Page 69 of The Aura Answer
“I knew he’d sold us out somehow, but he refused to tell me details. He just said he was restoring my inheritance, which I never wanted in the first place. Generations of dirty dealing should have been returned to the community. I was hoping you’d find at least some funds somewhere. But if Layman now owns everything...” His sigh was loud enough to be heard through the speaker.
If Layman now owned everything, they were up a creek without a paddle. Hiding her tears, Gracie got up and walked out.
Twenty-Six
Wearing reindeer antlers,a round red nose, and a baggy brown tunic, Loretta hugged Evie the next morning. “I’ll be fine. I’ll stay with Mavis and the aunties and then go straight to the school. I’ll run if I see any bad bubbles.”
“Right. Bad bubbles to be avoided.” Although pointing them out to authorities wouldn’t float, as Evie well knew. “But I want you to have fun.” Evie hugged her ward and sent prayers to Whoever watched over them. She was more aware than most of the spirits lingering beyond the Veil. She just hoped maybe Loretta’s parents hovered protectively.
“I’m already having fun! No one knows who I am in this costume. I can’t wait for the parade!” She skipped off down the street without a care in the world, as it should be.
And every person in town turned to smile at her because millionaire kids never went unnoticed.
Fighting her trepidations, Evie went in search of Pris. If a killer was after one of Bertie’s sketches or the mall drawing, everyone needed to be in position and well-rehearsed once this art show got going.
Her cousin was already handing out hot chocolate to workers setting up booths around the courthouse square. Pris hadrecruited some of her former staff to sell cookies and cupcakes. Evie hoped she would open a café if she stayed. The booth was doing a booming business.
“Is Dante a wreck yet? Will this send him fleeing back to Italy?” Evie asked, reading the intense colors in Pris’s aura and thinking the green streak in her hair almost matched.
“The idiot man is actuallyenjoyingthe skullduggery. He’s leading two innocent children wearing antlers around, feeding them junk so they’re hyper, and handing out Nick’s art show flyers. My mind will be blown before noon.” That was Pris’s reminder that her psychic abilities went into overload in crowds.
“I don’t want you reading minds. Just let us know if you see or sense anything unusual. Take the kids home before noon. Sheriff Troy will be with us by then.”
They were both aware that Gracie and half the town stood to lose their homes and businesses unless they put an end to Layman’s plans. Larraine might never walk safely down the street again unless they caught a killer. But one did not necessarily lead to the other. Working without any evidence except a ghost’s warnings had its difficulties.
They needed to know what Bertie’s sketches had to do with a killer, if anything. She simply didn’t believe in coincidence when it came to death. Had Sammy died for his brother’s sketches or was it a simple blackmail situation? Then—had the mayor been blackmailing too? If they ruled out the sketches as motive...
She was pretty certain they couldn’t rule out the pièce de résistance, the mall drawing. She just prayed the ghosts would speak up or she could read a killer’s aura before he killed again. With all the spinning wheels she had to put in place, one trap at a time was the best she could manage.
Evie located Iddy next. Her vet cousin was setting up an Adopt-a-Pet area in the sheltered spot beside the courthouse steps. Evie crouched down to tickle a beagle puppy behind itsears and watch it squirm with joy. This was what the day should be about, not ghosts and evildoers.
“I’m heading up to check with our resident spirits. Are you good here?”
No-nonsense Iddy hadn’t bothered with costumes. She wore her usual work clothes of jeans and tucked-in shirt and boots, with her heavy blue-black hair caught back in a rubber band. She helped an owl from its perch to her wrist, where it bobbed its head at Evie as if answering her question.
“I have a few critters upstairs as well as down,” Iddy said. “I can’t say how much help they’ll be, but I should receive an image of any disaster.”
“Since the sheriff will be with us, I’m not sure who else you can call, but we’ll hope this all goes down quietly.” Evie couldn’t imagine how. She suspected even Bertie would be agitated to see his work displayed.
At least neither spirit had displayed poltergeist tendencies. Yet. A building with slamming doors and flying files would be condemned pretty fast.
Satisfied her outdoor troops were in position, Evie entered the courthouse. She was worried about Gracie. Her normally quiet, cautious sister had developed unusually intense colors similar to Pris’s lately. Lust for Nick was part of it, she supposed. It was about time Gracie stopped being a nun, and the Brit was cute. But this business about writing a book and going with Nick to investigate galleries... Just a wee bit scary.
Viking Verity had a crew of helpers carrying easels to the upstairs rotunda. The leaflets and the last minute changes Reuben had made to the festival website specified the exhibit opened at noon. Evie didn’t fool herself into believing criminals paid attention to rules. The sheriff had men on the watch. So did she.
Upstairs, the rotunda was relatively warm. The courthouse haunts had gone into hiding with all the activity. That wouldn’t last now that Evie had arrived.
Hiding behind a website was no longer an option. They needed to know who wanted Bertie’s work, and they needed to know before anyone else died.
She found Jax with Roark studying schematics—they’d jumped on the blueprints she’d shown them. There’d been changes since her father’s day, but it gave them a start. “You need drones to spray pepper and guns in the wall to shoot Tasers,” she suggested facetiously. They needed to chill.
“Lasers,” Jax responded without looking up. “Dream bigger.” He looked good, if not Christmasy, in his chocolate-brown cable-knit sweater over a collared shirt. She couldn’t believe she planned to marry a preppy!
She was about to leave him to his consultation when he caught her waist, held her close, and planted kisses down her neck until she couldn’t think straight. Would she ever get used to this brilliant man wantingher? Probably not in this lifetime.
“Stay out of the crossfire, please,” he whispered. “Hide under a bench, anything. I don’t want to lose you.”
She hugged him back, cuddling close. “Ditto, Macho Man. But there’s no reason for guns if Larraine isn’t here. We’re all just art lovers.”
