Ghosts Beneath Us: A Third Spookie Town Murder Mystery (Spookie Town Murder Mysteries Book 3) (28 page)

Before supper Kate gave the details to her friend. “Every last stick, pot and pan, bed and blanket, stove and refrigerator, memento and all her important papers. My stuff is gone, as well. There’s nothing left there at all. I still can’t believe it. It’s lucky I had most of my clothes and necessities in the loft. I was only returning for what was left. Odds and ends. I just want to find out who did this despicable thing and get everything back. There was a lifetime of my mother’s possessions and valuables there. Things I can never replace. I don’t know what to do now about it. I called the sheriff as Frank advised and reported the crime. The sheriff behaved as if he didn’t believe me, so I told him to go take a look at the house for himself. That’ll make him a believer.

“Along with everything else that’s happened out there, I finally see what you and Frank are getting at. Something is really wrong and someone is behind it. Someone is doing these awful things.”

“When the kids are in bed Frank will tell you what we’ve found out. I don’t like speaking of these things in front of them. They don’t need to know.”

“I understand that. I can wait. I’m still digesting what I saw today myself.”

Abigail handed her a glass of milk and they took their chili and drinks into the dining room where the others waited for them, including Myrtle.

They had supper and it was calming to have the normalcy around her; Abigail’s cat on her lap. They talked of her first week as a business owner and Laura regaled them with lively anecdotes of her first week as an employee.

“Laura’s turned out to be an excellent worker. I’m teaching her how to make the donuts next week. I’m so happy I have her.”

“And I love working there,” Laura admitted. “Except those donuts have already added ten pounds on me. I’ll have to be careful in the future.” She’d patted her tummy and smiled. “But they sure are yummy. I can’t wait until I can make them. They’re really works of art as far as I’m concerned. Kate has also promised I can be creative with some of the older recipes. I want to try my own variations eventually. I also think sugar cookies, sometimes decorated for the individual holidays, would sell well. People love sugar cookies. Oh, and cream puffs. My mother had the most divine recipe for them. The puff pastry melted in your mouth. I’d like to make them in her memory.

“And I think Kate should add some of those round tables of hers outside under a brightly colored awning. So when the weather’s nice people can eat their pastries and drink their coffee or hot chocolate outside. I also feel we should decorate the front windows more. Fill them with pretty teapots, cups and other eye-catching accessories and trinkets in a bakery theme.”

“See, she has creative plans,” Kate had noted. “She’s an artist in her own right.”

It was an awkward evening. Everyone pretending everything was normal when nothing was.

The kids went to bed and the grownups sat around the kitchen table. Outside the night had fallen and Kate was sure glad she wasn’t anywhere around her mother’s house and she was with other people. Just remembering and speaking about what had transpired at the empty house gave her goosebumps.

“Maybe it was your mother’s spirit warning you at the door and up in the bedroom to leave because you were in danger,” Abigail said softly after she’d spoken of the experience, “and Myrtle’s ghosts you heard in the woods doing the same?”

Kate had looked at her and remained silent, her mind fighting against the reality of dead people speaking to her. She had never believed in ghosts before. Well, now she wasn’t so sure.

“I’m not surprised at this latest stunt, though. It fits the escalating pattern. I’m so sorry they stole your and your mother’s possessions,” Frank had said. “They want you to sell, Kate. This was done on purpose so you would.”

“I’m not! The house is still there and so are my memories. I don’t know what I’ll do with it now, but I’ll be damned if I sell it to those crooks. What have you learned that might help us stop them?”

Abigail and Frank, taking turns, disclosed what they knew.

Frank reported how he’d tried often enough to get in touch by telephone with anyone at the Lansing Corporation who would speak to him, but, though his friend Charlie had gotten him phone numbers, no one was answering any of them; which he found unexplainable. He knew someone was picking up the calls but not talking and after twenty or thirty seconds the line would go dead. “How can a corporation do business if they don’t answer their phones? Unless there’s some secret phrase, a pin number I should have punched in, or something else, that I needed? But I’ll keep trying, Kate.”

Myrtle threw in her harrowing experience from the other night when someone had trespassed on her land and planted a bomb. A bomb! The old lady was still spitting mad and embellished her story some. They let her. Abigail said she did that a lot.

All of it scared Kate. She could easily have also been a victim and she could be laying in the funeral home right now as her mother had so recently been.

“Yesterday I was going to lure them out to Tina’s house again and have the sheriff detain them for questioning,” Frank spoke after Myrtle was done with her story, “but Mr. Lethgrow telephoned me before I could call him and asked for another meeting tomorrow at noon. He said they’d be out of town on other business until then. Now I know what they were doing.” He sent a look Kate’s way. “I agreed. Obviously, my cover hasn’t been blown yet.”

“So you’re really meeting them again tomorrow?” Kate’s was looking through the night window. There was the smell of rain heavy in the air and the wind had picked up. A storm was coming. She could barely keep her eyes open and knew she’d be going back to town soon. Four in the morning, when she started making the donuts, arrived really early. She needed to get to bed.

“I’m going to try. They’ve proven slippery before so I wouldn’t put it past them to somehow rabbit away again. I’ve met the type before and if they even get a whiff of a trap they won’t show up. If they do, Deputy Stevens will be somewhere else inside with me waiting for them. This time I’ll get them to tell the truth. The nice guy gloves will be off.”

“Good luck, Frank. Be careful.”

Abigail and Frank were holding hands and she smiled at him. “Yes, be careful. If they are behind all this, they’re dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine. I know how to handle criminals, remember? But, Kate,” Frank directed the words at her, “you also need to be cautious. Even with you living in town above your shop I wouldn’t put it past them to try to get at you there. Call me or Abigail if anything comes up or even if you suspect you’re being watched or stalked. Don’t answer your door at night unless you know who’s on the other side. And if either one of those two suits show up again at your place of business, call me pronto.”

“You instead of the police?”

“You’ll get a quicker response from him,” Abigail told her. “Believe me.”

“Okay, you two, I’ll be extra cautious, as well. I’ll lock my doors and keep a big stick by my bed.” She winked at Myrtle, who winked in return and gave her the okay sign.

After that Kate said goodnight and drove to town with Frank’s truck behind her. He waited until she got inside and then he went home.

It was good to have such caring friends and to be welcomed in as warmly as she’d been by the town. Again she realized how fortunate she was. With all that had and was happening to her at least she had those lifelines.

Now if only Frank and Abigail could solve the mysteries of her mother’s and the other people’s deaths, stop the madness, all might yet be well. And if they couldn’t, she worried what the Lansing Corporation would do next. They still desired her mother’s land and she refused to sell it to them. Would they now try to kill her, too? The thought they would made her paranoid and every noise made her jump, every shadowed corner seemed to be filled with killers…if she kept going like this she’d end up a basket case.

She just prayed it would be over soon. She had a life to live and she didn’t want to be looking behind her with frightened eyes every moment of it.

Chapter 14

Frank

Frank made coffee at Tina’s. He’d bought donuts at The Delicious Circle when he’d driven through town and was eating them. When the two arrived from Lansing he figured if he was drinking coffee and eating pastries in the kitchen it’d make him look more at home in the setting. It’d keep them from suspecting anything for as long as he needed them to. He wanted to get them into the house without any problems. Bait the trap. Slam shut the trap. This time they weren’t going to escape.

He was ready for them. His old duty gun was snug in the shoulder holster under his jacket and he had another gun in the drawer behind him. Deputy Stevens was hiding upstairs, waiting and listening until Frank voiced the code phrase–
it’s a beautiful day
–they’d agreed on, before he’d show himself. His squad car was down the road in another driveway; partially concealed by a wall and bushes.

Twelve o’clock came and around five minutes after the two suits were at the door.

“Time to play the game,” Frank murmured as he went to let them in. Mr. Lethgrow hadn’t said exactly why he’d wanted to meet Frank that particular day, but since it had fallen in line so well with Frank’s own plans, he hadn’t questioned it. He’d find out soon enough.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Stanus. Good to see you again.” His visitor stuck out his hand and Frank was forced to take it. It was a cold hand. Frank disengaged as swiftly as he could and not tip the man off that he disliked him. The man was alone which didn’t make Frank happy. He’d wanted both snakes caught in the same trap and he wondered where the other snake was. Out doing more malicious mischief somewhere? He wouldn’t doubt it. At that moment he was grateful Myrtle was stashed at his cabin and Kate was in her shop surrounded by people. Both were safe or as safe as they could be.

“Same here, buddy.” Frank had put on his good old boy façade. It was best to continue the act until the last minute. He led the man into the kitchen. “Donuts on the table if you’d like some?”

“Er, no thank you. I already had breakfast.” The man was observing him closely. It must be the suit coat. Today Frank wasn’t dressed like a country bumpkin. He was dressed like Frank, the ex-cop. The jacket hid his gun.

Frank pressed his back against the sink and leveled his eyes at the man. “What did you want to see me about? I mean, you know the lawyer told me the other day I don’t have legal right yet to sell this house and land to you, as much as I’d want to, until the investigation into my aunt’s death is officially closed and she’s legally declared dead. Bad news, sorry.” Frank released an eagerly furtive smile. “Heaven knows I could use the money. But we’re going to have to wait.”

The man had a briefcase hanging from one hand and now he laid it on the table and flipped it open. He took out some stapled papers. “My company has found a way around that…or the next best thing. These papers, when you sign them, will be a binding pre-contract of a sort.”

“A pre-contract? Never heard of that.”

“It’s unusual, of course, but a signed copy of it will appease the company I work for.” The man put the papers in Frank’s outstretched hand. “It simply states you will sell us the house and land for the price listed there as soon as it is legally yours. It’s like we’re taking out an option on it. That’s all. You do know what an option is, don’t you?”

Frank played dumb. “Nah, not really, but I trust you. So what’s the price?” Frank hid his true reaction. He didn’t believe the document was legal, but he could be wrong. He’d have to ask Martha about it. She’d know.

“Read the top paragraph. It’s there.”

Frank whistled. “Heck, that’s a dang sight more than you even offered before.” He let his steady gaze meet the other man’s again. “I have to ask, why does your company want this worthless house and piece of land so much anyway?”

He could have sworn the other man’s eyes narrowed, but it was hard to tell. The man had beady eyes to begin with. “Does it matter? I thought all you cared about was the money?”

“I do. But I wasn’t born yesterday and there’s got to be an interesting reason. I’m curious to know, is all. Is there oil on the land, or gold, or something?”

The man shrugged. “Not that I know of. The corporation I represent wants it. That’s all I know and it is all I need to know. I’m just their agent.” A phony smile. “I assure you this is entirely legal. All you need to do is agree and sign the papers and, as you can see on the second page, I’ll present you with a hefty signing check to tide you over until the real deal is done. Right now. Right here. I have the check in my pocket with your name on it and everything.” He patted his suit where Frank supposed he had an inner pocket.

Frank attempted to look greedy, but couldn’t do it. It was time to spring the trap. Enough of this playing around. But first he had to ask, “Do you think your company wants this land,” he spread his hands out to indicate Tina’s place, “bad enough to–let’s say–make me think it’s haunted, or to empty or burn this house down or perhaps to even kill me to get it? Maybe plant a suitcase bomb beneath it so it’d blow up and I would be more amiable to selling…if I were still alive, that is?”

Frank would have expected shock but wasn’t surprised when the man’s face reflected anger and then a little, just a little, unease. The man’s deceptive expression reminded Frank of almost every criminal he’d ever caught in the act or every one who’d ever suddenly known the game was up. They’d been caught. It was the face of someone guilty.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Stanus.”

“Oh, sure you do.” This is when Frank fully became the cop he had once been and all pretense fell away. “Since I believe you and your partner, Miss Smith, are behind some if not all of the criminal incidents and deadly accidents that have been befalling the elderly citizens around here. Things like the so-called neighborhood hauntings, vandalisms, Tina Thompson’s disappearance off the cruise ship, Beatrice Utley’s, Clementine Kitteridge’s, Alfred Loring’s untimely deaths and Myrtle Schmitt’s trailer burning down and her new one almost blowing up? We both know you and Miss Smith are behind them. You wanted their land for the Lansing Corporation and were willing to do whatever–
whatever
–had to be done, vile as it was, to achieve that.”