“That sounds like a plan. I could pop over tomorrow, or is that too soon?”
“Tomorrow works for me.” He stood up. “Give me a call about an hour before you intend to come over and I’ll put the kettle on.”
He’d no sooner left the office than Winky jumped onto my desk.
“Rusty is quite a character, isn’t he?” I said.
“Hmm. Character is one word for him. Nutjob is a better one.”
“What do you mean? He seems harmless enough.”
“You surely didn’t buy into that story of his, did you? Using the binoculars to look at squirrels? The man is clearly a Peeping Tom.”
“That’s a bit rich coming from you,” I scoffed. “It’s not that long ago that you had a telescope in here.”
“That was totally different. I was stargazing, as well you know.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
I heard voices in the outer office, so being the curious (okay, nosy) person I am, I went to see who it was. Mrs V was in conversation with a woman of about the same age.
“Maud, this is my boss, Jill Maxwell.”
“I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance, Mrs Maxwell.” She held out her gloved hand. “I’m Mrs Mizus.”
“Mrs Mrs?”
“That’s right.”
“Sorry, I must have misheard. Mrs—?”
“Mizus.”
I was still puzzled, and it must have shown because Mrs V came to my rescue. “Maud Mizus. M-I-Z-U-S.”
“Oh, Mrs Mizus. I thought you said Mrs Mrs. Like, Mrs squared.” I laughed. “I imagine you get that a lot.”
“No.” Mrs Mizus said, stony-faced. “This is the first time.”
“Right. Just me, then.”
“Maud is something of an internet star,” Mrs V said.
“I wouldn’t go that far, Annabel.” Mrs Mizus waved away the idea.
“It’s true. She has over one thousand followers, Jill.”
“Right.” I did my best to sound suitably impressed. “That’s—err—fantastic.”
“I wondered if I might give it a try,” Mrs V said. “Going online, I mean. But Maud says it’s probably too complicated for me.”
“You never have been very technically minded, have you, Annabel?” Maud said.
“Not really. It takes me all my time to use the TV remote.”
***
Later that same afternoon, I had a surprise visitor.
I hadn’t seen Mad for almost three years, since she’d relocated to the Glasgow office.
“You’re looking great, Mad. Grab a seat, and I’ll get Mrs V to make us a drink.”
“Don’t bother with the drink. I can’t stay for more than a few minutes. I only popped in to let you know that I’m back.”
“Just visiting, I assume?”
“No, I’m back to stay. Actually, I’ve been here for almost a month, but I’ve been so busy that I’ve not had the chance to get in touch.”
“Are you still doing the ghost hunting?”
“What else would I do?”
“How come you’re back here?”
“Good question. I thought I’d finally seen the back of Washbridge, but then I got a call from the powers-that-be, so here I am again. Like a bad penny.”
“Don’t be daft. I for one am glad you’re back. This place wasn’t the same without you.”
“That’s nice of you to say. I’m sorry I haven’t kept in touch as often as I should have, but I was really busy up in Scotland.”
“Don’t give it a second thought. I know what it’s like to be busy, trust me. Anyway, you’re here now, so you can update me on all your news.”
“There’s not much to report, really.” She grinned and held out her left hand.
“You’re married?”
“Yep. Two months ago.”
“You dark horse. How come I didn’t get an invitation to the wedding?”
“No one did. Brad, that’s my husband, and I both decided we didn’t want a big affair. For obvious reasons, I didn’t want my family there, and Brad doesn’t have any family to speak of. We booked a date at the local register office, grabbed a couple of witnesses off the street, and Bob’s your uncle.”
I resisted the urge to make my usual observations vis-à-vis the whole Uncle Bob thing.
“That’s great. Where are you living now?”
“We have an apartment over by the river. You’ll have to come and see it some time.”
“I’d love to. Does Brad know that you’re a ghost hunter?”
“Yeah, I told him about six months ago.”
“Won’t that land you in trouble? Telling him, I mean.”
“Not really. Luckily, I don’t have to worry about rogue retrievers. And anyway, Brad knows he can’t tell a soul.”
“He must have been a bit freaked out when you told him, wasn’t he?”
“At first, yeah. He thought I was drunk, but I managed to convince him in the end, and he seems to have got used to the idea now.”
“What does he do for a job?”
“He had his own record shop in Glasgow. When I received my orders to move back down here, I didn’t want to leave, and I was going to hand in my notice, but then Brad said he fancied a change of scenery. The next thing I knew, he’d sold his premises in Glasgow, bought a shop in Washbridge, and moved all his stock down here.”
“Where is his new shop?”
“Just off the marketplace. It’s called Vinyl Alley.”
“I thought record shops had had their day. Isn’t it all about streaming nowadays?”
“That’s true, but Brad focuses solely on vinyl records, and there’s been a resurgence in their popularity. The new shop has been open for a couple of weeks now. I’m working in there with him.”
“You? Your taste in music was always awful.”
“That from the woman who thought the Hoopla Chant was the best song of the decade.”
“I was six.”
“My new job is a great cover. Much better than when I used to work in the tax office and the library. Anyway,
