by Carly Winter
Had I been in danger with Jack? The more time I put between me and the situation, the more confused I became. Had I been seeing clues that weren't there?
“My goodness,” Ruby said with a chuckle. “Listen to me... the voice of reason. That doesn't happen very often.”
Had my whole encounter with Jack and the fact I could see my house from the ledge been nothing but a big coincidence?
I nodded in agreement at Ruby's statement. She was right on that one. In fact, it turned out she was right about a lot of things. I returned to the wine aisle and grabbed another bottle.
In the dairy section, I found Stan from As the Pins Drop whispering heatedly with Sarah from the smoothie place.
“Let's get closer,” Ruby said. “I'm kind of digging this eavesdropping business you've got me doing.”
As I pushed my cart toward them, Ruby walked out in front me once again. She motioned to me as she reached the end of our tether. Stan reached out and clasped Sarah's shoulder, then leaned over and kissed her cheek. My goodness—they argued like snakes one moment, then a gentle, loving kiss? What was their relationship, and what were they disagreeing about? I inched closer, hoping to appear as inconspicuous as possible, but unfortunately, Sarah saw me before Ruby could get within hearing distance.
She elbowed Stan and the three of us stared each other down. With a smile, I waved at them, hoping to appear friendly despite my dragged-from-the-gutter look.
“What happened to you?” Sarah asked, studying me from head to toe and not bothering to try to hide her discontent.
“ATV ride,” I said.
“A rough one,” Sarah agreed with a snort.
“Yes,” I replied, running my hand over my hair once again. “Everything okay?”
“Sure,” Stan said, his voice harsh and letting me know things were definitely not okay. “You got a lot of nerve talking to either one of us, though.”
“Why is that?” I asked, my heart slowly sinking, my smile fading.
“You gave my name to the police,” Stan spat. “They came in and were all up in my business. Sheriff Walker said I had you to thank for that.”
Typical Arizonian—no one wanted anyone else in their business, and I felt the same. I probably wouldn't have thrown out anyone's name if I didn't have some creepy caller watching me, threatening my life and telling me how to keep breathing.
“They asked who Mr. Gonzalez came in contact with while in town. Do you want me to lie to the police, Stan?”
“I want to live my life,” Stan mumbled, some of his bluster gone.
“As do I, but a man died in my house, and unfortunately, you had a disagreement with him. I'm sorry I inconvenienced you by including your name.”
“You tell him, Bernie,” Ruby said, standing next to me. “And also let him know his dad was a bad kisser.”
I pinched my lips together and shook my head. “I'll see you both some other time.” After rounding the corner, I turned to Ruby. “Everyone hates me!”
“They'll get over it,” she said, waving her hand between us. “Time makes people forget.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I grew up in a pretty strict Catholic family. We had Sunday mass, went to confession once a week, and also attended catechism. When I was bad, my father whooped me with a switch he cut from the backyard willow tree. One day, I finally poured bleach on the darn thing so it died.”
I cringed at the thought of being abused like Ruby had been.
“It was a different time, and I wasn't having any of it—like I'd been born too early. I couldn't fit the mold of what they thought a child should be. My mother would fret, worried that Dad would get home and dinner wouldn't be ready. Her whole world centered around him. I was the child that was seen as long as my dress was pressed and my curls hung right around my cheeks and I kept my mouth shut. I was told I was pretty or that I danced well. I don't think they ever referred to me as smart.
“Anyway, as I grew up, I was determined to be heard. Everyone would listen to me, everyone would see me, and it didn't matter what my dress or hair looked like. By the time I was eighteen, I was on my own. The black sheep of the family, who my parents had all but disowned. My extended family were horribly embarrassed for them. I mean, I had a child out of wedlock! And I wasn't sure who the father was. Back then, that was a one-way ticket to hell, according to my parents and relatives. But they all started coming out of the woodwork once I began to make money from my psychic business. It seemed everyone grew to love me then. In time, they forgot about the horrid wild-child and instead, wanted something from me. It's a little different from your situation right now, but people forget.”
“That's really sad,” I murmured. “We need to talk about it more.”
“We really don't,” Ruby said with a laugh. “Just remember that most people don't carry grudges forever. Life rule number one-hundred-and-ninety-six. All this nonsense will blow over before you know it. If I can gain the respect of my family after being such a horrible disappointment to them, you'll regain the trust of all these idiots in this town.”
I wiped my brewing tears, grabbed a couple other items, and headed for the cashier. “Oh, pick up that rag,” Ruby said, pointing at the celebrity gossip magazine rack. “Let's read about the royals.”
After opening up to the article, I lost myself in it while Ruby read along with me.
“I didn't know they did that. Did you?” Ruby asked. “My goodness.”
“Right?” I whispered. “I don't think I'd want to be a royal.”
“Oh, I would,” Ruby said. “You can basically do anything you want and no one cares.”
“What are you talking about? They have so many rules! Their lives are very stringent.”
“Well, I guess you're right,” she replied. “I'd probably get kicked out. Be the black sheep of the royal family.” Her mouth turned in a frown. “I guess I was already a black sheep. We didn't wear crowns, though.”
We stared at each other for a moment, and just then the woman behind me cleared her throat. I glanced up to find it was my turn to empty my cart onto the conveyor belt.
I had just unloaded my wine and spinach when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye toward the front of the store.
Four policemen, one of them being Adam, had walked in. For a brief second, I marveled at how good looking he was, until he strode right to me. With a gasp, I pushed my cart between them and me. I hadn't touched Mr. Gonzalez, and I wouldn't go down without a fight.
One of the cops drew his gun and gripped it at his side. Another held his taser at the ready. Oh, wow. They weren't messing around. My bluster fizzled out of me faster than false news traveled on social media.
“Hold it right there,” one cop said.
“You're under arrest!” Adam yelled. “Get on the floor!”
Chapter 16
The cops hadn't been after me. Instead, they'd had their sights on the checker who was ringing up my groceries, a man in his early twenties I didn't know. That being said, I'd about fainted when they rushed toward the checkout stand and Adam had met my gaze for a brief moment. I'd thought they’d found something to implicate me in the murder, then wondered who had set me up.
I had never been so thankful to be so wrong.
Once they'd hauled away the checker, someone else had stepped in and bagged up my groceries. I paid with trembling hands as I listened to the whispers and gossip around me. After eavesdropping for just a few moments, it became apparent no one had any idea what the young employee had done.
With too much to haul home on my own, I stole the shopping cart and pushed it down the sidewalk, sending Ruby into fits of giggles.
“With the cart, you do look homeless,” she said, gasping. “Why don't you pop open a bottle of wine and complete the picture?”
“Homelessness isn't funny,” I muttered.
“Oh, honey, I've been there and done that. Nothing funny about it. Just knowing you and your panache for perfection... at the
moment, you don't look like you. It's like I've entered another facet of reality to find you in this state. That's the funny part.”
Ignoring her, I stopped at Sarah's Sensational Smoothies as my mood continued its downward spiral. It had definitely not been my day.
Thankfully, Sarah wasn't there. The last thing I needed was to suffer under her nasty glare once again. I retrieved my smoothie without any further altercations.
When Ruby and I finally arrived home, I immediately headed for the shower and made a mental note to return the shopping cart the next day. The red dirt that had been in my hair and covering my skin swirled down the drain, the coloring reminding me of blood, and I couldn't help but wonder if I'd almost lost my life that afternoon. Had Jack taken me up to that ledge to kill me, to warn me he had his eye on me, or had it all been a coincidence?
Despite the hot water, a chill ran down my spine.
And what the heck was up with Darla? We'd spent hours discussing Jack's wandering eye and lack of commitment in relationships. He was a nice guy and I did like him as a friend, but when had Darla crossed over that friendship zone and into a relationship?
“Hurry up, Bernie,” Ruby said from the other side of the curtain. “We've got to figure out this murder right now.”
“Could I please have some privacy?” I said, instinctively crossing my arms over my bare chest. Boundaries had never been Ruby's strong suit.
“Just hurry up. I have an idea.”
I shut off the water and stepped out of the tub to get dressed. My stomach growled with hunger, which only reminded me I needed to eat at some point. Thankfully, I had purchased a large smoothie from Sarah's and still had some left over.
After drying my hair, I ventured out into the living room looking for my ghost. I found her on the sofa with Elvira curled at her side, the feline purring loudly. Before my life had drastically changed and I couldn't see Ruby, I would have thought I simply had a very happy cat, that my presence alone caused her to rumble like an engine—not that she actually loved to curl up next to my dead grandmother.
“Took you long enough,” Ruby grumbled. “Sit, girl. We need to get this mess figured out.”
As she pointed to the couch across from her, I realized I'd never seen her so serious. I sat down and waited, slowly sipping my peanut butter and chocolate smoothie piled high with whipped cream.
“Your ride with Mr. Dimples made you think your life was in danger today, and that really bothers me,” she said. “We need to figure out who the killer is so that you can feel safe and able to get back to living instead of worrying.”
I didn't bother to mention I was a perpetual worrier with or without a murder hanging over my head.
“Therefore,” she continued, “and I never thought I would say this, but I think we need to go to the police.” I waited for her to burst out laughing, but she only stared me down.
“You're serious?”
“More serious than the heart attack that killed me,” Ruby claimed.
Setting my cup to the side, I nodded and wished my cat liked me more than my dead grandmother. Elvira hadn't even looked up when I came into the room, perfectly content with sitting next to Ruby. Traitorous feline. “What am I supposed to tell them? That I lied because my ghost told me to? That I also lied to them about the car out back? That I keep getting weird phone calls about the car, and I feel like everyone I know is part of it?”
“That's a start.”
“Ruby, they'll haul me off to the funny farm!”
“Or they'll appreciate you helping them out to find the killer.”
“How would I have done that?”
“Well, we now know from where these people are watching the house. We also know there are three main suspects who came in contact with Gonzalez before he died: Stan, Darla, and Sarah. And let’s throw Jack in there as well since he’s dating darling Darla and you felt threatened by him. One of them—or maybe two— has to be the killer. Unless you did it, of course.”
“That's what the cops think.”
“We don't know that for sure. They may just be covering their bases. Adam already told you he doesn't think you're guilty.”
I stared at her a moment, frankly surprised by how sensible she was being, and once again I wondered if I was hallucinating Ruby. Using her name and ‘sensible’ in the same sentence was like saying good decisions and alcohol belonged together.
But how could I possibly go to the police and tell them about my ghost without sounding nuttier than a five-pound fruitcake?
“You know more about this case than they do,” Ruby continued. “Heck, you could probably solve it yourself if you knew what was in that car!”
She was right. The car was the key to it all, and if I could discover what was in it, I might be able to tell the police who was responsible for the murders. But honestly, what would the evidence inside the car look like? A note that said, this package is for
And if I did approach the vehicle again, what if someone tried to kill me—as they said they would do—if I went near it?
I could do nothing and just let the whole process play out. But again, I was still a suspect, and I would prefer to take control and prove my innocence.
“You know, I've been tossing around an idea about this car,” I said.
“What's that?”
“Well, I agree with you that we need to find out what's inside.”
“Smart girl,” Ruby said, smiling and nodding. “Thinking like your old grandma. What are you going to do?”
I picked up my calorie and fat laden smoothie and took a long sip while I eyed Ruby and Elvira.
“You're going to help me.”
“How am I going to do that?” Ruby asked, her ghostly face contorted in confusion. “In case you forgot, I'm dead.”
“Well then, listen up, dead woman.”
Two hours ago, I'd shut out all the lights and drawn the drapes just as I would while going to bed. Ruby and I sat in the dark in my bedroom and listened to the quiet of the night until it was time to move. Elvira was even more upset with me than before because I hadn't slipped under the covers with her. So she’d claimed my pillow and eyed me with blatant hatred. I fully expected a furball on my comforter sometime in the early morning hours.
When the clock struck midnight, we tip-toed to the back door. My hands trembled with nervous energy and Ruby shook her head. “I don't think I like this,” she mumbled for the umpteenth time.
“It's going to be fine,” I whispered.
“If everything is okay, why are you whispering?”
“I... I don't know.”
Keeping my gaze on the car, I slowly opened the back door, slipped through, shut it and dropped to my stomach.
“You remind me of Rambo slithering across the lot like that,” Ruby said, walking next to me.
I kept quiet, wishing I had the confidence Rambo possessed. Instead, I was the first to admit I was completely out of my element.
My plan had been for me to commando-crawl close enough to the car so Ruby could slip inside and see what it contained. With our tether, I had to be about fifteen feet from the vehicle. She hummed softly at my side as we slowly made our way across the dirt.
“Is it cool out?” she asked me. “It seems like there would be a slight chill in the air at this time of year.”
Continuing my slow journey, I didn't answer and hoped she would quiet down. I needed to be able to hear everything around me. In the event someone approached and fulfilled their promise of killing me if I went near the car, I'd like to be aware they were coming and give myself a fighting chance of escaping—hopefully alive.
When I reached the back bumper of my SUV, I motioned for Ruby to enter the other vehicle that held all the secrets. She slipped through the back door, but I couldn't see anything with the tinted windows in the dark. I shut my eyes for a moment and listened to the surrounding area. A coyote howled in the distance, and the brush rustled as a brief breezed picked up. No f
ootsteps, though, and I sighed in relief.
I imagined someone on the perch we'd visited staring down at my property with night-vision glasses, diligently watching the car. If that were the case, he'd have seen me crawl across the parking lot, my heat signature lighting up like a dang Christmas tree. It had been a risk for me to put my plan into action, but I had to save myself because my tormentors hadn’t promised they wouldn't kill me once they retrieved whatever they were after in the car. Not that I'd believe them. In fact, I’d come to the conclusion that I would be dead whether they recovered the car or not.
A moment later, Ruby emerged.
“What did you find?” I whispered as she bent over me.
“Nothing.”
I gritted my teeth and shook my head. How could that be? They’d made such a big deal about the stupid car; how could it contain absolutely nothing? “It's not the time for games, Ruby!”
She stood upright and placed her hands on her hips. “I'm not playing any games. There's nothing in the dang car, Smarty Pants.”
“How can there be nothing in the car when I've had my life threatened multiple times over it?”
“I don't know. It's a head-scratcher, that's for sure.”
While staring up at my bumper, I tried to figure out the mystery. Why was someone trying to scare me to death if there wasn't anything in the car? Why had Mr. Gonzalez been murdered? “Go look again,” I whispered. “There has to be something you aren't seeing.”
“There very well could be, but unfortunately, I can't move inanimate objects. I can't open the glove compartment or the catch-all between the seats.”
Right. That little detail had escaped me.
“I looked inside the best I could, but I didn’t see anything that screamed trouble.”
“Is the car clean?” I asked.
“Very much so, except for the fast food bag on the back seat.”
“Fast food?”
“Yes. It's crumpled up like he'd finished with it and tossed it on the floor behind his seat.” Ruby glanced up at the sky and grinned. “Gosh, it's so pretty out here. The stars are so bright and the moon is starting to peek over the—”