Ghost by Elle Andrews Patt

Author:Elle Andrews Patt [Patt, Elle Andrews]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ghost stories, paranormal, amateur investigator, detective, Mystery, female protagonist
Publisher: Blue Beech Press
Published: 2020-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ANDREA ABANDONED HER Waltham projects to concentrate on the timeline Taka had put together. The afternoon slipped by. Naturally, the bulk of the work on Billie Mae’s case took place in the four or five days following her death, but Detective Ford had followed up on various leads for almost two years. Those leads included an alien abduction, sightings of Etta Robbins around town both before and after the killing, and two reports of a man crossing backyards on the next street over.

Her neck was getting stiff when her phone beeped. The text from her friend Lauren, a fellow archivist who lived in Texas, read: OMG! I just found out where Hoffa’s buried! Andrea smiled and stretched before texting back. They hit several different topics for ten minutes before Lauren asked about Taka and when he was moving to Texas. Andrea texted back that Texas was welcome to him and then spent another five minutes expounding on Taka’s live-at-Andrea’s-until-they-leave girlfriend policy, rather than explaining the real reason she was pissed at him, before Lauren had to jump into a meeting.

Turning her focus to her map, Andrea looked at the way the backyards lined up with the backyards of the street behind in a wavering line. Some houses had fences, most didn’t. She’d have to compare residents at the time of Billie Mae’s death to current home owners or renters. Her arrival and Jason Cobb’s departure couldn’t be the only changes on the block. She wanted to talk to Dr. Huntley about his conversation with Etta on the street and ask him if he’d spoken to Billie Mae that night. The white pages in her telephone book yielded zip, but a computer search turned up a landline for him. He didn’t answer Andrea’s call. She didn’t leave a message, deciding to walk across the street and knock on his door later.

The Scofields lived next door to her, on the north side, closer to Timber Way. Paulette, a brunette with thick strips of highlighting in her hair and a love of long skirts with boots worked as a realtor. She’d left flyers on Andrea’s door a few times. John, a physical therapist, was tall and athletic, his dark hair cropped close to his head. Andrea saw him out on her runs sometimes, though they usually ran different routes.

Susan Pepper lived on the other side of Andrea, to the south. Her property straddled the dead end of the cul-de-sac. Andrea wrote her particulars in red marker across the top of her house, noting that there had been an interview with her in the case box. The moldy papers. They had sneezed and sneezed when Andrea pulled the pages apart. According to the tax records, Ms. Pepper had been living there nineteen years, almost as long as Dr. Huntley.

This time, the white pages on her desk coughed up a number and Andrea dialed, not expecting an answer.

“Susan Pepper, may I help you?”

“Andrea Kelley. I live next door? I love your landscaping, especially the day lilies.

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