Read The Ghost and Mrs. McClure Online
Authors: Alice Kimberly
The Ghost and Mrs. McClure (14 page)
Funny thing, the computer, thought Jack. Before Penelope, he hadn’t given the boxy typewriter two looks. For one thing, it appeared a cold, remote medium, like his old office’s Underwood. Every now and again, Jack would notice the screen above the keyboard reading “Inventory” or “Account Orders,” and Sadie typing away with a glassy-eyed look that reminded him of his old gum-chewing secretary.
(Not a bad-looking dame, his secretary, but not his type—that is, not much upstairs, which was actually why Jack had hired her. She had no interest in getting wise to his clients’ secrets or Jack’s. Just typed, filed, and answered phones, which was what he needed. In the end, the private dick business came with enough female distractions on the job as it was. Why compound that interest?)
Anyhow, in old Aunt Sadie’s hands, the computer seemed like little more than a typewriter. But not in Penelope’s. With that sharp cookie at the wheel, that plastic box had come alive, racing down alleyways he’d never even known existed.
Take that gab-room thing. Ten people all over the world spilling guts and squaring beefs, one after the other, faster than a bookie giving odds at post time. (Even though some of them did remind Jack of those uptown hustlers, full of gin and big words.)
And those information searches the doll was doing right now. Answers to all sorts of questions with the stroke of a few keys. People, places, events. It spun Jack like a top.
If he had a nickel for all the shoe leather he’d worn out tracking down information for just one case, he’d have died a rich man.
In fact, it seemed to Jack this new century had enough ready gadgets to make it possible for your average housewife to become a private dick—which reminded Jack of why he needed to talk to Penelope tonight in the first place: Brennan’s murder. And that syringe Josh had swiped.
“Depression . . .” murmured Penelope, staring at the “Psych Subjects” screen for a long moment. She clicked on the glowing blue D-word and the green screen dissolved into a white page with large black type at the top: CLINICAL DEPRESSION SCREENING TEST.
Because Penelope was nearsighted, she’d removed the black rectangular frames when she’d first sat down to read the computer screen, giving Jack a rare glimpse of her naked face.
The light from the computer screen reflected in her eyes, burnishing the copper irises with tiny flecks of buried gold and making her pale skin appear smooth as cream. With her lips slightly swollen from her nervous gnawing, and her reddish-brown hair mussed, Jack thought she looked as though she’d just risen from a night of lovemaking.
What he wouldn’t give to occupy a body again for just a few hours. He’d pull her up, out of that chair, into his arms. What he wouldn’t give to feel his hardness against her softness . . .
“This is a self-assessment test presented by mental-health. com,” Penelope murmured. “Please click the boxes that apply to you: Feelings of sadness and/or irritability. Check. Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed. Check. Difficulty getting out of bed. Check. Inability to concentrate, work, or make decisions. Definitely a check—”
Waste of time, doll,
Jack interrupted.
You’re not depressed.
Jack interrupted.
You’re not depressed.
Penelope’s fingers stilled over the keyboard. Her body stiffened the way it always did when he penetrated her mind.
Well?
Jack asked.
Didn’t your chat room friend . . . RUNE . . . didn’t RUNE advise you to “dialogue” with me?
Jack asked.
Didn’t your chat room friend . . . RUNE . . . didn’t RUNE advise you to “dialogue” with me?
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to take psychological advice from a person who professes to believe in ghosts.”
Aw, shucks, doll,
said Jack.
You don’t believe in me? You want me to provide you a mental projection again, like I did last night?
said Jack.
You don’t believe in me? You want me to provide you a mental projection again, like I did last night?
“Is that what I saw?” Penelope whispered. “A mental projection?”
Don’t know what else to call it,
said Jack.
said Jack.
“How about a hallucination?”
What a pill, Jack thought to himself. Okay, baby. Time to play hardball.
Turn off the lights again,
he told her with the equivalent of a low rasp in her ear. He swirled himself silently around her, taking pleasure in the way goose bumps formed on the surface of her skin, and her ample breasts rose and fell with quickening breaths.
I dare you . . .
he told her with the equivalent of a low rasp in her ear. He swirled himself silently around her, taking pleasure in the way goose bumps formed on the surface of her skin, and her ample breasts rose and fell with quickening breaths.
I dare you . . .
“No!” Penelope said, even as shivers ran through her, giving her the startling revelation that he could manifest signs of his physical presence. “I can’t feel you. I can’t.”
You can. It’s me.
He breezed by her again, and again she shivered, shutting her pretty copper eyes, the dark lashes brushing her pale cheeks in a way that made Jack even more restless.
He breezed by her again, and again she shivered, shutting her pretty copper eyes, the dark lashes brushing her pale cheeks in a way that made Jack even more restless.
“You go away now,” she said.
Jack laughed.
“I mean it.”
He laughed again.
Penelope stood up, her small hands balling into fists. She released a breath, then opened her eyes and grabbed up her clunky black glasses, shoving them on her face like armor.
“Get out of my head!” she cried. “Get out of my store!”
Calm down, baby. You’re in no danger. At least not yet—and I’m only bothering you now because I’d like to keep it that way for you and yours. Get me?
Jack backed away, letting the air around her warm again. Penelope took a deep breath. “You’re trying to
protect
me? And my family?”
protect
me? And my family?”
Ready to open an eardrum now?
“Fine,” she said, sinking slowly back into her chair. “Proceed.”
First let’s get some things out of the way. I can’t stand it when broads pretend I’m not wise to things. It’s time to put the cards on the table. I want you to know what I know about you.
“What do you know about me?”
Everything. You’re a widow, that’s easy, but you haven’t let a living soul know how you really felt about your husband. Maybe not even yourself.
“Okay, I’ll bite. How do I feel?”
You didn’t love him.
“How dare you—”
Save the energy, doll. Hubby leaped from an Upper East Side high-rise. You even glimpsed the guy taking the big plunge when you opened the bedroom door unexpectedly. And, after the initial shock over the man’s sad end, you felt mainly one thing: worry for your son’s well-being. And that was it. You’re sorry for the way he died, but you don’t miss him in the least.
“I won’t dignify that with an answer.”
Don’t. We both know it’s true. And we both know why.
“Oh, WE both know, do we?”
You were trying to raise a little boy with dragon-hearted in-laws breathing down your neck, and your mealy-mouthed man giving you a manifesto that read something like he found fatherhood a bore. How’m I doing?
Penelope sat very still.
He stopped sleeping with you, too,
Jack continued.
And no matter what you did, what you said to try to help him, or get him help, the sap refused to make the least bit of effort to find a way out of the well. That is, until he took the coward’s way out. Or should I say down. All the way to the bottom and six feet under. That about cover it?
Jack continued.
And no matter what you did, what you said to try to help him, or get him help, the sap refused to make the least bit of effort to find a way out of the well. That is, until he took the coward’s way out. Or should I say down. All the way to the bottom and six feet under. That about cover it?
After a long pause, Penelope whispered, “It’s all true. Yes.”
So that clinical depression checklist you’re going through isn’t for you, is it?
“No.”
It’s for Calvin, right?
“I should have done it when it mattered. For a solid month he told me he was looking for a better therapist, that his old one was a quack. He kept telling me he was taking his medicine.”
But he wasn’t. On either count.
“That’s right. And he was—”
Get it out, sister.
“Weak. Calvin was weak, which meant he could also be mean. He never struck me, but when he didn’t get his way, he could be abusive . . . verbally abusive.”
So you distanced yourself.
“That’s a nice way of putting it. What I did was give up on him . . . and the truth is I was close to leaving him.”
But he left you first.
“Yes.”
So you blame yourself.
“Of course I blame myself. I was his wife.”
Listen, I got a story for you, one of my cases. A wife comes in one day to hire me as a tail for her husband. Pretty little thing. Had a baby at home. Said her husband was an alkie. He’d have a bad week, get bombed on Friday, sleep with whatever had a pulse, then drag home again about Sunday. Swear he’d never do it again. Promised he’d get help to kick the booze. The week would go by. Come Friday, he was in the bar, knocking them back. So . . . what do you think?
“What do I think? Of what?”
Of the wife? How many years should the authorities have put her in prison for . . . I mean for the terrible crime of not getting her husband to sober up and stop treating her like dirt?
“It wasn’t the wife’s fault.”
My point exactly, doll.
“No. My situation was not the same as hers. Calvin was sick. He was depressed. I know back in your time, society didn’t recognize depression as a disease—alcoholism, either, for that matter. But these things are sicknesses. People can’t kick them on their own. They need help.”
Which you tell me you tried to get him. But he refused.
“I could have committed him.”
Would his family have let you?
“Probably not. They didn’t see Calvin the way I did. He showed them a different face, and he’d never said anything about suicide—not to me, anyway. He’d even rallied the week before. Started organizing things, seemed more upbeat.”
You didn’t PUSH him out the window, did you?
“No, of course not. Although sometimes the way his family looks at me—I think they wonder if I did.”
Screw them. Him, too. And I don’t mean maybe, baby, he’s the one that bailed. All that counts now is you and your son. You’re in it together. Isn’t that what you told the kid this morning?
There was a long pause. “You were there this morning? With us? In Spencer’s room? You heard me say that?”
So anyway, sugar, let’s get back to that syringe in your ladies’—
“Oh, no you don’t. I want you to answer my question. Were you spying on us? On me? Upstairs in our private rooms?”
I like to think of it as surveillance.
“Well, I forbid you to go up there again.”
Lady, you can’t lay down house rules to a man with no body.
“I can so! I can ask you to promise not to haunt the second floor, on your honor as a . . . as a spirit.”
Forget it.
“You know you’re being unreasonable, Jack.”
Another long pause ensued.
“Jack?”
That’s the first time you called me by my name.
Penelope bit her lip. “Sorry.”
No, no, it’s all right by me.
Jack breezed close again.
I liked hearing you say it.
Jack breezed close again.
I liked hearing you say it.
Penelope gave a little shiver. “Let’s get back to that business of Josh,” she said. “What would he want with a hidden syringe?”
Here’s my theory: That syringe was used to poison Brennan in some way last night. Now, the killer would have been crazy to keep it on her because she couldn’t bet the police wouldn’t search the people in attendance in some way. And she wouldn’t throw it in the trash because that’s exactly where the cops would look first—and the State Police did cart last night’s trash away, didn’t they?
“Yes, they did. But why do you keep saying ‘her’ and ‘she’? How can you be sure the killer was a woman?”
Because a man going into the ladies’ can on the night Brennan keeled would have raised immediate alarms. A man would have hidden it in the men’s room. The person you’re looking for has to be a woman—at least as far as hiding the syringe goes. Doesn’t necessarily mean she’s the actual killer. She could simply be an accomplice, working with a man or another woman.
“I’m with you. Go on.”
The woman would have hid it in your ladies’ john, hoping to return for it another day.
“Or she might have paid someone to retrieve it for her. Someone like Josh.”
It’s possible. But wouldn’t she have told Josh exactly where to find the syringe, instead of making him search for it and risk getting caught?
“Well, if Josh wasn’t hired to find the syringe, then why was he looking for it in the first place?”
Don’t know.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Didn’t you read his thoughts?”
Couldn’t.
“But you’ve been reading mine.”
Told you before, I can only read yours. Get it through your head, babe, I’m not some kind of all-knowing divine spirit. I’m just a dead dick.
“All right. I get it. So what should I do now?”
Narrow down your suspect list. Josh is suspect number one. But he had to search for that syringe, which means he wasn’t the one to plant it—so who did?
“Deirdre?”
Possibly. She has the best motive. You yourself heard her say she had no love for Daddy dearest. And she’s inheriting all his loot.
“I’m sure that’s what Lieutenant Marsh will conclude.”
Who else?
“Her husband, Kenneth Franken?”
They could be in it together. Who else?
“Deirdre said Brennan was about to divorce his third wife. Maybe she tried something.”
Wouldn’t Deirdre or Brennan have recognized Brennan’s wife at the event last night?
“Oh, yes, that’s right. They would have.”
She could have hired someone, though—a doll willing to do the dirty deed. And there could be other suspects with motives we just haven’t uncovered yet.
“What about Shelby Cabot? Josh reports to her. So it makes sense he’d do a favor for her like retrieve the syringe. But what motive could she have? Unless she was hired by Brennan’s wife.”
It’s a long shot. So far Deirdre and you look like the prime suspects.
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