Dylan came in the back door, kissed my cheek noisily. I said to my mama, “Give my love to Daddy, too, and tell him thanks again for getting that information on Moriah I needed.” He’d called last night with the name of the library where she worked, her hours, her home address, and her phone number. I owed him big-time.
“I will. By the way, you’re doing a damn fine job keeping him busy,” Mama said. “I’ve barely seen hide nor hair of him since Saturday. Blessed peace. Sweet blessed peace.”
I smiled. “’Bye, Mama.”
“I love you, Carly Bell. You keep that in mind when you’re dealing with ghosts and Patricia or anyone else. And don’t think I won’t kick her skinny booty, too, if I find out she’s done you any kind of wrong. I’ll do it. Just watch me.”
There’s nothing fiercer than a mama protecting her baby. “Watch? I’d video it and play it on special occasions.”
Mama laughed. “That’s my girl.”
She made kissy noises into the phone and hung up.
Dylan said, “Everything okay?”
“My mama’s been hearing things about my erratic behavior and offered to kick some ghostly booty.”
“I’d pay to see that,” he said, tugging a coffee out of the tray and handed it over.
“Me, too.”
He went to the plate cabinet, pulled open the door. “I bought a coffee for Delia, too. I wasn’t sure what she liked, but I figure she probably likes what you like since you two are so similar.”
“You think so?” I asked, testing the lid on my cup. It was tight, and I figured it was the first thing Dylan had checked before leaving the coffee shop.
Taking down two plates, he said, “Except for the hex thing and her obsession with the color black, yeah. I never realized how much until you two became close.” Smiling, he said, “Two peas.”
The notion made me oddly happy.
He set two blueberry scones on the plates and handed one to me. “I’m planning to see what I can find out about the Harpies’ financial situation today.”
His shift started at eight thirty, so he was dressed for work in pressed black slacks and a white button-down with a dark tie. The clothes skimmed his body, hugging his muscles, and dang he looked good.
I stuffed a piece of scone in my mouth. I had to leave soon. There was no time to throw myself at him.
“Good,” I said, catching a crumb as it fell from my mouth. “Because none of the Harpies other than Hyacinth knew Haywood was the heir to the house, and I know she didn’t kill him because I asked, and her energy was truthful. Which means he wasn’t killed because of that house. That leaves us with only the blackmail angle to explore. The money trail will reveal a lot.”
“The only trouble is I don’t know if warrants have already been executed for the bank information. If not, it’s going to take time. Time you don’t necessarily have when it comes to Haywood.”
I glanced at the clock. It was almost eight, and I took a deep breath. “We can only do what we can do. Maybe Avery Bryan will have some answers for us.”
Because Haywood still hadn’t come back. For a ghost who wanted my help so badly, he hadn’t made my job easy. It would serve him right if I sicced my mama on him.
Dylan pinched the bridge of his nose. “What’s my mother got to do with her?”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed my hands over the sink to rid them of crumbs and set my plate in the dishwasher, then Dylan’s. “It’s not so much Avery, though, as her mama that has Patricia all fired up.”
“Twilabeth Morgan?”
“Patricia’s energy was off the charts panicked when I mentioned Twilabeth’s name last night.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “Do you know anything about her?”
“Never heard of her before this week.”
“Same here.” I looked at the clock again. “I have a couple of minutes before Delia comes by. I think I’ll pop over to Mr. Dunwoody’s to see what he might know about Twilabeth.”
“I’ve got to get to work. You’ll let me know?”
“Yep. You’ll let me know about the money trail?”
“First thing.” He pulled me into a hug, holding me tight. His heartbeat thudded against my collarbone as I snuggled against him. “Be careful today.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant because of the ghostpocalypse, because someone had already tried to kill me, or because I was taking Louella on the road trip. I supposed it didn’t matter much. “I will.”
He kissed me long and hard and walked out the door.
A moment later his truck roared to life and he backed out of the driveway. I gathered up my tote bag, Delia’s coffee, and sneaked up on Louella to clip a leash on her sparkly pink collar.
Sneaking hadn’t helped. She still managed to get a piece of my thumb.
As I locked the house and headed over to Mr. Dunwoody’s to see what I could learn about Twilabeth Morgan, I couldn’t keep my thoughts from drifting to Avery Bryan.
Like Hyacinth, had Haywood told her that he was the heir to the Ezekiel mansion?
Because all this time I’d been thinking a Harpie had something to do with Haywood’s death. But what if it hadn’t been a Harpie at all?
What if it had been his own daughter who killed him?
It was possible his murder had been about the house after all.
Chapter Twenty