“My thoughts exactly,” Emma said. “Maybe he couldn’t get into the house because of the dog, so he broke into the workshop. Shirley told me about the break-in when we were in the bathroom. Ms. Doxson was right about that. There definitely was one no matter what the police said. She said the guy who did it was tearing up the workshop and she’s pretty sure it was the same person who hit Chris today.” She gave Kelly a wry look. “It seems to me that poor Pugsley is being blamed for accidents that might not be accidents.” She shook her head. “But why would the guys lie about something like that?”
“Did you catch the looks between Edgar and Chris when Chris said he fell on the walkway?” asked Kelly. “It was the same look they gave each other when you asked about the broken heads. I think Edgar knows that Chris didn’t trip.”
“I did catch that.”
“Doug said he thinks this has something to do with Edgar’s past. He said it was pretty bad.”
“Shirley told me the same thing,” Emma said. “Maybe Chris and Edgar don’t want to get the police involved because of something that happened in Edgar’s life before coming to California.”
Kelly snapped her head around. “You mean like maybe he’s on the run from the police?”
Emma shrugged. “He could be. It would be interesting to know if Edgar Fairchild is his real name. Shirley also told me that Chris’s parents have done everything to break the two of them up. They think Edgar is a gold digger.”
“He seems like a nice guy, no matter what was in his past.”
“I agree, Kelly. And his affection for Chris seemed very genuine. Those two are in love. I have no doubt about it.” She paused. “Maybe I can ask Phil to do a background check on Edgar, just in case.” She turned to her daughter. “Or do you think that would be too invasive?”
“Is that what you would do if you were working some other mystery?” Kelly asked, looking at Emma with frankness. “And Shirley and Doug do want your help.”
“I’ve never run a background check before,” Emma admitted. “And the ghosts don’t want my help,” she corrected. “They want our help. Or would you feel more comfortable if I pursued this on my own?”
Kelly looked out the windshield at the cars in front of them on the freeway while she gave it some thought. After a moment she looked at her mother. “I’m in, Mom. After all, it’s the family business, isn’t it?”
“Only if you want it to be.”
“I want to help Doug and Shirley,” Kelly said. “And if Chris is in trouble, I want to help him.” She looked back at her mother. “Are you okay with that? You know, with me being involved?”
“As your mother, I have serious reservations.” Emma took her eyes off the road for an instant to look at Kelly, then returned her attention to her driving. “As you know, sometimes my helping ghosts puts me in danger. That’s what worries me about you being in the middle of this.”
“And what about you?” Kelly asked, her voice swelling with emotion. “Don’t you think I worry about you?”
“That’s different.”
Kelly turned in her seat to face Emma. Kelly’s strong jaw, so much like Emma’s, was set in stone, doing a good imitation of Mount Rushmore. “Why? Because you’re my mother? Sorry, Emma, but that doesn’t fly. Don’t you think Grandma and Granddad and Phil worry about you, too? We all do and you know it.”
Kelly turned back to face forward. They’d ridden along for a few miles in silence, each with their own thoughts and neither budging, when Granny popped in. “Brrrr,” the ghost said, sensing the mood in the vehicle. “It’s mighty chilly in here and I don’t think it’s air-conditioning.”
Neither Emma nor Kelly said anything at first, then Emma finally said, “I’m sorry, Kelly. You’re right. I know you all worry about some of the situations I get into when I’m helping spirits, but I can’t refuse them help when they need it. I don’t know why, but I can’t.”
“I know you can’t, Mom,” Kelly answered in a quiet voice. “And after last fall, I know I can’t either. At first I was scared when T asked for my help with that ghost, then once I got into it, I knew it was the right thing to do. Just like I know the right thing to do is to help Shirley and Doug protect Chris.”
“You two are exceptional,” Granny said. “You can try to ignore it, but it won’t last long. You have a very special calling.”
“Granny’s right,” Emma said. “I know I’ve tried.” She cast a look at Kelly just as Kelly looked at her. The two exchanged soft smiles. “Phil and your grandparents are very understanding.” Emma reached a hand over and patted Kelly’s arm with affection. “I’ll try to be, too, and I’ve loved spending time with you today.”
“Look at this,” Granny said from the backseat. “We’re having one of them Hallmark moments.”
“Granny,” Emma said, getting the conversation back on the matter at hand, “did you find out anything about Sylvia Doxson?”
“Nothing beyond she’s a lonely old woman. From the photos and things hanging on her walls, it looks to me like she might have been a schoolteacher at one time. Her house is tidy but not fancy by any means,” the ghost reported. “I half expected her to be one of them crazy hoarders like on TV, but she’s not. And she can walk.”
Emma looked at Granny in the rearview mirror. “She can?”
“Not well, but well enough to get around her house if she’s not going too far, but she’s slow and gets tuckered out easily.”
“Her breathing did seem labored,” Emma noted. “I wonder if she has emphysema or some other respiratory ailment.”
“Not sure, but she’s not in the best of shape, I can tell ya that. Her mind is all there, but her body is failing fast.”
Emma exited the freeway and headed toward the restaurant. “Granny, are you sure you didn’t sense another ghost in addition to Doug and Shirley at Chris and Edgar’s place today?”
“Very sure,” the ghost answered. “I even popped back over there after I left Snoop Dog’s and checked it out, calling for any spirits to show themselves, but none did, not even Doug and Shirley. If someone died over there, their spirit is probably long gone.”
“So no one died like Ms. Doxson said?” Kelly asked.
“Not necessarily,” answered Emma. “But if someone did, their spirit likely crossed over and didn’t linger.”
“I’ll tell ya this, though,” continued Granny. “Those boys were in the middle of a tiff while I was there.”
“Chris and Edgar?” asked Kelly with surprise.
“Yep,” Granny answered. “And it was about the cops.”
“The police?” asked Emma with her own surprise. “What about the police?”
“They were arguing about calling the police. Edgar was for it. Chris against it. Chris kept arguing that it would ruin everything they had and were building.”
“Did they mention anything specific?” Emma asked.
“No, just that,” answered Granny.
“I find it hard to believe that Shirley and Edgar don’t know what it is they’re afraid of,” said Kelly.
“They may have heard something,” Emma explained, “but can’t quite piece it together.” She looked at Granny in the mirror again. “Granny, see if you can get Edgar and Shirley to come to our house tonight. Before seven-thirty if you can.”
“Will do.” Granny pursed her lips. “Those boys have had a break-in and now an assault and they don’t want the police involved. It definitely sounds to me like they’re hiding something. Maybe they’re doing something illegal like those meth house people.”
Kelly laughed. “It seems to me if anything funny was going on at that house Snoop Dog would have noticed.”
Emma nodded in agreement. “She doesn’t miss much.”
“Mom,” Kelly began, “when we were at the house, did you feel anything weird about it? I could have sworn I felt heavier with each step I took up the walk. It was almost like a weight was pressing on my shoulders, but I didn’t sense any ghosts.”
�
��I know what you mean,” answered Emma. “I felt the same. There was a sadness about the house, but only on the outside. I didn’t feel it at all once we were inside. Did you?”
“No,” Kelly said. “Inside it felt comfortable and welcoming. I only got that feeling outside.”
“Me, too,” Emma said while she looked for parking near the restaurant. “Maybe Sylvia Doxson is right about the murder. Just because a spirit isn’t showing itself to us doesn’t mean it’s not there. With all the renovations Chris and Edgar did to the inside, it might have displaced the spirit. You know, made it feel unwelcome and confused. Then again, it could just be that the history of the house is tragic and until it gets a total makeover, including the outside, the heavy feeling will remain.”
“But even Shirley and Doug said they didn’t know of any other ghosts at the house,” Kelly reminded her mother.
“Even ghosts don’t necessarily see other spirits,” Emma said. She pulled into a parking spot on the street about a half block from their destination and stopped the engine. “We really need to speak to Shirley and Doug again and ask specific questions. I’ll bet it might jar some information loose that they don’t even realize they possess.”
Kelly and Emma both looked at Granny.
“I told you, I’m on it.” The ghost disappeared. “Later.”
Chapter 9
After dinner, Emma called Phil. They spoke on the phone almost every night when they weren’t together, but tonight Emma called a little earlier and from her office in the guesthouse. She put the call on speaker so Kelly could hear it.
“Phil,” Emma said, “Kelly and I have a favor to ask.”
“Shoot,” said Phil Bowers, who was at his condo in San Diego.
“Can you run a background check on an Edgar Fairchild for me? He’s from Chicago but lives in Encino now. He’s African American and between twenty-five and thirty years old.”
“Are you thinking of hiring him for the show?” Phil asked.
“No,” Kelly answered for her mother. “He’s the partner of a good friend of mine and we think he may have something in his past that he’s hiding.”
“An unsavory sort, then,” Phil said.
“Not that we can see,” answered Emma. “He seems like a really nice young man, but we understand he’s had a rough past.”
“What ghosts are you two chasing down now?” Phil asked, his voice his usual blend of amusement and concern when it came to ghosts.
“We’re not chasing ghosts, Phil,” Emma told him. “The ghosts are the grandparents of Kelly’s friend Chris May, and they told Kelly that they think Chris is in danger. Edgar is Chris’s partner.”
“They came to you, Kelly?”
“Yes,” Kelly told him, “when I was at Elaine and Keith’s party yesterday.”
“Oh boy,” he said, air whistling through his teeth during a slight pause. “So the thing in Boston last fall wasn’t a fluke.”
“Doesn’t look that way,” Emma told him.
“Well, here’s the thing,” Phil finally said. “Unless you can provide a social security number or at least a birthdate or driver’s license number for this guy, it’s nearly impossible to do a background check. I can run his name through Westlaw or Lexis and see what pops up, then eliminate any subjects that don’t fit the age and geographical range, but that’s about it.”
Kelly gave Phil a quick rundown of what had happened since the party. When she was finished, Phil said, “It certainly does sound like those guys are covering up something. I’ll run the broad check and get back to you later tonight or tomorrow.”
“I’ll be at the movies with Nate,” Kelly told him. “So just let Mom know.”
“I will, sugar, but you be careful, you hear?”
Kelly smiled. She had grown to love Phil Bowers like a second father and knew he considered her the daughter he never had. He could sometimes be overprotective, but she liked the secure feeling he gave her. Her own father, while he loved her, didn’t have that protective papa bear gene. “I will, Phil. I promise.”
After the call, Emma and Kelly went back over their time in Encino with Emma jotting down a loose timeline of the events on a notepad. They had just put down everything they could remember when Granny popped in with Doug and Shirley.
“As you requested,” Granny said, presenting them as if on a silver platter.
“Thank you, Granny,” Emma said. “And thank you for coming, Doug and Shirley.” The husband and wife spirits seemed bewildered.
“Is this allowed?” asked Shirley looking around Emma’s office.
“What Shirl means,” said Doug, “is that we’ve never been away from the puppets before. Except to wander around Chris and Edgar’s place, but we’ve never left the premises unless we go along with Chris with the dummies.”
Emma smiled at their naïveté. “Yes,” she told them, “it’s allowed. You can go anywhere you like as long as you’ve been there before. The same goes for people,” she explained. “You can visit anyone you already know if you have a strong connection to them.”
“It takes practice to do it at will,” added Granny, “but you’ll get there. I’ll help.”
“Please make yourselves comfortable,” Emma told her visitors. “Kelly and I have a few questions to ask you about what we learned today.”
Shirley floated over and perched near the love seat. “We’ll help in any way we can.” She looked at Doug, who came to hover near her.
“Of course we will,” he said to Emma.
Emma consulted her notes, and moved them to the middle of her desk so Kelly could see them, too. “Shirley,” Emma began, “you said you think the man who hit Chris today was the same man who broke in last week.”
Shirley nodded, “Yes, I’m almost certain of it, but I’d never seen him before.”
“He might have come back today to finish what he started,” said Granny. “He did assault him while he was outside near the workshop.”
“Good point, Granny,” said Kelly. “He might not have realized Chris was home. The two of them did leave together earlier for brunch. Maybe the guy thought they were both still gone.”
“The first time he was there, did he tried to break into the house or did he go straight to the workshop?” asked Emma.
The two ghosts gave the question a lot of thought before Doug answered, “He did try to get into the house, but Pugsley was barking like crazy.”
Picking up a pen, Emma checked off the same thought, which they had written down earlier. “Do you know of anything of value Chris and Edgar might have in the house or workshop?”
The two ghosts looked at each other, truly puzzled. “Not really,” Shirley answered for the two of them. “They have some very nice artwork, much of it Edgar’s, and of course the tools in the workshop, but that’s about it.”
“I went back to the house after Kelly and Emma left,” Granny told them. “The guys were arguing about whether or not they should call the police.”
Doug shook his head. “They were rehashing that same argument right before you came to get us, Granny. Edgar’s argument is that between the break-in and Chris’s assault they need to get the police involved. I couldn’t agree more.”
“So why aren’t they?” asked Kelly.
“From what I overheard,” added Granny, “it has something to do with Edgar’s past.”
“That about all we understand, too, Granny,” answered Shirley. “It sounds like Edgar might be wanted in connection with something.”
Emma tapped another bullet point on the notepad. “We were even wondering if Edgar Fairchild was his real name.”
“As far as we know, it is,” said Doug. “We’ve never heard them talk about any other name, just that they don’t want to involve the police for some reason.”
“Maybe it’s not about Edgar at all,” Granny suggested. “Maybe it has something to do with the murder Snoop Dog thinks happened there,” suggested Granny. “Or even with the meth lab.”
“But,�
� Emma pointed out, “that happened several years ago. If someone was returning to the house in connection with that, they would most likely have done it while it stood vacant.” Again she tapped the notepad with her pen. “We keep coming back to this being about Edgar’s past.” She looked up at the ghosts. “I have a friend doing a check on Edgar to see if we can figure it out, but he wasn’t encouraging about the results.”
“What’s so sad,” said Shirley, her mouth downturned, “is that the boys never fight otherwise, only over this. It’s tearing them apart.”
“And it’s only been since the break-in?” asked Emma.
Shirley cocked her head to one side in thought. “No,” she finally said. “I think the discussion about the police started a few weeks before that, but I can’t rightly remember why.” She looked at Doug. “Do you, dear?”
Doug moved around as he dug into his ghostly and often skewed memory. “Didn’t they get some calls that worried them?” He stopped moving. “And a note? I seem to remember a note of some kind.”
“You’re right, Doug,” Shirley said with excitement. “There were a couple of calls to the house and a note left on the door.” She looked to Kelly and Emma. “Again, it was something to do with Edgar and Chicago. I’m sure of it.”
“Were they being blackmailed?” asked Kelly.
“I don’t know,” Shirley answered.
Doug came to stand next to Shirley. “The boys don’t have any money to speak of. They’ve sunk it all into that house and the business. I think it was more of a threat of some kind.”
“I’d really like to get those two to talk,” Emma said with frustration. “We can’t help them unless we know what’s going on. And whatever it is, it seems to be escalating.”
“Why don’t you ladies come to Chris’s show Tuesday night,” Shirley suggested. “You might be able to talk to them there. You know, catch them off guard. I know Edgar’s planning on coming.”
“Yes,” said Doug, his face lighting up at the possibility. “I think Chris is going to pull out all the stops and use both Shirley and me in the show.”
Dummy of a Ghost (Novella) (Ghost of Granny Apples) Page 6