AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe it won’t take quite that long,” I said, trying to cheer up Josie as best I could. “Remember, the deputies also mopped up all that spilled wine. If there was anything toxic in it, they might be able to detect the poison more quickly by doing some lab tests rather than a full-on toxicology test.”
Her expression brightened immediately. “Oh, you’re right! I’d almost forgotten about that. I’ll just have to cross my fingers.”
We were both silent for a moment as we sipped our tea. Josie did seem a bit more chipper now, and so I didn’t know whether it was a good idea to ask the other question that had been floating around in my mind.
Then again, I doubted she would be looking quite this cheerful if she was truly worried about it.
“Chief Lewis doesn’t think you’re involved, does he?”
Some of the sparkle in her pale blue eyes dulled, but her tone was light enough as she replied, “Oh, no. Or rather, he asked me a lot of questions last night, but since I was in the kitchen with the caterer when it happened, and I honestly didn’t have a single moment alone during the entire party, there’s really no way I could have snuck off at some point and slipped something into Danny’s drink…if that’s really what happened.”
Privately, I thought the chances were good it actually was what had happened to him. His plastic wine glass had been full before he took the fateful sip, which told me that must have been the first time he’d drunk from the glass after getting a refill.
But who would have had access to it before then? Had he filled his wine glass and left it unattended for a moment or two, maybe while he went to the bathroom or something?
Since I’d been in a different room chatting with Calvin and my friends, I didn’t have the answer to those questions. Still, it was good to know that Henry Lewis didn’t suspect Josie of any foul play. As someone who’d been suspected of murder by the man not once, but twice, I could clearly state that it wasn’t a very fun position to be in.
“Oh, I’m glad to hear that,” I said. “Having Henry Lewis breathing down your neck in a murder investigation isn’t something I’d recommend.”
She actually chuckled. “No, I suppose not. But even though this is all a terrible mess, at least I don’t seem to be implicated.”
We went on to chat about other things after that, such as the Festival of Lights and the planning that was already under way for the event. I could tell Josie wanted to get off the subject of Danny Ortega, which was fine by me. At that point, I didn’t have much to add on the topic anyway.
After we finished our tea, I told her I needed to get to the shop, and headed on over. Because I didn’t have a firm plan for my day, it really didn’t matter that I was getting a late start. I’d decided to come in and do inventory because Calvin was working and I couldn’t really think of what else I wanted to do on my day off, and so it honestly didn’t matter how much I actually accomplished. True, it was smart to do inventory now before I started to really stock up for the holiday gift-buying season, but how much I got done wasn’t exactly a huge deal.
Well, now that I was here, I thought I’d do my best to analyze the layout of the store and the products I had on display, and then figure out where I could put Joyce Lewis’s candles if I ended up deciding to offer them as part of my wares. I could possibly shift some of the carved mineral candle holders to the display case, and maybe some of the agate slice bookends to the bookshelves. And —
“Hi, Selena.”
The voice sounded halfway familiar. I looked up from the case where I’d been rummaging around and nearly keeled over in shock.
Standing a few feet away from me was Danny Ortega.
5
Back From the Dead
Danny appeared perfectlyhale and hearty, olive skin nicely tanned, dark eyes bright and lively. The only thing that looked wrong about the apparition was that he still wore his Zorro costume from the party the night before, although the wide-brimmed hat and black cloak seemed to have disappeared somewhere along the way.
“D-Danny?” I stammered. Was it possible that he was still alive? Maybe they’d been able to revive him in the ambulance, or —
“Oh, I’m dead,” he said, sounding absolutely unruffled by that unfortunate reality. “No doubt about it.”
“But…we’re having a conversation,” I pointed out, and he shrugged.
“True,” he said. “But you’ve talked to dead people before this, haven’t you?”
“Well….” I hedged. All right, I’d briefly spoken with Lucien Dumond after his death, and I talked to my Grandma Ellen in my crystal ball on a regular basis, but neither of those activities felt quite the same as what was happening to me now.
Danny grinned. It was somehow more unsettling to have him look so entirely like himself. I stared, thinking it might have been a bit better if he’d been slightly transparent or something, had enough about his appearance altered to make it clear the Danny I was talking to now wasn’t the same man who’d tried to stare down into my cleavage at Josie’s party the night before.
Thank the Goddess that I was wearing a fairly high-necked shirt today. I wasn’t sure how I would have reacted to a ghost ogling me.
“Same thing,” he said. “Or at least, close enough.”
I decided that if we were talking, I might as well try to get some information out of him. “Do you know what happened to you?”
“Oh, sure,” he said, still looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Maybe he didn’t. After all, once you were dead, you didn’t have a whole heck of a lot left to worry about. “Someone poisoned me.”
