My mother left, agreeing to meet up with us later, and Ruth and Alice lingered.
“Ruth,” I said before walking into the shower, “you need to lay low. You can’t be seen going to Tallulah’s. It’ll look suspicious.”
“I reckon I already look suspicious since part of my jacket wound up in a dead woman’s hand.”
“We all know it was planted,” Alice said.
“But there has to be proof,” Ruth argued.
“Exactly.” I grabbed a towel from the linen closet. “Lay low. Let Alice and I talk to Tallulah and her spirit. Can you do that?”
Ruth frowned. “I suppose I can go to work and listen to the messages.”
“Sounds perfect.” I shot a look to Alice. “And stay out of that shortbread tin. I don’t want to come out of the shower to find you in a sugar coma, okay?”
Alice slumped in her chair. “Whatever you say, Blissful.”
I showered and readied; then Alice and I climbed into my ancient Land Cruiser and Ruth drove to work.
“Do you think she’s really going to lay low?” I said, pulling onto the road.
“I doubt it,” Alice said.
I gave her a sidelong glance. “Want to bet that she beats us to Tallulah’s house?”
“Nope, because I’ll lose.”
Sure enough, when we pulled up to the brick house on the end of Spirit Way, Ruth was parked in her car. Binoculars were strapped around her neck. I was surprised she didn’t have an FBI-issue listening device in her car.
I rolled my eyes. “Should we do something about that?”
Alice shot me a pointed look. “No. She won’t listen.”
“You’re right.” I unbuckled my seat belt. “Okay. Let’s go talk to Tallulah and her spirit.”
Tallulah answered after the first set of knocks. Her blue hair was piled high on her head. She wore a pink gauzy robe over her jewel-toned clothes, and her blue eye shadow matched her hair.
How could I have missed this woman last night? Easy. It was dark and Birda was fighting with Ruth.
“Good morning,” she said. “Have you seen the paper?”
Alice pushed her glasses up her nose. “No. We’ve been busy mourning for your friend.”
Tallulah paused. She studied Alice as if trying to catch her in a lie. “Well then.” She popped open the daily Haunted Hollow newspaper. “You would’ve seen this.”
My eyes widened at the headline. “‘Ghost busting business a joke’? Who wrote that?”
I snatched the paper from her hand and scanned the article. It was written from Birda’s perspective. She proclaimed our business nothing more than smoke and mirrors and said her proof was that none of us spotted the Backwoods Banshee.
Alice read with me. “Well, I guess Birda got the article she wanted, didn’t she?”
“Looks like. Who wrote this? What reporter would only tell one side of the story?”
I thumped the name after I read it. “Devlin Monk. Well I guess he kept his word. Whoever saw the banshee first won the article.”
“Hewasthere last night.” Tallulah motioned for us to enter. “But come in.Come in.You wanted to speak to me, find out what Jeffrey has to tell you, right?”
I shot Alice a confused glance. She crumpled the paper under her arm and pulled me through the door with her. “Yes, we have some questions for Jeffrey.”
