“I met a man named Jimmy. A guy who’s been staying in the old slave quarters.”
“Someone’s been living on the property?” she asked.
“For six months.”
“Oh, God!” she exclaimed. She and Amelia had been in danger.
“He wouldn’t have hurt you. He’s just a down-and-out guy looking for a way to get back on his feet, so I told him he could stay. He’s got himself a job at the gas station out there, and he’s saving up for a car and a place to live.”
“And you believe that?” she asked.
“I do.”
She smiled.
“What?” he asked her.
She laughed. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t expect you to be that trusting.” She avoided adding, or generous to a stranger.
He looked back at her for a long moment, and shrugged. “Well, I did go by and check with his boss this morning. Jimmy thinks there are ghosts in the graveyard. He comes ‘home,’ closes the door and stays inside all night, hiding from them.”
“A cemetery is a good place for ghosts to be,” she said dryly.
“You haven’t answered me,” he said.
“I’m sorry?”
“About coming out to the house with me. There’s no hurry or anything. I can meet you after work, bring you back here to pack some clothes.”
It was rushing things. She shouldn’t go.
She sure as hell didn’t want to stay here another night, though. Not when someone who didn’t belong there was playing around in her courtyard.
Lurking at her very door.
And leaving a sliced-to-pieces voodoo doll that resembled her.
The cops would be watching the house. But how well?
None of that mattered. She shouldn’t go with him because she was afraid. She should go with him because she wanted to, because she wanted to be with him. Because she cared about him.
And she did.
“Yes, I’d like to go stay at the house with you,” she told him.
He nodded. “Thanks,” he said huskily. “I’m glad.”
“We close up between five and six.”
“Okay. Don’t leave. I’ll come meet you there.”
“All right.”
He was still standing there, staring at her.
“You ready to go to work?” he asked her.
She frowned and glanced at her watch. Amazingly, it was just after ten.
“Just about,” she told him.
“I’ll wait and drop you off.”
It wasn’t necessary. But she saw the way that he was standing and knew he was taking the voodoo doll very seriously. He was taking everything very seriously.
So what? Wasn’t she?
She didn’t want to be afraid, and she refused to be afraid to walk down Royal Street in broad daylight.
But she was getting to know him well, and she could tell he wasn’t going to leave without her.
“Give me just a minute,” she told him. “Help yourself to coffee,” she added, as she went back into her bedroom to gather up a few things for the day.
Aidan heard Jeremy’s latest radio interview just after dropping Kendall at her store. Jeremy announced that he was delighted to say that the benefit had sold out, but that the radio station had two tickets left to give away. Aidan hoped that if the benefit at the aquarium went well and they were able to pull off the Halloween gala at the house, Jeremy could lay to rest a few of the ghosts haunting him.
Ghosts.
They just kept popping up, Aidan thought, even in his own thoughts.
He found parking near Lily Fleur’s B and B. She was smiling when she answered the door, but her smile faded as soon as she saw who was standing on her stoop.
“Good morning, Mr. Flynn.”
She didn’t step back. Obviously she didn’t want to ask him in.
“Mrs. Fleur.”
“Call me Lily.” He had a feeling she was speaking by rote; she didn’t really want him calling her Lily. She didn’t want him talking to her at all. She wanted him to go away.
“Mrs. Fleur, I know what a good person you are,” he told her. “And I’m sorry to bother you, but I need to ask for your help, so I can try to figure out what happened to Jenny Trent.”
“What can I do for you?”
Was it his imagination, or did she sound slightly less unhappy about his presence?
“I’d like to get a list of any other guests who were registered with you when Jenny was here,” he told her.
“Hold on.”
She didn’t close the door on him, though she still didn’t invite him in. When she came back a moment later, she had a neatly printed sheet of paper in her hand.
“This is what I have,” she told him. “Copied straight out of the book.”
“Did you know I’d come asking?”
“A police officer—a real policeman—came by and asked for the same thing.” She looked a little prim, then added, “He also said that you were a legitimate investigator. I figured if he had asked for the list, you’d be around for it soon enough, too.”
“Thanks. By the way, what was the officer’s name?”
She waved a hand in the air. “Oh, it was Hal. I’ve known him for years.”
“Hal Vincent.”
“Of course. He’s the best, you know.”
Aidan smiled. “I’m sure he is,” he told her, then thanked her again and walked away.