These Haunts Are Made For Walking (Haunted Tour Guide Mystery Book 1) (13 page)

“I can’t tell you how excited I am for this position. I want to thank the library board so much for hiring me.” I fidgeted in the chair. The leather squeaked as I shifted. The room was definitely getting hotter.

“We think you’re the right person for the job. Now don’t let us down,” she warned with a wave of her finger.

I pushed my shoulders back, lifted my chin and attempted a smile. I had to look confident, even if on the inside I was on the verge of crumbling. If I appeared self-assured, then she’d think I totally had control of the situation.

“We’d have to fire you if you mess up.” She laughed boisterously.

I didn’t doubt that for a minute. Good to see she was getting a kick out of my misery. What a dear, sweet lady.

“I have a lot of ideas for the library that I’m very excited about,” I said, ignoring her last comment.

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

“Um, one of my ideas is to use social media for the library. You know, Twitter, Facebook, et cetera.”

Her eyes widened and she sat up straighter in the chair. “You want to list the library on a dating site?”

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Facebook? Isn’t that some kind of dating site? I don’t want that kind of questionable behavior here at Bilson Library.” She folded her arms in front of her chest.

Oh, dear heavens. Was she serious? Little old grandmothers had Facebook pages, for Pete’s sake. Mrs. Agnew was going to be a thorn in my side. I sensed it already.

I waved my hands. “No, Facebook is… never mind.” My shoulders slumped. It looked like my social media strategy would take a little more work than I anticipated.

“Well, as I said when we hired you, the operating budget was cut for this fiscal year, so you’ll have your hands full trying to make things work. Now, Mrs. Stanley did a lovely job, I don’t know why she had to retire.”

I swore I heard a sniffle as Mrs. Agnew looked away. If tears formed in everyone’s eyes at the mere thought of Mrs. Stanley, then I was doomed.

Mrs. Agnew focused her attention on me again. She sighed and said, “We let a couple library employees go to be able to offer you a larger salary, so I know you won’t make us regret that decision.”

I’d taken two people’s jobs? Great. The town probably hated me already. What had I gotten myself into? A library with no budget, few to no staff, and a rumored haunting—no wonder no one else had wanted the position.

Could I make the library a happening place? I’d have to think of some creative ways to draw attention to it—other than a rocking Facebook page. Why all people didn’t flock to books was beyond me. I had a lot of great ideas, but with limited funds, it would be hard to accomplish.

After going over everything that they expected of me, Mrs. Agnew finally stood. “We’ll be watching you.”

I had no doubt about that.

“Good day, Ms. Van Raden.” She nodded and left me alone in the office.

I walked out of the office right behind Mrs. Agnew. I wanted to say more, but doing so would probably only make matters worse. She didn’t slow down once she made it to the front desk, she just kept on going until she was out the door.

“Goodbye, Mrs. Agnew,” Tammy said in her wake.

I blew the hair out of my eyes.

“Do I need to help you pack your things?” Tammy asked with a look of sympathy.

Leslie snickered, which I didn’t appreciate at all.

“Surprisingly, I still have a job here.”

“You do?” Leslie screeched. She barely ever spoke to me, but this was when she decided to say something.

I frowned at her. “Yes, I do.”

“I wish I could change Leslie’s chapstick with a glue stick.” Tammy clapped her hands together. “We should celebrate with a drink.”

Given the turn of events, I had better turn the struggling library around fast or I’d be out before I could say card catalog. If I didn’t find the killer, my life would be kaput… including my career and all my dreams for the future. Plus, the killer needed to be brought to justice.

“I can meet you at the tavern after my tour,” I said. 

“That sounds like a plan,” Tammy said.

Just then Leslie marched past, flipping her blonde hair from her shoulder as she went. “I’m finished for the night. Is it okay if I leave?” She asked the question, but her tone was anything but pleasant.

“Sure, that’s fine,” I said.

She barely waited for me to answer before she stomped toward the door.

“Maybe it’s just me, but I get the feeling that she doesn’t care for me much.” I frowned.

Tammy laughed. “No, I think she loves you.”

I walked over to the door and locked it so that no one else could come in before we had a chance to leave. Tammy picked up a chocolate chip cookie from the tray that had been sitting there all day. She shoved it toward my face. “Here, have a cookie. It will make you feel better.”

I took the cookie from her outstretched hand. After taking a bite and chewing, I said, “You know, I have got to change things around here if I want to keep this job.”

“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.” Tammy watched as crumbs fell to the floor.

I finished off the cookie. “No, pressure is good. It’ll force me to get my act together. Otherwise I would just let things happen and not change anything.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked as she stroked the cat.

I stared at Tammy for a bit.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” she asked as she brushed at her cheek.

I waved my hand. “No, nothing like that.” I shuffled the stack of papers on the counter next to me and then stacked them neatly. Clearly, I was stalling. “It’s just that I need to tell you something.”

“This sounds serious. Should I sit down?” she asked.

I nodded. “Maybe you should take a seat.” It was time for me to tell her about the ghost.

Tammy sat on the stool behind her. “Okay. Let me have it. I can take it. You’re quitting, aren’t you?”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “No, I’m not quitting. Do you think I’d give up that easily?”

“Well, no, but after the visit from Mrs. Agnew I figured that was the last straw. So what is the news?”

“The library is haunted.”

She laughed. “
That
is the big news?”

“You’ve really never experienced the haunting here?”

She picked up a cookie, took a bite, and then said, “No. I guess I didn’t look for anything specific though, but there have always been little weird things happening around here.”

“You seem kind of calm about it.”

Tammy waved her hand. “I figure it’s no big deal. It’s not like I’ve seen an evil ghost or anything.” I stared at her. “What? You’ve seen a ghost?”

I nodded. “Yes, I have seen a ghost.” I looked around to see if Annie was near, but she still hadn’t appeared.

“Are you sure?” Tammy pointed. “Here? In the library?”

“You sound as if you don’t believe me,” I said.

“No, it’s not that I don’t believe you, but you do have to find ghosts for your tour.”

“I am not just making this up.”

“I know, I’m just saying… oh, I don’t know what I’m saying. I think I’m just putting my foot in my mouth.”

“Don’t worry about it. I know what you meant.”

Tammy dumped the rest of the stale cookies in the trash. “So what kind of ghost is this?”

“Annie Gibson.”

Tammy coughed. “The one who is buried in the front of the building?”

I nodded. “Why do you think she’s haunting the place?”

“She didn’t have far to go. Okay, enough talk about ghosts.” Tammy jumped up and grabbed my arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

I looked over my shoulder. “Why, did you see the ghost?”

“No, you will be late for the tour and then you owe me a drink.”

I made sure Jane had her food and water for the evening, then headed for the door. Looking back one last time, I expected to see Annie, but she still hadn’t appeared. Was she gone for good?

I wanted to keep my job for obvious reasons, but a deeper motivation was to prove myself to others. I wasn’t some dumb nitwit. I was a librarian, for heaven’s sake, and librarians were smart cookies. I could be the hero and save the day. Never mind that I had never solved a murder before; I had good research skills.

I had to get the library back on track so I didn’t lose funding too. Even if I was cleared of the murder, I could be considered a failure before I barely even started the job.

I was surprised to see such a big turnout for tonight’s tour. Then again, it was getting close to Halloween and the groups would grow larger as that time neared. There were three women who appeared to be in their twenties and two other older couples. I gave my usual introduction and then handed out the flashlights. I already felt the charge in the air tonight. I wondered if the ghost of the man would appear again.

“Do you think we will see a ghost tonight?” one of the young women asked.

“It’s certainly possible,” I said as I looked over her shoulder for the ghostly man.

“Have you seen a ghost?” a dark-haired woman asked.

I pondered the question for a moment and then said, “More than one and on more than one occasion.”

That seemed to be the answer they were looking for, because everyone smiled. I was interested to see if anything would happen at the bookstore again tonight. It was startling to have a book fly off the shelf like that, but that was what the customers wanted. They came on the tour to get a ghostly experience and that just might be what they’d get at the bookstore.

We headed past the tavern on the usual path. When I looked in the window I spotted Tammy at the bar. She glanced up and waved. It looked as if she was having a drink without me.

I guided the group toward the first building. The evening was a little chilly, setting the perfect tone for a spooky tour. As I walked I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the ghost was lurking around. No one seemed to notice that I was a little preoccupied. Both of my jobs seemed to be suffering right now. With one ghost at the library and another following me on the tour, I just couldn’t put all the pieces together.

We reached the stone building and so far no ghost. I wanted to see him though, even if he did creep me out. We were huddled together in the small space of the entrance of the store. All eyes were on me, waiting for me to convey the spooky tale.

I recited the story from heart, but it never got old. I’d seen the faces of the people who had witnessed paranormal activity and I wanted to make sure I told their stories as accurately as possible. We walked through the second and third floors. Each time I passed a window I looked out to see if the ghost was outside waiting for us. So far I still hadn’t seen him, but the night wasn’t over yet. 

As we moved down the stairs toward the exit, one of the women called out, “Do you see that?”

I rushed over to see what she was pointing out. A shadowy silhouette moved across the room at the bottom of the steps. It was dark and you couldn’t see anything through the figure; it was completely solid. I didn’t want to scare them, but something like that usually was associated with a bad spirit. I had never seen anything like that in this building, but I’d had a few people tell me they had seen such a thing. Now I could add this to my list of spirits that I’d witnessed.

“What was that?” the dark-haired woman asked from over my shoulder.

We stood on the staircase for a moment, everyone holding their breath. It wasn’t that I was scared—okay, maybe I was scared a little, because after all it was a dark shadow—I was just wondering if the thing would reappear. My phone was out and ready to capture it on video this time. It seemed like I was never prepared to get these things on video when I saw them.

“It was a shadow person,” I said.

“What is that?” the other woman asked with a little panic in her words. “Should we be worried?” She clutched her date’s arm.

“No, we’re totally fine,” I said, trying to sound confident.

I moved forward, motioning for the rest of them to follow me. “We should check out the rest of this floor.” I looked at my guests, but they seemed a little hesitant to stay after what we’d seen. I couldn’t say that I blamed them. It wasn’t every day that you saw a ghost. Well, except for me. Lately, I
had
seen a ghost every day. Thank goodness it hadn’t been a dark shadow though. I would be fine if I never saw one of those again. But at least I wasn’t the only one who had seen the ghost this time.

“Okay, maybe we should move on to the next location.” I guided the group back out onto the sidewalk.

Everyone was still silent, trying to absorb what they had witnessed.

“What are shadow people?” one of the women asked.

I had hoped that I would get off without having to answer that question. How would I explain it without causing them to leave the tour early?

“I heard that they are associated with bad spirits or demons,” the guy at the back of the group said.