2 The Haunted Fixer-Upper Read online

  “You see, Melody didn’t give you the real reason why she’s upset with him.” He crossed his arms in front of his large chest.

  I swallowed hard. “What is the real reason?” I asked, almost afraid of what his answer would be.

  His gaze didn’t leave mine as he said, “They were having an affair.”

  Well, that statement smacked me over the head. I definitely hadn’t expected that. Wouldn’t that make this man a prime suspect though? The murdered man was sleeping with his wife. With all this dirty laundry, why in the world would they question Reed? There were plenty of other people who had reasons to kill Gordon.

  “Was what she said about Gordon owing you money true?” I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was around.

  We were all alone. Just my luck. Where had Melody run off to?

  Doug nodded. “Yeah, that part was true, but it wasn’t the main reason she was mad at him. You see, she doesn’t know that I know about her little dalliance. But I knew, believe you me, I knew about them.”

  “If she was having an affair, then why would she be mad at him?” I asked.

  He stared at me for a second, then said, “Because he was through with her. He broke it off and that made her irate.”

  That had to make Doug livid too. I refused to believe he wasn’t angry that his wife was cheating on him. Unless he just didn’t love her.

  “How did you know all this?” I pressed.

  He looked at his watch. “I’d hired a private investigator to follow them. I had suspected something had been going on for a long time. The investigator got pictures of them together.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly.

  He shrugged and looked down at his sneakers. “I was angry at first, but now I realize it isn’t worth me being upset over. She isn’t worth it.”

  The look on his face didn’t remind me of someone who wasn’t upset. Something told me that he hadn’t moved past her indiscretion.

  “Did you tell the police about their affair?” I asked.

  His eyes widened. “Hell no, why would I do that?”

  “Why would you tell me?” I asked.

  He frowned. “I just get tired of her lies, that’s all.”

  Melody stomped toward us and I knew it was time for me to get out of there. I didn’t want to be involved in their fight.

  “Listen, I have to go,” I said.

  Without responding he spun around and rushed off toward Melody.

  That whole encounter had been bizarre. I still didn’t know why he’d told me any of this information. He’d looked like he was still extremely pissed off at her even though he claimed otherwise. Didn’t he realize that I would now tell the police what I’d learned? I had to. I’d do whatever it took to get the police to realize that Reed had nothing to do with the murder.

  I buzzed to be let in the station again and hurried through the door when the female officer opened it for me. She remained expressionless as she walked back to her post behind the glass wall. The metal chairs in the lobby were empty. Reed’s uncle and the lawyer were nowhere in sight. As soon as I found Lou and Mr. Ackerson I’d tell them what I’d learned. But would the police take anything I said seriously?

  The officer who’d brought Reed into the station stood in the corner of the room, pouring coffee into his mug. Sweat beaded on my forehead and I realized I was holding my breath. I swallowed hard, pushed my shoulders back, and made my way across the room to where he stood.

  I cleared my throat. “Excuse me, officer. May I speak with you for a moment?”

  He didn’t look up for a second and I wondered if he hadn’t heard me. He stirred sugar into his mug, then finally looked over at me. “What can I do for you, Ms…?”

  “Hargrove. Alabama Hargrove.” Was it too late to run away?

  How did I even begin to tell him about Melody and her husband? I felt awkward even bringing it up, but I had to. No one else seemed to care.

  “Have you looked into other suspects for the murder of Mr. Millerton?”

  His face turned red. Would he arrest me right there? I had rights and I hadn’t done anything wrong. Who did he think he was anyway?

  “You think we’re not doing our job?” He smirked.

  I shook my head. “I didn’t say that. I’m merely asking a question.”

  “Maybe you should leave the questions to the lawyer you hired for your boyfriend.” His jaw tightened.

  This man made me furious. So he was mad because Reed had a lawyer. That was Reed’s right to have one.

  He turned to walk away. I wasn’t going to let him get away that easily.

  “I spoke with Melody Whiteman and her husband. She was having an affair with Gordon Millerton.” I rushed my words.

  The officer stopped in his tracks. He paused, then slowly turned around, meeting my stare. “Who told you something crazy like that?” He scoffed.

  “Melody’s husband.” Now was the time for me to have a smug expression.

  His expression tensed. “We’ll make sure to look into that, okay?”

  Yeah, I wouldn’t hold my breath while that happened. I needed to speak with Melody and her husband again. I wasn’t sure if I’d find out anything else, but it was worth a try.

  The officer marched away, his shoes squeaking across the polished floor. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all. No. I couldn’t second-guess myself.

  Just as I’d taken a seat in the corner of the room, Reed’s uncle emerged from the back.

  “They’re letting him go.” He ran his hand through his thick salt-and-pepper hair.

  “Oh, thank goodness.” I let out a deep breath. “This is a nightmare. Is the lawyer coming out too?” I stood and walked over to Lou. “Because I really need to speak with both of you.”

  Lou quirked a brow, then said, “Yeah, he’ll be out in just a second.”

  When Reed appeared through the door, I immediately wrapped my arms around him. “How are you?”

  It was kind of a stupid question. Of course he was doing crappy, but I had to ask.

  “Better now that I’m getting out of here.” He let out a deep breath.

  Dark circles ringed Reed’s eyes. I’d never seen him look this stressed before. One thing was for certain, I had to find the killer so they wouldn’t arrest Reed and put him in jail for life. There was no way I could allow that to happen. But how would I even begin? I had to know who wanted Gordon dead. What had he done to cause someone to take the deadly action? Was it just a random act? What would have been the motive? Was something stolen from his office? Had he sold someone a lemon? That wasn’t exactly grounds for murder, but people had certainly killed for a lot less. There were a lot of sick, messed-up people in the world.

  I’d just have to start my own investigation. I’d make a list of anyone who I thought might have done this to Gordon. I wondered if I could get into his office. I’d found the clue to lead me to a killer that way once, maybe it would work again. Hmm. The odds of that were unlikely. I’d have to come up with a better plan than that.

  When Mr. Ackerson appeared I explained what had happened outside. All three men didn’t seem that interested in what I had to say though. That was odd. Was it because Melody was family? Yeah, that was probably it.

  Lou handed Reed his truck keys. “You drive Alabama home. I’ll catch a ride with Joe.”

  Reed nodded, but didn’t say anything in return. He turned to me and asked, “Are you ready?”

  Well, yeah. I didn’t want to spend any more time than I had to in this place. We’d already spent almost two hours there. The sun would be rising soon and we had another full day of work on the house ahead of us.

  Reed and I drove in silence for most of the trip. I’d asked him what had gone on when they’d had him at the station, but he didn’t want to discuss it much. I wondered if he realized I was there for him no matter what. Now was not the time to shut me out. I’d been lucky in one aspect tonight though, because my mother hadn’t discovered that Reed was bein
g questioned by the police. If she’d known she would have been there wearing her gold sequin pants faster than I could say “fashion police”.

  Before slipping into bed, I dialed Lacey’s cell. She’d either not answer at all or want to kill me for calling at this time of the morning. I had to tell her about what had happened to Reed. I’d warn her not to share this information with my mother until she’d fully woken up and had a chance to have a leisurely breakfast.

  “Someone had better be in jail,” she said groggily when she picked up.

  “It’s funny that you say that. Reed was questioned for the man’s murder tonight.” There was no way to hide the annoyance in my voice.

  A gasp sounded from the other end of the line, then Lacey said, “Oh, my God, Alabama, what’s going on there? How’s Reed?”

  “Um. Well, he’s okay considering what happened. They let him come home after his uncle called in a lawyer.” I felt as if my head was spinning after everything that had happened.

  “Are they going to arrest him?” she asked.

  I released a long, low sigh, then said, “I’m not sure. But I have to see to it that they don’t.”

  “How in the heck are you going to do that?” Her voice rose a few decibels.

  “I have no idea, but Reed is a murder suspect, so I have to do something. I wouldn’t be surprised if the police had their eye on me too.”

  She choked. “What? Again. What the hell?”

  “I don’t know, Lacey. I attract this stuff. But you’ll never believe what else happened there. I talked with Reed’s cousin and her husband. I think they had a motive to kill Gordon Millerton.”

  “Tell me what happened,” she said in a soothing tone.

  Lacey had always been there for me, even when I got myself into the craziest situations.

  “Where do I start?” I said.

  After I filled her in on all the details, she said, “So what are you going to do now?”

  I sighed. “I don’t know, Lacey. I honestly don’t know.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  After trying to get a couple hours’ sleep, we finally gave up and headed over to the house. The best way to get our minds off the problem was with work. There was enough to do to keep us busy for a long time. Even in the light of the early morning sun, Reed was still tightlipped about what had happened. He’d hardly said anything since we’d left the police station. I didn’t push the conversation because I knew he needed time to wrap his mind around what was happening, but it was beginning to bother me.

  It might sound crazy, but the house seemed almost relieved when we pulled up, as if it let out a big sigh of relief. Of course it was just my overactive imagination working overtime. Nonetheless it felt like eyes watched me as I walked up the path and climbed the front steps. I glanced over at the woods, afraid of spotting the man staring back at me, but he was not there. Not that I could see, anyway. I prayed he was gone for good.

  We entered the house and both went our separate ways to work. They’d secured the stairs the day before. At least now we were able to safely make it up there. I was in the kitchen when that familiar cold descended on me again. I propped the broom against the wall and braced myself for whatever was about to happen. The air swirled around me in a frenzy and cold chills spread across my skin. Why did this keep happening? Was someone trying to tell me something? In the corner of the room, I spotted a large misty form materializing. It was white and grainy, but it was slowly taking shape… a human shape.

  A woman was appearing in the cloud. She wore a beautiful white dress and had dark hair swooped up high on her head. Her eyes were a stunning shade of emerald and as vivid as any living person’s… maybe even more. She stared at me, but remained expressionless. Should I speak with her? Or run away? I didn’t think she meant me any harm, but you could never be sure.

  “Hello,” I said quietly.

  Would my speaking scare her away? Apparently not because for a long moment she didn’t move, or change her expression, but then in one fluid motion, she raised her hand and pointed across the room. I had no idea what she was pointing at. Was she pointing at me? Did she want me to leave? She stared at me with a pleading look, then without saying a word or moving again, she disappeared. The misty air dissipated as if it had never been there in the first place. I stood there in shock, unable to move for a few seconds. Who was this woman? Had she lived in the home before? Another mystery to solve.

  A hand touched mine and I jumped, spinning around so quickly that it made my head spin.

  Reed stood behind me. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”

  I clutched my chest. “That’s okay.” I glanced over my shoulder to make sure the ghost hadn’t returned.

  Had Reed seen or heard anything? Would he tell me if he had?

  “How’s it going down here?” Reed’s face looked different, worse than since we’d arrived.

  Reed had been fidgeting, pacing and tossing and turning in bed. He didn’t seem as happy and relaxed as usual. It was as if a weight sat heavily on his shoulders. I didn’t blame him for feeling that way. I only wished there was something I could do to make him feel better about the situation.

  “It’s okay.” I wiped my hands on my pants.

  “I’m making some progress upstairs on the floor repair if you’d like to see.” He motioned with a tilt of his head.

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

  As we moved across the floor I asked, “You know, Gordon said he had papers he wanted to give us that day. That was the whole reason for us visiting, but we never got them. Do you have any idea what they were?”

  “No, they seemed important though,” he said softly.

  “Do you think there’s any way we could get our hands on them now?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Probably not considering we didn’t even know what they were.”

  I rubbed my temples. “I wonder if the woman from the historical society would know what the papers were about.”

  He groaned. “Do you really want to ask her anything?”

  I released a deep breath. “No, you’re right. That’s not an option.”

  Reed moved a stray piece of wood from the floor out of our path. “Besides, I don’t know if Gordon would have told her anything. They didn’t seem to be on the best of terms.”

  Yeah, that was an understatement. I let the subject drop, but I felt the missing papers warranted further research. One way or the other, I would find out what those papers were and where they were now.

  Just as we’d made it to the staircase, a noise rattled the front door and we whipped around. This place was definitely keeping me on my toes. Stan was coming through the front door like a bull breaking out of a gate. Granted we didn’t have a working lock on the thing, but I really wished he would knock before entering. No matter what this guy did, he just rubbed me the wrong way. At least he was there to work though, that was more than I could say for the rest of the contractors we’d had dealings with in the past.

  “Hey, Stan. How’s it going?” Reed shook his hand.

  “I’m here to work. You want me to start with the kitchen floor?” he asked, as he played with his slicked-back ponytail.

  Reed looked to me for an answer.

  “Yeah, I’ll show you what I want done.” I gestured toward the kitchen with a tilt of my head.

  “I’m going back to work on the upstairs floor. Let me know if you need anything,” Reed said, turning back toward the staircase.

  Stan followed me through the dining room and into the kitchen. He trailed me a little too closely, I might add. I practically felt his breath on the back of my neck. With any luck, the ghost would pop up and scare the bejeezus out of him. I’d be willing to lose a contractor to witness that.

  When we reached the kitchen, I explained the floor-plan, pulling it out and stretching the paper for him to get a better look.

  “This is your copy,” I said, pushing the paper toward him.

  He leaned in even closer to
me and I moved back. He looked me up and down like a lion checking out its prey. His gaze finally came to rest on my chest. The creep.

  “How long have you and Reed been together?” he asked as he leered at me.

  I thought my time with this guy was over. Or rather, his time with me was over. If he continued to act this way, I’d have to tell Reed to get rid of him. I wouldn’t put up with him being a creep.

  “Do you have to stand so close?” I asked with disgust in my voice.

  He held his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t mean anything by it, darling. I was just trying to make friendly conversation.”

  That was a lie.

  “Well, here are the plans.” I shoved the papers into his hands. “I need a little bit of air.”

  “I’ll just get to work here.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Whatever. Good luck,” I said as I made my way across the room and into the dining room.

  I didn’t have to turn around to know that he was watching me walk away. I felt his eyes on me and it made my skin crawl. I thought about going upstairs to tell Reed about Stan, but what would I tell him? That the guy was standing close and he looked at me? Yeah, that was grounds for firing him right away. I’d keep my eye on Stan though, and if he did anything else, I’d tell Reed. But for now, I’d keep his inappropriate leering to myself.

  I needed a little fresh air to clear my head. There were too many things floating in there at once. Buying another house had been enough, but having your boyfriend questioned about a murder was piling it on too heavy.

  I stepped outside onto the porch and decided to walk around in the front yard. Pacing always helped me work off nervous energy. I still wasn’t sure about going over to the side yard because I worried I’d see the man again. Although I’d told myself if I saw him I was going to say something to him. I’d ask him who he was and what he wanted. With any luck, he wouldn’t come out of the woods and murder me. Okay, we’d see how brave I actually was if it really happened, but in my mind I was courageous.