Ghostly Secrets

by K. E. O'Connor

  “Ben is not my toy boy,” said Juliette. “He’s barely five years younger than me.”

  “It still makes him your toy boy,” said Fleur with a derisory laugh. “And he’s come from nothing. He didn’t bring anything to the marriage.”

  “Other than love,” said Juliette. “I consider that the most important element of a happy marriage.”

  “Love will not pay for your designer dresses or fancy staff.” Fleur waved a hand at me.

  “Ben is good to you,” said Juliette. “He puts up with all your complaining and whining. And he’s always on hand to give you lifts and take you places.”

  Fleur shrugged. “I still don’t know what you see in him. He’s nothing like Archie.”

  “Which is, perhaps, why I married him,” said Juliette.

  Fleur’s eyes narrowed. “I knew you hated my brother. I bet you were the one who spooked the horse so he fell off.”

  For a few seconds, it felt as if the air had vanished from the room, and I gaped in surprise at Fleur’s comment.

  “Now you’re accusing me of killing Archie?” asked Juliette.

  “It’s the perfect motive,” said Fleur. “He had all the money and spent it exactly how he wanted. You found a younger lover, and between the two of you, decided to get rid of poor Archie. I’m surprised the police haven’t arrested you.”

  “They haven’t arrested me because it was an accident.” Juliette stood slowly. “And I’d advise you not to accuse people of murder when you have no proof.”

  “I can get proof if I need it,” said Fleur. “And I know you want to get rid of me too. Now Archie is gone, I bet it won’t be long before you’re throwing my stuff out into the garden. After all, we’re not even related by blood.”

  “Thank goodness for that,” said Juliette quietly. She took a deep breath and focused on Fleur. “I won’t be throwing you out. I made a promise to Archie that you could stay here as long as you need to. I know how close the two of you were, and I know you miss him as much as I do.”

  “Of course you don’t,” said Fleur. “He was my big brother, and he looked out for me. It’s more than you’d ever do.”

  “You know that’s not true,” said Juliette.

  “And you never give me any money when I ask for it,” said Fleur. “I have certain standards to maintain, and you don’t understand that. You’re happy to hide away in this house and exist in last season’s fashions. But that’s not for me. I still have a life to lead, and you’re not letting me do that.”

  “You get plenty of money,” said Juliette. “I never withhold anything from you.”

  “You do,” said Fleur. “I know one of Archie’s investments is due to mature soon, and I bet I won’t see a penny of that. And you got all of the life insurance. You’re rolling in cash, and I have barely anything.”

  I saw Juliette’s fists clench and realized Fleur was in trouble.

  “You are the most ungrateful woman I have ever met.” An angry thread traced through Juliette's words. “You never have a kind word to say about anybody. You’re always chasing after the money, and you’re spiteful.”

  “I’m not spiteful,” spluttered out Fleur.

  Juliette held up her hand. “Every word that falls from that overly painted mouth of yours is full of venom. You should be ashamed of yourself. I loved your brother. I stood by his side, no matter what he did. Did you know he cheated on me several times? And yet, I still stood by him like a stupid dutiful wife.”

  Fleur frowned. “Hardly a surprise that he cheated on you.”

  Juliette shook her head. “Maybe I did have a motive to get rid of him, but I didn’t kill Archie. Nobody did. It was a horrible, tragic accident. So stop twisting the knife and trying to guilt me into giving you more than you are entitled to. And you’re right; I would rather you didn’t live in this house with my new husband and me. I wouldn’t mind if you were a kind person, but you remind me of Archie, and every day, that is a painful thing to have to experience. Now, you get your allowance, you live here rent-free, and you have us running around doing your every whim. So, stop asking for more. You’re not going to get it. And if you push me any further, I will make you leave this house.”

  Fleur opened her mouth to speak, but Juliette pressed a finger to her lips. “Not another word.”

  Fleur gave a shriek of disgust before turning on her heels and flouncing away.

  Juliette let out an enormous sigh and sank back into her seat. “I am so sorry you had to witness that, Lorna. But it’s been a long time coming. Fleur is a difficult woman to deal with.”

  I gave a discreet gesture to Flipper, and he ran round the table and laid his head on Juliette’s knee. I wasn’t sure if Juliette would appreciate his company, but I always loved having him nearby when I was upset.

  “Please don’t apologize,” I said. “Families can be the most difficult relationships to manage.”

  Juliette rolled her shoulders a couple of times and patted Flipper on the head. “I sometimes wonder what sort of strange family I married into. Perhaps I should have stayed single.”

  “Everyone is looking for love, even if they don’t realize they are,” I said. “It’s nice to be with another person.” My thoughts briefly turned to Zach, and I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Yes, you’re right.” Juliette smiled at me. “I made the right decision hiring you. Let’s hope it’s the first of many. Now, we’d better get through these letters.”

  I nodded and continued to open the letters in front of me. Having just witnessed the fight between Juliette and Fleur, I realized they could both be suspects in Archie’s death.

  Maybe Fleur was right, and Juliette decided to do away with her errant husband, especially if he was cheating on her and squandering the family fortune. But what about Fleur? Maybe she decided she wanted more than her fair share of the money, and getting rid of her brother could have been a way to do it.

  I had just found my first two suspects in Archie Musgrave’s murder.

  Chapter 6

  It was late in the evening after my first full day of work. I sat at the cottage's table with Helen and Zach and was updating them about my day with Juliette and the fight she'd had with Fleur.

  “And she accused Juliette of killing Archie in front of you?” asked Helen as she placed steaming bowls of apple crumble and custard in front of us.

  “Fleur acted like I wasn’t even there,” I said. “She was really mean to Juliette, but Juliette held her own. She told Fleur that she was spiteful and money grabbing. You should have seen Fleur’s face. I wonder if anyone has ever stood up to her before.”

  “I can see why you’d think either of them could be guilty of killing Archie,” said Zach as he dug into his apple crumble. “Both of them have solid motives for wanting him dead.”

  “I could do some snooping,” said Helen. “I’ve been given a pile of alterations, some for Juliette and some for Fleur. It would give me the perfect opportunity to go into their rooms and see what I can find out.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” I said. “I don’t want you to get caught looking around where you shouldn’t.”

  “I’ll be discreet,” said Helen. “And if I do get caught, I can always say I was collecting the laundry or returning clean items. I won’t get into any trouble by being in their rooms.”

  “I’ve heard you say that before,” I said to Helen with a grin. I ate a large spoonful of the warm crumble. It had delicious hints of cinnamon and nutmeg that surrounded the juicy sweet apples.

  “So you had quite a first day,” said Zach to me.

  “Other than that argument, it was straightforward enough,” I said. “I spent the morning dealing with unopened mail and letters and then the afternoon working out Archie’s filing system. He wasn’t a man to do things the easy way. I still haven’t quite figured it out yet. How was your day?”

  “The gardens are vast, but the previous gardener did a great job of looking after things,” said Zach. “I just need to
keep on top of what he did.”

  “And the studio is comfortable enough?”

  “Yes, I slept well,” said Zach. “But I was worried about the two of you in here with that ghost.”

  “Archie hasn’t come back since his first appearance,” said Helen. “Well, I haven’t noticed him. No slamming doors or flickering lights at least.”

  “No, he’s not around.” I glanced down at Flipper, who lay at my feet, snoring gently, Jessie by his side. “Maybe he’s spending some time with Juliette. I get the impression she doesn’t sleep well. Archie could be disturbing her in the night. I hope he’s not doing it to be malicious. If he thinks it was his wife who killed him, he could make her life miserable.”

  “And she doesn’t seem all that happy as it is,” said Helen.

  “Most likely because Archie is hassling her,” I said. “But I can’t ask her outright if she thinks she’s being haunted by her dead husband’s ghost.”

  “I definitely need to do some snooping then,” said Helen. “I might find something useful in the bedrooms.”

  “If you must, then be careful,” I said. “I don’t want you getting fired because you've been caught with your hands where they shouldn't be.”

  “I’ll wear my invisibility cloak.” Helen grinned at me. “But don’t worry. I will be careful.”

  Flipper raised his head from the floor and blinked up at me, before letting out a long slow whine.

  “You spoke too soon,” said Helen. “Sounds like we might be getting some ghostly company.”

  A cold swirl of air surrounded me, and the lights flickered overhead. “There’s no need for the dramatics. If you want to appear, just do so.”

  “The ghost is here?” Zach looked around the cottage in a futile attempt to spot Archie.

  “Looks like it,” I said. “Can you feel how cold it’s become?”

  Zach rubbed his hands together. “Yes. I’m still amazed how ghosts can influence the environment so easily.”

  “I think the more stubborn the ghost, the easier they find it,” I said. “And Archie is one of the most stubborn ghosts we’ve ever come across.”

  The salt cellar on the table was knocked over, and the contents spilled across the table.

  I grabbed it up and screwed the lid down tightly. “There’s no need to do that. We know you’re here.”

  Although Archie didn’t appear, I saw lines slowly being drawn in the spilled salt.

  “He’s communicating with us,” said Helen. She leaned closer to the salt. “It looks like he’s spelt the letter D.”

  Zach’s eyes widened as he watched letters appearing in the salt. “You’re right. He’s spelt the name Dex.”

  “Are you sure it’s a name?” asked Helen.

  “I don’t know what else it could refer to,” said Zach.

  “Dex could be short for Dexter,” I said. “And that is a name I’ve seen recently. It was on some of the correspondence I was looking at today when working with Juliette. I can’t remember the surname, but there were a couple of letters from Dexter, and he was mentioned in some other correspondence.”

  “Looks like Archie wants us to investigate him,” said Helen. “Maybe he thinks this Dexter has something to do with his death.”

  “He could,” I said. “But if he was pushed from behind and fell down the stairs, how can he know for sure who was involved?”

  The salt shot up in a loop around the table before spilling on my head.

  “Not funny,” I yelled as I shook salt from my hair. “Stop messing with me, or this investigation ends.”

  “Why don’t we go now?” Helen made an attempt to brush salt from my clothes.

  “Go where?” I asked.

  “Go back to look at the correspondence you were talking about,” said Helen. “If we can get Dexter’s full name, we can do some research on him. Maybe Archie has remembered something about his death that implicates Dexter.”

  “It’s not a good idea to go poking about in the house at night time,” I said. “What if Juliette catches us?”

  “Then you can say you left something behind,” said Helen.

  “I did put some of the letters in the study,” I said. “I doubt Juliette will be using it this evening. She said she wanted an early night, so she’s probably already in bed.”

  “There you go,” said Helen. “No one will hear us if we’re quiet.”

  “What about the awful Fleur?” I asked.

  “We don’t have to worry about her,” said Zach. “I saw a cab take her away a couple of hours ago, and I haven’t seen her come back. It’s just Juliette and Ben at home.”

  “We could take a quick look,” I said.

  “It’s what Archie wants,” said Helen. “If we can figure out who killed him, he’ll be at peace and won’t continue to bother us.”

  “You mean bother me,” I said as salt continued to fall out of my hair.

  “Well, yes, he does seem to like hassling you,” said Helen. “But isn’t that what you want, a nice peaceful job with no ghosts bothering you? All we need to do to achieve that is solve this murder.”

  “It may not be as simple as that. And if we get caught snooping around, none of us will have jobs in the morning.”

  “Then we’d better be quiet.” Helen smiled. “Come on, let’s go see what we can find out.”

  “I could be your distraction,” said Zach. “I was wanting to talk to Ben about some new tools I need for the garden. I can use that as an excuse to keep him busy while the two of you take a look around.”

  “You’re an angel.” I kissed Zach on the cheek. “That would be really helpful.”

  “Happy to play your willing accomplice.” Zach smiled at me.

  We quickly finished our apple crumble and left Flipper and Jessie in the cottage, so they wouldn’t reveal us by barking, and snuck over to the house.

  There were only two lights shining, one in an upstairs bedroom, which suggested Juliette was already in bed, and another in the billiards room. The lights in the study were off, and after peering in the window for a few seconds, I was satisfied it was empty.

  “I’ll leave you here and find Ben,” said Zach softly. “Meet you back at the cottage.” He gave me a brief kiss before vanishing into the gloom.

  “Let’s go through the back door, past the kitchen, and into the study,” I whispered to Helen. “We just need to make sure that Meredith, the cook, isn’t about. Apparently, she’s territorial when it comes to her kitchen.”

  “I understand that,” said Helen. “I don’t like anyone getting in my way when I’m cooking.”

  We crept round to the back of the house, through the back door, and paused. There were noises from the kitchen, suggesting Meredith was there. We snuck past on our tiptoes, not wanting to meet her and have to explain ourselves.

  “Here’s the study,” I whispered to Helen. The door opened easily, and we quickly slipped inside and shut it behind us.

  “Where are the letters?” asked Helen.

  “I stored them in the top tray on the desk.” I crept forward in the darkness, not wanting to put a light on and reveal ourselves to anybody. I bumped my leg against a chair and cursed softly under my breath.

  “Everything okay?” asked Helen.

  “I need my night goggles for this mission.” I reached the desk and edged my way around it until my hands touched the side of the letter tray. “Almost got them.”

  “Wait a second,” said Helen. “I can hear someone outside in the hallway.”

  We both froze as we heard footsteps approaching the door. They passed by without anybody coming in.

  “Must have been Meredith,” whispered Helen.

  “That was a close call.” I grabbed hold of the letters. “Let’s take these back to the cottage, and we can look at them in more detail.”

  The light overhead flickered on and off, and I saw Helen’s distraught looking face in the snatches of light before we were plunged back into darkness. From what I'd managed to see, I
realized she wasn’t the one touching the light switch.

  “Hide!” I ducked under the desk, crawling into the small space and curling into a ball, the letters still in my hand. A few seconds later, the study door opened, and the light switched on properly. I had no idea if Helen had managed to conceal herself in time. There hadn’t seemed many suitable hiding places for her. I just had to hope she wasn’t about to get caught.

  Light footsteps padded across the carpet and stopped on the other side of the desk, before I heard rustling sounds as paper was moved around. “Where are they?” said a quiet female voice. It was Juliette.

  I held my breath as I waited to be discovered. Any second now, Juliette was going to walk round the desk and see me crouched in a ball. And that would be it. I would get the sack.

  “Maybe I left them in the breakfast room,” said Juliette to herself. I heard her tap her fingernails on the top of the desk, before turning, leaving the room, and shutting the door behind her.

  “Helen, where are you?” I whispered as I crawled out from behind the desk.

  Helen was still standing where I’d last seen her, her hands pressed flat against the wall. “I didn’t have a chance to hide, so I had to hope the door would conceal me well enough. I was sure I was going to be spotted when Juliette turned round.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said. “Definitely don’t want to risk Juliette coming back.”

  “No, that was too close,” said Helen.

  “And thank you, Archie,” I whispered, before creeping open the door and checking nobody was in the hallway. I hadn’t forgiven him for tipping salt on my head, but if he hadn’t alerted us to Juliette’s approach, that would have been the end of our investigation.

  Chapter 7

  Once back at the cottage, I gave my hair a quick wash to get rid of the last of the salt, changed into my comfiest pajamas, and settled on the sofa with Flipper. Helen took the easy chair next to me, and we read through the papers I’d sneaked out of the study.

  “Dexter Sellers,” I said. “That’s the name we’re looking for. And reading through some of this, he was a business partner of Archie’s, and Archie had agreed to loan Dexter a large sum of money.”