Wicked Times (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 3)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “She has,” Jack said, his voice dropping. He pointed toward a photograph in the center of everything. “That’s Kelly and her brother. That’s the night we had a barbecue on the back porch. That was weeks ago.”

  “So Laura has been watching for a long time,” Brian mused. “Why did she wait so long to approach?”

  “And I didn’t notice any of it.”

  “You can’t be blamed for that,” Brian chided. “No one could’ve expected this. We need to get a team in here to go over this place. We’re going to need help from the state.”

  Jack turned on his heel and stalked toward the door, taking Brian by surprise.

  “What are you doing?” Brian asked, following his partner. “We need to go through all of this stuff.”

  “No, we don’t,” Jack shot back. “We know what Laura is up to. We know that she wants revenge on me. She’s focused that revenge on Ivy. If we want to catch Laura then we have to get to Ivy.

  “Don’t you understand?” Jack continued. “Laura has been playing with me. She’s almost killed Ivy twice. Do you think she’s going to miss a third time? I don’t. She’s readying for her endgame.”

  “And her endgame is to kill Ivy,” Brian said.

  “I won’t let that happen.”

  Twenty-Two

  After her lunch with Max – and the odd niggling worry that refused to dissipate after seeing the apparition at the lumberyard – Ivy made a decision. She returned her father’s car to the nursery, listened to him rail at her about being an irresponsible thief for fifteen minutes straight, and then returned to her cottage.

  She was careful during the trek, her eyes wide and her ears alert, but she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Once inside she gathered a blanket, bottle of water, and book before leaving again. She locked the house and headed in the direction of her fairy ring. She had a feeling it was the one place that held the answers she needed.

  Max was jovial during lunch and the conversation turned to the occult and paranormal. While he was lighthearted regarding the topic, a few of the things he said made sense to Ivy. She was convinced she felt something in Felicity’s apartment. She was even more convinced something was trying to make contact with her at Max’s lumberyard. If she wanted to know who it was, she was going to have to make things easier on the ghost. What better way than drawing it to a magical place?

  It took Ivy about ten minutes to reach her favorite spot in the world. She’d discovered it when she was younger, entranced by the face she swore up and down she could see in the tree. The mushroom circle was another story, and when she did research on the phenomenon she learned about fairy rings.

  As a child with few friends and an endless imagination, Ivy was convinced she’d found something that should be coveted. She spent weeks cleaning up the area until she had it exactly how she wanted it. Then she returned to the clearing every day for two weeks, convinced with each visit that she would eventually see something extraordinary.

  It never happened … at least not in the literal sense. The fairy ring had proven to be magical, though. She took Jack there not long after meeting him, and that’s where he saved her from a crazy stalker on a dark night a few days later. Given how things were in her life now, Ivy was even more convinced that the fairy ring had power. It led her to Jack – and vice versa – and now it was going to lead her to answers. She had faith.

  Upon arriving she spread out her blanket and dropped the bottle of water and book on top of it. She settled in the middle of the mushrooms, glanced at her “tree friend” and closed her eyes. She had no idea what she was doing. Felicity spouted off about yoga and meditating whenever they chatted, enthusiastic about the merits of being in tune with one’s soul. Ivy always politely listened – okay, there may have been some eye rolling – and then discarded the information. Sitting still for an hour with only the company of her thoughts never sounded appealing. She was about to change that.

  Ivy rested her palms on her knees and closed her eyes, zoning everything out. Then … she waited. If she thought the ghost would magically appear after five minutes of sitting in the fairy ring, she was about to be sadly disappointed. She was determined to make this work, though. She waited … and waited … and waited. Finally, just when she was about to give up, she heard something.

  Finally!

  JACK was almost out the front door of the Barker Creek Lodge when something occurred to him. He turned quickly, thankful that Don was standing behind the counter and not yet returning to his nap, and moved to the desk.

  “You said Laura was saying things to women. What kinds of things?”

  “She was just going on and on about how hot they were and how she wanted to spend a night with them,” Don replied. “If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought it was a dude saying it. It must be cool to be a lesbian. You can get away with saying stuff like that and not get punched in the face.”

  “Yeah,” Jack said dryly, making a face. “And you have no idea where she goes every day? Has she ever mentioned Shadow Lake?”

  “Not that I can recall. Is Shadow Lake important?”

  “It’s very important,” Jack said. “So is what she’s after in Shadow Lake. Brian is staying upstairs until the state police get here. Is there anything else you can remember about Laura?”

  “Is Laura that creepy woman who was staying at the end of the hall on the second floor?” the clerk asked.

  Jack nodded.

  “She didn’t say a lot, but she was weird,” the clerk said. “She talked to herself sometimes.”

  “Did you hear anything she said?”

  “Not really. Um … she once told herself to shut up. I only know she was talking to herself because there was no one else around.”

  “So you think she’s hearing voices,” Jack mused. That would make sense. The Laura he knew was incapable of killing someone. If she had some break with reality, maybe the voices in her head were telling her to get revenge. “Thanks.”

  “You know she was here a few minutes ago, right?” the clerk called to his back.

  Jack swiveled back. “What?”

  “After you guys went upstairs she showed up and went up there, too,” the clerk volunteered, nervous. “I thought she was going up there because you guys called her or something. She was only up there like thirty seconds before she came running back down and booked outside.”

  “She knows,” Jack said. “She knows we’re onto her. There’s only one place left for her to go.”

  Ivy!

  “CAN you see me?”

  Ivy nodded, mesmerized by the figure in front of her. It wasn’t solid by any stretch of the imagination, but she could finally make out features. She instantly knew who it was. “You’re Laura Simmons.”

  “How do you know me?” The ghost seemed both relieved and confused.

  “Well, we’ve been looking for you,” Ivy said, hoping she didn’t sound as panicked as she felt. “We thought you were here hurting people. Um … I’m a little confused … if you’re a ghost, why were you at my nursery yesterday? Were you a ghost then, too?”

  Laura shook her head. “I’m not technically a ghost … although, well, I don’t think I am. Not yet anyway.”

  “I’m new to all of this, so you’re going to have to bear with me,” Ivy said, tamping her nervous energy down. “If you’re not a ghost, what are you?”

  “Lost.”

  Ivy had so many questions jockeying for top billing in her head she had no idea where to start. “Let’s go about this in a rational way and start from the beginning, shall we?”

  Laura nodded.

  “What happened to you?” That seemed like a safe question.

  “I’m not sure,” Laura answered. “My mind is muddy about what happened. I remember falling asleep on the couch. I was having an odd dream. My brother was in a car … he was on the phone and he was swearing up a storm … and the cops were chasing him.”

  Ivy’s heart rolled. She had a feeling she knew where
this story was going. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew. She let Laura continue at her own pace.

  “It was weird,” Laura said, her face contorting. “It was almost as if I was in his body and seeing things from his perspective. I panicked in the dream and careened over the edge of the expressway guardrail and then … there was some sort of explosion.

  “I thought I would wake up on the couch, but when I did wake up I was in the kitchen,” she continued. “The funny thing is, even though I was awake, I was convinced I was still asleep. I could feel someone in my head with me, and when I tried to talk, I couldn’t make my mouth work. When I tried to walk, I couldn’t make my feet work.”

  “Who was in your head with you?” Ivy already knew the answer.

  “It was Marcus,” Laura said, confirming Ivy’s theory. “He was talking through my mouth. He was as confused as I was at first. He said that he knew he was in trouble and right before the car went out of control he wished he could trade places with someone.”

  “That sounds like the worst Freaky Friday moment ever,” Ivy muttered. “Has Marcus been in your body since he died?”

  “I wasn’t sure he died at that point,” Laura admitted. “I knew something happened. I knew it was bad. I knew I hadn’t seen him around. Still, through all of that, I thought I was dreaming. That seems pretty stupid now, doesn’t it?”

  “I don’t think it sounds stupid,” Ivy countered. “I probably would’ve jumped to the same conclusion. When did you know differently?”

  “Days. Weeks maybe. I’m not sure. Things were really fuzzy. I could hear Marcus. I could think his thoughts … if that makes sense.”

  Ivy nodded, prodding the woman to continue.

  “I know now that Marcus somehow managed to take over my body. I’m still not sure how. I think it might be sheer force of will. He didn’t want to die, so he came up with the only solution that not only allowed him to live but also get away with what he did.”

  “Do you know what he did?”

  “I know he shot Jack Harker,” Laura replied. “Jack found out that Marcus was running drugs. My brother was skimming whenever they made a drug bust. He always volunteered to inventory everything because that allowed him to fudge the reports.”

  “Did you know that before he took over your body?”

  Laura shook her head. “He would never tell me anything like that,” she said. “He knew I would turn him in. I loved my brother. I was aware of his limitations, though. He was a sociopath. I recognized the signs when I was in college. I took a psychology class and I read about it in a book and I realized what he was. Sociopaths can be charming. They can convince you of things. Marcus was a master when it came to that.”

  “Why didn’t you distance yourself from him then?”

  “I naively thought I could make things better,” Laura said. “I thought maybe he could be saved. It’s stupid to think that now, but there it is.”

  “Could you communicate with Marcus when you were sharing the same body?”

  “He could hear me,” Laura said. “I would disappear for hours at a time – it was kind of like sleeping without dreams – and I was strongest when I came back. I tried to force him out of me a couple of times, but he threatened to kill my mother if I didn’t stop doing it so … I didn’t have a choice. I gave in.”

  Sympathy washed over Ivy. Did Laura know what Marcus did to their mother? “When did you get completely displaced?”

  “Several weeks ago,” Laura answered. “I’d been spending more and more time out of my body. It was easier that way. Marcus’ thoughts were hateful and he kept trying to figure out a way to get revenge on Jack. He blamed him for everything.

  “The more time I spent away from my body the harder it was to return,” she continued. “The final straw was when Marcus went out to an empty field in Detroit. I think it used to be an apartment building, but it was torn down. He dug up the gun he used to shoot Jack, all the time mumbling about how he was going to make him pay. I didn’t want to deal with him one second longer than I had to.”

  The next question was a hard one, but Ivy had to ask it. “Do you know what Marcus did to your mother?”

  Laura nodded, her green eyes sad. “I didn’t know when he did it. I wasn’t there. I think he knew that. He told me after the fact that Mom figured out what was going on. I still don’t know how. If anyone could recognize Marcus’ putrid soul, though, it was her. She knew what he was long before I did.”

  “And yet she protected him,” Ivy pointed out. “Why did she do that?”

  “He was her son. She wasn’t the type of woman who could turn her back on her own flesh and blood.”

  “So Marcus killed your mother because she figured things out,” Ivy said. “You were growing weaker and weaker ... which let Marcus get stronger. He spent six months thinking up revenge schemes before deciding to go after Jack. I wonder why he waited for so long.”

  “I can’t answer that,” Laura said. “It used to be that I popped out of existence when I went to … sleep. I made a conscious decision to leave my body at some point. That’s when I started existing outside of it, too. I still disappear sometimes, but when I’m here I can control my actions. I can go places.”

  “Did you follow Marcus up here for a reason?”

  “I’m still hoping to get my body back,” Laura admitted. “It seems ridiculous to say it, but that’s all I have. I’m nothing here.”

  “You know if you do get it back that you’re going to be arrested and charged with the murder of a police officer, right?” Ivy asked. “I don’t know any judge who is going to believe you were possessed by your murderous brother’s spirit.”

  “I know,” Laura said. “I simply don’t know what else to do.”

  “Marcus has been watching us for days, hasn’t he?”

  “Try weeks.”

  Ivy frowned. That was disconcerting. “Why didn’t he kill me that day in the park?”

  “I don’t know,” Laura replied. “I’ve been watching him. I’ve tried to hijack my body back a few times, but he’s stronger than I am and he screams at me to get out. I can’t seem to break through. If I had to guess, though, I would say he’s playing with Jack. He wants Jack to be terrified about potentially losing you … he wants to toy with him … and then he’s going to kill you.”

  “What does he hope to accomplish by doing that?”

  “He only cares that he causes Jack pain,” Laura said. “If you want to know the truth, I think Marcus’ biggest problem is that Jack was too stubborn to die on that street. Marcus wanted Jack dead because he ruined his side business. Jack surviving proved Marcus wasn’t as strong as he thought. Jack was stronger.”

  “Jack is the strongest person I know,” Ivy said. “Does Marcus want to kill Jack, too? Will he settle for killing me and leaving Jack to mourn?”

  “No. He wants Jack dead, too. He just wants him to suffer a lot before he finally kills him. Mark my words, when Marcus does finally go after Jack, he’s going to torture him for days first. It won’t be a quick death.”

  Ivy swallowed the lump in her throat. “Where is Marcus now?”

  “He’s coming for you.”

  “IVY!”

  Jack was enraged by the time he walked through Ivy’s front door. After calling Max and finding out she was already gone, and stopping by the nursery to have Michael tell him she returned home, Jack was beside himself. To top it all off, she wasn’t answering her phone.

  The cottage appeared empty, which didn’t make any sense. Michael had his car back. Ivy had no means of transportation other than her feet. Where would she go?

  “Ivy!”

  Nothing.

  Jack turned when he heard shuffling in the doorway, a bellow ready to escape his mouth when he saw her. He wanted to shake her for scaring him like this.

  “You are in so much trouble you’re not going to be able to walk for days,” Jack hissed, swiveling. His eyes widened when he caught of Laura Simmons standing behind him.


  “That’s not a very nice thing to say to a lady,” Laura said, her green eyes shifting brown momentarily before she slammed the vase from Ivy’s front table against the side of his head.

  Jack saw the blow coming, but it was too late to stop it. He staggered and fell, falling forward. His last thought was of Ivy. He was convinced he would never see her again.

  Twenty-Three

  Ivy found her front door open when she returned to the house, Laura drifting along beside her. Outside of the fairy ring Ivy was having a harder time seeing the morose ghost. She could hear her, though, and Ivy considered that a win … for now.

  “Let me go in first,” Laura hissed. “I’ll know if he’s in there.”

  Ivy bit her lip and nodded. She had to be smart about this, if only for Jack’s sake. It took Laura what seemed like forever to search the cottage. When she returned, Ivy felt her rather than saw her.

  “The house is empty, but it looks like something happened inside,” Laura said.

  Ivy pushed her way into the cottage, frowning when she saw the remnants of the shattered vase. She knelt, picking up a few shards to study them. There was blood on one of the pieces.

  “Someone has been hurt,” Ivy said, biting her lip. “I … Nicodemus!”

  The cat was the first thing that popped into her mind. She’d found him in a Dumpster, near death, and bottle-fed him back to health. She loved him as much as was humanly possible. If Marcus didn’t have any qualms about shooting an innocent police officer in the middle of the street, she knew killing Nicodemus would be easy.

  “Nicodemus!” Ivy raced down the hallway, throwing open her bedroom door and found the cat lazily cleaning himself on her bed. She cried out in relief, gathering him in her arms and hugging him. He didn’t like being crowded, so he batted her face away when she tried to kiss him and wriggled out of her arms. He was safe. That was all that mattered.