Mrs. Perkins howled more tears. Lee waited for her to quieten down. “Do you know if he has a safe or cabinet where he keeps very sensitive materials?”
“Oh, that.” Mrs. Perkins did a very unladylike snort. “My cheating husband thinks he’s so clever and secretive. Little does he know that Tina is very thorough in her work, and she reports directly to me.” She raised her voice. “Tina, the keys, please.”
I suspected that Faye had been correct. Tina came running in a bit too quickly, her face flushed.
Mrs. Perkins took a bundle of keys and then stood up with a grimly determined expression. “This way, please.”
Mrs. Perkins, her face now dry and makeup-free, marched back to the foyer and up a set of wide, curving stairs that swirled grandly upward to the second floor. “My husband has a small office here.” She indicated a closed door and then unlocked it. “There’s a safe behind the painting.”
Turning on the lights, she pointed to a painting of a rather ugly landscape.
“You wouldn’t happen to have…” Lee left the question unspoken.
“The code? Of course. He uses the same set of numbers for everything. The old fool.”
Lee removed the painting while Mrs. Perkins studiously punched in a code. I watched Mrs. Perkins expectantly, marvelling how quickly the old lady had turned from dutiful housewife to spiteful avenger.
“What’s that quote again? Something about hell being no match for a pissed-off woman,” I said. I wondered if the same applied to ghost girls.
Faye smiled and said, as if reading my mind, “And that is the truth, sunshine, on both sides of the life / death line.”
I sighed. “So I still have to be careful even in death.”
The safe’s lock released its grip and the door popped open. Inside was a stack of documents. Lee sifted through them.
“Bingo,” she said as she found a document with the same title as my scrap of paper. “May I?”
“Keep them all, my dear,” Mrs. Perkins said grandly as she studied her carrot stained palms. She smiled unpleasantly. I almost pitied her husband. Almost, and then I remembered he had me killed. “Although I don’t involve myself in my husband’s business, I’m not ignorant about it either. I’m quite certain you will find more than one useful document in there. Oh yes, I’m sure you will.”
After a few more pleasantries, we left, with Lee clutching the bundle of incriminating documents under her raincoat.
“See, I was right, wasn’t I,” Faye boasted. “About CEO Perkins. Wait until I tell Bob. That’ll teach him. Mocking my journalistic abilities. Huh!” With that, she dashed off through the dark rain.
As we approached the bus stop, a shadow slipped out of a nearby tree.
“Find what you need?” Shadow asked, his voice smooth and unconcerned.
“Sure did. Enough to get Perkins put away for a while.” I nodded at Lee and the documents. “Hey, I just remembered why I’d kept that piece of paper from Perkins’ office. And the notes. I remember them now. How about that.”
“Wow, that’s helpful,” Shadow commented.
“You’re right. It is,” I said, ignoring his sarcasm. “I’d forgotten the details before, but now they’re back.”
“Congrats.”
“Boys, behave,” Lee warned us. “That’s great, Axe. So one thing on your list is done. How’s the rest of your memory doing?”
I mentally checked all the major events and disasters of my life in chronological order. They all seemed painfully clear and detailed, except for one. I frowned as I picked at the memory. It was something that had happened recently, but I was having trouble remembering the finer points. Like: Who the heck was Amos? And why had I buried him in a swamp?
“Fine,” I lied. “It’s all fine.”
I think they both heard the lie. They exchanged the kind of look that told me they knew. But at that moment, I didn’t want to get into the gory details. And based on what I did remember, the details were definitely going to be gory. I just wanted to relish our recent success at solving my murder and getting proof against the man behind it. I’d worry about my faulty memory in the morning. Plus, I now knew which of my wrongs was next on the list of wrongs to right. That was more than fine in my books.
“Yup,” I said with more conviction, “everything is going to be just fine.”
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SOCIETY FOR PARANORMALS: A series concerning dead husbands, African legends and the search for a perfect spot of tea, where African myth meets Victorian manners. For those readers who adore “Pride & Prejudice” and would love to experience a paranormal safari set in colonial Africa.
Ghosts of Tsavo
Armed with Victorian etiquette, a fully loaded walking stick and a dead husband, Beatrice Knight arrives in colonial Kenya desperate for a pot of tea and a pinch of cinnamon. But she’ll need more than that if she’s to unravel the mystery of the Ghosts of Tsavo without being eaten in the process. All this while surviving the machinations of her best friend’s dashing godfather and the efforts of her safari guide to feed her to any lion willing to drag her away. What is a ghost-chasing widow to do?
The Automaton’s Wife
Beatrice Knight has enough to contend with: a zebra is dead on her lawn, her horse is possessed and a gentleman has arrived with the temerity to propose to her. To top it off, her dead husband Gideon has absconded with an automaton, threatening to return for his wife. The wife in question however soon has other issues, for a killer has moved into town with a nasty habit of carving up the victims. As luck should dictate, who should be the next target but Mrs. Knight herself?
Revenge of the Mantis
All is going as it should for Beatrice Knight, until the Lightning God lands in her barn and announces that her old nemesis Koki is about to pay an unsolicited visit. While powdered cinnamon works well on many insects, the giant Praying Mantis won’t be so easily dissuaded from exacting revenge against the intrepid paranormal investigator. And let’s not forget that Mrs. Knight’s cousin is engaged to a bat man while her brother has returned from the dead as a werewolf. As if that isn’t complicated enough, Mr. Timmons presents a possibility too terrible to consider, yet too tempting to refuse. Now, if only she could survive long enough to make a decision…
The Fourth Mandate
Having offered her firm and unequivocal resignation, Beatrice Knight is certain she is clear of her former employer, the Society for Paranormals, and is now free to proceed with her life and a wedding. It all seems quite simple, until the Society’s Director Prof. Runal shows up at the train station, her cousin announces horrifying news and a ponytailed dwarf decides he needs her powers to eradicate all non-humanoid paranormals. At least one thing is certain: anything is manageable with a pot of tea and a fully loaded walking stick.
Curse of the Nandi
Mrs. Beatrice Knight is preparing to move into a life of marital bliss, or at least marital satisfaction, with her new husband who fortunately is very much alive and can’t float through walls. While she is no expert on honeymoons, she’s certain that they shouldn’t involve brainless heads, bloodsucking fireflies and Bubonic Plague. These however are mere inconveniences, for there’s another threat of greater significance: the Nandi are rising up against their colonial masters and are determined to rid the land of all things British. The intrepid Mrs. Knight faces all this with her usual aplomb, her hefty walking stick and, of course, a pot of tea.
THE GHOST POST MYSTERIES: An Urban Fantasy Series in which the humor is darker, the charac
ters more deadly
Lethal Takeout
When Axe Cooper is murdered while picking up Chinese takeaway, he’s pretty irritated about the loss of a good dinner, not to mention being dead. Not prepared to move on just yet, Axe decides to stick around and haunt his best friend, Lily Chan, while trying to figure out why anyone would kill a janitor. In the meantime, Axe is hired by The Ghost Post to track down recently deceased writers. As he learns more about his new phantom friends, Axe realises his murder is not an isolated event and that if he doesn’t learn to fly like Superman, Lily could be next.
Fatal Secrets
Just when Axe Cooper thinks he’s safe, guess again. His memory is fading and unless he wants to lose his mind, he has to figure out why he buried an old friend in a swamp. And let’s not forget the ghost-eating Deathmark that’s developed an unhealthy interest in Axe and his friends. Being dead is no protection from the secret that is about to crawl back into his life. But he’s not the only one with something to hide and some secrets are deadlier than others.
DRAGON & MYTH: A Sci-Fi Adventure Series
Dragon’s Mind
Ten years ago, a human brain was installed into a computer system. To most people, it is a non-living entity operating in the background of their lives. Only a girl named Myth knows better: his name is Dragon and he is very much alive. And after ten bodiless years, Dragon has a dream that will change everything. The dream will put his mind and Myth’s life in mortal danger. There are powerful forces that don’t want the truth revealed and they’re coming for Dragon. But where do you run to when you’re already everywhere?
Dragon’s War
How do you stop a war you started? And should you, if your species’ safety and wellbeing depend on winning at all costs? These are the thoughts that plague Myth as she paces the fortress where she is being kept “for her own protection.” Meanwhile, Dragon is in hiding, hunted by the albino assassin and the city’s very systems that he once ran. As his backup reserves are depleted and the clock ticks down to the launch of a global virus, Myth must escape to save Dragon and together stop the war that they launched. But time is running out and the albino is watching.
GHOSTS & SHADOWS: Fantasy Adventure Series with some Time Travel thrown in, just for fun
Diary of a Part-Time Ghost
Fifteen-year-old Ash wants nothing more than to be a normal kid and avoid trouble. Then his birthday gift transforms him into a ghost and zaps him back in time to the beginning of the American Revolution. If he thought that was bad, it’s about to get a whole lot worse. Ash must rescue his ancestor from one danger after another, including an implacable enemy who controls the very shadows. What starts out as a brief experiment in time travel rapidly changes into a race for his very survival, and Ash is running out of time.
Where Shadows Dance
Ash was looking forward to a summer of camping and time travelling. Then his Great Aunt fades away (literally) and his near-death nightmare gets even weirder. Juna isn’t having a great time of it either: having escaped from her parole officer, she barely survives falling out of an airplane. While Ash and Juna try to get out of the past and back home, events and dreams keep pointing them to the place where it all starts and ends, where shadows dance and time bends. If they can get there, they may be able to stop an implacable enemy from destroying their future. Of course, getting there means surviving first…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vered Ehsani has been a writer since she could hold pen to paper, which is a lot longer than she cares to admit. She lives in Kenya with her family and various other animals. When she isn’t writing, she pretends to work as an environmental consultant.
Visit Vered and her world at http://veredehsani.co.za and get free books. Email her at veredehsani (at) gmail.com — she loves to hear from her readers.
Copyright © 2012 Vered Ehsani
All rights reserved
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Cover design by Chris Valentine at http://coverartistry.com/
Editing by Amy Eyes at www.theeyesforediting.com
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ISBN-13: 978-1477659472
ISBN-10: 1477659471
ASIN: B008B7WVH4
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
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