by DS Butler
“So what can we do to help?” Madeline said, taking the pragmatic approach.
“I think the best thing you can do is hang around here for a little while. Listen in on conversations and see if you can gather any clues that way.”
Bernie nodded. “Okay, you can count on us, Harper. I’m sorry trying to help us got you into trouble.”
As we all heard Chief Wickham enter the cellblock again, I stopped talking. Both ghosts floated out through the door and passed by Chief Wickham without him noticing anything was out of the ordinary.
I stood beside the door, peering out, and saw that the chief had a big grin on his face and a gigantic box of doughnuts in his hands.
He walked up to the door and looked in at me. He held up a half-eaten, jelly-filled doughnut and said, “Do you want one?”
I shook my head. “No thanks.”
The grin left Chief Wickham’s face. “It’s a peace offering, Harper. I had no choice but to lock you up for your own safety.”
“I know, but I just couldn’t eat anything at the moment. I don’t get arrested every day, you know. It’s quite a stressful experience.”
“Maybe that will teach you not to interfere then,” Chief Wickham said dryly and then took a large bite of his doughnut.
I moved away from the door and sat down on the thin mattress as the chief took the box of doughnuts over to his desk.
Several minutes passed as the chief slowly worked his way through doughnut after doughnut. He scrolled through the screen on the computer and made notes.
Every now and again, I got up from my seat and peered through the small hole in the door. Boy, Chief Wickham certainly had a sweet tooth and had made quite a dent in the box of doughnuts.
I didn’t have my cell phone or my watch and wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it felt like ages.
I was bored. All I could do was stare at the four walls and try and come up with a reason Boris Barrymore suddenly snapped and murdered Bernie and then why he’d also decided to target Madeline. The trouble was, I had no idea what could have pushed him to the point of double homicide.
Feeling grumpy, I stood up and stretched. “How long are you going to keep me here, Chief Wickham. Grandma Grant won’t be happy if I’m not back for dinner tonight.”
I peered out at Chief Wickham and saw him rubbing his eyes.
“What was that, Harper?” he asked drowsily. “I’m so tired.” As he spoke, his eyelids drooped. “I don’t feel so good.”
I felt my stomach flip over. He didn’t look very good either. “Chief, are you okay?”
“Just… So… Tired…” Chief Wickham’s head started to nod, and his chin rested on his chest.
“Chief, wake up!”
Chief Wickham took his job seriously and was not the sort of man to have a nap when he should be working. I knew something was seriously wrong.
“Chief Wickham, who gave you those doughnuts?”
I looked at the partially empty box on his desk.
Chief Wickham slowly turned his head to look at me and then he blinked and said, “Sandy Crouch.”
“Oh, no. Quick, call for help! I think you’ve been drugged.”
I pressed my hands flat against the metal door, watching anxiously as Chief Wickham blinked a couple more times and then slowly reached for the phone.
Before he’d lifted the receiver, his head dropped forward onto the desk, and he let out a loud snore.
CHAPTER 28
I stared at Chief Wickham’s motionless body slumped over the desk. What was I supposed to do now?
His loud snoring told me he was asleep rather than dead, which was a relief.
Madeline and Bernie were searching through items on the chief’s desk, trying to find the keys, so I could get out of the cell and get help. Suddenly, Madeline pointed to a ring of keys attached to the chief’s belt loop.
“I think the key to your cell must be on this, Harper.”
Bernie let out a whoop and then grabbed the keyring, yanking it off Chief Wickham’s pants. The chief didn’t even stir.
I bit down on my lower lip nervously. I was probably going to get in trouble for letting myself out of the cell. I had no idea how I would explain the series of events, especially when people realized I had managed to get out of a locked cell… They would think I was some kind of modern day Houdini. Perhaps I could say that the chief unlocked the door before he fell unconscious… Would he remember?
But even though I was likely to be in deep trouble after this, I had to take the risk. Chief Wickham may have been poisoned, and I needed to raise the alarm.
Bernie was floating toward my cell with the keyring from Chief Wickham’s belt loop when I heard a commotion at the other end of the cellblock.
From inside the cell, I couldn’t see who had come in, but I rested my head against the metal door and sighed in relief. Whoever it was, would be able to help Chief Wickham.
Then I noticed the look on Bernie and Madeline’s faces.
Madeline clapped a hand over her mouth, and Bernie muttered an oath, which made me peer out of the door, trying to see who was there.
I heard someone laugh, and I felt my blood run cold. An icy chill ran up my spine. I had a very bad feeling about this.
A few seconds later, Sandy Crouch and Boris Barrymore came into view. Boris was holding a gun.
Oh, my goodness.
“Help!” I screamed out.
Boris turned to look at me through the gap in the metal door and lifted his gun as he laughed.
“It’s no good calling for help. We’ve locked the door from the cellblock to the offices. No one can help you now.”
I shook my head. How could this be happening? I was only yards away from Chief Wickham. How could they dare to do this in the police station?
“You’ll never get away with this,” I said, my shaky voice betraying my fear.
“Sure we will,” Sandy Crouch said. “We’ve drugged the chief and we just watched Joe McGrady leave the station. We are booked on flights to Mexico tonight. No one can stop us now.”
Sandy gave me a maniacal, evil grin, and I wondered how I could ever have felt sorry for her.
I looked at Boris and then back at Sandy. “So you’ve been working together?” I was desperately trying to keep them talking. If I could hold them up for long enough, perhaps somebody in the police station would realize something was wrong.
My gaze flickered down to Chief Wickham as he let out yet another loud snore. It didn’t look like I’d be getting any help from him, and if what Sandy said was true, and Joe McGrady had left the station, there was nobody else around to help.
“What was that?” Sandy said, whirling around as Bernie floated toward her.
Boris frowned. “Nothing, keep your mind on the job.”
Boris raised his gun so it pointed directly at my head, and I took a step back. I wondered if I ducked behind the door, would the bullet be able to go through metal?
“But the key just turned in the lock… I heard it…” Sandy protested. “The key turned on its own!”
I walked forward and looked out of the rectangular hole in the door. I could see Bernie standing beside the door connecting the cell block with the main station. He had unlocked it! I felt a burst of hope.
At least if someone now tried to get in to help us, they wouldn’t have the locked door standing in their way.
Bernie shouted out to me, “Don’t worry, Harper! I’ve unlocked the door.”
He held up Chief Wickham’s cell phone and waggled it. Sandy’s eyes were out on stalks, but Boris wasn’t paying any attention.
“I’ve called Joe from the chief’s phone. He can hear what’s going on. He will be back here in no time.”
I have never been more grateful for Bernie’s extraordinary ghostly abilities. The fact he could move objects so early in his ghostly transition could just save my life today.
But when my gaze flickered from Bernie to Boris, I looked down the barrel of the gu
n and gulped. Would Joe get here in time?
But Bernie wasn’t done helping me, he zoomed over and grabbed Sandy, pinning her arms to the sides as Dr. Madeline called out encouraging words.
Surprised and terrified, Sandy let out a yelp and shuffled around in an awkward fashion.
Boris turned his head to glare at his partner in crime. “What on earth is the matter with you, Sandy?”
I tried to distract him with more questions. “Why did you kill Bernie, Boris? Why did you wait all this time to take your revenge?”
Boris’s features tightened as he screwed up his face in a scowl. “I gave him time to make it up to me. He had years to make amends, and he didn’t. He went on living his extravagant life, cheating on Sandy and making fools of both of us. It took me a while to persuade Sandy to come around to my way of thinking, but now we are on the same page. We’re going to collect Bernie’s life insurance and live happily in Mexico together. That will be my revenge.”
I shook my head. “You’ll never get the life insurance money because you killed him,” I said, thinking they must be crazy to even consider the thought.
Boris grinned and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Sandy has already transferred all the money from Bernie’s account, so even if we don’t get the life insurance money, the money earned on the land deal he cheated me out of will support us for years to come.”
“Why you low down, nasty, conniving…”
I tuned Bernie out as he began shouting insults and I continued questioning Boris. “But why now, and why kill him in the diner when it was full of adults and children celebrating Christmas Eve?”
Boris’s face flushed red. “It was the last straw. When I saw they had picked Bernie Crouch to be Santa Claus…” He gritted his teeth and practically growled his next words. “I realized that Bernie would never get the punishment he deserved unless I saw to it myself. The whole town still thought he was wonderful. I mean, they asked him, a drunk and the cheater, over someone like me to take on the role of Santa for the children of Abbott Cove!”
Stunned, I could only shake my head and stare wide-eyed at Bernie and then Boris. Surely this couldn’t all be because Bernie had been handed the role of Santa Claus. He hadn’t even been first choice.
“But Bernie was just a last-minute replacement. He wasn’t picked… He was the only person available at such short notice.”
Bernie pouted and looked put out. “That’s not very nice, Harper!”
I ignored him and pressed on. “But why did you kill Dr. Madeline Clarkson? What had she ever done to you?”
Madeline was hovering just behind Boris as I asked the question. Of course, Boris was oblivious to the ghosts’ presence. But Sandy knew something strange was going on. She was having a pretty tough time moving with Bernie’s arms clamped around her. She let out a little squeal. “Something is holding me, Boris! Help me!”
Boris sent her an irritated look. “For goodness sake, Sandy. I’m quite busy here.”
He waved the gun in my direction, and I held my breath again.
Boris seemed to have forgotten my question so I asked again, “Why did Madeline have to die? Were you one of her patients?”
Boris shook his head and smiled nastily. “It was nothing to do with counseling. Madeline had spotted Sandy and me together, and I knew it was only a matter of time before she told someone. Perhaps she didn’t realize the significance at that moment, but I knew she would put the pieces together eventually and guess I killed Bernie. I couldn’t let her live. It was only a matter of time before news spread around Abbott Cove, so I had to shut her up.”
Boris shrugged as though snuffing out someone’s life was irrelevant to him. “I went to her house to look at her notes, and it was all there in black and white. Bernie had told her about our history, and she had written my name in green ink on her notes with the word dangerous printed next to it.” Boris grinned. “So I showed her how dangerous I really was.”
I turned away. I didn’t want to look at him anymore.
Instead, I focused on Sandy, who was standing with her arms clamped against her sides, thanks to Bernie’s invisible bear hug.
“Sandy, why did you turn on Bernie? You told me you had a good life together?”
But Sandy was still puzzled by the fact she couldn’t move her arms, and she was too distracted to answer.
Then the door to the cell block slammed open, and I heard Joe’s voice. “Put down the gun, Boris.”
Boris didn’t look so smug anymore. His eyes widened in panic, and he tried to make a run for it. He yelled out that it was all Sandy’s idea as he dashed for the exit.
Sandy tried to escape, too, but Bernie held her tight as she wriggled in his arms.
I leaned forward, trying to peer out of the tiny hole in the metal door, and saw Boris try to dive past Joe, but Joe tackled him, pulling him to the floor.
My heart jumped as they wrestled on the ground, and the gun was sent off spinning along the floor tiles. When Joe got the upper hand, I finally let out the breath I’d been holding, but my heart didn’t stop thumping until Joe put Boris in handcuffs.
As soon as Boris was incapacitated, Joe quickly checked on Chief Wickham. Another snore told us the chief was still alive.
He quickly dialed for an ambulance as we exchanged concerned looks.
“They were in on it together,” I said to Joe after he’d hung up, nodding at Sandy, and Joe reached for another pair of handcuffs.
With Sandy and Boris both handcuffed and Bernie doing a little jig in front of them, telling them both it served them right, Joe unlocked my cell door.
Madeline looked sad as she hovered beside Bernie. I wanted to say something to comfort her, but I didn’t dare when Joe was so close.
We waited for the ambulance and kept checking on the chief. I told Joe I thought they must have drugged or poisoned the doughnuts. He looked deeply concerned for Chief Wickham.
“I’m sure he’ll be okay,” I said hopefully.
“He’d better be. Otherwise, these two are going to wish they’d never been born,” Joe said, glaring at Boris and Sandy.
When the paramedics finally arrived and wheeled the chief to the ambulance on a stretcher, Joe escorted them out.
My legs felt shaky, and I sank down into a chair as I watched them go. I hoped the chief would be all right.
As Sandy and Boris argued about whose fault it was that they’d been caught, they were oblivious to everything else around them.
“Are you okay, Harper?” Bernie asked.
I nodded slowly. “I think I had a very lucky escape. Thank you, Bernie.”
Bernie winked at me, and even Dr. Madeline managed to raise a smile as Joe came back and locked Boris and Sandy in a cell. Seeing the pair of them locked up, I finally felt a wave of relief.
Joe turned to me. “I’m sorry, Harper. We really thought we were keeping you safe by locking you up. We never considered the possibility they would try to get at you in the police station.”
I nodded as I watched Bernie float in front of the jail cell and poke his tongue out at Boris and then I said, “It kind of took me by surprise, too.”
CHAPTER 29
Fortunately, Chief Wickham recovered quickly. Sandy Crouch had sprinkled crushed up sleeping tablets over the powdered sugar on the doughnuts, but there seemed to be no long-lasting effects.
Although the case had been solved and their killers were apprehended, Bernie and Madeline hadn’t yet passed on, and they were getting impatient. They came to me for answers, but I didn’t have any to give them, other than to be patient for a little while longer.
The day after Boris and Sandy were arrested, Chief Wickham had been discharged from hospital and came into the diner. He looked a little pale, but he assured me that other than feeling a bit groggy he was fine.
“I came to apologize, Harper. I put your life in danger.”
I shook my head as I poured his coffee. “No, I put myself in danger. You were trying to protect me. I
’m glad you’re okay, Chief Wickham.”
I would have thought he would be turned off sweet treats after the doughnut incident, but Chief Wickham polished off his lemon muffin in double quick time. He’d drained his mug of coffee and was just about to leave when Grandma Grant entered the diner.
I groaned as she put her hands on her hips and stared around the diner. She’d obviously heard that Chief Wickham was out of the hospital.
I approached her and tried to block her path before she could reach him. “Please, Grandma Grant, everything is settled. Don’t cause a scene.”
Grandma Grant gave me an imperious look. She wasn’t so easily discouraged.
She marched up to Chief Wickham like a woman on a mission and said, “What on earth possessed you to arrest Harper?”
Chief Wickham shrunk down in his chair. I didn’t blame him. Grandma Grant was in a scary mood.
“I…Er…”
Grandma Grant raised an eyebrow. “Carry on, chief, I’d like to hear why you thought that was a smart decision.”
The chief shook his head and looked miserably down at the table. “It wasn’t a smart decision. I’m sorry.”
Grandma Grant gave a long, theatrical sigh and plonked herself down in the chair opposite him. “I don’t think that apology is quite adequate to make up for the stress I went through.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Grandma Grant hadn’t even known my life was in danger until it was all over. She hadn’t experienced any stress. But that little fact wasn’t about to get in the way of Grandma Grant getting something she wanted.
“I suppose,” she said casually, “I might be able to forgive your crazy actions if you could be persuaded to forget about the small matter of the defective Christmas trees…”
Chief Wickham blinked a couple of times and then nodded forlornly. “I suppose I could do that.”
Grandma Grant gave a satisfied smile and placed her hands flat on the table. “All right then. Let’s talk.”
I decided to leave them to it and carried table five’s dishes back to the kitchen hatch.
Shortly afterward, Joe McGrady entered the diner and nodded at Chief Wickham, but I noticed he didn’t dare interrupt the chief’s conversation with Grandma Grant.