We got into the Cruiser, and I fired up the engine.
“So. Where are we headed?”
“We’re going to watch a woman and a ghost. See what they’re up to.”
Francine rubbed her hands together. “Sounds wonderful. Let’s go.”
We reached Tallulah’s house a little bit later. I slid into a free spot on the curb.
“Lights are on,” I mused. “Interesting. Most old folks turn off the lights around eight p.m.”
“Some young folks do, too,” Francine added. “I tell you, if I was alive, I’d stay up until at least midnight every night.”
We sat outside waiting for something—what, I didn’t know.
“Want me to go inside and scare them?” Francine offered.
“No thanks. I just want to watch.”
Finally Jeffrey glided through the front door. “He’s on the move.” My stomach churned with excitement.
“Great. Want me to run up and hit him over the head with a boulder?”
I bristled. “There aren’t any boulders here, and aren’t you forgetting he’s a spirit, same as you?”
“Oh yeah, I was just so excited.”
Following in my car wouldn’t have been the smartest, so I slipped out and hightailed it down the street. Francine kept up, no problem.
A cold wind blasted through my jacket, cutting me to the bone. I zipped it up. It wasn’t that cold outside. Was it simply my proximity to Jeffrey that made me colder?
Probably so.
Jeffrey kept floating down the street until he reached an abandoned gas station. He disappeared inside.
“Now what could all this fuss be?”
I went around back and peered into a grime-stained window. It was so dirt covered I had to wipe it clean with my arm.
“I hope that comes out,” I murmured, staring at the brown stain on my jacket.
Francine floated up. “Oh darling, if it doesn’t, I know all sorts of tricks that’ll help.”
“Thanks. Now. Let me see what’s going on.”
I peered into the window and gasped. Ghosts and ghouls of all shapes and sizes mingled in the room while a spirit served up drinks.
“It’s a bar,” I said. “A dive bar for ghosts.”
Francine looked over my shoulder. “And I wasn’t invited? How awful.”
I tapped my toe. Maybe I was wrong about Jeffrey. Maybe I was tailing the wrong guy. After all, he was in a ghost bar. But how could that be related to Cora’s death?
I stared into the clean spot until I found him. Sure enough, Jeffrey stood at the bar talking to other spirits. He laughed and chatted until a dark figure approached him.
Jeffrey turned to the ghost. They talked for a few minutes, and then Jeffrey handed him a package.
I gasped. It was the folder filled with the spliced photographs from Cora’s house. So it had been Tallulah in the house. Had to have been because a living, breathing person had opened the door, walked around and then shut it.
