Page 52 of Ghost

Mason moaned, realizing that the erotic dream he thought he was having wasn’t a dream after all. “Why?”

“It is time to... rise, my love,” Francis whispered in Mason’s ear. “I do mean rise from your slumber.”

“As you can see, I’m already up,” Mason groaned as he arched his hips upward. “I’m thinking you’re more of a demon than just a simple ghost. The things you do to me.”

Francis laughed. “I admit, I do enjoy making sweet love to you.”

“I kinda like it too,” Mason said just before he came, his body slightly convulsing.

“Ellen is having her coffee,” Francis stated, now standing in the middle of the room. He turned to Mason. “You will not have much time to ready yourself.”

“Thanks to you, I am now going to need another shower,” Mason groused.

Francis smiled. “Is that such a bad thing?

Mason was about to throw the sheet back and paused, remembering that he was more than likely being watched and/or recorded. Francis seemed to understand immediately.

“Your pants are at the foot of the bed.”

Mason nodded before yawning and then reached for them.

“I will see you downstairs in the dining room,” Francis said, calmly. “You do need to hurry, I’m afraid. Ellen is getting dressed now.

Mason nodded his head once, pulling on his pants. He made his way to the bathroom, thinking, I sure hope they don’t have a camera in here.

After showering, Mason quickly dressed and hurried downstairs so he wouldn’t keep Ellen waiting.

“Good morning, Mason,” Ellen greeted him cheerily, before taking a small bite of bacon.

“Morning.” Mason helped himself to a cup of coffee from the buffet which was loaded up with all kinds of breakfast food.

“If you prefer your eggs other than scrambled, the cook will make them to order,” Ellen commented, seeing him looking over the buffet. “I do recommend the bacon, however. Perfectly cooked.”

“You don’t like the way I make bacon?” Sharon asked, sitting next to Ellen.

“You do a fine job with bacon, my dear.” Ellen patted Sharon affectionately on the forearm. “It’s just the bacon here is better than what we get in the city.”

“Alright, I’ll let you have that one.” Sharon winked at Ellen

“Um, were you able to get your chores done this morning, Sharon?” Mason asked as he sat down with a plate full of food.

“I will as soon as Martin gets here, which should be any minute,” she answered before draining her cup. “The bacon here is better,” she commented, frowning a bit. “I’ll ask where they get it and see about getting some to take back with us.”

“Excellent idea.” Ellen offered her coffee cup to Sharon for a refill.

Gerald suddenly appeared right next to Sharon. “Martin is here.”

Sharon jumped, the coffee cup nearly crashing to the floor, rattling loudly against the saucer. Ellen shot him a nasty look.

Gerald merely shrugged. “Sorry,” then disappeared just as quickly.

Sharon refilled Ellen’s coffee, adding a bit of cream and one sugar. After setting it down in front of the elegant woman she nodded to both Mason and Ellen before leaving the room.

Mason took a bite of bacon, nodding towards Ellen.

“It seems it is going to be another hot day,” Ellen commented. “I do hope that lunch isn’t going to be a hot meal.”

“I’d could go for a nice chicken salad,” Mason said. He noticed that Ellen had discreetly motioned for him to slow down and not finish his breakfast too quickly.

“That does sound good,” Ellen responded as she looked around the room. “Some chilled fruit would go well with that, I think.” She gave a slight tilt of her head towards the fireplace and looked at the mantel. “That painting should be re-appraised.”

“It’s a wonderful painting,” Mason responded, looking closer. He seemed to be studying it and then nodded . “I bet it’s worth a mint.”

Sharon walked back into the room. “Ellen, would you like me to make you some more coffee?” She almost spilled the beans and said before her meeting. She looked at Ellen and then Mason. They appeared to both understand.

“No dear,” Ellen said standing, daintily dabbing at her lips with her napkin.

“You could hand me my purse and escort me to the restroom however. I need to fix my lipstick.” She looked quickly at Mason.

“I’ll return momentarily and then we can meet with dear Judith.

” Ellen turned towards Mason. “Why don’t you find Judith and see about going over the books now? ”

Mason nodded, drained his coffee cup and got up for another. While up he nabbed a couple of pieces of bacon.

* * * * *

“We certainly seem to spend a lot of money with this particular florist,” Ellen commented as she ran her forefinger along the line of the ledger. “Why this particular one and not this other one?” she asked, pointing to another entry with her other hand.

“The smaller florist doesn’t carry some of the more popular flowers,” Judith answered coolly, which was a change from being so flustered about the early meeting.

Mason was watching Judith closely. Since there were only two chairs in the small office, he was able to move about a bit.

Francis was leaning against the desk, smirking. “You do have a sharp eye, cousin. I am willing to wager that is where some of the profits are being funneled.”

Ellen only nodded, taking off her glasses. “Well... everything seems to be in order as usual. Nicely done, Judith.”

“The police are here,” Gerald announced, not even bothering to appear.

That was Mason’s cue to find the real general ledger. He knelt down and ran his hand along the twelve-inch baseboard behind the only bookcase in the room. “What’s this?” He held up the ledger. Judith turned and saw what he was holding.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” She held her hand out, expecting Mason to hand it to her. “Just a previous year, I’m sure. Must have fallen down there somehow.”

Mason opened it up. “Hm, I don’t think so.

” He looked at Judith. “It’s the current year, and oh, look.

..” Mason pointed to a particular line, “it’s the same date and the same florist, only with different numbers beside the company name that’s in that ledger”, pointing to the book in front of Ellen. What’s that about?”

“Give me that,” Judith said standing. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I believe you do.” Mason said, putting the book behind his back.

“Matter of fact, the number along the bottom looks suspiciously like a bank routing number and account number.” Mason gave a subtle nod towards Gerald who told him as much, because Mason would never have been able to pick that up in such a short amount of time.

The door opened and a police officer entered the doorway, making the room very crowded. “Everything okay in here?”

“Good morning, officer,” Ellen greeted the man. “I have reasonable suspicion that this woman has been embezzling from me and would like her arrested.”