by Ann Charles
The front door opened, making Freesia jump.
Harvey rushed in, closing out the cold air behind him. He’d dropped me off out front and then parked his pickup down the road at a buddy’s house so the cops wouldn’t come looking for us.
When he saw all three of us looking at him, his gold teeth made an appearance. “You three look as guilty as pot-bellied coyotes with chicken-feather grins.”
“Quit your yammering, ol’ man, and get your suspenders over here. We’re about to go inside.” I glanced at Freesia. “If it’s okay with you.”
She shrugged. “You’re my Realtor. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no place off-limits to you. It’s the cops who are in a toot over this apartment.”
Natalie pulled a key ring loaded with keys from her pocket and held it in front of Freesia. It was the same key ring I’d seen Freesia toting around in the past. She must have given it to Natalie, since she was now her official handywoman. Freesia pointed at one of the keys.
“In we go,” Natalie said and opened the door.
I led the way inside, slowing as we approached the dining room with its walls full of Black Forest clocks—minus a few here and there. I frowned at them and then toward the open bedroom doorway off the living room.
“Holy shit,” Natalie whispered, gaping at all of the clocks. “She really had an obsession with clocks.”
This was Natalie’s first time in Ms. Wolff’s apartment. I’d grown so accustomed to all of the macabre clocks that I was no longer sidetracked by them. However, the lack of sound coming from the bedroom was a different matter.
“What’s got yer face all puckered up like that?” Harvey asked, joining me.
“It’s quiet.”
“What were ya expecting? A brass band?”
“The last time I came in here there were two clocks chiming on the other side of the bedroom mirror. Now, I hear nothing.”
“But that mirror is gone now,” Freesia reminded me.
Oh, yeah. I walked to the bedroom doorway. The glass shards from the broken mirror were cleaned up, leaving an empty wooden frame attached to the dresser. The two clocks on the bedroom wall that had been going off during that last visit were missing. Had Detective Hawke taken those clocks to the station to be examined, or were they two of the four recently taken? The ones he’d accused me of stealing? I’d like to ask Cooper about the clocks, but then he’d know I’d been in Ms. Wolff’s apartment again and probably handcuff me to his side day and night, which would make going to the bathroom a series of awkward moments for both of us.
“Damn, they’re all over in here, too?” Natalie said, following me into the bedroom.
“I told you she had them in her bedroom,” I reminded her.
“I know, but I figured that you meant she had a few in here, not another wall full of them.”
“Are we gonna stand around chewin’ the cud in here all day?” Harvey asked from the doorway with Freesia peeking over his shoulder. “Or are you gonna play Chatty Cathy on the party line so we can get outta here before the law shows up?”
Nudging the old bugger aside, I headed back into the living room. The antique phone sat on an end table, a rocking chair next to it. Harvey and I had found Ms. Wolff’s body under that chair, her skin shriveled up. Her head had lain next to one of the rocker legs. I tried not to think about the funky smell that had been in her apartment the day we’d found her as I picked up the phone receiver.
Natalie and Freesia bracketed me while Harvey leaned against the bedroom doorway, his thumbs in his suspenders as he watched me listen to the earpiece for a moment. “Well, whadya hear? The sea?”
I’d rather have had my ear to a conch shell at that moment. Besides my pulse making a racket in my ears, all was silent. “Nothing.”
“So start yappin’. It’s hard to have a conversation when nobody talks.”
I turned away from the bossy buzzard and closed my eyes, picturing a candle in a dark room, the flame flickering. This was my usual triggering device for shifting into the paranormal world. After several deep breaths with the flickering candle front and center in my thoughts, I whispered into the receiver, “Hello?”
Wincing, I waited for someone on the other end of the line to breathe, respond … or yell at me like before.
Nothing.
Frowning, I tried harder, really trying to focus on that flame, watching it dance in the darkness. This time, I used a louder voice. “Hello? Is there anyone listening?”
“What in the fuck are you doing?” Cooper asked.
I screeched and hung up the phone, looking at Natalie. “I heard Cooper on the line.” How in the …
“Christ, Parker! I’m standing right behind you.”
Oh, shit. Grimacing, I slowly swiveled, running headfirst into his menacing scowl. “Oh, hi, Cooper. We were just … ah … checking to make sure everything was cleaned up in here … you know, after the … ah … the mess with the broken mirror and the … ah …”
Natalie covered my mouth, thank God. Somebody needed to shut it before I managed to wedge both feet between my lips.
“Coop,” she said, pushing me behind her, facing off with the detective’s rigid jaw and squinty eyes. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “So, you three musketeers didn’t convince Freesia to let you into this apartment so you could play telephone operator with anyone listening on the other end of Parker’s paranormal line?”
Dammit, it was what it looked like.
“Not entirely.” Natalie didn’t wilt under his glare. “I came down to check on a possible leak in the plumbing. Violet happened to stop by along with Harvey, so I invited them to come with me and keep me company.” When his eyes narrowed even further, Natalie pulled a small pipe wrench out of her back pocket and a roll of plumber’s tape from somewhere else, holding both up as evidence. “Leaks can be expensive if left unfixed.”
“And is there a leak?”
Apparently so, since he was standing in here with us.
“False alarm.” Natalie held his stare for several beats longer than I could have. Then again, she was related to the Morgan sisters, my childhood neighbors, and facing off with the law was what they did best. Well, second best after fighting. I’d long held the notion that several notorious desperados had hung from the branches of their family tree back when outlaws ruled the West.
The silence grew heavy, so I stepped forward to lighten things up. “Good news, Cooper. It appears that when the mirror broke, so did the connection to the other side.” I wasn’t sure that was true, but until I could take another shot at reaching out through the receiver, it was the case.
He broke eye contact with Natalie, focusing on me. “You’re not hearing any chiming clocks or ringing phones today?”
“No.”
“How did ya know Sparky was here?” Harvey asked, scratching his beard.
Yeah, how did he … oh, hell. “You tracked my phone.” Sheesh, I was a doofus. Then again, being kept on a short leash was new for me.
“He tracked your phone?” Freesia frowned. “Is that legal?”
“She’s lucky I did,” Cooper said, crossing his arms. “Detective Hawke has a unit on its way to confirm the current clock count. We have about five minutes before they pull up, so I suggest we—”
His gaze shifted to the bedroom doorway where Harvey still leaned, doing a double take. His face paled.
“What’re ya gawkin’ at me like that fer, boy?”
Cooper took a step back. “We need to leave now.”
“Do you hear the other cops?” Natalie asked, moving over to peek out the window toward the road.
“Do you hear a clock chiming or the phone ringing?” Freesia asked, trying to see past Harvey into the bedroom.
I’d seen that expression before on Cooper. He wasn’t hearing anything. He was seeing something that didn’t fit in his black and white picture frame. I looked toward Harvey, trying to see if I could pick up a blurry movement
of anything else in here with us, someone no longer breathing oxygen. But when it came to most ghosts, I was the mayor of Dud-ville. Today was no different.
“What do you see, Cooper?” I pressed, moving closer to him.
His gaze shifted, moving along the wall to where Natalie stood next to the window.
“Hey,” I said, waving a hand in front of his face. He blinked down at me, as if suddenly realizing I was there with him. “What do you see?”
His eyes were filled with uncertainty, something I’d not seen on Cooper before. I grabbed his arm. “What?”
“I …” In a blink, the shutters closed and shut me out. He grabbed my wrist, lifting my hand from his arm. “I don’t see a damned thing, Parker. Now get your ass out of this apartment before you get us both in deeper shit.”
Herding us out of the apartment, he locked the door and rushed us up the stairs. We made it out of the line of sight seconds before two policemen pushed open the front door. Mimicking zipped lips at us, Cooper grabbed Natalie’s hand and dragged her back to the top stair.
“Detective Cooper,” I heard one of them say. “I thought that was your vehicle.”
“Did Detective Hawke tell you to meet us here?” another voice asked.
From my post off to the side of the stairwell, I could see Cooper and Natalie’s profiles.
“No,” Cooper answered, his tone brusque. “I stopped by to talk to Ms. Beals.”
“Hey, Nat,” one of the cops said. “I heard you moved to town for the winter.”
“No keeping secrets around here,” Natalie replied, sending a quick frown in Cooper’s direction, then down at her hand that he still held in his.
“Since you’re staying in town,” one of the cops said, “do you feel like meeting me for a beer later at the Purple Door Saloon?”
“Miss Beals is busy tonight.” Cooper’s tone was edged with liquid nitrogen. “If you two don’t mind, I’ll finish up my business with her while you count clocks.” He looked down at Natalie, saying loud and clear for all to hear, “I’ll stop by tonight after I’m off work.”
Natalie pulled her hand free and slid her arms around his neck, pressing against him. “You sure you can’t come inside for a little bit?”
Cooper’s frown mirrored mine. What in the hell was she doing? Had I missed a page?
When Cooper didn’t reply, Natalie went up on her toes and kissed him on the mouth. It was more of a quick smooch, but lip contact, nonetheless. “Maybe that will change your mind.”
The sound of low chuckling came up the stairs, followed by, “Now you know what she’ll be busy doing tonight.”
The door to Ms. Wolff’s apartment clicked shut.
Cooper stood frozen as Natalie stepped back. “What was that about, Beals?”
“I thought we were role playing to distract them.”
“Role playing?”
“Yeah, you know, you said you’d stop by after work, so I kissed you to show them why you’re coming back by.”
“I meant I would stop by to take care of the reason you’d supposedly called me over today.”
“So I didn’t call you over to screw around?”
He took an extra-long pause to answer that, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “No.”
“Well, next time you need to be a little more clear of your plans before flirting with me in front of your work buddies.”
“I wasn’t flirting.”
“You held my hand.”
“I led you by the hand.”
Natalie looked over at me. “What did it look like to you?”
Cooper squinted at me, warning me to keep my big mouth shut. I shrugged at Natalie. “My eyesight is rotten in this light.”
“It looked to me like he was showin’ ‘em the lay of land,” Harvey said, grinning.
“She didn’t ask you, Uncle Willis.”
“I think it could go either way,” Freesia weighed in. “Although you probably should have taken her by the arm instead of hand. Handholding implies intimacy.”
“See.” Natalie poked Cooper on the chest. “Flirting, handholding, and saying you’d come back after work. I don’t know what planet you’re from, Coop, but here on Earth, that means you and I are playing footsie under the table.”
The low rumble of voices came from downstairs again.
Cooper focused downstairs again. “I’ll see you two back at the station in ten.”
“Make that twenty, boys,” Natalie said and smacked Cooper on the butt. “He’s not quite done interrogating me.”
A roll of laughter followed, along with, “See you later, Nat.”
Natalie smiled, waving them off, while Cooper rubbed his jaw and stared at Natalie. Flummoxed was a good description for the expression on his face.
When the front door closed below, he said, “You do realize that they’ll go back and tell Detective Hawke that I was here with you, right?”
Natalie shrugged. “A little competition will ruffle Hawke’s feathers. Did you really track Violet here by her phone?”
He nodded, starting downstairs. “And I just saved her ass from a shitload of trouble. If I hadn’t caught you four in that apartment, they would have.”
I joined them on the steps along with my saved ass. More important than whether we’d been caught or not was what—or who—was in that apartment with us. “What did you see down in Ms. Wolff’s bedroom, Coop?”
He paused halfway to the first floor, his eyes frosting over when he looked up at me. “I told you, I saw nothing.”
Right. “Did ‘nothing’ happen to have slicked-back greasy hair and a broken neck?” Like the guy I’d witnessed being thrown across the room months ago when I’d stepped back in time and dodged blows from an ax-wielding juggernaut?
Cooper’s chin jutted. “We’re done here, Parker. Get your ass back to work before you fuck things up even more.”
Chapter Eight
Harvey drove me back to work with Cooper tailing us most of the way, damn him. We pulled in behind Calamity Jane Realty and stopped at the back door. Harvey let the pickup idle, turning my way. “Me and you need to head for the wagon yard.”
“Is that a metaphor for something?” I asked, reaching for the door handle. With Harvey, I never knew for sure.
“It means it’s time to put the chairs in the wagon.”
When I continued to stare at him, he motioned for me to open the door. “Get your buns inside, tell yer bossman we’re gonna go see a place out-a-ways in the country, and then get back out here quick as a hiccup.”
I blinked. Twice. “You want to do this now?”
“I reckon so since I’ve told ya twice already. You need me to draw ya a picture?”
“Maybe, smartass. Where’s the house?”
“I’ll show ya when we git there.” When I opened the door, he added, “And leave yer cell phone in yer desk.”
“What? Why?”
“Yer just overflowin’ with questions today.”
“I need my phone.”
“I’ve got mine. Leave yers.”
“What do you have against my phone?”
“It’s buggy. I don’t want Coop followin’ us.”
Why not? Where in the heck was he taking me?
“Light a shuck, girl. We need to roll.” He scowled out the windshield at the sky. “I don’t wanna be there after dark.”
Even though my gut told me Harvey was leading me into more trouble, I did as told, hurrying into the office.
Jerry was on the phone, so I wrote him a note saying I’d be gone for most of the afternoon. He gave me a thumbs-up in response. After putting my phone on silent mode and stuffing it in my desk drawer, I returned to Harvey’s pickup. The ol’ buzzard didn’t even wait for me to shut the door before hitting the gas.
We headed left out of the parking lot toward Lead. “Where are we going?” Had he arranged a visit with Prudence the ghost at the old Carhart house with Zelda Britton, the home’s new owner?
“Take this.” He hand
ed me his cell phone. “Get Nat on the horn.”
“You’re being extra peculiar today.” Without knowing why I was calling, I punched in Natalie’s phone number.
She answered on the second ring. “Is it done?”
“No, he’s still alive,” I answered, playing along. “But we buried him in an unmarked grave for now.”
There was a pause from the other end of the line. Then, “Vi?”
“Who else besides Harvey would be calling you on this phone?” I glanced at ol’ man Harvey. “Why did I call Natalie?”
“Tell her it’s done,” was his reply.
“Harvey said to tell you—”
“I heard. Where did you leave it?”
“Where did I leave it?” I asked Harvey.
“I told ya to put it in yer desk.”
“Are we talking about my cell phone?”
“Darn tootin’.” He turned left on US Highway 385, heading up Strawberry Hill.
“I’ll go over to your office in a while and disarm it,” Natalie said.
“What do you mean, ‘disarm it’? It’s a cell phone, not a car bomb.”
“I think I know how to get Coop off your back.”
Ah, the tracking dealio. “And you chose Harvey as your co-conspirator over me?” Natalie and I had been partners in crime for decades.
“Why not? He lies face-to-face better than you.”
“That’s not true. I’m a great liar.”
Harvey blew a raspberry, for which he received a suspender snapping.
“Please. Your twitching nose gives you away every time. Besides, we only had a few seconds to hatch a plan, and you were busy at the time arguing with Cooper on the front porch about your right to be inside of the Galena House since you’re Freesia’s Realtor.”
Ah, so that’s what had been taking Harvey so long to join me outside. I’d figured he was just staying out of the ring, waiting to see how long before Cooper and I came to blows.
“Shit. I gotta go, Vi. I’ll let you two know when it’s done.” She hung up on me.
I set Harvey’s phone on the bench seat between us and stared out the windshield at the passing pine trees. “She’ll be in touch. Where are we going?”