“Without evidence, there can be no punishment,” the tall, balding professorial sort Jax identified as Mr. Charles pronounced, to no one in particular.
Several other residents hovered in the background, loudly discussing other incidents of theft, and blaming anyone in sight.
Jax wanted to hand the director a backbone. Instead, he stepped up and crushed the wrist of the well-endowed blonde wearing scrubs and smelling of beer, forcing her to release the terrified maid. “Unless you are an officer of the law, you are assaulting this woman and can be arrested.”
The frightened receptionist was on the phone, probably not calling 911. As Jax figured, a minute later, a thin man in his fifties with a head of iron-gray hair stalked from the office hall to yank Lucy Murkowski aside. Jax recalled the images from Reuben’s wall and identified him as Bill Bibb, one of Sunshine’s board of directors and VP of something-or-other at the home. What the hell was he doing here at this hour?
In the melee, Evie had slipped out of Jax’s sight. She chose Bibb’s arrival to scream.
Recognizing her operatic shriek, Jax swirled to locate her. Everyone in the lobby shut up and did the same.
For her car shopping and hair stylist expedition, Evie had chosen to wear purple knee-length shorts and a bright green T-shirt with purple writing that saidI do what the voices in my head tell me.Her hair had frizzed in the August humidity and formed a halo of orange and red in the fluorescent lighting. She was holding both hands to her temples and staring wild-eyed at the crowd. Between her looks and the scream, she’d transfixed all onlookers, including the unamused VP.
Jax eased closer, keeping an eye out for sudden movements. He should sell Evie’s services as a riot-quencher. Everyone silenced as she began to speak.
“Mary?” She rotated slowly, looking over everyone’s heads. “Mary, is that the name you prefer?”
Jax refrained from rolling his eyes. Mary North had been the ghost she’d already sent on—and Evie’s ghosts never used names. She was faking it. He kept a close eye on the blowzy blond in dirty scrubs. He’d bet good money, which he didn’t have, that was the nurse who had stolen the diamond, Savanna Johnson.
“Is she seeing a ghost?” Abandoning her boss, Lucy Murkowski sidled up to Jax, whispering as she watched.
“Spirit energy, I think she calls it.” Jax liked the sound ofenergybetter thanghost.
“Mary...North.” Evie bobbed her head and stared at a corner of the ceiling. “Ring? A ring of people? Mushrooms?”
Jax watched the drunken nurse frown and stagger a bit as she glanced toward the nearest exit. The Hispanic maid eased against the desk in fear.
“Ring, diamond? Stolen?” Evie wrinkled her pale brow in puzzlement and tilted her head as if listening. “Nurse? Anursestole it?”
“I told you so,” one of the little gray-haired ladies shouted. “Savanna steals from the dead!”
The riot of shouting began again, and the nurse shouted right back, swinging her fist and heading for the exit. Jax checked, and the gray-hired VP had vanished back down the hall, leaving the mayhem to his employees.
Lucy Murkowski gasped. “What do I do now? I can’t call the police about a ghost.”
“Check the nurse’s employment record? And don’t believe her if she blames a maid,” Jax suggested, before catching Evie, who was doing a good imitation of a faint.
Appearing to support her, he led her back to the elevator, leaving the hubbub behind. “Cute. And here I almost thought you’d be a good riot quencher.”
She chuckled. “I can, but it’s no fun.”
Since he’d seen her leading a mob of townspeople waving flaming brooms, he knew this had just been a tame episode. “Accusations and suspicious behavior won’t get the thief arrested. Did you catch a glimpse of the VP who wandered in?”
“Yeah, very dark aura. Could be your cousin’sdark energy. Can we arrest anyone on suspicion of evil?” She punched the elevator button for the fourth floor. “And the nurse is stewed in a lifetime of guilt and has a serious problem in her third chakra, dark enough to be cancer. I can tell her to see a doctor, but I can’t have her arrested. Although cancer is punishment enough. This aura business isn’t all it cracked up to be.”
“You need to know the people to know what their aura reflects. And getting to know guilty people is not a safe way to go.” Jax would have laughed hysterically if he’d heard himself talking like this even six months ago. He simply couldn’t discount Evie’s perceptiveness any longer.
He didn’t like her silence as they left the elevator and headed for Granny’s apartment. He was very afraid that he’d just planted an idea in her head, and now that she had a car of her own...
“I should go the car loan route,” she said, surprisingly, as she knocked on the door. “I need to develop my own credit.”
“A loan takes too long and you risk losing the deal. You can pay Loretta’s account back with interest, and you can give the estate as reference the next time.”
Marlene Gump’s door opened, and a six-foot quarterback with spectacles blocked their entrance. Blessed with thick salt-and-pepper hair and a stern jaw, he didn’t speak.
That didn’t deter Evie. “Stacey’s father, I presume? Good to meet you. It’s about time you got here. Marlene has been frantic trying to protect her granddaughter.”
“My mother is dead. Her remains are with the crematorium. I’ve sent Stacey back to Atlanta. If you’re the investigators she hired, your services are no longer required. How much do we owe you?” He pulled a checkbook out of his inner coat pocket.