The Ghost and Mrs. McClure (20 page)

The heckler shrunk back in terror. And the mass of people seemed to finally break and flow back like ice on a thawing river. They might not respond to orders very well, but they all understood the meaning of the term “going postal.”

“That’s more
like
it,” cried Seymour. “Now let’s form a nice, orderly, single-file line starting right over here. That way everybody will get in to see the pretty store.”

While Seymour wrangled the crowd, Sadie unlocked the door and we slipped inside. Seymour came in behind us, but only after he issued a final warning to the college student.

“I’m keeping an eye on you, bub.”

Once through the door, I turned to Seymour. “Thanks,” I said. “We never would have gotten through that crowd ourselves.”

“My pleasure,” he said. “I’ll stick around if you like. It’s Sunday, so I’ve got no mail to deliver, and my ice cream truck’s out of supplies till Monday.”

“That would be really great,” I said.

“We’ll pay you in trade,” said Sadie. “First dibs on any pulp magazines that come in for the next six months. And you can have the first two
free.
”

Seymour gave her a thumbs-up.

I jumped behind the counter and booted up the register, the monitor, and the computer. Sadie glanced at her watch.

“Time to open,” she announced.

I took a deep breath, then nodded. Sadie turned the sign around to read OPEN and unlocked the front door.

As the crowd rushed in, I saw flashing lights at the curb. Officer Eddie Franzetti came rushing up to the doorway, his hand firmly on the billy club attached to his dark blue uniform’s utility belt.

“Pen, you need help here?” he asked. “I would have been here sooner, but Rev. Waterman was crazed about setting up barricades to keep cars out of his church lot.”

“No problem, Eddie. Seymour helped us out with the crowd control.”

“Seymour? Seymour Tarnish?” Eddie’s dark brown eyes widened, the thick eyebrows rising. He lifted the hat off his short black hair and wiped his forehead with the same hand, scratching the back of his head before putting the hat on again.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Seymour was great. And I’m sorry about the litter on the sidewalk. I’m getting a trash can first thing tomorrow. So let Pinkie—uh, I mean Councilwoman Binder-Smith—know that in case she calls you guys up to complain about us again.”

“Aw, that woman complains on a daily basis. About
everyone
. Listen, I better go,” Eddie said. “The Embry lot is a mess. Someone ripped the chains down and it’s total anarchy.” He eyed the crowd warily. “But if there’s any more trouble here, you be sure to call me anytime. For
anything,
okay?”

“Thanks, Eddie,” I called.

“Save a copy of
Shield of Justice
for me, too,” he tossed back.

“Will do! And tell MaryJo and the kids we’re getting the next Harry Potter in soon.” (So Harry Potter wasn’t technically a part of the mystery genre. So what? There
were
mystery elements—and no bookstore owner in her right mind would say no to stocking it.)

I watched Eddie drive off, then started my own thrilling new installment of
Adventures in Retail
.

 

 

“I FEEL A presence in this place. An unearthly presence. A spirit of the dead.”

The speaker was a woman who’d been waiting among the throng. She was past middle age, with long, frizzy, gray hair. She stared at me through wide, unblinking green eyes.

“You feel it, too,” she said.

Okay, she looked like she’d stepped out of Central Casting, or one of those classic old Universal horror films featuring a band of singing and dancing Gypsies—right down to the long, flowing, multicolored dress and Birkenstocks. But what the hell . . . I was desperate. Maybe this woman
could
sense spiritual beings. Maybe she
was
channeling Jack Shepard. Maybe she had some answers.

Jack had spoken inside my head for the first time today. I hated myself for it, but I felt my heartbeat quicken just a little bit.

“Thanks for the valuable input, Jack,” I said silently. “Good morning to you, too.”

Seymour, at his post near the front door, pointed to his head and twirled his finger.
Cuckoo!
Then he silently mouthed something that looked like, “CNN really brings out the lunatics, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, Seymour,” I thought to myself. “If you only knew what I knew.”

I turned to the woman and asked, “Can I help you?”

“The spirit is in torment. It cries out!” the woman said, loud enough for the other customers to notice. “The spirit demands justice.”

This woman sounds sincere, I decided. My heart began to beat faster, wondering for a moment if Jack could be wrong.

“Is this woman really a sensitive?” I asked Jack.

Yeah, she’s sensitive, all right.
said Jack.
To bathtub gin and rotgut whiskey.

The woman spun on her heels, her dress billowing.

“Oh, yes,” she said, gazing at the ceiling. “It is the ghost of Timothy Brennan, cursed to haunt these premises until his murderer is punished.”

Brennan?
said Jack.
Here for eternity? Look around, toots. There ain’t a barstool or bookie in sight. Why would Brennan bother to stay in this place?

“I must listen for his voice!” she cried.

Shut her up, would you?
Jack told me.
Or I’ll scare the hell out of her myself.

“Don’t do that!” I silently warned Jack. “There are too many people around!”

“Ma’am,” I said, touching her shoulder. She spun on me.

“Do not touch a sensitive!” she screeched. I recoiled.

That’s it!
Jack cried.

A moment later, the woman’s eyes bulged. Her jaw dropped.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Are you all right?”

“J-J-ack . . . J-j-jack Sh-sh-shepard!” she stammered, pointing at me.

“Great,” I thought. “Jack, what in the world are you doing?”

I’m projecting,
he said.
On you.

The woman screamed and ran. No one seemed to be aware of Jack or me. Or the fact that he’d just screamed so loud in my head I’d automatically put my hands to my ears—as useless as that was. All eyes were on the crazed lady running for the door.

“Well, that was certainly an education,” I told him.

“Actually, I didn’t.”

Well, it’s not a piece of cake or anything,
said Jack.
But when I’m really worked up . . .

“Remind me never to really work you up.”

With a sigh, my gaze followed the trail of the exiting lady—and my body froze. I felt as though I’d seen a ghost—but not Jack’s ghost, more like the ghost of felons past.

As the “sensitive” barreled through the front doorway, she jostled a familiar middle-aged woman. It was Anna Worth, the cereal heiress herself—returning to the scene of the crime, if Fiona Finch’s theory was correct.

This time Anna Worth came with a solicitous-looking older man in tow. He looked like a professor, graying at the temples and wearing tweed, with leather patches on his jacket.

Anna Worth, on the other hand, looked the height of fashion. Her sheer peach pantsuit was beautifully tailored, and pink-tinted sunglasses sat on top of her pale blond shoulder-length hair. I probably would not have recognized her had I not seen dozens of photographs of her at various ages not two hours ago. Seymour recognized her, too, and he casually moved toward the counter.

Despite her elegant attire, Anna Worth gave the impression not of a regal heiress but of a mouse stepping into the home of a very hungry feline. The farther into the store she moved, the more noticeably her shoulders drooped, the more rapidly her eyes began to dart about. When they finally strayed in the direction of the community space, she visibly paled.

The older man instantly reacted to her discomfort. He took her arm and steered the now nervous wreck of an heiress to the other end of the store, seating her in one of the Shaker rockers. She sat, and he kneeled at her side, speaking softly into her ear.

“Pssssst, Jack!” I thought as loudly as I could. “Be a help, would you, and eavesdrop on their conversation for me?”

I received no reply, and just hoped he had already gotten the same idea and was preoccupied with his “surveillance work” already.

Seymour leaned against the counter and said in a conversational tone, “Gee, maybe murderers do return to the scene of the crime.”

“Shhhhhh!” I hissed.

“Come on, you don’t really think this eighties flashback bumped off Brennan, do you? Fiona Finch has read one too many true crime books.”

“Look, look, she’s moving again,” Sadie whispered from the corner of her mouth.

Anna Worth had risen from the rocker and, with child-like baby steps, she began to move. Her companion followed her, rubbing his chin and eyeing Anna closely. The woman paused, and the man rushed to her side. Whispering, they moved through aisles of books, never once glancing at a title. Whatever they were doing here, they certainly weren’t here to purchase some light beach reading.

Seymour grinned and poked my arm. “Here’s your chance,” he said.

“Huh?”

“Follow them.”

“They’ll see me.”

“But you
own
the place,” Seymour insisted. “You’re practically help. And rich people like Anna Worth never notice the help. Ever. So go over and restock the shelves.”

I must have had a blank expression on my face because Seymour didn’t wait for my reply. Rolling his eyes, he reached into my carefully arranged new-releases section and grabbed a handful of titles off the table—the new Patricia Cornwell paperback, a Janet Evanovich, a brand-new thriller by Ed McBain, a short fiction collection by James Ellroy—and thrust them into my arms.

“Go restock the shelves,” he repeated, giving me a push.

Resigning myself to the inevitable, I pushed my black rectangular glasses up my nose; took a deep breath; and, assuming an air of what I hoped was casual indifference, set off to put copies of my brand-new releases among the older titles. A retailing erratum, but I told myself I was doing it in the name of ratiocination.

It didn’t take me but a minute to spot Anna Worth and her friend. They were standing near the Dennis Lehane novels. The closest letter I had in my hand was “M,” so Ed McBain would have to do. I approached the couple unseen. Fortunately, they were lost in conversation.

“Work through it,” the man whispered. “Face your darkest fears or they will own you, Anna.”

Anna Worth replied, but so softly I couldn’t hear her words.

I moved a little closer, pretending to adjust the Kellerman section—Jonathan and Faye—and even a
Harry
Kellerman rabbi mystery.

“You hated that man,” Tweedy replied. “How did it feel to watch him fall . . . to watch him die?”

His words startled me, and the entire Faye Kellerman collection tumbled to the floor. Anna Worth and the man spun around to face me. Anna had that deer-in-the-headlights stare.

It’s now or never, doll,
Jack said in my head.
Go ahead and ask.

Before I knew it, my mouth moved, and I spoke. “You’re Anna Worth, aren’t you? My name is Penelope Thornton-McClure, the co-owner of this store. I saw you here the other night, when Timothy Brennan died.”

Anna’s mouth moved, but no words came out. I could see torment—guilt, perhaps?—on her face. Whatever it was, her look made me bolder.

“Why were you here, Ms. Worth?” I said. “Surely you’re no fan of Mr. Brennan’s work.”

Anna Worth clutched Tweedy’s arm and turned her face away. “Please, Doctor, do something,” she whispered.

“Ms. McClure,” the man said indignantly, “surely you can see that this woman is distraught!”

“I can see that,” I replied. Then I turned to Anna Worth. “I am terribly sorry if I upset you. Of course, we’re all upset, knowing that we may have all witnessed a murder right here in this store the other night. You have heard the news, Ms. Worth? The police suspect foul play . . . poison.”

But Anna Worth really didn’t react to this news. She just blinked. It was the man in the tweed jacket who did most of the reacting. “I think you’ve upset my patient quite enough for one day,” he said, stepping between us.

“Your
patient?
”

Tweedy adjusted his tie. “My name is Dr. Stuart Nablaum, a practicing psychologist in Newport. Ms. Worth is my patient. I accompanied her two nights ago, and today, because we have some unfinished emotional business with Mr. Brennan.”

“You were here with Anna Worth the other night?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said. “Every moment. Anna is in such a delicate emotional state right now she can go nowhere without supervision—my supervision. Nor could I be so remiss as to have Ms. Worth face Timothy Brennan alone.”

“Why did she want to face Brennan at all?” I asked.

The man’s nostrils flared, and I thought he was going to throw me out of my own store. Then Anna spoke.

“Tell her,” she said in a breathy, little-girl voice.

“But Anna—”

“Please tell her, Stuart.”

Dr. Nablaum scowled at me. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Anna came here to face Timothy Brennan and tell him how much he had hurt her.”

“The scandal, you mean?” I said. “The articles Brennan wrote about it?”

Dr. Nablaum frowned. “Mrs. McClure, you probably don’t understand how hard a person has to fight to overcome an addiction—any addiction. Any bump in the road of life, any psychic scrape or emotional bruise can reverse years of progress.”

“I think I understand,” I replied.