The Ghost of Christmas Secrets

by Anna J. McIntyre

  The cat yawned, showing off his sharp little teeth. He drew in his paw, tucking it under his chin, and closed his eyes.

  “You need to come out of there anyway. I need your help.”

  Max didn’t budge.

  “Danielle is in danger.”

  Max opened his eyes and practically flew out from under the tree. Landing by Walt’s feet, he looked up and meowed.

  Walt smiled and leaned down, petting the cat. “I figured that would get your attention.”

  A woman behind Walt caught the cat’s eye. Max hissed and began backing up ever so cautiously. Walt glanced over his shoulder to see what was there. It was Zara.

  “Ahh, Max, I can explain,” Walt said. “Zara has been avoiding you not because she hates cats, but because she’s been trying to tune you out so you wouldn’t know.”

  “Hello, Max,” Zara said gently, bending down closer to Max’s line of vision. The two stared at each other in silence for a few moments. Finally, Max understood.

  “What’s going on here?” Marie asked when she appeared the next moment. “I’ve been sensing rumblings—so has Eva. She went to check on Chris. Is something happening that we should know about?” Marie paused a moment and then looked from Max to Zara. “Wait a minute, she’s talking to him!”

  Chris had just gotten home, and all he wanted to do was take a shower and change his clothes. He grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and was just getting ready to head down the hallway when Eva arrived in a flurry of snowflakes.

  “I’m here!” she announced.

  “Uhh…I see…” Chris wearily started down the hallway.

  “Is something wrong here? I sense it.”

  “I need a shower really bad, does that count?”

  “I’m serious, Chris, something is wrong!”

  The doorbell rang, stopping Chris in his tracks. Reluctantly he turned around and started toward his front door, Eva at his heels. When he opened the door, he found Walt and Danielle on his front porch, and standing behind them were the Bishops.

  “Heather and the chief should be here pretty soon,” Danielle announced as she marched into the house with her entourage.

  Chris frowned. “Uhh, Danielle, I don’t know what this is about, but I was just getting ready to jump in the shower.”

  “It is annoying when people just drop in unexpected, isn’t it?” Walt said on his way into the house.

  Standing in the hallway, a beer in hand, Chris looked from Danielle to Walt in confusion. The Bishops stood quietly just inside the doorway, as if waiting for someone to tell them where to go.

  Danielle spied Eva. “Hello, Eva. Marie told me you were on your way over here.”

  Chris frowned, looking curiously from Danielle to the Bishops. “Uhh, Danielle…did you forget you have someone with you?” He then nodded from the Bishops to Eva.

  “No, I didn’t. Because Noah and Zara can see ghosts. In fact, Zara is a ghost, which is why we’re here,” Danielle explained. “And, Chris, I am really sorry to just blurt this out, but Noah’s last name is not really Bishop, it’s Church. He’s your biological brother. And Zara, she was never his wife, but she is dead because your uncles killed her, and they intend to kill you and me. That’s why I’m here.”

  Ten minutes later Heather arrived, and five minutes after that, the chief showed up.

  They sat huddled in Chris’s living room, a flame slowly burning in the nearby fireplace. Danielle explained what Zara had told her. Had the chief been able to see and hear ghosts, Danielle would have left it to Zara to tell her own story. Chris continually looked over to Noah; countless questions—none relating to what Danielle was talking about—filled his head.

  “Marie and Max are at the house, keeping an eye on Loyd and Simon. If they leave or start over here, either Max or Marie will warn us,” Danielle explained.

  “I knew they were up to something,” Heather grumbled. “Those old coots were going to frame me for murder!”

  “I can’t believe they would do this,” Chris muttered. He then shook his head and said, “No. That’s not true. I can believe it. I don’t know what I was thinking going along with them coming here.” He looked to Eva. “I should have listened to you.”

  “So what now?” Heather asked.

  “I think we should let the uncles kill us,” Danielle said.

  “That’s accommodating of you.” Heather snickered.

  “Exactly. That’s what we need to do, be accommodating,” Danielle said. “Zara told me how they see this thing going down. Right now, they’re waiting for the right opportunity. I say let’s give them the opportunity.”

  “And what happens when you have to drink the poison?” Walt asked.

  “Obviously we’re not going to drink it. But we can pretend to.”

  “Not sure how you intend to carry that out. Chances are, they will be watching your every move,” the chief said. “This sounds dangerous.”

  “We just need a diversion when the time comes for us to drink the wine. Something to make them look away for a minute so we can dump our drinks and make them think we drank it.”

  “Like what?” the chief asked.

  “Bella!” Heather suggested. “If she ran through at the right time, knocked over a few things, that would distract them, and you would have time to dump your wine.”

  “How are you going to get your cat to do that at the right time?” the chief asked.

  “Either Marie or I can help with that,” Eva suggested.

  “Eva just said she and Marie could help with that,” Danielle told the chief.

  “This is going to take some serious acting skills from you and Chris.” Walt looked at Danielle. “I know you’ve become adept at fabricating believable stories when you have to, because of your gift, but this is different. You and Chris will be alone with two killers, and I’m not sure you can pull it off.”

  “They won’t be alone,” the chief said.

  “And I can help,” Eva offered. “I’ll be their acting coach and walk them through this. I’ll be with them every step of the way.”

  Danielle took Walt’s hand in hers and looked him in the eyes. “We have to do this.”

  Walt nodded. “I know.”

  “I need to call Adam,” Chris said.

  “Adam? What do you need from Adam?” Danielle asked.

  “I bought some of those surveillance cameras a while back, but I never had them installed. I’m going to see if Adam can hook them up for me tonight,” Chris said. “They’re the same kind he uses. He’s the one who recommended them to me.”

  Danielle arrived at Chris’s office a few minutes before two in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. She found Heather and Chris waiting for her in the office area.

  “I put a stack of envelopes on my desk, but I didn’t bother finding anything to stuff them with,” Heather explained. “I figure they’ll kill you first.”

  Chris cringed. “Did you have to say it like that?”

  Heather rolled her eyes at Chris and turned back to Danielle. “I put the poinsettia plant on the desk. I figure it would be a good place to dump the poisoned wine.”

  “I just hope that’s how they still intend to kill us,” Chris said. “I don’t need a change of game plans and have them show up with guns.”

  “Oh brother, Joe and Brian are upstairs listening in,” Heather reminded him.

  “Remember, Noah overheard them saying poisoning was a woman’s method of murder, and if they’re trying to frame Heather, I don’t think they’re bringing guns.” Danielle said that more for Joe and Brian’s benefit. The two officers were currently upstairs, monitoring the potential crime scene. Danielle didn’t think they would understand their prime informant was a ghost.

  Heather’s cellphone buzzed. She looked down at it. “That’s the chief. He wants me to leave now. The two homicidal maniacs are parked down the street.”

  “Can you call them something else?” Danielle groaned.

  “Sorry.” Heather quickly kissed Danie
lle’s cheek and then Chris’s. “You two be careful. I really do not want to have to find a new job.”

  Seven minutes later Marie and Eva appeared.

  “They’re coming up the walk,” Eva announced.

  “Evil little men,” Marie grumbled. “Using a Christmas gift bag to conceal their murder weapon!”

  “Uncle Loyd, Uncle Simon, what are you doing here?” Chris asked when he opened the door to let them in.

  “We’ve come to help,” Simon announced.

  “Help? That’s sweet of you, but Danielle and I have this covered.” Chris led his uncles into the office, where they found Danielle sitting at Heather’s desk, a stack of envelopes waiting to be stuffed on her left and a poinsettia plant on her right.

  “What are you two doing here?” Danielle asked.

  “We felt sorry for you both having to work on Christmas Eve,” Simon explained.

  “Evil, evil man,” Marie hissed.

  “What’s in the bag?” Danielle asked.

  “We brought you a bottle of wine,” Simon said as he lifted the bag to show her.

  “Wine? That sounds good,” Chris said.

  “Then let’s have some,” Simon suggested.

  “It does sound good,” Danielle agreed.

  “You two relax, and I’ll take it in the kitchen and open it,” Simon offered.

  “The wine corkscrew is in the top drawer to the right of the sink,” Chris called out as Simon headed for the door.

  A few minutes later Simon returned with a tray carrying four glasses of wine, and handed one to each of them.

  Danielle picked up her glass. “This will make stuffing envelopes more enjoyable.”

  “Bella, get ready,” Marie told the calico cat from the other room.

  Loyd lifted his glass. “I would like to make a toast, to my nephew for sharing Christmas with us, and to Danielle for opening her home to us.”

  “Now!” Marie called out.

  “Go, Bella!” Eva shouted.

  Just as they were all about to take a drink, what sounded like glass breaking caught their attention. Both Loyd and Simon looked toward the doorway leading to the hallway. The next moment Bella came racing into the room while making an unholy shrieking sound. Like an animal possessed, she ran around in circles numerous times, running under the uncles’ chairs, knocking Loyd’s cane on the floor, and then flew back out through the doorway and disappeared.

  During the commotion, Danielle and Chris quickly dumped the contents of their wineglasses into the poinsettia plant and then pretended to be drinking, careful not to touch the glasses to their lips.

  “What in tarnation?” Loyd shouted, still holding his full glass of wine.

  Danielle laughed and set her now empty glass on the desktop. “That cat acts crazy sometimes!”

  “It’s a good thing I left Hunny at home,” Chris said, setting his empty glass on the desk.

  Loyd and Simon exchanged glances and then looked back to Chris and Danielle.

  “Oh my, I drank that kind of fast.” Danielle giggled. “Bad me.”

  “I didn’t do bad myself. Want another glass?” Chris asked.

  “Grab your forehead, Chris, and close your eyes,” Eva coached. After Zara told them what type of poison the uncles intended to use, they had looked it up online to discover how quickly it would act.

  Chris grabbed hold of his forehead and closed his eyes. “I don’t feel right.”

  “Collapse on the desk,” Eva told him. Chris doubled over.

  “Danielle, reach for Chris,” Eva coached. “Yes! Now clumsily tip over your glass. Okay, stand up, let your knees buckle. Yes, what a beautiful dying scene! You are such a natural!”

  “Are you sure they aren’t really dead?” Marie asked.

  “They did wonderfully, didn’t they?” Eva said proudly. “Now the difficult part is staying perfectly still. Fortunately, you don’t have to fake death yet. They expect it to take a while.”

  Simon and Loyd did not move. They simply stared.

  “Oh my heavens, that was too easy,” Loyd said before breaking into a laugh.

  “Oh, you are a horrid, horrid man!” Marie hissed.

  “It’s not done yet. Let’s do what we have to do,” Simon said.

  “Times like this I wish I had Walt’s powers,” Eva grumbled.

  Thirty-Nine

  “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?” Lily asked. Danielle had just finished explaining what had happened since discovering the truth about Zara. She sat on the arm of the sofa next to Walt. “We were here for breakfast this morning, and you never said a thing.”

  “I didn’t want you to worry, Lily, and frankly, I figured this way you would just act naturally, which is really what we needed you to do.”

  “So all of that about Heather being upset with you was made up?” Ian asked Chris.

  “Oh, I’m always mad at Chris for one thing or another,” Heather teased.

  “I wasn’t going to have her stuff envelopes on Christmas Eve. I’m not that jerky of a boss.”

  Heather flashed Chris a smile and said, “If I want to be totally honest, Chris isn’t a jerky boss at all. I love working for the foundation—working for Chris—and where else can I bring my cat to work?”

  “That cat came in pretty handy, if you ask me!” Danielle said. “In fact, Bella’s getting some catnip from Santa!”

  “Is Noah really your brother?” Ian asked.

  “We’re going to take a DNA test to verify it, but he and Zara are fairly certain he is.”

  Lily looked over to Chris. “Did they really leave?”

  Chris shook his head. “No, we thought it best if Noah was out of the way when all this was going down, so he’s over at my house with Hunny and Zara. I’m going to see if he wants to stay with me for the rest of his Christmas vacation so we can get to know each other better.”

  “But what do you think?” Ian asked Chris. “Is the DNA test just a formality?”

  Marie shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m the only one who noticed the resemblance.”

  Danielle looked to Marie and smiled. “If I remember correctly, you thought Noah looked familiar, but you didn’t say who he looked like.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Lily asked. “Eva or Marie?”

  “Marie,” Danielle explained. “She noticed Noah looked familiar when he arrived.”

  Walt grabbed Danielle and pulled her off the arm of the sofa onto his lap and hugged her. “It terrifies me to imagine what could have happened.” Danielle turned around in his lap, now sitting sideways, and hugged him.

  Lily, who sat between Walt and Ian on the sofa, chuckled. “Looks like you’re both serious about this officially dating thing.”

  “Pretty much.” Danielle laughed, hugging Walt again.

  Eva, who hovered in the corner on an imaginary chair, smiled at the couple. “They do look right together,” she mused. “The Universe does know what it’s doing.”

  “One good thing came out of this,” Walt said, his arms still around Danielle as she rested her head against his shoulder. “Danielle and I get the house to ourselves through the New Year now that Simon and Loyd are locked up, and Chris has invited Noah to stay with him.”

  Chris raised his glass in salute to Walt. “It’s the least I can do for you guys basically saving my life. And I also appreciate you kicking those two SOBs on their butts.”

  Walt nodded at Chris. “Like I said, my pleasure.”

  Lily stood up and grabbed Ian’s hand, pulling him to his feet. “We need to get back home. We have a Christmas Eve party to host, and people are going to start showing up in about an hour.”

  Danielle whispered something into Walt’s ear. He nodded. She jumped to her feet, and just as Ian and Lily started for the door, she yelled, “Wait! I have something I need to tell you all.”

  They all turned to face Danielle and Walt.

  “Walt and I have decided we aren’t going to start dating,” Danielle said.

/>   Heather frowned and looked to Walt, who remained sitting on the sofa. “So what was that all about?”

  “What do you mean you’re not going to date? You two are obviously crazy about each other,” Lily said.

  Chris sat back in his chair and glanced from Danielle to Walt. “I think what Danielle is trying to say, they aren’t going to date because they’re already married.”

  Both Danielle and Walt looked to Chris in surprise. “How did you know?” Danielle asked.

  Danielle then looked to Marie, who shook her head. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Married? You’re married?” Lily asked.

  Danielle nodded and held up her right hand with the gold ring. She slipped the ring off her right hand and put it on her left.

  “You didn’t tell me!” Lily cried.

  “I’m sorry, Lily.”

  Lily didn’t get angry; instead, she ran over to Danielle and threw her arms around her, giving her a tight hug. She then hugged Walt.

  “But you can’t tell anyone yet,” Danielle said.

  “You want to keep it a secret?” Lily frowned.

  “I think I understand,” Ian said. “People are just getting used to the idea of Walt and Danielle, and considering the reality they believe is not the reality that is, I don’t blame them for rolling this out slowly.”

  “We weren’t going to say anything to anyone for a while,” Danielle explained. “But I just didn’t want to keep it from you anymore. All of you have always been there for me—for Walt. You’re our closest friends.”

  Lily narrowed her eyes and studied Danielle. “Just how long have you two been married?”

  Danielle flashed a guilty smile at Lily. “Almost seven months.”

  “Seven months!” they all shouted.

  Danielle shrugged.

  “What are you going to do?” Lily asked. “Just start telling people one day you’re married?”

  “We’re going to have a wedding,” Walt said. “Here, in Marlow House, like you and Ian.”

  “When?” Lily asked.

  Danielle looked down at her hand and slipped the ring off her left hand and placed it back on her right one. “We figured we would date for a few months and then announce our engagement.”