared at Hansen in a way I had never seen before. Then her eyes met mine and she just shook her head, as if to say how much trouble I caused. I thought maybe she should talk to Madame Rosalie.
Finally, Hansen turned back to Charlie with a smile covering his face. “This is unbelievable. All of this is coming from the bracelet. Is it some sort of joke or hologram?”
“I don’t think we’re fancy enough for holograms,” said Charlie dryly.
Blush stained Hansen’s cheeks. “No, I suppose not. My apologies. This is just amazing.”
“He sounds just like everyone else,” Paws drawled.
“What was it like when you first saw ghosts?” he asked Charlie.
“I was shocked,” she admitted, “but it all made sense. When I understood what Lemmi was, and that her ability would allow us to help people, it became all the more important that I could use these powers responsibly. I have never looked back.”
“Could you solve cold cases with this?” he asked.
“We have from time to time,” I said.
“What about talking to family members who have passed away?” he asked.
“They would have to be here. That’s what the spell is for. It’s keyed to me. The further away you go, the more difficult it is. For example, you couldn’t travel to California and talk to your great aunt who passed away out there,” I explained.
Hansen was nodding. This information didn’t appear to bother him in the least. “Now we’re going to the Mintwood cemetery? There are going to be a lot of ghosts.”
“Yes, that’s the point,” said Paws. Hansen glanced at him and nodded. He was too preoccupied with what he had just learned to take offense.
“Shall we get going?” Charlie offered. She looked as if she wanted to stand up and get into a car with Hansen about as much a she wanted to dye her hair orange.
Hansen pivoted enthusiastically and made for Charlie’s Volvo. Paws, Charlie, and I followed along.
Hansen chatted with Paws for the entire drive. At first the cat was reluctant to speak with the young whippersnapper reporter. When he realized that Hansen’s curiosity was genuine and that his questions gave Paws a chance to monopolize the airspace, he dove right in.
Charlie was sitting with me in the front seat. She kept glancing at the rearview mirror, her hands clenched and her eyes blinking frequently. Every time we heard Hansen’s voice she started a bit.
Luckily, the local cemetery wasn’t far away.
Hansen and Paws got out of the car first. In the moment of privacy that followed, I turned to Charlie. Before she could utter a word I said, “Keep an eye on him.”
“I think once we talk to a few ghosts he’ll get used to it,” she suggested.
“I hope so,” I said.
There weren’t a lot of ghosts visible as we made our way into the cemetery, not even Funnel.
Then I saw Rebecca in the distance, the same ghost that had distracted us to give Haley a chance to get away.
Hansen was still looking around as if he were walking through a city of pure gold. His head kept turning and his eyes were wide. Paws walked alongside him, glancing up again and again as if he was worried that Hansen was about to run off.
Charlie stayed on Hansen’s other side, also doing her bit to look after the reporter. The only trouble with that arrangement was that I needed help finding Haley. But I knew Charlie would be keeping her eyes open for the missing ghost, so I decided not to interfere.
Rebecca started to move away as soon as she saw us. I quickened my steps without worrying about whether my friends were keeping up. Rebecca was going to stay in my sights no matter what. If I had to use my wand, I would.
“I want to talk to you,” I called out.
“That’s why I’m running away,” was her retort.
A few ghosts looked like they were thinking about getting in my way. I gave them cutting glances and they changed their minds. They could see clearly enough that this wasn’t the time to interrupt us in our quest.
“We need to talk to Haley. You need to help us. We’re out of time trying to figure this out without speaking to her directly,” I said.
“She died two years ago. You have all the time in the world. Maybe not if that reporter keeps writing articles, but otherwise you would,” Rebecca shot back.
I glanced over my shoulder at Charlie, who was still walking with Hansen but who could hear us perfectly well. Now that Hansen saw us talking, he was more focused. He stopped looking at every ghost in sight and listened carefully to what Rebecca was saying.
Hansen’s ability to appear attentive and then say the right thing was a skill that I wished I had. By contrast, I usually started by putting my foot in my mouth. Charlie was difficult in conversations in her own inimitable way. She always asked the hard question first, when sometimes it might have been better to start with an easy one.
“How long have you known Haley?” Hansen asked.
Curious about the new addition to the group of humans who’d come to speak with her, Rebecca suddenly stopped moving away from us. She was so distracted by Hansen that she acted as if she had forgotten I was chasing her. Maybe it wa
s that humans so rarely actually spoke to her, and a new one who wasn’t even a witch was more than her curiosity could resist.
“I got here first,” she said. “Haley was a bit shy to begin with. She wanted to start a dress shop. She wanted to look in on her sister. She wanted to do what a lot of ghosts do, which is go back to being a living human being. But eventually she settled in. She joined the knitting circle. That made her feel more at home.”
“Does she like to knit?” Hansen asked. He had come up next to me, but his attention was still on the stocky Rebecca.
“Why couldn’t you have been this pleasant when you came before?” she asked me.
Before I could offer a retort that inevitably would not be helpful, Charlie cut in said, “We’re here again. Trying to be pleasant. We think Haley was murdered two years ago. Now we want to find out why, and we need help.”
“That’s all well and good, but now that she’s dead, who cares?” Rebecca demanded.
“Don’t you want her murderer brought to justice?” I asked.
Rebecca shrugged as if she truly didn’t care.
“My friends said that Haley ran away the last time they were here. Why would she run if there would be no ramifications to her talking with them? Someone else is still in danger, or something else is still going on. We just need to talk with her,” said Hansen.
He had shifted remarkably well into speaking with a ghost. Paws would probably take the credit for preparing him, but I could worry about that later.
Charlie didn’t bat an eyelash as Rebecca considered us and finally nodded. “Very well. I accept. You might be right, and I shouldn’t stand in your way. At least not yet. Haley thought you might come back, so she went over to the old part of the cemetery. Visiting with ghosts from the eighteen hundreds always helps.”
“I’ll try to member that,” I said. “And thank you.”
The three of us made our way to the oldest part of the cemetery, where the gravestones were shorter and more weathered than in the other sections. The names were harder to read and those who were buried there had few, if any, visitors. It was quiet and peaceful in its way, I thought.
Mysterious Mintwood Murmurs Page 11