Chapter 13

“I sure hope that you have some new information for me,” I said to the ghostly woman. Then I studied her a little closer. She’d changed somehow, almost becoming more of a solid entity instead of a misty one. “Summer, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” she said, her voice filled with despair. “I can’t stay long, Christy. Something is happening to me.”

My ghostly cat paced around her, weaving in and out of her legs. It was one of Midnight’s ways to comfort his human friends, and he’d done it with me on several occasions in the past. Summer’s mood was clearly upsetting Midnight. “If you can describe it to me, maybe I can help.” I wasn’t at all sure how I could do that, but I was willing to try.

“It’s getting harder and harder for me to vanish,” she said, the anguish in her words coming through clearly.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked.

“Christy, I have a feeling that if you don’t free me soon, I’m going to be trapped in this world between the living and the dead forever.”

I couldn’t think of many things worse than that. “Why is it happening to you?”

“I’m guessing that it’s because I lingered,” she said simply. “I’ve had some time to think about it, and that has to be it. I should have Crossed Over when I had the chance, and now I’m afraid that I won’t ever be able to.”

“Can’t you just let go right now?” I asked. I found myself crying for her plight, but I had to wonder if there might be more to it than that. “I promise you that I’ll keep looking for whoever killed you and your dad.”

“I wish I could, but I’ve committed to this path. I swore that I wouldn’t Cross Over until my murder was solved, and something is holding me to the bargain that I made.”

“Are you sure that you can’t break it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know how else to explain it, but I know in my heart that it’s a physical impossibility. I can’t Cross Over now any more than you can float across the room.”

I had a sudden thought that nearly broke my heart. “Is that what happened to Midnight? Is he barred from Moving On because he stayed here for me?” I couldn’t stand the thought that my dear, beloved cat would never taste the catnip on the Other Side because of me.

“I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that the same rules don’t apply to cats.” She didn’t sound nearly as convincing as I was sure she’d meant to.

“But that’s just it. You couldn’t possibly know.” I got down on my hands and knees and looked straight into Midnight’s eyes. “What have I done to you, my friend?”

To his credit, he tried to head-butt me, but he passed right through me. I felt the whisper of a chill as he did, but I couldn’t swear that it hadn’t just been in my imagination.

“Mrewer,” he said, telling me that everything was going to be all right.

I just wished that I could believe him.

After I stood back up, I said, “Summer, I’ll work twice as hard to free you. I’ve already eliminated two of my suspects, so that just leaves four possibilities.”

“Four sounds like way too many to me,” she said. The expression on her face went from concentration to a sudden and sharp pain. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”

And then she vanished.

Midnight lingered. He sat in front of me, gave me one of his most piercing looks, and then he said, “Mrererw.”

“I’m doing the best that I can,” I answered.

“Mrw.” He knew that I was trying. At least that was something.

“Midnight, if you can still Cross Over, you should. Don’t stay here for me, for Summer, or anybody else. I know that you love me, but you can’t allow yourself to be frozen on This Side. I’d never be able to forgive myself if you were trapped here.”

“Mwew,” he said, and then my ghostly cat disappeared. I knew that he’d meant to comfort me, but it didn’t help.

I might not be able to help him, but I could do my best to find Summer’s killer before she froze on This Side.

How exactly I was going to do that, I didn’t know just quite yet.

My main focus in life was no longer about making a profit. I knew that my customers wouldn’t like it, but I was going to close Memories and Dreams until I managed to track down whoever had killed Silas and Summer. If it meant that I lost the shop, so be it. I took out the one sign I hated to use and hung it in the doorway of the shop. CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. It had an ominous ring to it for me, but I couldn’t let Summer be trapped on Our Side just because I couldn’t figure out who had killed her and her father.

“Are you free to do a little snooping?” I asked as I called Marybeth while I prepared to close the shop.

“I just pulled up into the driveway,” she said. “What’s going on? According to my watch, you still have five hours left to work.”

“Plans have changed. I’m shutting down the shop until I find Summer’s killer.” I couldn’t tell her why I was in such a hurry to unmask the killer, and I hoped that she didn’t ask.

“Why the sudden sense of urgency?”

Of course she’d ask me that. “I have a hunch that if I don’t solve it in the next day or two, I’m not going to ever find out who did it.”

“Okay, I’m game. Are you coming home, or should I pick you up there?” That was my best friend—ready to help when I needed it, regardless of the circumstances.

“You come here. By the time you show up, I’ll be waiting out front.”

“Deal,” she said. “Let me change out of this suit into blue jeans and a Tee, and I’ll be on my way.” Marybeth hesitated, and then she asked, “Or would my dress clothes be more appropriate?”

“Jeans are fine,” I said.

“Got it,” she replied. “See you soon.”

After I hung up, I balanced out the register, and then I cleaned it out. Once the cash was safely stashed away in the old safe, I double-checked the door in back, flipped off the lights, and walked out of Memories and Dreams.

As I was dead-bolting the front door, Beth Yates approached. “Are you closing already?”

“I’m sorry. Something’s come up.” Beth was a regular at the shop, and I hated turning her away, but it was one of those hard choices I had to make.

She studied the sign, and then she turned to look at me. “When will you open back up?”

“I honestly can’t say.”

She took my hands in hers and looked at me earnestly. “Christy, I know it must be hard running the place after what happened to Cora and Midnight, but you can’t give up. We need you.”

“I’m not giving up,” I said, though I must not have been very convincing.

“Trust me. It will get better. We need you,” she said. Beth was one of those people who spoke what was in her heart, regardless of how it might sound. She was one of the sweetest, truest people that I knew, and it was clear that she was doing her best to shore me up.

“I appreciate that more than I can say. I’m really not running away from Memories and Dreams. There’s just something that I have to do, and it can’t wait.”

“You’re digging into what happened out at the Bentley farm, aren’t you?”

I was surprised by her question. How could she possibly know what I was up to? “What makes you say that?”

“Oh, I hear things,” she said with a smile. “Besides, Summer and I went to school together. We were both a little bit odd, so we kind of gravitated toward one another. She was the only thing that made high school bearable for me. When she died, a little something died inside of me as well. It’s just natural that I heard you were looking into what happened to her and her father. I never believed that story about carelessness from the start. Anyone who ever spent ten minutes with Silas Bentley knew that the man didn’t do anything that wasn’t deliberate and well thought out. Can I help?”

“I appreciate the offer, but I can’t think of anything that you can do,” I said.

“If you come up with something, don’t hesitate to call me. I mean that, okay?”

“Okay,” I said as Marybeth blew her horn. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go.”

“Good luck, and Godspeed,” she said.

“Thanks.”

I got into the car and buckled up as Marybeth asked, “What was that all about?”

“Somehow Beth knows that I’m digging into Summer’s murder,” I said. “She even offered to help.”

“Good for her. I’ve always liked that girl. Maybe it’s because we share part of our names.”

“That’s hardly a reason to like someone,” I said with a smile.

“You can do worse than trusting a woman with ‘Beth’ in her name,” my best friend said.

“Okay, okay. I got it.”

“Good,” she said with a smile. “Now, where are we going?”

“We’re heading to Tryon’s Gap. I want to have another word with Jan Billings.”

“It sounds as though you have a plan,” Marybeth said as she turned toward Tryon’s Gap.

“I don’t know if you can call it a plan, exactly,” I said. “That sounds more grandiose than it really is. Honestly, it’s actually more of a hunch.”

“Christy, I’ll take your hunches over most people’s plans any day. You’ve always had a knack for figuring out puzzles.”

“I just hope that I’m able to solve this one,” I said.

Marybeth took her eyes off of the road for a second to look at me. “This one’s really getting to you, isn’t it?”

“It is, but I can’t tell you why.” That was quite literally true, but not for the reason I implied. I knew full well why I couldn’t tell her. Maybe someday I could take her into my confidence and explain that Midnight had never left me, but that time was most certainly not now.

“I don’t need anything more than that,” she said. “If you want to do it, I’ve got your back.”

“I appreciate that,” I said.

“So, how do you want to handle Jan? Should we pretend to be on her side, or should we come at her with our guns blazing?”

“I don’t think we should be hostile until there’s no other option left,” I said. “If she didn’t kill Silas and Summer, she should want to help us find the real killer, right?”

“Right,” she said. “Subtle and coy it is, then.”

I looked over at her. “Marybeth, you couldn’t pretend to be coy to save your life.”

“I’d love to be able to deny that, but I’d never be able to keep a straight face.”

“At least her car’s here,” I said as Marybeth finished following my directions to Jan’s place and we got out.

“That’s got to be a good sign,” Marybeth said.

I noticed that the backseat was jammed full of stuff, and the passenger seat up front was overloaded as well. “I suppose so, but based on that car, I’m not sure how long we have to question her.”

“All that matters is that we’ve got her now.”

“I’m not going to save anything for later. It looks as though this might be my last chance to question her,” I said.

“Give it all that you’ve got, Christy. I’ll stand back and follow your lead.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Now, if I could just come up with a plan to learn the truth before our feet hit her porch.