Page 30 of Ghost Town Boogie

“Couldn’t you have popped out of the house to get a closer look?” Colt asked.

Jack shook his head. “I couldn’t leave Mom. I had to stay. She needed me.”

First Nicole and now this. Colt didn’t believe in coincidence.

“Anna wasn’t home, but you know that.” Jack’s statement came with a glare that didn’t last. “I woke Mom the only way I knew how. It wasn’t easy. The woman sleeps like the dead!”

Did the dead sleep? He wasn’t sure…

Best to focus on the living, at the moment. Whoever started the fire had probably killed Nicole earlier in the day. The killer had been looking for something in the duck picture he’d decided was worth killing for. Maybe he hadn’t found what he’d been looking for and had decided to burn down the Miller house and everything in it.

How could he ask Mac if a particular picture of a duck had been stolen from the antiques store? Oh, by the way…

Why was this happening, and why now? Was what had happened in the past twelve hours, murder and arson, connected to Jack’s murder five years earlier?

“What the hell were you into?” Colt asked in a lowered voice.

Jack stopped shimmering. His anger faded and was replaced with shame. Colt had seen this expression on his old friend’s face once before, when he’d bullied a shy boy in high school until the kid dropped out. Jack was a jerk, but apparently he could experience shame.

“What have you done?” Colt asked.

Jack disappeared. When Colt turned to look at the women who were walking toward the Pine Street house, the ghost was there, following them.

Colt’s ghost-free house had remained that way for one night. It had been a good night, but dammit, it was over.

Anna couldn’t bring herself to put her mother in the bed where she and Colt had just had sex. Three times. Fortunately the bed in the small spare room was decent. Colt insisted they check for bed bugs, but they found none. He seemed relieved. There were clean sheets in the narrow linen closet in the hallway; she and her mom made the bed, though it didn’t look like either of them would get any more sleep tonight. The sun was coming up. Maybe they could catch a nap later.

Sunday had started early, and with a bang.

They sat at the small, round kitchen table. Colt made coffee as soon as they arrived, and all three of them started the day with a big mug. Caffeine wouldn’t change anything, but it might make the day more tolerable. Couldn’t hurt. Anna’s mind spun with an ever-changing list of things that needed to be done ASAP.

At one point the table had shuddered, as the three of them sat there and tried to catch their breath. It reminded Anna of the occasional weird tremors at her mom’s house. So, maybe not the plumbing… though that didn’t matter now. Not much mattered, with the memory of what remained of her home on her mind.

Colt muttered “no,” once, and the shaking stopped.

“We really need to talk to someone in charge about that,” Nina said absently, as though the mayor or the police chief might have answers or solutions for random, unexplained tremors.

They had more important things on their minds. There had been a murder in Seawolf Beach. Anna hadn’t seen the body, and still the image of a dead Nicole popped into her mind at unwanted moments, while she made a mental list of who needed to be notified about the fire, what had to be replaced today, and when she could get her mother on her way to Florida. There was no reason for her to stay. Anna could get a power of attorney and handle all the gory details herself. Insurance, clean up, potential sale of the property to someone who would rebuild. They wouldn’t get much, but in spite of the savings they’d lost to one of Jack’s schemes, her parents had money set aside. They’d always been savers, setting back a bit at a time so they wouldn’t have to worry in retirement. A retirement her dad hadn’t lived to see much of.

She also thought about poor Nicole whose last hours, maybe her last minutes, had been spent worrying about getting laid. There might’ve been more mundane things on her mind as well, business issues or what to have for dinner. She might’ve been putting together a grocery list. But when Anna had talked to her she’d been bemoaning her lack of a love life.

Much as Anna had done, until last night.

The image of Nicole that continued to intrude on her thoughts reminded Anna that life was truly short. Marking time, as she’d been doing since the divorce, was a waste of that precious time. She’d been in limbo, waiting for life to happen to her instead of making things happen.

She’d eventually return to Nashville, but until that happened… she was finished sitting back and not taking what she wanted.

As if he read her mind, Colt took her hand under the table. He squeezed it. He looked at her and caught her eye.

And in that moment her only thought was… mine.

CHAPTER 11

The depot was open a half day on Sunday. Thank goodness for Helen and Benny, who were perfectly capable of running the business on their own.

Colt was there to let his employees in and he stuck around until opening time. When he was confident everything was in order, he left. He couldn’t get out fast enough.

How was he going to continue to run the depot with Nicole’s ghost joining the parade? She already fit right in. Gerald ogled her, especially when she took off her blouse and tossed it at Colt. Maude seemed determined to be a good influence on the misguided young woman, telling her gently that throwing her clothes at a man wasn’t proper behavior. Nicole dogged Colt’s steps, she got right up in his face and insisted that he find the man who’d done this to her.