CRIMINAL CHRISTMAS: A Set of 8 Holiday Suspense Stories, page 30
Mrs. Moody agreed. “But it’s not Edna Clancy. She hummed more of the children’s tune. “The entity goes back to the beginning of this house.” She crouched and put her finger tips under the door. “Who are you?” she whispered. Suddenly Mrs. Moody pulled her hands away like she’d been burned. She stood and backed away from the door. Tina and Amy did the same. She turned to Amy. “She is very angry she can’t get through. Desperate to get to you. To get to anyone who will listen to her.” Mrs. Moody no longer sounded drunk, but perfectly sober. “Tina? What did you get?”
“Same. I assumed it was Edna Clancy.”
“No, this spirit was here long before Edna arrived.” Her head tilted as though she was listening to something. “This entity had Edna jump off the top of the house to her death. She wants to live here alone.”
As the three paranormal investigators moved about the room with their night vision goggles, Jamey watched. It had been decided that they’d only use some basic equipment first, not haul in everything.
When the time came to take the boards off the door, Mrs. Moody told Amy and Tina to join Jamey in the dark corner. She moved to a spot ten feet in front of the door, “to lure the ghost into the room,” she said. “I don’t actually think she needs you, Amy, just a body to inhabit.” She nodded at Wayne and he used a hammer to carefully pull the boards away. Once he was done, Vera slowly opened the door.
Jamey wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but there was nothing there. The doorway looked as dark as the room. “I want to help you pass on,” Mrs. Moody said. “I’m here for you. Why do you linger in this house? Are you trapped?”
They waited, listening to the silence in the room. Wayne was recording a video, Vera had audio. Then, in the doorway, stood took shape. Someone. With the night vision goggles, Jamey saw the entity, or at least the outline of something. Within twenty seconds the form changed into the faintest suggestion of a woman.
“Is your name Charlotte?” Mrs. Moody stood firm, facing the ghost. Then the misty apparition seemed to float forward, straight for Mrs. Moody. “Come to me, Charlotte. I want to help you.”
The ghost floated into Mrs. Moody’s body and disappeared.
When Mrs. Moody spoke, her voice was different. “I died in this house. He killed me and then brought me here to hide me.” The words sounded almost squeaky, not like Mrs. Moody’s throaty voice. Then she walked into the antechamber that led to the stairs to the widow’s walk and laid her hands on the wall. “This is where he put me.”
Amy gasped beside Tina. Jamey had his arms around both women.
Mrs. Moody’s voice returned to normal. “We will give you a proper burial and then you can leave this house and never come back.”
“Get me out of here. Then I’ll go.” It was like two people having a conversation inside one woman. After she came out of the antechamber, Mrs. Moody turned to the group and let out a long breath. “She’s gone for now. We won’t need anything more tonight but Wayne and Vera, we will review the recordings.
Vera switched on the lights and stood with what looked like a remote control held in front of her. “That was an eighteen.” She sounded impressed.
Wayne whistled and Jamey guessed they’d been highly successful.
Mrs. Moody nodded. “I figured as much.” She took another deep breath and let it out. “She wants to pass on, but her bones remain behind the walls, where her murderer left her. He was one of the men working on the construction of the house. He left her strangled body in that small room and finished the wall before anyone saw.”
Amy fainted against Jamey and he caught her body before she hit the ground.
****
“Thanks for coming to spend the Christmas Holidays with me, you guys,” Pops laughed. “I don’t know if I promised you this much excitement when you said you could join me this year, but I reckon now I’ll have to charge you extra for the ghost experience.”
Jamey sat down at the kitchen table and opened the Scrabble board. He was glad Pops could now make light about the events of the last week. “Always a good time with me and Tina around.” Jamey shook his head.
“You and Tina saved the day,” Pops added. “That ghost had been rattling around in there for over a century.” His expression turned serious. “I feel so badly for Amy. She had no idea she was poisoning me and Max with that food.”
Tina said, “I’m glad forensics only found slight traces of rat poison. Not nearly as bad as arsenic, they said.”
Jamey knew that his wife had been worrying herself sick for days about that.
“And I’m relieved the burial of Charlotte Grove put an end to things.” Tina glanced out the back window as if she could see over to the house next door. “Amy and Max are happy to be in a ghost-free house.” Tina took two beers from the fridge and sat at the table, handing Jamey one. Pops and Liz were drinking tea.
“Me too. Those kids didn’t deserve all they got.” Pops shook his head. “Amy said she plans to contact the families that lived there, the Clancy’s and the Hahn’s, see if she can set their minds at rest about Charlotte’s ghost.”
“That’s probably a good idea. What did she say Mrs. Moody’s final meeting involved?” Tina chose her tiles.
“Was she drunk again?” Elizabeth asked.
“Sober,” Jamey said. He’d been there. “She discussed payment, and the burial yesterday for the Grove family. She also asked if Amy and Max wanted to watch the video, see the data on the entity.”
Pops ate a cookie from the plate of treats Tina had made. “According to her assistant, it helps Mrs. Moody if she’s tipsy when she does this.” He shook his head. “Amy said when the bones were found and taken downstairs in the coffin, Mrs. Moody declared the house clear.”
Jamey, Tina and Pops had gone over earlier today.
“I didn’t feel anything at their house.” Tina said. “I don’t think they need to board up the widow’s walk again.”
“Whatever makes them....” Jamey spelled happy with his tiles.
“I’m just glad this whole house didn’t burn to the ground.” Elizabeth sipped her tea. “And that the contractors got this wall in so quickly.”
Tina took the h and made Home. “Good old Carnation where everyone pitches in to help everyone else.”
Elizabeth added done using the e. “You’ll be glad to get on that plane tomorrow with my grandson,” she said.
“My grandson,” Pops added jokingly. Cracking his knuckles, he then set down Holiday and looked at them all with a big ole’ grin on his face. “Happy Holidays, everyone. Y’all come back next year, see what we have in store.”
The End
From Kim:
Thanks for reading! I had fun writing this in September/October 2015 to continue the story of Tina, Jamey, and Dream Jumping. Please consider leaving a review on the Criminal Christmas site to say what you’ve enjoyed so far from this book set. The sooner the better, whether you’ve read all the books in the set, or not. Reviews to writers are like someone left a chocolate cake at the door with a fork.
As I approached the end of this novella, I had no idea how to conclude the story, except by using the ghost. (I’m quite taken with ghosts, it appears.) I ended up creating a character that is just begging to have her own series. Mrs. Moody. Although I’m taking the holidays off to think about her, I suspect I’ll be publishing a novel about the strange Paranormal Investigator soon.
If you haven’t read the DREAM JUMPER SERIES and your interest in peeked, I invite you to start with The Dream Jumper’s Promise.
Kim’s Amazon Author site www.bit.ly/kimamzn
I just published a Kindle Worlds novella (slightly longer than Christmas Interrupted) called Rocky Bluff. It follows the highly popular Lei Crime Series, by Toby Neal, a police procedural series set on Maui. If you like the Lei Crime Series, Maui, Police Procedurals, The Rocky Horror Show, Mysteries, Ghosts, Palm Trees, or my writing style, I highly recommend you check it out!
Here’s an excerpt:
Chapter 1
Lei Texeira stood on stage of Maui’s Iao Theater among the costumed actors and stared at the dead body. She’d seen the whole ugly mess. It looked like a freak accident, but all her police training told her to keep the crowd back for now, not to touch anything. Sirens wailed outside, getting louder, closer. One minute the fantasy of the Rocky Horror Show was in full theatrical swing on stage and the next minute, a woman was dead and the strangely-clad actors stood frozen in shock.
Lei’s once fiancé, now simply her live-in boyfriend, Michael Stevens, had taken charge from the moment he flew out of his seat in the audience. He and Lei were both detectives with Maui Police Department, but only one of them didn’t have PTSD from being abused as a kid. Lei hadn’t reacted like a cop, something she wasn’t proud of, but would have to revisit later. Never having seen this bizarre play before, she’d almost believed it was part of the script. Strange things had been happening onstage for the last hour and a half, unlike anything she’d ever seen before, not that she went to the theater on a regular basis. But this particular play was bizarre, and Lei had long ago turned off her cop warning signal to simply enjoy the spectacle of The Rocky Horror Show. Apparently it was normal for the crowd to yell “Asshole” every time one of the characters said his name, and to have flashlights waving and rice being thrown. Most audience members seemed to know when and how to perform each ritual.
So, no, Lei hadn’t reacted when the giant moon crashed to the stage, crushing a cast member. It was ten seconds before she pulled herself together, ran down the aisle and joined Stevens on stage.
Lei’s friend, Kali, who played the tap dancing groupie, Columbia, stood near the feet of the dead woman looking horrified. Her hands covered her mouth as if to keep from screaming, or crying. Nora, the victim, had been a favorite with the cast. That much Lei knew.
The murder weapon, a large quarter moon prop, that until ten minutes ago had held Frank-N-Furter as he descended from the theater’s rafters, lay on its side beside Nora, like a dog who won’t leave their dead owner. When the prop broke free, the main character, a transvestite scientist, had been seated on the curve of the moon singing “Don’t Dream It, Be It,” in full spotlight. Thanks to quick thinking, he’d jumped to a level spot at the top of a staircase while the moon continued its path to hit Nora on her head. Lei attributed Derek’s fortunate landing to his dance training. Right now, he looked flustered.
“You okay?” Lei asked him.
He nodded, but Lei knew no one was really okay.
Although Stevens had taken the victim’s pulse immediately and feeling nothing, shook his head, one of the cast ignored the pronouncement and was now doing CPR.
Lei stared at the grim scene on stage. From one angle it looked like Nora lay on the stage floor like she’d decided to take a nap. From another angle you could see that the amount of blood pooled by the woman’s left ear had to indicate a fatal injury. Lei fingered the smooth stone in her jacket pocket, her reminder to not let the darkness take over at horrific moments like this. Dissociation was a bitch sometimes. Somehow, the stone helped.
The theatre stage door flew open and paramedics burst into the once gorgeous, but now charmingly decrepit theater. Audience members had scattered, some going home, many spilling into the aisles talking and maybe still hoping. Lei knew this woman was dead, never to be revived by any amount of CPR. “Let’s move over here,” she said, directing the cast to the back of the stage. “Make room for the paramedics.” She wasn’t wearing her police detective badge, Stevens either, but the cast of twenty actors and crew did as they were told. No one on stage looked vindicated like this death was what they’d been hoping for. Lei noticed things like that.
Both wires that had held the moon prop led to a carabiner-type loop that connected them to one central line that now dangled uselessly. She bent over the wire, took a photo with her phone, just in case it got moved before the police photographer arrived, and wondered how a wire simply gives out. Someone would have to go up in the rafters to investigate. The break looked too clean for fraying. Tonight’s tragedy might not have been a horrible accident after all. It might have been a murder.
When the theater cleared, and the cleaning crew had swept up the rice and other props the audience left behind, Lei offered to drive Kali home to Lahaina. That was the type of thing friends did and Kali was Lei’s new friend. Although Lei was coming to this friendship table kind of late in life, she was learning what friends did for each other by using her Aunty Rosario as an example. Driving Kali home would be the type of thing her aunt would offer to do. Even after the paramedics took Nora’s body away and the theater started to clear, Kali continued to cry into a growing pile of Kleenex as the man who played Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror stood close by, comforting her.
Having met Kali Baker only a month ago, most would say Lei didn’t know her well. But their friendship had blossomed fast, strangely similar to love at first sight. Unlike Lei, Kali was an emotional person. She hugged everyone, blurted out compliments, and was able to show exactly what she felt at any given time. Normally, such a demonstrative person would have had Lei rolling her eyes and walking away, but not Kali. They had loads in common deep down, below the surface, beyond what the average person ever saw.
Kali looked like an eighteen-year-old petite Barbie doll, but was actually Lei’s age—late twenties. Where Lei was Hawaiian, Portuguese, and Filipino, Kali was pure white bread. Where Lei had short brown curls, Kali had long blonde hair. To the naked eye they didn’t appear similar. Not physically, anyhow. They’d met while running with their dogs. That day something in Lei had fallen away to include this energetic dynamo. In the last month, they’d spent a lot of time together, especially because Kali left her dog at Lei and Stevens’ house when she rehearsed at the Iao Theater down the road.
“I’ll take you home,” Lei told her. “Just leave your car here tonight.”
Kali was a mess, trying to talk through her sobs. “Nora always wanted to be onstage with us. Mike thought this would be fun instead of always helping backstage. After years of sewing and helping with costume changes, she got to join us.” Kali still wore the stage makeup that had transformed her into Columbia--a red bow tie, sequined tails, and a sparkly top hat. But by now Kali’s face was a swirl of clownish color and tears. A false eyelash had come off with the mopping of tears and was stuck to Kali’s jawline like a giant cane spider hanging on. Lei reached for it. “Eyelash,” she said handing it over. They walked out the theater’s side door to Lei’s new silver Tacoma truck.
Stevens would stay behind with a crime kit. He’d manage the investigation. The Iao Theater was inside his jurisdiction, not hers. Being present when the moon fell didn’t count except to make Lei a witness. Damn.
She and Stevens had just moved to Maui from Kauai six weeks earlier. They’d been ready for something new. Stevens was offered a promotion as Detective Sergeant, a position with Kahului Station, headquarters for MPD. As luck had it, the timing was right and Lei joined her old partner from the Big Island, Pono, who was now working at Haiku Station on Maui.
This was Stevens’ case if the death turned out to be murder. Playing second fiddle to Stevens wasn’t a role she relished, but her job was to stay with Kali tonight, ask some questions, and maybe even come up with a lead.
The director, lighting director, costumer director, and prop mistress for the play remained with Stevens for questioning. Two officers from the Kahului Station, Hensley, and his rookie partner, Sakamoto, would help. Not her. She’d get in trouble for sticking her nose into another station’s investigation, and that wouldn’t be good because Lei was terrified of her boss at Haiku Station, Lieutenant Omura. And because of that, Lei wanted to do everything by the book. Not piss off the Steel Butterfly again. Weeks ago, when she reported in to Haiku for the first time, Omura had barely looked at her, saying, “There’s no room for publicity hounds at my station.” That had been her welcome to Maui.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Lei said.
That same day, she and Stevens had found a perfect little cane cottage in the Iao Valley and were now officially living together. Thinking of their home just down the road, Lei had an idea.
“How about you stay with us tonight? You’re upset.” Kali sat slumped against the door. “I’ll bring you back to your car in the morning. Stripe can have a sleepover with Keiki,” Lei threw in for good measure. Her Rottweiler, Keiki, loved Kali’s dog, Stripe. The two dogs had spent a lot of evenings together while Kali rehearsed this show and were currently in Lei’s fenced yard. Double protection, as Lei saw it. Which was good any way you looked at it. She was kind of OCD about protection from bad guys. With good reason. Having a Rotty and a Rhodesian Ridgeback in her yard on weekend nights for Halloween month, was a plan that benefitted everyone.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Kali sniffed. “I don’t want to be alone.” She looked out the window miserably. “Was it an accident, do you think?”
“Not sure, but maybe.”
“Who would want Nora dead?” Kali began to sob again.
Lei didn’t have an answer.
To be continued…
Rocky Bluff – Available on Amazon Books, Published by Kindle Worlds
http://amzn.com/B016V84QBS
Follow Kim Hornsby on Facebook www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor
Visit her Website www.kimhornsbyauthor.net
Or check out her Amazon Author site www.bit.ly/kimamzn
Jade and Jasmine’s Decorative Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
¾ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
