by Tonya Kappes
“Again?” I chewed on the inside of my cheek.
“Huh?” Hettie Bell stood out in front of Pose and Relax with a chalkboard sign that had the times of her classes today. “Again what?”
“Again, all of your classes,” I lied. I’d gotten good at that over the past couple of years. Or at least I’d thought I’d gotten good until Mazie had just cut me down. “How on earth do you do this job and keep up with Granny?”
Hettie laughed and took the moment to bend down and stretch.
“Thanks for stepping in yesterday. I love your Granny, but I’m not to the point where I can tell her what’s what.” She was in some sort of contortion position that I’d never be able to recover from even if she twisted me up in it.
“Speaking of Granny. She’s at my office waiting on me.” I waved and headed next door to Eternal Slumber.
On the way back to my office, I slipped the heat up on the HVAC. The afternoon was turning colder than I’d expected. It was bad enough for people to have a reason to visit a funeral home, the least I could do is make it warm.
“Granny, I’m sorry I’m late.” I headed into the office. “Doc.” I was taken by surprise when I saw Doc with her. “What do I owe the pleasure?”
“As you know,” Doc Clyde spoke up. “I asked Zula to be my bride. I’m ashamed to say that after all these years, I’ve been a Burns client and I’d like to switch my funeral needs.”
“Not that he’s sick or anything.” Granny dragged her fingernail from his shoulder down his arm to his hand, giving me the ewws. I think I even snarled. “Trust me, he’s not.” She wiggled her brows and leaned over giving him a long kiss on his lips.
“Alright.” I rolled my eyes. “That’s enough.”
“What? We are going to be newlyweds.” Granny winked and shimmied her shoulders.
I shuddered with the memory of how coo-coo she was over Earl Way Payne when she hooked him. Mainly she acted like a teenager in love to get at Ruthie Sue Payne, Earl Way’s ex-wife, but ended up really loving him.
“Are you sure you want to marry this woman?” I laughed.
Doc Clyde glowed and said a resounding, “Yes.”
“Well, I’ll be more than happy to give you the family discount and even go as far as calling Bea Allen myself.” It was something I was going to look forward to.
“Emma Lee!” Mazie busted through the door. “I’ve got a name.” She was waving some papers in the air. “Oh. I’m sorry. I had no idea you were with your granny.” She planted a fake smile across her face. “Zula, how are you?” Mazie’s sweet southern voice did a good job covering up of the reason she was here.
“Fit as a fiddle, but we’ve wasted enough time here waiting on Emma Lee. We have errands to run for our wedding.”
When the coast was clear, Mazie rushed over.
“Look here.” She put the papers on the desk and pointed to the article headline.
“What’s up with you two?” Granny appeared from around the office door.
Mazie and I jumped around with our hineys against the edge of the desk hiding the papers.
“Nothing.” Mazie smiled. “Just two old friends talking about books.”
“Mazie, I’ve found puddles deeper than you and this supposed friendship. I’ve never seen the two of y’all hanging out.” Granny’s eyes lowered. She looked between us with suspicion on her face.
“What can I say? I’m going to have some free time on my hands while Jack goes to work for the state police for six months. I figured I’d join Mazie’s book club,” I lied again.
“Book club?” Granny perked right on up like a daisy. “I love a good book club. Count me in!” She tapped the door. “Emma Lee, you pick me up after lunch and we’ll head on over to Southern Roots.” She turned and left.
“Book club?” Mazie drew back. “I didn’t invite you to my book club.”
“I know you didn’t and I didn’t invite you here until later. So this.” I pointed between us. “And our little adventure,” I leaned in and whispered, “has got to be the biggest secret of your life.”
“Fine. You can come to my book club.” She shook her head. “What did she mean about Southern Roots?”
“Granny and Doc you know are getting hitched.” I let out an exhausting sigh. It’d become the way my body processed the stress that came with talking about Granny. “She went out and bought this beautiful wedding dress that’s entirely too small for her.”
“Oh no.” Mazie laughed out loud.
“She had it pinned on her yesterday when I went over to see her at the inn. Needless to say,” I couldn’t stop laughing from the images I had in my head of Granny and that dress, “she needs to get her money back and I’m going to take her.”
“You’re going to love it there. I’m a consultant for them,” Mazie said.
“A consultant?” I asked.
“Yes. All things bridal and weddings. I’m a pretty good party planner too.” She nodded with confidence. “So I’ve been helping out a lot.” She picked up the papers and held it out. “Let’s get back to this.”
I held my finger up and walked over to the office door. I looked down the hall to make sure Granny had really left and shut the door for good measure. The sound of the clicking latch on the door knob echoed off the wood-paneled walls of my office.
“Is it safe?” Mazie asked. I nodded and took the paper, doing a quick scan.
“This Rachael Bemis is missing? And she worked for Rent A Room in Chicago?” I dropped the paper down.
“Yes. Kevin was interviewed by the police there. The police questioned him on both cases at the same time. She still hasn’t been found.” She flipped to another page. “This is Rachael Bemis. Is this the ghost that was with Betsy?”
I didn’t have to look at the photo too long to know that it was.
“Yes. In ghost form, they are a little more faded and less vibrant.” I glanced over in the corner at Betsy. She’d been sitting cross-legged with Mr. Whiskers curled in her lap as she read her book. “Kinda in a state of worry. Not sure here or there.”
“Is she there? Betsy?” Mazie’s eyes drew over to the corner.
“She is. I need to get a book from you because I promised I’d read to her.” My words caused Betsy to look up at me. I turned the photo of Rachael to face her. “Betsy, is this the lady that was with you?”
“Yes!” She ghosted over to me. “That’s her. She’s very sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” I asked.
Betsy shrugged before she bent down and picked up Mr. Whiskers. He didn’t seem to mind that his back end was dangling down as she gripped him around his front armpits and kissed his head.
“She keeps saying that this ghost is sorry but isn’t sure why.” Then it hit me. “Do you think that Rachael had something on Kevin and she knew he’d done something to Betsy. He killed her too.”
“Remember that Kevin didn’t kill Betsy. The smoke from the fire that Herman Strauss set killed her. Someone put her there and the more I think about it, the more I wonder if she was kidnapped, put in there but the kidnapper didn’t know the history of what was going on at the property. Herman Strauss had no idea Betsy was in there and lit the place on fire.” Mazie’s mind was going a mile-a-minute along with her mouth.
“You might have something. But Kevin wasn’t in town when Betsy was taken from her room.” I reminded her.
“No, but she was in the mansion.” She sucked in a breath.
Both of us stood there like we were stumped.
“I have read that killers sometimes come back to the scene of the crime.” A slow smiled eased on Mazie’s face into a big all-out grin. “Tomorrow is the twenty year anniversary.”
And my thirtieth birthday I wanted to say, but didn’t.
“What if we go see Betsy’s mom and ask her to hold a vigil with balloons that light up. You’ve seen those, right?” Her brows furrowed. “Anyway, I’ll take pictures all night of the people and we can ask Betsy if she recognizes any of them.
”
“What sicko comes back to the scene?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “Though you might have a good idea.”
“It’s a great idea.” Mazie picked up the receiver on my desk phone and jabbed it toward me. “Go on. Call her.”
It didn’t take that much coaxing and before I knew it, Mazie and I were in the hearse barreling toward Betsy’s mom’s house.
“I’ve never thought about having a real funeral.” Kay sat at her table looking a lot more frazzled than she had when Jack Henry and I had gone to see her.
“I’m more than happy to provide Eternal Slumber for the funeral for free.” It was the least I could do since it appeared Kay wasn’t in any financial situation to have a real funeral for her daughter. I’d grown fond of the little girl and I wanted to see her have a good send off.
“I think the balloons would be so amazing going up in the town square of Sleepy Hollow with the back drop of the mountains just as the sun is setting.” Mazie painted such a pretty picture that she had me convinced.
“I don’t know.” Kay was not as convinced. “Betsy never went to the square or to Sleepy Hollow for that matter.”
I wanted to protest that it’s exactly where she’d found me, but I didn’t.
“My funeral home is right across the street from the square and she was found in the barn behind the old strip mall.” I had somewhat of a logical thought.
“I’m a party planner. So I’m more than happy to quickly get this twenty-year vigil together. Emma’s granny would love to do some refreshments.” Mazie continued to volunteer people without asking them. “It’s all settled. You just have to show up.”
“Well then. . .” Kay wasn’t sure what to say. “I guess it’ll be fine.”
“Ask her about that lady that keeps telling me she’s sorry.” Betsy climbed up in her mother’s lap and twirled a strand of Kay’s hair around her little finger.
“Do you know a woman by the name of Rachael Bemis?” I asked.
Kay reached up and scratched the side of her neck where Betsy had touched. It was as if she could feel Betsy.
“The name doesn’t ring a bell.” She shrugged. “You know, I feel Betsy here. I’ve never really felt her so close, so I’m definitely happy to have the vigil in her honor at the square in Sleepy Hollow.”
“It’s settled then.” Mazie stood up. “All you need to do is be at the square by seven.”
While Mazie finalized a few more details about what she thought we’d do at the vigil, I couldn’t help but wonder how Kay didn’t even ask who Rachael was. She’d completely changed the subject. Though I never thought Kay could hurt her child, I also couldn’t dismiss the feeling she knew Rachael or at least had heard her name before.
“Where did you go in there?” Mazie asked once we got back on the road.
“I couldn’t help but notice how Kay had skimmed over Rachael Bemis’s name when I brought it up.” I noodled on the thought. “Betsy is so different from other Betweener clients because she’s a little girl and had not lived a full life like the rest of my clients. She doesn’t really understand the process.”
“The process?” Mazie asked. She held her phone in her hand.
“The idea that someone is going to have to go to jail. No matter who it is.” My own words haunted me. “There doesn’t seem to be a clear motive or suspect here.”
“She can’t tell you anything about the person?” Mazie was scrolling through her phone.
“No. She continued to say that the person would say something about her mom getting rid of her. That makes me think it had to be someone on the inside.” I shook my head, hoping the jumbled up thoughts might makes some sense.
“Oh!” Mazie screamed out. “I’ve got a lead on Rachael Bemis.”
“What?” Maybe Rachael was a key to the investigation that the police hadn’t connected.
“Rachael Bemis was never found. Her family knew she was having an affair with someone but she never told them who. It looks like Rachael’s daughter is still alive and I have a number.” She held her phone in the air. “I’m calling.”
“What are you going to say?” I asked. “You can’t just call and say, hey, I’m looking into your mom’s death. Because they don’t know she’s dead.”
“No but I do.” The voice coming from the back of the hearse made me veer off the road.
I jerked the wheel, careful not to overcorrect.
“Fine. I won’t call.” Mazie’s nails were planted in the dashboard. Her phone had fallen on the floorboard between her legs.
Rachael Bemis stared back at me in the rear-view mirror. Her pointer finger rubbed the middle of her chest.
“Rachael.” My mouth dried. “Glad you can join me. Us.”
“She’s. . .” Mazie’s eyes grew big. Slowly her chin turned toward her left shoulder and eventually her eyes were looking behind her. “Get out.”
“Right here, book nerd.” Rachael appeared to be a bit of a snarky ghost.
I laughed. “That’s not nice when we are trying to help you.”
“Help me? I’m glad I’m dead. Or I’d have been in jail for kidnapping Betsy Lynn Brady.”
That time, Mazie and I nearly went through the windshield after I slammed on the brakes.
Chapter Seventeen
“That’s it.” Mazie jumped out of the hearse and stomped her foot. “Move over!” She swung her finger out in front of her. “I’m driving us back to Sleepy Hollow. That’s twice you’ve nearly killed me.”
“I’m fine.” I gulped for air. “Get back in before someone comes barreling around the curve and hits us.”
“No. Not until you scoot over and do all the talking you need to do to . .. to. ..” Frustrated, she gestured to the back of the hearse. “You know what I mean.”
“Fine. But you aren’t going to like what I’ve got to tell you.” I scooted over to the passenger side and watched as Mazie ran around to the driver’s side to get in.
“What did she say?” Mazie wasted no time in throwing the hearse in gear.
“She said that she’s the one who kidnapped Betsy.” I looked in the back of the hearse.
Rachael Bemis had lain on the empty church cart with her arms crossed.
“I’ve always wondered what this felt like since it never happened to me.” She sounded a little jovial. “So what is it you want to know?” She sat up. Her legs straight out in front of her.
“First off, why did you take Betsy?” I asked.
“Oh, oh.” Mazie sounded like a monkey. “Ask her if Kevin told her to do it?”
“You can ask her yourself because she can hear you and see you. You just can’t see or hear her.” I was going to have to get used to training Mazie.
“Kevin had been spending a lot of time in Chicago to open the new store. Long days led into late nights that ended in several cocktails every time he came to town.” She smiled with a sexy look on her face. “He was so good looking. He was rich and I was a good listener. He told me how he didn’t really want kids but had committed himself to that frumpy mother.”
“Kay Brady?” I asked.
“What about her?” Mazie chirped in.
“Mazie, shh.” I admonished her. “I’ll tell you everything once I get the answers. That’s how this partnership goes. Got it?”
Mazie took a hand off the steering wheel and zipped her fingers across her lips.
“Yes. Kay Brady.” Rachael had a disgusted look on her face. She crossed her arms. “It wasn’t that he didn’t love Betsy, he did. He said that she was a sweet little girl and what’s her name.” She rolled her wrist in the air before she drew her finger back down to her chest and rubbed that same spot.
“Kay.”
“Yeah. Kay.” Her brow twitched. “He said that she had really done a great job raising her, but he wanted to be married and made first priority not second. He’d even brought Betsy to Chicago one time to go to the American Girl Store. I might’ve paid my friend to let me take her daughter and we ran
into each other there.”
“Did you and Kevin have an affair?” As a Betweener I’d seen this before. Another thing, people kill for no good reason.
“We slept together once. He said it was a mistake. I begged him to stay. I told him that I didn’t have any children that were small.” A sadness swept over her. “I did have two children and I sold them out.”
“Huh?” I wasn’t following her.
“I gave them to my mother to raise because I wanted Kevin to love me. He passed me by and had the store manager fire me before the store even opened.” She fiddled with her fingers. “I’d become obsessed. I knew Kevin’s schedule since I was the closest to him. I’d even had taken his keys while he was in Chicago. He thought he’d left them back in Kentucky so I had all the keys to his house. I took a train from Chicago to Lexington. It was then that I stalked Kevin and what’s her name.”
“Kay.” I would continue to make her hear the name. It wasn’t fair that she wouldn’t recognize how she wronged someone.
“Stop saying her name.” Rachael put her hands up to her ears and shook her head back and forth.
“I’ll stop.” I had to keep my cool because I couldn’t take the chance that she’d ghost away. And I had to have a full story to end this.
“Don’t be mad at me.” She looked at me. “It was only to scare Kay and make her think that Kevin’s house wasn’t safe and dump him.” She started to tear up. “Even though I hate what’s her name.”
“Ka . . .” I started to say but stopped myself when she glared at me.
“Betsy is a sweet little girl. I was simply going to just put her in this barn. Give her all the books she wanted and feed her. I had no idea it was being torn down. There was Mr. Whiskers and it was just awful.” Her chin lifted high in the air and with her eyes closed she took several deep breaths.
“Why do you keep saying Kay?” Mazie asked.
“That’s it!” Rachael’s face dropped. “I’m sick of hearing her name.”
Just like that, she ghosted away.
Chapter Eighteen