I puzzled over her words while pretending to review the listing. Watched a dog for a friend? Was she talking about Yo-Yo? Is that why he’d disappeared for a few weeks before turning back up at the Hayes’s door where Charles then found him? And, if so, why hadn’t Yo-Yo told us?
I thought his traumatic memory loss had been resolved once we reunited him with Mitch, but perhaps he’d still chosen to forget some of the other details that weren’t directly pertinent to remembering who’d done it.
“I’m not sure this one is for me,” I said, pushing the listing back across the desk. “Thank you, though.”
“Have you done any shopping around online? Those listings aren’t always the most up to date, but if you have an idea of what you like, it could help me to refine our search.”
She was very good at staying right on topic and pushing me closer to buying with each comment. It would take something major to knock her off her game. Luckily, I still had an ace up my sleeve.
“Actually…” I said, trying to still my shaking hands by hugging the wicker bag tighter to my chest. “There is a place I like out in Glendale. It’s above my price range, but I’m hoping we might be able to get a good deal.”
“I’m happy to negotiate with the homeowners to see what we can do,” Sandra said with an ingratiating smile. “Is that the house you want? Are you ready to start putting together an offer?”
“Well, it is a really nice house. I guess we could try,” I said, feigning hesitation.
She nodded enthusiastically. I’m sure it must be nice to make a big commission with hardly any work at all. She probably looked at me and saw a giant, sparkling dollar sign now. “Fabulous. Do you have the address?”
I pulled out my phone and pretended to search for information before rattling off the Hayes’s address, which I already happened to know by heart.
Sandra didn’t say anything in response—just sat there starting at me, so I added, “Like I said, I’m hoping we can get a good deal, because two people were murdered there.”
“I don’t think that’s the house for you, dear,” the realtor spat out at last.
“Why not?” I argued. “It’s in a great location and has plenty of space for me and my pets. Can’t we at least put in an offer and see?”
“I’d really urge you to consider a property with a less sordid history,” she said, turning back to her files and pulling out another listing, seemingly at random. “This looks nice. How about this one?”
I didn’t even look down at the paper. Keeping my eyes glued to hers, I licked my lips and said, “You said we could put in an offer, and that’s what I want to do. Can we get started please?”
She shook her head. “I probably shouldn’t be saying this, because it makes me look a little, well, like I’m not all there…” Sandra paused to laugh, but I kept my face neutral, waiting.
“But that place you mentioned?” she continued. “It’s very, very haunted.”
“Oh? Just a sec.” I placed my bag on the floor right in front of her oversized desk so that she wouldn’t be able to see what I was doing unless she chose to stand up. I grabbed the iPad and motioned for Octo-Cat to creep out as well. Once both were settled on the floor and I confirmed that the tabby was indeed placing a call to my mom, I straightened back in my chair and returned my focus to an increasingly nervous-looking Sandra.
“It’s haunted, huh?” I asked, shaking my head. “Well, how about that?”
She nodded eagerly; relief flashed across her face. “I know some people don’t believe in ghosts and all, but they are there and very angry. It’s best not to get involved with that mess.”
“Wow. Hmm,” I said, pretending to think this over carefully but only to buy us a little more time. If Octo-Cat could get Mom on the line before I showed my hand, she’d be able to hear what happened next. I heard a little murmur sound from the floor. That had to be her.
“What was that?” Sandra asked, shifting her gaze around the room to find the source of the speaker.
“Wait. I have a question,” I blurted out to draw her attention back to me. “You say the ghosts are angry. Is that because you murdered them?”
Chapter Twenty
“Why, I’ve never been so insulted in all my life. Go! Get out of my office!” the realtor cried. All traces of her earlier smile completely wiped clean from her face, which now pinched in rage. Sandra popped to her feet so quickly, I instantly recoiled in fear.
And, in my attempt to stumble to a standing position, I stepped on Octo-Cat’s tail.
He let out a terrible yowl and jumped onto the desk between us, hissing up a storm.
“What? Where did he come from?” Sandra demanded, turning redder and redder as each moment passed.
“Why don’t you answer my question first,” I shouted at her. “I know you killed the Hayeses, and I can prove it!”
“You can’t prove anything,” she spat. “Now get out of here!”
I crossed my arms over my chest and stared straight into her eyes, hoping she couldn’t see how afraid I was in that moment. “I’m not going anywhere until you admit what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said, taking care to enunciate each word, but I was not convinced.
“You killed the Hayeses in cold blood. You bashed out their brains with a hammer and framed the handyman,” I said. “Hey, if I agree to work with you, will you kill me, too?”
Sandra let out an enormous huff and lunged for me, but I was too fast for her.
I ran out of her office and back into the main waiting area. “Help!”
“No one else is here,” Sandra told me, approaching slowly, deliberately.
I saw my chance, so I took it. Squeezing past her down the hall, I bolted back into her office and locked the door behind me.
“You’re going to regret that!” she screamed, pounding furiously on the door.
I tuned her out and began pulling open drawers and cabinets in search of evidence. “Help me find proof!” I told Octo-Cat, who sat licking his wounded tail.
Soon we were both tearing through the office.
Surely something had to be here.
“I called your mother just like you said,” my tabby informed me.
“I’m calling the police!” Sandra screamed from the hallway.
“Good, that will make it easier for them to arrest you!” I shouted back, calling her bluff while shooting the cat an appreciative smile.
“Thanks for your help,” I told him. “You did good.”
We searched frantically for another couple moments, my desperation growing by the second.
“What’s this? The words look familiar,” Octo-Cat said, nudging a pile of mail from on top of the filing cabinet until it fell and scattered to the floor. He still didn’t know how to read, but he was beginning to recognize familiar patterns of numbers and letters.
Sure enough, I combed through the pile and found a sealed envelope addressed to Charles at the firm.
“Oh! Think you can get away with blackmailing my colleague, do you?” I called to Sandra, waving the letter around wildly even though she couldn’t see it. “But why threaten him when you know perfectly well that Brock Calhoun didn’t kill Bill and Ruth Hayes?”
She didn’t come back at me with an angry retort. In fact, Sandra said nothing at all as the entire office fell silent. The only sound in my ears was my own blood as it flew through my veins at a rapid tempo. My heart went crazy as I sent up a silent prayer that Sandra hadn’t someone gotten her hands on a gun or some other weapon she could use to attack me through the closed door.
A moment later, the front door burst open, sending the greeting bell into a violent jangle.
“Laura Lee, Channel 7 News. Do you care to tell our viewers what’s going on here?” my mother’s voice rang out, loud and clear, and I could just picture her there with her probing microphone that she swung around like a sword when she was really on the warpath. I imagined now would be one of those times.