Larue Donavon 3 - The Ghoul Next Door (8 page)

Like most women, she was focused on
one thing in the room, and that one thing was Elvis Presley. The
devil could have been standing in front of her ready to spear her
with his pitchfork and she would have pushed him to the side to
keep him from blocking her view of Elvis. And I had to admit, I
couldn’t blame her. I probably would have done the same
thing.

I snapped my fingers. “Hello. Over
here,” I said. “You can ogle Elvis later, but right now I need you
to tell me who you are and what you are doing here.”

She finally forced her gaze away from
Elvis. “Well, princess, I’m here because I’ve been trapped in that
ball.” She pointed at the shards on the floor. “You were gracious
enough to break it and let me free. For that, I am always
grateful.”

Another one. Unbelievable. Had someone
listed me as a contact for the dead? See Larue for spirit activity?
I couldn’t believe that myth about the witch’s ball was
true.

“
This doesn’t look like a
good situation,” Elvis said.

Mindy watched on with her mouth still
hanging open.

I gestured with my hands for a
time-out. “Let’s set the record straight. I did not break that ball
and had nothing to do with letting you free.”

If she was stuck in that
thing, it couldn’t be a good thing. She had been there for a
reason. And it wasn’t a good reason either. This situation
had
bad
written
all over it.

She jutted out her hip and placed her
hand on it. “Well, one of you broke it. I sure didn’t do it myself.
If I could, I would have done that years ago, don’t you think?” She
scoffed.

“
Okay, instead of arguing
about how you got here, how about you tell me who you are and how
you got stuck in that ball in the first place.” I folded my arms in
front of my chest.

Mindy stood behind me as if I was a
perfect shield between her and the paranormal world.

The spirit moved over closer to Elvis
and smiled. He gave a half-hearted smile in return. Did he sense
what I did? Her eyes held an evil glare as she looked from me to
him. I didn’t trust her any further than I could throw her. And
have you ever tried to throw a ghost? Let me tell you, it was
impossible. Yes, I’d tried once, don’t ask.

She shrugged. “It was a pretty ball. I
was mesmerized by it. It was twirling around and I was watching it
dance, then the next thing I knew I was in that sucker. There was
no getting out. It was a trap. I know someone specially set it for
me. They hated me.” She puffed out her bottom lip. “I was like a
mouse going for the cheese.”

“
Do you know who this person
is who hates you?” I asked.

Her pouting wouldn’t work with me. I’d
seen it all before. But I didn’t know what to think of this woman.
She had a certain naivety to her, but an evil feeling underneath
that. I’d never experienced that before.

Mindy touched my arm. “If you get me
killed today, Larue, I swear I will come back and haunt you and
will be your worst nightmare. Mrs. Stevens has nothing on
me.”

“
Duly noted, Mindy. I’ll
keep that in mind.”

If at all possible, Mindy had moved
even closer to me and was hanging onto the back of my
shirt.

“
You’re stretching out my
shirt. Will you please loosen your grip? It’ll be fine. I
promise.”

Mindy eased off, but I still felt her
breath on the back of my neck. She could be such a scaredy-cat
sometimes.

“
Okay, Larue. I can’t even
see her any more. I don’t like that woman. Can you get rid of her
now?” Mindy said with a slight panic in her tone.

What would Mindy think if she could
see the look in the ghost’s eyes? That would really freak her
out.

“
I agree with Mindy. You
should get rid of her, Larue.” Elvis stood beside me.

Mr. Fine took a drag from his
cigarette, then said, “She’s a babe. I think she should stick
around.”

He would say that.

“
It’s not that easy to get
rid of her, Mindy. I can’t always get them to leave.”

The female spirit smiled devilishly. I
knew there was no way she was going to move into the light
peacefully without putting up a fight. It was going to be a long
night. I needed that pitcher of margaritas now more than
ever.

“
I’ll back off. I promise.”
She smiled innocently.

“
Well, I know that’s a lie,
but can you stay away from my friend?” I gestured over my shoulder
toward Mindy.

“
Trust me, doll, she’s a
pain in the ass. Larue isn’t much better, but at least she can hear
us,” Mr. Fine said, then took another puff from his
cigarette.

I wanted to shove Mr. Fine out the
window so bad. “Don’t listen to him. Listen, if you’re going to
hang around, can you at least tell me your name?”

“
My name is Candy Cherry.”
She picked an imaginary piece of lint from her dress.

“
Are you serious? I don’t
want to play the guess-your-name game.”

She glared at me. “That is my name.
It’s a great name and everyone who I’ve ever known has loved
it.”

I held my hands up in surrender.
“Okay. Okay. Candy Cherry it is.”

Mindy snickered in spite of her
fear.

“
Oh, she thinks it’s funny,
huh?” Candy moved toward Mindy and Elvis stepped in front of
her.

Mr. Fine stepped from the corner. “I
told you that one was a pain.” He pointed at Mindy.

“
I think we should give
Larue and Mindy some time alone,” Elvis said through his gorgeous
smile.

To my amazement, after a brief pause,
they both nodded and followed Elvis out of the room. He really was
like my guardian angel. He stepped in and saved the day.

“
They left the room,” I
said, then let out a deep breath.

Mindy reached for the broom and began
sweeping up the mess.

“
Well, that was bizarre. I
still don’t know how that thing fell off there,” she said. “Didn’t
it look like someone picked it up and tossed it to the
ground?”

So she had noticed that too. It wasn’t
just my imagination. I smelled a rat… a rat by the name of Candy
Cherry.

We’d just poured the delicious
margaritas and settled down to ignore the ghosts when the phone
rang. Mindy and I exchanged glances.

“
It must be Callahan,” she
whispered as if it was a secret.

If Mindy was sitting in my living
room, then who was calling? She was practically the only one who
ever called me. Well, my mother called, but I knew she was having
Bunco night with her friends.

“
Hello?” I asked, sure that
it was a wrong number.

“
Is this Larue Donavan?” the
male voice asked.

Clients usually called my cell phone.
Like I said, only a few people had my home number. I was thinking
of getting rid of the thing because I never used it.

“
This is Larue,” I said with
skepticism.

“
Congratulations, Larue
Donavan, you get to chase demons on national television,” the deep
male voice announced.

My hand shook as I clutched the phone
to my ear. “I get to what? Who is this? Is this a prank
call?”

Definitely a prank call. I should have
known.

“
No, no prank. You can chase
demons on television. Well, that’s if you want to, but I know
you’ll want to. Who wouldn’t want to be on TV?”

Okay, this guy was rambling and
clearly insane. Why did I attract all the loonies? Living or dead,
I was a magnet.

“
I can think of a lot of
people who wouldn’t want to be on TV. And I’m one of them. I’m
asking you again, is this a prank call?”

I was getting ready to hang up on this
nutcase.

“
Maybe I started this
conversation off on the wrong foot, but I really need your help,”
he said.

“
Who are you?” I
asked.

“
My name’s Matt Kelly. Zach
Duncan gave me your name. He says you’re exactly what we’re looking
for. Purely by coincidence, the case we’re investigating is just a
short drive from Magnolia.”

“
Imagine that. Aren’t I
lucky?” I said sarcastically.

Definitely crazy.

He sighed. “You don’t believe me, do
you?”

“
Not in the least,” I
said.

“
I’m the producer for a new
reality show called Chasing Demons. We need a psychic for the show,
so that’s why I called you.”

Hmm. Okay, he had piqued my interest.
On one hand I hated the thought of being on TV, but I had to admit,
a part of me was a little excited.

“
Why do you need me?” I
asked.

“
The medium we’d picked for
the show can’t make it. Now I’m going to get fired if I can’t come
up with a replacement like yesterday. Filming starts tomorrow.” He
rushed his words.

This was unbelievable. This had been
one hell of a day. First Elvis, then a weird ghost in a ball, and
now a reality show? The only reality show I felt like I was on was
Pranked—as if my whole life was one long episode of the
show.

Mindy was looking at me with a
wide-eyed curiosity. “Who is it?” she whispered.

She wouldn’t believe it if I told her.
I held up my index finger and mouthed, “Oh my God.” That statement
only made her eyes grow wider.

The whole town would soon find out
that I talked to dead people. I’d managed to keep it secret for
this long. Would it hurt my business if people knew the truth about
me? I’d always been happy living in my safe little bubble. People
were strange and I had no idea how they would react to the news.
They’d probably think I was some kook. And I was most certainly not
a kook.

Wait until I told my mother.
She’d be on the phone blabbing to everyone faster than she could
say
reality TV
. I
could hear her now: “Oh, you’re a celebrity.” Explaining to her
that just because I’d be on a show didn’t mean I’d be a celebrity
by any stretch of the imagination would be like explaining rocket
science to a baby. Besides, I didn’t want to be famous anyway. I
just wanted to work at Book Nook and help people who had problems
with spirits haunting their homes. Those were the things I was
passionate about. Cameras, ratings, scripts, and producers didn’t
ignite the passion within me. Helping spirits cross over
did.

The new ghost leered at me from over
Mindy’s shoulder. Candy Cherry’s hairstyle appeared instantly
mussed as if her amplified anger had reached out with a
metaphorical hand and rustled her perfect coiffure. I had no idea
what her problem was.

“
You’d really be helping me
out,” Matt said with a pleading anxiety in his voice. “It’ll just
be for a few days, but who knows, they may ask you to do more
shows.”

I guessed I’d give the guy the benefit
of the doubt. If it turned out to be a joke, well, it wouldn’t be
the first time I looked like a fool, and it certainly wouldn’t be
the last.

“
Okay, I’ll do it.” A
thunderbolt of excitement swept through me with the
words.

I jotted down the information of where
and when to meet him.

After I hung up the phone, Mindy
jumped up, splashing margarita out of her glass. “What was that all
about?”

“
Maybe you should sit back
down.” I pointed toward the sofa.

She plopped back in the overstuffed
cushion behind her. The liquid in her glass went everywhere. “Well,
tell me before I end up like the ghosts in your living
room.”

“
They want me to be on a
television show.” The words still didn’t register.

“
Shut. Up.” Mindy jumped up
and grabbed me. She bounced me up and down in her
embrace.

My heart pounded from what
had just happened. Everything seemed so surreal. It was a
life-changing opportunity. I’d waited for something like this for a
long time—something unusual and exciting. And now it had finally
happened. Although I had hoped my
something exciting
wouldn’t involve
ghosts. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted this opportunity. I didn’t
know the first thing about television, but I guessed this would be
my crash course. My grandfather had always said I reminded him of
his father, always eager to try new things and willing to learn.
Maybe he was right.

“
The man said he thought I
was a top-notch psychic and perfect for the show.”

“
Well, duh, he got that
right,” Mindy said.

I didn’t know about me being a
top-notch psychic, but I’d take the title. Maybe I was considered
one of the leading psychics around my little group of paranormal
colleagues, but I helped people because they needed it, not because
I wanted to be on some silly show.

“
This is so exciting. Can I
be on the show too? Can you get in a commercial for pole fitness?”
She laughed.

“
Take a deep breath.” I
watched her exhale, waiting for her to get a hold of her
excitement.