Ghostly Fright

by K E O'Connor

“This will be an all-out, no holds-barred spooky menu.” Helen placed a tray of black meringues with red spider webs iced over them in front of me.

  We were in the kitchen in the main house. I’d had to dodge three ghosts and walked through countless cold spots, all on the promise of an amazing dinner.

  I looked at the meringues and frowned. I did not feel inspired to eat black food. “What are these made of?”

  “They’re normal meringues with food coloring. They’re edible and very tasty.”

  “You’re sure the guests will eat them?” I prodded one with a finger.

  “Yes! Don’t be rude about my food. This is what they want on the menu. All the food has to be Halloween themed. Everything will be spooky Halloween colors. Lots of green, black, red, and orange.”

  “Just don’t do anything that looks like eyeballs,” I said. “I can’t handle anything that gross.”

  “Yuck! No eyeballs. I am making a triple layer Black Magic cake, though.”

  “Now, that sounds amazing. Make sure you save me a huge piece.”

  “I’ll save you two pieces if you try one of my spooky meringues.”

  I twisted my mouth as I looked at the black meringues. If I closed my eyes, maybe they’d taste better than they looked. I picked one up and tentatively placed a piece in my mouth. The intense sugar sweetness burst on my tongue. I got a hint of strawberry as I bit through the crust of the spider web. “Oh, wow! This is amazing.”

  “I told you. Looks can be deceiving. These are just to start. I’m also making orange spider cupcakes, freaky hot dog fingers, banana ghosts, meringue mummies—”

  “This isn’t a kid’s party.”

  “And this isn’t all kid’s food. But Halloween is about finding your inner child and having fun. I will have a few dull sandwiches and nibbles for those who don’t want to enjoy themselves. Anyone who turns their nose up at my spider cupcakes is not the sort of person who deserves to eat my food, anyway.”

  I licked meringue crumbs off my fingers and tried my best to ignore Flipper as he begged for his own sweet treat. I passed him a dog biscuit, which he sniffed before reluctantly eating. I sympathized with him. It was no match for Helen’s cooking.

  Flipper dropped half his biscuit and jumped to his feet as he stared into the corner of the room. He ran around the table twice before sitting by my side.

  Just as the temperature in the room dipped to an uncomfortably chilled level, Felicity appeared.

  “Do we have a spooky arrival?” Helen asked.

  “We do.”

  “Excellent! Get Felicity’s opinion on my Halloween treats.”

  Felicity’s expression was puzzled as she looked at the black meringues. She shrugged her shoulders and mimed zipping her mouth shut.

  “She loves them,” I said. “She’s giving them a big thumbs-up.”

  Helen grinned. “I’m glad she likes them. I need to get to work on the green sausage rolls. I’ll get you to do a taste test on those next.”

  I grimaced discreetly at Felicity. “I can’t wait.” I gestured her over. “I’ve been making progress on your murder. Although there are several suspects, we think your uncle Julius is involved.”

  Felicity scrubbed at her nose for a few seconds with the back of her hand before nodding.

  “Is it possible he got his hands on some of your poisonous plants and used them on you?”

  Felicity shrugged and nodded. She looked around the room before tipping over Helen’s icing sugar and spreading it on the table.

  “Hey! I need that.” Helen grabbed the huge bag of icing and held onto it. “No more stealing my catering supplies unless you get my permission.”

  “Put it in the pantry if you don’t want her using it,” I said.

  Helen glanced at the pantry. “Good idea. I’ll do it later.”

  I recognized that familiar guilty look on Helen’s face. “What’s in the pantry you don’t want me to see?”

  She backed toward the pantry door, the icing sugar clutched to her chest. “Supplies.”

  A small yip came from the other side of the door.

  Flipper ran over and sniffed the door before pawing at it.

  “You’ve got Miltonia in there!” I jumped up. “We’ve been looking for her all day. Why are you hiding her in here?”

  Helen sighed. “Oh, it’s nothing. She turned up at the kitchen door this morning looking like the saddest, misshapen little thing I’d ever laid eyes on. I took pity on her and fed her. Then she wouldn’t leave. I tried putting her outside, but she stood there shivering and whining. In the end, I found a box, put an old blanket in it, and tucked Miltonia in the pantry. It’s not hygienic to have dogs in here, and I didn’t want Zara figuring out what was going on.”

  “We’ll have to tell her where she is,” I said.

  “I’ll take her back tonight. She seems to like it in the pantry, even though it’s cool in there. She’s been asleep all day.”

  I opened the door and peeked inside. Miltonia took one look at me and dashed to her box, her skinny tail between her legs.

  I backed away, taking Flipper with me. “Let’s give her some space.”

  Helen placed the icing sugar on a pantry shelf. As soon as she appeared, Miltonia emerged from the box and wagged her tail.

  Helen gave her a pat on the head. “Good girl. Back in your box. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  Miltonia danced around Helen’s feet before jumping into her box.

  “You’ve got a dog.” I grinned at Helen as she shut the pantry door.

  “No! She’s not mine. She only likes me because I fed her.” Helen rinsed her hands under the hot tap.

  “She adores you. She’s yours.”

  “Nope, I do not need a dog. Besides, being an auntie to Flipper is more than enough for me.” She winked at Flipper.

  Helen might not know it yet, but she’d just become the new owner of Miltonia.

  I jumped as the table thumped up and down. Felicity scowled at me and jabbed at the icing sugar.

  “Oh! Sorry, we got distracted.” I settled in my seat.

  Felicity shook her head before scribbling something in the icing sugar.

  I stood to see what she was doing. She’d written the short phrase: Julius knows nothing.

  “He knows nothing about flowers,” I said. “Maybe he watched you when you didn’t realize it and picked up some tips. Several people have said you get engrossed in your work. If you were distracted, it wouldn’t have been hard for him to sneak in and see what you were working on. Or if you kept notes on your plants, he could have read them and used the information against you.”

  Felicity shrugged. She didn’t seem convinced by the argument.

  “If you’re not certain about Julius, tell me about your relationship with Luke.”

  Felicity stared at me with wide eyes before shaking her head.

  “You don’t have to keep it a secret,” I said. “You were seen getting cozy with Luke not long before you died. Did you fall out with him?”

  “Hold up. Is that true?” Helen asked.

  I nodded. “Zara told me earlier. She saw them together.”

  “But he’s so rude!”

  Felicity swept her hand through the icing sugar, sending it cascading to the floor, and scowled at me.

  “I take it Felicity’s not happy with this line of questioning.” Helen guarded her pastry sheets as she watched more icing sugar scatter everywhere.

  “Take it easy,” I said to Felicity. “If you were involved with Luke and things went wrong, that gives him a good motive for wanting you dead.”

  Instead of taking it easy, Felicity sent a mini tornado of icing sugar swirling around the kitchen. Flipper raced after it, snapping at the icing sugar and covering himself in a downy white mist of sweetness.

  “Me thinks the ghost protests too much about not being into Luke,” Helen whispered to me. “Tell her to calm down. If she destroys this kitchen, I won’t be able to prepare any party food.”
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  “Be straight with us,” I said to Felicity. “Were you and Luke seeing each other?”

  She shot toward me until she was only an inch from my face. Felicity shook her head as a cloud of icing sugar drifted around us.

  I leaned back in my seat. “You were only good friends?”

  She shrugged and pointed to the bag of self-rising flour on the side.

  “Are you going to use all that flour?” I asked Helen.

  “If I do, I’ve got several more bags in the pantry. Why?”

  “Felicity needs it.”

  Helen sighed as she hefted the flour bag to the table. She carefully scattered some for Felicity to use.

  Felicity nodded as Helen stood back from the table and looked at me.

  “So, you had a friendship with Luke. It wasn’t developing into anything else?”

  Felicity scrawled the letter B in the flour.

  “I know about your relationship with Barnaby. But you argued with him before you died. Was it about Luke?”

  She shook her head.

  “Are you saying there was no relationship with Luke?”

  The temperature dropped even lower. Felicity grabbed the bag of flour and hurled it toward me.

  I yelped and ducked just as Flipper jumped and grabbed the bag between his teeth. It ripped in two and a torrent of flour flew around me.

  “No! Stop doing that. It’s such a waste of flour,” Helen said.

  “Don’t mind me. I’m just choking to death on self-rising flour.” I spluttered and wiped flour out of my eyes. By the time I could see again properly, Felicity had gone.

  Helen handed me a damp cloth and began to sweep up the flour. “You hit a nerve. Felicity did not like those questions about Luke or Barnaby.”

  I coughed out flour and nodded. “She might just be a private person, but she might also be hiding something.”

  “A guilty conscience if she was seeing Luke behind her boyfriend’s back,” Helen said.

  “Since Felicity wasn’t helpful at telling us who she was dating, we need a way to get Luke to open up and tell us his side of the story.”

  “A gun to the head would do it.”

  I laughed. “I was thinking some of your cake would sweeten his mood. If Luke is involved, he might be open to talking if he’s got one of your delicious brownies in his hand.”

  “I prefer the gun method.” Helen wiped flour from her hands. “But it’s worth a go. I made a batch this morning. Do you think cake will be enough to make him smile?”

  “Get your best brownies, and let’s go find out.” I shook the worst of the flour out of my hair, and after a quick check in the mirror to make sure I didn’t look too ghost-like, we headed out of the kitchen to the barns.

  We followed the sound of banging until we discovered Luke hanging a mass of fake spider webs across the ceiling.

  I waited until he’d stopped hammering before speaking. “Luke, have you got a minute?”

  “No.” He hammered again with renewed enthusiasm.

  Helen scowled at me and rolled her eyes as we both ate a brownie and waited for him to finish.

  I nudged Flipper toward Luke. The first time they’d met, Flipper had charmed him. Perhaps it would work this time. “Go make a new friend.”

  Flipper ran to the ladder Luke was balanced on and sat at the bottom. He began to bark and didn’t stop until Luke looked down.

  “What’s gotten into him?” Luke looked over at me.

  “He doesn’t like the noise,” I said. “Maybe you can come down and reassure him everything is okay.”

  Luke stowed his hammer on his utility belt and slid down the ladder before spending a minute stroking Flipper’s head and talking to him quietly.

  I walked over with Helen and waited for Luke to acknowledge us. I was wondering if I could find a Halloween dog costume to don to get his attention when he glanced up.

  “Make it quick. I have to get this wretched stuff hung by the end of the day.”

  “I thought you might like a brownie.” Helen opened her pretty floral tin and presented her delicious triple chocolate brownies to Luke.

  Luke glanced in the tin and shook his head. “No, thanks. I don’t have a sweet tooth.”

  I grimaced, my plan was foiled. If we couldn’t win Luke over with Helen’s brownies, I wasn’t sure what the next move should be.

  “They’re delicious,” Helen persisted. “You won’t have tasted anything like it.”

  “They look dry.” Luke eyed the brownies with distaste.

  Helen squeaked in annoyance. “I have never made a dry brownie in my life.”

  He shrugged. “Sugar isn’t good for you. I prefer savory foods.”

  “We should have brought your green sausage rolls,” I muttered to Helen.

  Luke fussed Flipper. “Was that all you wanted, to offer me a cake?”

  “These are brownies.” Helen snapped the lid back on the tin.

  “Whatever, sweet stuff has never done it for me. And it rots your teeth.”

  Helen stroked a hand down her blonde curls and frowned at him. “Only if you eat too much. I’m always careful with how much sugar I eat.”

  Luke eyed Helen’s curves but didn’t say anything.

  I cleared my throat as the tension increased. “I’ve heard from those close to Felicity that you had a friendship with her. You must miss her now she’s gone.”

  He shuffled back a step. “We weren’t friends.”

  “But you liked her?”

  “I’ve had worse bosses.”

  “I thought you might have bonded over your interest in flowers,” I said. “I was led to believe you enjoyed talking about them with Felicity.”

  “I don’t know who you’ve been gossiping with, but you need to check your facts.”

  This was not going so well. “So, you didn’t like Felicity?”

  Luke shrugged. “She was the boss. It pays to be nice to the boss. If she wanted to talk about flowers, we talked about flowers. Most of the time, Felicity let me get on with my work, and I didn’t bother her. It was a win-win all round.”

  “It was nothing more than that?”

  Luke scowled at me. “What are you suggesting?”

  “That you were fond of Felicity. You might have been more than friends. I think she valued your company.”

  “You know nothing about Felicity. She’s been dead six months. You’ve never even met her.”

  “I feel like I know her,” I said. “Felicity was a big part of this place, and I’ve heard a lot about her. This Halloween party is a way of celebrating her final success.”

  Luke played with a screwdriver on his utility belt. “If you say so.”

  “Will you be at the party?” Helen asked.

  “Not a chance. I’m working overtime this week to get these barns set up. As soon as it’s done, I’m out of here. I can’t think of anything worse than spending an evening with a bunch of rich idiots who want to blow their money on these weird flowers.”

  “Have you seen the flowers?” I asked.

  “Sure, everyone has.”

  “What do you think of them?”

  Luke’s eyes narrowed. “I need to get back to work.”

  We were losing him. “Wait! If you really were friends with Felicity—”

  “Which I didn’t say I was.”

  “Fine, so you thought she was a decent enough boss. You’d still want to make sure nothing bad happened to her.”

  Luke turned toward me. “Bad like what?”

  I sucked in a breath. “Bad like her death wasn’t an accident.”

  Luke’s eyebrows shot up. “What makes you think that?”

  “Call it a hunch,” I said. “Felicity must have dealt with thousands of flying insects in her time as a botanist. It’s odd she was killed by them. Almost implausible.”

  Luke ran a hand through his hair. “It was an odd way to die. She was always cool around flying insects. She would get annoyed at people who’d flap around screaming when
something so small came near them.”

  “Which makes it peculiar for her to die from bee venom.” I tilted my head to the side. “Where did you get your knowledge of horticulture from?”

  “From my dad and Felicity once I started working here. She wasn’t great at selling plants, but she knew how to talk about them. Get her on her favorite topic and she wouldn’t shut up. She was terrible with people if they wanted to discuss anything else.”

  “Like somebody else we know,” Helen muttered under her breath.

  I suppressed a smile. “Did you ever sell her flowers for her?”

  “I used to help out now and again. It was her idea. Felicity liked to test her new plants on the public to see what kind of interest there was before they went on general sale. I’d take samples to buyers and see what they thought of them. I went all over the country with her supplies.”

  “So, you were friends. You were helping her.”

  “Not her, the business. If this place goes under, I’ll be out of a job.”

  “You didn’t do it because you liked Felicity?”

  Luke looked around the barn and sighed. “You can think that if you like. It was a professional relationship. I didn’t mind Felicity. She was quirky and obsessed with plants. It’s better than some women you see parading around. All they’re interested in are their high heels and taking selfies. Felicity had a passion for what she did. I admired that. It doesn’t mean I was sweet on her, and we weren’t in a relationship.”

  “Assuming the worst, and someone did harm Felicity, who do you think would want her out of the way?”

  Luke crossed his arms over his chest. “Before I answer that, you need to come clean with me. Are you the cops?”

  Helen laughed. “Do we look like officers of the law?”

  His gaze ran over her. “You could be undercover. You’re playing the dumb blonde with cake and fluffy hair, and you,” he pointed at me, “are the nosy spinster who has a conspiracy theory about everything.”

  “Lorna’s not a spinster!” Helen looked aghast. “And I’m not dumb.”

  Luke shook his head. “As I said, you’re undercover. You’re acting like you’re dumb and unmarriageable.”

  I frowned at him, not happy to be pointed out as the one who would die alone as an unloved old maid. “Moving past your less than astute observations, we aren’t working undercover. We’re concerned about what happened to someone who sounded like a good person. I’m still interested in your theories. Did anyone have it in for Felicity?”