Amanda gulped. “She killed him? She killed a man and tried to put the blame on me to get revenge because of Charley? That’s crazy.”
“You’ve got that part right,” Teresa said. “The silicon-enhanced blond bimbo is seriously nuts.”
“Hey!” Charley protested. “She was really into me. Not my fault if I drive women crazy.”
Amanda refrained from saying the opposite might be true, that a woman had to be crazy to be attracted to Charley. That would not speak well for her own sanity. “No, there’s more. There has to be more.” She moved closer to Jake and peered directly into his eyes. “Are you romantically involved with her?”
Jake blinked and said nothing for an instant that seemed like an eternity. “Jerrilee? You think...? Of course not! Why would you even ask something like that?”
She twisted around to look up at him. “Tell her the truth!”
Jake’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “The truth? Jerrilee, we work together. That’s all.”
“He loved me until you came along!” Jerrilee’s face flushed, her features contorted in anger. She no longer looked so pretty. “Charley left me for you and now you want Jake! You’ll kill him too! Why do you always want my men?”
Jake’s astonishment apparently caused him to loosen his hold on Jerrilee. She launched herself at Amanda, grabbing her throat with both hands.
Amanda tried to pry loose the fingers that were choking her, cutting off her ability to breathe. What had she learned in that self-defense class a year ago? Nose. Eyeballs. Ears. She fumbled for Jerrilee’s face but grabbed only a handful of hair.
If she died now, would she be stuck on the same plane as Charley? And Lenny? What a mess that would be.
Then the pressure was gone. Amanda sucked in a welcome breath, coughed, leaned forward, breathed again. She had never before realized how wonderful the simple act of breathing could be.
“Cuff her!” The man’s voice was familiar, but the peremptory tone was not. She hoped Jake never spoke to her like that.
Strong arms grasped her, pulled her against a warm chest. “Are you all right?” Jake’s tone was no longer peremptory nor was it the detached cop. He sounded concerned, like a lover.
“Jake, we were so good together!” Jerrilee shouted. A few feet away Ross held her arm at the elbow. Both hands were behind her back. Handcuffed? “We can be that way again with her out of the way!”
Jake frowned. “Jerrilee, we were never together. You work for us. What are you talking about?”
She struggled to get away from Ross, but he held her firmly. “Jake, you came to my apartment. You fought for me. You said you loved me!”
She sounded so sincere, for a moment Amanda doubted Jake.
He shook his head slowly. “The one time I was in your apartment was that day your boyfriend was beating you.”
“You fought for me. You saved me. You came to see me in the hospital. You wouldn’t have done all that if you hadn’t loved me.”
So much for Jerrilee sounding sincere.
“I...well, yes, I did,” Jake said, “but doesn’t mean—”
“You brought me flowers on my birthday!”
“Those flowers were from all of us at the station because we appreciated the job you were doing. Jerrilee, I’m sorry if I...if you thought—”
“It’s her fault! She turned you against me just like she turned Charley against me.” She glared at Amanda. “I hate you!”
“I’m not all that fond of you,” Amanda said.
“We better take her to the station.” Jake moved to take Jerrilee’s other arm. “We can charge her for breaking into your apartment, Amanda, but I’m not sure about the murder thing. Might be tough to get a jury to convict based on the identification of her...uh...implants by a ghost.”
“I didn’t murder anybody,” Jerrilee protested. “It was her. You found her hairs on the body. What more do you need?”
A sudden gust of wind swirled dead leaves across the parking lot, over to where they stood, sent them fluttering around their ankles.
“What are you doing?” Teresa demanded.
Was she talking to the dead leaves? Did leaves have spirits?
The spinning leaves gained momentum, whirled upward, coalescing into a small funnel that crashed into Jerrilee’s face.
She screamed and turned her head from side to side in a futile effort to avoid the storm.
The leaves dropped gently to the pavement at her feet.
The air was still.
“That’s really cool,” Charley said. “Can you teach me to do that, Lenny?”
The mini-tornado must have been Lenny’s work. And Charley wanted to learn to do it.
“You need to get Jerrilee out of here,” Teresa said. “Now. Lenny’s upset. He wants her to confess.”
“Did he do that?” Ross spun a finger in circles in imitation of the motion of the leaves.
Teresa nodded.
The leaves rose again, more slowly this time, a faint light appearing around the edges. As they spun faster and rose higher, the light increased and became incandescent.
“Go!” Teresa shouted. “Get her out of here!”
The leaves burst into flames and surrounded Jerrilee without touching the men beside her.
“Stop!” she shrieked. “Make it stop!”
Ross and Jake dragged her toward their car.
The whirlwind of flaming leaves followed.
“I’m sorry I killed you!” she shouted as they shoved her into the back seat. “It was nothing personal! I wanted Amanda to go to prison so she couldn’t take Jake the way she took Charley!”
The flames died. The ashes drifted to the ground.
Ross closed the car door behind Jerrilee.
He and Jake stood motionless beside the vehicle, their faces almost as pale as Charley’s.
“Bravo!” Charley clapped his hands in silent applause. “I want to learn how to do that with the wind and fire. That was great! I’ll teach you about electrical stuff, and you can show me how to do that. We’re going to have some good times together. Wait...Lenny, where you going? Hey, buddy, don’t leave! Come back!” He turned to Teresa. “Where did he go? What happened? Make him come back and show me how he did that.”
“Since Lenny’s murderer has confessed, he’s moved on, gone into the light,” Teresa said.
Charley stomped so hard his leg disappeared up to the knee into the surface of the parking lot. “That damned light again. Every time I find a friend, he goes into that damned light.”
After the display of pyrotechnics, Lenny was suddenly Charley’s friend?
Ross licked his lips nervously. “So he...Lenny...the dead man who did all that...” He waved both hands through the air. “The force that lit those leaves on fire, he’s gone?”
“Yes,” Teresa said. “Into the light.”
“The other one,” Jake said quietly, “is he gone too?”
Charley rushed up to stand nose to nose with Jake. “I’m still here.”
Teresa sighed. “The other one is still here.”
Jake rubbed his nose.
“Okay, well, we’ll take Jerrilee to the station,” Ross said. “When we finish the arrest and booking sheet, I’ll meet you at your place, Teresa.”
Teresa nodded her agreement.
“Yeah.” Jake sounded dazed, unsure. “Paperwork. Felony intake packet. I’ll meet you at your place, Amanda. I mean, here. If that’s okay.”
“It’s not okay!” Charley swung his fist through Jake’s head.
Jake blinked and grabbed his chin.
“Yes,” Amanda said. “Please come when you’re finished. I’ll wait up for you.”
Ross held an open hand toward Jake. “Keys. I think I better drive.”
Jake surrendered the keys without protest and got into the passenger side.
Amanda watched as the cops and their prisoner drove away. “I feel kind of sorry for her.”
“Are you crazy?” Charley asked.
<
br /> “After everything she’s done to you?” Teresa’s tone indicated she shared Charley’s opinion. “She killed a man, broke into your apartment, caused problems between you and Jake, and almost got you sent to prison. She’s sick. I hope they convict her for Lenny’s murder. She needs to be locked up for the rest of her life.”
“The rest of her life and her after-life,” Charley said.
“Yes, she does deserve to be sent to prison,” Amanda agreed. For Lenny’s murder and for the things she did to Dawson.” Taking advantage of him, using him and breaking his heart.
A few feet away, Dawson stood alone, shoulders slumped, staring toward the street.
Amanda and Teresa exchanged a look and started toward him.
Grant stepped in front of Amanda. “I got this.”
In all the excitement, she had forgotten the boy was there.
He had seen and heard things tonight no twelve-year old should see or hear.
“Grant!” Dawson exclaimed as his brother approached. “What are you doing here?”
“You asked me to stay with him for the evening,” Amanda said. “So I brought him along.”
Grant stood at his brother’s side. “I never liked that woman.”
Dawson’s taut features relaxed. He put a hand on Grant’s shoulder. “I know you didn’t. I should have listened to you.”
“Let’s go inside,” Teresa suggested. “It’s getting chilly out here.”
“I have wine, tea, and Coke,” Amanda said.
“We should go home,” Dawson said.
After the shocks he’d received that evening, Amanda was not letting him leave so fast. Certainly he should not ride a motorcycle in his current state. “I need my friends to come into my home and get rid of any bad vibes that woman left in there.”
The four of them climbed the stairs to her apartment. Charley floated up to join them. He had lost all traces of his former chagrin about his involvement with Jerrilee.
Amanda made hot tea for Dawson and Grant then poured wine for herself and Teresa.
Dawson and Grant sat together on the sofa while she and Teresa took the armchairs.
Amanda wrapped her hands around her wine glass and stared into the depths of the crimson liquid, searching for the right thing to say. Should she bring up Jerrilee and try to console Dawson or talk about something else entirely, divert him from that situation?
“Did you know Amanda’s got a ghost?” Grant asked his brother.
After the events of the evening, Amanda had no idea how Dawson was going to respond.
“I suspected,” he said, “but I wasn’t certain about the identity of the entity until this morning.”
Amanda almost dropped her glass. Dawson’s response was not close to anything she’d expected. “This morning? You knew about Charley this morning? How could you have known?”
“You said nobody believed you, not Teresa or Charley or Jake. I deduced from that statement that the being you often talk to must be the remnants of Charley’s existence.”
“Remnants?” Charley repeated. “I’m not a remnant! I’m a man!”
Amanda took a sip of wine and did not ask him to prove it. His response would likely be interesting but could also be...she chose not to go there. “How long have you suspected Charley...or something...was around?”
“Since you came back to work after Charley’s death. That’s when I began to notice intermittent displacements of the atmosphere as well as sudden temperature drops. And you talked to yourself a lot. You never did that before.”
Amanda leaned forward, cradling her glass in both hands. “Does working with him around bother you? Is this going to be a problem?”
“Of course not. I find it intriguing. I’d like to study him.”
“No!” Charley exclaimed. “What does he think I am? A bug under a microscope?”
“Can I see him?” Grant asked. “I’ve never seen a real live ghost before.”
“I like the kid,” Charley said. “He knows I’m real and alive.” He moved to stand directly in front of Grant. “Can you see me now?”
Grant gave no indication that he could see Charley.
“So far the only people who can see Charley are Teresa and me,” Amanda said.
“Teresa can see him because she’s a medium, right?” Dawson spoke as matter-of-factly as if he were asking a question about a computer.
Teresa nodded. “I see a lot of dead people.”
“You saw Lenny?”
“Yes.”
“But Amanda didn’t?”
“That’s right.”
He focused on Amanda. “Why can you see Charley but not Lenny?”
“She’s my wife!” Charley exclaimed.
“I am not your wife!” Amanda replied.
“Interesting,” Dawson said.
“Not really. It’s annoying that he can’t get it through his head that we are no longer married.”
Dawson nodded thoughtfully. “Your divorce wasn’t final when he died.”
Charley extended a hand toward Dawson. “Thank you. That’s exactly what I’ve been saying.”
“He’s dead! How much more final can it get?” Amanda protested.
“Death of either party does constitute a termination of the marital contract,” Dawson said.
“I’m not dead!” Charley protested. “I’m right here. Hello!”
“This is fascinating. I’d really like to learn more about this entity.”
“Entity?” Charley bellowed. “I have a name! My name is Charley! You met me! You know my name!”
“He prefers to be called Charley,” Amanda interpreted.
“Charley.” Dawson had lost all vestiges of his earlier hangdog expression. His eyes glowed with excitement. Finding a ghost to study had successfully diverted him from his experience with Jerrilee.
“Charley.” Grant extended his hand. “I’m Grant. I haven’t met you before.”
Charley looked at Grant.
“Shake Grant’s hand,” Amanda ordered.
Charley moved his hand up and down through Grant’s.
Grant shivered and grinned, his eyes sparkling. “I shook hands with a ghost. This is the best Halloween ever.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
When Dawson and Grant left, both said a proper goodnight to Charley.
He waved and called after them as they walked down the stairs.
Amanda closed the door through him.
“Well,” Teresa said, “looks like you’ve got a fan club.”
Charley glowed. “The kid’s smart. I can teach him some things.”
“Please don’t.” Amanda resumed her seat and poured more wine. “Teresa, would you like a refill?”
“Thanks, but I’m driving. Wouldn’t want to get stopped by one of the cops around here.” She laughed half-heartedly.
“Yeah,” Amanda agreed. “Cops around here can be downright annoying.”
“You going to be okay talking to Jake tonight?”
Amanda took a sip of wine. “I’ll be fine.” It was a lie. After the events of the last few days...especially the events of this day...her relationship with Jake was an unknown. She was not looking forward to discovering how things would play out between them.
“Want me to stay until he gets here?” Teresa knew she was lying. This best-friends thing had its downside.
“Of course not,” Amanda assured her. “Go home. Get ready for Ross. You all should have some interesting things to talk about tonight.”
“I’m staying with Amanda,” Charley said. “I’ll take care of her.”
“I’ll be okay in spite of him.”
“You want me to take him with me while you talk to Jake?” Teresa asked.
Amanda shook her head. “I can’t keep Charley hidden forever. Love me, love my dog. I don’t have a dog, so I guess my mantra is, love me, tolerate my ghost.”
Teresa picked up her purse, leaned over and gave Amanda a quick hug. “Call me if you need me.”
�
��Thanks.” Amanda walked her to the door.
Teresa went to her car and peeled out of the parking lot.
After all the upheaval and the crowd scene in the parking lot, suddenly everything was quiet and Amanda was alone. Except for Charley.
Always except for Charley.
“That was kind of rude,” Charley said, “her asking you if you wanted her to take me. Like I’m your kid or your dog.”
Amanda resumed her seat and her wine. “Maybe I’ll get a dog. No, it would probably bark at you night and day. I don’t need more bedlam in my life.”
Charley sat in the chair beside her. “You don’t need that damned detective. You and I will be fine without him. We were fine before I got killed.”
Amanda looked at him in disbelief. “You’re really good at rewriting history. We were not fine. You were a terrible husband.”
“I can’t believe you said that. Remember our honeymoon when we rented that little pop-up camper and went to Galveston? We grilled hot dogs and made s’mores. Slept right on the beach.”
“Yes, that weekend was fun. Do you remember when we returned that camper and I had to pay because your check bounced?”
Charley clasped his hands in his lap. “I know I made a few mistakes, but I always loved you.”
Amanda sighed. “I know you did, in your own way. But your way of loving made me very unhappy. I fell in love with the man you pretended to be. I’d never have married you if I’d known what you were really like. You deceived me. You lied, you cheated, you broke my heart, and I stopped loving you.”
Charley looked pitiful. He looked repentant. She’d seen that look hundreds of times during the two years they’d been married. She’d given in to that look too many times. It no longer had any power.
A knock came from the door. “It’s me, Amanda.”
Amanda got up to open it. “Hi, Jake.” She forced a smile. She’d just been through an uncomfortable relationship confrontation with Charley, and now she would have another one with Jake. Jake had doubted her, had not believed her story about another woman impersonating her, had not believed her story about Charley.
The Ex Who Hid a Deadly Past Page 16