Loose Ends Read Online Free PDF Page A

Susan replied.
    Mary watched Susan’s eyes flick nervously across the room.
    “And the other times, when you came back at the same time, did she reappear?”
    Susan’s startled eyes flew back to Mary. “How do, how did…” she stammered.
    “You’re a curious and intelligent woman,” Mary shrugged, “Of course you’d come back here to make sure it wasn’t your imagination or a passing car light reflected in the windows. So, how many times?”
    Susan shrugged. “I’ve seen her four additional times since the first night,” she admitted, “always at the same time, always in the same place.”
    Mary nodded and noted it. She watched Susan fidget and wondered what else the woman was not telling her. She only had a few minutes before the ghost was scheduled to appear, so she’d have to trust her gut.
    “Can I have a copy of the information you’ve found on the woman who died?” she asked in a matter-of-fact voice.
    Once again, Susan looked flustered, and then shook her head.
    “You are very good at this, aren’t you?”
    Mary smiled. “I’m the best.”
    Susan looked up and her eyes caught across the room. Mary followed her gaze. In the far corner, a soft haze appeared close to the French doors. The haze began to take shape and in a moment they were staring at a dark-haired young woman, dressed in a short dress.
    “I’ll have the files waiting for you, when you get back,” Susan whispered, her voice shaky.
    Mary nodded, her attention on the movements of the ghost across the room. She watched as the ghost looked around the room and smiled, motioning with her eyes and with subtle movements to someone unseen. Then, with a last secretive smile, she slid out of the room through the French doors.
    Mary called back to Susan as she jogged across the room, “I’ll try to find out what she wants.”
    Mary pushed open the French doors, scanning the terrace with her flashlight. At the far corner, she saw the ghost slowly gliding down the stairs towards the garden. Mary followed.
    The evening sky was dark – clouds covered the nearly full moon and the stars – but thankfully the rain had stopped. Mary pulled her jacket tighter and followed the translucent glow across the lawn, trying to avoid slipping on the wet leaves that carpeted the grass. Beyond the manicured lawn, the informal garden was overgrown with trees and vegetation. Mary pushed through the wet, dead limbs to find the path that the ghost slid through effortlessly.
    “Someone needs to fire the gardener,” Mary muttered, when a particularly lethal-looking branch just missed her face. “Or shoot him.”
    Once through the barrier of the garden, Mary felt the landscape begin to slope downward. The grass was knee-high, but she had a clearer view of the ghost.
    She stumbled forward, her foot catching on a hidden root, and ended up on her hands and knees on the muddy path. “Crap!” Looking up quickly to be sure she didn’t lose the direction of the ghost, she was rewarded with a splash of cold water that dripped onto her head, down her forehead and into her eyes. Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she scurried to her feet and half jogged down the trail to catch up. She saw her about fifteen feet further up the path when the ghost drifted behind a tall dense wall of privet hedges and disappeared from view.
    “Oh, no, you don’t,” Mary panted and broke into a run. She pushed through the hedge and found herself in an old maze. The walls reached above her head and a narrow aisle of about three feet separated them. Her flashlight beam bounced off the ragged edges of the brush and created eerie shadow figures that seemed to be reaching out skeletal hands, ready to pull her into their grasp. She paused and took a deep breath.
    “Get a grip, O’Reilly. You chase ghosts for a living for heaven’s sakes,” she muttered and continued her jog up the aisle.
    She flashed her light ahead and was greeted with three path choices. None looked particularly