“Chilly?” Maxine replied. “It was downrightcoldback there. Like being in a freezer.”
“That wasn’t the back door, dearie,” Iva said, patting her arm with a soft hand. “That was a Ghostly Presence.” The final two words were, very obviously, capitalized.
“The sudden cool breeze, the scent of roses…of course that’s what it was,” Juanita put in. Her eyes were wide and earnest.
Fiona stared at them. They all seemed perfectly lucid. “So you noticed the roses too,” she said after a moment of resetting her brain.
“Of course, dearie. Obviously, some spirit has been disturbed,” said Iva. “Probably the skeleton.”
Maxine’s voice was more of a screech than a comfort. “What did you—”
“Did these sorts of things happen before you stumbled upon the skeleton?” Iva spoke over her in a gentle but firm tone.
“Um…yes. A little.” Fiona couldn’t help but look up and around as if expecting to see some evidence of the Ghostly Presence. “There’s a lamp—”
“Well, we gotta find out who it is. Who’s haunting the place.”
Fiona nodded. She couldn’t argue with that.
“A Ghostly Presence means there’s something unresolved,” Iva told Fiona, patting her hand as if she was consoling her over the loss of the figurine, which, now that Fiona thought about it, was probably due to said Ghostly Presence.
“I suspect it means whoever killed that woman killed her here, and locked her up in that room to disintegrate,” Maxine said, looking around. Her eyes were sharp and clear, and her voice matched them.
Fiona knew that back in the late Sixties, Maxine had earned her PhD in chemistry and worked as a chemical engineer in an industry nearly exclusively populated by white men—not unlike the women ofHidden Figures. In this moment, the sharp, brainy, determined woman she’d obviously been was evident as she looked at Fiona and said, “And once you figure out who’d do such a thing, you’ll damned well know why there’s a ghost.”
“Then,” Iva said, “you’ll have to find a way to set things right.”
“That’s right,” Juanita said earnestly. She’d once again taken up her bag with the beady-eyed Bruce Banner peeking out of the top.
Fiona knew better than to reach out and pet the darling pooch. Despite his sweet face, soft fur, and butterfly-like ears that were too big for his face yet fit him perfectly, she knew from experience that he was aptly named. Bruce Banner was no fun when he was angry—and an unexpected pat on the head was a sure way to turn him into a small canine version of The Hulk.
“How does one set things right?” Fiona asked.
“It depends,” replied Iva, “on what’s out of order. I’m sure it will all come clear.”
I just hope I don’t go mad before it does.
“I want to look at one more thing before we go,” Iva said, gesturing to the back of the shop. “And then we’re out of here.”
“Knock yourself out,” Fiona said, finally returning her attention to the paperwork she’d been doing before all of the interruptions. As she slid her reading glasses into place, she said, “Lock the door behind you, please.”
Sometime later, she pulled off the glasses and put the last sheaf of papers aside. Bending over at the desk to stretch her back, she went on to do a few minor yoga twists in her chair, then and stood to stretch tall on her toes.
She stepped back to the desk. Fiona was just reaching across its wide expanse for a new pen when a firm touch at the base of her exposed back sent her snapping up and around.
She shrieked in surprise, and banged her elbow on the heavy side rail of the desk as she looked up, flinging her hair away from where it’d stuck to her mouth, to see a silently-amused Gideon, arms tucked behind his back.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she sputtered, trying to swallow her heart back to where it belonged.
“My…I would have thought after last night…and this morning,” he said, giving her a very slow, sensual smile, “I’d have a warmer welcome than that.”
“Stop doing that!” She glowered at him, angry at herself now because the erratic, merry tripping of her heart had nothing to do with being startled.
“What? Walking up behind you?”
“Stop showing that you have a sense of humor.Andsneaking up behind me.” Fiona tried to hold it back, but the nervous giggle escaped and she succumbed to the smile while her heart did a little flip.
He moved, and suddenly a mass of pale purple tulips—at least thirty of them!—appeared just under her nose, sending their sweet scent to her senses.
