“My name is Theodore Rutledge,” he replied, “although, I doubt my name rings any bells for you. Would it help if I said Edwina Bliss was my great-great-great-grandmother and the oldest child of Anthony and Melanie Bliss?”
I gasped. “Oh my goodness! Are you for real?”
He chuckled warmly. “As real as it gets. Our family attorney was contacted by the network that airsThe Paranormal Whispererand let us know about the investigation into Anthony’s disappearance. The network seems convinced the mystery has been solved. Is it true?”
“We do believe so, yes.”
“I spoke with Lyric Willows this morning, and I have to say he sounded very convincing. He was the one who provided your number. I’d hoped he would inform you I planned to call you, but I’m guessing it never happened.”
“It must’ve slipped his mind.” I suspected I knew exactly what he was up to since Vinyl and Villains was closed on Wednesday.
“Is now a good time to talk?”
“Absolutely. You’ve caught me at a great time.”
“I know I’m a virtual stranger to you, but I would appreciate the opportunity to see Bliss House. I’m willing to provide character references or submit to a background check if it makes you feel better.” His offer made me snort out a laugh. “Something funny?”
“My boyfriend is a police detective and will have no trouble looking into your background. He’ll know your shoe size before you take one step inside this house.”
“I think I’m going to like this guy. Why don’t you and I exchange email addresses so I can provide him with any detail he’d like to do a thorough background check on me?”
“That sounds perfect.” I rattled off my email address for him.
“Great, I’ll start off with my full name and current address. You’ll have my email address once I send this information to you. I’m looking forward to learning more about Anthony. Our family has been pretty tight-lipped about him over the generations.”
“I don’t think they had much to go on,” I said. “I’m willing to bet Melanie took his secret to the grave. I sort of feel like we’re exposing him, and it feels like a betrayal.”
“Mr. Willows told me how much you love the house and how connected you feel to Anthony’sghost.” I could tell by his tone he had a hard time accepting that part. I suspected he’d come around once he visited. My thoughts immediately turned to how Anthony would receive his flesh and blood back in the home he loved so much. “I’ll send you an email in just a bit so we can put your detective’s mind at ease.”
“Sounds great. I’m looking forward to it,” I said politely. As soon as the call disconnected, I leaped from my chair and did a happy dance. Lulu danced around and happily barked even though she had no idea why I was excited. Once I had it out of my system, I called Lyric.
“Oh fuck,” he said instead of the usual greeting. “I forgot to give you a heads-up that Theodore Rutledge was going to call you.”
“Technically, you forgot to ask my permission to provide my number in the first place, but I’m willing to let it slide this once.”
“Fuck! I’m sorry, Mae. I won’t ever do something so stupid again. Elijah is going to kill me when he finds out.”
“Maybe we won’t tell him you skipped that all-important step. Theodore seems like a standup guy, and to prove it, he’s emailing me his personal details so Elijah can run a background check on him before he steps foot on our property.”
“Whew, I feel so much better. I’m so excited one of Anthony’s heirs is interested in taking part in the process. He sounded—” Lyric’s voice cut off suddenly, and I heard Memphis speaking rapidly in the background. “I gotta go, Mae. The cameras caught our chicken snatcher in the woods. I need to call Elijah.”
I don’t know what the hell possessed me to do it, but I retrieved one of Elijah’s ball bats from his equipment bag, locked Lulu safely in the house, and set off through the woods.
“UM,ELIJAH,”MEMPHIS SAID WEAKLYinto the phone. “I think we have a problem.”
I had Memphis on speakerphone so he could give us live updates as we sped across town. It shouldn’t have been a big deal, but we had to give way to the fire trucks as they went on a run, stop for a funeral procession which was longer than any I’d ever seen before, and a water main break on Main Street had closed down the primary intersections to get around Blissville. We had to take side streets and even two alleys as part of the detour which slowed us way down. Adrian couldn’t tear through there and risk running over somebody on the way to my house, so he had to settle for blaring sirens and inventive swear words for people who didn’t move out of his way fast enough to suit him.
“Oh no! Is he hurting them?” Adrian asked, his voice laced with panic. He stomped on the accelerator just as he cleared the two houses at the end of the alley and made a sharp left turn which nearly sent us careening into the path of an oncoming car.
“Slow down, Adrian!” I wanted to solve the case too, but damn.
“Uh…” Memphis hesitated. “Nobody is hurting the chickens. I’m more concerned about the new arrival on the scene who has our chicken snatchers cornered against the coop.”
“Who?” Adrian and I asked at the same time.
Then we heard Lyric say, “I should’ve been a bit more discreet when I talked to her on the phone just now.”
Her?“My Freckles has the bad guy cornered?” I looked over at Adrian. “Go faster.” It usually took a person less than five minutes to get across town but not when I needed it most.
