The Ex Who Saw a Ghost (Charley's Ghost Book 4) (8 page)

“Maybe I have to go, but I don’t have to talk when I get there. I’m not talking to Parker unless you’re there.”

“Why not?” Charley liked Teresa and had gone with her before. It was the only way Amanda had been able to be alone with Jake. And that was it, of course. “Oh, I get it. You want to be sure I can’t see Jake while you’re gone. How about I give you my word?”

Charley shook his head. “Not good enough. You could lie. I can’t, but you can. I’ve heard you.”

“Charley, I really don’t want to go along on this expedition. How’s Teresa going to explain my presence?
Amanda came along because she has her own personal ghost and he can talk to my ghost?
Really?”

Charley lifted his chin. “Really.”

“Please, Amanda,” Teresa entreated. “I want this to go well, and I’m concerned that Parker won’t tell me what I need to know. If I can’t answer the questions Ross asks, he’s going to think I’m a fraud. I really need Charley’s help communicating with him.”

Amanda opened her mouth to refuse again but couldn’t do it. Teresa had said
please
. Teresa sounded desperate. Teresa needed her help. Teresa was her friend. She sighed. “All right, fine, I’ll go.”

“Thank you, thank you! Ross wants to talk to this Lila person before the cops find her, before she becomes a person of interest because then he won’t be able to talk to her since he’s not officially on the case. He’s on his way now. Can you bring Charley and come on over?”

No wonder Amanda had never before had a best friend. They could be a lot of hassle.

Teresa and Ross were waiting when Amanda rode up on her bike.

Ross got out of his car and opened the back passenger door. “Thanks for coming along, Amanda.” He wasn’t smiling. He didn’t look thrilled to see her.

“Yeah, sure, no problem. Glad I could help.” She pulled off her helmet, climbed into the back seat and set it down beside her. Ross closed the door behind her and got into the driver’s seat. What reason had Teresa given him for her presence?

From the passenger seat, Teresa turned to face her. “Yes, thank you so much for coming. I explained to Ross how talking to spirits sometimes saps my energy, and it really helps to have a person around who exudes high energy like you do.”

Charley laughed. “I think she just called you hyper.”

Amanda bared her teeth in a phony smile. Ross’ attention was focused on driving out of the parking lot so only Teresa saw it. “Give me another Coke or two, and I’ll exude off the walls for you.” She looked around the car. “Is he here now?”

“No,” Teresa and Charley both said at the same time.

“He’s not happy about this visit to Lila Stone,” Teresa said.

He’d been paying the woman money. Surely that meant he liked her and might even enjoy seeing her again. “Why not?”

Teresa rolled her eyes. “Same old thing. It’s not important.”

“It’s almost twenty thousand dollars of importance,” Ross said.

“He finally agreed to meet us there when we—Ross—pointed out that with half the law enforcement in the state looking into this case, they’re going to find her eventually. Talking to us first will prepare her for that interrogation. So Parker agreed to meet us. He wants to help her.”

“Does she know he’s...uh...”

“Dead?” Charley finished for her. “You can’t say the word? You have no trouble using that word to me, telling me our wedding vows don’t count anymore because I’m that word.”

“She heard about Parker’s death on the news,” Teresa said.

“And she’s okay with us coming to talk to her about him?” Amanda asked.

“She was a little reluctant at first.”

“She was a lot reluctant at first.” Ross stared straight ahead as he spoke. “She said she was grieving and didn’t want to talk to anybody. I appealed to her as Parker’s brother. I told her if I’d found out about her relationship with Parker, the sheriff would too so maybe we should talk about it first.”

“I see,” Amanda said. “Where does she live? Where are we going?”

“South of town. South of Duncanville, actually.”

“So she’s sort of on the way to the place where we found Parker’s body? That’s a coincidence.”

“Are we going back to that place?” Charley complained. “I changed my mind about going with you if that’s where we’re headed. I didn’t like that place.”

Teresa turned to him and lowered her brows.

“Don’t know why you’d want to go back there either.”

“Yes, it’s a coincidence,” Ross said. “But it’s nothing definitive. A lot of people live down that way. I just want to talk to her in an unofficial capacity, find out what her relationship with my brother was. Anything I find out that relates to solving the case, of course I’ll turn it over to the proper authorities.”

“Of course,” Teresa repeated.

“Of course,” Amanda said.

Charley laughed.

They rode in silence for a few minutes.

“Maybe she killed him,” Charley said. He never had been good at the quiet game. “I don’t want to talk to a murderess. What if she tries to kill us? Amanda, did you bring your Smith and Wesson?”

Lila Stone would have a tough time killing Charley. If it was that easy, Amanda would have done it herself when he first came back into her life after he died.

“We need to ask Parker,” Charley continued. “Why isn’t he here? Why is he meeting us there? Does he just go wherever he wants? I guess some ghosts aren’t on a leash. Must be nice.”

What if Parker didn’t show up? What would Ross think of Teresa’s ability then? He’d probably think she’d been lying the whole time. This visit had the potential to be a total disaster. Charley wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to go.

They drove a few more miles down the highway then exited onto a side road where the residences were farther apart and individual mailboxes sat at the end of gravel driveways. Ross turned down one of the driveways. A brown mobile home squatted in the middle of a desolate but tidy yard. A mid-size white sedan sat under a carport on one side of the house. No old cars, no tractor parts like the yards of some of the neighbors. A couple of gnarled mesquite trees near the house provided neither shade nor the feeling of serenity that came from Amanda’s big oak in her parking lot next to her apartment. Tufts of grass dotted the barren ground. In spite of the row of bright yellow chrysanthemums blooming in front of the house, it felt lonely and sad.

“This place is creepy,” Charley said.

“How old is this woman?” Amanda asked. “This doesn’t look like someplace a young person lives.”

“Twenty-six.” Ross put the car in park and got out.

“Ross knows all about her. He ran a complete background check on her,” Teresa said. “She dropped out of high school in her junior year. Been picked up a couple of times for drugs and once for prostitution. Her mother died a year ago and left this place to her.”

There was the drug thing again. Drug usage had become a big problem everywhere so it could be just a coincidence.

Or not.

The screen door of the house opened. A short, slim woman with medium length blond hair stepped onto the porch. In her faded jeans—probably a size zero—and her white blouse with ruffles down the front and on the sleeves, she could have been a child until Amanda got close enough to see her face. She looked older than twenty-six years. Tiny wrinkles creased her eyes and upper lip. Her nose and chin pinched into sharp edges.

“That woman’s using,” Charley said.

And Charley would know. He’d been involved with drugs and drug users more than a few times.

“Lila?” Ross paused at the edge of the porch. “I’m Ross Minatelli, Parker’s brother. I spoke to you on the phone.”

“Yeah, I’m Lila Stone. Who are these people? I thought you were coming alone.” Her wary gaze darted from Ross to Amanda to Teresa.

Ross introduced them. “Teresa and Amanda were with me when we found Parker. They wanted to come today to offer their condolences.”

Lila regarded the three of them for a moment then finally shrugged, stepped back and held the door open, inviting them in.

They walked into the smell of stale cigarette smoke and some kind of overpowering floral air freshener. That would explain Lila’s wrinkles. Well, the cigarette smoke would, not necessarily the air freshener, though at that potency, it couldn’t be ruled out.

“Y’all have a seat,” she invited. “I’ll get some iced tea.” She spoke the conventional words of hospitality but her tone was wooden.

Grief over Parker’s death? Distress at having two strange women suddenly appear at her door? Drugs?

The three of them sank onto the sofa, huddling together in a group, leaving the matching chair for Lila.

“I’m going to make sure she doesn’t put anything in that tea.” Charley followed her to the kitchen.

He was being melodramatic.

Amanda hoped he was.

She looked around the room. Off-white paint covered the living room walls in a pristine way that appeared to be fresh. The brown leather sofa and glass-topped coffee table with a bowl of colorful balls looked new. The pictures on the wall, the two matching lamps sitting on matching tables, the vase on an occasional table...everything was perfect, as if it had come straight off a furniture showroom floor, no personal touches. The neat, tidy interior of the house felt as barren as the outside.

Amanda bit her lip and tried not to be judgmental. Just because her own furnishings ran to mismatched, eclectic pieces didn’t mean other people had that same taste.

Lila came back into the room with four matching glasses of iced tea. Again with the matching.

“Nice place,” Amanda said. Perhaps her kind words would make up for her tacky thoughts.

“Thank you.” Lila handed out the glasses then sat in the arm chair and sipped from her own drink. “I grew up in this house. After Mama died, I tried to spiffy it up a little.”

“Very nice.” Teresa sounded as phony as Amanda felt. She nudged Amanda’s arm and nodded toward the flat screen television in the corner of the room.

“Parker!” Charley darted in that direction. “I was worried you wouldn’t come.”

Well, the gang’s all here. The party can begin.
Amanda took a drink of her iced tea since Charley hadn’t reported that Lila put any drugs or poison in the beverage.

It was freshly brewed, a little weak but better than most restaurant tea.

“Thank you for letting us come by,” Ross said.

Lila grimaced or smiled. It was hard to tell the difference on her harsh features. “Parker told me about you. He said you were a good guy even if you are a cop.”

Ross laughed, the sound easy and natural...and probably rehearsed. He was moving into the cop mode thing. “I’m not here as a cop. I’m here as Parker’s brother. I took a leave of absence after his death. I just wanted to talk to you because you were important to him.”

Lila’s eyebrows lifted slightly as if in surprise. “He told you about me?”

Ross nodded. “Of course he did.”

Unlike ghosts, cops could lie. However, it was kind of the truth since Parker’s bank account had led Ross to this woman, so he’d sort of told Ross about her.

“He told me too,” Teresa said. “He told me you’re a friend, someone he cares about.”

“He did,” Charley assured Amanda. “Just now. I heard him.”

Lila set her glass of tea precisely in the center of a coaster on the lamp table beside her chair and looked down at the beige carpet...the new, spotless beige carpet. “Parker was a good person.”

“Yes.” Ross leaned closer, his gaze intent, scrutinizing Lila’s every movement—a human lie detector. “He was a very good person. He wanted to help you.”

Lila put her face in her hands. Her small shoulders heaved and she burst into sobs.

Charley spread his hands in a gesture of confusion. “Why is she pretending to cry? How does Ross know Parker wanted to help her? He didn’t say that. Just because he was giving her money doesn’t mean he wanted to help her. She could have been blackmailing him. I’m not buying this boo-hoo stuff.”

The same thought had crossed Amanda’s mind. Crossed it and lingered. Parker probably had a good reason for wanting to help Lila, but the woman reminded Amanda of a possum with her pointy little face and beady eyes, a possum sneaking around in the dark, getting into garbage cans in somebody’s back yard and making a huge mess of things.

Charley looked at the television. “Was she blackmailing you, buddy?” He returned his attention to Amanda. “He says no. But maybe he can lie. I don’t trust this Lila.”

Charley was cynical, judged others by his own deplorable ethics. Lila had done nothing to justify such an attitude. Nevertheless, Amanda was inclined to agree.

Ross crossed the room to stand beside Lila. He laid a gentle hand on her back. “My brother wanted to save the world. He brought home stray dogs and cats and once even a wounded skunk.”

Was he implying Parker had rescued her? From what?

Lila lifted her head. Tears streaked the harsh planes of her face. Maybe she really was crying. “I can see him doing that.” She took a package of cigarettes and lighter from behind the lamp and lit up, inhaling deeply before blowing the smoke into the room.

Charley waved a hand in front of his face as if the smoke offended him. “I never did like women who smoked.”

Maybe he hadn’t liked them, but he’d certainly partied with a lot of them. The cigarette smoke might explain some of Amanda’s instant dislike for this woman. She should give her a chance before judging her.

Lila looked at the cigarette as if surprised to see it in her hand then crushed it out in a glass ashtray next to the lamp. “I’m sorry. Nasty habit. I’m trying to quit.”

The one puff seemed to have calmed her and she managed a weak smile. “I miss him. He was a great guy. I loved him.”

Amanda sucked in a breath. She’d never known Parker, but she couldn’t imagine Ross’ brother being with this woman in a loving relationship. Much easier to believe she’d been blackmailing him.

Charley made a face. “She’s a skank, Parker. You could have done better.”

“Were you lovers?” Teresa asked the question of the blank television screen.

Teresa was talking to Parker, but Lila’s eyes widened in horror. She shook her head adamantly. “No! No, he was my...friend. We never...no!”

Parker was...had been...single. Lila was single. There was no reason they shouldn’t have been lovers. Whether they were or weren’t seemed more inconsequential than Lila’s vehement denial warranted.

Frustration spread over Teresa’s features. She stood and moved closer to the television. “You were just friends?”