Paranormal in Manhattan Mystery Box Set

by Lotta Smith

  When Dan’s eyes moved as if to search for Clara, she went to his side, slipping into Alice’s body again, held his hand, and kissed him on his lips. When Brian told him about that, Dan closed his eyes and kissed her back. Then he whispered, “I love you, Clara.”

  “Mandy, Jackie, Brian, I appreciate your kindness so much,” she thanked two humans and a ghost. “Rick, Mandy, have a happy marriage. Dan, enjoy your life to the fullest. And Alice, thank you so much for lending me your body.”

  Clara waved to her loved ones, slipping out of Alice’s body, and left the restaurant. She had a lot of things to do, and she didn’t believe in meddling with living humans’ lives. Perhaps she would visit them to celebrate if they had a baby, but she didn’t intend to bother them by repeatedly popping up like a nosy mother-in-law.

  But while that was her intention, it was not her fate…

  CHAPTER 1

  At exactly three o’clock in the morning, I was in bed, turning over for the umpteenth time. For some unknown reason, I couldn’t fall asleep. In fact, I didn’t have even a blink of sleep.

  Okay, so I was pretending not to know the reason for my difficulty, but I could come up with a few possible ones. For starters, I had a little too much espresso cake after dinner and a few more cups of strong green tea than the recommended amount at lunch. Also, in the past few hours alone, I had at least thirteen people visit me, asking about the whereabouts of their personal belongings and if I thought their spouses were cheating on them. All of them happened to be former residents of this upscale condo on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan I called home. The last straw was Mrs. Williams, who kept demanding I return her hearing aid. I kept telling her that I wasn’t the evil woman who hid her belongings, and I shared my hunch that her family might have forgotten to put her hearing device with her; however, she didn’t seem to fathom what I was trying to say—perhaps because she didn’t have her hearing aid.

  By the way, did I mention that all those people who visited me during these ungodly hours had been dead for years?

  My name is Amanda Rowling, née Meyer, a part-time secretary for my husband and mostly a stay-at-home housewife, and people, including but not limited to my husband Rick, usually call me Mandy.

  Anyway, I was trying my best to grab some sleep before dawn. Not that I had to get up early and go to work in the morning, but Rick had been busy since joining USCAB—United States Cover All Bases, a security-based conglomerate owned and run by his dad—and I wanted to do my best to be his super-supportive partner. Cooking power breakfasts for us had become my ritual since I moved in with him at this condo over a year ago, and I was determined to continue. Using knives and a hot oven in a sleep-deprived state wasn’t high on my to-do list. I tended to commit faux pas in the kitchen, like scorching eggs and bacon to a crisp, whenever I was short of sleep.

  Before marrying, I used to work for the FBI’s New York City headquarters as a special assistant. At first, I was just an assistant with a mission to keep my then-boss Rick Rowling, the sexy, arrogant loose cannon who loved nothing more than trouble, from wreaking havoc and destroying NYC. However, a little after starting my FBI career, I developed a special skill of seeing dead people and communicating with them, and my tasks expanded to interviewing murder victims and dead witnesses.

  When Rick, who was the head of Paranormal Cases Division and the only colleague I had, left the feds to join his family business, I followed suit.

  Even though Sheldon Hernandez, the head of the FBI’s New York City headquarters, offered me a lucrative consulting contract, I declined. At that time, leaving my life with the FBI, communicating with dead people and dodging frequent temper tantrums thrown at me by the deceased, and concentrating on being Mrs. Rowling seemed like a fabulous idea. But after the wedding and returning from our honeymoon, I wasn’t sure if I’d made the right decision. I presumed I’d stop encountering the spirits of the dead as I was no longer involved in murder investigations, but I was still having as many ghostly visitors as before. Okay, most of my current ghostly visitors died natural deaths, not murders, but I’d never expected that many ghosts would keep visiting me.

  I was horrified to find myself sort of missing my days dealing with the murderers, crooks, and crooked dead people. Okay, so having nothing to do with criminals should be the norm for most people, and when I left the feds, I couldn’t wait to spend my days without worrying about being assaulted by evil ghosts and bad humans, but…

  Jackie, the ghost of a slain drag queen, my BFF and self-appointed guardian angel, still popped up, and I enjoyed chatting with her. At times like this night, I definitely appreciated having her over to keep me company, but no thanks to having Halloween just around the corner, she’d been busy socializing with her friends on the other side of life. To my annoyance, Rick was fast asleep by my side, with steady breathing and occasional light snoring.

  I shut my eyes tightly. I even covered my ears with my hands to have a little quiet time. Gosh, I was in desperate need of some beauty sleep.

  After what seemed like forever of my renewed and failed attempt to fall asleep, I came up with a brilliant idea. Since you can’t die from just one night of sleep deprivation, I decided to forget about sleeping and tried to catch up with the latest mystery novel I hadn’t finished yet.

  When I braced myself to open my eyes and rise from the bed, I caught a familiar voice.

  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea, you know,” Jackie whispered to someone. “Mandy tends to get cranky when she’s awoken in the middle of the night.”

  “Oh I see. I can understand that,” the other person said. “When I was still alive, I really hated it when medical staff interrupted my much-needed beauty sleep. Well, not that my physical appearance mattered since I’d been bedridden for the most part of my final years.”

  “Is that you, Clara?”

  “Yow!” Jackie gasped like I always did whenever she showed up without warning.

  “Surprise!” I said as I sat up.

  “Hey, Mandy, you scared me so much! I almost had a coronary,” Jackie complained, prompting me to chuckle.

  “Oh hi, Mandy!” Clara beamed, waving at me. I waved back.

  On this special night, both Clara and Jackie were sporting witch costumes with the pointy hat, broom, and everything. Clara looked classy in her long black dress a la Morticia Addams. As for Jackie, her little black dress was embellished with a ton of Swarovski crystals, and the hemline was shorter than ever. With her fire engine–red lips and nails, she looked more like a club dancer than a witch.

  Clara and I smiled at each other for a few seconds until she tilted her head to the side, as if she was trying to come up with something sensible to say. She settled for “Trick or treat!”

  “Oh right,” I said. “Halloween’s just around the corner. Where are my manners? I should’ve offered you something. What would you like to have? I have some leftover espresso cake.”

  Being a ghost, Jackie can’t eat food normally, but I recalled that last Christmas Eve, she ate lots of fried chicken with her new ghostly friends. If I recalled it right, she and her friends said they can eat food starting from Halloween until the end of the holidays.

  “Oh no. That’s not necessary. Even though Halloween is just around the corner, it’s not like we can actually eat human food.” She chuckled.

  “Oh really?” I said. “But I recall Jackie gobbling a bucketful of fried chicken last Christmas.”

  “For your information, those chicken drumsticks were special food that people like us can eat and savor. We can’t eat your kind of food. But I think it’d be way cool if we could take espresso cake somewhere else and share it with our friends. Oh, by the way, I wasn’t gobbling the chicken. I never gobble food,” Jackie corrected me.

  “Oh really?” I said, yawning.

  “Did we wake you up?” Clara asked me, furrowing her delicate eyebrows.

  “No, you didn’t.” I shook my head. “Actually, I’ve been having trouble falling asleep, and
you’re not the first visitors who’ve come to me tonight. I had Mr. Larkins, Miss Summerfield, and a whole lot more, asking about the whereabouts of their treasure and my opinion about their spouses’ fidelity. Oh, did I mention that the most difficult visitor was Mrs. Williams?” I went on, filling Jackie and my ghostly mother-in-law in about the ghost whose persistence was aggravated by her limited hearing.

  “Wow!” Jackie’s eyes widened. “I heard most people stop having whatever ailments they used to suffer as living humans. Mrs. Williams’s situation must be very hard, I guess.”

  On the contrary, Clara was cool. “I doubt it,” she said. “She used to violate everyone’s personal space, complaining about the malfunction of her hearing aid, always asking “WHAT?” like in all capital letters. And then whenever you’d slip off something gossipy about anyone, she was the first one broadcasting said gossip all over the universe.”

  “Aha! That kind of person is always there wherever you go, and you know what? They’re really hard to get rid of.” Jackie nodded. “You know, Mandy, you’ve got to be really careful of such sharks. They’re everywhere in human society, and of course, in the ghostly one as well.”

  “Absolutely,” Clara agreed. “Especially in the upper crust you’ll have to deal with, you can’t be too careful.”

  “Um… I see.” I nodded. “I’ll watch my words.”

  “Hey, Mandy,” Rick growled, ruffling his hair. “I don’t really mind about the contents of your sleep talking, but I’d appreciate it very much if you’d stop talking like you’re having a party all by yourself right next to me in the bed. By the way, what time is it now?”

  “It’s three fifteen in the morning,” I replied, patting his arm. “Sorry about waking you up, but Clara and Jackie stopped over for a visit.”

  As the mention of his beloved stepmother, he sat up immediately. “What? Are you sure? Where is she?” He switched the lights on and looked around, as if he could locate Clara if he tried hard.

  “Hello, darling!” Clara waved her hands. “How was your honeymoon?”

  “She’s here and said hi. She’s waving at you and wants to know about our honeymoon,” I informed him.

  “Oh, the honeymoon was great. We went to this private resort in Kagoshima, Japan, and guess what? We didn’t encounter any dead bodies or murders.” He smiled fondly.

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “It was the first trip we got to spend time without talking about the victim or murder weapon.”

  “How wonderful!” Clara clapped her hands.

  As I relayed her words and reaction to Rick, he yawned again. “By the way, Mom, what’s the reason for visiting us at this hour?”

  “That’s because I’m a ghost, and as a ghost, I felt absolutely obliged to appear during the night,” she said nonchalantly.

  I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. If I recalled it right, our wedding took place in the morning, and Jackie always popped up whenever she wanted to.

  “So, Rick, darling, how have you been? Are you enjoying working with USCAB?”

  “I’m good, Mom. So far, I’m doing fine adapting to the corporate life.” With the help of his wife’s interpretation and navigation, Rick winked at Clara.

  “Isn’t that fabulous?” Clara cooed.

  “You know, Clara, I know it’s nice to catch up with Rick and Mandy, but perhaps you want to get down to business,” Jackie whispered to Clara as she peppered Rick with questions.

  “Oh yes. Jackie, thank you so much for the reminder. I was so thrilled to crash into my son and daughter-in-law’s bedroom, I’d almost forgotten about the purpose for visiting them.” Chuckling, Clara turned to me. When her face turned serious and she said, “Mandy—and Rick, of course—we need to talk,” I sensed the quiet yet distinct footsteps of trouble coming my way.

  “Um… of course.” I tried my best to sound willing and excited. “Okay, so you say we need to talk. Let’s talk. Indeed, we’re talking now, ha ha…”

  Why I was babbling, I didn’t know.

  Clara displayed a graceful smile on her beautiful face that reminded me of Grace Kelly. “Actually, I’ve recently become acquainted with a gentleman named Fynn, and I was hoping to introduce him to the two of you.”

  “Okay. Is he waiting somewhere in this condo?” Rick asked me as I relayed her words.

  “No.” Clara shook her head. “Actually, he’s not here. I suggested he come with me so he could tell his issue directly to you, Mandy, but he couldn’t move. Then I told him I’d bring my son and daughter-in-law to him, so you’ll need to come with me.”

  When I passed on her words to Rick, he raised an eyebrow but didn’t complain. “Okay.” He nodded and turned to me. “Let’s get dressed.”

  CHAPTER 2

  “No need to dress to impress, Mandy, darling. It’s not like I’m taking you to some party on Park Avenue, you know,” Clara informed me as I asked for her advice on the appropriate attire to go out in the graveyard hours. “Oh, but one thing about your shoes. You want to put on flats, as the place we’re visiting has uneven surfaces.”

  “Okay.” I fished a pair of Sketchers out of the shoe closet.

  “Brilliant.” Clara nodded and looked around herself. “This residence is both stylish and cozy. I like it so much.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “Jackie helped us decorate this place, you know.”

  “Do you like it, Clara?” Jackie chimed in.

  “Of course,” she responded, and I chimed in, “Why not?”

  “Wow! I’m sooo glad to hear that!” Jackie bounced, beaming.

  “Clara, did you live here when you were…?” I wasn’t sure if discussing my mother-in-law’s final days would be appropriate.

  “No. When I was alive, we used to live in a detached house on Park Avenue, which Dan still lives in. We had this property on lease, but I feel it’s found the right residents.” She winked. “Nothing is as good as having a happy family living in a property.”

  As we were chatting, Rick called to me. “Hey, Mandy. Are we ready to go?”

  “Yes. I’m coming right away!” When I hurried out of my dressing room, he was already waiting at the foyer.

  “Hey,” he said, “let’s get it done pronto so we can grab some sleep, okay?”

  “Um… okay.”

  As I nodded, I felt my heart pitter-pattering. Unlike his usual business attire with a dark three-piece suit and a crisp, starched shirt, he was clad in a casual button-down shirt and stonewashed jeans, holding a windbreaker. His style looked like he was ready to hit Central Park and have a nice stroll, maybe do a little window-shopping. Okay, so it was my wishful thinking—not that we didn’t have such weekends spending quality time together, but I yearned to spend more time with him. According to Mom and Alicia, my younger sister with way more experience in marriage, the honeymoon phase would soon wear off and I’d start enjoying more quality time by myself. Hmm… I had yet to reach such a Nirvana-like state.

  “Do we need to drive there, Mom?” Rick asked to the air.

  “Yes.” Clara nodded. “We’re going to the cemetery where my body was buried.”

  When I relayed her words, Rick muttered, “Good thing it’s not Halloween yet. Otherwise the cemetery would be packed with trick-or-treaters and tourists roaming around.”

  We hopped into his new four-seater black Lamborghini, with Jackie and Clara on the back seat.

  “Have you ever met Jean?” Jackie asked Clara, referring to a celebrity designer who died over two decades ago.

  “Unfortunately, no,” Clara answered. “Actually, my gravesite is quite close to Louis’s, but he wasn’t residing at the cemetery anymore when I moved in. According to the rumors, there are several theories. Some people say he’s gone for a long vacation all over the world, and some say he got reincarnated into an up-and-coming designer who gained his fame in the beginning of the twenty-first century as an early-teen fashion prodigy. Anyway, no one knows for sure. Even the hard-gossiping souls tend to care less about other people’s
business when they’re dead. By the way, Jackie, you said you’ve been helping Mandy and my son with their cases. How did you meet them?”

  “Well, I’d been wandering around my murder scene for years, and one day, I met someone who could see me and hear my words as well. This special someone happened to be Mandy, and she was working for the FBI with Rick, so I asked them to find my killer. But being way too dependent wasn’t my fashion, so I started working with them. And the coolest part is Mandy and Rick actually found my killer. Back then, I was stuck with the costume I had on when I was killed, but after that, I acquired the skill to change my attire.”

  “Oh gosh, being stuck in the same outfit for days is bad enough. You really went through hard times,” Clara cooed.

  As the ghosts chatted, the car went out of Manhattan into Brooklyn. After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, it took a little more than three minutes to reach their destination.

  At 3:45 a.m., it was after hours, of course, and the entrance was closed. However, the grounds were vast, and there were parts that weren’t covered by the fence.

  “Rick, could you stop here?” Clara asked as he drove slowly, so I relayed her words to him.

  The dawn hadn’t arrived yet, and the neighborhood was oh-so-dark.

  “Can you see in this darkness?” Rick questioned, stopping on the side of a long promenade that ran across the grounds.

  “When you’re dead, seeing morphs into a totally different experience,” Jackie said proudly. “It’s like you’re observing things with your mind’s eyes.”

  “Exactly,” Clara said, getting out of the car with fluid moves, bypassing the door. “We’re going this way. Fynn should be waiting.” Extending an arm, she indicated to the inside of the graveyard.

  “Okay.” I nodded. “Clara says she’s taking us to Fynn, who’s waiting for us inside.”

  Rick got out of the car, grabbing a large Maglite in one hand. “Mom, Jackie, make sure to warn Mandy of potholes and objects on the surface, okay?”