by Bobbi Holmes
The ghosts all stopped talking and turned to face Danielle.
“See, I told you she can see and hear us,” one of the ghosts said. It was the first ghost Danielle had seen before the others had arrived. In her mind she had named him First Ghost.
“Please tell me what happened to you all.” She then turned to the ghost whose identity was still a mystery. “And who are you?”
“If you would have told them that when you first arrived, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Chase grumbled at First Ghost.
First Ghost rolled his eyes at Chase and then turned to face Danielle. “I suppose it’s time I identified myself. None of this turned out as I had hoped.”
“Get on with it, Randy,” Phoebe snapped.
Danielle frowned. “Randy?”
First Ghost, who looked like a man in his early twenties, bowed briefly at his waist and said, “The name is Randy Adair. Pleasure to meet you, Danielle Marlow.”
“Randy Adair?” Danielle frowned. “Wasn’t that the name of Birdie’s husband?”
“One and the same,” Randy said.
“If you’re confused about his appearance,” Phoebe said, “the man has always been ridiculously vain. Of course he would come back as a vision of his younger self.”
Randy turned angrily to Phoebe. “I told you, this is not my fault! I didn’t even know I looked like this! It’s not like I can look in a mirror and check myself out now that I’m dead.”
“That’s true,” Danielle said. “A spirit, with some practice, can assume the appearance of his former self at various ages. I suspect the reason you took on your younger version is that’s how you see yourself.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” Bentley said. “Randy never could accept the fact he had gotten old.”
“I’m dead, and so are all of you, so what’s it matter now?” Randy asked angrily.
“Dead because of you!” Chase shouted. They all started arguing again.
Frustrated and still no closer to learning the killer’s identity, Danielle yelled, “Please stop arguing—and don’t leave!”
They grew quiet again and looked at Danielle.
“Sorry,” several of them muttered.
“Tell me, who is responsible for your death? Please tell me.”
“I suppose I’m the only one who can’t blame Randy for the predicament I’m in,” Teddy begrudgingly admitted. “Polly killed me. I have to say, I never saw that one coming. Didn’t think the girl had it in her. But she should never drink gin. Always makes her mean. Was my own fault for not paying more attention. I walked right into that trap.” He chuckled.
“You’re not mad at her?” Danielle asked.
“I was for a while, after I realized I was dead and remembered why,” Teddy explained.
“Who killed the rest of you?”
All of them, except for Teddy and the remaining unidentified ghost, said at the same time, “Birdie.”
Danielle glanced to Birdie’s closed bedroom door and then back to the ghosts.
The lone unidentified ghost said, “I should probably introduce myself. I’m Barry Reynolds. Birdie didn’t kill me, but considering everything, I’m surprised she didn’t.”
“Barry Reynolds? Seraphina’s ex-boyfriend?” Danielle asked.
He smiled sheepishly and said, “I don’t know why I’m here. I’ve been trying to move on since I had too much to drink and drowned in my spa like an idiot. This is where I ended up.”
“Why would Birdie kill any of you—and how could she? She can barely walk,” Danielle asked.
“She says she can barely walk,” Phoebe said.
“Birdie killed everyone except for Teddy? She was the one who drove over to Chase’s that night and shot him? Birdie killed Phoebe and hid her in the basement? But how did she kill Bentley? How did she get him down to the beach?” Danielle asked.
“Maybe I’ll tell you,” came an unexpected voice. “But first, who are you talking to?”
It was Birdie, who now stood in the open bedroom doorway aiming a revolver at Danielle.
Thirty-Seven
“Oh crap,” Danielle muttered, her eyes on the revolver pointed in her direction. She watched as Birdie stepped from the bedroom doorway, unaided by a cane. The pistol-wielding woman seemed taller than before, and by her stride it was clear there was nothing wrong with her mobility.
“Birdie surprises me more than Polly,” Teddy said. “Nothing was like I imagined it was.”
“Don’t do this,” Randy moaned, yet Birdie could neither see nor hear him or any of the other ghosts.
“Where’s your husband?” Birdie asked in a calm voice.
“Don’t tell her,” Phoebe said as she lunged toward Birdie, attempting to grab the gun from her hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Bentley asked dryly as he watched Phoebe repeatedly attempt to swipe the gun from Birdie.
“Umm…Walt’s upstairs in our room, taking a nap. Would you like me to go get him?”
“You told her? Why did you do that?” Phoebe asked, making another try for the gun. Her hand moved effortlessly through Birdie’s. “Of course she’s not going to let you go get him. Are you crazy?”
“Do you love your husband, Danielle?” Birdie asked.
Phoebe looked at her fellow ghosts and said, “Do something. Don’t just stand there.”
“Of course I do.” The nervous flipness faded from Danielle’s voice, replaced by a solemn tone.
“Then you don’t want him to get hurt. There’s no reason to get him involved in all this. Simply do as I say, and the man you claim to love will be fine,” Birdie explained.
Taking Phoebe’s challenge, the other ghosts jumped on Birdie, a wild tangle of swinging limbs and hands. The scene might have been comical, especially since Birdie stood oblivious in the midst of the melee, her aim steady and sure. Danielle then began to worry that one of the ghosts might manage to harness some energy and, instead of knocking the gun from Birdie’s grasp, cause her to pull the trigger.
“Please stop!” Danielle called out. “The gun might go off.”
* * *
The ghosts understood Danielle was talking to them, while Birdie assumed she was talking to her. Danielle’s comment made her laugh.
“What about Jackie and Julius? They could come down here at any minute. Hardly enough time to kill me and hide my body,” Danielle said.
“They aren’t here,” Randy said.
Birdie laughed again. “They left. I saw them drive off in the taxi from my bedroom window. They couldn’t leave fast enough. And I know Joanne isn’t coming back tonight. Seraphina mentioned it when she asked me if I wanted her to pick me up anything for dinner.”
“See, she knew they weren’t here,” Randy said.
“What about Seraphina? She could be back at any time,” Danielle asked.
“She wouldn’t hurt Seraphina,” Randy said.
“I would never hurt Seraphina,” Birdie insisted.
“See, I told you,” Randy said.
“Is she part of this?” Danielle asked.
“Absolutely not!” Randy and Birdie said at the same time.
“Then what happens when she shows up and finds you holding a gun on me—or me dead on the floor? Let me go in the bathroom; you can barricade the door with the coat rack and take my car. Leave, get out of here before she comes back. Before anyone else gets hurt.”
“That might work,” Randy said, looking hopefully at his wife. “Listen to her, Birdie. You don’t want to do this, love. Put the gun away.”
“Seraphina won’t be back for a while. I just got a text message from her. She decided to stop and talk to Chris. She told me not to expect her back for a couple of hours.”
“Would someone please go up to my bedroom now and get Walt. Hurry before it’s too late. He can see and hear you. Please! Before it’s too late! Tell him what’s going on,” Danielle begged.
“Come on, Bentley,” Phoebe said. “Let’s go get Walt.” The two ghos
ts disappeared.
“What are you talking about?” Birdie asked. “Are you trying to make yourself sound crazy so I’ll just leave? That is not going to happen, Danielle. Somehow you figured it out when no one else did. And I can’t leave you here to convince your friend the police chief to start looking in my direction. I suppose it’s a good thing you have a penchant for talking to yourself or I would have never overheard you rambling on. Quite fascinating what was going on in that little mind of yours.”
“Since we have some time—after all, you yourself said Seraphina is going to be gone for a few hours. At least give me a dying wish. Explain why you killed them, and how you killed Bentley?”
Birdie laughed. “I know what you’re doing. You hope that you can keep me talking, and then I might change my mind. Or perhaps you do want your husband to come downstairs, but I’m afraid you would be unhappy with that outcome. I’m a very good shot. He wouldn’t make it down the stairs, and then you’d be next.”
“You know, when you shoot me, blood can get everywhere. I’ve seen people who have been shot before. Are you sure you’re going to be able to clean up the blood and dispose of my body before Seraphina gets here?” Danielle asked.
“I was hoping to shoot you in the tunnel,” Birdie said with a pleasant smile.
“And exactly how did you plan to get me to the tunnel?” Danielle asked.
“You can go with me, or I will have to shoot you here and then go upstairs and shoot your husband. And when Seraphina returns, I’ll convince her some crazed killer came and got rid of you while I was hiding in my closet. Considering all the other deaths, I think I could sell that story.”
“That’s crazy,” Danielle said.
Birdie shrugged. “Perhaps.”
“I tell you what. I really want to know why and how. So if you just tell me, then I will walk to the basement, get in the tunnel, and let you shoot me. What do you have to lose?”
“If you want to know that bad, I suppose I could tell you. Let’s see…I guess I could start with Phoebe. She wasn’t a very nice person. Betrayed Seraphina more than once. She needed to go.”
“Good thing Phoebe isn’t here to hear this,” Teddy said.
“And if she was?” Chase asked. “What could she do? Give her a good sock? She couldn’t even knock the gun out of her hand.”
“What about Bentley?” Danielle asked.
“Bentley knew too many secrets. Overheard things he shouldn’t have. I couldn’t risk it. After all, he’d slept downstairs the night I got rid of Phoebe. I needed to get rid of him. It was rather easy. I convinced him to walk me down to the beach. Of course, he didn’t want to go. But I sold him some cockamamy story about how I just wanted to walk along the ocean in the moonlight, because that’s what Randy and I always did when we visited the beach. Offered to pay him to escort me. Told him it was hard to do it alone with my cane. I needed a man’s steady arm. Bentley was never one to turn down easy money.”
“How did you kill him?” Danielle asked.
“Of course I insisted we take a cocktail with us. After all, Randy and I always enjoyed a cocktail when walking along the beach at night. At least, that’s what I told Bentley. I just slipped a little something extra in his. Hit him not long after we reached the water. He was clueless. Once he was out, I removed most of his clothes, rolled him in the ocean, and kept him facedown until I was certain he had drowned.”
“I just don’t understand how you did that,” Randy groaned. “What happened to you, Birdie love?”
“And Chase?” Danielle asked.
“I have a good idea why,” Chase said.
“I considered getting rid of Chase when he made that pass at Seraphina. Dirty old man. But that’s not why I did it. He was getting too close. I wasn’t sure if he was just talking off the cuff or if he was baiting me.”
“Walt! Wake up!” Phoebe yelled into Walt’s ear for the second time. The two ghosts stood bedside in the attic master suite.
“Why isn’t he waking up?” Bentley asked. “I thought Danielle said he would be able to hear us?”
“I don’t know.” Phoebe shrugged. “I don’t get it. But maybe she was wrong.”
They heard a meow and looked to the foot of the bed. There sat Max looking up at them, his black tail twitching back and forth.
“It’s their cat,” Phoebe murmured before jumping back in surprise. “Bentley! Did you umm…well, feel that?”
“Did he just ask why we’re in here?” Bentley asked, staring in disbelief at the cat.
“It’s weird. I didn’t really hear him—not like he can talk, but—”
“He wants to know. He asked again,” Bentley said.
Phoebe stared at the cat and then asked, “Can you understand me?”
Max meowed.
“We need to wake up Walt. But I’m not sure he’ll be able to see or hear us.”
Max meowed again.
“He said he will,” Bentley said.
“This is so flipping weird,” Phoebe said.
Max meowed again.
“Because Danielle is in trouble,” Phoebe explained. “We need to wake him up so he can rescue her.”
Max didn’t need to be asked twice. He leapt from the foot of the bed to Walt’s chest and began vigorously batting his chin with both paws. It looked as if Max was in a boxing match and Walt was down for the count. Yet after a few moments Walt bolted up in bed.
“Max? What the hell?” Walt sputtered, now awake.
The cat meowed.
Walt turned to his left. There standing next to his bed were the ghosts of Bentley and Phoebe.
“Can you see us?” Phoebe asked.
“Yes, I can. I can hear you too,” Walt said.
“You must sleep soundly, because I was shouting in your ear and you didn’t budge,” Phoebe told him.
“While I can see and hear you now, the sound of your voice—the voice of a ghost—works differently than the sound of a living person’s voice,” Walt explained.
“Interesting,” Phoebe murmured. “And did the cat really understand what I was saying?”
“Yes. And I imagine you understood what Max was saying,” Walt said.
Phoebe grinned. “Wow. That’s pretty cool.”
“Before you disappear, please tell me who killed you,” Walt urged.
“Oh…” Phoebe cringed. “I guess we shouldn’t be standing around chatting. You need to get downstairs.”
“But she has a gun, so you need to be careful. Probably should call the police,” Bentley suggested.
“Who has a gun?” Walt asked.
“Birdie of course,” Phoebe said. “Danielle is trying to buy some time, keeping her talking before she takes her down to the basement and shoots her.”
Walt leapt from the bed and started for the doorway.
“Wait!” both Phoebe and Bentley called out.
Walt paused a moment and looked back to the ghosts.
“Didn’t you hear what we said? Birdie has a gun. You aren’t going to help Danielle if you get yourself shot,” Phoebe said.
Walt took a deep breath and said, “You’re right. Please come with me. You too, Max.”
Thirty-Eight
Walt asked Phoebe to go ahead and let him know exactly where Danielle and Birdie were so he would know what he was walking into. He didn’t want to go around a corner and come face-to-face with a gun-wielding Birdie. In the meantime, he made his way down the stairs as quietly as possible while Bentley told him everything he had seen regarding the situation downstairs.
When they reached the top of the stairs leading to the first floor, they found Phoebe waiting below, looking up at them. They couldn’t see Danielle or Birdie, but Walt could hear Danielle asking Birdie questions.
“If you start down the stairs, Birdie is going to see you,” Phoebe called up to Walt. “When you come down here, they’re to your right, by the bathroom door leading to the hallway to the basement. That’s where Birdie is taking her, the basement.”
“I don’t understand why you aren’t calling the police,” Bentley told him. “And what do you think you’re going to do? She has a gun. You’re unarmed. Do you really want to join us?”
I’ve already been on your side, no desire to return just yet, Walt thought. He looked down at Max, who stood attentively by his feet, looking up, waiting for instructions. Not wanting to be overheard by Birdie, Walt conveyed to Max what he wanted him to do.
“Okay, enough talking, I’ve told you everything you need to know,” Birdie said. “Keep moving.”
“But you haven’t told me why. I don’t understand why you killed any of them. What did Bentley know that he needed to be silenced for? And when you said Chase was baiting you, what did you mean?” Danielle asked.
“It’s none of your business,” Birdie said.
A loud meow caught Birdie’s attention. She looked down and smiled at Max, who was now weaving in and out of her legs, purring loudly. “Not now, Max,” Birdie cooed, no longer sounding like a coldhearted killer. Still holding the gun and pointing it at Danielle, she reached down and petted the cat under his chin. In turn, Max nuzzled into her hand, headbutting her palm.
“You have the sweetest cat,” Birdie said. “Maybe Walt will let me take him when I leave.” She looked down at the cat and said in a soft voice, “You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Max nuzzled her hand again.
“So what do you plan to do, just let everyone think I vanished into thin air?” Danielle asked.
“I think I’m going to tell them something woke me up, I looked out my window and saw you arguing with someone, and then you got into a car with them and drove away. It was dark, so I couldn’t see what kind of car it was. Walt will probably be grateful to me for taking the cat off his hands. After all, he’s going to be busy looking for you.”
Pearl opened her eyes and shoved the blanket and sheet off her. She glanced down at her body, still wearing the clothes she had put on that morning. Unless…unless that was actually yesterday morning. How long have I slept? she wondered. Rolling over to look at her clock on the nightstand, she saw she had only been sleeping a couple of hours. It was still early.