The bell tinkled when we entered. Dust motes floated on sunbeams, and dark wood gleamed around us. I inhaled deeply. The scent of paper and oily polish filled my nose. It was the sort of place that you wanted to grab a book and curl up in a chair. Maybe fall asleep. Maybe just read all afternoon.
A few tourists lingered inside, picking up this book or that. Some of the more popular ones were the history books chock-full of facts regarding the ghosts who haunted our town, as it were.
A cheery voice called out from behind the counter. “What can I do for y’all?”
I quickly swept behind Alice and shuffled her forward.
Her body stiffened. “Blissful, there is no need for that. You don’t have to push— Oh, hello, Hodges.”
Mr. Hodges’s eyes sparkled behind his glasses. “Well if it isn’t Alice Cassidy. It’s mighty good to see you. I hear your business is doing well.”
I could feel Alice blushing through her shirt. That’s how hot she got. I had to bite my lower lip to keep from chuckling.
“The ghost hunting business is doing very well, thank you.”
His smile widened to show a row of perfectly straight front teeth. “I’m happy to hear that. There’s been a lot of buzz about the work y’all do.”
Alice tried to point to me, but since I was behind her and technically pushing her forward, she ended up looking more like a chicken flapping her wings than anything else.
“Oh, it’s not me who’s to thank for that. It’s Blissful here. She’s so good at what she does.” She leaned forward. “Did you know she could see ghosts?”
Hodges’s gaze cut to me. “You don’t say. That’s a very interesting talent.”
“It sure is,” Alice replied.
Silence settled between the two. I shot Ruth a questioning look. She shrugged as if she wasn’t sure what to do next.
Oh, for Pete’s sake.
I came around Alice and rested my fingers on the counter. Hodges and Alice stood shooting goofy smiles at one another. Time to get things moving.
“Hi, Mr. Hodges.”
He dragged his gaze from Alice. Boy, did this guy have it bad or what? “Well, hello there. Nice to see you again. What brings you ladies in?”
“We have a question about a house.” I scanned the books behind the counter. Several titles referenced the history of Haunted Hollow.
“Which house would that be?”
“It’s one out on Ghoul Avenue. An old empire-style home. Was a bed-and-breakfast in the seventies—or so I’m told.”
Hodges’s eyebrows shot to peaks. “The house where they found the body?”
I nodded. “That’s the one.”
“Blissful’s trying to help the spirit of a girl there.” Alice pushed her glasses up her nose. “Says she’s trapped.”
“Thank you, Alice,” I said, hushing her. I didn’t need everyone in town to think I was absolutely loony, now did I? It was one thing to see spirits, quite another to say you were out there helping them.
People tended to think that sort of talk was nonsense. To be honest, I didn’t blame them. Who would believe that some chick with violet-colored hair was trying to help a ghost?
Sounded crazy, right? Even I thought it sounded crazy, and I was the person doing the helping.
“What Alice means to say,” I added quickly, “is that the home is an interesting place. I spoke to one of the next-door neighbors, and she explained that the couple who lived there during the seventies—the Hudsons, who ran the bed-and-breakfast—often had the police called on them. The neighbor thought the whole thing was a domestic abuse issue, but the husband never got arrested. Then she said one day the couple up and left. They just vanished”—I snapped my fingers—“like that.”
Hodges nodded in understanding. He grabbed one of the books and flipped through it. “The house you’re referring to was originally known as the Gambrell house. It’s one of the few empire-style homes in the area. That style wasn’t as popular in the South as it was up North.”
He licked a finger and hummed quietly as he flipped the pages. “Ah, here it is.” He tapped the page and read. “‘The Gambrell home is one of the oldest in Haunted Hollow, dating back to the late 1800s. Though no one has witnessed spectral activity on the site, it has a mysterious history. Few owners lasted more than five years, and on more than one occasion people have simply vanished from the place. The first such report of folks vanishing came in 1910, when the Gambrells themselves left in haste. Though many folks have speculated the vanishing had more to do with Mr. Gambrell’s outstanding debts, nothing has ever been corroborated and Mr. Gambrell was never heard from again.’”
