While Quinn and I were still staring at the shards of glass that glittered like stars on the green linoleum, Wally Birch stuck his head into my office, mumbled something about careless people and big messes and how hard it was to be him, and shuffled out of sight. Big surprise, he was back in a moment, and he had a broom and a dustpan in his hands.
‘Everything OK?’ My mom must have heard the commotion, too, because from the other end of the phone, she sounded concerned. ‘Pepper? Are you all right?’
‘Fine, Mom.’ I scooped up the phone and turned it off speaker. It was anybody’s guess what other embarrassing things my mother might say before we ended our conversation, and I wasn’t taking any chances. ‘Something broke in the office. No big deal.’
‘I hope it wasn’t a valuable something,’ Mom said.
I glanced at Quinn, but of course by this time, he couldn’t hear Barb, so he didn’t offer an opinion. ‘I’m pretty sure it wasn’t valuable,’ I told her and reminded him, though truth be told, he didn’t look as upset about dropping the bottle as he looked a little green around the gills. Then again, he’d heard Mom loud and clear.
Mom talking about a bridal fair.
I would have groaned if I thought it would do any good.
‘Gotta go, Mom,’ I told her. Before she could object, I ended the call and tossed my phone back on the desk.
‘Sure is a mess.’ I guess Wally was much more of a thinker and a planner than I’d ever given him credit for, because instead of just sweeping up the glass and getting it over with, he leaned on the broom and took stock of the situation, staring at the broken glass for so long, I wondered if he was counting the pieces. ‘I don’t hardly get paid enough to clean up other peoples’ messes. Supposed to be my lunch hour in just a couple minutes.’
‘Sorry.’ I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard Quinn say the word before so I had to be excused for turning to him with my eyes wide. Turns out he wasn’t even talking to Wally, but to me. ‘Somebody sent that bottle to you,’ he said. ‘There must have been a reason they wanted you to have it. It just sort of slipped out of my hand. I guess I wasn’t paying attention. You know, because your mother …’ As if it were a snake, reared up and ready to bite, he looked over at my phone.
I glanced that way, too. ‘No, I’m the one who’s sorry. My mother …’ I swallowed down my mortification. ‘Sometimes she gets a little carried away. Just so you know, that wasn’t my idea. That stuff about the bridal—’
‘This is all very touching.’ When Wally interrupted us, I looked over just in time to see him shiver and clap a hand over his heart, a smile as wide as Lake Erie on his face. ‘But if you two lovebirds would just move out of the way, I could get this glass cleaned up. What do you say?’
I would have said I’d never heard Wally speak so many words in one week much less at one time, but I was too amazed. Quinn and I moved out of the way and Wally stepped over, broom in hand. While he swept, he whistled a song called ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’.’ Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not some kind of oddball who enjoys things like old music; it was one of the things Mom told me she used to sing to Dad on Saturdays when she called him in prison.
As it turned out, Wally was right about the size of the mess; when the bottle hit, it pretty much exploded and the glass shards were everywhere. He had to sweep under my desk and over by the file cabinets, too. He whistled the whole time, and when he was done and all the pieces of that bottle were swept onto the dustpan, he kept right on whistling and sauntered out of the office.
‘Thanks, Wally,’ I called after him.
He turned in the doorway and gave me a wink. ‘No problem. No problem at all, my sweet.’
‘Sorry.’
Another apology from Quinn snapped me out of my Wally-induced astonishment. I pointed toward my open office door and the hallway. I couldn’t see Wally, but I heard him change from whistling to crooning.
‘… savin’ my love for you.’
‘Did you see that?’ I asked Quinn. ‘Did you hear that? He’s whistling. He’s singing. He called me—’
‘My sweet!’ A wicked grin on his face, Quinn laughed. ‘You cheating on me with Wally?’ He was kidding and I knew it and I was glad, I had enough weird stuff going on in my life, I didn’t need to add Wally and Quinn and jealousy into the mix.
I picked up the box that old bottle had come in and the brown paper it was wrapped in and dumped it all in my trash can. ‘It was just an old bottle,’ I told Quinn. ‘If it was important, whoever sent it would have written a note, or called to let me know it was coming. Or told me what it was for. Maybe somebody thought we put stuff on display. You know, old stuff that might relate to the lives of our residents.’
‘It’s actually not a bad idea.’ Quinn perched on the edge of my desk. ‘And speaking of your residents …’ He wiggled his fingers in the air. I guess it was supposed to be a sign that he’d changed the subject from old beer bottles to the woo-woo. ‘Eliot Ness. Tell me about him.’
‘You’re curious.’ He usually wasn’t, so like Wally’s sudden walk on the wild side of actually carrying on a conversation, I was intrigued. ‘Why?’
Quinn lifted those broad shoulders of his. ‘He’s famous. And a legend in the Department. You know, he came to Cleveland—’
‘After he was done working in Chicago and put Al Capone in jail.’ I remembered this from what Ella had told me.
‘He didn’t exactly put Capone in jail,’ Quinn corrected me. ‘Because Capone went to jail for tax evasion, not for Prohibition violations. But Ness sure helped. By taking out a lot of Capone’s bootlegging operations and the supply chain he used to bring booze in from Canada, he destroyed Capone’s financial base.’
I crossed my arms over my chest. ‘And you’re suddenly an expert on Eliot Ness because …’
‘Hey, you remember the time I got on the bad side of my lieutenant and she made me put in some volunteer hours at the Police Museum? There’s an exhibit there about Ness. He’s Cleveland’s most famous lawman. Well …’ He had the chutzpah to give me a grin that was as hot as sin. ‘The most famous after me, that is.’
I had absolutely no choice but to lean over and gave him a peck on the cheek because hey, as far as I was concerned, it was absolutely true.
‘He was a great safety director,’ Quinn said at the same time he hooked an arm around my waist. ‘He was the first person in the country to use two-way radios in cop cars. Did you know that?’ He nipped a kiss against my ear. ‘And he took those cars … you know, most cars back then were black … and had them painted blue and white so that people could see them more easily and know when there were cops around.’ He glided a kiss along my neck.
I made a little noise deep in my throat that told Quinn he could go right on doing that all day if he wanted to and he obliged. At least until I pulled away long enough to tell him, ‘If you’re going to keep that up, one of us better go over there and close the door or Wally’s going to get an eyeful!’
Quinn chuckled and sat back. ‘How about we save it for later? Dinner tonight? My place? Even if I have to go back to work after, I can manage a couple hours. We can grill some steaks, catch up on what’s going on, maybe take a little time to—’
I knew exactly what he wanted to take the time to do, and I kissed him to let him know I thought it was an excellent idea.
‘Then I’m going to get back to work to see what I can get done before six o’clock. If I could wrap up the case I’m working on and not have to go in later, we could add a bottle of wine to tonight’s menu and you could stay over.’ He slid off the desk and before he got to the door, I already had a plan: I’d leave the cemetery a little early so I could stop home and change into something a little more appealing than black pants and a white polo shirt with Garden View Staff embroidered over the heart. While I was at it, I’d take a quick shower, refresh my make-up, pack an overnight bag, and make sure I added a spritz of Viva La Juicy behind my ears and between my breasts because Quinn always said the smell of wild berries and mandarin made his head spin.
I was already debating between wearing the black sheath dress I’d bought for last New Year’s Eve or the black cherry-colored front-slit pencil skirt I’d picked up just a couple days earlier because it looked fabulous with ankle-strap heels. Pencil skirt had just about come out the winner when Quinn spoke up.
‘So what did Ness want?’ he asked. ‘I mean, no offense or anything, but, well, I’d think that Eliot Ness would have better things to do in the afterlife.’
‘Better things than talking to me, you mean.’
Quinn had already taken his car keys out of his pocket, and he tossed them up and caught them in one hand. ‘You know that’s not what I meant. I just thought …’ He tossed the keys again. ‘Well, I just think a famous guy like that—’
‘He’s dead, Quinn. That pretty much takes care of his social calendar.’
‘But he’s hanging around with you.’
‘Don’t they all?’ I added a long-suffering sigh that wasn’t entirely put on and yes, watching the way my white polo shirt rose and fell … well, I was hoping that would be enough to distract Quinn. I should have known it wouldn’t work. He can be as bullheaded as any man I’d ever met. It was a great asset in his job, a not-so-great thing to have to deal with when I would rather have been dodging his questions than answering them.
‘It’s that tour!’ Another sigh and this time, I made sure I added some oomph to it at the same time I congratulated myself for being quick on my feet. ‘The tour about Ness that Ella wants me to put together.’
‘I told you it was a good idea the first time she mentioned it.’
‘Yeah, I admit it. You’re right. You and Ella are right.’ I ambled over to where Quinn stood. With any luck, he’d be so busy checking out the sway of my hips, he’d completely miss the fact that I was lying to beat the band. ‘Ness got wind of it. I mean, you know how it is with ghosts, Quinn. They have this sort of spooky grapevine and they keep track of what’s going on, and Ness, he knows Ella’s talking about a tour. And he just wants to know how the planning is going, and he offered to help, too. You know, if I need any interesting facts or stories.’
‘Cool.’
There was a time I would have given anything for him to be so enthusiastic about any of my own personal ghost adventures. There was also a time I would have left well enough alone and changed the subject and been done with it.
But then I remembered that there was also a time – and not all that long before – when Quinn wouldn’t have believed a word I said when I talked about ghosts, a time he would have been convinced I was just another nutcase.
Just knowing that he bought into the whole Gift thing now made my insides get all mushy. I guess my brain did, too, because I blurted out, ‘He wants me to find his ashes.’
Quinn had just caught his keys again, and he closed his fingers around them. ‘Ness? But his ashes, they were—’
‘Scattered over the lagoon. Yeah, that’s what everybody thought. But Ness says those ashes weren’t his, and he told me he knows where his are, and he wants me to get them.’
‘So you’re going to …’ Quinn is a good and honest man. It’s an essential part of his nature, and it’s big percentage of his job description, too. I guess that’s why he couldn’t fill in the blanks.
I was glad.
‘Ness, he knows where his real ashes are?’ Quinn asked.
‘He does.’
‘And he wants you to go get them?’
‘Right. So he can finally rest in peace.’
‘OK. If you say so.’ Quinn gave me the kind of look I imagined that over the years, had intimidated bad guys from one end of Cleveland to another. ‘You’re not going to do anything illegal, are you?’
There is only so far a mushy brain and a mushy heart can carry a girl. I mean, before common sense kicks in. Like I was an old pro at lying (and actually now that I think about it, I was, but that came with my job description, too), I whisked one of those pink phone messages off the pile on my desk. ‘Don’t be silly. It’s all arranged.’ I waved around the pink slip of paper, grateful that Quinn was standing far enough away so that he couldn’t see that it was in Jennine’s handwriting and said, Your dentist called, time for your bi-annual cleaning.
‘He’s a Ness fan,’ I said. ‘A groupie. You know, the guy who has the ashes. He wasn’t sure what to do with them that would honor Ness properly and when I called him and said I was interested, well, you can imagine how grateful he was! I’m going to go pick them up and—’
‘Excellent!’
The voice wasn’t Quinn’s, but then, I wasn’t surprised. There were suddenly swirling sparkles in the air between me and Quinn.
‘I’m glad you’ve decided to cooperate,’ Ness said. ‘We’ll have this whole thing taken care of in a jiffy, then I can finally get some rest.’
‘He’ll finally be able to get some rest,’ I told Quinn, without bothering to mention that his idol was there, even if he wasn’t all there. There was no use drawing out Quinn’s visit. Not when I might slip up and tell him the guy who had Ness’s ashes had no idea I was about to pay him a visit. ‘I’m going to take care of it today,’ I said. ‘And Eliot Ness, he’s finally going to be able to rest in peace.’
‘The guy worked hard and he did a lot of good.’ Quinn stepped out into the hallway. ‘I’m glad to hear it. I’ll see you at six.’
I raised my hand to wave goodbye. ‘Six,’ I told him and pictured myself in that front-slit pencil skirt.
‘I’m glad to hear it, too.’ Ness whirled closer. ‘You changed your mind.’
‘I guess I did.’ I didn’t exactly grumble. It was more like a loud mumble. ‘I changed my mind about Eliot Ness.’
‘Oh, I’m so glad to hear it!’ My boss, Ella Silverman, must have been out in the hallway at exactly the wrong moment, because she was talking even as she swooped into my office.
That’ll teach me for being so busy talking to ghosts; I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around me.
Ella is a believer in go big or go home and that day’s outfit was no exception: grassy green skirt, yellow top, gauzy scarf in blocks of turquoise, purple, and orange. She’d added a variety of bracelets to spark her getup and when she stepped into the sunlight that streamed through my office window, she twinkled in green and gold and blue. Her hair was short and shaggy and when she’d last had it dyed, she’d had her stylist add streaks of Crayola red to her usually plain old mahogany locks.
‘I knew you’d decide to do the tour,’ she said, bouncing on the toes of her low-heeled Clarks. Ella is a full head shorter than me and at least fifty pounds heavier and as I watched her spring up and down encased in those bright colors, I will admit I thought of a beach ball. I’d never mention it. Not for all the world. Sure, Ella is a cemetery geek, but she’s also big-hearted and kind and as sincere as any person I’d ever met. When my mom and dad were gone, she stepped in and stepped up and, whether I liked it or not, she made me a part of her family. Don’t ever let her know because if she does, she’ll think she can get away with pushing me to do more and more around Garden View, but the truth is, I adore Ella.
‘I’m so glad, Pepper!’ Her smile was even more dazzling than the glimmer off all those beads. ‘Our visitors are going to go nuts for an Eliot Ness tour.’
‘But I didn’t say—’ I bit off my words. Because, of course I had. Or at least Ella thought I had.
‘I’m going to get started right this minute,’ I told her instead, grabbing my phone and my car keys and heading out of the office. ‘I’m going to go over to the Ness monument and do some thinking. You know, about what to tell people and how long the tour should be and what else we could include in it.’ I remembered Quinn’s comment earlier. ‘You know, we could get some artifacts in, things from the twenties and thirties. We could have a display here in the administration building. Visitors could stop here first, and it would give them a better idea of what it was like to live in those times.’
Like I’d seen her beam at her own three daughters, Ella smiled at me. ‘I knew it! I knew one day you’d embrace the excitement of this job the way I have, Pepper! Just think …’ Twinkling for all she was worth, she walked out of the office ahead of me. ‘By the time I retire, you’ll be ready to step into my shoes and take my place as cemetery administrator!’
I did my best to try not to think about those frightening last words from Ella.
Still working at Garden View when she retired?
Taking her job as administrator?
I shivered more at the thought than I ever had when there were ghosts around.
And speaking of ghosts …
I parked my car near the granite monument erected to honor Eliot Ness and his family and glanced around. It was lunchtime, and here and there, joggers zipped by, students from the university, maybe, or staff from the nearby hospital, making the most of the good weather. I waited until three young and energetic guys trotted out of sight before I raised my voice.
‘Are you here?’ I asked and looked around for the telltale flurry of ashes.
Nothing.
‘Well, you’ll be happy to know I got roped into doing a tour about you,’ I added just in case Ness was playing hard to get. ‘I’ll need interesting details about your life. You know, stuff nobody else knows. It will make me look like a genius.’
Still nothing.
Apparently Ness didn’t know how these things worked, or at least how they should work.
‘It’s the least you can do for me,’ I told him. ‘You know, since I’m going to go get your ashes.’
More silence, and with a sigh, I leaned against the granite marker and decided that ghosts can sometimes be real jerks.
No matter, I told myself, now that Ella thought I was out here communing with history and coming up with ideas, I could zip home for a few minutes and pack the overnight bag I’d take to Quinn’s. With any luck, he wouldn’t have to go back to the office that evening, and I’d have him all to myself until the next morning.
Smiling at the thought of what we’d do to fill the hours, I strolled back to my car, cursing my bad luck before I was halfway there when I saw Ella’s car coming down the road that intersected the one I was on, headed in my direction.
‘Oh great.’ Yeah, I was mumbling. Like anyone could blame me? ‘She wants to talk about the tour.’
Knowing I was trapped like the proverbial rat, I turned back around and went to stand next to Ness’s stone.
I fully expected Ella to slow down and park right in back of where I’d left my Mustang so when she sped up and took the curve from one cemetery road to another on two wheels, of course I was surprised.
But no more surprised than I was when she revved the engine, stepped on the gas, and aimed the car right at me.