Ghost On Duty (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 2)

by Winters, J. D.

  Roy shook his head. “We’ll have to leave him here for now.” He took a deep, long breath. “I guess we’ll have to call in. The Captain isn’t going to like this.”

  I glared at him. “He’s not the only one,” I muttered, but I went up and offered to help him to the car. I was tired. It had turned out to be an event packed day after all.

  Chapter Twelve

  Bebe was asleep when I got home and I decided telling her all about my adventures could wait until morning. Dante was sitting in the living room, looking sulky. I wondered if he was jealous of Roy, but that was just wacky thinking. I knew Roy was being taken care of with his gunshot wound and all. The police had their own medical resources. One of the other detectives had given me a ride home. We left the scene of the crime before Captain Stone got there, but I knew I would be in for it in the morning. Still, I could hardly wait to get into bed. My head hit the pillow and I was out like a light.

  I stumbled out of bed at about eight and found Bebe sitting in the kitchen, drinking her first cup of coffee, looking tragic. When I started in on my tales from the night before, she glared at me.

  “I already know all about it,” she said. “I’ve had three emails, four texts and two phone calls. News travels fast.” She shook her head, looking at me in something between horror and amazement. “You crazy kid,” she said, distressed. “You could have been killed.”

  I nodded. “Yes, I wasn’t really expecting to get quite so completely involved in another murder,” I told her. “And I’m sorry. Really. I know this is embarrassing for you.”

  She jumped out of her seat and came around to hug me tight. “That is not the point,” she said, her voice choked. “I can’t lose you. You’re all I’ve got these days. Don’t do anything like that again!”

  “Okay,” I said meekly. “Now do you want to hear my side of what actually happened?”

  She did. We talked for about half an hour and then I remembered I had something else to tell her.

  “I saw your friend Gary at the Excelsior Hotel when I went to get the ballots,” I told her. “It looked to me like he was staying there. I thought he was supposedly camping in the wild.”

  She gave me a look and shook her head. “Nope. He’s a big phony. I swear, every man I start to like turns out to be a phony. I think that must say something about my ability to judge character.”

  I picked up the crumpled brochure on the counter and tried to flatten it. “Do you know anything about these?” I asked Bebe. “Do you know who’s handing them out?”

  She gave it a look and her eyes widened. “I don’t know that, but I know I did see a stack of these in Gary’s backpack. Do you think he’s the one?”

  I thought of him walking into the hotel lounge with Lance the night before. “Hmmm,” I said. “What if Gary was the developer or his agent? From what you know of him, would that be possible?”

  Bebe thought for a minute, then nodded slowly. “Sure,” she said. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”

  I frowned. “So why would he have been trying to fool us?”

  She shook her head. “Maybe to get in with local people and find out what they were really thinking. Who knows?”

  “So it’s over with you two?”

  “Oh yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “I found his wedding ring in his glove compartment. That was my first big clue.”

  “Oh Bebe.”

  Poor Bebe. Everything seemed to go wrong for her lately. I felt for her, but we didn’t have time to talk any longer. She had to go out to the warehouse to check on some flower orders.

  I watched her walk across the road to where the warehouses stood. I knew she was going to have to deal with Sherry, the gorgeous gal who seemed to have stolen Michael from her, and I felt a pang of sympathy.

  And then I saw Roy’s car coming up the drive, only Roy wasn’t driving. There was a woman in the driver’s seat. I turned away and whispered, “Oh no.” But when he rang the front door bell, I answered as though I hadn’t noticed.

  He stood there, his arm in a sling, the parrot in his huge cage in his other hand. He grinned at me.

  “Meet Barnaby. Here he is. He’s ready to go. You’re sure now? You really want him?”

  If you’d have asked me ten minutes before, I probably would have said, “You know, there’s just too much going on right now, I’m not sure I can handle a parrot in my life,” but now, looking at the magnificent bird, I was so excited I could hardly stand it.

  “Yes. Yes! I’m sure.”

  I’d forgotten all about his lady friend. I was so delighted to have the bird, I was smiling at Roy, really happy. And then something moved in my outer peripheral vision, and I knew in a flash that it was her.

  “Uh, I needed a ride,” he said, noticing my face.

  I nodded. “Sure,” I said. “Well…” I reached out to take the cage, ready for Roy to go. He stopped me.

  “I guess I’d better fill you in. Captain Stone has taken me off the case. He thinks I’m too close to you to be objective.”

  I blinked at him. “How would he know anything about that?”

  He shrugged. “People talk.”

  I glanced out at the woman in his car. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t think we’re close at all.”

  Something flashed in his gaze. “You may be right,” he said softly.

  She was getting out of the car. I didn’t want to look at her, I didn’t want to meet her. I wanted to pretend she didn’t exist. So I just kept smiling and staring at Roy as he gave me instructions about the bird while I prayed that she’d get the hint.

  No such luck. She came up and said, “Hi, I’m Janice Main. I’ve been hoping to get to meet you Mele.”

  I had to look at her, but I squinted, as if she was too bright for my eyes, like the sun. And the way she was dressed, in a green sweatshirt covered with rhinestones forming a huge Christmas tree, made that practically plausible.

  Roy looked at her sideways and muttered, “Another woman who can’t stay in a car when she’s told to.”

  She ignored him, sticking out her hand. “I’m an old friend of Roy’s. I’ll be staying with him for awhile.”

  I managed a smile at her and shook her hand. Her vibes were right out there in the open—she wanted him. And I wanted no part of this.

  I’d just gone through something very much like this. A man I thought I loved—a guy who seemed to be marriage material and promised to love and cherish me forever suddenly told me he had to take his ex-wife in. There was also a kid involved. Of course, with the child and all, I could understand that he had ties he needed to keep whole, relationships he needed to maintain.

  But the ex-wife staying overnight all the time was a forecast of trouble. Big Trouble. Things between us hadn’t gone far enough for me to think I needed to stick around and try to manage that trouble in any way. I didn’t need the hassle-or the heartbreak that was sure to be coming down the pike. I packed my things and headed north to my aunt’s place.

  All this had just happened a few weeks before. And now Roy was playing the same tune? Ouch.

  “Where shall I put this guy?” Roy asked, looking like he wanted to get this over with quickly.

  I hesitated. I’d talked to Bebe about this and she wanted him out in back where she had an empty aviary. She’d kept birds in the past and she figured that would be the best place for him most of the time. That meant a walk around the house and into the back, and I just didn’t want that woman to come with us.

  I explained, trying to be pleasant, and added, “Listen, would you like to go into the kitchen to wait?” I said. “Or look at a magazine in the living room? I do have a few things I need to discuss with Roy.” I smiled very wide.

  Roy gave me a look, but there was a bit of humor in his gaze. “Do you mind, Janice?” he asked her.

  She minded alright, but she pretended she didn’t. “Not at all. I’m sure you two have plenty to get settled between you. But I’ll go for a walk out here in the vineyards. I love these
open vistas.” Sami came strolling up to her at that moment. “Oh my, what a beautiful black cat,” she said, and started off with Sami in tow.

  Barnaby must have seen Sami from under the edge of the cloth, because he set up a racket like you’ve never heard, and I got my first taste of what is was going to be like, living with a parrot.

  “How often does he do this?” I asked Roy in horror.

  Roy just grinned. “About once an hour. And I don’t have a cat to set him off.”

  I groaned and he laughed, but his smile faded as he looked at me. He moved closer, but only in a way to make it easier to speak softly. “Mele, about Janice,” he began.

  I tried to turn away but he grabbed my arm. “Wait. Just let me say this. She’s only staying with me because she has no other place to go. The guy she was living with threw her out. We’re old friends and…”

  “Old lovers?” I couldn’t resist saying it.

  A look of pain came over his face, then vanished and he looked annoyed. “That was a long time ago,” he said. “That isn’t what’s going on now.”

  “Really? It looks to me like she’s got other plans.”

  “She can have all the plans she wants, she’s not staying. I told her she has to go by the weekend.”

  I looked up and tried to read his eyes. He looked sincere, but I’d been lied to before. “You know what?” I said, looking down at a lonely cyclamen blooming in the dirt. “This has nothing to do with me. You don’t have to make excuses. It is what it is.” I pulled out of his grasp. “Let’s get this done.”

  He wanted to say something more but I just shook my head and we started to work on getting that enormous cage into the aviary so we could release the parrot.

  “Okay,” I said to Roy once we stood back and watched Barnaby begin to explore his new home. “Before you go, I really need to go over a few things with you. First off--what exactly happened last night?”

  He looked surprised. “You don’t remember?”

  “Of course I remember. But I know I’m going to have to go in for questioning today and I want to keep it clear in my mind what I saw, what we did. It’s all such a blur. Do you know what I mean?”

  He hesitated and looked a bit pained. I glanced away and saw Aunty Jane sitting under a tree, fanning herself with a bamboo fan, not paying any attention to us.

  “Mele,” he continued, standing with his legs wide and sort of antagonistic as far as I could tell, “we can go over the facts if you want. But we can’t coordinate our stories. That wouldn’t be right.”

  “Oh!” I shivered. “Of course not. I didn’t mean…”

  But did I? I wasn’t so sure.

  “Okay, here we go.” He was talking quickly and crisply, as though he wanted to get this over with. “We went to look for Jasper.”

  “Yes.”

  “Because he shot at you earlier in the day.”

  I nodded.

  “It was dark and there wasn’t much light. You stayed in the car. I went tromping through the woods. I didn’t find anything. But something found me. And shot at me. Luckily, I think he was trying to scare me off, not kill me.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I heard the shot. I panicked. I got out of the car, even though I had no idea where you were, and I went looking.”

  “In the dark.”

  “In the dark. With no flashlight.”

  “Silly girl,” he said softly, but his eyes were luminous.

  I shook my head, going back over the emotions of that moment. “I was so scared that you’d been shot. I went running into the woods until I got where I could see the house. Then something started coming toward me and I hid behind a tree.”

  “What did you see?”

  I tried hard to remember every detail. “A man came past me, very close. He was carrying something that flashed in the darkness, and I think it might have been a gun.”

  “Did you see who it was?”

  “No. I was hiding, trying not to be seen. So I didn’t see who.” I sighed. “But I did see enough to know he was a man with wide shoulders. But that’s all.”

  Roy nodded. “After I got shot, I was in a sort of shock state for a few minutes. I fell to the ground and moaned, and he went off. I could hear him. Then I began to get control back and I sat up. Then I stood up and came through the woods until I found you.”

  “By then I’d found Jasper. On the ground. Shot dead.”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t see him at first.”

  “I didn’t see him until I fell over him. It’s my way.”

  “Right.”

  I added, “And we’re both sure Jasper wasn’t the man walking through the woods with a gun. And he wasn’t the man who shot you. Right?”

  “Right.”

  “Okay. I’d say we both saw things pretty much alike. Thanks.” I smiled at him. “I feel a lot more ready to face your captain now.” I sighed. “So why do you think Jasper was killed?”

  “Because Jasper wasn’t quite right in the head and lived in the forest. Off and on, but still….”

  “Just for that?”

  Roy shrugged and gave it a bit more thought. “He either killed Ned himself, or saw who did it.”

  “Ah.” Of course. “You don’t think it was Peg?”

  “I don’t know. It might have been Peg. But I don’t think mothers kill their sons too often. Unless they’re trying to stop them from doing something.”

  “Like what?”

  He shrugged. Not very helpful, that. “It could be something we haven’t even imagined. It could be a situation we know nothing about.”

  I thought about the other people I knew—of Bobby with his vaguely illicit business dealings. Had he been trying to clear the way for his sales business to flourish? Of Lance—could he be harboring old resentments that were eating away at him, things that he was compelled to avenge? There was Ginny Genera and her brother Tony—what did all this running cover up about them? There was Gary Kramer, the phony environmentalist, and Peg with her hatreds and anger, her sister Sue and her nephew Andrew—could they have been behind attempts to avenge Peg’s painful past? Was Jasper’s death somehow personal? There was even Ellie Chang and her mother, Rose, though I couldn’t think of a reason in the world why they would want to kill anybody. But then—you never did know, did you?

  Still, it just didn’t seem possible that any one of them could have been behind all this.

  “I’ve gotta go,” Roy said.

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll call you later.”

  I looked at him and shook my head.

  “No,” I said, and I felt like my heart was an egg, cracking in my chest. “Don’t bother.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I had a meeting scheduled with the Village people to go over some of the last minute plans for the performance. I went a little early to see if I could help anyone who was falling behind. I had a check list of things I was supposed to evaluate and assess. Were these people ready for this? How was I to know?

  But I had to pretend to be wise and experienced, and I was determined to do my best to make sure things went smoothly for these nice people. I figured I had to keep a firm balance between being too cocky, and putting them off, and being too timid, and scaring them with the possibility that I didn’t know what I was doing—and wouldn’t have their backs if something went wrong. I tried to act like I was worthy of their faith, but I was nervous. If I’d been wearing my official orchid, it would be drooping about now.

  The opening day for the performances was only three days away. Every one I talked to was sure the vote was going to go in favor of the pageant. What wasn’t quite as sure was how the results of the offer from the developer would pan out. Some villagers were afraid that greed would win over the hearts and minds. The final day for that one was December 18th as well.

  I asked around about the brochure. Most people had seen it but few had any idea who had been passing it around. A couple did say they thought it might have been Lance, but that just d
idn’t make any sense. The pageant was very important to Lance and his mother. Their entire family legacy was wrapped up in it, and in the village itself, and if the people voted to continue the lawsuit, that would be in jeopardy. Even worse, if enough decided to sell out to the developer, the whole thing would be gone.

  Lance arrived after I’d been there for awhile and he had his mother with him. It looked so touching to see the way he treated her, so gentle, so admiring, and she was beautiful and gracious to everyone. I got a chance to talk to her for a few minutes. She asked me questions about Hawaii and about Bebe and seemed to be a genuinely nice person. There was certainly no ambiguity as to her opinion on the vote.

  “We need everyone on board,” she told me. “I hope you’re doing all you can to encourage people to do the right thing. It’s so important that we keep Victorian Village the priceless place it’s been, and that we keep the Pageant going. It’s the signature jewel in our city crown. Without it, we’re just another bedroom community.”

  She went to talk to some of the other people preparing for the display and I used that as a chance to ask Lance about just exactly what was going on.

  “I don’t get it,” I said. “How can people sell houses they’re leasing?”

  He hesitated as though he really didn’t want to get into it, but finally he told me. “They don’t sell the property, they give up their right to the lease. If enough vote to do it, they can forfeit their leases to the consortium and the consortium can sell out to the developer.”

  “But why would they do that?”

  “The developer is offering a nice big chunk of cash to anyone who volunteers to forfeit by the deadline. Those who hold out will be left holding the bag. They’ll lose their house anyway, but won’t get much for it. That’s the incentive, you see.”

  I started to ask him another question, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me close, as though he wanted to tell me secrets. “Listen, once the vote is over, we’ll know how the land lies,” he said. “Whatever the result, I’d be honored if you would go to dinner with me. We can mourn, or celebrate, as the case may be.”