A Wild Fright in Deadwood (Deadwood Humorous Mystery Book 7)

by Ann Charles

  “Wanda’s calls happened over a three-week period. We can’t tell for certain if the threats started before that via the notes since there’s no time stamp on them.”

  “Are you going to tell Detective Hawke about this?”

  He nodded.

  “Am I going to be hauled in for more questioning?”

  “It’s always a possibility.”

  “Okay. I’ll start planning my next costume for the party.”

  The sight of Doc walking through the diner’s door made me miss his reaction. I waved him over, noticing the somber lines on his face.

  Scooting over, I made room for him on the bench seat. If he was surprised to see Cooper sitting with me, he didn’t show it.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked as soon as he’d had a moment to catch his breath. “Did something happen at the hotel?”

  “You could say that,” he nodded a greeting across the table at Cooper.

  “Is Cornelius okay?”

  “For the time being.” Doc’s dark gaze focused on me. “But this Wilda deal is no good.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We have a bigger problem than I thought.”

  Chapter Twelve

  What did Doc mean we had a bigger problem with Wilda Hessler? Was the demented little ghouly-girl hanging out with a headless Hessian in Sleepy Hollow now? Taking notes from the blood-bathing Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Hungary? Swinging an ax around like Lizzie Borden?

  Or did he mean the problem with Cornelius himself was bigger? I was supposed to film there tomorrow. Maybe I should figure out a way to convince the filming crew to reschedule.

  The waitress stopped by, topping off Cooper’s coffee. I took a moment to quell the questions pinballing around in my head and give Doc time to explain.

  As soon as she left, he derailed me with, “Your poncho is missing. How was the interrogation?”

  Cooper guffawed as an answer, which earned him a dirty look from me.

  “What’s that for?” I asked. “I didn’t bite Detective Hawke, so I’d call it a success.”

  “Or throw up on him,” Cooper added.

  I pointed at the Detective. “If you’ll remember, I tried to warn you beforehand that time, but you didn’t listen.” I turned to Doc, lowering my voice. “Hawke showed me a picture of Wanda’s bathroom mirror. It had ‘Here kitty, kitty’ written on it with Wanda’s blood.” I wasn’t sure if I needed to explain more or if his memory was firing on all cylinders this morning.

  He cursed. “Caly’s back.” All cylinders it was.

  “We don’t know that for certain,” Cooper iterated.

  “Would you look at that, Doc? Cooper has turned into Polly Positive. Did you ever think you’d see the day?”

  “Pipe down, Parker.” Cooper stirred more cream into his coffee. “My point is that maybe we should do more digging before jumping to the conclusion that some magical, albino biker chick covered in spikes has returned to cause more mayhem and murder.”

  He’d used the description of Caly I’d given for the police report after the night she’d tried to make me her pet. Except for the magical part.

  “She’s not magical,” I clarified. “More like crazier than a coked-out weasel. She needs to be stopped before somebody else is killed.”

  Doc aimed a squint my way. “You said you’d let the police handle this in exchange for me helping Cornelius.”

  “I know, I know.” I sipped from my Diet Coke, my gaze avoiding his. “But bullets won’t stop Caly.” That was where I came into the show. It was time to get mad-dog mean, that was all there was to it.

  “Violet,” he warned.

  I held up my hands. “Listen, there is nothing I can do other than wait for Caly to come to me, right?” I aimed that question at Cooper, who nodded. “So, let’s move onto Cornelius and Wilda and why we have a bigger problem.”

  The dang waitress returned before Doc could start, plates of food in hand except for Doc’s buffalo burger. She passed the food around, promising to refill my drink and bring Doc’s burger as soon as it was ready.

  When she was out of earshot, I looked at Doc. “Let’s have it before my heart keels over from anxiety.”

  He stirred his side salad around with his fork. “Wilda is growing in strength.”

  “What’s that mean?” Cooper took a bite out of his chicken sandwich.

  “From what Cornelius and I can tell, she’s siphoning energy from the other ghosts that are drawn to him, as well as from Cornelius himself.”

  I chewed on that and my bacon-laden club sandwich for a few seconds. “To what end?”

  He shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m thinking it has something to do with her top priority at the moment—killing you.”

  “You think since I’m a dud when it comes to ghosts, she’s figuring out a way to get to me? Like the trick Prudence pulled last weekend with Harvey?”

  “We’ll find out when we do the séance.” Doc stabbed at his salad. “My worry is that we’ll find out too late to stop her from getting to you.”

  “Me? You’re the one who will be opening yourself to her.”

  “Yeah, but you have no defenses against ghosts. Hell, most days you can’t sense them when they’re practically standing inside of you.”

  I shuddered at the memory of that moment in the dark stairwell of The Old Prospector Hotel.

  “You only handle living things,” Doc continued. “I’ve been dealing with the dead for as long as I can remember.”

  We ate in silence for a moment, listening to Roger Miller singing about a trailer for sale or rent in King of the Road. If I didn’t have two kids to take care of, I might join Roger on the road to forget about this insanity that was now part of my day-to-day life. Looking back, working long hours down in Rapid City at the car dealership hadn’t been such a bad gig.

  “I’ve thought about it and I need to be at the séance with you.” Cooper broke the silence.

  “Why?” The idea of the growly detective sitting in during what undoubtedly would be a nail-biting event didn’t sit well with my lunch.

  “If anything happens, Parker will need me as a credible witness.”

  “You mean if someone doesn’t make it back, like what happened with Cornelius’s cousin?”

  Cornelius had a cousin who could open doors or channels to the spirit world, like I could. According to him, she made the mistake of opening a channel too wide and something latched onto her. When he and others tried to exorcise it, his cousin ended up dead. Lucky for him, there were several witnesses who told the same story about the exorcism, so none of them were arrested for murder.

  These days, Cornelius made a habit of warning me about opening channels for fear of a repeat performance. I didn’t think I was anything like his cousin. In fact, I feared I was something far darker.

  The waitress stopped by again, delivering Doc’s food, topping off Cooper’s coffee.

  “It’s a good idea.” Doc picked up his burger. “To be honest, I’m not certain having Natalie there is wise.”

  “I agree.” Cooper didn’t hesitate to jump on that, his steely eyes challenging me to disagree.

  I took him up on that challenge. “She’s coming.”

  “Don’t make this about you and me,” Cooper said. “If her life is at risk, then you should listen to Nyce.”

  I wiped my mouth and leaned forward, lowering my voice. “Listen, Cooper, in case you haven’t been taking notes in your little police notebook, every single one of our lives is at risk if we do this séance. I’ve had plenty of nightmares about what is out there in the darkness waiting for us when we open that channel. So, don’t think I haven’t considered the potential danger for my best friend, and how I’d feel if anything happened to her.”

  He leaned forward, matching my tone. “So why include her?”

  “Because it’s what she wants.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t know what she wants. Maybe she just wants to be included and has no com
prehension of the risk.”

  I snorted. “Come on. Natalie is no idiot. She may have been rash in the past when it came to trusting men, but in all other areas of her life, she’s sharp as a tack.” I took a sip of my drink. “Besides, I need her there to help me.”

  “Nyce will be there to help you.”

  I glanced at Doc, who was watching me with a frown. “He’ll be busy, especially if we’re dealing with a nastier ghost than normal. Nat will have my back while Doc tries to handle Wilda.”

  “And what about Cornelius?” Cooper asked.

  I looked to Doc for that answer, who shrugged and said, “I don’t know how taxing this will be for Cornelius. I haven’t untethered a ghost from a human before.”

  “Never?” I had sort of counted on his leading the way with knowledge from past experiences.

  “No. I’ve read about it plenty, and Cornelius went through the process with me today, but this will be my first attempt.” He looked at me. “That’s why I’m uncertain about Natalie’s safety. I can’t give any guarantees.”

  I sat back on the bench, no longer interested in eating. “I’ll tell you what,” I said to both of them. “I’ll talk to Natalie again and explain the situation as we know it now. If she seems hesitant and wants to back out, I’ll make sure she understands that I don’t need her there to help me.” I hit Cooper’s gaze head on. “Even though I might.”

  He gave a nod of approval. “I can stand in for her and cover you.”

  “Your guns won’t help, Cooper. Not where we’re going.”

  “Maybe not, but the sound they make when I fire them always makes me feel better.”

  That made me chuckle in spite of the uneasy tension now rumbling around in my gut about this séance.

  Cooper finished his sandwich and set his plate at the end of the table for the waitress to take. “Parker, I meant what I told you earlier about paying Prudence a visit.”

  Crud. I’d hoped he might have hit his head between this morning and now, forgetting all about that request.

  “Why do you want to talk to Prudence?” Doc asked.

  “He wants to question her about the person she told me she saw sneaking around in the Carhart house.” Or rather, the Britton house. It was going to take me some time to edit that in my head.

  Doc’s eyebrows rose. “Do you think she’ll talk to Coop?”

  I smirked. “You tell me. You’ve shared a body with her. I’ve only smacked her around via you.”

  That brought a grin to his lips. “You’re one hell of a bruiser in the ring, I can attest to that.”

  I playfully socked his shoulder. “Just wait until you see what I have planned for you the next time you go under and won’t come back out.”

  “Can we leave your teeth out of it this time?”

  “Sure.” I made pinching motions in front of him. “I’ll stick with my fingers.”

  “What are you two talking about?”

  “Prudence has a way of possessing whoever she wants when she wants,” I explained. “But with Doc, they basically switch places. While he ‘sees’ things happening in the past in her world, she moves and speaks to me through him. She’s so overpowering, I’ve had to step in and help him come back.”

  Cooper’s face lined with doubt. “And with others, like my Uncle Willis? Does she speak through them, too?”

  “It varies. Sometimes she turns them into walking and talking puppets, moving their mouths like this.” I showed him, playing a ventriloquist’s doll. “With your uncle, she just took over the controls while he was wide awake. He tried to cover his mouth and shut her up, but she was too powerful for him.”

  “But she didn’t possess him to the point of requiring your aid to escape?”

  “No, not Harvey. With the others I’ve seen her turn into puppets, she released them when she finished and they sort of woke up, with no memory of what happened. But Harvey remembered everything.” I could tell by the deep set of Vs in the detective’s forehead that he was having trouble believing me. I shrugged. “You asked.”

  “This is so fucked up.”

  I snorted. “Tell me about it.”

  “I don’t know,” Doc said, tossing his napkin on his empty plate. “After a while, it becomes the norm. I can’t imagine a world without dead people moving around in it.” He picked up the bill the waitress had set on the end of the table. “You two ready?”

  We tossed money on the table and headed out into the cold November wind. The blue sky and sunshine were deceptive, making it seem like it should be warmer than it was.

  “How soon can we visit Prudence?” Cooper asked.

  I shrugged. “I need to call the Brittons and see if I can finagle a way to stop by with you in tow that won’t seem odd.”

  He nodded, glaring after a truck that sped by on the main road going much faster than the speed limit. “Let me know what you come up with, but for your sake, the sooner we see her the better. And if you get a third phone call, let me know.”

  “Of course.” Since Doc insisted I let the cops handle Wanda’s murder on their own, I had little choice.

  Cooper looked at Doc. “Are we still on for poker tonight?”

  “Definitely. If I don’t get to beat you at cards every week, I get grumpy.”

  “Asshole,” Cooper said with a grin and then left the diner.

  Doc draped his arm around my shoulder and led us toward my SUV. “What did he mean about a third call? Did you get a second one?”

  I nodded and told him about the phone call and my visit with Katrina King, leaving out the part about me cursing at Caly and hanging up. I also left out Rex’s visit to the office this morning. I didn’t want to add any more frown lines to his face.

  “Do you want me to skip the poker game tonight and come straight over after work?”

  “No. Go have fun with the boys and kick Cooper’s butt for me. Natalie already mentioned coming over to hang out tonight and drool over the Duke on television, and Harvey said he’d be there later to play bodyguard.”

  “Okay.” He pulled me closer as the wind whipped through the lot. “But if you have a bad dream about Wilda or Caly and need to talk to someone in the middle of the night, call me.”

  “And what if I have a good dream about you and me and naked stuff?”

  He lowered his head, his dark eyes twinkling. “You should definitely call me then, Boots, and tell me every single detail.”

  His lips were warm on mine, his touch heating me up in spite of the cold wind. I wanted to go back to his place and warm up even more in his sheets, but it was time to return to the office.

  “Violet,” he whispered against my mouth.

  “What?”

  “There’s something else about my visit to The Old Prospector Hotel that I didn’t want to say in front of Coop.”

  I blinked, having trouble leaving lust-ville and returning to terror-town. “What’s that?”

  “Cornelius has words carved into his forearm.”

  I recoiled at the image that inspired. “You mean he’s cutting himself now?” Like some psycho freak?

  Doc frowned at the hillside behind me. “He doesn’t remember carving the letters himself. He says he woke up in the middle of the night with his arm burning, and when he turned on the light, the cuts were there and still bleeding.”

  “Holy shit.” I’d seen that in a scary movie about demon possession once. “What do the words say?”

  His focus shifted back to me, his grim expression matching the look in his eyes. “Kill her.”

  * * *

  Thursday, November 15th

  The Old Prospector Hotel looked less frightening in the morning light than it had in my mind’s eye last night when I had been talking to Natalie about Doc’s concerns for her well-being at the séance.

  Natalie had insisted on joining us in spite of my warnings, as I’d figured she would. She’d always been incredibly stubborn when it came to taking risks for me.

  I’d texted Doc the news whil
e he was playing poker.

  He’d texted back: Cooper isn’t happy about this.

  I’d downed several gulps of hard cider and sent back: Tell Cooper he can shove his unhappiness up his tight ass next to that piece of rebar he keeps jammed up there.

  There’d been a pause and then he’d written: Are you drinking and texting?

  I set the empty cider bottle on the counter next to the other one I’d finished earlier.

  Only a little.

  Natalie had taken my phone away then and we’d enjoyed some John Wayne on the small screen along with Harvey, who’d shown up with his shotgun ready for guard duty.

  Harvey had still been hanging around this morning, working the spatula in the kitchen, making sure my kids didn’t go to school on carbohydrates alone. Aunt Zoe had come down the stairs in her yellow, smiling sunshine slippers and matching robe right before I’d headed out the door.

  “Violet.” She’d caught me in the dining room where I’d been putting on my coat. She pulled the neckline of my satin blouse apart slightly, nodding when she saw the glass necklace she’d made for me hanging around my neck. “I wanted to make sure you were wearing it before you go into that hotel.”

  “I don’t leave home without it.” The necklace was one of her charms. It was more of a warning device than a protection piece and helped me sort the humans from the not-so-much humans.

  After a kiss on my forehead, she’d sent me on my way.

  Now here I was, riding up in the hotel’s elevator with Dickie, the host from Paranormal Realty, and his Cher-look-alike assistant, Honey. Rosy the camerawoman would be along shortly with her equipment and the lead cameraman, Rad.

  The lights in the elevator flickered, but the elevator continued upward without a jerk or pause. I wondered if a wire were loose. In a hotel this old, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a lot more than loose wires causing the flickering. The whole electrical panel could probably use updating.

  The doors slid open. I gestured for Dickie and Honey to lead the way out into the empty hallway. My fingers were crossed that Cornelius was dressed this morning. My toes were doubly crossed that he wasn’t going to kill me per Wilda’s bidding while the cameras were rolling.