Eat, Drink, and Be Scary (A Ravenmist Whodunit Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 1) Read online

  I stood in front of the mirror checking out my reflection. “I look ridiculous. I’m too old to carry this off.”

  Missy snorted and tossed her long dark hair. She had hair to die for. Long, thick, and shiny. I’d coveted it my entire life but had to settle for auburn locks that were on the curly side. “You’re only thirty-two, hardly a senior citizen. And you have a nice figure. You look great.”

  Maybe. The red and black velvet dress was short, the flouncy skirt only coming to mid-thigh. Barely. The bodice was low-cut and what little cleavage I possessed had been corralled into a pushup bra that would have made Victoria proud. Luckily, Missy had also made a gorgeous red velvet hooded cloak that would at the very least make sure that I wasn’t showing off too much of my rear assets. A wicker basket covered in a red silk scarf finished off the costume. That basket would come in handy tonight, carrying my phone and maybe a snack.

  “It’s so…short.”

  “You have terrific legs,” Missy assured me with a wave of her hand. “Besides, you don’t have any choice but to wear it. It’s the only thing you have.”

  That wasn’t exactly true. I had costumes from previous years stored away in the attic. I could dig them out but Missy knew I didn’t have time. The guests were already beginning to arrive and I could hear the local band playing their first set of the evening.

  Missy looked into the mirror to adjust her halo. She was dressed as an angel. She even had a harp, which was sitting on the bed next to my basket. “I bet the sheriff is going to like your costume.”

  Not again. The town seemed to hate the idea that I was happily unattached. They’d been throwing single men at me for the last four years and I’d been ducking them like an adolescent kid playing dodgeball.

  “Do you think he’ll want to borrow it for himself next year? He’s a little tall for it.”

  “You know what I mean. Don’t you think he’s handsome?”

  I shrugged, tightening the tie on my cloak. “Sure, I guess. I don’t think about him any more than I have to. He’s annoying, but even if he wasn’t I’m not looking for a man in my life. Been there, done that. I’m never getting married again.”

  Missy sighed loudly. She’d been dating the same guy for almost three years. Eventually they were probably going to get married but they didn’t seem to be any hurry. “You always say that.”

  “Because no one seems to be listening.”

  “You might change your mind.”

  “You might actually sprout real wings and fly, but what are the odds?”

  Her brow lifted and smiled played around her lips. “Better than you might think. All I know is if I ever meet your ex-husband face to face I’m going to kick him where it counts.”

  “I’ll be there to cheer you on.”

  My ex David was a handsome man just a year older than myself. We hit it off immediately and a year later tied the knot in a small ceremony in my parents’ backyard. David didn’t like to make a big deal of things and I had never wanted a big wedding anyway.

  I thought we were doing okay – not great but okay – until I came home from Beelzebub and Co. and David was packing his bags. He’d said he wanted to find himself, an activity that I wholeheartedly supported since if something or someone is lost, you should definitely go find it. Or him. Or whatever.

  Later I would find out that he basically wanted to find himself in the bed of as many different women as possible. I wholeheartedly supported that also as long as he wasn’t my husband when he did it. As soon as the divorce was final, we sold the condo and split the proceeds. I immediately quit the job that I hated and moved back to Ravenmist. The inn had been limping along for a year with no clear management and I knew that’s not what my grandmother would have wanted. My parents were thrilled that I wanted to take it over as they didn’t have the time or inclination to run it.

  Through all of this, Missy stood by my side drying my tears and telling me it would all get better. She was right. It did. And now she wanted me to do it all over again. Not going to happen.

  I checked my reflection once more, smoothing down my flyaway hair before retrieving the last piece of my costume. The basket, now sitting by itself on the mattress. “I need to get out there. Where’s your harp?”

  My room wasn’t that large and it only took a second to find it. The tiny plastic harp she’d purchased online now leaned against the wall near the window where a lovely autumn breeze was blowing into my bedroom. I had almost half of the downstairs as my living quarters. It wasn’t huge but it was fine for me.

  “Did you…?” I eyed the harp, moving my gaze from the bed to the where it now resided. Strange things were always happening in Ravenmist. I’d grown used to it long ago. “Never mind.”

  I walked over to the window to grab the harp for her and stopped when I saw Jerome Bergstrom in the distance wearing a Ghostbuster costume and talking to Roger, who was dressed as Henry the VIII. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but visually they both appeared to be upset. Jerome was waving his arms in the air and Roger kept trying to walk away, only to have Jerome follow him.

  “What are you looking at?”

  Missy had come up behind me, also peering out of the window. “I saw that Ghostbuster arguing with some man in Daisy’s at lunchtime. Looks like he has people issues.”

  Daisy owned the local cafe and she was quite the character. Remind me to introduce you.

  “Was it that man? His name is Roger.”

  Missy shook her head. “No, it was someone else. A few years older and heavier.”

  “What were they arguing about?”

  Roger disappeared around the corner of the inn with Jerome on his heels.

  “I’m not sure. I was only in there to pick up some food and take it back to the store. I heard the Ghostbuster say something like you can’t do that to me and the other guy said yes, I can. Other than that, I don’t know. They were mad, though. Their faces were bright red and all the other diners were uncomfortable.”

  Jerome appeared to have issues with more than just his wife Lorna. He really should think about the way he interacted with others. My grandmother Rose used to say that a person could catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

  Pushing Jerome and his anger management problems out of my head, I reached for the harp on the floor but it wasn’t there.

  “Wait…wasn’t it…?”

  I turned to quickly scan the room and the harp sat on the bed. Six feet away from where I’d last seen it.

  “Did you move it, Missy? Because I didn’t see you do it.”

  She picked up the tiny harp and laughed. “Of course, I did. You don’t think ghosts did it, do you?”

  In this town, one could never tell.

  “Are you ready to go have some fun?” Missy grinned and ran her fingers over the plastic strings, making a discordant sound that reminded me of an angry cat falling in the water. “It’s the highlight of the year for Ravenmist. Let’s go request that the band play ‘Monster Mash’. Maybe the sheriff will ask you to dance.”

  I checked the window again but I didn’t see any flying pigs in the sky. Nope, I wasn’t going to be doing any dancing with Jackson Garrett.

  Chapter Three

  The party was in full swing and everyone was having a wonderful time. The decorations looked even better at night with all the spooky lights and the draped spiderwebs hanging from the trees. Strategically placed mist machines spewed gray fog over the ground, adding to the ghostly vibe.

  The branches, leaves and lights made a canopy over the path to the garden, and that’s where I was headed to make sure that no one had bashed in anyone’s skull with a sledgehammer. If that happened I was sure that Garrett would never let me hear the end of it.

  I was alone on the trail and I paused for a moment when I saw a gray, misty figure in the distance. As the head ghost hunter in our local paranormal society I froze, not moving a muscle. If this was an actual ghost sighting that meant I had now seen…let me count…hmmmm… />
  If this was a real spirit then I would have seen one ghost in my life. One.

  Okay, I know what you’re thinking and I don’t blame you. I must really suck as a ghost hunter if I’ve never actually seen one.

  Ravenmist is definitely haunted. I’ve known that my whole life. I’d grown up listening to stories at my grandmother’s knee. Even my dad, who was normally as straight-laced and sober as any man could be, had stories of the strange things that had happened in town. He swears to this day that he had a ghost-child best friend for a few years when he was a kid. Both my grandparents had seen ghosts, as have many of the townsfolk throughout the years, although the sightings seem to have dried up in the internet age.

  Maybe spirits don’t like social media. Can’t say that I blame them.

  So just because I personally hadn’t witnessed a ghost didn’t mean that there weren’t any in Ravenmist. Weird stuff was always happening and there wasn’t always a logical explanation.

  The sound of a snapping twig from behind me had me whirling around, only to come face to face with Garrett and his son Tyler. Tyler was dressed as a vampire, complete with black cape and fangs. Garrett was dressed in his sheriff’s uniform. Honestly, he couldn’t cut loose just one night?

  I quickly turned back to where I’d seen the gray figure but it was now gone, thanks to our friendly law enforcement officer.

  “Sheriff,” I said through gritted teeth. “You scared away what might have been a full-body apparition.”

  Garrett hooked his thumbs in his belt and quirked a brow. “A full body apparition? You mean a ghost? Why would a ghost be scared of me and Tyler? Doesn’t make sense, does it? Kind of like ghosts and goblins in general.”

  I’d had it with this man. He thought he was so smart and all of us here in Ravenmist were just country bumpkins. I’d met so many like him when I’d worked in Chicago.

  “I never said I believed in goblins but I know what I saw.”

  Pursing his lips, Garrett regarded the long path. “Down there, you mean? Is that where you saw it? Are you sure you don’t have a ghost confused with the mist machine? The wind is pushing that stuff all over the place. It’s dangerous. Someone could trip over a tree stump and hurt themselves.”

  He was such a pessimist. He saw danger and mayhem everywhere.

  “I know a ghost from mist.”

  Tyler, who was fifteen, had already taken off down the path and had to be called back by his dad.

  “There’s nothing there, son. It’s just mist.”

  Ignoring his father, Tyler turned to me. “Have you seen a lot of ghosts?”

  Garrett grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s a great question, Ty. Have you seen many ghosts, Ms. Hamilton?”

  I gave the sheriff my best stink eye. “I haven’t, but I’ve heard stories since the day I was born. Ravenmist is haunted and it’s only a matter of time before you realize that, too. Even if you never actually see a ghost, you’ll see their handiwork. Lots of strange going-ons here in town.”

  “The strangest thing I’ve seen is you traipsing around in the dark after a ghost made of mist.”

  I wanted to slap that smirk off of his face, but I could tell that Tyler was watching our back and forth with great interest. I wasn’t going to set a bad example for the young man.

  “Back at you, Sheriff. You stick out like a sore thumb in Ravenmist.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment. Were you headed to the garden? I was going there to check on how many people had been beaned with that sledgehammer so far.”

  My jaw ached from holding in the blistering words I wanted to send his way. Being nasty, however, wasn’t what a lady did. Just ask my mother, Peggy Evans Hamilton. She’ll tell you. Over and over again. Whether you want her to or not.

  Speaking of my mother…where was she? She and dad never missed a festival. Last year they’d dressed as Romeo and Juliet. They’d been married forever and were the most nauseatingly happy couple I’d ever seen. Their couple costumes were legendary and looked forward to every year.

  “Yes, I’m headed to the garden.”

  Tyler was a typical teenager and I could tell hanging out with his dad wasn’t his choice. He was wearing a bored expression and the only time he’d perked up was when I’d mentioned the ghost. Garrett had probably dragged him around all evening. With me here, the kid saw an out. I didn’t blame him.

  “Hey Dad, since you two are going to check on the game do you mind if I go grab some food? I’m starving.”

  “We were going to do that after this.”

  “I’m hungry now. You can catch up with me.” Tyler rolled his eyes to the sky like only a teenager could do. “I’ll be right near the buffet. What trouble can I get into?”

  “With you, I never know. Okay, but you go to the buffet and stay there. This should only take a few minutes.”

  Tyler was fifteen freakin’ years old. At that age, I was running around Ravenmist and I doubt my parents had any idea where I was most of the time.

  The teenager didn’t hesitate when his dad gave the okay, turning and sprinting back up the path, his cape waving in the wind behind him like a superhero.

  “You know, Ravenmist has almost no crime whatsoever. I grew up here and even when I wanted to get into mischief there was none to be had. It quite possibly is the most boring place to grow up in the entire world.”

  For the first time since I’d met Jackson Garrett, he didn’t look like he had all the answers. He actually looked kind of sad. “If there’s trouble, Tyler can find it. That’s a big reason why I moved here.”

  I hadn’t known that and I kind of felt bad for Garrett. Sort of. If he hadn’t wanted to leave Chicago this change had to be tough on him.

  “The rumor around town is that your leaving Chicago has something to do with an injury.”

  I didn’t mention the slight limp he walked with. It was barely noticeable and not a big deal.

  The sheriff slapped his right thigh. “They would be right. I was shot and they wanted me to ride a desk. That coupled with the bad crowd Tyler had fallen in with made the decision to leave easy. I wanted to bring him to a place that didn’t have any bad influences.”

  Did such a place exist? I doubted it. And then one had to assume that Tyler Garrett hadn’t been the actual bad influence back in Chicago. He looked like a pretty good kid, though.

  “So you brought him to a haunted town. Interesting.”

  Garrett shook his head and started down the path. “No, I brought him to a safe little town that people like to say is haunted because it brings in tourists. There’s a big difference.”

  I headed off after him, his long legs going far faster than my usual stride. I had to jog to keep up with him. “You haven’t been here long enough. You’ll see.”

  “I don’t care to see–”

  He stopped and I ran into him, my nose meeting the middle of his back and knocking me sideways a few steps. He reached out to steady me and then placed a finger over my lips to keep me quiet before pointing to my right. I turned and saw good old Jerome Bergstrom in a clinch with a woman who clearly was not his wife. In fact, I knew the woman. She was Angela Warner, a real estate agent here in Ravenmist. I’d gone to high school with her, although she was a few years ahead of me.

  I brushed Garrett’s fingers away but didn’t speak as Jerome and Angela kissed passionately in the shroud of darkness off of the path. The only reason we could even see them tonight was the full moon overhead. Any other night they would have been undetected.

  Garrett’s fingers wrapped around my arm and gently urged me down the path toward the garden. We didn’t say anything for a few minutes until the happy sounds and bright lights of the party could be seen or heard. I paused at the edge of the hay bale maze, guests milling around us.

  “That was one of my guests with Angela Warner. I wonder if she knows he’s married with kids.”

  Shaking his head, Garrett’s lips were pressed together grimly. “It’s none
of our business, Tedi. Don’t go there. Trust me on this. I know small towns like to gossip but I can assure you nothing good would come from it, nor would it be welcomed should you decide to let her know. We need to stay out of this.”

  “I wasn’t suggesting I wanted to get involved. I have no intention of doing so, either. I was just making an observation.”

  “I don’t think any part of that was meant to be observed. Just forget you saw it. Take my advice…never get involved in anyone else’s marriage.”

  It had been bad enough to be in my own.

  “As I said before, I wasn’t planning to do anything. Now are we going to check the games? I guarantee you no one has been hurt.”

  Except for Lorna Bergstrom. And maybe Jerome, if his wife ever caught him. He was a man playing with fire.

  As the owner of an inn, I was used to waking up early. I wasn’t the happiest person in those moments before the sun came up but it was part of the job. Waking up the morning after a party when I’d barely had three hours of sleep wasn’t a piece of cake, either. I couldn’t go to bed until the very last guest left. That had been three-thirty in the morning and it was currently six. I normally got out of bed a half hour earlier but I was reasonably sure that my guests wouldn’t be up and wanting breakfast at the crack of dawn.

  If anything, they’d be wanting hot black coffee and some Alka-Seltzer. Maybe a puke bucket, too.

  Ravenmist knew how to throw a party and it had been quite the success. I’d lost track of how many cases of booze we’d run through and the band had been on fire. They’d played until two in the morning. Yes, it had taken an hour and a half to shoo everyone back to their homes or hotel rooms.

  I’d slipped on my favorite, soft as butter ripped blue jeans and a University of Illinois sweatshirt, my feet stuffed in a pair of worn tennis shoes. They were butt ugly and held together by dirt and prayer but they were so gosh darn comfortable. I shoved my nose close to the coffeemaker as it dripped into the pot, dark and steamy. It smelled like heaven and I took a big whiff, filling my lungs with its French roast goodness.