“Situations can always change. This one is already bad,” Grant said, and that was the end of the conversation.
For the entire meal I had been waiting in fear of Cookie giving us away and mentioning our real afternoon activities. She never did, which was a relief. I thought she was probably saving it for blackmail later. But before we were through, she did bring up another contentious topic.
I was really so glad that my family behaved better when company was around.
Not.
“There’s something of great importance we have to discuss,” Cookie said, putting down her fork and knife after we had all eaten in silence for a while. I was already finished with my meal, but I had stuck around waiting for Lark and Pep because there was safety in numbers, especially when dealing with family.
Everyone turned to look at Cookie and waited for her to ask another question about one of her wine stashes. When she didn’t follow up her announcement right away, Meg asked, “Is it to have you committed?”
“Don’t make jokes,” Cookie ordered her.
“I wasn’t,” said Meg.
“No, it’s something else,” said Cookie.
“Does it have to do with the Skeleton Trio?” Corey asked.
“Certainly not. It’s much more important than that,” my grandmother sniffed.
I wasn’t sure what could be more important than murder, but I knew I was about to find out.
“Just tell us already,” said my mom.
“Meg’s birthday is coming up,” said Cookie, grinning evilly.
Meg groaned loudly and sat back in her chair. “Definitely have her committed. I can’t believe you’re bringing that up. You know I hate my birthday.”
“Yes, you hate your birthday and I hate having my wine taken away, but we can’t have everything,” said Cookie.
“Those are so not the same thing,” said Meg. But underneath her irritation she didn’t actually want to upset Cookie, so she added, “What are you thinking about my birthday?”
“I think something simple. Just a cake or four. Obviously invite the ghosts and skeletons and make it an affair,” said Cookie. “We can’t very well have a celebration and not invite them.”
“We could just not have the celebration,” Meg suggested weakly.
“Totally out of the question,” said my grandmother. “Whoever heard of such a thing. Birthdays must be celebrated with large and colorful parties.”
“Otherwise how would we know you love us?” Meg asked.
“Well that certainly wouldn’t be the point of them,” Cookie shrugged.
“So it’s settled. We’ll have a birthday cake for Meg,” said my mom.
“Oh, very well,” said Meg. “So long as it doesn’t get in the way of Grant’s investigation.”
“Don’t mind me,” said Grant. “I can work under any conditions. I’m sure cake will only motivate us further.”
“That’s a lovely sentiment, young man,” said Cookie. “My Jane has the exact same sentiment!”
She made a show of winking at me, and I felt my face turning bright red. On the bright side, Lizzie looked angry when she saw my grandmother’s wink and my reaction. I tried not to smirk into my pork pot pie.
“I’d best start looking at cake recipes,” said Audrey happily. “I was hoping we’d do something for the birthday.”
“I like cake,” said Uncle Taft, looking up from his plate for the first time.
“Did you find out anything else about the Skeleton Trio?” Mom asked Grant.
Grant’s face darkened and he shook his head. “There’s really no evidence to speak of. I’ve never seen anything like it. Whoever did this really knew what they were doing. They didn’t leave any evidence at all.”
“That’s not remotely comforting,” said Meg.
The rest of us agreed.
By the time I went up to my attic room that night, I had all but forgotten about Lady Oakley. When I stepped inside and turned on the light, her voice set me straight immediately.
The room was still musty, with cobwebs in the corner.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded hotly.
“Nothing much. Just coming into my room,” I said, sighing inwardly.
Lady Oakley was standing by the window at the far end of the room, staring out at the dark grounds with her hands clasped gently in front of her.
I flicked the light back off so I could see her shifting form more easily in the darkness.
“Can’t you do that somewhere else?” she demanded.
“No, this is my attic now,” I said.
“Crying shame,” she said. “Maybe I’ll try to get rid of you yet.”
“I wouldn’t,” I said. “You won’t like whoever my mother sticks up here next any better.”
“Will they leave the light off?” she asked.
“I doubt it,” I muttered.
“Oh, very well,” she grumbled. “By the way, you should really figure out what happened to those skeletons. The ghosts aren’t happy,” she sniffed. “In my day this never would’ve happened.”
“Oh, no? Why is that?”
“We managed the property better.”
“Don’t let my mother hear you say that.” My mom worked hard and did a great job. I never liked hearing anyone, ghost or living person, imply otherwise. “In your day you didn’t have anywhere near as many ghosts and skeletons to contend with,” I pointed out.
Lady Oakley didn’t appreciate this observation. “Maybe not. Still, skeletons getting attacked never happened in my day.”
“Did anything strange happen when you were running the mansion? Right when the haunted house opened?” I asked.
“Of course not,” Lady Oakley started to say. Then she paused thoughtfully.
“Something did happen?” I said, getting excited despite how tired I was.
“No, I don’t think so. It’s certainly nothing.” But her eyes widened as she said it.
“Now you have to tell me,” I insisted, crossing my arms over my chest and waiting.
Lady Oakley drifted over to where I was sitting on my bed. “Something did happen a long time ago. When we first started here, obviously the basement was empty. It wasn’t such a network of passages and tunnels that we couldn’t go into it before it was taken over by ghosts and skeletons.
“The first ghost to go into the basement and disappear was when I was still here. One day he was working at the haunted house as usual, and the next day he had vanished. I was never sure why, but I thought it had something to do with one of the skeletons. Fudgy, the ghost who disappeared downstairs, was named Fudgy Bail.”
I frowned. “You think a skeleton drove him out?”
“Something sure did, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that something was still here. The skeletons have always been the most hostile. You live at a year-round haunted house and you didn’t expect there to be spooky things?” Lady Oakley turned up her nose at my foolishness.
“Spooky and attacking the Skeleton Trio are two different things,” I said defensively. The Skeleton Trio was no picnic, and before something happened to them I would have said that if anyone here was going to attack supernaturals, it would have been the Trio doing the terrorizing, not the other way around. As it happened, I would have been wrong.
“Are you going to be able to stop this thing before it attacks something else?” Lady Oakley whispered.
“I wish I knew,” I said.
Chapter Sixteen
I had a decent night’s sleep, but in the morning I had to face the fact that another issue with staying in the attic was the bathroom situation. The nearest bathroom was on a deserted back corridor on the fourth floor, just a few steps down. The biggest benefit I could see was that I wouldn’t risk running into Lizzie. Still, until I moved up to the attic I hadn’t set foot in that corridor, and no one had used the bathroom in years.
Once before I’d thought I heard the water running when I passed this deserted bathroom, and this time I thou
ght I heard splashing. It was very odd, because as far as I knew nobody should be using it. On top of that, who would be taking a bath at this hour of the morning? Shaking my head at how strange it was, I nevertheless kept moving toward breakfast.
Lady Oakley had given me a lot to think about, and we had a busy week coming up what with preparations for both the grand haunted house opening and my aunt Meg’s birthday. I had a feeling that before all was said and done, someone was going to have to venture Down Below. I would nominate Lizzie, because if she went and didn’t return that would be just fine with me.
Lost in thought, I had only a split second’s warning before a dark shadow rolled over my shoulder and I became aware that something was sneaking up behind me.
I fell to the hallway floor, rolled sideways, and ducked left, then right. Then I came up onto my hands and knees and bobbed and weaved until I could rise to my feet again, all the while trying to work my way around so that I could see my attacker. When I finally managed to twist in the other direction, I discovered that it was a ghost I had never seen before.
He was solid. He’d been taking a bath, and now he could hurt me. The one advantage I had was that whatever I touched became the opposite of what it had been. If I could just get my hands on the ghost, he’d go back to being immaterial.
A thick white hand started to reach for me, but when I swatted it away the ghost suddenly shifted and went vaporous. When I heard him gasp, I turned around to glare.
“Weren’t expecting that, were you?” I taunted, feeling empowered because I hadn’t died.
“You should get out of here while you still can,” said the ghost menacingly.
“I could say the same to you,” I said.
Without a word, the ghost darted around me and I was forced to move out of his way before he hit me.
I moved, then immediately spun around to confront him, trying to keep him in view and not let him get behind me again. But instead of continuing the attack, he suddenly looked defeated.
“You know this wing of the mansion is off limits, and the house doesn’t open until nine,” I fumed. The ghost’s shoulders drooped and he plodded away.
As I tried to calm myself, I was startled all over again to realize that there were eyes watching me. I looked up to see whose they were and found Lizzie standing a bit down the hallway, eyeing me critically.
“I guess you’ve still got it, even though you disappeared to New York City,” she said, trying to hide the fact that she was impressed.
I managed to stay standing until Ms. Priss disappeared around the corner. Then I collapsed against the wall, breathing hard. I had never been attacked by a ghost before, and that was certainly what had just happened.
In my own home.
I felt completely alone, and yet both Lizzie and the ghosts were all around the mansion, not to mention my family.
Having recovered myself a bit, I got up and tried to continue my progress toward breakfast. But now there was yet another pair of eyes watching me.
Tall, dark, and handsome was standing in the doorway, his broad shoulders slanted against the door frame. He wore a tight black T-shirt that showed off his cut, bulging muscles, and get this, not even joking, the T-shirt had a slash across the middle.
“Morning. Busy day?” I panted.
“Not as busy as yours, at least so far,” he said.
“Don’t you have anything better to do than lurk around the corridors?” I mostly said it to cover my embarrassment and because strong silent type wasn’t likely to respond. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, my knees were really starting to throb. I’d have to put ice on them soon.
“Not at the moment, no.” He had a deep voice, because of course he did. “Is your knee alright?” he asked. “You look like you hurt it.”
He started forward and I nearly stumbled back. How had he known?
“Yes, its fine.” No. Ouch.
He smiled just a little. He knew I was lying.
“How did you know I injured my knee?” I asked.
“You aren’t putting any weight on it.”
Could if I wanted to.
“Can you?” he challenged.
“I should get going,” I said.
He made a show of stepping out of the way so I could leave unchallenged, but what that was actually going to mean was that I’d have to hobble past him. Gathering my dignity from where the ghost had scattered it all over the polished floor, I pushed myself off from the wall and started down the hall in the direction that happened to be toward Grant. Grant tried to cover a smile, but he didn’t do a very good job. I simply resolved not to look at him.
“I didn’t know you could handle ghosts like that,” he said, falling into step next to me.
“I thought you were staying there while I left,” I said.
“What gave you that idea?” he asked. “I need to make sure you get where you’re going safely. Cookie would never forgive me if I let something happen to you.”
“You need to do no such thing,” I informed him. “In fact, you should stay right here.”
I felt certain he wasn’t going to do as I directed him, but I never found out, because just then Cam yelled from downstairs, “Grant, there’s news. Where are you?”
Grant suddenly turned all business and stopped walking. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said. “You should ice that knee. We can continue the discussion of your ghost abilities later.” With that he turned and headed downstairs to meet Cam.
I was resolved that we were going to do no such thing. But just like my knee, my resolve felt shaky.
A ghost had just made himself solid and attacked me.
My life was officially at risk.
I snuck into the kitchen and got some coffee and a roll, then headed back upstairs to my attic room. My cousins found me there later on, icing my throbbing knee and listening to a lecture from Lady Oakley about safety.
“In my day girls didn’t fight with ghosts. In my day we let the men do the work,” she fumed.
“But we’re the witches,” I argued. “Besides, I never thought I’d get attacked right here in my own home!”
“It doesn’t matter! We’re delicate flowers,” said Lady Oakley. “We also don’t think!”
“That’s not how I look at it,” I said.
“Then you’re looking at it wrong,” said Lady Oakley.
“That could very well be true,” I said.
“What happened to you?” Lark asked, blessedly interrupting the argument.
She sat down on one of the big cushions set along the opposite wall, and Pep took the desk chair. I told them my suspicions about the ghost taking a bath, and how it had attacked me.
“I’ve never heard of that,” said Lark. She looked concerned and asked, “What are we going to do?”
I shook my head. “The ghosts know they’re not supposed to go searching out water. And yet this one did. He also told me I should leave the property immediately and never come back.”
“Why would he think you’d do such a thing?” Lark asked.
“I don’t know, but we’re running out of time. I don’t think the Skeleton Trio was an isolated incident, which means more skeletons are at risk if we don’t figure out what’s going on.”
“And apparently so are you,” said Pep quietly.
“Should we tell Grant?” Lark asked.
I close my eyes. I had hoped they wouldn’t bring that up. “Should we?” Lark pressed.
“He already knows,” Lady Oakley informed them, breaking my cover.
I opened my eyes to glare at the ghost, but she just smirked and said, “You can’t expect to keep something that important from your cousins, can you?”
“It isn’t important,” I grumbled.
“Wait, he saw you fighting off a ghost?” Lark asked.
“He saw me, and so did Lizzie,” I said. “Then he ran off with Cam because they had some lead in the Skeleton Trio case.”
“They said we’re not allowe
d to help with the investigation, but this is his job, and from what we hear he’s darn good at it,” said Pep. She was clearly trying to work her way around to doing what she wanted.
“Who, me? Bitter?” I said.
“Yeah, you. Bitter,” said Pep.
“We can be helpful, though,” I argued.
“Yeah, by staying out of the way,” Lark suggested.
“The ladies’ place is in the kitchen,” said Lady Oakley.
I desperately wanted to avoid the family dinner that night, but I knew I didn’t have a chance. My mother expected me to be there, and if I wasn’t she’d come looking for me. Then my embarrassment would be far worse than if I just went in the first place.
Besides, I wanted to see Grant.
To combat the effect of people seeing me limping, I made sure to be the first one down to the kitchen. I was already sitting at the table by the time the rest of the family trickled in.
“How was your day?” Audrey asked.
“Oh, fine,” I said.
I had wondered if I should tell my family about the ghost attacking me in the empty wing where he wasn’t supposed to be, but I had decided against it. It would only worry them, and my mother already had enough to worry about.
“What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Meg asked.
My mom rolled her eyes. “The supernatural unions want to meet again. They’re concerned about their safety.”
“What’s gotten them so riled up? It was only the Skeleton Trio who were attacked,” said Meg.
“I guess they think they could be next,” my mom shrugged. “Be that as it may, we can’t have them going on strike this weekend.”
“This is the SpookyBooSpectacular extravaganza weekend,” Lizzie explained to Grant, batting her eyelashes at him for good measure.
“Everything is going to be happening this weekend,” he mused, ignoring Lizzie’s flirting as if it hadn’t happened.
“Looks like it,” said my mom. “For better or worse.”
At the rate we were going, it was definitely for worse.
Chapter Seventeen
Drastic times called for drastic measures. There was something Grant wasn’t telling me, and that had to change. All my life I had always wanted to know what was going on. Even when I lived in New York City it had been difficult for me to separate from Shimmerfield. My excuse was that if we weren’t all careful, Cookie would blow something up. And there was a good chance that whatever she blew up would be important.
Spooky Business (Jane Garbo Mysteries Book 1) Page 12