Yeah, and Hedda's granddaughter, Harmony, turned out to be an innocent after all.
"I don't know if I'd use that word. The girl's already started partying, I hear. She's moving to New York City next month. She's due to inherit a lot of Hedda's money—of course, there's one big stipulation."
Let me guess. She has to ride Hedda's horse two hours a day.
"Close. To keep her share of the inheritance, she's got to devote a large block of it to creating a Hedda Geist Museum, filled with costumes and scripts that the old actress kept preserved in plastic from her days as a femme fatale."
You know, doll, that doesn't really surprise me.
"Me, either."
Once a diva, always a diva.
Just then, another episode of Jack Shield started up on the television. Spencer and I watched for a while. Every few minutes I'd hear Jack gripe about how silly the show was or ask, Do you know how often a real gumshoe would do that? Never.
Finally, the show ended, and Spencer went off to bed. I kissed my boy goodnight and headed to my own room. Jack had gone quiet by now, so I clicked off the light and settled under the covers. Then, just as I closed my eyes and started drifting off, I heard the ghost's familiar deep voice again, rumbling through my mind—
Hey, baby?
"Yeah?"
Remember when I kissed you? Back in '48? In my ransacked office?
"Yeah." My eyes were still closed. I smiled. "I remember, Jack."
Remember what you were thinking? "I was thinking that it felt like heaven."
Just wanted you to know... it felt like that for me, too. Heaven, I mean.
There was a long silence after that, so long that I thought Jack had gone away, until I heard the faintest whisper.
I'll see you in your dreams, baby . . .
Then the ghost's presence receded once more, into the fieldstone walls that had become his tomb.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alice Kimberly is the pen name for a multi-published author who regularly collaborates with her writer husband. In addition to the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries, she and her husband also write the bestselling Coffeehouse Mysteries under the pen name Cleo Coyle. To learn more about Alice Kimberly, the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries, or the Coffeehouse Mysteries, visit the author's virtual coffeehouse at. . .
www.CoffeehouseMystery.com
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The Ghost and the Femme Fatale - Haunted Bookshop 04 Page 25