Playing With Vampires - An Izzy Cooper Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

scowl.
    A sudden thought popped into my head. “I thought you couldn’t leave the lighthouse?”
    Muriel shrugged. “I don’t know. I was thinking about you and the next thing I knew, I was in your car.”
    That was definitely strange. It was almost as if she were growing more powerful. There were times when a spirit might have more power than at other times, but that was usually during an electrical storm.
    Leaning down, I studied the horizon through the windshield. There were lots of gray black clouds, but as far as I could tell, no lightning.
    I shifted my eyes back to the rearview mirror. Muriel was still there, her face sallow and corpse looking. She didn’t normally manifest like that.
    “You look dead,” I commented. What’s up?”
    “So there’s been another death, hasn’t there?” Muriel asked, not bothering to answer my question.
    I hated that too.
    “What makes you think so? Have you seen the captain again?”
    Muriel and everyone else on Mystique Island were convinced that if there were sightings of old Captain Marsh, something bad was sure to happen.
    Muriel nodded. “I saw him last night. He was sitting in a rowboat just offshore … and he was watching the lighthouse.”
    I wasn’t sure how much of what Muriel said I could believe, but if she did see this ghost haunting the shore of Shipwreck Point, then it was a bit odd.
    “Well look at it this way. If you did see Captain Marsh in a boat last night, he couldn’t have been in Storm Cove killing anyone.”
    Muriel rolled her eyes. “It’s not like he couldn’t get there in a hurry, if he wanted.”
    That part was true, but what was even truer was that ghosts rarely killed the living. They preferred to hang around and spook them. Why the dead liked doing things like that, I still hadn’t figured out yet.
    “You want to know what I think, Muriel?”
    “What?” she asked in a particularly wary voice.
    Apparently she’d grown accustomed to my bitchy moods, and knew what to expect when I happened to be in one of those moods.
    “I think you probably overheard Tim and Ayden talking about the case, and you just want to pin it on the old captain.”
    “Whatever!” she said before dissipating into thin air.
    I was really going to have to practice being more sensitive to Muriel’s feelings. Now she was angry, and having an angry ghost haunting the lighthouse wasn’t going to make for the most ideal work environment.
    Even after I’d explained to Muriel that the last case really had nothing to do with Captain Marsh, she’d insisted that there was a connection, though she couldn’t tell me what that connection was.
    I had my doubts. Not only was it my experience that ghosts didn’t normally kill people, but if there was a link to the Coos Bay victim, whoever was responsible for the murders, might not even be connected to the island.
     

Chapter Four
     
    I was fully prepared for the look of irritation the boss man threw in my direction as soon as I walked in.
    “Hi guys. Sorry I’m a little late,” I apologized, and then hurried to explain. “While I was at the Quick Stop, I decided to do some asking around about Polly. It seems that she was out and about last night because she had taken a second job. Her coworker, Janet, didn’t know exactly what it was that Polly was doing. It was supposed to be some kind of secret, but Janet thought it might have something to do with the new owner of the Marsh Estate.”
    By the time I’d finished with my explanation, the dour look on Ayden’s face had changed. Now I had his attention.
    “Maybe Polly’s grandfather knows,” Ayden suggested. “I think I’ll stop by there this afternoon and talk with him.”
    My attention fell on Tim. His eyes were glued to an open file on his desk.
    “What have you found out about the Coos Bay victim?” I asked.
    Looking up, Tim ran fingers through his long hair. “The victim’s name was Ann Chase. She was in her early thirties, and according to the autopsy