by Amy Boyles
The next day my doorbell rang at precisely seven a.m. When I answered it, Malene stood with Norma Ray and Urleen flanking both sides.
Malene blew right on past me. “Okay, ladies, we need to get to work.” The floorboards creaked as she strode through the living room into my kitchen. “You got fresh coffee?”
I hadn’t expected the ladies to actually show up to my house, and I certainly hadn’t expected them so early. “Well, um…”
“I’ll make some,” Norma Ray said. “Don’t you worry about anything, Clem. You just sit down and tell us everything that you told Malene.”
Lady padded in from the bedroom to see who was visiting. She took one look at Urleen and Norma Ray and said, “Oh, are we having a party? I love parties.”
Urleen walked over and patted Lady on the head. “It’s about time we got a talking dog in this town. I’ve always thought that’s what Peachwood was missing.”
“Me too,” Norma Ray said.
Why weren’t they surprised or, worse, scared? I mean, if a dog simply started talking to me, I would be screaming.
Something smelled fishy. “Malene, did you tell them about Lady?”
She pulled out a chair. “I may or may not have said something.”
“Gosh darn it.” I raked my fingers through my hair in frustration. “I don’t need the whole town knowing about Lady.”
“Don’t get your panties in a wad,” she said. “They’re the only people that I told. It’s not like I drove through town screaming it out the window.”
“Well, at least there’s that,” I said, relieved.
She patted a spot beside her. “Come and sit. Let’s figure this out.”
After I relayed what had happened the previous night to Urleen and Norma Ray, the ladies began to form a plan.
Urleen cradled her coffee cup in her hands. “Clem, you’re going back there today, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, we’ll have to start on the renovation.”
Norma Ray huffed. “That was some renovation spell, wasn’t it? The thing that was supposed to cleanse the place ended up killing Knight.”
I stared at her. “Is that what you think?” I hadn’t, not even once, thought of that. “You believe that the spell killed him?”
“Well, what else could it have been?” she said. “I’ve seen enough of those ghost hunting shows to know that you don’t fool with spirits. Y’all were trying to cleanse the place and it backfired. Isn’t it fair enough to say the spirits did it?”
Malene scowled. “Norma Ray, I think that Clementine and I are of the mind that one of Knight’s siblings may have worked some foul play on him. Besides, I’ve never heard of a spirit stabbing anyone in the gut.”
I tapped my finger on the table, trying to hit my point. “Exactly. Spirits don’t stab people.” Suddenly I doubted myself. “Do they?”
Norma Ray spoke slowly. “They. Do.”
Oh crap. I did not need to fall down this rabbit hole and start thinking that a spirit pulled a knife from a drawer and thrust it into Knight’s belly.
Urleen came to the rescue. She patted Norma Ray’s hand. “Norma Ray, if you want to investigate the spirits, you go right on ahead, but I think the rest of us will be trying to figure out which flesh-and-blood person is the culprit.”
Norma Ray folded her arms and huffed. “I’ll bet you that the spirits had something to do with it.”
Malene poured herself another cup of coffee. “We need to be betting on which one of us finds Knight’s body first and not on whether or not ghosts from beyond hurt him.”
Norma Ray’s eyes twinkled with delight. “I’ll bet you my grandmother’s banana pudding recipe that I’m right. That the spirits are involved.”
Urleen sucked air. “You have got to be kidding.”
“I’m not,” Norma Ray said. “I told y’all that I watch all those ghost shows. I can smell a ghost working in the background. If I’m wrong, y’all can have the recipe. But if I’m right, y’all each owe me twenty dollars.”
“You know that I’m on a fixed income,” Urleen replied, shaking her head. “That won’t do. If you’re right, then I’ll give you something else.”
“What’s that?” Malene asked. “Norma wants money. What’re you gonna give her that’ll make it worth her while?”
Urleen considered this. “I’ll give you Grandma Crenshaw’s red velvet cake recipe.”
Norma Ray’s fingers flexed. “You’re on. I’ve wanted that recipe since we were kids.” She turned to Malene. “What’ll you give up if you’re wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said flatly. “I’m not betting on this. We need to focus on the truth, not on who’s right.”
Norma Ray pouted. “But it makes things more interesting.”
Malene rolled her eyes. “What makes things interesting may be what actually happened.”
I’d had enough of the bickering and wagering, so I rose and washed my coffee cup in the sink. “I tell y’all what—you spend time figuring out all that, and meanwhile I’ll be at the site, seeing what’s going on there.”
Malene shot Norma Ray a dark look. “See? You upset Clem.”
“I did not,” Norma Ray said. “If anything, I made things better.”
Malene scoffed. “Sure you did.”
I flared out my arms. “Ladies, y’all can all stop right now. I appreciate your help, and I need it. So if y’all want to do your own investigation, maybe we can meet up later. It’ll be suspicious if all of us go over to the house.”
Urleen shouldered her purse. “Good point, Clementine. We’ll go into town, see what we can find out. We’ll get back with you later.”
“Shouldn’t we go to the house?” Norma Ray whimpered.
“We will go when Clem says we can,” Malene said, “and not before. Meanwhile, we’ll do as Urleen suggests, see what folks in town know.”
“I appreciate y’all’s help,” I said with a smile. “I really do.”
I ushered the them toward the door and picked up Lady, who was right on my heels. “Come on, girl. Let’s get to Harlow’s and see what’s going on.”
I had not spoken to Harlow since before all the craziness happened. Guilt twisted my gut. How careless of me. I should have spoken to her right after. After all, she was the person who wanted the cleansing spell.
When Lady and I rolled up to the house, the only car in front belonged to Harlow. Liam and his crew wouldn’t arrive for a few more minutes, and for that, I was glad. I wanted a little time to speak to her alone, gauge how she was feeling and see what she thought had happened.
Figuring that she’d be huddled inside her car, I inspected it first, but she wasn’t there.
“She must be in the house,” I murmured.
Now, when Harlow and I had first looked for houses, she’d had no trouble going inside any of them. It wasn’t until yesterday and the whole cleansing thing that I’d seen her have any fear of the cottage.
It was definitely strange, but I honestly hadn’t thought about how weird and coincidental it was until I was standing at her front door, knocking.
Harlow answered, her cheeks glowing red and a touch of perspiration on her forehead. It looked like she’d just worked out.
“Oh, Clem.” She dragged me inside before I could say one word and wrapped me into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
Now I really didn’t know what to think. Why was she acting so happy when her cousin was presumably dead, his body stolen?
I was almost afraid to ask. “Are you okay? I mean, you know, with everything that happened last night?”
Harlow spread her arms and glanced at the ceiling. “I’ve been traipsing around the house all morning. Do you feel it?”
My gaze darted right and left. “Feel what?”
“Him.”
“Him, who?”
Harlow laughed and took me by the hands, swinging me around in a circle. “Why, Knight, of course.”
Was that a trick question? “Um, I’m not sure
what you’re talking about.”
She inhaled deeply and smiled, her lips spreading from one ear to the other. “Last night when you did the cleansing, it worked. It cleansed the house. The bad spirits are gone.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
Harlow released me and glided into the kitchen. I glanced down at Lady, who looked up at me and rolled her eyes. I had the feeling that if she could have, my dog would have circled her finger around her ear, indicating that Harlow had lost her mind.
“The place feels so clean now, don’t you think?” she said.
It felt the same to me now as it had before. I had no idea what she was talking about. “Harlow, I wanted to talk to you about what happened last night. I’m such a jerk for not checking in with you.” I glanced around the kitchen. It was scrubbed clean, the old Formica counter practically glistening as if Harlow had spent the last couple of hours madly making the place shine.
She waved her hand in dismissal. “It’s fine, Clementine. A lot happened last night. I didn’t expect you to seek me out. After all, my family was there to see to me.”
I bit the inside of my lip. It was time to bring up Knight, but Harlow wasn’t acting concerned. “It’s your cousin that I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh?” Harlow opened the cabinets and ran a rag over the shelves. I had no idea why she was cleaning. Liam would arrive soon to create a mess. “What about my cousin?”
“Well, last night, you know, during the cleansing, Knight fell down. When I checked, he didn’t have a pulse, and then I saw a…knife sticking in his belly. He’d been stabbed.”
Harlow shot me a sympathetic look. “Now, I know you think you saw what you did, Clem. But no one else saw the knife.”
“It was there.”
She nodded, but the look in her eyes suggested that she doubted my story. “I know you believe it. If it’s important to you, then it is. But yes, I know that Knight collapsed. I was so worried about it last night.”
“And then the lights flickered off and he vanished. His body, Harlow, vanished without a trace.”
“Mmm, yes, I know that, too.”
Well, you don’t seem too concerned about it. “I was worried. I am worried about Knight. He was bickering with his family just before he disappeared. Harlow”—I dropped my voice—“I think someone may have done something with his body. I think someone killed him and then made him vanish so that all evidence of their crime was destroyed.”
Harlow laughed. “Oh, Clem, that is the craziest idea that I’ve ever heard.”
So she was going to be on the Tuney Sluggs side of things, wasn’t she? Believe that her cousin had simply walked away, even though I knew that wasn’t possible.
Didn’t I? Didn’t I know that? I felt it so deeply in my bones, but maybe I was getting ahead of myself.
No, I knew what I had seen. “I know it’s crazy, but it’s true. Harlow, I think someone did something to Knight’s body.”
Harlow flicked dirt from her towel into the sink. She dried her hands and pressed one palm to my cheek. “Clem, all this worry, you don’t have to have it. There’s nothing for you to be concerned with.”
Oh my word, Harlow didn’t care. Did that mean that she had something to do with Knight’s disappearance? Maybe I had been wrong to blame everything on Lynn. Maybe the person that I should be looking at was standing right in front of me.
I wanted to be cool and not put Harlow on edge. I cleared my throat and pulled sketches from my purse to show her what I had planned for the house.
“Oh?” I said casually. “Why don’t I need to be concerned with Knight and what happened to him?”
Harlow lifted her hands and spun around. “Because, silly. The cleansing spell worked. Knight was taken by the spirits. He’s here, now, in the walls of this house, looking down on us and protecting us. He wasn’t murdered. He died of a heart attack, most likely, and then his body vanished to the other side. That’s why we couldn’t find it. I know you think you saw what you did, but it just isn’t true.”
I stared at Harlow, my mouth to the floor. It took a moment for me to wrap my head around exactly what she had said. “So you’re saying that Knight is where, exactly?”
She splayed out her hands. “Here. In this house. Last night he passed to the other side, and he’s now watching and protecting me.”
Holy crap. This situation just got a whole lot nuttier.
Chapter 11
After realizing that Harlow believed her cousin had dissolved into the house (talk about loony) and wasn’t going to change her mind, I showed her my ideas for the renovation. She loved every one of them, and when Liam arrived, I went over some of the plans with him.
Liam tossed his blond hair out of his eyes and nodded with admiration. “I like what you’ve got planned. We’re about to start doing a little demo. Want to stay?”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I’ve got some shopping to do. Looking for antique tile for the kitchen and trying to see if I can find an old cast-iron tub for the bathroom.”
The house had been renovated once before—at least the bathroom had been, and a urine-yellow plastic shower had been installed. To keep with the age of the house, I planned on buying a cast-iron tub to take its place.
I said goodbye to Liam and headed back to my truck, Lady following close behind. Harlow’s car was gone. She’d left as soon as Liam arrived, to let him do his thing, she had said.
I did not tell Liam that the house was now supposedly haunted with the spirit of her dead cousin and that his body had gone through a portal, a la Poltergeist, to the other side.
Y’all, some things were just too much to handle on a Monday morning.
So I left, unsure of exactly what to think. Harlow did not seem to be someone who believed in strange, unexplainable supernatural phenomena. At the same time I hadn’t thought her to be the type to want a cleansing. But apparently she was.
I’m sorry to say that I had a hard time buying that Knight was now a spirit in the house. However, this was something that Norma Ray would love.
Not wanting to give in to her ideas (which I considered to be just as crazy as Harlow’s), I decided to head over to Bender’s coffee shop for my breakfast of a chocolate mocha.
I found Julie Bender, the owner, sliding a tray of blueberry muffins into the pastry case. “Morning, Clem.”
“Morning, Julie. How’re things going?”
Julie pushed a stray strand of dark hair from her face. Her light brown skin and eyes gleamed in the sunlight streaming into the shop.
She beamed. “Things are great. It’s a beautiful morning, and I’m blessed to be here.” She had lost her husband a few years ago, and it always amazed me that Julie was so happy. Even though she’d suffered tragedy, she still found a reason to smile.
“Is that for me?” I asked, nodding to the cup.
“Well, it sure is. Want your usual mocha?”
I clicked my tongue and said sarcastically, “Do you think I should switch to green tea?”
“Only if you want to start being healthy.”
“I’m really not in the mood for that. Not after the morning I’ve had. I’d rather open my mouth and pour all the sugar from the caddy in it.”
Julie dumped old grounds from the machine and filled the canister with fresh. “That bad, huh?”
“Sure is.”
“Well, let’s hope it gets better. Maybe this cup of coffee will be the start for you.”
I smiled. “Hope so.”
“If you want to chat about it, I’m can sit for a few minutes.”
As much as it would have been good to discuss things with Julie, I hated to bring up death conspiracy theories with her. You never knew how someone who had lost a spouse would take listening to more death—especially the story that I had to tell.
“That’s okay,” I said. “Maybe another time.”
I had paid for my coffee and turned to leave when the door opened and Rufus strode in with Willard Gandy beside him.
Now, Willard was the town pharmacist and folks went to him for all sorts of things—ailments and creams. On his off days he could be found in a pair of Dickie overalls, but when he was working, Willard wore usual pharmacist gear—a white shirt and tie.
Today he wore the Dickies. I chuckled to myself, wondering where Malene was. Shouldn’t she be following him to see what the man was up to?
Willard saw me and broke into a smile. Honestly I didn’t understand why Malene had such a problem with the man. He’d been nothing but nice to me since the first moment I met him, which was years ago, when I moved to Peachwood.
“Clem,” he said, shaking my hand, “good to see you. John here has been telling me what a great help you’ve been to him.”
“That John,” I said teasingly. He might’ve tried to destroy me in one life, but in this one he did nothing but praise me. “He’s such a great guy.”
Willard clapped Rufus’s shoulder. “Seems to be.” He turned to Rufus. “Let me grab us a coffee. I’ll be right back.”
Rufus eyed me with worry. “How’re you feeling this morning?”
I laughed. “Great question. After last night I feel confused. Harlow thinks that Knight is now dead and stuck in the crawl space of her house.”
Rufus barked with laughter. “You’re joking?”
“Wish I was.”
“Now that’s a predicament. One that I’m fairly certain isn’t right. This isn’t the movie Poltergeist.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s what I thought, too.” It was my turn to laugh. “That’s exactly the thought I had.”
“Funny that I don’t remember who I am, but I remember Carol Anne,” he said, referring to the main character in the movie.
“That is strange.”
Our conversation faded to a lull, and I was about to go when Rufus stopped me. “Listen, I have a little hunting to do tonight. Would you care to join me?”
I hesitated.
“I could use your help,” he quickly added. “I’m searching for a mimic spell. I have the feeling it’s not going to be easy to find.”
“A mimic spell? Is this for Sykes Laffoon?”
“It is.”
Rufus’s eyes were full of so much longing that I hated to say no, but a mimic spell, if I understood the term correctly, was copycat magic. It doubled the image of a person. It was a spell that could be used in many situations, good and bad.