Surprise filled her beady eyes. Fannie’s mouth coiled into a sinister smile. “You know.”
“That you stole my ghost trap holding Jinkins Hudson’s spirit? Yes, I know. But why?”
Fannie thumbed her chest. “Because he owes me. Jinkins owes me.” She smiled wickedly. “That’s why he’s helping me right now.”
“Why does he owe you?”
Had to keep her talking. Fannie might be strong, but she had tied me to a wooden pillar with rough edges. If I could just work my hands up and down without her noticing, maybe the bonds would fray and I’d be free.
Fannie shook an angry fist at the sky. “For everything I endured, he owes me. That man. He promised. Promised I’d be part of the wealth. Promised I’d have my share, and what did he do?”
She waited for me to answer. I clearly had no response since I didn’t know what in the Beelzebub was going on.
“You tell me.”
I felt the rope loosen. I tugged, but it still wasn’t frayed enough for me to break free. What was I going to do then, anyway? Jump on Fannie? That would probably break every osteoporosed bone in her body.
“He stole the money. Stole jewels. Stole everything he could. Most of the time the guests didn’t notice until they were gone. Jinkins would explain that he checked the room but couldn’t find anything. It was all so good until the girl saw him steal. That’s what almost ruined it for us.”
As Fannie spoke, light began to dawn on me. She had saidus. Ruin it for us.
My eyes flared. Of course I hadn’t seen it before. Why would I have? Both Hudsons were supposed to be dead. As doornails. Brownie had said so.
“Are you who I think you are?” I peered into the candlelight, trying to get a better glimpse of Fannie.
“She wasn’t called Fannie back then.”
My gaze cut right. Artie sat in the corner, watching. Fannie continued to light candles and hum to herself as Artie spoke.
“I remember now,” he said. “I arrived on business. I was only supposed to be in town one night. I caught Mr. Hudson going through my things. We argued. He pulled a knife and stabbed me right in the gut.”
Artie rubbed a hand down his face. He sighed and folded his arms across his chest. “She’s standing right on top of what she’s looking for.”
My eyes flared.
Artie nodded to the cellar floor. “The jewels. The money. It’s all under her feet.”
“Fannie,” I said slowly.
“Hmm?” She pulled theSpiritusfrom her coat pocket and placed it lovingly on the dusty shelf.
Crap. The absolute last thing I needed was for Fannie to crack that open.
“You want the money. The jewels. It’s what Jinkins owed you, isn’t it? For a lifetime of abuse?”
Her shoulders bunched. The heat of her glare nearly seared my flesh right off. “What do you know about it?”
“Only what your great-niece told me. Did you know that? That Brownie Jarvis is your great-niece?”
“Of course I know,” she snapped. “Everyone thinks Deborah Hudson is dead. I am keeping it that way. She is dead, but Fannie Sullivan is alive.”
“You’re alive because you killed Jinkins, aren’t you?”
Fannie’s face crumpled. Her fingers shook as she brushed her hand lovingly over the tube that held her late husband’s spirit.
“We had a bad fight that night. I wanted to know where he’d hidden all the money. It was half mine.” Her voice trembled with anger. “I deserved it. He had no right to keep it from me. We’d killed that poor Menzel girl. She’d discovered part of our stash, you see, when she was cleaning. After the deed was done, I put on her clothes and walked down the street to make the neighbors think she had left. That’s why people saw her outside the house. I pretended to be her.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Molly’s parents—they should’ve known what happened to her. They should have been told, but we kept it from them. Because we’d both been involved.”
