“That’s why she should be checked out,” Declan said. For about the tenthtime.
“I’m fine. My head’s not even pounding anymore. I’ve got my spiced warm almond milk—thanks, auntie—and he’s gone and I feel fine. No residuals. So what’s this about a murder?” she said, abruptly steering the conversation away fromherself.
“A murder?” Cherry looked from one to the other. “What are you talkingabout?”
Declan had no choice but to acquiesce—on all counts. “Marcus Levin’s body was found with his head bashed in at the highschool.”
“At the high school? That’s only—that’s only a short way away from here!” Cherry exclaimed. Her platinum-blond hair was spiked up all over the place, as if to punctuate hershock.
“Which is why I was a little concerned when Leslie wasn’t answering her cell phone,” Declansaid.
She felt a little shiver of warmth at the concern in his voice. Maybe all was notlost.
“I was trying to let her know John Fischer wasn’t who he’d led everyone to believe, and when she didn’t answer and I learned he was coming here, and that there’d been a murder—well—”
“Well, obviously you came over here.” Cherry was looking at him like he was a hero, and Leslie—though she felt a little awkward, considering how they’d left things last night—was growing some very soft, very fuzzy feelingsherself.
“Thank you,” she said, and reached for his hand. To her relief—for she saw Cherry’s and Orbra’s eyes follow her movement—he curled his big fingers around hers andsqueezed.
We need to talk, was the message in thesqueeze.
Yes, she squeezedback.
“That’s very…coincidental,” Leslie said, casually releasing hishand.
“What do you mean?” Declanasked.
“That Marcus Levin should be murdered. Because, well, Cherry and I just figured out earlier today—or, I guess, yesterday,” she added, realizing it was well past midnight now, “that the ghost isn’t Dorothy Duchene. It’s Kristen vanGerste.”
As she said those words aloud, Leslie waited and listened…and yes, there was the faintest—oh, the very faintest—movement in the air. A shifting. Asighfrom the depths of the house. Rufus’s eyes bolted open, and he lifted his headwarily.
“Kristen van Gerste? She’s the prom queen who was murdered on prom night—what, thirty years ago? Her body was found in the…woods…” Declan’s voice trailed off as he put the same two and twotogether.
“She was wearing a pink velvet stole and long white gloves that night,” Leslie said, stroking Rufus gently. He relaxed back into her lap. “Kristen was only found wearing her dress. The topazes were stolen and her wrap and gloves were missing—though that wasn’t ever made a big deal about. It was the missing gems that were all over thenews.”
“And how is Marcus Levininvolved?”
“He was her date to the prom. They had a big row in the middle of—wait for it—‘Waiting for a Girl LikeYou’—”
Declan’s eyes widened. “Wait. The music! I knew I recognized that song…I just couldn’t place it. That’s the music that’s been playing while the ghostappears.”
His comment had both Cherry and Orbra looking at him sharply. “So you’ve seen the ghost yourself?” Orbraasked.
“Not really seen…butfelther,” Declan admitted. “Really felther.”
Leslie explained about the gale-force winds inside the foyer, and their conclusion about the hollow beneath one of the stairs being related to the murder. “I think Kristen was killed here, and the murderer hid her stole and gloves in the house, and then took her body and left it in the woods to make it look like it was a robbery over thetopazes.”
“That makes perfect sense,” Declan said. “Although…why not leave the stole and gloves with her body? That doesn’t really make sense to keep themseparate.”
“Unless there is or was something on them that would identify the murderer—blood, maybe? DNA?” Leslie said. She tried to remember whether she’d seen anything like that on the clothing. “Did they even have those capabilities thirty years ago?” sheasked.
“Hmm. I don’t know. But either way, the prime suspect would have been Marcus Levin—the guy she foughtwith.”
“But now he’s dead,” Cherry said. “And is that a coincidence or aconspiracy?”
“If he did kill her, we’ll probably neverknow.”
“But if hewasn’tthe one who killed her—maybe he knows something about what happened. And that’s why he was killed. You know, everyone’s coming back to town for that reunion on Sunday. Maybe that’s dredging up a lot of this…stuff.”
