Town Haunts (20 page)

She pulled away
and rested her hands on his shoulders. “Look, Greg, I think you’ve
got the wrong impression. You’re a great guy, and you’re very
attractive, but I’m in love with Charlie.”

“So you keep
saying,” he said, drawing his finger across her lips. “I’m starting
to feel discouraged.”

Anna snorted.
“Well you should,” she said, climbing to her feet. He rose beside
her, dropping the blanket onto the floor and stepping over it.

“Go on. Go
home. We all need our rest,” he said, turning her around and
pushing her gently toward the hallway. “I’ll watch to make sure
that you get safely to your car.”

“Thanks Greg.
You’re a dear,” Anna said over her shoulder on her way to the
door.

After opening
it, she glanced quickly around the porch, ensuring that no one was
waiting in the shadows. Better safe than sorry. The porch was
empty, so she scooted down the stairs and was in her car with the
door locked and the engine started seconds later. Her headlights
flashed on, and Greg waved before she pulled away from the
curb.

Anna felt a
little better as she drove the few blocks to Main Street and turned
onto it. Greg seemed fine, and Steve was on the mend. At least the
nutcase behind all these pranks hadn’t done any permanent damage.
And Tiernay was getting help from a more experienced witch. Did two
witches outrank a ghost? She smiled and shook her head; what a
ridiculous thought. She had witchcraft and ghosts on the brain.

Three blocks
later, she turned left. Halfway down the street, her headlights
picked out a man striding down the sidewalk, his pony tail swinging
like a pendulum over his back and his thick arms pumping like
pistons. She caught a glint of metal in his hand and squinted. It
was Frank, and he was carrying a tire iron. She pulled up beside
him and rolled down the passenger-side window.

“Frank, what
are you doing?” she called to him. He paused, and turned to look at
Anna.

“I’m hunting a
ghost.”

An hour and a
half earlier

Judy hurried
into the garage, smacking the door opener on the wall and climbing
into the car. It was ten to seven, and she only had ten minutes to
make it to church before the Catholic Women’s League meeting began.
She started the engine and waited for the door to finish
lifting.

The second
Thursday night of the month was always such a rush, dashing home
from her secretarial job with the Foothills Premium Real Estate
Agency and hurrying to get to the church on time. Thank heaven
Frank always had supper waiting on the table so that they could
spend half an hour together before she had to run out again. She
smiled; Frank was such a sweetheart. Her ex-husband had always
grumbled when supper had been late getting on the table. There were
benefits to living with a chef.

When the door
finished opening, she turned to look over the seat, and began
backing out of the garage. Judy frowned; who was that coming up
from the bottom of the driveway? The red glow from her brake lights
illuminated a woman in a long cloak with a hood pulled low over her
face. The woman paused halfway up the drive and pulled the hood
down. A mess of blond hair tumbled onto her shoulders. Judy
recognized the woman, her eyes starting from her head. It was
Evelyn Mason. Her neck was broken and twisted, just the way she
must have looked after her fall down the town office stairs.

Judy shrieked.
Evelyn just stood there staring at her with cold, dead eyes. Out of
nowhere, Evelyn pulled an axe from behind her cloak, swung it over
her head, and started for the garage. Judy screamed, hit the remote
to close the garage door, and jumped out of the car with the motor
still running. In her panic, she tripped over a rake leaning
against the wall and collided into the car. Gasping, Judy looked
over her shoulder and saw that Evelyn was about to duck under the
door before it could close. She screamed again, shoved the rake out
of the way, and raced for the door into the house. Terrified that
Evelyn was in the garage behind her, Judy flung the door open and
screamed Frank’s name. He met her half-way down the hallway, where
she threw herself, sobbing and shaking, into his arms.

“Judy, what’s
wrong?” he asked, trying to peer into her face, but she was staring
over her shoulder.

“It’s Evelyn!
She’s coming after me with an axe. Did she get inside?” she asked,
turning fear-crazed eyes at Frank.

“What are you
talking about?” he demanded. Instead of replying, she broke out of
his arms to hit the hallway light switch. The fluorescent tubes
blinked twice before staying on, revealing the empty corridor
behind them.

“Let me see,”
he said, taking a step toward the garage, but Judy grabbed his
shoulder and dug in her heels.

“No, Frank!
Don’t go in there. She’ll kill you!”

“Now calm down,
honey,” he said, holding the hysterical woman in his arms. He
sniffed. “I smell gas. Did you leave the engine running?”

“No, Frank!”
Judy shrieked as he pulled away.

He strode the
last few steps to the door and opened it gingerly, peeking into the
garage. The fumes belching from the car made him gag. Covering his
mouth with one hand, he smacked the door opener and ran into the
garage, jumping into the car to turn off the motor. Twisting in the
seat, he watched the door rumble upward. It cleared the first two
feet from the floor before clanking to a stop, the machinery
clicking twice before failing. Frank climbed out of the car, the
cool, fresh air blowing around his legs, and turned to investigate
what was wrong. His mouth gaped open. Three feet from the top, an
axe blade pierced the garage door.

Anna convinced
Frank to climb into the front seat beside her. He closed the door,
and she saw the tire iron in his right hand.

“What are you
talking about?” she asked. “What ghost?” He swivelled to look at
her, and Anna saw that his face was white with anger.

“Someone scared
the hell out of Judy tonight.”

“What
happened?”

Frank told
her.

“Oh my lord,”
Anna said. “How’s Judy?”

“She’s
terrified. I couldn’t leave her alone, so I dropped her at Erna’s
before I came out again.” Anna shook her head in sympathy. “Anyway,
after I found the axe stuck in the door, I got Judy calmed down
enough to tell me what happened. She didn’t even remember
screaming.”

“Oh Frank, how
horrible. Poor Judy.”

He nodded. “It
was like a freaking horror movie. Judy couldn’t let go of me, so we
went to the front door together to have a look outside. The porch
light was on, and we could see that there was no one out there.
Once we stepped out on the porch, though, we could see the axe
handle sticking out of the garage door, and Judy started screaming
again. It took me a long time to get her calmed down enough to walk
over to Erna’s. My car’s still stuck in the garage.”

“Did you call
the police?”

“Not yet. I
want to have a look on my own first. There’s a lunatic running
around town, and I want to find him before the police do.”

“Him?”

“Yeah. When you
ladies started talking about a ghost on May’s stairs, I thought
that it was Henry. It was just the fruitcake kind of thing he would
do. Then someone scared you, and there was all that trouble in the
cemetery last night with Steve and Greg. Only, John came by last
night to tell us that Henry is under arrest in Calgary, so it
couldn’t have been him. But Sherman Mason is missing, and he’s four
quarters short of a dollar. I don’t know what the hell is going on,
but it’s time someone found out who’s behind it and stopped him.
Me.” He opened the door to climb out, but Anna grabbed his arm.

“Don’t, Frank.
Leave it alone”

Frank glanced
at her impatiently. “Don’t worry, I can look after myself.”

“Sure you can,
but I think you should stay out of it. Whoever’s behind this, he’s
got some way of hurting people. Look at what he did to Steve and
Greg. Let the police take the risk. That’s what they’re paid
for.”

Frank tugged
his arm out from under her hand. “Go home, Anna. I’ll see you
later.” He got out of the car and slammed the door behind him.

“Frank!” Anna
shouted, but he jogged down a driveway and disappeared between two
houses. She watched for a moment in case he re-appeared, then put
her car in gear and drove straight to Erna’s house.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Anna parked on
the street and rushed to ring Erna’s doorbell. She jittered back
and forth on her feet, shivering with nerves in the chilly night
air.

“Anna,” Erna
said in surprise when she opened the door.

“I just saw
Frank. He told me what happened. Where’s Judy?”

“In the living
room,” Erna said, stepping back to let her inside. Anna hurried to
the living room, where Judy, wrapped in a blanket with a mug
clasped between her hands, was sitting in the middle of the couch.
May was on the recliner next to her, both women looking up in
surprise.

“You’ve got to
stop Frank, Judy. He doesn’t know what he’s up against,” Anna
said.

“I can’t,” Judy
wailed, breaking into sobs. Anna sat down beside her, hugging her
close as Judy’s shoulders shook, while Erna circled the couch and
sat down on the other side.

“We’ve got to
call the police,” Anna said. “If we tell them that Frank’s out
looking for the person responsible for leaving an axe in his garage
door, they’ll take us seriously. They’ll find him before he gets
hurt.”

Judy stopped
crying, her eyes widening. “You want to get Frank into
trouble?”

“Of course not,
but it’s better than letting him tangle with someone crazy enough
to come after you with an axe.”

Judy stared in
disbelief from one friend to another. May slowly nodded her
agreement, while Erna frowned.

“You don’t
think it was Evelyn’s ghost?” Judy asked.

“You bet,” May
said, while Anna said, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“This is
getting out of hand,” Erna said, rising to her feet. “Anna’s right.
I’m calling the police.”

The night did
not end well for Frank. A half hour after speaking with Anna, he
was peering into Sherman’s front windows when a police car pulled
up on the street and flashed its lights at him. Frank dropped his
tire iron in the bushes and sprinted for the side of the house, but
the constable chasing him was twenty-four, athletic, and tackled
him with ease. He took Frank to the station for questioning, where
John Fox Child gave him a good talking to and told him to go home.
When the constable dropped him off at Erna’s house, Frank was
limping.

“Come on,” he
said to Judy when Erna fetched her, “let’s get out of here.” Anna
and May were watching from the living room entrance, May on
crutches.

“I’m sorry,
Frank, but it was for your own good,” Erna said. Anna didn’t dare
say anything.

Frank shot Erna
an angry look, but kept his mouth shut. He took Judy’s hand, and
they walked out the door without saying a word. Erna closed it
behind them and turned to look at her friends.

“I haven’t made
myself popular with either one of them tonight,” she said.

“At least
Frank’s safe. You did the right thing,” Anna said, bending to kiss
Erna’s powdery cheek. “But it’s almost midnight, and I have to go
to work tomorrow. I’m going home.” She shrugged her arms into the
jacket she was carrying and patted her pockets for the car
keys.

“So, we’re
agreed, right?” May said. “Tiernay’s going to take care of this
ghost business with her witch friend, and we’re going to keep our
noses out of it from now on. Unless they need our help.”

“Or the police
do,” Anna said. “Things are getting too dangerous, and we don’t
want anyone else getting hurt ‒ or killed.”

“Agreed,” Erna
said. “Good night and try to sleep, Anna. I’ll call you at work
tomorrow if we hear anything.”

The next day
was Friday, and when Anna got home from work, her son was waiting
for her. Ben set the table and fed Wendy while Anna heated some
defrosted turkey soup made from Thanksgiving leftovers and set out
a loaf of crusty bread. She had already told Ben about the séance
at Sherman’s house and May’s fall, and brought him up to speed on
what had happened since last Friday. He frowned when Anna described
the ghostly visitor on her front lawn, shook his head when she
talked about being chased in the cemetery, and stared at her
wide-eyed as she described Judy’s scare and the axe in Frank’s
garage door.

“I can’t
believe you didn’t call me, Mom. I could have come out and stayed
with you,” he protested.

“I know, but
you had mid-terms, and I didn’t want to bother you.”

“That’s crazy!
Who cares about school when some psycho is running around town with
an axe?” He got up from his chair to fetch another bowl of soup
from the pot on the stove. “What did the police have to say when
they came to Erna’s house after she called the police on
Frank?”

“Not much. They
listened to Judy’s story and left to check out the garage
door.”

“Well, you
haven’t been taking Wendy for any bedtime walks, have you? Just out
into the backyard to let her do her business and back in again?” He
straddled the chair and sat down again with his full bowl.

“I sure didn’t
take her for a walk last night when I finally got home.”

Ben sighed. “I
wish that you’d move further into town. I don’t like you being so
isolated out here.”

“That’s just
what Erna and May said when I stayed with them this past week.
Don’t worry, honey, I’ll be extra careful until this business gets
sorted out. I’m glad you’re home tonight, though. Wendy hasn’t had
a decent walk for days. We can take her together after we’re done
eating.” The dog sighed from where she lay beside Ben, and he
reached down to ruffle her fur.