Read The Ghost Who Wanted Revenge (Haunting Danielle Book 4) Online
Authors: Bobbi Holmes
The Ghost Who Wanted Revenge (Haunting Danielle Book 4) (21 page)
“
W
hat are you doing here
?” Joe asked Danielle when he found her coming out of Chief MacDonald’s office.
“Checking on my iPhone. It was taken into evidence after Smith attacked us.”
“What have you been using for a phone?”
“I bought another one the next day.”
“Those aren’t cheap.”
“No problem. I’m rich, remember.” Danielle grinned. “Anyway, I was meaning to upgrade my phone. Figured I’d donate my old one. But it looks like I won’t be getting it back anytime soon.”
“Sorry about that. Hey, are you in a hurry? How about I buy you a cup of coffee.” Joe nodded to the break room.
Danielle smiled. “Sure. I could always use a little extra caffeine.”
“I don’t suppose you heard about Samantha yet?” Joe asked as he led Danielle into the break room and showed her to a table.
“Lily’s nurse? Did you guys find her?” Danielle sat down and watched as Joe poured them each a cup of coffee.
“Yeah. She admitted to taking the phone, but swears she had no idea what it was going to be used for, or who had her take it.”
“Are you saying some stranger just called her up and asked her to take the phone and she did it?”
“Not exactly.” Joe sat down at the table with Danielle. “Apparently, Samantha lost her last job after some pharmaceuticals went missing. There wasn’t a police report; it was all handled in house. After she was assigned to Lily’s case, she received a call from a blackmailer. He threatened to go to her current employer and let them know why she really lost her last job.”
“He told her to steal my phone in exchange for keeping quiet?”
“At first, he just wanted her to spy on you and Lily, let him know who was staying at Marlow House. But then he told her to take your phone and had her drop it off about a block away, in some bushes. He also instructed her to keep Will away from the house the afternoon Smith showed up.”
“I assume the blackmailer was Christiansen or Hanson, if it was a he.”
“Probably. Samantha claims she freaked after we brought her in to be interviewed. She was afraid they might kill her next so she just took off.”
“I thought she didn’t know who the blackmailer was.”
“I don’t think she did. But she had a good idea it was someone connected to her old employer—the one who fired her.”
“Who was that?”
“She was a nurse for one of the assisted care facilities owned by Dignity Care and Life.”
“Ahh…that explains it. Yet, it’s quite a coincidence, her getting assigned to Lily’s case.”
“It wasn’t a coincidence, according to Haston.”
Danielle arched her brows. “He still talking?”
“I think he’s embraced the motto, confession is good for the soul. But yeah. He admitted to pulling strings to get her assigned to Lily’s case.”
“I’m still trying to figure out how Darlene pulled it all off. Shooting her husband; stashing the extra Flex; meeting up with Brian.”
“According to Haston, Darlene switched cars with him and Chuck, right after she shot Stoddard. They were in the T-Bird. After they switched cars, Darlene went to find Brian. She knew he ate breakfast at the diner every morning. They took the Flex to Darlene’s rental, planting the gun in your car on their way. They had another car waiting in the garage.”
“Weren’t they afraid someone would notice them switching cars? Both of those vehicles sort of stand out,” Danielle asked.
“They made their switch on Beach Drive. Only a couple houses on that street, and on the stretch of road where they made the exchange, there aren’t any houses, just vacant lots.”
“I’m curious; did Haston make any kind of a plea deal before he started talking?”
“Nope. Waived his rights to an attorney. Christiansen, on the other hand, won’t say boo without his lawyer’s okay.”
“If that’s the case, then I guess he didn’t make a plea deal. Two murders, Stoddard and Darlene, not to mention the attempt on our lives. Isn’t Haston talking himself into a date with a needle?”
“I guess that’s up to the courts.” Joe shrugged. “Of course, Haston didn’t actually kill anyone. Oh, he was an accomplice to murder, but Darlene is the one who shot Stoddard, and Chuck killed Darlene.”
“Crazy.” Danielle shook her head. She thought about Darlene—who would have ever imagined she was such a talented actress, capable of pulling off something like this? If it hadn’t been for Joe, Danielle might very well be on trial for Stoddard’s murder. Thinking about the lengths the woman went to, Danielle remembered Darlene’s blue eyes. Stoddard mentioned his killer’s eyes were brown.
I bet she wore brown contact lenses.
“Danielle, Joe…” Brian greeted. He didn’t enter the room immediately, but stood at the doorway, as if contemplating if he should come in or not.
Danielle looked up from her coffee. “Morning Officer Henderson.”
“I thought you weren’t coming in today,” Joe asked Brian.
“I wasn’t going to.” Reluctantly, Brian walked all the way into the room. He went to the cupboard and grabbed a mug.
Joe turned his attention back to Danielle. “So what are you up to today?”
“I was going to go see what I can find in way of Halloween decorations.”
“Halloween?” Brian frowned. He sat down at the table with his coffee. “It’s just October first. Isn’t it a little early for decorations?”
“Halloween will be here before we know it. Lily and I are going to decorate Marlow House all spooky. It’ll be fun.”
“Marlow House would make the perfect haunted house,” Brian grumbled. Joe laughed in response.
“Gee, why do you say that?” Danielle asked sweetly.
“You have to admit some strange things seem to happen there. Sometimes I have to wonder if the place is haunted.” Brian sipped his coffee.
“Don’t tell me you believe in ghosts?” Danielle asked.
Joe glanced over to Danielle and noticed her mischievous grin.
“Don’t be hard on Brian,” Joe said seriously. “Of course he doesn’t believe in ghosts. Just with all the crazy things that have happened lately, sometimes our imaginations run wild. I know mine has.”
Danielle looked at Joe, her head tilting slightly to one side. “So, you don’t believe in ghosts?”
Joe laughed. “Yeah right. I don’t think so. No such thing as ghosts.”
“So how do you think Christiansen’s gun ended up on the roof?” Danielle asked.
“Well, I certainly don’t think a ghost put it up there,” Joe said with a chuckle. “Christiansen obviously saw the officers and panicked, threw the gun.”
“Hmmm…I suppose that could happen,” Danielle muttered.
“As for Marlow House being haunted, we already have one haunted house in Frederickport. We don’t need two. Exceeds our quota.” Joe grinned.
“We do?” Danielle glanced from Joe to Brian. Brian shrugged in response.
“The Presley house,” Joe said.
“The Presley house?” Danielle frowned. “I don’t know where that is.”
“It’s a couple blocks from yours,” Brian explained. “It’s been vacant for years.”
“And people say it’s haunted?” Danielle asked.
“Only on Halloween.” Brian sipped his coffee.
“Oh, you’re saying it’s fixed up as a haunted house every Halloween,” Danielle asked with a grin.
“No.” Joe shook his head. “Some people really believe it’s haunted. But they say the ghost only comes out on Halloween.”
“Whose ghost is it?” Danielle asked.
“Heck if I know.” Joe shrugged. “It’s just a silly legend. Like I said, there are no such things as ghosts.”
“Well, you know…” Danielle looked down in her cup and gently swirled the coffee around. “When I was a kid I told my parents I could see ghosts. Of course, I’m sure you already know that.”
“You were a kid.” Joe patted her hand. “Kids have active imaginations.”
She turned to Brian. “So, is Joe right, you don’t really believe in ghosts?”
About to take another sip of coffee, Brian paused and looked up into Danielle’s eyes. Their gazes locked as they silently studied each other.
Finally, Brian spoke. “I really don’t know what I believe any more.”
I
an took
Lily and Danielle to dinner at Pearl Bay that evening, to celebrate the arrest of Stoddard’s killers. When they got home, Ian stayed up with Lily as the two waited for the nurse to show up for Lily’s evening IV. Danielle excused herself and went up to bed. She was exhausted.
Since coming home from dinner, Danielle hadn’t seen Walt. She suspected he was up in the attic with Sadie, but was too tired to investigate. Instead, she climbed into bed and fell fast asleep.
H
er bed seemed
to be moving—swaying gently from side to side. Licking her lips, she tasted salt. Breathing deeply, she could smell the ocean.
“Are you going to open your eyes or not?” Walt asked impatiently.
Danielle opened her eyes and looked around. She sat in a sailboat with Walt, in the middle of a calm sea. The shore was nowhere in sight.
“Where are we?” she asked, looking down. Running her hands over her lap—over the skirt of her white lace dress—she smiled. The feminine dress reminded her of something worn in the late 1800s. Reaching up, she touched her head. She wore a straw hat, and her dark hair fell over her shoulders in curls.
“Isn’t that obvious? We’re sailing.” Walt smiled.
Danielle noticed he wasn’t wearing a suit, as was his normal attire. Instead, he dressed casually, in white linen slacks and a white linen shirt, its top few buttons undone. He also wore a straw hat.
“I’ve never been sailing.” Danielle looked around eagerly.
“I used to go all the time when I was…well…when I was.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“There is a lot about me you don’t know, Danielle,” Walt said seriously, handing her a glass of wine.
“So what is the special occasion?” She sipped the wine.
“I figured you needed some quiet time. You’ve been through a lot these last few months. And I couldn’t think of a more peaceful place than this.”
“I suppose you could have just let me sleep.” Danielle grinned.
“You are sleeping,” he reminded.
“You know what I mean.” Danielle sipped her wine.
“Would you rather I leave you to your own dreams?”
“My own dreams?” Danielle smiled softly and lifted her glass in a toast. “This is my own dream. One of my best.”
The Ghost of Halloween Past
Revisit Marlow House in
Haunting Danielle, Book 5
Spending Halloween in a haunted house is nothing out of the ordinary for Danielle and Lily. After all, Marlow House Bed & Breakfast has its own full-time ghost. But there is another haunted house in Frederickport, Oregon. Its ghost only shows up on Halloween. Why just once a year? And how is this frightening spirit connected to all that’s happened to Danielle since she arrived in town?
As Danielle tries to sort through the Halloween haunting, Sadie the golden retriever has her own issues—a mysterious black cat who seems even more adept than Sadie at communicating with spirits.
