Audrey Claire - Libby Grace 02 - How to Blackmail a Ghost

by Audrey Claire

  Over the next few days, thoughts of Sadie’s murder were pushed to the back of my mind. I worried about the mystery man around the clock. I couldn’t concentrate, so I couldn’t hold my form for more than a few moments. My ability to absorb energy from the living seemed to be on the fritz, and worse of all, Jake hounded me about visiting Ian, and I was running out of excuses. A week after the body’s exhumation, for sanity sake, I decided I had overreacted in cutting Ian out of my life. I waited until Jake went to bed for the night and Monica napped before the living room TV to visit Ian. After all, I didn’t want to add to the explanations if I took Jake to Ian’s house and I couldn’t get through a barrier to even knock on the door. Better to know if Ian had shut me out in return of my revoking his privileges to enter my home.

  Rather than to allow anyone else to see my humiliation, I crossed my lawn to Ian’s lawn invisible and stopped on the driveway. I rung my hands and swallowed a few times as I stood there. I crept inch by inch up the drive and then halted.

  Come on, Libby. Don’t be a coward. Get up there.

  My pep talk motivated me only as far as inching forward again. When I judged myself in range of where the barrier started previously, I squeezed my eyes shut and stretched a hand out. I tensed, waiting for the shock and to be repelled backward. My fingers wiggled through nothing. I opened my eyes and waved my arm around. Still nothing. Taking a chance, I floated forward and reached the door. I couldn’t believe it. Ian hadn’t shut me out.

  Gratitude and warmth burst to life inside me. I raised a fist to knock on the door and realized at the last minute, my hand would pass through in this state. Silly me, I was still nervous and somewhat panicky for no reason. As I stood there wondering how I would get Ian’s attention without violating his space by popping in, the door swung wide. No one stood on the other side. I rolled my eyes. Ian loved to play the door moving by itself trick.

  Ian sat in his sanctuary, and as I floated in, a feeling of nostalgia assailed me, tying my tongue.

  “Good evening, Liberty,” he said in his deep, delicious tone.

  “H-Hello.” I cleared my throat. “You’re looking good, Ian. Eating well?”

  Amusement lit the green eyes, satisfying me. “I am. Thank you.”

  He stretched a hand toward the chair opposite his, and I took it. I fiddled with my hands and was glad he couldn’t see them. Or could he? He watched me with that intense gaze, and I concluded he knew how nervous I was. Yet, he had no intention of relieving me of it.

  “Did you know I revoked your invitation to my house?” I asked, taking the plunge.

  “I felt it.” No emotion. No clue as to how he took it.

  I stared at the floor. “I’m sorry about that. I guess I…I don’t like you using Clark, especially not for me, and well, I think I might have overreacted.”

  “Liberty, you are free to do whatever you wish.”

  I frowned at him. “That’s the problem. You’re free.”

  “Did you want me to be bound?”

  “No, of course not.” I fumbled for the right words. “Clark is a sensitive area for me. Please accept that.”

  “I accept it.”

  “And even if it means…” I went through the motions of deep breaths. “Even if it means I get into trouble, I don’t want you to manipulate his mind. Please. I can’t bear it.”

  He inclined his head in his infuriatingly regal way. I solidified myself just so I could glare at him. Ian raised an eyebrow.

  “At least show you’re angry,” I demanded.

  “Pardon?”

  “Show you’re mad. You were helping me out, and I repaid you by cutting you out of my life. Didn’t that bother you?”

  He set the book he held aside. “It angered me, Liberty. I did what I did for you. I have no wish to interact with humans except to feed. As I said in the beginning, I do not hate what I am. I do not apologize for it. I do not govern myself based on human morality. Do you understand?”

  I shivered. “Yes.”

  He stared at me a few moments. “I will not help you with your chief unless you ask me to, and you will say specifically what you want me to do. I will not take responsibility if he learns your secret. However, I will do whatever it takes to keep my own.”

  My concentration wobbled.

  “Liberty.”

  I looked at him, and the rare softness reflected in his gaze. “I will not hurt you…or those you hold dear.”

  “I-I appreciate that.”

  There was no turning back now. I knew it as sure as I knew anything. Whether I left tomorrow or the next day, I accepted whatever happened with Ian. I accepted him and all he stood for. With my last days in Summit’s Edge, I wouldn’t turn him away. We were for lack of a better term—friends.

  “You said you would tell me about yourself, Ian,” I prompted. “Is now a good time?”

  “Now is as good as ever.”

  I braced myself to be bored or fascinated. Either way, I looked forward to knowing him better.

  “I was born in eighteen seventy-nine in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts,” be began, and I gasped. I knew he was much older than he appeared, but hearing the year shocked me beyond belief. Ian acknowledged my reaction with a slight rise of one side of his lips. “I was thirty-five, and I am sure you could guess. My parents were Scottish immigrants.”

  I did some quick calculating. “So that was in nineteen fourteen, right?”

  “Correct, a much different time back then—simpler.”

  “I can only imagine. Where were you? Was it on a dark road as you walked home from a party?”

  Ian blinked, and I blushed. I had seen one too many movies. “As it happens, I was headed home from the theatre. I had enjoyed seeing Charlie Chaplin in a movie called Making A Living.”

  “Wow.” I was officially impressed.

  Ian’s eyes glazed as he described the scene, slush and ice covering the street and piles of blackened snow at the edges. He was a university professor then, a promising career, distinguished, which meant, he said, that he was also a very eligible bachelor.

  “A particular woman interested me at the time,” he admitted, “one my brother was also interested in.”

  I saw the handwriting on the wall before he explained.

  “Tevin hated school, but with my bullying him and our father, he made it through university. Barely. He liked to have fun, was lazy and irresponsible. He never held a position long. Rather, he depended on family and friends more often than not. When I made the mistake of responding to Nessa’s flirtation with me, my brother developed a grudge. He wanted to teach me a lesson. I never knew how deep his resentment went until that night.”

  I leaned forward. “What happened?”

  The movie was the third date between Nessa and myself. Tevin found out about it and set a trap.”

  “Don’t tell me he picked a fight with you.”

  “Worse.” Ian focused on me. He seemed his usual self, composed, but for some reason I had the feeling he was not so calm as he seemed. This part of his story upset him. I considered telling him he didn’t have to share if he didn’t feel comfortable, but I was too selfish to speak the words. I wanted to know.

  “You must understand that Tevin even though he was irresponsible, he made many friends of all kinds, from all walks of life.”

  “Non-human?”

  “You catch on quickly, Liberty. Yes, even vampires. Tevin had a friend who was a vampire. I knew nothing about it. He made an arrangement with the man. For reasons of his own, the vampire agreed to kill me.”

  I slapped both hands over my mouth, my head awhirl. I dragged them slowly down and whispered, “His own brother? Why would the vampire agree or for that matter become your brother’s friend?”

  Ian shrugged. “Why does anyone do anything?”

  I supposed he was right. Why did Ian decide to help me?

  “He agreed to kill me that night, and he did attack, but instead of killing me he turned me.”


  “An accident?”

  “No, to turn a human is a deliberate act. I do not know what he saw in me that drove him to make me one of them. I know I looked into his eyes and saw…” Ian blinked. “I do not want to frighten you. As I said, he turned me, and after he ensured I rose and learned what I was, I never saw him again.”

  “That is so sad. I’m sorry that happened to you. What about Nessa? What happened to her? And your brother?”

  Ian didn’t seem to want to answer. He stood up and walked to a bookshelf to sort through books. I wasn’t letting him off the hook so easily. I followed and touched his arm. The spark of energy was there, a sort of thin barrier that kept me at a distance. Still I wouldn’t let him go, and he turned to face me.

  “Nessa had a breakdown having seen me murdered. She was sent to an asylum for treatment. Later, I heard she left the country. I do not know what happened to her after that.”

  “Didn’t you try to find her to at least let her know you were okay?”

  “I am a vampire, Liberty. Do you think that would have given her peace?”

  “Um, I guess not. And Tevin?”

  A muscle in Ian’s jaw flexed. I took an involuntary step back.

  “I let my rage at what he had done consume me, and in a fit of hunger, I drained him and watched him die.”

  My mouth dropped open. I had no words. Ian’s expression never changed. He went back to the bookshelf, sorting through books. I wanted to question him and ask if he was sorry afterward. I wanted to comfort myself and say he was, that his actions tormented him each day. I said nothing because what I didn’t want was him to say if he had the situation to do all over again, he would end his brother’s life without hesitation.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Clark, mind if I join you two?” I said to him as he stood in his office doorway. “I wanted to know what you found out about the body.”

  “Yes, I do mind,” he groused. “This is police business, Libby, and I can’t just share information with the public.”

  I wanted to protest and say I’m not just anybody. Clark had been distant ever since that night when he questioned Ian, Sharon, Bart, and me. In fact, I began to wonder if Ian had whispered into Clark’s ear after I left that he wasn’t attracted to me anymore. I would not be surprised if that were the case. Ian might think he did me a favor. Or he might just be jealous!

  I tried a few more times to convince Clark to let me in, but he clicked the door closed in my face. He might as well have slammed it with the humiliation I suffered and the snickers behind me. I would get the last laugh when I listened in on the conversation anyway. After zipping out the front door of the station, I jogged down the street a way and ducked into an alley. Once I was out of sight of anyone, I turned invisible and walked through a few walls until I arrived back at Clark’s office.

  “So he died of natural causes?” Clark’s officer was saying.

  “Looks like it from the report.” Clark scratched his head and sighed. “This is a complicated mess.”

  The officer frowned. “Why? You said he died of natural causes.”

  “Will,” Clark said with pronounced patience. “He didn’t bury himself.”

  “Ah! Yeah, that complicates matters.”

  “There’s another issue,” Clark added, and I heard his weariness. I didn’t suppose he had ever had to deal with so many mysteries and so much crime in Summit’s Edge.

  “How’s that?” Will asked.

  Clark sat on the edge of his desk and leaned across it to open a drawer. When he pulled out a padded envelope, my curiosity peaked. The envelope had been torn open, so Clark must know what was inside. He fished out a baggie and a few sheets of paper and tossed the paperwork on the desk. He held up the baggie for Will to get a look, and I floated closer to join him. The item inside the baggie was the orange and white piece of evidence the investigators had found at the shallow grave. I knew right away what it was and where had come from.

  The label on the pill bottle read Sadie Barnett, along with the type of drug contained inside, how many times a day to take it, and the date the medicine was dispensed. I had theories popping into my head, but I waited for Clark’s assessment.

  “The person who killed the guy also killed Sadie Barnett,” Will concluded.

  Wrong! I longed to join into the conversation.

  “Not likely,” Clark agreed with me although he didn’t know it. “That body’s been there a few weeks. The pills are new. The person who put this bottle in that grave also came across the body.”

  Will whistled in disbelief. “This town.”

  “Yeah,” Clark agreed. He picked up one of the sheets from the envelope. “The pills in this bottle are the same ones that killed Sadie Barnett.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “The test is conclusive,” Clark told him. “So our killer took the pills away from the scene of the crime to hide his involvement.”

  The fingerprints, I goaded silently.

  “Fingerprints,” Clark said at the same time. He waved the baggie in the air. “Get me Ken Barnett in here.” I gasped. Both Clark and Will looked in my direction, but since I wasn’t visible, both dismissed the sound they’d heard. I needed to be more careful.

  Clark and I waited until Will returned, a meaty hand wrapped around Ken’s neck to keep him moving forward. “He tried to run, chief, but I caught him.”

  I couldn’t help myself. I whooshed from the office, materialized outside the station door, hoping no one saw me, and zipped inside. I just caught Clark’s office door as he tried to shut it and squeezed past. He frowned at me, but I would not be put out this time.

  “You’re not arresting Ken, are you?” I demanded. “He would never kill his grandmother.”

  As soon as Ken saw me and I finished speaking, he collapsed on the floor, sobbing as if his heart shattered. Emotion clogged my throat. I bent to hug him, but Clark grabbed my arm to keep me back. His expression warned if I didn’t listen, he would toss me out on my butt. I stayed where I was.

  “I’m sorry,” Ken wailed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. It was an accident.”

  Shock rooted me to the spot, and my heart ached all the more for the poor young man. Clark and Will appeared less affected. In fact, Will seemed to wait for more of a confession, and Clark pushed for details.

  “Tell me everything,” Clark said in a quiet but commanding tone.

  Ken scrubbed an arm over his face and sniffed. He dragged himself up from the floor and dropped into a chair. While he held his head in his hands, he explained. “I found the body, and I got all excited about it because I thought I might be able to examine it and the scene before anyone else found out. I was going to go back and get my stuff, but I think Mee-Maw followed me.”

  “Your stuff?” Clark repeated.

  I recalled how Ken wanted to be a crime scene investigator. Finding a real body of someone who might have been murdered must have been like Christmas for him.

  “Yes, my gloves, notebook, recorder,” Ken said. He sat up straighter and stared in a daze at the floor. I assumed he recalled how exciting his find made him. “I was going to crack the case before the police.”

  “Get to the part about your grandmother,” Clark ordered.

  “You don’t have to be so mean, Clark.” I patted Ken’s shoulder, but with the mention of his grandmother, he didn’t appeared to want to be comforted. He broke down again, and we waited for him to regain control.

  “I love crime scenes. I wanted time to look for clues, but I didn’t get a chance. I had to go with Mee-Maw to the fair, and then she started wanting me to help her find the mayor. She was too worked up, and then she said something about how she wondered who the dead man was. That’s when I knew she knew, and she was going to blab about it to the mayor.”

  “So you killed her,” Clark filled in.

  “No!”

  Ken jumped to his feet and rounded on Clark, hands clenched into fists. Clark reached across and brought a heavy hand
down on Ken’s shoulder. The sheer weight drove Ken down again. He slumped, defeated.

  “I asked her to wait, but she was too excited. Then she sent me to get her pills because she wasn’t feeling well with the heat and running around. The whole time, I was thinking about how to convince her. I wasn’t paying attention.”

  I looked at Clark, and he glanced at me before focusing again on Ken. “Then?”

  “I gave her the wrong bottle,” Ken whispered. “I really didn’t mean to. I was so busy thinking of a way to make her wait. All I needed was an hour or two.”

  Will grunted. “An hour he says. You’re a rookie. You’d longer than that to process a scene.”

  “You didn’t give her the pills yourself, did you?” I asked, and the others quieted.

  “No.”

  I gave Clark a pointed look. He ignored me.

  “Like I said, I gave her the bottle. I tried to talk to her again, but she brushed me off and said go enjoy the festival or try to get a vendor to hire me.”

  Clark folded his arms over his chest. “So Sadie took the overdose herself. Sure, you played a part in giving her the wrong medicine, but no one forced her to take the pills.”

  Ken nodded.

  “Then what happened?” Clark pressed.

  “I found her before Libby did.”

  Everyone gasped, including me.

  “She was already dead.”

  Fresh tears rolled down Ken’s face, and I recalled how it had looked the day Sadie died. Ken had already been crying, I realized now.

  “I panicked and saw the pills in her hand. I knew I would be accused of murder, so I took the them and hid them in the grave until I could figure out what to do.”

  I turned to Clark. “Are you going to charge him?”

  Clark studied the young man for a few moments. “I think your time in Summit’s Edge has come to an end.”

  Ken jumped to his feet. “But—”

  “Calm down. I’m not charging you.”

  Ken almost sagged to the floor in relief. As Clark started to round his desk, Ken followed. “I want to go to school for criminal investigation. Would you give me a recommendation?”