A Ghost in Time (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 3) (7 page)

And the mirror—I’d seen that mirror, noticed it as I came up, just before rounding that corner. It was huge and showed a large chunk of the road ahead. How could Bebe have missed seeing it? That didn’t make any sense at all.
 

Bebe was like a different person—unsure of herself, constantly on the verge of tears. And what seemed to bother her most right now was the fact that Sami still hadn’t shown up. He was her big baby and she couldn’t stand to think of him out there in the cold, cruel world, maybe in trouble, maybe trapped and unable to head for home.
 

Bebe went off to her room to try to get some sleep before lunch. I knew I needed sleep too, but I also knew there was no way I could get any until I felt I had a handle on this thing.
 

Barnaby, our visiting parrot, was shrieking his head off, cursing at the top of his lungs. Luckily his parrot voice was almost undecipherable, so the words tended to fly off into nowhere and do nothing, but it did make an annoying amount of noise. I went out to see what the problem was. He seemed upset, but I couldn’t drill down to a cause, so after trying to reassure him for a few minutes, and getting nothing but grief for my trouble, I got the big blue tarp and threw it over the aviary to settle him down. It seemed to do the trick pretty quickly.
 

When I turned around, Aunty Jane was there, digging in the dirt around the herb garden.
 

“Hi there sweetheart,” she said. “Your pretty boy policeman was here looking for you a bit ago.”

“Really? Did you tell him where I was?”

She gave me a properly dismissive glance. “You know I don’t talk to people like him. He can’t see me.”

“Really?” I dropped down onto a garden bench near her. “But what about that time when I was in danger and you told him where to find me. How did you do that?”

This was a subject that had puzzled me for weeks. It seemed the ghosts could do more than they pretended if they really wanted to.
 

But she went back into playing dumb. “Me? I didn’t do that. I don’ know what you talkin’ about.” She shrugged and went back to her dirt. “He came back here and talk da kine loud mouth bird when he couldn’t find you.”

“So you didn’t think to tell him where he could find me this time, huh?”

She shook her head. Sometimes it was maddening trying to talk to ghosts.
 

She looked up, frowning. “Bebe’s sad today, huh?”

“Yes. Did you hear about what happened last night?”

She nodded. “I hear things.”

“She’s taking all the blame on herself. Isn’t there any magic you could do to make her feel better?”

She didn’t answer and I sighed. “You know what would really make her feel better? If we could find Sami and bring him home. She’s so worried about that cat.”

She gave me a sly, sideways look. “You do it,” she said.
 

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

She made a face at me. “You do it. ’Bout time you learn to do it yourself.”

I still didn’t know what she was talking about. “How can I do it? Are you saying…?”

“If your Granma was here, she would teach you.” She straightened, hands on her hips and looked at me. “She still not here. So I guess I gotta do it.”

“Do what?”

“Teach you some magic.”

I stared at her, my mouth hanging open like a doofus. But I was stunned. I’d never in my life had the idea that anyone was going to be teaching me magic. I couldn’t seem to get it clear in my mind. What was she saying?

“I can’t do magic.”

“Why not? You think you too good for magic?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Sure it is. You think you’re modern and smart and you don’t need magic. Right?”

“But…”

“Your granma always said you were the one. But she didn’t want to rush it. Now I think it’s time.”

I tried to think but my mind was a mess. In the end, I answered on pure emotional skids, rejecting the very thought of it.
 

“No!”

I don’t know why I was reacting so strongly against the whole idea. Fear? Maybe. It was too new to me. It was like something thrust on me, something beyond my control, and I didn’t like that.
 

“No. I don’t need magic. I don’t want it in my life.”

Aunty Jane looked hurt. “But you were just asking me….”

“I’m sorry.” I reached out to touch her shoulder and my hand went right through her body. Suddenly I was having a hard time breathing. “No, I’m sorry, really. I shouldn’t have said anything. I…I’ve got to go.”

I escaped back into the house and had to stop to catch my breath. I didn’t know why I’d panicked like that, but my heart was still beating a mile a minute in my chest. I wanted no part of magic. Something deep inside told me it would only bring me misery. I had to stay away.
 

Bebe didn’t feel like eating and neither did I, so we skipped lunch. I drove Bebe downtown to the station house. They wanted to go over her statement again and ask more questions. New things, supposedly, had come up.
 

We were about half way there when she turned to me suddenly, looking anxious, and said, “Did you see a tall dark man there?”

“Where?”

“After I…at the scene. The accident. Tall, gaunt, black hair, dressed in black. Looked like an undertaker. Like Ichabod Crane or Don Quixote. Did you see him?”

I thought hard, but shook my head. “No. I don’t remember anybody like that being there. Why?”

She turned away. “I…I don’t know. It’s probably just my imagination. Or…” She tried to smile as though it was a joke. “Or maybe he was a ghost.”

This was starting to feel a little weird. “Did you see any ghosts at the scene?” I asked her, a little startled with this new thought. “Did you see Starflower….?”

“No, no, nothing like that. It was just...I thought I saw the dark man right after it happened. I was so shocked, so horrified, I can’t be sure what I really saw. I jumped out of the car and ran to help Star, but it was too late. I looked up. Did I see him then? I don’t know. I can’t remember.” She shook her head and turned away. “Let me just think about what I’m going to say to them in that terrible little room. I hate this questioning stuff.”

I waited a minute, thinking all this over. Then, I couldn’t resist asking.
 

“Did you tell the police about seeing him? That tall dark man, I mean.”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No.”
 

That certainly gave me something new to think about. How seriously should I take her memory of the moment?
 

We got to the station and I pulled into a parking place. Reid came out to meet us. Tall, dark and handsome in a very well-groomed, buttoned-down way, it gave me a wave of reassurance just to know he was here to help us. He smiled and gave me a hug when he saw me.
 

“Don’t worry about a thing,” he told me. “I’ll make sure nobody tries to bully her.”

“She’s so depressed,” I whispered to him just out of her hearing. “I wish I could think of something to do to cheer her up.”

He nodded, looking sympathetic. “It’s normal, you know. It’ll take some time. We’ll just have to do what we can to smooth her way back to regular life.”

“Sure.”

I watched them walk into the building together and I went back to my car. I hated this feeling, like a black cloud was hanging over me all the time. The only possible remedy was my usual one--I stopped by Mad For Mocha. The place was quiet and Jill had time to visit for a few minutes.
 

“Hi sweetie,” she said as she joined me. “Wow. You look like death warmed over.” Realizing what she’d said, she clamped her hand over her mouth. “Oops. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry. Everybody’s doing it.”

“Poor Bebe. Is she going to be okay?”

I looked at her and wondered how much I wanted to tell her. “You know what? I’m not really so sure she is. This has hit her so hard—I haven’t seen her stunned like this since Jimmy died.”

“Oh, I hate that! I just love her. People like that—only the best should happen to Bebe.”

“Exactly. Instead, she got whapped hard with bad luck and lousy timing.” I hesitated, then went on. “She’s over at the station right now, answering more questions. I just hope…”

“What?” Jill’s eyes were huge as she stared at me. “You don’t think they’re going to charge her or anything like that do you? Do you?”

Chapter Nine

I looked at Jill. She was my best friend. I could tell her anything. Right? And anyway, I needed to vent, needed to explore things. So she was going to have to play that part for me, at least for now. I had to tell her what I was really feeling.

I leaned closer and lowered my voice almost to a whisper. “She thinks…she’s convinced herself…she’s afraid she might have killed Starflower on purpose.”

Jill stared at me, horrified. “But she didn’t, did she? I mean, is there really any doubt?”

“Of course not. That’s just Bebe, ready to take responsibility for everything that happens. You know she would never hurt anyone on purpose.”

But my conscience was stirring. I couldn’t get over those questions about the cadaverous-looking man and Bebe’s not seeing the mirror. What was that all about, anyway? And wouldn’t that raise suspicions? I just hoped that she wasn’t letting them into too much of her thinking on these issues.
 

“The thing is, I can’t just let this go off on its own. I can’t just let this be an official investigation and take whatever results they think they’ve come up with.”

“No,” Jill said emphatically, on my side as always. “You’re absolutely right. You’ve got to get in there and see for yourself what’s what.”

I nodded slowly. I was beginning to think that was exactly what I was going to have to do.
 

“You’ve been through this a couple of times now,” Jill added.
 
“Your instincts have been honed. You know what to look for.”

That might have been going a little far. “I do?”

“Sure you do.” She grabbed my hand and held it. “Get a couple of new notebooks and start writing down clues. Go to the library or the bookstore and get a book on investigating things.”

I sat up straighter. “You know, you’re right. If I get involved, I’ll feel like I have more control over the outcome here. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get railroaded. I’ll know if some of the facts get overlooked because that might be more convenient. I’ll know if her concerns are attended to.”

Jill grinned at me. “Go get ‘em, Mele. You’re the best!”

I smiled at her. That assessment was hardly accurate, but she was certainly a supportive companion.
 

I decided to walk to the library again. This time the sun was shining and people filled the streets. No worries. And while I walked, I mulled over things, such as magic.
 

Magic.
 

What was I going to do about that? Was magic a part of my destiny? No! I didn’t want that. Magic was scary. Somehow I knew, deep inside, that once you used magic, you would have to pay a price eventually, if not sooner. It didn’t seem worth it. I had free will, didn’t I? I was going to stay clear of magic.
 

But investigative work—that was another story. That I could do. At least, I thought I could.
 

The little town of North Destiny Bay was cute and clean and fun—now that the fog was gone. The shops all seemed busy and cars were driving by. I heard music and looked up at the dance studio, remembering the Strauss waltz I’d heard coming from there two nights before—and the angry voices. And then my mind flashed to Star when I’d been listening to her on the phone. She’d been humming that very same waltz. What a coincidence. Good grief. That piece was over a hundred years old, and here I’d heard it from two different sources in practically the same time period. Hmmm. Funny, huh?
 

The library was open this time. As I went up the stone steps, I felt rejuvenated—excited. Detective work. That was the ticket. It was fun to browse through the stacks for half an hour or so. I did find a book I thought would be helpful. I checked it out and started back, taking a side street this time, so that I would end up at the police station, in hopes that Bebe was finished.
 

No such luck. I sat down on the stone bench out front and began looking through the book I’d chosen. It didn’t take long for Roy to find me.
 

“It’s a crazy world, isn’t it?” he noted as he sat down beside me.
 

“You’re telling me.” I made a pouty face. “I’m just waiting to see what the next insane thing will be.”

“It seems like that sometimes.” He looked over at me as though he was concerned about me. That was nice. “You okay?”

“We’re surviving. So far.” I tried to smile. “Is Bebe about done?”

“For now,” he said. “I think the captain will want her to come back tomorrow.”

I sighed and decided to go ahead and complain. “Is this stuff going to go on and on? I mean, are you digging down into subconscious memories or something? Enough is enough.”

He seemed surprised that I was complaining. “We have to get to the facts.”

“What facts?” I decided to hold back my annoyance. There was no percentage in getting him mad. “Hey, is there something going on I don’t know about?”

He shook his head and smiled at me. “You know I couldn’t tell you if there was.”

“So is there?”

He looked at me, slightly exasperated. “I can’t tell you.”

“That means there is.” I pretended to move closer and flirt a little with my eyes. “Come on, handsome,” I teased. “You can tell me. Just one little fact. That’s all I need.”

He grinned at me. “Okay. Your powers of persuasion are just too much for me. Here’s something.”
 

“I’m ready.” I looked at him expectantly. “Shoot.”

He winced, but he told me anyway. “Here’s news. Someone tried to kill Star about six months ago. Using a very unusual method.”

“No!” News indeed!

He nodded. “Someone put a boxed bee hive on her back patio and left it there for her to find in the morning when she woke up.”