Dancing with a Ghost by Angela Pepper

Author:Angela Pepper [Pepper, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-01-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Wednesday morning, Katie woke up to someone gently shaking her.

Lee said, “We've got twenty minutes to get back into the main house before our alarm clocks start going off.”

“Then give me nineteen more minutes to sleep,” she groaned.

Lee yanked away the wool blankets she'd been huddled under, which gave her no choice but to battle him for control of the bed. They wrestled, then he kissed her and pulled away. He already had his shoes on and was ready to sneak back into the main house.

Katie sat up and looked around, feeling ashamed. They'd fallen asleep on Clive's bed. This was the last place a man had slept before he died, and he'd been alive two nights ago.

The thought of Clive in the bed, combined with the drinks from the night before, sent Katie running to the bathroom to throw up. On the plus side, the poison was now out of her system.

She came out of the washroom to find Lee leaning forward, examining the pillows on the bed.

He asked, “Why would Tilda's hair be on these pillows?”

Katie came over to look. Sure enough, there were a half dozen long, red hairs. Clive's hair had also been long, and his loose hairs were present on the white pillow as well, but they were a glossy black with silver roots.

“Gross,” Katie said. “Tilda was sleeping with Clive.”

“What do you mean, gross? You didn't find him attractive?”

She gave Lee an enigmatic smile. “I have strange taste in men, but not that strange.”

“You don't like older, powerful men?”

“No, not like my roommate, Darlene. She was always flirting with professors.”

“Until she flirted with the wrong one and got herself disappeared.” He coughed and frowned. “Sorry. I didn't mean to sound so flippant.”

Katie picked up one of the red hairs. “It's a bit wavy. Maybe it's actually Marco's.”

“You think Marco was sleeping with Clive?”

“Hmm.” She walked around to the side of the bed opposite Lee and started straightening the layers of blankets. “I think Holly's not a very good housekeeper. Maybe Marco was sleeping here in the cottage, and Holly didn't change the sheets when Clive showed up unannounced.”

“I guess it doesn't matter, because you and I were never here.” Lee winked at her.

“Time?”

He checked his phone. “Five minutes.”

“We were never here,” Katie said. “Last night didn't happen.”

“If you say so,” he said stiffly.

They finished tidying up the cottage and let themselves back into the main house without incident.

* * *

“Cigarettes,” Tilda said. “That's what I need.”

She was seated at the table in the dining room, wearing sunglasses, and drinking from a cup of coffee nearly as big as her head. She wore the same black dress she'd had on the day before, covered up with a bulky wool cardigan. Her red hair was frizzy on one side, but she still looked elegant.

“No cigarettes,” Holly said. “We threw them all out the last time you quit.”

Marco took a break from devouring his stack of pancakes. “Mom, I could take the Jeep into town and get you some ciggies.

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