I cocked my eyebrows. “And you know this how?”
Alice glanced guiltily to Ruth. “Oh, just tell her,” Ruth said.
“The Baptist Women’s League. The president is the retired sheriff’s wife. She told me. Said Kency called last night to get his advice. She made a big point to say they hadn’t found the weapon. See, Kency got the job because no one else wanted it. Half the town’s waiting for her to fail; the other half want her to succeed.”
“And once they discover she’s calling the retired sheriff for advice?”
“Oh no one will find out about that besides us,” Ruth said. “We keep our lips zipped about these things.”
“So no murder weapon and a long list of suspects—and fingerprints from three of us who have no business being at the victim’s house.”
Ruth’s face crumbled. “It looks like we’re in bad shape.”
I nibbled my bottom lip. “I’ll help us get out of this.”
“How?” Alice said, her face full of questions. “How will we get out of it? It looks like sooner rather than later we’ll be dragged in there.”
I crossed my arms. “We know Xavier’s computer is missing and it wasn’t found by the police. My guess is someone killed Xavier and stole his computer. He’s dead, maybe because of a piece of information on it. We find the laptop, we’ll be zeroing in on the murderer.”
Alice pulled off her glasses and cleaned them with her floral dress. “What are you going to do?”
“Not me,” I said, “us. What’re we going to do? Because the way I see it, the three of us look fairly guilty.” I raised my hand. “I don’t want anyone to get in trouble, but I need your help. I can’t go stalking around people’s houses by myself searching for evidence, but with the two of you, I’d at least have a cover.”
“What’s the cover?” Alice said.
Ruth rubbed the tired from the wells of her eyes. “Ghost Catchers, you moron. She wants us all to go out and pretend to be looking for ghosts.”
A slow smile curled on my lips. “That’s exactly right. Now. The three of us suit up or whatever it is you do and we pretend to be investigating a haunting. It’s the perfect cover.”
“Only no one’s ever hired us,” Alice said.
I opened my arms. “Now they have. We’ll say we’ve been hired and you brought me along to teach me the ropes.”
“We’ll be the laughingstock in town,” Alice complained.
Seriously? Weren’t they already?
Ruth snapped her fingers. “It’s perfect. We can walk around; Blissful can actually see ghosts. You can help us catch one.”
“Whoa. There I won’t go. I don’t catch ghosts. Well, that’s not exactly true. I want to catch Lucky Strike, but that’s it. Normally my job is to push them over to the other side.”
“But now you’ve found yourself being a bounty hunter,” Alice said. “That’s what you are—a ghost bounty hunter. You’re more of a ghost wrangler than Xavier and his gang.”
“Speaking of Xavier and the gang, it sounds like his boy Truck is ticked that Xavier was going to leave and jaunt on off to Hollywood.” I sat in an empty chair and draped one arm over the back. “I heard him saying just this morning that Hollywood’s already been calling him since Xavier died.”
Alice’s jaw dropped. “He’s not even in the ground.”
“Yep,” I said. “Look, I want the computer and to get out of this town. All these free-walking spirits are giving me the heebie-jeebies. I want to get back to my life—my real life. I can do it, but I can do it faster with y’all’s help. What do you say? Are you in? I don’t want to put anyone in trouble or danger. If we get caught, I’ll take all the blame. I only need cover.”
Ruth rubbed her face. “The viewing of Xavier is tonight.”
“So quickly?” Alice said.
“Apparently he wanted it fast. Burial’s tomorrow.”
I crossed my legs. “Which means folks won’t be in their homes. He was a celebrity. Half the town will be at the viewing.” I rose, flattened my palms down my legs. “I probably don’t need y’all. I don’t want you in trouble.”
“Are you kidding?” Alice said, her lower lip trembling. “Someone murdered Xavier. He might’ve been a lot of things, but he wasn’t a bad person. And now Truck is already talking about taking his place in Hollywood?”
