He shakes his head. “Nothing that would make sense. Heather and I spent the night before drinking out by the water. I think the heat was getting to her.”
“I see.” There’s no need to push it. I have a feeling Bates has told me all I need to know regarding that. “Bates, who do you think could have done this to Heather? After you had that argument with her, did she say she was going to talk to someone else?”
He takes a breath and his chest expands twice its size.
“No.” He leans in so close I can feel the heat emanating off his body and smell the blast of liquor on his breath. “But she mentioned that she thought she was being followed.”
“Followed?” I inch back to look into his glossy eyes. “Who did she say was following her?”
“She didn’t know.” His cheeks flicker as he lands his lips close to my ears. “She thought it was a ghost. At one point, she said it was two ghosts. Heather said she was certain there was life after death, and that for many years, the ghosts had been trying to get her attention.”
A chill rides up my spine. “Did she say who she thought those ghosts might be?”
His Adam’s apple rises and falls, and I can tell he’s contemplating what to say next and yet not a single thought is being transmitted.
He leans in. “One night after a bender, a couple of picture frames fell from the wall in her bedroom. Things started moving around on their own. She said it happened all the time. She said she’d wake up to the lights flickering. She’d come home to find the bathtub filled and she didn’t turn on the water. She also mentioned she found the toaster plugged in on the bathroom counter.”
“Oh my God. Someone was haunting her, all right.” I’m just not convinced it was a ghost.
He shrugs. “Another night I was over and her ceiling fan began to spin so fast one of the blades flew off and nearly decapitated her right before my eyes. She looked up, terrified, and shouted, ‘I’ve had enough. I hate you, Rachel. I hate you, Leeny.’ She kept lighting candles and burning sage in the corner of her room. She said it helped to keep the spirits away.” He blows out a bourbon-laced breath. “I don’t know who the hell she was talking about.”
Juni latches onto him from behind. “And I don’t know who the hell you think you’re talking to. If it’s not me, your lips are moving in the wrong direction.” She jousts him out of his seat as they head back toward the dance floor and Macy does the same to me.
“I hope your little investigation was worth it,” she snips. “Do you know how hard it is for me to see my brother out there getting more action than me?” She bops us into the crowd, and just as I’m about to make a break for it, a pair of strong arms wraps themselves around me from behind.
I spin around to find the most breathtaking gray eyes staring into mine as Jasper pulls me close and we begin to slow dance to a rhythm all our own.
“Careful,” I say. “My fiancé carries a concealed weapon. He won’t be happy when he sees you holding me like this.”
His brows hike as he gives an amused curl of the lips.
“In that case, we’d better not let him find out about the things I have planned for you later.”
“I will be the last to tell him.” I pull him in close by the silver tie that matches his eyes. “But I can’t wait to tell you the things I learned tonight.”
His expression grows somber as he glances behind me.
“I saw you talking to Bates when I arrived.”
“Are you spying on me, Detective?” A laugh bubbles from my throat as I say it.
“Not nearly enough.” He nods that way. “Camila stopped me at the door a few minutes ago to tell me what she has on the case.”
A groan evicts from me.
Suddenly, I’m very interested in exchanging notes.
I glance back to find Bates not only surrounded by my sister and Juni, but by Camila and Kiki Woodley, too. Camila looks as if she’s wrapped herself in tinfoil with an itty-bitty silver dress on, and Kiki looks as if she’s still wearing the same jeans and tank top she had on earlier. Nonetheless, the fact two more women have glommed onto the Hollywood hunk doesn’t surprise me. Bates Barlow certainly doesn’t have a shortage of women wherever he goes.
I pull Jasper close and spin him around so he’s not staring right at his wily ex who has decided to stick her nose into my case.
I’ll make sure Jasper tells me every last bit of information that loose cannon has collected.
And hopefully, whatever she’s gleaned will be enough for Jasper and me to nail the killer.
That’s right, Camila. I’m leaving you out of the equation, now and forevermore.
Chapter 12
Later that night Jasper and I drove back to the inn and took a walk along the cove with Sherlock and Fish. It was dark, but we did our best to try to trace Heather Kent’s last moments as she walked from the café to the rocky crags at the other end of the cove.
I told Jasper all about the freaky supernatural stuff that Bates filled me in on. And Jasper told me that Camila filled him in on the fact Jane had just given Peter Olsen his divorce papers less than twenty-four hours ago.
It seems she caught Peter trying to get friendly with Camila herself, and Jane served those walking papers with a smile.
Figures.
Camila doesn’t mind bragging about her time on the casting couch to Jasper, most likely because she’s trying to spin him into a jealous tizzy—although Jasper assured me he couldn’t care less.
I try to brush all thoughts of Camila and those moves she was putting on
