Nothing to Ghost About (16 page)

When I knocked, her eyes widened in
surprise. She held up a long, elegant finger motioning me to wait.
I walked into the room and sat down in the chair opposite her desk.
“I’m just waiting for someone to answer,” she said, her hand over
the mouthpiece. I could hardly see her behind her computer, but I
could certainly smell the peach perfume she was wearing.

After a moment, she spoke into the
phone. “Anna Stiles here. I just need to know what Milton Fairchild
went away for. Find out why he was arrested.” She hung up and kept
typing.

“
Oh, you had to leave a
message,” I said with fake sympathy.

Anna stopped typing and looked up at
me. “No, what do you mean? He was there. I told him what I wanted
to know. What are you doing here?”

“
I wanted to speak with
you,” I said.

“
If you’re going to keep
stating the obvious, you’ll have to leave,” she snapped at
me.

“
I’m trying to find out who
killed Preston Kerr.”

For once, emotion showed on her
usually impassive face. “You are? Why?”

I adjusted my position in the
uncomfortable chair. “Business has been down ever since he was
murdered, and the cops haven’t arrested anyone yet.”

Anna leaned back in her chair and
crossed her long legs. “What do you want from me?”

My stomach growled loudly. I ignored
it and pushed on. “I just thought you would have some information
on Alec Mason and whether his death was connected in some way with
Preston Kerr’s. I thought if anyone had information, it would be
you.”

Anna looked pleased. “You’re right. I
was writing a piece on the jewelry crime ring before Alec Mason was
murdered—even before he was released from prison. I knew he hadn’t
gone straight, like he claimed. You wouldn’t know this, Laurel,”
she continued in a condescending tone, “but you have to get your
fact rights when you write an exposé, or your paper could get sued,
if your editor will even publish it in the first place.”

I was waiting for her to
stop so I could say something, but she didn’t give me the
opportunity. She pressed on. “I’ll let you on in a little secret,
Laurel. I’m not going to stay in this town. I want to sell my story
to
Sixty Minutes
,
or one of the big Sydney papers. Here I am writing about the brick
throwing contest at Stroud, or the Wool Festival in Armidale, even
the Land of the Beardies Festival at Glen Innes.” She made a
horrible snorting sound. “Let me tell you, when I break this story,
I will leave that all behind. I’m going to move back to Sydney.
I’ve already been looking at new places online. This thing is going
to take off. I wonder who will play me in the movie
version?”

“
I can only imagine,” I
said. “How about Hugh Jackman?”

Anna narrowed her eyes. “The mayor is
my suspect in the murder of Alec Mason. You can see why I have to
get all the facts before I make those allegations.” She looked at
me expectantly.

“
I don’t know anything
about Alec Mason. The one I’m interested in is Preston Kerr,” I
said, “and I have three suspects.”

Anna grinned, a thin-lipped, mean
smile. “Let me guess. The mayor, his wife, and Donna
Kerr?”

I nodded. “I suspect Donna Kerr.” I
didn’t really suspect Donna more than anyone else, but I wanted to
see how Anna would react. “It’s hard to believe she would have her
husband killed, though.”

Anna shook her head. “To me, Preston
Kerr is just some man. A strange footnote in my story, if he makes
the cut at all.”

It angered me to hear Anna speaking so
glibly about a man who had been murdered, but I wasn’t about to
comment. “What makes you so sure it’s the mayor?”

Anna looked at me for a long while.
“Intuition,” she said. “You can’t make it as a reporter without it.
I know who killed the man, and I need to have that information for
my story. It was him. I just know it.”

I nodded and stood up. “Well, best of
luck with the story.”

Anna folded her arms. “What did you
really come here for?”

“
I thought you would be the
easiest one to scratch off my suspect list,” I said.

“
Of course you’d suspect
me,” she said nastily.

I shook my head. “I didn’t really. I
just needed to eliminate people.”

“
So you don’t think I did
it?” Anna asked.

“
No,” I said
truthfully.

“
Then I won’t have to kill
you after all,” Anna said with a straight face.

I forced a smile. Anna was irritating
and smug, but she was clever, and she’d said she suspected the
mayor.

Anna stood up. The whole time, she had
been partially obscured by her huge, no doubt expensive, desktop
computer. She moved around it toward me, and my eyes fell on her
bracelet. I gasped and blinked when the florescent light caught the
facets. Asscher cuts. The luster of the claws indicated that the
bracelet was platinum. Even with my naked eye, I could tell the
large diamonds were F color or better. And they don’t cut stones
that well if they aren’t of superior clarity. I was looking at a
thirty-karat tennis bracelet. I figured the retail value was in the
vicinity of a quarter of a million dollars, depending upon the
jeweler’s markup.

Unfortunately, Anna had noted my
interest. “You like my bracelet?’

I took a deep breath, and tried to act
blasé. “It’s very pretty. Are those real diamonds?” I said
innocently.

“
Yes,” Anna said through
narrowed eyes. “A gift from an old boyfriend.”

I nodded, and beat a hasty retreat. I
was certain that the bracelet Anna was wearing was the mayor’s
highly expensive stolen one. Yet why would she wear it out in
public? I suppose she thought she was safe to do so, and upon
reflection, I figured she was right. I knew there were no jewelry
valuers in her town, or in mine for that matter, and laypersons
wouldn’t have a clue of the value of the bracelet. And to the
majority of people, one tennis bracelet would look like any
other.

I walked as fast as I could to my car.
I sat inside the car and reached for my cell phone to call the
police. It was dead. I groaned. Of all the times!

I headed straight for the police
station in Witch Woods.

My heart was thumping out of my chest.
If Anna had the stolen bracelet, then somehow she had been involved
with Alec Mason. There was even the possibility that she was his
murderer.

Chapter 23

To my dismay, the police station was
closed. This was typical of small country towns, but that was no
consolation. I pressed the buzzer next to the sign on the wall
three times before someone answered.

“
This is Laurel Bay. Is
Duncan there?” I asked urgently.

The calm voice on the other end
informed me that Duncan and Bryan were both out on calls. I told
the voice that I was sure Anna Stiles was wearing the stolen tennis
bracelet and so was likely implicated in the murder of Alec Mason.
The voice assured me that the message would be passed
on.

I had no option but to return to my
office. I had advertised the celebrity funerals on Twitter and
wanted to see how my click-through rate was going. I had no sooner
turned on my laptop than the office door was flung open.

“
Google.”

Anna Stiles was standing in the
doorway.

For a moment it seemed like everything
started to move in slow motion. My pulse pounded. There was a
strange pressure in my ear as adrenaline began coursing through my
veins. Somehow, once again, I had found myself face-to-face with
someone I knew to be a murderer.

“
Google?” I repeated,
trying to stay calm.

“
I googled you,” she said
as she crossed the room. “Jewelry valuer, eh? You were so surprised
when you saw my bracelet. That wasn’t very smart of
you.”

I noticed she wasn’t wearing it now.
“Yes, very expensive,” I said. “Your ex-boyfriend must have been
very wealthy.”

Anna narrowed her eyes. “I’m not
stupid, you know,” she said. “I know you recognized the
bracelet.”

I was at a loss. I couldn’t think of a
single thing to say. I clung to the hope that Duncan and Bryan
would get the message, and would know I was at the funeral home. I
only hoped they would get the message in time.

“
You know, I’d rather not
kill you if I didn’t have to. I’m not a crazy person!” Anna said,
and then she laughed, exactly how a crazy person would. “There’s no
way I’m going down for any of this. If anything, I’m the
victim!”

“
Then why did you do it?” I
asked her. I needed to keep her talking as long as possible. “You
can’t murder someone and then say you’re a victim.”

Anna smirked and rolled her eyes. “Oh,
you want to know why I did it? I was working on my story about the
jewelry thieves. Organized crime stories are the best. It was a
good story, and a good lead. I did some digging, and it brought me
to Alec Mason. I told him I knew everything, and I wanted him to
cut me into the deal, or I would publish.”

“
But he wouldn’t do it?” I
asked.

“
He gave me the bracelet to
shut me up, and said we had a deal. He knew I really had it on him.
I had everything. I had him, and I had names of the people he
worked with, and even better, the people he worked for. I wanted a
cut of the business, too, but he said no. No, he wouldn’t cut me
in. He thought I was just some girl who didn’t know how it worked.
And it cost him his life. I want you to know that he threatened me
first, and, well, I hit him with the car. I planned it well. I was
angry.”

“
But you killed Preston
Kerr, too?”

Anna nodded. “I had to. I realized he
heard me. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s
hilarious that you thought his wife was the murderer. Pinning that
crime on her is going to be easy. Everything just fits, doesn’t it?
The money problems, the affair. I couldn’t have written it any
better myself. This story will be my ticket out of these small town
trappings. Do I look like a small town girl to you?”

I shook my head.

“
All right, enough of this.
Let’s just get this done with. You were in the wrong place at the
wrong time, just like that singer. You know, the best part about
being a girl is that no one ever thinks a girl is strong enough to
strangle someone. Never mind that I can bench press more than any
cop in this town.”

She lunged across the desk at me in
one smooth motion, before I even had a chance to move. She clutched
at my throat. Her fingers were strong, with a vice-like grip. I
threw myself backward and her fingers loosened a fraction. I tried
to pry her fingers from my throat, but they wouldn’t budge. She
knocked me to the ground and sat on me, her talons reaching for my
throat once more.

I dug my nails into the back of her
hand. She yelped and released her grip momentarily.

And then Ian appeared at the
door.

Chapter 24

Ian was holding a bunch of papers in
his hand. Anna left me on the floor and lunged for Ian. He let out
a high-pitched wail like a terrified pig, flung the papers at Anna,
and sprinted in the other direction, screaming all the
while.

The papers hit Anna in the face. She
must not have been able to see with them covering her face. In her
pursuit of Ian, she ran headlong into the doorpost, and at once
crumpled to the ground.

I gingerly picked myself up and went
over to her. Religious tracts covered her. In fact, there was one
covering her entire face. I peeled it off and was relieved to see
that she was out cold. In my peripheral vision, I saw Ian creeping
back. “It’s safe, Ian,” I said.

“
Laurel, are you awake?” he
asked.

“
My eyes are open, Ian,” I
said. “I’m kneeling, not lying down, so of course I’m
awake.”

“
Oh,” he said. “I thought
she’d knocked you out.”

I was spared having to reply as Duncan
and Bryan burst into the room. “Laurel, are you okay?” Duncan said.
“We heard a woman screaming repeatedly.”

“
That’s wasn’t me,” I said,
nodding to Ian. “Anna Stiles is the killer of both Alec Mason and
Preston Kerr. I saw her wearing the mayor’s stolen tennis bracelet
earlier, and she saw that I recognized it, so she came to kill me,
too.”

Anna was starting to regain
consciousness. Duncan and Bryan slapped handcuffs on her and
dragged her away.

Ian sat on a chair and fanned himself
with one of the tracts. His face was white and ashen, and he was
trembling.

“
Thanks, Ian. I’m glad you
came,” I said sincerely.

“
I was going door-to-door,
handing out these gospel tracts to encourage people to come to
church,” he said.

I picked one up and looked at it. It
showed several people engulfed in flames, with ‘Died in their
sins!’ stamped all over the drawing.

“
Very encouraging,” I said
sarcastically.