“I hope it doesn’t interfere with the competition for your sake.” I wished I could take that back immediately after I’d said it.
“Nothing is going to interfere with the competition, Ms. Adair.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I don’t care how you meant it, but if you continue to treat us with suspicion, I’m going to ask they remove you from the judge list.”
I stopped, turned around, and looked at her. “Do what you must.”
I made sure to check every possible area for knives that matched or were similar to the one Del showed me. I counted six, not seven on the work table. “You know you can have one more knife, right?” I counted her forks also. “And two more forks.”
“Jesse left his favorite knife at home. That’s where he went.”
I signed off on her paperwork and rushed out of her booth. I called Olivia on the way to my car.
“Hey Miss Chantilly, what’s up?”
“Olivia, I had to run out, but I’ll be back, okay?”
“Um, I...I guess. What about the booth checks?”
“I’m going to need you to finish up my side. I’m sorry. Maybe one of the other judges can help?”
“I’ll take care of it. Is everything all right?”
“Yes, it’s fine. I’ll be back soon.”
I headed straight to Jesse Lye’s house, but made one more call on my way.
Del called as I stepped out of my car in the Lye’s driveway. I clicked decline and walked at a fast clip to his front door.
“Be right there,” he hollered from inside. When he opened the door, his anticipating smile dropped into an annoyed grimace. “I’m heading there now. Julia called me. I had a feeling you’d show up here.”
That just led me to believe he was guilty, but I already thought that anyway. “Why would you think I was coming here?”
“You counted the knives and one is missing. Bobby Pruitt was stabbed. Everyone knows that now. What do you think we think?”
“Did you do it?”
A car pulled up behind me. We both looked at it and said in unison, “I called the police.”
“Wait, what?” I asked.
“I don’t want you harassing me anymore.”
Jack walked up and shook his head. “Chantilly.” He nodded to Jesse. “Mr. Lye.”
“I want her arrested for harassment. This is ridiculous.”
“Mr. Lye, can I have a few minutes with Ms. Adair alone, please?”
Jesse checked his watch. “Fine, but make it quick. I got to get back to the competition.” He stepped back into his house and sat on the couch.
Jack’s nose flared. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“The knife, Jack. He came back for his favorite knife. Don’t you think that’s a little odd? And they all look just like the ones at Hamilton House.”
He leaned his head back and mumbled something that included dear God, but I couldn’t catch the rest. “Chantilly, stop. You do your job, and I’ll do mine.”
“But I’m a suspect in a murder, and I’m innocent. I need to find who did it. If I don’t, Austin will live with Scott and his soon to be wife, and I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison for a crime I didn’t commit, and Lord knows how many people have died in those places, and I can’t tell you how creepy that would be, seeing their ghosts. Agnes Hamilton is scary enough, believe me, and I just—”
He stopped my incessant babbling. “I don’t even want to know what you’re talking about, but stop. Just stop. We’re closing in on the killer, and you’re going to mess it up if you keep doing this stuff. Now get out of here. I’ll try to calm Mr. Lye down, but you may end up in jail on harassment charges. I’ll do my best.”
“But who do—”
He pointed toward my car. “Chantilly, go. Now.”
I sulked away like a child scolded in class.
As I backed out, I watched Jesse’s arms flail with energy and determination. I worried I’d be calling Scott to bail me out of jail in a few minutes, and prayed Jack could calm the man quickly.
Chapter Twelve
I CALLED OLIVIA TO let her know I was on my way back. I didn’t mention my stern talking to by Jack, nor did I bring up the fact that the police were getting close to solving the case. I was just happy that Jack had convinced Jesse Lye to not press charges against me since I’d promised to stay away from them.
I drove to the park with my tail between my legs—filled with embarrassment and wishing I’d handled things differently.
Hindsight was twenty-twenty for sure.
“Oh, can you stop by the office right quick? I need at least two pads of paper. I’m going through it like crazy.”
“Sure, no problem. Anything else?”
“Oh, Miss Delphina called me. She wants you to call her right away.”
I dialed Del’s line and she picked up immediately. “Spoke to the attorney.”
“And?”
“Lonna Appleton extended an offer to purchase Bobby’s restaurant two months ago, and as the attorney said, Bobby laughed in her face. Just yesterday she requested to re-submit the offer, and that she would be interested in leasing the space if it wasn’t for sale.”
“Oh my gosh.”
“That ain’t no coincidence.”
“I need to go.” I disconnected the call and called Jack again immediately. “You’re one lucky girl, you know that?”
I ignored him. “It’s Lonna, Jack. I think Lonna killed Bobby.”
“What? What’re you talking about?”
“Did you know she’s partnering with Maybelle to open a restaurant?”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“From them. And she made an offer to buy Bobby’s place two months ago, but he turned her down.”
“Are you sure?”
“He left everything to Delphina. She just told me the attorney told her Lonna submitted the offer again and offered to lease the property if she couldn’t buy it.”
He was silent for a moment, and then asked when I’d be back at the park.
“In a bit. I have to stop and pick something up at the museum first.”
“Call me as soon as you get there. I don’t want you saying a thing to anyone, okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
I pulled up to the historical society and threw my car in park. I jogged to the entrance, unlocked the door and slammed it behind me. In a hurry, I searched Olivia’s office first, not thinking to just go to the room where we stored everything.
The door to the storage room shut behind me. I grabbed the broken Tiffany lamp and flipped around, ready to beat whomever was behind me. Standing next to the door was Agnes Hamilton, her white wedding dress dancing on the ground, a noose dangling from her neck.
I flinched and stepped back, falling into the table behind me. “I uh...” I didn’t know what to say. My hands shook, and I dropped the lamp onto the ground.
She looked down at the lamp base. “You just keep that for protection.” The lamp floated up to my hand, and I latched onto it. “Now, hurry, leave.”
I stared at her, confused. “What? No, I don’t...please. I don’t.” I didn’t know what I was trying to say. Words flew out of my mouth, but made no sense, and my mind ran a marathon of circles inside my head. “I...”
A scene flashed before me, and I was again standing there, frozen in time, in the past, watching something horrific happen before me.
Bobby Pruitt sat at his desk as someone in black entered.
“What’re you doing here?”
The person walked over to Bobby and stood behind him, leaned forward and kissed his cheek. He smiled and laughed, and then his mouth fell open and he choked out his last words, “What the...Lonna baby, what’d you do?”
My eyes popped open. “Oh no.”
The spirit moved closer and whispered, “Hurry. She’s coming.” A moment later, she disappeared through the door.
I ran to it, flung it open, but she was gone. I h
eard the main door close downstairs. “Olivia? Is that you?” I rushed down the stairs, and now all dressed in black, just like I’d seen moments before in my mind, was Lonna Appleton. I stopped short on the stairs. “Oh, Lonna. I thought you were Olivia.” I froze in place, not sure what to do. I couldn’t make a run for it, not with her right there, but going upstairs was a big mistake, too. I decided to play the caring card because it was all I could come up with in the moment. “Is everything okay?” I tightened my grip on the lamp base.
“You know the answer to that, don’t you? Why do you always have to win? Why can’t you just let me have the glory for a change? I was doing great until you came back to town and screwed things up. This is all your fault.” She moved a step closer to the stairs, and that’s when I noticed the knife in her hand. The knife with a similar handle to practically every knife I’d seen lately.
“Lonna, you don’t want to do this. Really, let’s talk about this, please.”
“Oh bless your heart, you think I care about what you have to say? Honey, you are so wrong. I’ve never cared about you or anything you’ve had to say, and it’s time I show you that.”
“Why’d you kill him? Because he wouldn’t sell the place? Did you think if you charmed him by being his girlfriend, he’d sell it to you?”
She stepped up the first stair, only five away from me, and paused. “You...you don’t know anything.”
“I know you tried to buy his restaurant, and he wouldn’t sell, and you must have come onto him to try and change his mind, but when that didn’t work, you killed him.”
“I could make that place much better than him, and he knew it. He just wouldn’t budge, no matter what I did. I had to do it. When he figured out what was going on, he threatened to tell Jack, and I couldn’t let that happen.” She laughed. “I just walked right in through the cellar and tiptoed upstairs without even a glance from those stupid cooks. Even Maybelle.” She laughed. “They all were so scared of Bobby, but not me. I knew exactly what he wanted, and I gave it to him.”
Yuck. I hoped that wouldn’t be the last thing stuck in my mind when she killed me. I couldn’t bare living with that thought for an eternity. “You were there when Rashid came, weren’t you?”
She laughed. His stupid secret ingredient.” She waved the knife as she spoke. “Peanut butter. Bobby threw him out, and he threw Maybelle out too.”
I backed up a step. I had no choice. She was too close. “You’re using her, aren’t you? You don’t care about her. The only person you care about is yourself.” I thought about Jack and how she acted so enamored with him. “You don’t even care about Jack, do you?”
“I do, and he cared about me until you messed that all up. But it doesn’t matter. You’ll be dead and buried, and who do you think will be there to comfort him?”
“Jack said he was closing in on a suspect. He must know it’s you.”
She climbed up another step and laughed. “He doesn’t know a thing, and he won’t, because you won’t be around to tell him.” She charged up the last four stairs to me, wielding the knife out in front of her like a crazy woman.
I screamed and shifted to my right, hoping to dodge her, but instead I tripped again, on the same darn stair I’d tripped on the first time. As Lonna came at me, I forced the weight of my fall into her and pushed with all my might. If I was going down those stairs again, I was bringing Lonna Appleton with me.
I wrapped my arms around her as we tumbled down the last few steps and onto the marble landing.
The thud of her skull smacking the marble tile sent acid shooting up my esophagus.
She didn’t move.
I lay there on top of her breathing heavily for a moment, not sure what to do. But Lonna wasn’t moving. I pushed myself off and up onto my forearms and that’s when I saw the blood. Lonna’s eyes were closed.
I didn’t dare touch her neck, but I needed to see if she was breathing. I leaned my head gently onto her chest and felt it rise and lower below me.
My phone. I needed my phone. I didn’t have it on me. I must have left it in my car. I climbed off the ground and as I stood, I saw Lonna’s phone a few feet away. Jack’s number popped up on the caller ID.
“It’s Chantilly. Get an ambulance to the historical society. It’s Lonna. She’s hurt.”
__________
JACK WALKED OUT THROUGH the emergency room doors and into the waiting area. Del had met me there, after I begged Jack to let me come to the hospital, too. Even though I didn’t like Lonna, and I knew she was a killer, I didn’t want to be responsible for her death. She was a mother, too. Her children needed her whether that meant they visited her in prison or a mental institution.
He made eye contact with the officer in the room and nodded toward the exit. When the office left, he sat next to me. “She’s going to be okay.”
“I didn’t push her if that’s what she’s telling you.”
Del defended my honor. “No way would this sweet woman push anyone like that.”
He smiled. “She confessed. She told me everything. She thought you already had.”
I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh, I’m so sorry. For what she did to Bobby, and for what she did to you.”
Jack nodded. “Didn’t I say dating was a problem for me?”
“Something like that.”
He sat silent for a moment. “You should get back to the park. The competition needs you.”
“We got it handled,” Del said.
“I’m glad, because there’s something I need to take care of right away.”
“Can I help?” she asked. “Nope, I have to do this myself, and you need to get to the competition to help Olivia.”
I called Olivia to let her know I was okay. After ten minutes of her expressing her joy, I had to cut her off. “Olivia, I’ve got to take care of something, but I’ll be back in a bit. Del’s on her way, okay?”
I walked into the office and right under the yellow crime scene tape on the stairs. I gathered everything I had about Josiah and stuffed it all into a file folder. I pulled up the Hamilton House document I’d written before and added information about Bobby, giving him the respect he deserved, and I felt honored Hamilton House. I printed it out and rushed over to the mayor’s office, hoping I’d catch him before he left for the competition.
“Is the mayor in?”
“Yes, I’ll grab him.” She stepped away.
I tapped my foot while I waited. I had no idea what I was going to say, but I had enough to at least argue my changes.
“Ms. Adair, I heard what happened. You’ve had a busy day. Are you okay? I’m leaving in a few minutes to give the official speech at the competition. Do you think you’ll be able to continue?”
“Yes, Mr. Mayor, but something’s come up, and I need you to sign off on it.”
He swung his arm toward his office. “After you then.”
I handed him the file. “I’m submitting a change to the Hamilton House’s historical summary. It includes a memorial of sorts to Bobby Pruitt, but there are a few other changes you need to see. Olivia Castleberry has done some research, and we believe strongly that Agnes Hamilton didn’t kill herself. I think it’s important to note that, for Agnes.”
He flipped through the papers and smiled. “Has Agnes requested this?” There was a fun tone to his voice.
“In a matter of speaking, yes.”
He glanced over the top of his glasses at me. “Interesting.” He read the emails about Josiah Dilts. “Mr. Dilts had quite the reputation, didn’t he? Seemed to be on shaky ground here. I remember as a child hearing these kinds of rumors.” He closed the file. “I don’t see a problem with this, but we’ll need the City Council’s approval.”
“I’d appreciate your help with that. This is important to me.”
He looked me in the eye. “You almost died today, and you saved Castleberry from a murderer. I think I can make it happen.”
__________
THE EVENT ENDED AT nine o’clock
, and after we prepared for the final day and closed up, Delphina handed me a key. “Go, give the closure. She needs it. Bobby needs it, too.”
“Would you like to come?”
“No way.” She fell into a lawn chair and rubbed her left leg. “I’m all sorts of give out, and my feet are killing me. I need a vacation from this thing or I won’t make it out alive.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“Bad choice of words?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I wrapped my hand around the key. “Thank you. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“No, you’ll call me when it’s done. I need to know you’re okay.”
“I will.”
I drove over to Hamilton House and unlocked the back door into the kitchen. The entire place was black, and my teeth chattered. I was scared, but I wasn’t sure why, or of what. It wasn’t like the spirits there wanted to hurt me. At least not the one I’d already seen. I’d just started a new phase of my life, and adding spirit seer to it scared me, plain and simple.
A dim light glowed in the dining hall. I walked toward it, each step slow and hesitant.
There in the room, her bridal gown flowing beneath her, the noose dangling from her neck, stood Agnes Hamilton.
“I’ve told them the truth. It’ll be okay now.”
She smiled, and the noose disappeared. “He thanks you, too.” She rotated to the left, and behind her floated a cloudy, almost transparent Bobby Joe Pruitt. He smiled at me, and they both disappeared.
“Holy wow.” I stood there for a moment, shocked, amazed and flabbergasted.
When Jack tapped me on the back, I jumped and screamed. “Oh my gosh. You scared me.”
He pointed to the places where Agnes and Bobby had just been. “Performing another séance?”
I shrugged. “In a matter of speaking, yes.”
He shook his head. “Let’s get out of here. I could use a drink. Got any beer?”
“Sweet tea work for ya? There’s a lot of that at the competition.”
“Sure thing.”
I glanced back behind me one more time as we left the dining room, but we were definitely alone.
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