Page 16 of Gumbo, Ghosts, and Deadly Deception (A Midnight House Mystery #1)

"It’s just more Halloween decorations. I figured you could use some help getting the place back to normal." He set the box down and pulled out a couple of fake pumpkins. "Mrs. Patterson next door made these. She said you've had enough real scares lately."

That was sweet of both of them. "Thank you. I was dreading doing this alone."

“I wanted to apologize too for accidentally taking your phone the other night.”

Hollis had given my phone back relatively quickly, but I still wasn’t convinced he hadn’t done it on purpose.

Like he suspected I would film something or whether he wanted to download my phone’s contents, I didn’t know.

Not that he could do that without a search warrant.

But my paranoia was on hyperdrive these days.

“No problem,” I said carefully. He hadn’t brought up the journal pages and I hadn’t either because I didn’t think he would take any of it seriously. He had made it pretty clear he didn’t see any connection between the past and what was currently happening at Midnight House.

We worked in silence for a while, continuing with stringing orange lights around the porch railings and positioning jack-o'-lanterns on the front steps. It felt good to do something normal, something that didn't involve police investigations or mysterious deaths.

Even if I was doing it with a homicide detective while having intrusive thoughts.

"Harper," Hollis said eventually, hanging a cloth ghost from the porch ceiling. "I know you don't want to hear this, but you need to let this go."

Teddy was toddling around under the dangling ghost. Hollis nearly tripped over him.

“Watch Teddy!” I yelled in warning.

Hollis moved so fast he almost fell down the stairs. He swore loudly.

I made a show of covering Teddy’s ears. “Not in front of the baby.”

Hollis snorted. “Don’t try to distract me.”

“From what?” I asked, striving for cheeky. It’s not like he could prohibit me from researching Delia or Ginger or angel’s trumpet, but I don’t really like it when someone doesn’t like me.

I wanted Hollis to like me because I liked to be liked. It was a problem.

“Just be careful,” Hollis finally said. “This isn’t a podcast. This is real life.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

He gave me a funny look that gave me a fluttering sensation in my stomach.

But then he just climbed down from the ladder he'd been using to drape cobwebs. "I had our evidence tech examine both keys we found. They're identical. They were probably made at the same time, from the same mold. Which means there might be more of them."

“The keys to my house?” I asked, redundantly. That was both interesting and unsettling. "How many more?"

"No way to know. But it suggests that whatever those keys open was important enough to gather multiple copies."

I thought about Ginger's whispered words at the hospital. Hidden .

"What if Ginger was trying to tell me where to look? What if she wasn't the killer, but she found something?"

Hollis gave me a look that was part exasperation, part amusement. "Harper, sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. It’s time to let this go.”

So not for me not wanting to bring any of this up. If we were going there, I was going to really go there.

I straightened a crooked plastic skeleton and wondered how far I could push him. "Hollis, what if this whole case is connected to police corruption from forty years ago? Did your dad ever mention Francine to you?"

His expression darkened. "No, he did not. I told you I wasn’t familiar with that case. My father was a good cop."

"I'm not saying he wasn’t. But maybe he knew who was corrupt. Maybe he was protecting someone else or trying to set a trap for someone."

Before Hollis could respond, a car pulled into the driveway. A sleek black sedan with tinted windows. It wasn’t exactly the kind of vehicle my usual guests drove.

The driver's door opened, and a woman jumped out. I say jumped because she honestly did. She was in her early twenties, wearing spandex shorts and a sports bra in a matching eye popping orange. She sprang out of the car like a very perky jack-in-the-box.

Her phone instantly shot out in front of her and she took a video of herself, twirling a bit, making duck lips and kissy faces for the screen before ending with a peace sign. A glance over at Hollis showed he was mesmerized, which oddly made me feel jealous.

“She’s too young for you,” I said. The thought popped out before I could stop it.

His eyebrows shot up. A grin spread across his face that I wanted to knock off with a plastic pumpkin.

“Ohmigod, look, I match!” the woman said, jogging up the walkway, arms open as she twirled around. “I swear I didn’t wear orange on purpose!”

And I would swear she was totally lying.

“I’m Abigail!”

I half expected her to spell it out for me like a cheerleader. “Abigail Hart?”

She made a heart with her hands and smiled. “That’s me.”

“Hi, I’m Harper.”

She was my new guest. Slated for Room Three, bless her little heart. I decided to have a mental debate with myself if I should reveal the recent…unfortunate circumstances surrounding Room Three.

I had known she was coming, of course, but whatever I had pictured for a woman named Abigail traveling alone, this was not it.

“Hi, Harper!” Abigail said.

The driver of the car had set three very large suitcases on the driveway next to the town car. One of them fell over on the grass and he didn’t bother to pick it up. He looked sour-faced and ready to escape Abigail’s perky presence.

“This is Hollis,” I told Abigail as the driver got back in his car and slammed the door shut.

“Nice to meet you,” Hollis said.

“Harper and Hollis, that’s so cute! You two are just an absolute adorbs couple!”

It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Harper and Hollis sounded like an overpriced teen clothing store. Yet another reason there could never be a me and Hollis.

“Oh, we’re no?—

Hollis moved right past me with lightning speed and grabbed two of the three suitcases. I blinked, taken aback. I’d never seen him move that fast and here he was hustling to help Abigail.

Not that I cared. Much.

“Let me show you to your room,” I told Abigail. I bent down to pick up Teddy, who was entangled in the fake spider web I was planning to put over the front door.

“What is that?” Abigail asked, looking at the porch floor leerily.

“It’s just some Halloween decorations. We might be a little all over the place right now, but I’ll pull it together in the next hour.”

“Is that a skunk ?”

Oh. She meant Teddy. I didn’t like her tone. “Yes. He’s friendly.”

“Keep it away from me, please. I’m allergic.”

Who the heck knew if they were allergic to a skunk or not? I forced a smile onto my face. “Let’s get you checked in.”

I decided not to tell her what had gone down in Room Three.

Petty? Maybe.

But she didn’t like my skunk.

And Hollis was falling all over himself to carry her bags.

What she didn’t know wouldn’t kill her.

Ironic, really.