As Mr. Hodges spoke, Ricky rose, dipped his hand in the woman’s purse and then dropped several coins to the ground.
I laughed behind my hand.
The woman whirled around. “What in the world?”
Hodges peered over the counter. “Sounds like Ricky’s at it again. Looks like you dropped some change.”
“But that’s impossible,” blustered the woman.
Mr. Hodges smiled widely. “Not in Haunted Hollow, where nearly every shop is haunted.”
Ricky winked at me. I gave him a slight nod and glanced out the window. No one had followed me from the restaurant. Thank goodness. Time to go. I turned back to wave goodbye to Ricky, but the boy was gone.
“Like,the entire world is totally going to know you now.”
Susan had popped up in the Land Cruiser’s passenger seat. She filed her nails as I stared blankly ahead.
“Yep, you’re gonna be Haunted Hollow’s next celebrity. I can just see the headlines.”
“I need a place to stay,” I said.
“Oh, there’s a great bed-and-breakfast in town. Haunted something or other. It’s just off the main drag. Totally hot guy runs it, too. At least that’s what I hear at the restaurant.”
The folks in the restaurant had pestered me endlessly about whether or not I saw the ghost. I played dumb. But that hadn’t stopped them from following me outside trying to chat.
“The B and B it is.”
There were a ton of tourists, so I doubted I’d find an empty room but it was worth the shot.
“Turn right at the next street,” Susan said.
“Ghost Avenue?”
“That’s the one.”
A pale gray Victorian with white trim sat squarely on the corner. The wooden sign out front read HAUNTED HOLLOW BED AND BREAKFAST.
“Original,” I said.
“Not really.”
I made sure no one was around, and then I turned to Susan. “Back at the restaurant you said that Lucky Strike could eat your shorts. What did you mean?”
Susan blushed. For goodness’ sake, ghosts blushed? I’d never seen it before. “Let’s just say that Lucky and I have unfinished business.”
“But you don’t know where he is.”
“Like, if I totally knew, I’d be seriously angry at him and would use one of my ghost gifts to make his head fall off.”
“Ghost gifts don’t work that way.”
She smirked. “Too bad.”
I climbed from the Land Cruiser. My feet touched the running boards of the truck before settling on the asphalt.
When I opened the door to the B and B, the wonderful aroma of cinnamon wrapped me like a well-worn blanket.
“Cozy, huh?” Susan popped up. Looked like I had a new best friend. Yay me.
