Wicked Ghosts_A Harper Harlow and Ivy Morgan Mystery

by Lily Harper Hart

  The answer was so succinct Jack couldn’t stop himself from digging for more. “Did you believe her from the start?”

  “No. I thought she was crazy. I thought she was the most beautiful crazy person I’d ever met.”

  “And how did that change?”

  “She started supplying information that she couldn’t possibly know,” Jared replied. “The thing is, Harper is kind of famous in Whisper Cove. I don’t mean famous like the Kardashians are famous, but she’s made a name for herself with the ghost stuff.”

  “Can you give me an example?”

  “Sure. She’s found missing kids after car accidents, she’s solved murders thanks to information from ghosts, and she even solved a decades-old mystery when we visited a haunted asylum several months back. She really does see and talk to ghosts. I can’t explain it and I won’t make excuses. I believe her. I’m sure you don’t, but I do.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that,” Jack said, his eyes on the road as he navigated to the highway. “Ivy has done a few odd things, too.”

  “Harper mentioned that, but she didn’t go into a lot of detail,” Jared admitted. “I don’t think she wanted to tell Ivy’s secrets out of turn.”

  “Ivy is a lot more private than Harper is,” Jack hedged. “The things she’s seen … the things she’s done … we try to be very careful about who finds out.”

  “My girlfriend can see and talk to ghosts,” Jared noted. “I’m willing to believe almost anything at this point.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Jack wasn’t sure he believed Jared’s bravado, but he was more than willing to test it. “A few months ago, Ivy got psychic flashes and started seeing things before they happened.”

  “That had to be difficult.”

  Jack nodded. “It was, especially since she saw a teenager being poisoned. She also saw through a killer’s eyes before that.”

  Jared was intrigued. “I need more specifics.”

  “She saw a killer going after someone. She saw the same killer stalking her. It was … unnerving.”

  “It sounds unnerving,” Jared agreed. “How have you handled that?”

  “The best I can. I wouldn’t change her for anything, but it hasn’t been easy. Since our entire relationship started after something weird, though, I kind of expected things to grow.”

  “Is this the dream walking thing?” Jared asked. “Harper mentioned something about it, but I was only half listening. She wanted us to see if we could share dreams because she thought it sounded amazing. I just wanted some sleep so I told her I would try and then closed my eyes.”

  “The dream walking was the first thing.” Jack bobbed his head. “We didn’t realize it was really happening until we accidentally confirmed it to one another when we were awake.”

  “And I’m guessing that was the first supernatural thing that happened to you.”

  “Yup.”

  “How did you react?”

  “Like a jerk.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t react well the first time Harper did something otherworldly either,” Jared admitted. “It’s hard when you’re in love with someone who is different.”

  “It’s also easy. Loving Ivy comes naturally to me. It’s like breathing now.”

  “Oh, you’re almost a poet,” Jared teased.

  Jack chuckled before sobering. “It’s not easy being the normal one, but I wouldn’t trade her for anything.”

  “I feel the same way.”

  “That’s not to say she’s not a pain in the butt occasionally,” Jack added hurriedly. “There are times I think she’s going to give me an ulcer.”

  “I carry antacid in my truck now,” Jared volunteered. “I need it at least once a month.”

  “It sounds like you and I have a lot in common. It’s not simply the women we love either.”

  “Most definitely.”

  The duo lapsed into comfortable silence.

  “You’re still worried, right?” Jared asked after a few minutes.

  Jack nodded without hesitation. “I say we text them regularly to make sure they’re not sticking their noses where they don’t belong.”

  “I totally agree.”

  “THERE SHE IS.”

  Felicity Goodings was all smiles as she swept out from behind the counter at her shop and tugged Ivy in for an effusive hug. Harper watched the interchange with a mixture of curiosity and worry. Of course, she wasn’t much of a hugger … especially when it came to her relatives.

  “Hi, Aunt Felicity.” Ivy offered up an easy grin of her own. “This is Harper Harlow. She’s visiting town and wanted to see your shop.”

  “I’ve heard all about you.” Felicity took Harper by surprise when the older woman swooped in and offered the feisty blonde a warm embrace. “I heard you guys have something of a love affair going on.”

  Ivy frowned as Felicity released Harper. “Who told you that?”

  Felicity’s eyes sparkled. “One guess.”

  “I’m going to beat the living snot out of Max,” Ivy muttered, her temper flaring. “He has a huge mouth.”

  “You both have huge mouths,” Felicity countered. “It’s a family trait. I think it’s in the genes.”

  “My family has that gene, too,” Harper admitted as she followed Felicity to the counter.

  “You haven’t said much about your family,” Ivy noted. “Do you have brothers and sisters?”

  “I’m an only child … except for Zander, of course. We spent so much time together as kids it was like having a brother.”

  “You have my condolences,” Ivy said dryly. “I’m considering killing my brother.”

  “Oh, don’t give Max a hard time,” Felicity chided. “I happened to be at your mother’s house yesterday afternoon when he stopped by. He was more amused than anything else. He told us about your side foray while hunting for morels. Your father wants you to pick an extra bag just for him, by the way, since he’s been spending so much time at the nursery.”

  Ivy felt a momentary twinge of guilt. “Yeah, I’ve kind of dumped everything on him the past few days.”

  Felicity made a clucking sound with her tongue as she patted Ivy’s arm. “I wouldn’t worry about that, dear. Your father had the entire winter off while he was in Florida. You know how he loves running the nursery. I think it’s the only place where people treat him like an expert.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll make sure to pick him his own bag of morels,” Ivy said. “I’m going back out tomorrow whether Jack likes it or not.”

  “Why wouldn’t Jack like it?” Felicity poured three mugs of tea, sliding two in front of Harper and Ivy as they got comfortable at the counter stools and sipping from the third. “I know he hates eating them but as long as you’re not force feeding the boy, I don’t understand what the problem is.”

  “The problem is Tabitha Darden,” Ivy explained. “The evidence in her death seems to suggest she was running through the woods before she was shot. Jack thinks that means someone was hunting her.”

  “Hunting her because of something specific or for sport?”

  Ivy held her hands palms up and shrugged. “That’s the question, isn’t it? No one knows. Jack is on edge, though, and doesn’t want me wandering around the woods.”

  “Jack is a worrier by nature,” Felicity pointed out. “He can’t help it. The absolute worst thing imaginable already happened to him and he somehow survived. It was something of a miracle, if you ask me. He simply wants to make sure that nothing happens to you.”

  “I get that, but he’s something of a mother hen.”

  Felicity snorted. “He loves you, Ivy. You should be thankful for the love and let him be.”

  Ivy rolled her eyes. “Since when are you on his side?”

  “Since I also love you and want you safe.” Felicity turned her attention from her niece to Harper. “So, I hear you can see and talk to ghosts. That sounds fascinating. Tell me all about it.”

  Harper giggled, genuinely amused. “I don’t know how much there i
s to tell you. It’s something I’ve simply been able to do since I was a small child. I was probably born this way but didn’t realize it until my grandfather came to visit.”

  “And why did you realize it when your grandfather came to visit?”

  “Because while I was talking to him in my bedroom, my grandmother called my parents to tell them he’d passed away in his sleep.”

  “Oh.” Felicity furrowed her brow, sympathy positively oozing off her. “That must have been hard for you to handle.”

  “It certainly wasn’t easy. My parents thought I was insane.”

  “They didn’t believe you?” Ivy’s stomach twisted. She’d often worried her parents would think she was crazy when she admitted to a few of the things going on with Jack. They never once did, but that didn’t mean the fear wasn’t real.

  “They didn’t believe me at first,” Harper clarified. “After a few years, so many weird things happened around me they didn’t have a choice but to believe me. It turns out, though, that my grandfather could see ghosts, too. He never told me because I was so young, but Whisper Cove has this ghost who pops up from time to time and he told me. He even told me stories about spending time with my grandfather and me when I was young.”

  “That’s kind of fun.” Felicity brightened. “Ivy and I had a séance once and talked to a ghost.”

  “You did?” Harper eyebrows flew up her forehead. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  “It was part of the story I told you,” Ivy hedged. “I left out the séance part because I didn’t want you to think I was weird for doing something like that.”

  “I would never think you were weird for doing that. I’ve never really tried a séance. I usually just wander around until I find the ghost I’m looking for … or a lot of the time they find me.”

  “That seems very time consuming,” Felicity said. “The séance worked quite well.”

  “Hmm.” Harper tapped her bottom lip, intrigued despite herself. “You know, Jack and Jared were adamant that we not wander around the woods looking for ghosts and mushrooms. They didn’t say anything about calling a ghost to us.”

  Ivy’s mouth dropped open. “You want to have a séance?”

  Harper shrugged. “Why not? We didn’t get a lot of information out of Tabitha the first go around because I didn’t know any of the players and spent all my time acting as a go between. If you could see her during a séance … .

  “Then I might be able to ask more intuitive questions,” Ivy finished. “It’s a thought.” She turned to her aunt for guidance. “What do you think?”

  “I think I have a new Ouija board upstairs and your brother was absolutely right about you guys being adorable together,” Felicity replied.

  Ivy’s mouth dipped into a frown. “I wish people would stop saying things like that. I’ve had female friends before.”

  “Name one.”

  “Um … .” Ivy was legitimately stumped.

  “Give it up, dear,” Felicity instructed. “You simply don’t warm to women. It’s not a big deal.”

  “So where did we land on the séance?” Harper asked. She wasn’t bothered by the “new friend” teasing because she was getting it on her end as well.

  “We’re totally doing it,” Ivy said, swiveling on her stool. “I have some questions for Tabitha and I think this is the best way to get answers without causing Jack and Jared to have aneurysms.”

  Harper beamed. “It sounds like a plan to me.”

  13

  Thirteen

  “We found Tabitha’s car,” Brian announced when Jack and Jared swung through the police station doors. “The Lenox brothers towed it because they thought it was abandoned. I just got word.”

  “Where is it now?” Jack asked.

  “At their lot. I told them not to touch it. We need to search it.”

  “Then let’s get out there.” Jack fell into step with his partner. “Did they say anything about where they found it?”

  “Just that it was near the access road that leads into the woods,” Brian replied. “That spot is out in the middle of nowhere, but a lot of morel hunters park there. Tim Lenox is the one who called. The car was out there for days without moving and they assumed it broke down. He didn’t realize who it belonged to until he had it back at the lot.”

  “Did he say there was anything amiss about it?” Jared asked. “I mean … did he see blood or anything?”

  “He said it looked as if the car was abandoned and that’s all. I told him not to touch anything so, hopefully, we’ll be the first ones to search it.”

  “Why do you say ‘hopefully’ like that?”

  “Because, if the car really was out there for days, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone looked inside to see if there was anything inside worth stealing,” Brian explained. “Tabitha didn’t have a lot of money – and what she did have she usually spent on pot and liquor – but someone might’ve stolen whatever pot was in there and possibly tainted the evidence.”

  “Well, we won’t know until we see it,” Jack noted. “That’s clearly our top priority now, though.”

  “Without a doubt.”

  “SO WHAT DO WE DO?”

  Since Harper had never participated in a séance before, she was understandably eager to hear the rules before they started.

  “We’re not exactly scientific about it,” Ivy replied. “The last time we got it to work was a fluke. I think it was because the spirit was close and desperately wanted help.”

  “We already know that Tabitha is close,” Harper pointed out. “I’m not sure how desperate she is for help, though.”

  “What do you mean?” Felicity busied herself lighting candles as she listened.

  “She didn’t realize she was dead,” Harper supplied. “That’s not exactly a new thing. I’ve dealt with it multiple times. The longer a spirit is displaced, the more he or she seems to understand their surroundings. That doesn’t mean they don’t go a little mad at times, though, from the isolation.

  “We’re usually called in on cases where souls have gone crazy,” she continued. “If the spirits are strong enough to manifest in a way that allows them to upset the real world, that means they’re pretty powerful.”

  “Hmm.” Ivy tapped her bottom lip. “You said you help them move on. How do you do that?”

  “I manufactured a special dreamcatcher, used a few oils that I read about in books, and then I toss it in their paths and it seems to work,” Harper replied. “The thing is, most ghosts want to move on. Very rarely have I met a spirit who wants to stay behind. There was one not too long ago who enjoyed pinching women’s butts at the cemetery, for example, and he got a real thrill out of it so he was a pain when we tried to move him along but that’s the exception rather than the rule.”

  Ivy snorted. “That will be Max when it’s his turn to die.”

  Felicity joined in with a chuckle. “I’ve told you before that I think your brother will make a marvelous husband when he finally decides to settle down. He’s simply not there yet. Not everyone can be Jack.”

  Ivy ignored the admonishment. “Go on, Harper.”

  “Most souls think they’re stuck so they stay behind because they don’t know what else to do,” Harper said. “There are some, mind you, who don’t want to leave because they’ve left loved ones behind. More often than not, though, I’ve discovered ghosts yearn to pass over because they want peace.”

  “And when these dreamcatchers work, the souls are just sucked to the other side?” Ivy asked. “Do you ever … I don’t know … see anything when that happens?”

  “Um … .” Harper wasn’t sure how to answer. She’d seen things a time or two and knew the other side to be beautiful and peaceful. Her glimpses were always rare and short, but that was the main reason she ultimately didn’t fear death.

  “You have seen something.” Ivy rubbed her hands together as she leaned forward. “What? Is it like a garden? Do you see clouds with dancing angels?”

  Harper chuc
kled. “No. I don’t see a different place as much as I feel a different sensation,” she said after a beat. “It’s hard to explain. I’ve seen flashes – bright lights and stuff – but it’s more the sensation that washes over me when it happens. It’s … peaceful. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  “That’s good,” Ivy said. “I would hate to think that death is more traumatizing than it has to be. It’s bad enough to leave the people you love behind, but the idea that you’ll never be able to see them again … well, it’s too much. I like believing that even when Jack and I are separated in this world we’ll be able to find each other in the next.”

  “I like that idea, too.” Harper held Ivy’s steady gaze for a moment before shaking her head. “Okay, that went to a deep place I wasn’t ready for. Tell me about the séance. What will happen?”

  “Once we are done lighting the candles, we position ourselves around the Ouija board,” Felicity replied. “We’ll all put our hands on the planchette and call out to Tabitha. Since she’s local – and apparently close – hopefully she’ll hear us.”

  “And you saw the spirit the previous time, Ivy?”

  Ivy nodded. “It freaked me out.”

  “Hopefully it won’t this time,” Felicity said, taking her spot between Ivy and Harper and offering up a reassuring smile. “Is everyone ready to get started?”

  “Yeah, let’s get this show on the road.”

  “THE DOORS ARE locked,” Jack noted as he circled the beat-up Ford sedan. “Was it like this when you found it?”

  Tim Lenox, the junior partner in the towing business, nodded his head. “We didn’t touch anything. We just towed it. We didn’t even know who the car belonged to until we got it back here and ran the plate.”

  “Did someone call you on it?” Jared asked.

  Tim nodded. “Jasper Tobias. He was out mushroom hunting in that area three days straight and thought the car being there was weird. I thought it probably belonged to a tourist so I towed it back, figuring it was broken down, but when I ran the plate and realized who it belonged to I figured I should call you guys.”