A Prickly Predicament (Mad River Mystery Series Book 1) Page 6

  “That’s a ghost,” asserted Nathan. “Trust me on this.”

  “I really don’t know, Annabelle,” I told her. “Let’s get another look at that. Okay, Nathan?” Obligingly, he played it again, and again, and again, until the images were burned on my retinas and in my brain. I didn’t want to say that the red-tinged wisp didn’t look like any ghost I had ever seen. What it was, though, was anyone’s guess.

  ~.~

  I stayed behind in Annabelle’s office after the three men had left, Nick for the police station and Nathan for the general store with Matt. I wanted to get her take on things, but more than that, I wanted to bask in her motherly presence. It had been a rough couple of days.

  “What time will the inspectors be here, Annabelle?” I asked.

  “Oh, haven’t you heard? The inspection’s been postponed until after the exorcism.”

  “No, nobody tells me anything around here.”

  She laughed. “You sound a little petulant.” She looked at me tenderly. “You must be a little tired. You’ve had to grow up pretty fast this last year.”

  Despite myself, I felt my eyes well up with tears. She was right. I felt I had to be the strong one for Harriet, and being strong all the time didn’t give me much opportunity to feel my own feelings. I pushed them aside once again, though. “Oh, don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’ll be okay.” Regaining my composure, I swallowed the lump in my throat and said, “So. Why did the inspectors reschedule?”

  “I asked them to,” Annabelle said, “just in case there are paranormal dangers. I wouldn’t want to subject human inspectors to that risk.”

  “Good thinking.”

  “Yes, I wanted Mike to have a chance to do his work first.”

  “Mike” was Reverend O’Dell, Annabelle’s brother. I guess she’s one of the few people in town who can get away with calling him Mike.

  “Just so you know,” she continued, “he’s going spend the night in the general store tonight.”

  “Is the exorcism going to be tonight then?” I felt my heart start pumping. I was going to have to act fast if the exorcism was going to take place this very night. But what, exactly, was I going to do?

  “Oh, no, no, no,” she said. “He just wants to see if he can sense any ghostly presences, any evil spirits.”

  “Oh.” I doubted the good reverend would know a good ghost from an evil one. As a matter of fact, I doubted the ability of the good reverend to know if he were in the presence of a ghost, even if it came up and smacked him on the hiney.

  “And just between you and me,” she said conspiratorially, “I think he wants to draw this whole thing out.”

  “Why would he want to do that?” I asked.

  “My brother has always had a flair for the dramatic,” she said. “If this event can draw attention to his ministry, he’s all for it.”

  “That sounds pretty cynical.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. It takes money to run a church, even a small one, and it takes church members to raise funds.”

  “I never thought about it like that.”

  “And the membership in that little church has been dwindling over the years.”

  “So if an exorcism gains him and his church some notoriety, people might start flocking to that church again.”

  She winked and grinned. “You got it.” She straightened some papers and placed them in a file. Then, placing both her elbows on her desk in front of her, she rested her chin on interlaced fingers and regarded me levelly. “I want to ask you something,” she said.

  “Okay,” I said cautiously.

  “What do you think of Nathan’s ghost-hunting abilities?”

  “Why are you asking me?”

  “Let’s just say I trust your judgment.”

  “Okay.” I took a deep breath and thought quickly. I really wished I could come clean with her about my psychic abilities and talk with her about them the way I used to talk with Mom, but I didn’t think the time was right. Maybe it never would be. Most people would just not understand. “I think,” I said, “that Nathan wouldn’t know a ghost from a hole in the ground.”

  “That’s my assessment, too,” she said, and she gave me a wry look. “Now that we’ve got that straight, I want to ask a favor of you.”

  “Sure, Annabelle,” I said, “anything for you.” I meant it. Relief surged through my veins when I realized she wasn’t going to press me to reveal anything about my extraordinary skills. If she suspected them, that was going to remain an unspoken secret between us, at least for now. “What is it?”

  “Nathan and someone from the police department are going to spend the night in the general store tonight with my brother, while Calinda and Matt spend the night in the old Hanley House next door.”

  “Okay.” Where was she going with this?

  “I’d like you to stay with Matt and Calinda in the Hanley House. Would you do that?”

  “Of course.” I grinned. I had no problem with that at all. I loved the historic old Hanley House. Functioning mainly as a museum full of local artifacts these days, it had always held fascination for me. “But—why me?”

  “Why not you?” She gave me a knowing look. “You may be young, Shelby, but you’ve got your head on straighter than a lot of older people I know.”

  “Thanks, Annabelle.” I gave her a warm hug and said goodbye, but not before she had extracted a promise from me to keep her informed throughout the next twenty-four hours.

  ~.~

  Adam accosted me on my walk from Annabelle’s office to Mad River Old Town. I mean that. He accosted me. He swooshed down from out of nowhere, startling me half out of my wits, and I’m used to ghosts coming at me from out of nowhere. “Geez, Adam. Take it easy,” I complained, stopping short in my tracks.

  He laughed. “This swooshing business is kind of fun,” he said. “I think I’m getting better at it.”

  “What can I do for you?” I asked.

  “Could you have a word with Nathan, please?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I’ve been trying to get him to see me, but….”

  “But he can’t,” I offered.

  “Or he won’t,” Adam said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I try to talk with him and he just walks away. I try to get him to see me; I stand right in front of him, and he walks right through me.”

  “Not much of a ghost hunter then, is he?”

  “That’s for sure.”

  “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Talk to him. Tell him you can see me.”

  “I can’t do that, Adam. You’re asking me to blow my own cover.”

  “You mean—”

  “People in this town don’t know I can see and talk with spirits. They just think I’m weird.”

  “And you want to keep it that way?” He looked disappointed.

  “That’s right.”

  “But I don’t think Nathan even wants to know I’m still near him.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “I’m not sure. Just a feeling I have.”

  “I’m sorry, Adam. That must hurt.”

  “It does, but it gets worse.”

  “You mean there’s more?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, what is it then?”

  “It’s Eliana.”

  “Her, too?”

  “She’s flirting big time with Nathan.”

  “Well, what did you expect?”

  “You mean, she was just using me?”

  He certainly was sensitive about getting a taste of his own medicine, I thought. “Well…,” I started.

  “And Nathan’s letting it go to his head!”

  It was all I could do not to laugh out loud. “I’ll see what I can do without telling him directly, okay?”

  “Thanks, Shelby. I would appreciate that.”

  ~.~

  When I got back to the office, Matt had his power screwdriver out and
was going around the office tightening screws wherever he could find them. “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Just getting this place shipshape for the inspectors,” he said.

  “Good thing you’ve got a little reprieve on that, then,” I told him.

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  The day passed quickly if uneventfully. The police wrapped up their investigations at the general store, and a cleaning crew had started scrubbing the place down by the time I locked up the office at five o’clock. Matt had already gone home for a quick dinner with Calinda and Eliana by then, and I was about to do the same. I didn’t see Nick, so I didn’t have a chance to ask if the investigators had found anything in the trash bin behind Zaharako’s. I hoped Mathias’ careful sleuthing wouldn’t come to naught.

  Harriet wasn’t home when I got there, but the gray tabby ghost cat greeted me at the door. She seemed nervous. “Don’t worry, little kitty,” I told her, but the truth was, I was feeling a little nervous, too. “Where’s Harriet?”

  Either the ghost cat informed me telepathically or the idea occurred to me naturally, but either way, I “knew” that Harriet was at the general store working alongside the cleaning crew. That would be just like her, I thought. I collected my toothbrush and a couple of other things I thought I might need for an overnighter at the Hanley House, ate a quick supper, and headed back out the door. “See ya later, kitty cat,” I called as I left the house.

  I swear I heard her say, “Meow!”

  Chapter Eight: Midnight Madness

  When I walked into the Hanley House that evening, not only were Matt and Calinda there, but Eliana was, too. Never one to miss a possible opportunity to be the center of attention, she was dressed in skin-tight black leggings, stylish black leather jacket, and thigh-high boots. Her décolletage revealed more than was seemly of her obviously augmented bosom, at least in my opinion. Massive silver-and-turquoise earrings, bracelets composed of multiple strands of turquoise beads and silver, and a large piece of polished turquoise on a fine silver chain that dropped alluringly into said décolletage completed her ensemble. “To protect me from evil spirits,” she explained, fingering the turquoise pendant.

  It looked to me as if she had spent hours on her hair and makeup, and I wondered if she expected the cameras to begin rolling again soon. I smoothed the front of my sweatshirt self-consciously and brushed some lint off the knees of my jeans.

  “How’s everyone doing?” I asked.

  “I’m excited,” Eliana said. “Do you think we’ll see any ghosts?”

  “Certainly not,” proclaimed Calinda. I knew she loved Hanley House as much as I did and probably relished the opportunity to spend a night here, but she seemed a little put out with her daughter, and I could see why. It was as if, for Eliana, a party were being held in her honor. If she had any concept of the seriousness of the events around her, she was certainly not showing it.

  Matt, on the other hand, looked as if he’d rather be at home in his own bed. As owner with Calinda of Mad River Old Town, though, it was up to him to keep a close eye on things, and especially tonight of all nights. “I surely hope we don’t see any ghosts,” he said.

  “I thought you didn’t care either way, Matt,” I said.

  “I just want things to get back to normal,” he said. He seemed tired.

  I walked over to the general store just after nightfall. The cleaning crew was packing up for the night, and Harriet had already gone home. The store was almost restored to its old self, although if a person looked closely, bloodstains could still be seen here and there, especially where Adam had last stood as a live human being. The logging saws were nowhere in sight, most likely down at the police station being held as evidence. I hoped George wouldn’t want to replace them anytime soon. The place looked just fine without them. I shuddered involuntarily.

  Nathan was the first of the overnighters to arrive, lugging cameras and equipment. I felt a little sorry for him. He seemed so lost without his partner. Not only that, he apparently thought he needed all that gear to break into the spirit world. If only he knew it didn’t have to be so hard! Or maybe, I thought, with a sudden flash of insight, maybe he thought his gear protected him from spirits. If that was the case, he was one very well educated fool.

  “Oh, hello,” he said when he saw me. He seemed surprised to see me. I wondered if he even knew my name.

  “Hi, Nathan,” I said. “How’s it going?”

  “Oh, you know,” he answered, refusing to make eye contact. Was he trying not to cry?

  “I guess things are pretty rough for you right now,” I said.

  “I guess so,” he said.

  I wasn’t sure why things felt so awkward between us, so I tried to pretend I didn’t notice the awkwardness. “Will the show continue, do you think?” I asked.

  “Of course it will!” he snapped.

  “Oh, sorry. I guess it’s too soon for you to have to talk about that,” I apologized.

  He recovered himself. “Not your fault,” he said shortly. “I guess I’m a little on edge.”

  “And who could blame you?” I said. I thought about suggesting to him that Adam was trying to communicate with him, but somehow the moment didn’t seem right. It was just as well that I didn’t try, because just then, both Reverend O’Dell and Nick walked through the front door of the general store. Both carried sleeping bags.

  “Hello, Reverend O’Dell,” I said. “Hi, Nick.”

  “Well, hello, Shelby,” said the pastor. “How are things with you and your sister?”

  “We’re doing fine, Reverend,” I told him. “Thanks for asking.”

  “What are you doing here, Shelby?” asked Nick.

  “I could ask you the same,” I countered.

  “I’m just representing Mad River’s finest for this stake-out,” he grinned.

  “Mayor O’Dell asked me to help out tonight,” I told him. “I’ll be next door in the Hanley House with Calinda, Matt, and Eliana.”

  “Just try to stay out of harm’s way,” Nick said protectively.

  “You be careful yourself,” I teased back.

  Again, I wanted to ask Nick about the trash in the bin behind Zaharako’s, but both Reverend O’Dell and Nathan were within earshot so I kept my questions to myself. After a little while, I said my goodnights and walked back over to the Hanley House next door. I unrolled my sleeping bag and got ready to sleep that night on the living room floor, since Calinda, Matt, and Eliana had already claimed the bedrooms. I didn’t mind. I wanted to be closer to the front door in case I saw or heard anything in the night from the direction of the general store.

  The house wasn’t wired for electricity, having been kept in its historically pristine state on purpose by the city committee that managed its operation, so the four of us all bedded down for the night pretty early. I intended to stay awake long into the night so as to watch and listen for signs, but before I knew it I had drifted off to sleep. My sleeping bag was toasty warm, and the plush rug on the hardwood living room floor in the Hanley House so nice and thick, I was more comfortable than I would have preferred to be that evening. Plus, I guess the stress of the previous couple of days had really gotten to me by then.

  I was sleeping soundly when something—I don’t know what—woke me up. I looked at my phone. Nine-forty. Still early. I texted Nick. “Everything okay over there?” When I hadn’t had a response by ten, I gave it up and tried to get to sleep again. I reminded myself that Reverend O’Dell was just trying to get a feel for the place. There was nothing to worry about. Why did I feel so anxious? There was nothing to be afraid of. I knew all the ghosts around these parts, didn’t I? They were my friends.

  A sliver of moonlight coming through the lace curtains on the house’s front windows disappeared abruptly from my sight. Had a cloud covered the bright crescent I had seen earlier, or had something more sinister inserted itself between me and the moon? The sighing of the wind through the nearly barren branches outside the windows serv
ed only to intensify my vague fears. What if there were spirits in Mad River whom I didn’t know? What if there were mysteries I had yet to encounter or even consider? Hush, I ordered my whirling thoughts. Maybe, just maybe, it was my unanswered questions that were keeping me awake, not evil spirits. But suddenly, I became aware that I wasn’t alone.

  I sat straight up in my sleeping bag and looked around the room. “Who is it?” I whispered. I didn’t see anyone, living or dead. “Who is it?” I repeated.

  “It’s just me,” answered Mathias, materializing right in front of me. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “What‘s going on?” My heart was pounding in my ears.

  “Something’s happened at the general store,” he told me.

  “What?”

  “Nathan’s been injured,” he said.

  “How did that happen?” The general store had once seemed a fairly benign place to me, but it certainly hadn’t been a safe place lately. What in the world was going on?

  “A spool of baling twine fell on him,” said Mathias.

  “Well, that can’t be too bad,” I answered. “That’s only about twenty pounds or so, right?”

  “That’s right,” said Mathias, “but it fell on his head, right above his eye.”

  “Ouch!”

  “There’s a lot of blood.”

  “That is generally the case with head injuries. It might not mean anything.”

  “He says a ghost pushed it onto him.”

  “There’s no way!”

  “You know that, and I know that, but I don’t mind telling you I’m a little worried about the mood in this town.”

  “You’re right. That is, indeed, the worst of the dangers.”

  “Josiah is doing a little investigating at the scene of the accident right now.”

  “That’s good.”

  “He said he’d give you a report as soon as he figures out what really happened.”

  “Mathias, do you think there could be an evil spirit hanging around here, causing mischief?”

  “I suppose that could be the case,” he said, “but I think the rest of us would know.”

  “I thought you would too, but now I’m not so sure.”