The House on Hallowed Ground

by Nancy Cole Silverman

  “Because she didn’t want you to know.” I put my arm around her and walked her into the great room. “This isn’t about making contact with Alicia Mae. What’s about to happen here tonight, it’s not a real séance. It’s about securing a confession from whoever killed Lacey.”

  Zoey jerked away from me. “You really think it’s one of my friends?”

  “I know it’s not you, and if I’m going to prove it, I need a confession. So, young lady, much as I know you want to be here, I need you to go upstairs and make yourself scarce.”

  “And Detective Romero’s okay with this?”

  “He’s agreed it’s unconventional. But if the real killer confesses, he’s down with it.”

  Romero returned from the upstairs studio. “We’re ready. Zoey, if you go upstairs I’ll put a wire on Misty, and you’ll to be able to hear everything that happens down here.”

  I put a hand on Zoey’s shoulder. “It’s going to be fine. I promise. Whatever happens, trust me, you’re going to be okay.”

  Zoey exhaled. “And where are you going to be Detective?”

  Romero pointed to the folding screen behind the piano. “Over there. Soon as we get a confession, I’ll make my move.”

  “And if you don’t?” Zoey asked.

  “Then next time you and I meet, it’s going to be in court.”

  By six forty-five p.m. the house was quiet. Everyone was in place. Detective Romero had equipped me with the wire, an itchy thing that caused my heart to race. Zoey was upstairs in the studio with Detective Richards and could hear my every breath through her headphones. Romero was crouched behind the changing screen next to the piano, which, given the low light in the great room, proved to be a remarkably effective hiding place. With nothing left to do but wait, I went outside to the courtyard and sat by the koi pond.

  Crystal and Chad arrived a few minutes later and appeared surprised to see me on the front porch. I told them I had remembered the passcode to the security gate and had let myself in.

  “I hope that’s okay?” I said.

  Crystal huffed, looked at me like I was a necessary distraction, and fumbled through her purse for her key to unlock the front door. “Fine for now, I guess. But remember, after tonight, Misty. No more. You and Zoey, you’re done.”

  I didn’t answer. Zac and Kelsey arrived before we were barely through the door, and I instructed everyone to take a seat in the dining room.

  Crystal sat next to Chad and placed her hand on top of his. “What’s next, Misty? I assume you’re going to light a candle or something?”

  I didn’t appreciate the snarky attitude and pulled a matchbook from within my bag. “It’s not necessary, but if you like, be my guest.”

  Crystal snapped the matches from my hand, lit the two long tapered candles on the table, and sat back down. “Nothing like a little atmosphere. Now what else do you need? I’d like to get this over with as soon as possible.”

  “I’m sure you would, but I’ve one small problem,” I said.

  “Why am I not surprised?” Crystal looked up at the ceiling.

  I bowed my head and patted the sides of my long skirt. Finding my cell phone, I pulled it from my pocket. “I’m sorry. I really thought I’d be able to do this tonight, but I’m missing a fifth person.”

  “A fifth person?” Crystal squinted. “What do you need a fifth person for?”

  “I can’t do a séance without six or any number of participants divisible by three. Together you, Chad, Kelsey, and Zac are four, and I’m five. I need six. I asked my friend Denise if she’d sit in. She was at my last séance. Chad remembers, don’t you, Chad?”

  Chad nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “She promised she’d be here, but she’s running late. LA traffic. She called right before you arrived, but what can we do?” I held the phone up and shrugged. “I don’t suppose you’d all mind if we just talked a spell? I’m sure she’ll be along shortly.”

  In truth, I hadn’t asked Denise at all, but the lack of the sixth person for my séance made for a good excuse.

  Crystal sat back and folded her arms. “Whatever. As long as this doesn’t take too long. I promised Chad he wouldn’t run into Zoey here. It really wouldn’t be a good idea if he did.”

  “I get it,” I said. “Chad’s hurt and Zoey would go crazy if she thought you’d let us in the house without her permission.”

  A thin smile crossed Crystal’s face. “Yeah, something like that.”

  “Well, then. Since we’re here to help Chad convince Lacey’s ghost to leave him alone, perhaps Chad, you might help by sharing with me how you met Lacey and what’s been going on. It may help me to understand how deep the connection is.”

  Chad looked around the table. “You mean with her ghost or how we met?”

  “Let’s start with before Lacey died. How is it the two of you got involved?”

  “I don’t know. Lacey was hanging around a lot. Even at the other house, ’fore we moved in here. She was always there. She’d come over and sit out by the pool. She and Zoey spent a lot of time together. Sometimes I got the feeling Lacey thought she lived there. Then after Zoey and I moved in here, Zoey was gone all the time, working on the movie and stuff. And Lacey, she’d come by and lay out by the pool. ’Fore I knew it, things just happened. I told her it wasn’t supposed to, but—”

  “It did,” I said. “And then Lacey got pregnant.”

  “That was an accident. It shouldn’t have happened. I told her it was a mistake and she could do whatever she wanted, but then she said she wanted to tell Zoey and get married. I mean it was crazy. Married? I wasn’t going to marry Lacey.”

  “And you weren’t tempted to stop her?”

  “I didn’t want her to tell Zoey, but I didn’t kill her if that’s what you mean. I told her I’d pay for the baby and she could go away for a while. I was willing to do whatever it took. But kill her? No way!”

  “Stop it. Stop it right now.” Crystal slapped her hand on the table. “Misty, what are you doing?”

  “I’m just trying to understand the relationship. The more I understand, the easier this will be.” I smiled sweetly at Crystal and turned back to Chad. “You weren’t here the night Lacey drowned. You were at the studio, right?”

  “You know full well who was here,” Crystal said. “It was just Zoey and Lacey.”

  “And you,” I said.

  “Yeah, I was here. So what? But only until Zoey and Lacey finished dinner. I went home right after so they could run lines.”

  “So you say.” I put my cell phone back in my pocket.

  “What do you mean, so I say?” Crystal stood and put her hands on her stomach. She looked pale, as though she were about to be sick.

  “I mean, you say a lot of things.” I looked around the table. Zac and Kelsey’s eyes were following mine. “Didn’t you also tell Detective Romero you didn’t know Zoey’s stalker had gotten an early release from jail?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Crystal gripped the back of the chair, her knuckles white.

  “No?” I took the letter from the LA Department of Corrections from within the pocket of my skirt and put it on the table.

  Crystal’s eyes widened. “Where did you get that?”

  “I found it in your notebook under the bed in the guest room. Did you think you had lost it?”

  Crystal grabbed the letter off the table and crumpled the paper in her hand.

  “Go ahead. Tear it up if you like. It’s a copy. Detective Romero has the original.”

  Crystal threw the letter back on the table. “It doesn’t mean anything. I got busy. Zoey knows how crazy things get when she’s filming. I forgot to tell her, that’s all.”

  “Maybe so, but I also found this.” From my other pocket, I took the pages Crystal had used to copy the note attached to the flowers from
AJ, and placed them in front of her. “You wanted Detective Romero to think AJ had sent the flowers. That AJ had killed Lacey, mistaking her for Zoey. So you copied AJ’s cryptic lettering, wrote the note yourself, and then put it with the flowers on the front porch. Thing is, you might have pulled it off if I hadn’t found these.”

  Crystal shoved the pages back across the table. “I had to do something. Romero was asking too many questions.”

  “You thought he was coming after you?” I asked.

  “Me?” Crystal shook her head. “I didn’t kill Lacey, but I thought maybe Chad had. I had to protect him.”

  Chad looked like he had been hit in the stomach. “You thought I killed Lacey? How could you think that? I was at the recording studio all night. I didn’t clock out until after two a.m. The coroner said Lacey died before midnight.”

  Crystal put her hand on Chad’s arm. “I didn’t know that then. I tried to get you to talk about it, but you wouldn’t say anything.”

  “What did you want me to say? You and I weren’t exactly buddies. We didn’t spend a lot of time talking.”

  “Chad stop!” Crystal screamed at him. “I’m pregnant.”

  “You’re what?” Chad jerked away.

  “You heard me.” Crystal glared at Chad. “I’m pregnant. I didn’t mean to get pregnant, but I am. So listen to me. Stop talking, let’s just get out of here. This is all stupid anyway. Just some trick Misty’s worked up.”

  Chad slapped the table. “Look, Misty, I didn’t intend for any of this to happen. I don’t know how Crystal got pregnant, but—”

  “Probably the usual way, Chad.” I patted him on the shoulder. “That’s how those things happen.”

  “Yeah, right. I’m a jerk, okay? But I didn’t kill anyone. When the cops started talking about AJ, I figured it was him. That he was stalking Zoey again, saw Lacey in the spa that night, and mistook her for Zoey.”

  I turned back to Crystal. “To save Chad, you resurrected AJ, knowing the cops would think AJ was good for the murder.”

  “I didn’t know what the cops would think. I just wanted to get Detective Romero off our backs. He was asking too many questions. Zoey had a movie to finish, and you’re right, I still had the letter from the DOC. I had forgotten all about it until I was moving in with Zoey, and when I found it again, I thought, why not? It’s my job to protect Zoey. It’s what I do. Everything I did was so that Zoey’s world wouldn’t fall apart.”

  “Zoey’s world or yours?” I asked.

  “Is there a difference?” Crystal sat back in the chair and stared at me coldly. She hadn’t cracked, not like I had expected her to.

  I turned to Kelsey. “Crystal wasn’t the only one who understood how important Chad was to Zoey, was she, Kelsey? You write with Chad, you knew how important Zoey was to Chad’s music. He called her his muse.”

  “So?”

  “You also knew Lacey was coming between Chad and Zoey. You knew about their affair. It wasn’t the first time. You had probably seen it before. Band on the road. Lots of late-night gigs and young groupies around. Chad wasn’t the most loyal of boyfriends, but this time it was different. Zoey was gone more than usual, and you could hear it in his music. Something had changed. You knew it was Lacey. She had a pull on him, and when you found out about her poems, you were afraid Chad was going to replace you.”

  “Replace me?” Kelsey laughed. “Lacey could barely write her name. Her stuff was crap. Chad wasn’t serious about anything she wrote.”

  “Except the night of Lacey’s murder, you began to wonder if maybe Chad didn’t think so. You and Zac were at the studio with Chad. Chad was having trouble with the lyrics you’d written. He wasn’t excited about them. It wasn’t working for him, and he wanted to try some of Lacey’s stuff. You couldn’t handle that. You told Chad you weren’t feeling well and you wanted to cancel the session. Only Chad didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay and put some of Lacey’s poems to music, and it upset you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We left ’cause I wasn’t feeling well. I had a headache.”

  “A headache? You told Detective Romero you had a stomachache.”

  “What difference does it make? I wasn’t feeling well.”

  “You left the studio but didn’t go home. You told Zac you wanted to talk to Lacey, see if you could talk some sense into her. You knew Lacey was at the mansion running lines, so–”

  “Stop!” Kelsey pinched her eyes pinched shut.

  Zac grabbed Kelsey’s arm. “Kelsey, don’t.”

  “I’m sorry, Zac. I can’t go on like this.” Kelsey pulled her arm away from Zac and looked at me. “Zac and I knew if Chad didn’t stop his affair with Lacey that it was only a matter of time before Zoey found out. Lacey was tearing him apart. Chad couldn’t write. The music sounded flat. Nothing was getting done. Everything we’d worked on was going down the drain. We knew we had to do something.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Zac looked at Kelsey. “Let me explain.” Kelsey nodded. “Kels and I never planned to kill Lacey. The idea never even crossed our minds. We just wanted to talk to her. Tell her how important Zoey was to Chad’s work. We figured if we talked, she’d get it and back away. We knew Lacey and Zoey would be running lines and we planned to wait in the backyard until they were done and we could talk to Lacey alone.”

  “How did you get in the yard?” I leaned a little closer to Zac. I wanted to make sure Romero had this word for word.

  “Chad and I like to hike the trails, and I always had a key to the back gate ’cause Chad never remembered his. Kels and I parked on the street ’bout a block away, hiked up through the park, and came in through the back.”

  Kelsey continued. “When we reached the yard, I went to sit on the chaise and nearly sat on one of Zoey’s dolls. Somebody had left her there, and it made this kind of whiny cry-baby like sound. Like a cat’s meow.”

  “I told Kels to be quiet,” Zac said. “I could hear Zoey and Lacey talking. They were in the kitchen, right above us. Lacey said she thought she heard a cat outside. Zoey said something about feral cats in the area and that maybe it was a kitten. I figured this was our chance, so I took the cry box out of the doll and lured Lacey into the backyard.”

  “When Lacey came outside I called her over to the spa where I was sitting.” Kelsey looked nervous, but Zac squeezed her hand, and she continued. “I told her we needed to talk. I thought for sure woman-to-woman, she’d get it. She would realize Chad was a mistake. But she wasn’t having any of it. She told me I was riding Chad’s coattails. That Zac and I were nothing but backup singers and she could write better. I don’t know what came over me. She turned and I grabbed the doll and hit her over the head. I didn’t mean to. Honest. It all happened so fast. Next thing I knew, Lacey fell into the spa. The drain caught her long hair and pulled her under. Zac and I tried to pull her free, but her hair was stuck. We couldn’t save her.”

  “And then you dropped the doll and ran,” I said.

  Zac answered. “We didn’t know what else to do. We went out through the gate to the park and went home.”

  “Later I told Zac I had to go back to the house to find the doll.”

  “And when you did, that’s when you met Detective Romero and discovered someone had already found the doll and put it in Crystal’s room.” I nodded to Crystal.

  “I probably should have said something.” Kelsey bit her lip. “But I couldn’t. I was too afraid. I’m sorry.”

  “So am I,” I said. “Detective Romero, do you have what you need?”

  Romero came out from behind the screen. “I do.”

  Before it had even registered with Zac and Kelsey what was happening, Romero asked them both to stand and put their hands behind their backs. He announced they were under arrest for the murder of Lacey Adams.

  While Romero read them their M
iranda Rights, Zoey rushed into the room with Detective Richards behind her.

  Crystal stood. “Zoey! You’re here?”

  “Surprised?” Zoey was flushed. “What were you thinking? You and Chad?”

  “Zoey, please. You don’t understand, I was only trying to help.”

  “By sleeping with my fiancé?” Zoey asked.

  “He’s a jerk, Zoey.”

  “Get out! I don’t ever want to see you again. You’re fired!” Then turning to Chad, Zoey pointed to the door. “You too. Go!”

  Chad refused to move. “Zoey, please.”

  “Out!” Zoey screamed.

  Crystal got as far as the door. “Chad, we need to talk.”

  “Not now, Crystal.” Chad refused to move.

  “You idiot!” Crystal yelled at Chad.

  Romero opened the door. “Looks like your work’s done here, Crystal.” Crystal stomped through the entry. Then with a nod to me, Romero added, “Nice work, Misty. We’ll be in touch.”

  “Good night, Detective.”

  I watched as Romero and Detective Richards left with Zac and Kelsey in handcuffs, then turned my attention back to Chad. He had refused to move and was trying one last time to convince Zoey how sorry he was.

  “Please, Zoe. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

  Zoey backed away, both hands up. “Don’t even try to explain. What are you, the most fertile man on the planet? You knock up Lacey and Crystal and think I’d forgive you? Get out of here. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

  Chad looked at me. “Misty, please.”

  “I’m sorry, Chad, I can’t help you.”

  Chad walked slowly toward the door, then stopped. “What about the ghost, Misty? What about Lacey? What am I supposed to do about her? You promised you’d help.”

  I couldn’t believe after Kelsey and Zac’s confession and arrest, and Crystal’s surprise announcement she was pregnant, that Chad was still thinking about Lacey. I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for Chad, but even a ghost deserved a better host.

  “There is no magic spell to release Lacey from haunting you, Chad. I confess I lied to get you here, you don’t need me to perform a séance to remove her from your life.”