Spells and Spirits, page 48
He grabbed me by the shoulders. “I can’t die. I just can’t. I’ve been talking to Hollywood. Hollywood wants me. I can’t give all that up just to die. I can’t!”
One minute Truck was grabbing me and nearly sobbing, the next he was on the ground, his thumb stuck in his mouth. He was sucking away like a baby.
“What happened?” Ruth said.
Alice nudged his foot. “I think he fainted.”
“He did.” I fished in his pockets until I found the keys. “Let’s haul him inside, ladies. We’ve got to get this guy home.”
SIXTEEN
By the time we reached Truck’s house, he was almost awake. I nudged him.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty; we’re at your house.”
Luckily Ruth and Alice both knew where Truck lived. It was an area on the south side of Haunted Hollow, far from Xavier’s place.
Truck’s house was an old plantation style with a big iron gate around it. It was in an older section of town, where all the historic homes were located.
Truck glanced around groggily. “Um. Home?”
“Yes, home. Now let’s go. I have to clean your place so the spirit doesn’t come for you.”
We parked and got out.
Ruth crossed her arms and gave Truck the old stink eye. “Why do you think the spirit said that, Truck Morrow?”
Truck gulped. “I really don’t know.”
“You don’t?” She sidled up close to him. “You really don’t know? No clue? No idea? Not even an inkling?”
Truck glanced at the three of us nervously. He cleared his throat. “No, I don’t. Let’s just get this over with.”
He punched the key in the lock, opened the door and turned off the alarm. He glanced at the box. “Do you have to bring that inside?”
“Yes,” I said sharply. “We need the spirit to do the cleanse properly.” I pulled a stick of sage from the backpack. I need you to stay in here.”
“The kitchen?” Truck looked bewildered. I guess that’s what sucking your thumb when you’re a grown man will do to you. Make you not understand a woman when she speaks. “I can’t come with you?”
I shook my head. “No. I need you to stay away. Make yourself a sandwich. You look pale.”
“But what if the…” His gaze shifted uneasily to the box. “What if the spirit comes for me, attacks me?”
I patted the cardboard. “We’ll have it with us. Now. Are any doors locked? Because we’ve got to work the entire home.”
He shook his head. “No. Nothing.” He raked his fingers down his face. “Please. Just hurry. I’m starting to feel sick.”
I nodded to Alice and Ruth.
“I’ll stay with him,” Alice said. “In case he needs help to the bathroom.”
“Or faints,” I said.
Truck shot me a dirty look.
I hitched a shoulder. “What? You look like a fainter.”
I lit the sage and left the room with Ruth trailing behind. “You going to mumble some words?”
“Nah. Just going through the motions,” I said. “This stuff doesn’t really work anyway.”
“It doesn’t?” Ruth said, perplexed. “I always thought it did. It’s what my mom taught me.”
“Against something small it might, but you get a big baddie and you’d better have a priest in here instead of this stuff.” I pinched my brow. “And sometimes that doesn’t help either.”
We moved through the house at a fairly quick pace. After all, I was looking for a computer. There wasn’t anything that was actually going to haunt Truck, at least as far as I was aware, that was.
We did a brisk sweep of the living room. Ruth kept her eyes peeled on the furnishings while I pretended to run the sage over the walls. Well, I wasn’t actually pretending, I was doing it, but I was mostly looking for Xavier’s computer.
Living room, den, hallway, powder room, all were clear. We reached what looked like Truck’s bedroom—a much more normal room than Xavier’s, if I might add, with light blue walls and cherry furniture.
A laptop lay directly on the cream-colored duvet, but it didn’t have the skull and crossbones sticker.
“Anyone can peel a decal,” Ruth said, nosing toward the computer.
“Agreed.”
I glanced down the hall. No sign of Truck. I nodded to Ruth.
“I’ll keep watch,” she said.
I flipped open the top and waited while the username popped up. Truckalicious was the user.
“These guys do think highly of themselves, don’t they?”
I closed it and started opening drawers. “You looking, Ruth?”
“Still clear.”
I brushed through underwear, shirts, shocks, shorts—nothing. I crossed to his closet and pulled the door. It was neat, well organized and empty of a stolen computer.
“Any luck?”
I shook my head. “None.”
“His office is through the adjoining door.”
I followed Ruth to the next room and took the sage from her. While I smudged the walls, she snooped through the desk. “It’s locked.”
“We’ll see about that.”
I plopped the box on top and peeled back the lid. “Susan? Susan?” I whispered.
A ghostly head drifted up from the pile of water balloons. “Like, it’s totally cramped in here. And the water? It’s way stale. Like, gag me with a spoon.”
“Okay,” I whispered. “I’ll get you out soon, but I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything. All I’ve got is time.”
“Can you unlock the doors on this desk?”
“Let me see.” Her head disappeared below until all I could see was the very crown of her teased and Aqua Net rock-hard hair. She popped back up. “It’s unlocked.”
“Great. Thanks.” I closed the lid.
“That’s a neat trick,” Ruth said. “I need to get myself a helpful ghost. What I wouldn’t be able to accomplish. I could bake three pies all at the same time.”
I laughed. “Not sure it works that way.”
“You never know.”
I pulled the first drawer to the right. It was mostly office supplies. I opened the one beneath it and revealed a long file cabinet. Named folders filled the rectangular space.
“What do we have here?” I yanked one out that was labeled XAVIER BIBB. “Looks like our friend Truck was keeping tabs on his fellow show mates.”
Ruth left her station by the door. “You don’t say.”
“Nope. Truck had all his besties’ Hollywood contact information. Names, phone numbers, apparently he even knew what Xavier’s deal was for his new project.”
I slipped it back into the slot and noticed one labeled STARLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT. I flipped it open and found a multi-page contract between Truck and the company.
“Looks like Truckie boy is getting his own show. Signed the papers today.”
Ruth’s brows rose to peaks.
His voice drifted from the hall. “Are y’all done, yet? I need to use the bathroom.”
Ruth and I exchanged a worried look. “Not yet. We need a few more minutes. Can you hold it?”
Ruth stifled a laugh. I shrugged. What? He could hold it.
“Yes, but only for a couple of minutes. I gotta go real bad.”
Ruth covered her mouth. I rubbed tears from my eyes and returned to the folder. “He’s even got one on Slick.”
“What’s it say?” Ruth whispered. She stalked over as I spread it on the desk. “It looks like our good friends Truck and Slick both sold the rights of their image to Xavier. Looks like they were trying to get those rights back, but Xavier wasn’t letting it happen.”
“What are you doing?”
Truck’s voice threw me. I dropped the paper I was holding and scrambled to get them all back in the file folder. “Um. The spirit got out and decided to throw folders out of your desk drawers.”
His dark gaze drilled a hole right through my spine. “Get out. Both of you.” His voice rose to nearly a yell. “All of you. Right now. Get out of my house.”
He stalked toward the desk. Truck lifted his arm as if he was going to backhand me. But he stopped himself and took a deep breath. He grabbed the box of water balloons and shoved it toward me.
“Take your ghost with you.”
I grabbed the box and followed Ruth, who was hightailing it out the door. Alice stood in the hallway. I shot her a what-happened look. She didn’t speak until we were out the door.
“He said he had to go. Before I knew it, Truck was storming down the hall. I opened my mouth to warn y’all, but he was already in the office.”
I gritted my teeth. “There isn’t a bathroom in the office.”
“Oh,” Alice said, rubbing her cheek. “I didn’t think about that.”
The three of us stood on the sidewalk. “How’re we supposed to get home?” Alice whined.
A black sedan slid up alongside us. The passenger window hummed down.
“Well, ladies, I hear y’all have had an eventful evening.”
Why was it I’d only encountered Sheriff Kency Blount a couple of times but already she rubbed me the wrong way? Sort of like she had something to prove being a female sheriff in a small Southern town.
Nope, nothing to prove there.
“We had a wild evening, Sheriff,” Alice said with an enthusiasm that bordered on insanity. “We caught a ghost.”
Kency eyed us like she suspected us of being guilty of bank robbery but couldn’t prove it. “I heard. Heard it was quite a spectacle. Then the three of you came over here.”
“Yeah, we had some cleansing to do. Did you hear the spirit threatened Truck?”
“Heard that, too.” She pushed open the door. “Why don’t the three of you come with me? I’ll drop you off at your homes.”
“Oh no,” Ruth said. “Beautiful night like this was made for walking.”
“I’m not sure you understand,” Kency said. “That wasn’t a question. It was a statement. I need to talk to y’all.”
I wanted to say something smart and ask if ghost catching was illegal, but one look from Ruth told me otherwise.
I pulled off my backpack and climbed into the back seat of Kency’s personal vehicle. Hey, at least it said something that she didn’t pick us up in a cruiser.
When the three of us were piled into the back seat, she pulled away from the curb.
“One of you could’ve sat up front,” she said. “I don’t bite.”
“That’s not what I’ve heard,” Alice said. “Remember that nice boy you dated, Robert Smith? Rumor was he went around town telling everyone what a good biter you were.”
Ruth elbowed Alice. “You should’ve sat up front. I can barely breathe back here.”
“You should’ve,” Alice snapped. “At least then my bottom would have room.”
“Let me tell you something, your bottom wouldn’t have room unless we were on a cruise ship.”
I barked a laugh. Both women glared at me. “What? My butt doesn’t have room either. I’m sitting on the door handle.”
“Will the three of you please shut up so I can ask y’all a question.”
We each mumbled yes.
“How in the blazes did y’all know to be at the funeral home?”
“Someone called,” I said. “I didn’t catch a name.” I glanced at Ruth.
“Oh yes, they called the line. I didn’t catch the name, either. But it was just the break we’d been looking for. I don’t know if you realized it or not, Sheriff, but we haven’t actually gone on any ghost hunts since we’ve been in business.”
“I guess Ghost Wranglers sort of kept you out of business,” Kency said.
“Oh no,” Alice said. “They weren’t our competition. That was all hocus-pocus and nonsense. Everyone knows that. We weren’t called because no one believed we could do it.”
Ruth smiled. “We sure showed them, didn’t we?”
“We did,” Alice chimed.
“So you’ve got a new member on your team.” Kency glanced at me from her rearview mirror.
“Who, me? Oh no, I’m just passing through this town. I’m leaving soon. But the ladies asked me to help. You know, because I saw the Teenybopper at Soul Food and Spirits.”
“So the three of you working together was just a one-shot deal?” Kency said.
Ruth poked the air. “Right. Blissful has to get on to her real life. That’s not here in Haunted Hollow.”
Kency pulled into the parking lot where we’d left the Caprice. “Alice, I’m assuming this is your car?”
“Sure is. Thanks.”
Before we could open the doors, Kency turned around. She slapped one arm over the bench seat. “So if this was the first time the three of y’all worked together, do you mind telling me why I found all y’alls fingerprints at Xavier Bibb’s house?”
Oh crap. We never should’ve gotten in the sedan.
SEVENTEEN
“Xavier asked the three of us there,” I blurted out. It was always better to think before I came up with a total lie, but there wasn’t time.
Kency cocked a brow. “He did?”
“Yep,” Ruth lied seamlessly. “He had some equipment to show us. He invited Blissful because she’d seen that ghost.”
“And he invited me ’cause I had a bag of Milano cookies,” Alice said. “Oh, and for the technical stuff. But when we arrived, his equipment wasn’t working.”
“Right. It had gone soft,” I said. I couldn’t help it; they were the first words from my mouth.
All three women stared at me.
“I mean, there was an outage. It wasn’t working properly.”
Kency hid a smile behind her hand. “You can go. But if I have any more questions for the three of you, next time we meet it’ll be in my office.”
“Sounds like a wonderful plan,” Alice said. “I’ll bring the cookies.”
“And I’ll make cinnamon rolls.” Ruth smiled like a cat about to pounce on a mouse. “You still like those, don’t you, Kency?”
Kency blanched. “Yes, I suppose. Now scat. I’ve dealt with enough mischief tonight.”
When the three of us had piled back into the Caprice, I shot Ruth a questioning glance. “What was the whole cinnamon-roll thing about?”
She waved me off. “Oh, that? It’s well-known that Kency likes certain things drizzled on her naked body.”
I cringed. “Oh, jeez. Just don’t. Is that because of the Robert Smith guy?”
Alice wiggled her brows. “Yep. That man couldn’t keep a secret. It’s always good to have something embarrassing on your sheriff, I always say.”
Ruth buckled her seat belt. “Keeps ’em honest.”
“Keeps ’em something,” I mumbled.
As we cruised toward the inn, I realized there was something I hadn’t said to these women.
“Thank you.”
Alice glanced over her shoulder at me. “For what?”
Oh, so many things. I pressed my hands together and slowly exhaled. “For helping me tonight. For taking the whole ghost thing in stride. I kind of surprised you with that.”
“You could say that again,” Ruth said. “I didn’t expect a real ghost.”
“Well now that you’ve caught one, maybe the town will think you’ll be a good hire. But I can’t promise a cardboard box of water balloons will hold the next ghost.” I tapped the container. “Susan, you’re free. Thanks, again.”
The spirit lifted from the box. She shook out her teased hair. “Y’all wouldn’t believe how cramped it was in there. I’ll see you around, Blissful.”
She zipped from the car.
“Is she still here?” Alice said.
“No, she’s gone. Not that she went far. She haunts the restaurant.”
Ruth flipped down her sun visor, opened her mirror and eyed me. “So what’ve we learned so far?”
I zipped up my jacket. “That Truck had ample reason to want Xavier dead. I don’t think Truck would’ve gotten that Hollywood contract if his buddy had lived.”
“I’m sure you’re right about that,” Ruth said.
“Not only that, but both Truck and Slick sold Xavier the rights to use their image. Xavier could do whatever he wanted with them—make and sell action figures, posters, you name it—and Truck wouldn’t see one dime. Looks like both men tried to get Xavier to sell the rights back, but their buddy wouldn’t budge. Now with him out of the way, the rights revert back to Truck and Slick.”
“But now the show’s dead,” Alice said.
“But not their careers,” I said. “We know that Truck has a deal. What about Slick?”
“I don’t know,” Alice said. “I haven’t heard anything.”
“That’s what I need to know next. Do y’all have any idea where Slick will be tomorrow?”
“How about a funeral?” Ruth said. “They’re burying Xavier.”
“Is it invitation only?” I said.
“Far as I know,” Ruth said. “But we might be able to get in if you need to talk to Slick.”
I tapped my toe. “Let me think about it. I’ll let y’all know in the morning. If Truck tells Slick what we did—went through his stuff, he’ll avoid us like the plague. That’s a problem.”
“Oh no he won’t,” Ruth said.
“Why’s that?”
She pulled in front of the bed-and-breakfast and stopped. “Because I happened to teach sixth grade in Haunted Hollow for twenty years. Every single Christmas I receive a card from Slick’s mother. If there’s something I need from him, you can bet Miss Martha Ann is going to help me however she can.”
My lips coiled into a smile. “I’ll call or drop by first thing in the morning. Get some rest, ladies. You did great work tonight.”
As I walked down the sidewalk and up the stairs, I realized that I’d meant what I said. The ladies had done a wonderful job, and I did appreciate it. For once I’d worked with a group, and I found myself almost liking it.
I’d worked alone for so long that I thought it was the only way to do business. It wasn’t. Even a team of old women could be relied on to make things work.
I reached the porch. Soft guitar music filled my ears. It was “Blackbird” by the Beatles. I started to walk toward the sound. The pine boards creaked beneath my feet. I stopped, turned back to the door.
