Audrey Claire - Libby Grace 02 - How to Blackmail a Ghost (3 page)

“S-Sadie?” I called, but my voice came out hoarse and choked. “Sadie, are you okay?”

Common sense said the stillness was unnatural, and poor Sadie would not get up again. In my state of mind, I remember also thinking how even backbiting gossips became “poor dears” after they passed.
Think rationally, Libby
, I chided myself. Yes, I needed to get Clark. He would handle things from here.

I laid Sadie’s hand down as gently as I could and rose to my feet. I hadn’t moved a step when a high-pitched scream chattered the serenity in that particular corner of the park. I started and glanced up. One of the tourists had returned to her vehicle and spotted Sadie. Her wide, frightened eyes rose to mine, and the sickly pallor to her face made me glance down to be sure I hadn’t lost concentration. I hadn’t.

“She’s…she’s…” the woman mumbled, staring hard at me.

Another person arrived and then another, until a crowd formed. I stumbled back another step from Sadie, and then the worse happened. Ken pushed through the crowd. His eyes were red and tearful. He looked from me to Sadie. No one had as yet approached her. Ken’s cry wrenched through me, and he crashed down to his knees over her, sobbing out of control. “Mee-maw! Mee-Maw!”

I slapped a hand over my mouth. His grandmother? I never knew. How awful for him. Shaking myself, I started toward him to offer a word of comfort. Before I reached him and Sadie, Ken looked up at me, eyes wet and full of rage.

“You killed her!
You
did it!” he shouted and then collapsed on Sadie’s chest. Conversations erupted all around us, words in speculation and accusation. Someone mentioned the argument I had earlier with Sadie, insignificant at the time but to be analyzed now. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Worse, I was not concentrating at all. I winked out. Just like that—in front of all those people. I was there and then I was gone. At least, that’s how it must seem to all those present. Faces blurred before me. People whirled this way and that, looking around them.

“Where did she go?” someone said.

“Did you see?” another asked.

“She just…”

I swallowed and looked toward this third speaker, but Monica shouted from the opposite direction. “Libby?”

People trampled about, pushing and shoving. Monica looked down and spotted my clothing. I marveled at how she scooped them up and whipped them out of sight in a bag she carried. The woman was a miracle worker.

I couldn’t answer her, but she straightened and scanned the crowd, worry in her expression. More people arrived, along with Clark. Some passed through me and shivered. I drifted above them all and hurried to the hardware shop. I couldn’t materialize in the park now. Someone might have seen me disappear and demand an explanation right there in front of everyone. My only hope was each person would assume they had been seeing things because of the stress of the situation. For now, I clung to that hope.

I paced in the shop, chewing on a thumbnail. This was silly. Why was I upset? No one would believe I had anything to do with Sadie’s death. Besides, she was an elderly lady. Most likely, she had passed from natural causes. I nodded to myself. Of course, why was I letting this get to me so much?

I wandered to the back of the shop, an area I didn’t frequent unless work forced me to. I had made sure every nook and cranny in the front of the store was fully stocked and planned to pass the vinyl doorway no more than once a week, longer if possible. I had discovered George Walsh’s dead body in this area just two weeks previously, and I didn’t want to believe I had started a pattern. I had used a bit of the store’s reserves to pay for someone to come in and clean up the crime scene, but it still gave me the willies. I didn’t by any means sense Death lingering in the store, or other spirits for that matter. That didn’t stop my imagination from suggesting it could happen.

The bell over the front door jingled, and I squared my shoulders then walked through to greet whoever had come in. Jake darted ahead of Monica with Clark behind my friend. “Mom, did you hear?”

“Yes, Jake,” I said, cutting him off before he rehashed the news. “And you shouldn’t be so excited about it.”

“I’m not. I’ve just never seen a dead body before.”

My gaze flew to Monica’s, and she pursed her lips and shook her head. “You still haven’t, sweet pea. Why don’t you go to your mom’s office and play the games she set up for you in there?”

Jake whined. “Aww, why can’t I go back to the festival?” He held up a plastic bag with two fish swimming inside. “I almost had another one, and I was ahead of Brian. He only had one.”

“Sorry, bud,” Clark interjected. “Festivities are suspended for the time being. We’ll see if we can get it going tomorrow, okay?”

Jake moaned again but gave in. I too lamented the interruption to the celebration. Nothing much got Jake’s nose out of a book, and I was always happy for anything that could get him active.

As soon as Jake was safely tucked away in my office, I looked at Monica. “Is Ken okay? I had no idea he’s related to Sadie.”

My friend nodded. “She was his grandmother. His parents spend a lot of time traveling, and he usually stays with friends, but this year he came down to Summit’s Edge. Sadie goes to wherever they live on short visits. At least that’s what I could gather in the few minutes since…”

The gossip had already begun to spread like wildfire, I gathered. Turning to Clark, I clenched my hands together. “Clark, I didn’t hurt Sadie. I would never do anything like that. Sure, we weren’t friends, but—”

He laid a hand on my shoulder, silencing me, and I managed to step away as if I hadn’t noticed his attempt to comfort me. I heard his sigh at my back. “I know you have nothing to do with it,” he assured me. “I have to investigate. It’s my job. So I’ll ask you a few questions, okay?”

I turned back to him. “Of course.”

His piercing eyes pinned me in place. If he were a vampire, he’d have the look, I surmised. “Why were you over there?”

“Talk about straight to the chase.” Monica rolled her eyes. “I thought you were cutting her some slack.”

“Monica.” I appreciated her borderline aggressive personality. She amused me most of the time and never failed to defend me no matter what. I loved her like a sister, and especially after I almost lost her when a murderer tried to kill us both, I would do my best to look out for her as well.

“What? I’m serious, Libby. You’ve been through enough. I thought he liked you.”

I groaned and pressed a hand to my face. Clark’s ears flamed. His eyebrows crashed low over his eyes, and he glared at Monica. “My feelings for Libby have nothing to do with my job. I’m sorry this incident has interfered with our date, but I am the chief of police. I couldn’t set an example for my men if I didn’t at least question Libby.”

“Whatever.” Monica flipped her dreadlocks over her shoulder and stalked off toward the office. That left me to deal with Clark on my own, but I knew Monica wouldn’t have left if she thought Clark meant me harm. I had to calm down and deal with his questions without jumping to conclusions. However, I couldn’t tell him I had a
feeling
and I followed it to discover Sadie’s body.

“To answer your question, I just wanted to find a quieter place for a few minutes. No one seemed to be over that area, so I took a short stroll. That’s when I stumbled upon Sadie.”

I felt his eyes on me, unwavering, but I didn’t look into his gaze. “Was anyone else around?”

I hesitated. “Maybe some kids making out in a truck, but I didn’t actually see them.”

“Can you identify them?”

“No.” I couldn’t. I had told him the truth when I said I saw no one.

Clark grunted in annoyance. He scribbled notes in a small notebook I didn’t realize he held, and I recalled he had used it the last time during George’s murder investigation. Clark was nothing if not thorough. “Was Sadie alive when you found her?”

My concentration wavered, but I steeled myself and drew in an unnecessary deep breath. The act calmed me. “No, she wasn’t. I called out her name and took her hand… She didn’t respond, and I checked her pulse. She…she wasn’t…”

“I understand.”

We were both silent a few minutes, and Clark shattered the calm.

“Why did you run away, Libby?”

This time, rather than backing off, I faced him. “Wouldn’t you if everyone was accusing you of murder?” He said nothing. No, Clark would look for the truth until he found it and prove everyone wrong.

“They want to believe the worse. You know that.”

“Well whether I stayed or left makes no difference.”

“They were bordering on a mob mentality,” Monica added unhelpfully when she re-entered the room.

Clark pinned her with a look that had less affect as it had on me earlier. “That’s exaggerating the situation, don’t you think?”

“Nope, I don’t.”

I bit back a laugh at Monica’s stubborn refusal to face reality or to let Clark get on with his job. She stood between the two of us, arms folded, head tilted in expectancy. Clark blew out a breath and snapped his notebook closed.

“I suppose that’s all for now,” he said. “Libby, I’ll clear up this mess quickly. Cause of death will be investigated, and if it’s a heart attack or stroke, something like that, I will let you know so you can put your mind at ease.” He gave us both a tight nod in dismissal. “Ladies.”

Monica followed Clark to the door and locked it behind him after he left. “No dull moment around here, huh?”

“I’ll take dull for a while. Thanks,” I said.

“I don’t blame you, girl. It seems like trouble follows you.”

“Rather, I find it.” I explained the funny feeling I had and for the first time let her in on my fear of Death.”

Monica’s rich brown skin appeared paler than usual after I finished speaking. “Yikes. That is scary, but I doubt this Death person is looking for you, if he does exist. After all, Ian said you’re still tethered to life, right? By the way, how does he even know all this stuff?”

I hadn’t shared with Monica that Ian was a vampire. That was his secret to share, and I doubted he’d like anyone in town to know the truth. I gave a small shrug and said, “I guess he studies the paranormal. You know some people find it interesting.”

“Yeah, creepy people.”

“Monica.”

“You can’t tell me you don’t find it weird you never see him socialize with anyone. In fact, you just never see him. Since the two of you have become…whatever you are, it’s the most I’ve seen his face.”

“We are just friends.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Anyway, Ian just works at night, so he doesn’t have a lot of time to socialize with the early to bed-ders of our town.” This was conjecture on my part. I had no idea if Ian worked at all. I did know he sometimes went prowling the streets for someone to feed on. He claimed he never killed them, and since there were no missing persons reports in Summit’s Edge or dead bodies other than Sadie’s at the moment, I had no reason not to believe him. That didn’t mean I found him less “creepy” than Monica. There was just so much more to Ian, and he invoked my curiosity more than anything else.

“What do you think happened to Sadie?” I asked to turn the conversation away from Ian and our odd friendship.

Monica stared out the picture window around the naked mannequin and the grill she officiated over. I hadn’t gotten to changing the tacky display. “A heart attack? I doubt it was foul play even if half the town hated her. None of us would risk jail to get her out of our misery.”

I agreed with her, but I had a feeling that something bad was on the horizon, and I would not easily escape from its influence.

Chapter Four

I stood in Ian’s kitchen, making a simple meal for him and Ian. I had learned not long ago Ian could eat food but didn’t, especially since he didn’t need it at all to survive. He ate just enough to look normal when I brought Jake over to his house. Ian had never complained of us visiting or of me taking over his kitchen, and I did so because one, it entertained my son to read his books, and two, because Ian excelled at distracting Jake from noticing my lack of eating. The same could not be said when Monica, Jake, and I were at home. My sweet boy had warned me not to diet too much because I was “beautiful just like you are, Mom.” That compliment earned him extra cookies for dessert, and he had grinned so hard I wondered if it was his plan all along.

Jake had always been highly intelligent for his age, and he questioned life around him. Keeping him from knowing my secret proved a daily challenge, and the only time I got to breathe a little easier was when we were both at Ian’s. No that Ian used mind control on Jake. I would stake the vampire for that! Ian was just intelligent in his own right and tricky. He had told me he’d been a vampire for over one hundred years, so I gathered he had experience dealing with humans. We must be super slow in comparison.

“Something bothering you, Liberty?” Ian asked when I let the mashed potatoes stick to the bottom of the pot.

“Oh, shoot,” I complained and salvaged what I could. Ian waited in silence for me to answer his question. I looked past him for Jake but then picked up my son’s happy
whoop
at whatever new book Ian had presented him with. Ian’s current collection seemed extensive, but the last time we visited he had given Jake a volume more suited to his reading level. Apparently, he had bought a new one this time too.

I placed the scorched pan in the sink and ran water in it to tackle later. I used a bit too much energy with pans, so Ian often washed them for me. The vampire came across as very haughty, but he wasn’t too good to do dishes, which I liked.

“Are you sure Luis knew nothing about my body?” I asked Ian for maybe the millionth time. “He could have had his mind wiped like what you did to him and Clark before.” Ian had made it so Luis didn’t remember discovering I was a ghost, and Clark didn’t recall that I knew about the discs before he told me. I didn’t like the ability Ian had over us humans—or rather those humans still in their body—but it had come in handy for me. At my prompting, Ian had gone to the police station with me to question Luis Riley about where my body was since he was the one who killed George Walsh. He might have seen what happened or even had my body locked in a secret chamber on life support. At least I hoped I was on life support and not officially dead.