Page 30 of Ghostlighted (Ghost Townies #2)

Chapter Twenty-Three

W hen Ricky had passed Sofia her prescription refill on the day we’d planted her garden, it had still been in the white pharmacy bag. To get the bottle into the medicine chest, Sofia would have had to touch it. She’d have had to touch the pill minder to open the empty compartments.

So why weren’t her fingerprints present on the bottle and the case?

Obvious answer: Somebody had wiped them down.

Now let’s see… Who might be invested in doing such a thing?

How about another obvious answer: Liam, who’d been less than subtle about suggesting that Sofia wasn’t competent to take care of herself.

What better way to prove his point than to make it look as though she couldn’t manage her medications at the same time as he’d been making a nuisance of himself in Richdale, conveniently within Porsche key-fob distance when Sofia had collapsed in her garden.

Had he intended for Ricky to be accused? Maybe. Maybe not. I didn’t like the guy, but I could give him the benefit of that doubt, as well as the one that whispered he’d intended to actually kill Sofia. I think this was just another way for him to gaslight her.

But why here? Why now? Had Sofia’s impending trip to Cambridge been the catalyst? If so, Ricky had been right. The guy was a total asshole. Also, it meant that this wasn’t Ricky’s fault, whatever he thought.

It was mine.

Kamilla should have arrested me, after all .

No, screw that. If Liam had done this, it was his fault, and he needed to answer for it. Now.

“I’m sorry. I need to make a phone call. The kitchen’s down that way, through the family room. Go ahead and take a look. I’ll join you shortly.”

I waited for them to disappear into the kitchen, accompanied by oohs and aahs from Jillie, then called Felicia.

“Hey, Maz. What’s up? I hope you convinced Ricky to eat.”

Gah! Obviously she didn’t know about the arrest, and no way was I breaking that bit of news. “As a matter of fact, I did. I wanted to ask you a question, though.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you know who called Liam to tell him about Sofia?”

“Ricky.”

“You sure?”

“Uh huh. When I told Mami and Papi that I’d seen him at your house, they weren’t happy, since Tia told them not to tell him.

They thought Antonio might have done it from the hospital, but Mami is Tia’s emergency contact, so he didn’t.

Besides, Antonio thinks Guillermo is a tool.

” She chortled. “His words, not mine. He said he was glad he didn’t have to deal with him in the ward. ”

“And nobody else is likely to have done it?”

“No. Besides, Guill— Liam said Ricky called him when we saw him on the lawn. Remember?”

“Ah. That’s right. Thanks.”

“No problem. Anything else?”

“No. That’s it.”

“Okay. Bye!”

Yep. Totally my fault. The only reason Liam was in town was because Sofia told him about the trip. She’d told us he kept trying to talk her out of it. In fact, we’d heard it ourselves on the first call.

Was he really that ashamed of his family that he’d go to these lengths to hide them from his Harvard friends? I remembered Liam’s rant on my front lawn, and Jillie’s tales of his behavior in Richdale.

Who was I kidding? “It’s all about him, the entitled, narcissistic asshole. Of course he’d go to these lengths.”

Dominik poked his head out of the kitchen. “Did you say something, Maz?”

“Sorry. Just talking to myself.” I tried to arrange my face into a less disgusted expression. “Will the kitchen meet Bernadette’s needs?”

He grinned. “A six-burner gas range and an acre of end-grain cutting board? You may never pry her out of it.”

Jillie joined him in the doorway. “Uncle Dom, Jenkins House has almost the same thing, except it has two six-burner ranges.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” I said. “Oren did design both kitchens.”

Jillie held up a flat copper pan that ordinarily hung in the butler’s pantry.

“Is it okay if I take this to Mom? She was planning to make paella, and if she can prep it in the pan before we come over, she can just pop the whole thing in the oven and we can eat sooner.” She hugged the pan to her middle.

“Trust me. You totally want to eat sooner. Mom’s paella is awesome . ”

“By all means, take it with you.” I shifted from foot to foot, the urgency of needing to contact Kamilla and tell her my suspicions probably making me look like I needed to duck into one of the house’s many bathrooms, stat .

Dominik clearly picked up on it. “Come on, Jillie. We’ve imposed on Maz long enough.”

“Oh, that’s not so.” My voice sounded weak, even to me, and Dominik laughed.

“You don’t have to pretend. We’ll see you tomorrow at six.

” His expression turned serious. “But if you need to cancel for any reason, just call.” He pulled a business card from the pocket of his olive green button down and handed it to me.

“That’s the Jenkins House front desk. One of us will answer it. ”

“Or at least collect the message,” Jillie piped up, “because Mom is always puttering in the kitchen and Uncle Dom is usually swearing at the computer about bank balances.”

“And that’s enough out of you, madam.” Dominik placed his hand at the small of Jillie’s back and propelled her down the hall. “We’ll see ourselves out.”

He opened the door and stepped onto the porch, but Jillie broke away from him and turned back toward me, clearly about to have the last word. Before she could say anything, though, Avi appeared by my side.

“Maz!” His hair looked like he’d been through a whirlwind, and the cover of a paperback I’d left on the sofa started to flutter. “You have to come quickly. Something’s happening.”

A clang echoed from the porch, and Dominik’s admonishing, “Careful, Jillie!” was cut off by the snick of the closing door.

“What is it? Avi? What’s wrong?”

But Avi wasn’t looking at me anymore. Instead, he was staring at the door, a look of utter shock on his face.

“Avi?” I flexed my fingers, irked that I wasn’t able to touch him to draw his attention back to me. I decided to try for decibel shock. “Avi!”

He flinched. “You don’t have to shout.”

“Apparently I do, because you weren’t answering. What’s going on?”

He shook himself, like a dog emerging from a lake. “So much. I’ll tell you. But Maz?” His voice held a note that I’d never heard from him before.

“Yeah?”

“I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure…” He met my gaze, his eyes wide. “I’m pretty sure that kid could see me.”