“Drea, we have video footage of you buying the tahini,” I said, keeping my voice soft.
Lucas nodded. “It’s only a matter of time before we find proof that you stashed the jar in Sonya’s car once you realized what happened. We know that you tried to set her up.”
Drea crumpled. Her innocent facade fell away and she leaned forward to brace her elbows on the table.
“You killed your sister and tried to make someone else take the fall.”
“I didn’t mean to kill her!” Drea hissed. Her eyes searched us. Urgent and desperate, begging us to believe her. “I only wanted her to get sick. Just enough to get a break from this nightmare she’d put us all in. I wanted to go home to New York to do a performance with my band, but Kimberly wouldn’t hear it.”
She raked her hands through her dark hair, tugging violently at the short strands. “I don’t know why she even kept me here. It wasn’t like she did anything but yell at me and tell me how much I was screwing up her big day.”
“Why didn’t you just leave anyway?” I asked. “You’re an adult. A few mouse clicks and you’d have been free to fly home.”
Drea scoffed and looked up at me through her hands. “You don’t get it.”
“No, I don’t. When is murder ever the best option?” I fired back, keeping my voice low to avoid drawing the attention of the front desk clerks across the hotel lobby.
“It wasn’t a murder!” Drea insisted.
I held up a hand. “Okay, how is food poisoning the best option?”
“My parents wanted me to stay with Kimberly. Neither of them could be bothered to come out and rein her in. Casper couldn’t keep her in check. Before we left, my dad made me a deal. He told me that if I kept Kimberly calm and under budget, he’d pay for me to take a year off school and travel with my band. There was no way that was going to happen any other way. My parents hate that I even have a band!”
“Why did he think Kimberly would listen to you?” I asked. “In my experiences with your sister, she didn’t seem like the type to listen to anyone.”
“You think?” Drea snorted and threw her hands in the air. “It was an impossible task. I should have realized it. My dad probably knew all along. I was just here to keep things from spiraling too far out of control. The last time Kimberly had free rein with a budget was her sweet-sixteen party. She went on a shopping spree that put my parents back thirty grand, just buying stupid crap for her and all her friends. My parents refused to lose face by asking her friends to return the items. They didn’t want to look like they couldn’t afford it. Which, to be honest, they could. My family is old money.”
“So then why worry about it?”
Drea barked out a laugh. “Because Kimberly would have blown through half a million or more, if left unsupervised. And that bitchy consultant she hired certainly wasn’t going to pump the breaks. She gets paid on commission!”
“I’m really sorry, Drea, but I think you need to get a lawyer and then go to the police and confess. Even without the video footage, the police already have their suspect list down to you and Sonya. If you try to pin this on Sonya, we’ll be forced to point them to the footage. Tell me, if they dust that jar for prints, are they going to find yours?”
Drea didn’t respond. After a moment, Lucas nodded. “Tell the police what you did. If you’re lucky, they won’t charge you with premeditated murder.”
Drea started shaking. She tugged her legs up into her chest. She looked so small, perched on the chair like a child post-tantrum. After a few moments, she shook her head. “No, I can’t do that. My parents will … they’ll disown me.”
“That’s you biggest concern right now?” I spat, baffled by her oddball statement. “Drea, you’re going to prison on a murder charge! You need to get a lawyer, not sit there worrying about your inheritance.”
Lucas rose and reached for my hand. “Come on, Scarlet. It’s in her court now. She knows what will happen if she doesn’t go forward on her own terms.”
We left Drea as she began to sob alone at her table.
“Next step, we take this to the station,” Lucas said, holding up his phone. “Then the ball will be out of our court.”
I craned around to glance back at her for a few seconds, then shook my head. “The proof is still somewhat circumstantial. If she lawyers up and turns herself in, wouldn’t that be better for everyone involved?”
Lucas sighed. “Maybe so, but we have an obligation to turn this over to the police, Scarlet. We have to let them do their job now.”
I nodded and he tucked an arm around my waist. Right before we walked beyond the hotel, I peeked back through the wall of glass toward the table. Drea was gone.
Chapter 21
Kimberly and Gwen were both waiting for us back at my apartment and neither one of them looked happy. What a surprise.
“Where have you been?” Gwen demanded as soon as we walked through the door. “I’ve been looking all over town for you!”
“Same here!” Kimberly snapped. “I’ve been stuck here listening to this hippy-dippy go on and on!”
“At least I’m not a spoiled brat who only cares about herself!” Gwen fired back, her feather earrings swaying.
Hayward and Flapjack stood nearby in the kitchen, wearing matching scowls.
Flapjack glared up at me. “Scarlet, you’ve got to get one or both of them out of here.”
“No one is making you stay, fuzzy boots!” Kimberly snapped.
“You can’t talk to him like that!” Gwen retorted.
“Ladies! Enough!”
“This again, huh? We need some kind of code word for ghosts on the premises. Otherwise you just look like a statue.”
I shot him an apologetic look. “Sorry.”
He shrugged. “I’ll just make some popcorn. You can fill me in later.”
“Glad our problems are so entertaining to you!” Kimberly shouted at his back as he went into the kitchen. Hayward and Flapjack darted apart to let him pass.
“Kimberly, stop. Now, I want to hear from both of you but—”
“I’m going first,” Gwen interrupted. “I know who has Myra and Quinton!”
Kimberly huffed and crossed her arms. “This again?”
“Since I actually care about people beyond what they can do for me, I’ve been doing some research,” Gwen said, cutting a glare at Kimberly.
“All right, Gwen. You can dial back the sass. I told you last night, I’ve been looking into it. I even have a name. We’re looking for someone called—”
“Dr. Padget,” she finished.
I frowned. “Yes. Actually. How did you know that?”
“I was at the Beechwood Manor last night. Holly and Posy did some digging and found this Dr. Padget and his so-called psychic services.”
In all the madness, I hadn’t yet circled back to check in with Holly. “What do they know about him?”
Gwen twisted her hands together. “Apparently he has a morbid fascination with ghosts and just enough power to be a danger. Posy heard that he keeps ghosts trapped in a basement somewhere.”
“Great. Now I’m really looking forward to tonight.” I sighed.
“Tonight?”
“Lucas has arranged a meeting. You’re welcome to come along. Actually, if you can get Sturgeon to come too, that might be helpful. Another pair of hands in case things get sticky.”
Sturgeon was a ghost, but had somehow mastered the use of his hands. As a former Army Sergeant, he was always a good ally to have around.
Gwen looked deflated. “I’ll ask him.”
“Meet here, six-thirty. We’re going to get them back, Gwen.”
She shot one more frosty glare at Kimberly and then vanished.
Kimberly cleared her throat. “My turn?”
“Yes, but—”
“Sonya didn’t kill me.”
I blinked.
“Casper did.” Kimberly started pacing. “I went to the hotel and got there just in time to see Casper and Drea t
ogether. He was at the door of her hotel room, asking if she got the flowers. She told him that she refused them and had the front desk throw them away.”
Not gonna lie—the florist in me died a little at the thought of that beautiful arrangement sitting in a dumpster. All I could hope was that one of the employees had rescued them from such a fate.
“Apparently it had been going on for some time,” Kimberly continued. “At least that’s the way Drea made it sound. Can you believe that? My own fiancé trying to hook up with my sister?”
“I’m sorry, Kimberly.”
“He must have poisoned me to try to get me out of the way so he could be with Drea without being shunned for switching sisters. It all makes sense. I bet he even picked that fight with me on purpose. He knows I’m a stress eater!”
“Kimberly—”
She shook her head. “You know what? I don’t even care anymore. That’s all in the past now.”
For the second time, she threw me off kilter. Who was this mature, balanced woman hovering before me? And more importantly, where had she been when her evil counter-personality was lecturing me on the differences between eggshell, cream, and ivory?
I drew in a slow breath. “I’m glad that you’re finding peace, Kimberly, but there’s one more piece to this story. Drea knew all along. She kept telling me that Casper and I weren’t right for each other. I should have listened.”
‘Kimberly! Please, listen to me.”
She stopped pacing and spun around to face me. “What is it?”
“I don’t know when you left, but we went to see Drea at her hotel. We just got back.”
“Casper left and Drea took that stupid notebook of hers down to the hotel lobby. I came back here. I figured she’d be lost in her own world the rest of the day. I followed Casper for a while. He went to the Lilac B & B and sat down with the owner. Seemed like some kind of business meeting.” Kimberly shrugged, though her expression remained perturbed. “He’s not going to get away with this. You’ll help me, right? You’ll tell the police it was him?”
I shook my head slowly. “Kimberly, it wasn’t him. It was Drea. She’s the one who put the sesame seeds into the cake samples. Via tahini dressing, to be exact.”
“What?” Kimberly shook her head and sank into a chair, or as close as she could, anyway. “No. No, that can’t be right. She’s my sister.”
“I’m really sorry, Kimberly. We talked to her and she confessed. She wasn’t trying to kill you. She only wanted to make you sick. She thought that in doing so, you’d give her a break from the planning so she could get back to New York for a performance.”
Kimberly looked too stunned to speak.
“We stopped off at the police station on the way back here,” I continued. “They have the proof they need to bring her in for questioning. The rest will have to be sorted out by lawyers.”
I glanced at Hayward and Flapjack, who were suddenly fascinated by the cracks in the floor.
“Is there anything we can do for you?” I asked her, glancing over at Lucas, who was frozen in place, popcorn bag in hand.
“No. I think I’ll just go.”
She slid down through the floor and was gone.
“Ugh. What a horrible, horrible day,” I said, throwing myself onto the couch.
“You did the best you possibly could in such a horrid situation, Lady Scarlet.”
“Thanks, Hayward. It never gets easier though.”
Flapjack settled beside me. “Chin up, Scar. She’ll pull through. She’s a New Yorker. They’re tough.”
I mustered a smile and wished I could reach over and pat him on the head.
Six-thirty rolled around all too soon and I had to shove aside the mountain of sadness over Kimberly’s tragic story and focus my efforts on the impending ghost-rescue mission. Right on the dot, Gwen appeared with Sturgeon, who greeted me with a salute. “Gwen informs me my assistance is needed.”
“That’s right. I’m sure she’s brought you up to speed?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded. “This young man looks ready for action!”
I smiled. He was referring to Lucas, who was decked out in all black, a Taser strapped to his hip. In fact, it was the exact weapon that he’d turned on me the very first time that we’d met. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need it.
I smiled and told Lucas what Sturgeon had said about him. “He’s complimenting your readiness, soldier.”
Lucas grinned. “Always.”
“All right. Planning battles isn’t really my forte, but in the spirit of preparedness, if we get separated, I want Hayward and Flapjack to stay with me. Gwen and Sturgeon, you’ll be more help to Lucas.”
Sturgeon saluted Lucas.
“He saluted you,” I said out of the corner of my mouth.
Lucas offered a salute of his own. To a spot about four feet away from where Sturgeon stood.
It’s the thought that counts, right?
I addressed the whole group. “I don’t know who this Dr. Padget is, but from what we’ve heard, he has some supernatural power. We’ll just have to figure out how much. We’re not going in … uh, Taser’s blaring, but—”
“Blazing,” Flapjack and Lucas corrected.
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “The point is that I want to keep this as peaceful as possible. Let’s also go in with the assumption that he can see and hear you guys, so please,” I swiveled my gaze to Flapjack, “let’s keep our snarky commentary to a minimum. All right?”
Flapjack looked up at Hayward. “Why’s she looking at me?”
Hayward sighed. “Let’s go.”
“Now, back to your regularly scheduled ghost-busting programming,” Lucas teased as we pulled into the parking lot of a small apartment.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He wore a smile, but his eyes were all business. Dark and deadly.
Yeesh, I’m glad I didn’t have to meet him in a dark alley. Then again, that was very nearly how we’d met.
“As long as he agrees to let Myra and Quinton go free, we don’t have to have a war,” I reminded him.
“Fine with me. War wasn’t on my mind for this trip, anyway. I was planning on being a lover, not a fighter.” He kissed me before I could object to the sheer cheesiness.
“Get a room!” Flapjack protested from the floorboards.
“No kidding,” Gwen added, and it’s a good thing I was already sitting or I would have fallen over. She lived for sappy moments like that.
“Man, that’s when you know Gwen is pissed,” Flapjack said, jumping out of the car. I pushed open my door and heard him say, “She didn’t need a swooning couch for a line like that.”
“We’re not here to discuss Scarlett’s love life,” Gwen admonished him. “There will be plenty of time for that after we rescue Myra and Quinton.”
I sighed. “Which apartment is it?” I asked as we started up toward the building.
Lucas jerked his chin at the first building in the small cluster. “17A.”
“Why is he working out of an apartment?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t play twenty questions with the guy over the phone, all right?” Lucas replied. “Just follow my lead. As far as he knows, I’m a legit client, here for his spooky services.”
“What did you tell him you needed?”
Lucas grinned. “I told him that my great uncle died before I could ask him where he kept his cash. See, he didn’t trust the banks, so he stashed it in a locker somewhere.”
“That’s quite a detailed make-believe story you’ve got going.”
“I always wanted to find a buried treasure.”
“Aha. So you’re part soldier, part pirate.”
Lucas chuckled and veered to the left. “This way.”
“How do you know?” I asked, glancing behind me. Had I missed some giant here’s the creepy voodoo guy’s apartment sign?
“Google Maps, baby.”
I rolled my eyes.
Annoying or not, it worked. A line of
apartments stood to our left and the one on the end bore the gaudy gold numbers identifying is as 17A. “We good?” Lucas asked as we stopped just short of the tattered welcome mat.
I looked to my left and my right. Gwen and Sturgeon flanked Lucas. Flapjack was at my feet, Hayward at my shoulder. “We’re good.”
He knocked and I held my breath.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but the man who answered the door would never have even made the list. We just stared at each other for the span of a couple of heartbeats, then I found my voice. “Franklin? But … but how? You’re supposed to be dead!”
The door slammed shut.
Chapter 22
Lucas looked from the door to me, confused. “Safe to say you two know each other?”
I didn’t answer him. I was too busy pounding on the door as if I was part of a SWAT unit. “Open up, Franklin!”
“Scarlet! Who is he?” Gwen floated around until she was in my line of vision.
“Franklin Boules. He was a ghost from when I lived in Arizona. Every day he would come to my parents’ house and beg me to make him a human again. He refused to take no for an answer even though I tried to get it through his thick skull that it wasn’t possible. Over time, he got really nasty and I had no choice but to banish him.”
I started pounding again. “Franklin, open this door right now!”
Lucas stepped between the door and me. “Scarlet, you have to stop. All this is going to do is bring the cops around. Okay?”
“Myra and Quinton are in there! That’s just the kind of thing he’d do to get back at me. He probably saw them leave my shop, assumed we were friends, and found some way to—to ghostnap them.”
“I don’t like this, Scar,” Flapjack said. “How does he have a—a body?”
I glanced down at my feet. Flapjack sat close enough that if still living, I would have felt him against my leg. He was clearly shaken up. And if Flapjack was freaked out, then something was really wrong. “I don’t know.”
“Scoot over,” Lucas said, shuffling me to the side. He retrieved something from his pocket and went to work on the lock.
Ghosts Gone Wild: A Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mysteries Book 2) Page 16