Ghosts Beneath Us: A Third Spookie Town Murder Mystery (Spookie Town Murder Mysteries Book 3) (27 page)

Frank cut her off, ignoring her tirade. “And sheriff, you can send your protection squad out to my cabin. I won’t always be there but Myrtle will. They positively have a bullseye on her now and I don’t think they’re going to back off. That’s not their MO. In fact, they could escalate things. We need to find them and deal with this or there will be more murders.”

“This was an attempted murder,” the sheriff inserted.

Now it was Frank’s turn to glare at him. “This time. But I still think the others were murdered.”

“That’s your opinion. Now Frank, we’ve had this discussion many times before. Leave the police work to me and my officers. You are
retired
, remember?”

“They’ve hurt and killed friends of mine, Mearl. I can’t just sit back and allow them to keep doing that.” Frank could have told the sheriff what he already knew, the knowledge of and the dealings he’d already had with the two suits from Lansing Corporation and what he was planning, but he didn’t. The sheriff would interfere in some asinine way, as he always did, and Frank couldn’t allow that. He wanted those two reprobates responsible for his friends’ deaths to pay for what they did and he wanted to get to the bottom of what the Lansing Corporation was up to. He would settle for nothing less. He owed it to Beatrice, Tina, Clementine and Alfred. The sheriff wouldn’t be much help so he was leaving him out of the equation until he had the two killers in his grasp. Then he’d hand them over to the officer with a bow on them.

“Stay out of it, Frank, I’m warning you. If you don’t,” the sheriff stood to his full height of five foot nine and puffed out his chubby chest, “I’ll have to lock you in one of my jail cells in protective custody until this is all over. You hear?”

Frank’s smile was contrite. “Whatever you say, Mearl.”

The sheriff tossed him a scalding look. “Good. I knew you’d see it my way.”

When the sheriff wasn’t looking Myrtle stuck her tongue out at him but when he looked at her again she flashed him a sickly sweet smile.

Frank could have laughed, but didn’t.

“Now Myrtle,” the sheriff returned to business, “tell me in detail what happened here tonight and don’t leave anything out.”

“Sure sheriff.”

For fifteen minutes Myrtle talked and the officer listened; he took notes. Frank was impressed at that. Mearl wasn’t usually that conscientious. It must have been the wounded officer that was finally making the man take the situation seriously. The elderly people threatened and dying hadn’t been enough and that alone made Frank dislike the man all over again.

The sheriff drove off and Frank, just short of hog-tying her, took Myrtle home with him. The old woman wasn’t happy, but he didn’t care. She wasn’t safe at her place and he wouldn’t put it past those Lansing stooges to make a repeat appearance that same night.

Because now they seriously wanted Myrtle dead.

Chapter 13

Kate

The day was almost over as Kate closed up The Delicious Circle. She’d seen Laura off for home and told her she’d see her tomorrow. The girl was working out beautifully and Kate was so grateful she had her. The shop was always super busy and she’d never be able to handle it alone.

Kate was smiling and humming to herself as she walked down the sidewalk, feeling the happiest she’d been in a long time. Her first week and it had gone better than she could have dreamed. Most days her donuts sold out. The townspeople had been generous in their praise and their patronage. It looked as if her shop would be a success. That was a relief as her bank account and her confidence had both needed to be replenished. Taking in the sleepy town bathed in late afternoon shadows, she sighed in contentment. Spookie was beginning to feel like home again. She’d been away a long time before her mother’s illness had called her home. Now her mother was dead but she was here. She still had to go on living.

Odd how her reason for returning home lasted just long enough for her to start her business and realize Spookie was where she wanted to get old. She’d spent her childhood here and now someday she’d die here. She hadn’t known how much she’d missed the town and its quirky people until she’d come back.

Scrutinizing the shops lining Main Street, some closing for the night and the people thinning out but still laughing and chitchatting among themselves, she was at peace. Now if only those pesky people wanting her to sell her mother’s house would stop calling and nagging her she could begin to recover her full happiness. They were relentless. The woman had had the nerve to visit her at the shop yesterday and further pressure her.

“We’ll give you top price,
the woman had persisted.
How about two-hundred and fifty thousand? No, well, we could throw in a little more. You know it’s not worth that but we are prepared to give you that much for it. The company we work for is exceedingly generous and very anxious to purchase your property.”
She didn’t buy any donuts, only a cup of black coffee she left half of on a table before she stomped out, pissed Kate wouldn’t accept her latest offer.

It wasn’t the constant calling and visits that irritated Kate the most, though, it was the subtle threats hidden behind the words and the continual mentioning of how dangerous her mother’s neighborhood had become. “
You know the rumor is the area is haunted? Weird things are happening and the residents are mysteriously coming to harm. If I were you I’d unload that money pit of a house and stash the cash in the bank. You have a nice place to live right up there above your shop. Why not live there? It’d be more convenient than running back and forth to that dilapidated house out in the woods. What do you say? Have we got a deal?”
And on and on.

Kate had steadfastly rejected every proposal and tried to be polite, but she was getting tired of being nice. She wanted the woman and her associate to leave her alone. She
wasn’t
selling. Her mother had loved her home and Kate knew she’d want her to live in it, care for it and love it as she had done. Those Lansing Corporation puppets could offer her half a million and she still wouldn’t sell.

Then there was the fact that Frank and Abigail had warned her of the corporation and its agents. They didn’t trust them and believed that in some way they might be involved with the crimes occurring around her mother’s neighborhood. So she had to be careful.

Tonight for the first time in a week she was driving to the house to gather the clothes and things she needed. Frank had also warned her to stay away from it but she needed those things. She’d decided what harm could it do if she drove out there before dark, got what she wanted and quickly left? In and out. What harm? It wasn’t as if she were staying the night or living out there. She trusted Frank and Abigail enough to heed their advice and hold off on that until it was safe again. How long would that be? She had no idea.

Should she let Frank know where she was going? When she was in her car, she keyed in Frank’s number. She got the message prompt and said she was heading out to the house to snatch up some things but she wasn’t going to linger or stay. “I just wanted to let you know I was going out there. Call me back when you get this.”

Hesitating, she thought:
I should wait until he calls back at least. I shouldn’t go out to the house alone. Wait. Am I a child or something? I can take care of myself. No one’s going to bother me. I’ll only be there a handful of minutes. I’m going.

When she got done at her mother’s place she’d drop by Abigail’s for a visit before she called it a night and returned to the shop. It would be nice to sit in Abigail’s cheerful kitchen, drink coffee and chat for an hour or two. Kate liked being there with the hustle and bustle and the kids. Their cat, Snowball, for some reason she could never understand, seemed to like her. The minute she entered the house the cat would be either rubbing all over her or would be in her lap. Because of the creature, Kate had begun to think about getting a kitten herself.

She’d also get an update on the Lansing Corporation case and if Frank and Abigail had discovered anything else of importance. As Abigail, Kate wanted the mysteries and murders solved. She wanted justice for her mother and the others.

It was a gorgeous warm evening. The woods along the way were full of birdsong and soft sunlight. Kate loved the scenic route to her mother’s house and always had; loved being out in the country, driving past the trees and fields that smelled of wildflowers and spring planting.

There was something wrong. She knew it as soon as she stood on the porch and unlocked the front door. She felt a presence…a strong presence around her as she entered the house. As if someone were entering the house right beside her. It was eerie and unsettling. Then she received another shock.

The living room was bare of everything…furniture, television, wall decorations, rugs, accessories and her mother’s collection figurines. The mess was gone. Everything was
gone
. It was cleaned out as if the owner had not only died but had moved out all their earthly belongings in one sweep. Only dust balls and shadows had been left behind.

The other rooms were the same. The kitchen was empty, even the refrigerator and stove were gone. She roamed through the rest of the rooms. In her mother’s bedroom, where were her mother’s things? Her bed, dressers, her personal items, jewelry and clothes were gone.

Where were the things Kate had brought from the city and her personal items? All were gone as well.

“What the–”

Her first thought was those two knuckleheads from the Lansing Corporation had done this. They’d brought out a moving van and cleared out her house without her permission or had hired someone to do it. How dare they! But then the doubts crept in. Who in their right mind would completely clean out another person’s house without their knowledge, consent or a bill of sale? There were laws against that, weren’t there?

Unless they were thugs plain and simple and didn’t care what laws they broke and this was just a strong-armed tactic to get her to sell? Perhaps they weren’t representing a corporation at all? They were burglars…just cleverer than normal burglars–or serial killing psychopaths? Everything Frank and Abigail had been telling her about the disturbing incidents that had been occurring came back to her. And suddenly, standing in her plundered and empty house, she was finally seeing her mother’s death in a different light. Were Frank’s doubts about her mother’s passing not being an accident closer to the truth than she’d believed?

It was at that exact moment her cell phone in her pocket rang.

“Kate? This is Frank. I got your message. What’s up?”

“I’m at my mother’s house and you won’t believe what’s happened here. Someone cleared it all out. I swear. All my mother’s belongings, furniture, every last little thing, are gone! My stuff, too. The house is totally empty!”

“What are you doing at your mother’s house? Are you alone?”

“Yes, but–”

“Kate, you shouldn’t be there by yourself. After what’s happened, it’s too dangerous. If someone emptied the house, they’re probably watching you right now and at this point I wouldn’t put anything past them. What’s another dead body? Another opportune accident?  I want you to leave now, you hear? Get out of there.”

“Okay, I’m leaving. I only came by for the rest of my things and they’re gone, too. I’m going.”

“Good. I’m on the road and heading your way. But go now.” Frank hung up.

Something rippled through the air around her and, poised in the guest bedroom’s doorway, a chill raced along her skin, an electrical charge that raised tuffs of hair along her arms and lifted the hair away from her skull. Someone or something was standing beside her, she could feel them, but when she looked, there was no one there. Again.

There was a whisper in her ear.
Leave.

“Mother, is that you? Are you here? What are you trying to tell me?” Kate sent out her own whispers, tears rimming her eyes. How she missed her mom.

Then she heard the ruckus behind the house. Someone was shrieking and screaming out in the woods. The cries, so primal and terrified, sliced through her body like a scalpel. It sounded as if someone was being tortured or murdered. She couldn’t tell if it were a man or a woman or something else. Her senses were alert and straining, her heart was a drum in her ears, but she couldn’t comprehend the sounds she was hearing. Were they from the living or the dead?

She ran into the kitchen and looked out of the window above the sink. The evening shadows had gloomed up the woods and she couldn’t see anything past the perimeter of the yard. Nothing moved, yet the horrendous outcries continued. Suddenly they were closer, on the side of the house and all around.

Behind her someone hissed in her ear:
LEAVE NOW! You are not safe here.

An urgency in the ghostly voice triggered her survival instinct and she sprinted for the front door and ran out towards her car. Her vehicle’s wheels spun off the gravel as she left the driveway and they hit the road.

She was about a mile away from the house when she met Frank’s truck speeding from the other direction. He swerved off the road and drove up beside her; waved her to the shoulder.

“Are you all right?” was the first thing he asked when he came up to the open window.

“In what sense?” Her laugh was caustic. “I’ve just had the strangest experience. Not the strangest of my life, but close.”

Frank seemed openly relieved. “You can tell me and Abby all about it. We’ve been invited there for supper if you’ll come?”

“Of course I will. Supper sounds like just what I need. Live people sitting down around a real table eating food. I was going to stop by Abigail’s anyway. I’ll meet you there.”

His truck stayed close behind her car. If she hadn’t of known better she would have thought he was worried about her safety. She guessed a cop never changed whether he was retired or not.

*****

“Someone cleared everything out of your mother’s house? Everything?” Abigail’s eyes showed her surprise.

They were in the kitchen ladling out bowls of the chili Abigail had made. Kate had already told the story to Frank out in the front room the minute they’d gotten to Abigail’s place, before he ran out again to get Myrtle. She was staying with him at the cabin and no way was she going to miss out on dinner at Abigail’s. Frank would be back with her soon.