Ghostly Town (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 4) Read online

  Ghostly Town

  A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book Four

  Aubrey Harper

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 Aubrey Harper

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  1. One

  2. Two

  3. Three

  4. Four

  5. Five

  6. Six

  7. Seven

  8. Eight

  9. Nine

  10. Ten

  11. Eleven

  12. Twelve

  13. Thirteen

  14. Fourteen

  15. Fifteen

  16. Sixteen

  17. Seventeen

  18. Eighteen

  19. Nineteen

  20. Twenty

  21. Twenty-One

  22. Twenty-Two

  23. Twenty-Three

  24. Twenty-Four

  Author’s Note

  Also by Aubrey Harper

  One

  “You know, you didn’t have to come along,” I said from the passenger seat.

  Kane was driving his van. Rebecca was in the back seat, just chilling, as a ghost would do.

  “Of course I had to come,” Kane said, keeping his eyes on the road. “I wasn’t about to let you go into that town of freaks by yourself.”

  “A town of ghosts,” I corrected him.

  “Freaks, ghosts, what’s the difference?” He said.

  Rebecca looked like she was ready to pass her ghostly, and not to mention cold hands, through a sensitive part of Kane’s body.

  “Don’t do it, Rebecca,” I said. “If you’re still angry when he’s not driving, I give you permission to give him a headache.”

  “Sorry, Rebecca,” Kane said. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. And no more brain freezes, please. Once was more than enough.”

  Kane had already had a brush in with an angry Rebecca. She passed her ghostly hand through his head in order to give him a headache, but he ended up with a brain freeze. It was quite a sight to see.

  Rebecca didn’t think much of Kane’s apology even now. She crossed her ghostly hands over her chest and looked out the window.

  “Did it work?” Kane asked me. “Have I been forgiven?”

  “Not yet, you should try harder,” I said.

  Kane sighed. He knew Rebecca was my constant companion, though she did give us some time alone. Though Kane still suspected that Rebecca followed him around in the shower. When I told her about his little theory, Rebecca practically laughed in my face. “As if,” she would say. “I’d rather watch paint dry.” The few times it came up, she even added a few “ewws” into the mix, though I wasn’t sure why. Kane was a good-looking guy with a pretty nice body to boot. Maybe it was the fact that he was still breathing that put her off so much.

  Which brings me to my latest case. Or maybe cases? It was hard to tell. But someone in the town of Ghostly, Missouri, wanted my help. They sent a letter and some cash as well, which I thought was very presumptuous.

  And now here we were, on the road. The letter had talked about a town littered with ghosts. So much so that it was now a tourist destination for all things creepy and supernatural. Just that made the town kind of interesting to investigate, but the letter had insinuated that there was something more sinister than tourist dollars happening in the town. The person who sent the letter didn’t leave a name, and the address was of the local inn in the town. A haunted inn at that, according to the website I found, but then again, most of the town was being advertised as haunted anyway, so it wasn’t a huge shock.

  “Are we there yet?” I asked Kane.

  Kane sighed. “We’re still a good hour away, unfortunately,” he said. “But you’re welcome to entertain yourself with some music.”

  We’d driven mostly in silence because Rebecca wasn’t a huge fan of loud music. She said it messed with her ghostly form. Something about the vibrations of the sound. Frankly, I wasn’t really sure about all the technical details. Whenever it came to something that sounded even vaguely scientific, I usually just zoned out and thought of more interesting things, or sometimes nothing at all.

  I looked over at Rebecca and she just rolled her ghostly eyes.

  “This inn we’re going to,” Kane filled the silence. “It’s not really haunted, is it? That’s just something they say to make money, right?”

  I smiled. It was cute how Kane was worried about ghosts when he had one sitting behind him. But then again, he has had some encounters with ghosts that weren’t as nice as Rebecca, so I guess it’s understandable.

  “I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. Maybe that’s why I’m going there in the first place? To debunk all the nonsense the town might be selling.”

  “Did the letter really say that?”

  “Well, the letter wasn’t very clear. I read it to you, you should know. And since I can’t read minds, I guess we’ll see when whoever sent that letter makes contact.”

  “If they make contact,” Kane said.

  “Well, the money they sent was certainly real, so I think chances are high that they might want to get what they paid for.”

  “Maybe some music wouldn’t hurt,” Rebecca said. “Just keep the volume low,” she said.

  It was clear that our talk of haunted towns and ghosts was getting to her for some reason. I’d ask her about it when we had some alone time. When I first told her about going, she seemed excited at the prospect of going to a town where her kind wasn’t rare. But now that we were actually getting closer to our destination, she grew more irritable and withdrawn. I wondered if she was nervous about the prospect of being around so many other dead people, or if it was something else entirely.

  Miles and some low-volume hits later, we arrived at our destination. The “Welcome to Ghostly, Missouri” sign was quite a sight to behold. The sign even made reference to the fact that the population number was referring to “the strictly living members of the town’s population.”

  “Cute,” Kane said when I pointed it out. “I think.”

  Rebecca perked up in the back seat. She was itching to finally get out of the car and check out the town. But first, we had to find the famous haunted inn.

  I pulled up the picture on my phone and reminded Kane what it looked like.

  “Now if only this traffic would let up,” he muttered under his breath.

  It was true. The town we were in might have been called Ghostly, but it definitely wasn’t a ghost town. It was practically packed with tourists or just the townsfolk, it was hard to tell since it was four in the afternoon. People might just be getting off of work.

  That theory was disproven for at least one car. I saw a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, get out of the opening of the jeep she was in and scream something about “ghost break forever!”

  “Is that what the kids get up to these days?” Kane asked, looking incredulous at the sight.

  “I certainly hope not. Because back when I was that age, we only had spring break.”

  “Back in my day, we didn’t even have that,” Rebecca said.

  Rebecca was a ghost out of time. What time exactly, no one was sure. I had my money on the seventies.

  “How would you know?” I asked her.

  She didn’t really remember much of anything about her life or her death. Her memories started when she entered my life when I was a child. Before that, she was just a wandering ghost w
ith no one in the world to talk to.

  “You’re mean,” Rebecca said. “That was a low blow and you know it.”

  “Well, excuse me for pointing out the obvious.”

  “Guys, even though I can only hear one side of the conversation, I can still tell that whatever it is isn’t worth fighting about. And besides, we’ll be out and about in no time.”

  “Does he have to butt into everything?” Rebecca complained.

  “Be nice, Rebecca. Kane was nice enough to drive us all the way here, wasn’t he?”

  She rolled her ghostly eyes again. “He’s driving so slowly I might as well get out now and check out the scene before you guys arrive.”

  And she did just that.

  “She’s gone,” I said to Kane. “She was impatient to check out the inn.”

  “She’s annoyed by me, isn’t she? I mean, I’ve heard of jealous friends and all that, but when they’re ghosts, I don’t know how exactly to handle it.”

  “You’re being silly,” I told him. “She’s just been irritable lately. I’m sure it has nothing to do with you.”

  “Or the fact that you’ve been spending so much time at my place lately?” He offered.

  Well, I couldn’t exactly argue with that. Rebecca and I have been spending less time together as of late. But that’s because she wanted to give Kane and I some privacy. There wasn’t anything wrong with that. Or at least I didn’t think there was…

  “She wanted this to be just you guys, didn’t she?” Kane said. “I mean, I understand. Ghosts are kind of a thing you guys have in common, and here I am, intruding.”

  I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re not intruding,” I said. “I invited you. I wanted you here.”

  “Yeah, but what about Rebecca?”

  “It’s so cute that you care, but don’t worry, she’ll be fine. If this town is as half as haunted as advertised, Rebecca and I will be having plenty of fun.”

  Kane finally found a parking space. We were lucky because one of the cars was just pulling out.

  “Good thing we have a reservation,” I said as we got out of the van.

  “If only it wasn’t made by some anonymous donor. What if it’s some freak with a crush?”

  “That’s why you’re here,” I reminded him.

  “I’m not gonna let anyone mess with my girl. Living or dead,” he said as he took my hand.

  “Aww, that’s so romantic.”

  The inn looked like the typical haunted house in the countless horror movies that dealt with that sort of thing. For the record, most of them were not steeped in realism about the subject.

  But thankfully, the inside looked like a regular hotel. There was a reception desk and everything. There were a few people in front of us so I decided to take the opportunity to look around a bit.

  “Anything?” Kane whispered in my ear.

  I shook my head. “All I see are the living, sadly.”

  Kane laughed. “Damn, I’ve forgotten just how weird my life has gotten since I’ve met you.”

  “Are you saying that’s a bad thing?” I teased him.

  “Of course not,” he said. “My life has never been so interesting.”

  He leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips. The next thing I knew, the receptionist was coughing to get our attention.

  “So sorry about that,” I quickly said. “I have a reservation under Meredith Good,” I said as I handed her my ID.

  The receptionist was a middle-aged woman who looked like she would rather be anywhere else but her current location. I crossed her off my “possible mysterious client” suspect list.

  She handed me the keys. “It’s on the second floor. Welcome to the Ghostly Inn, the most haunted inn on Earth,” she said without much aplomb.

  “The most haunted inn on Earth,” Kane echoed as we made our way upstairs.

  “Don’t be mean,” I admonished him, but then I laughed anyway. “Okay, it was a bit much, wasn’t it?”

  I looked around, trying to spot the ghost I knew was definitely in the vicinity.

  “She’ll be fine,” Kane reassured me. “She’s never too far away, is she?”

  That much was true. But I still wanted to see Rebecca and ask her what exactly we were walking into.

  “Do they serve food here?” Kane asked. “I’m quite hungry.”

  “Let’s get to the room first, and then we can worry about the rest of it later,” I said. “Though I could use a meal right about now.”

  And that’s exactly what we did. Our room was at the very end of a dark hallway, naturally. The dim lamps gave off a creepy red hue, which I guess was the whole point.

  While I fidgeted with the key and lock, Kane looked around nervously.

  “Are you sure there aren’t some ghosts here right now?”

  “If there are, I can’t see them,” I said without even looking up. I took out my phone and used the flashlight feature to guide the key into the lock.

  “Now that’s a scary thought,” Kane said. “What if there are some ghosts you can’t see?”

  I gave him an “are you serious?” look and turned the key and opened our room.

  It was dark inside. The window had double curtains, only one of which was open. I felt around for a light switch, and when I finally found it, the room lit up with a few dim lamps. From what I could see, it all looked very old-fashioned. Maybe something you might see in Victorian times.

  But the outdated decor wasn’t the interesting thing. There was an envelope on the floor, presumably slipped through the bottom of the door.

  I picked it up and held it up to one of the lamps. It looked quite old-fashioned as well. The cursive lettering on the envelope, which was just my name, looked quite fancy.

  “Do you want me to open it?” Kane offered.

  “No, I’m fine,” I said. The envelope wasn’t sealed, so I just took the contents outside. It was an invitation.

  “Fancy,” Kane said. “Is it to dinner? Because I could really go for a fancy dinner right about now.”

  “All you think about is food,” I joked. Then I carefully read the invitation. “It’s actually far more interesting than a simple dinner.”

  “What could be more interesting than food?” Kane joked.

  “It’s an invitation to a séance,” I said.

  “Well, that’s certainly different,” Kane said. “Though not entirely unexpected for this town. Have you ever been to one of those before?”

  “Nope,” I said. “It should certainly be interesting. Now, what will I wear?”

  “You’re going?”

  “Well, of course I am. One doesn’t stay in their room when they have an invitation to attend a séance, now do they?”

  Two

  “Does the note say anything about what kind of clothes we should wear?” Kane asked.

  I looked it over. “No, it doesn’t.”

  “Then we can wear whatever we please, can’t we?”

  “I guess so, but where’s the fun in that?”

  “The fun in what?” Rebecca said as she put her head through the door.

  I gasped in shock.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Kane said. Then he looked around nervously. “Have you?”

  “Yeah, it’s Rebecca,” I said. “It looks like she was trying to give me a heart attack.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Rebecca said as the rest of her went through the door.

  “Don’t do that! Especially not here,” I told her.

  She shrugged her ghostly shoulders.

  “So? Did you find out anything interesting? Meet any fellow dead people?”

  “I ran into a few, but not as many as you’d expect. I even ran into a ghost cat. That was quite the experience. Overall, there’s more living than the dead, sadly. But anyway, you never answered my question. What were you guys talking about?”

  I showed her the invitation. “It looks like we’re going to a séance,” I said.

  “Interesti
ng,” Rebecca said. “Hopefully there’ll be more dead people there.”

  “Hopefully being the operative word,” I said.

  “Do you think your client will be there?” She asked me.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they put this invitation under everyone’s door here? It wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “Do you think we have to pay to attend?” Kane asked, taking the rare opportunity to include himself in on a conversation he only heard one side of.

  “It doesn’t say anything about that. It does say I can bring a guest. But I guess we should have some cash on hand just in case?”

  While Kane went and rummaged around for some cash, I turned back to Rebecca.

  “Are you excited?”

  “About what?” She asked.

  “About going to a séance. I am. I’m kind of nervous, too. I hope the medium is not a charlatan. God knows there are plenty of those in this business.”

  “And if he or she is a charlatan, do you plan on exposing them?” Rebecca asked.

  It was a good question. I usually exposed fakes when I was paid to do so. And since I still had no idea why I was in this town, I had no idea what I should do. If things got out of hand, I could see myself exposing the fraud. But if they were just a deluded person, I’d leave them alone.

  “We’ll play it by ear,” I said to Rebecca. “Now, what do you think I should wear?”

  “You have a couple of hours to decide,” Kane reminded me. “First, we’re going out to eat, so think about that.”

  I took my bag, which wasn’t that big at all. I just brought a few different outfits and some essentials I couldn’t do without.

  “Do you think I should wear a dress?” I asked Rebecca.

  “No. I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she was quick to say.