Murder Runs Deep Read online

  The longer she looked at him now, the more certain she became that there was something different about him. He seemed… almost stoic. He might be trying to hide it behind a smile, but he just wasn’t his usual lovable self.

  It came to her after another moment or two of staring. It was the light surrounding him that was different. The bluish light was deeper, more intense, and he seemed more corporeal. Not solid, certainly, but certainly less… well, not there.

  “I’m fine, Miranda,” he promised, as if reading her thoughts. “There’s changes to be had even when you’re a ghost. Thing is that I’ve always hated surprises and not knowing what’s coming next is sort of killing me. If you’ll excuse the expression.”

  “Liar,” she teased gently. “You always loved surprises.”

  He sighed. “Not when it came to my body. Have I ever told you how much I despised puberty?”

  She couldn’t help but laugh.

  Jack looked from her to the empty space that Kyle was occupying, and then back to her. “Surprises? What surprises?”

  “Jeez, nothing changes, does it?” Kyle said, spreading his arms wide and rolling his eyes. “I’ve been back, like, two minutes, and already I’m being interrogated by Moonlight Bay PD’s finest.”

  That was more like the Kyle she knew. “He’s kind of laughing at you, Jack,” Miranda said, allowing her eyes to flick to him for just a second before centering her gaze on Kyle again.

  “It’s okay, you can look at him. I won’t vanish,” Kyle said. “I’m back for good. At least, for now.”

  “So,” Jack said, “is he here for good?”

  Kyle rolled his eyes again. “Maybe I should write everything down for him.”

  A pen lying innocently on the table stood up on its end suddenly, and spun in a circle before dropping down again.

  Jack stood up suddenly from his chair, backing away from the show of paranormal power. There weren’t many people who could see poltergeist activity and not have some reaction.

  Miranda hid her laughter behind her hands. This was too good. “Oh, wow. This is just like old times.”

  “Yes, but why is it happening?” Jack went on with a little more urgency. “It’s great he can move a pen around but didn’t he go off to the great beyond, or whatever? Isn’t he not supposed to be here?”

  “Well,” Kyle scoffed. “Now I just don’t feel wanted at all.”

  Miranda shot him a don’t-be-like-that look, but Jack was right. Although she was impressed by how much better Kyle had gotten at moving solid objects, that was not the point here. She needed to know what was going on. Why was Kyle back? Why did he look different? “Kyle, honey, what’s happening?”

  “Bit of a long story, that,” Kyle said, adding his cheekiest grin. “But you are pleased to see me, right?”

  “Of course I’m pleased to see you,” she promised, and the fresh tears in her eyes just couldn’t be helped. “Really, I am. If you only knew how much I’d missed you.”

  “That’s good enough for me,” Kyle said, beaming from ear to ear. “What about our good looking detective friend here? Has Jack missed me?”

  “He missed you a lot,” she decided to say. It seemed the safest answer.

  Kyle had the same taste in men that Miranda did. While he’d been alive, Jack would certainly have been his type. No doubt he would have made his passes at Jack and taken his chances.

  Lucky for Miranda, Jack liked girls. Her in particular.

  “I want to hear him say it,” Kyle insisted.

  “Oh Kyle, come on!” Miranda frowned at him.

  “I mean it,” he said, grinning like a fool. “I’m not going to tell you what I’m here for until I have his answer.”

  Miranda knew he meant it. She also knew that Kyle couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it and although that might be a poor choice of words, it was nonetheless true. She could just wait him out. He’d tell her eventually. But, that might take another week and somehow she knew that having her two men under the same roof again would probably drive her nuts. Best to have this out now. “Fine. Jack, Kyle wants to know if you’ve missed him, too.”

  “Seriously?” He focused his attention just to the right of where Kyle was actually standing. “You don’t wanna know.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Kyle said, nodding as if that was exactly the answer he wanted.

  “Oh, thank God,” Miranda said, glad to have that out of the way. “Now, Kyle, what’s happening? How come you’re back?”

  “Well, to be honest, Miranda, it’s complicated. If there had been any other way, I swear I wouldn’t have done this. I mean, you were probably just getting over it all and then, bam, here I am back again. Not cool, right?”

  “You don’t need to apologize for that, Kyle.” Miranda shook her head. “You went on to your eternal rest. You deserved it.”

  “I’ll say. Unfortunately, the eternal part might be true, but the rest part… not so much. I came back to see you, Miranda.”

  “Well, sure,” she said. “I mean, you’re here and we’re talking, but why? There must be a reason.”

  “There is. I’m here to give you a warning.”

  Chapter 2

  That was definitely not on the list of things she expected he might say.

  “A warning? What kind of warning?” Miranda said. She saw Jack stiffen in his seat. He was only listening to her side of the conversation and words like ‘warning’ were only going to get him worried.

  Then again, it kind of worried Miranda, too.

  “Um, well, here’s the thing,” Kyle told her. “You know how things are kind of fuzzy for ghosts when they first become ghosts? Like how waking up dead robs you of some of your memory and it takes a while for it all to filter through?”

  Miranda nodded. That was just one of a long list of infuriating problems for a psychic like her. Instead of just asking Kyle who killed him, for instance, it had been necessary for her to go through and solve the murder, nearly getting herself killed in the process. Not that it was Kyle’s fault. He honestly couldn’t remember. That’s how it was with ghosts.

  He couldn’t remember the song lyrics to his favorite Barry Manilow song either, but as far as Miranda was concerned that had actually been a blessing.

  Jack finally met his patience threshold. “Miranda, tell me what’s going on. What kind of a warning? What’s he saying?”

  “Just give us a minute, Jack,” Miranda said. “This is like the worst game of telephone ever. When I know what’s going on I’ll tell you, okay?”

  The look on his face made it clear that he didn’t like that idea at all, but he didn’t say anything else. Instead he just got up and started pacing the kitchen floor, back and forth.

  “Anyway…” Kyle droned slowly. He floated up a little higher, where he could see both Jack and Miranda at the same time, hovering in midair with his hands behind his back. “This is going to be like that memory problem thing for new ghosts, only in reverse. Sort of. I knew the warning clear as a bell when I was on the other side, but now that I’m back… I can’t exactly remember what it is I’m here to warn you about.”

  “Are you serious? Kyle!”

  Jack turned her way sharply. She waved him off.

  “I know, I know,” Kyle apologized. “I have this very distinct feeling that you and Jack are going to need my help, but I don’t know why. Anymore. I mean, I knew it when I came here. It was the whole reason for me coming back and let me tell you something, if you think it was hard for me to find my way to the other side from here, that’s nothing compared to what a ghost has to do to come back. There’s all these forms to fill out and then there’s the border to cross and—”

  “Kyle!” she shouted, getting his attention back. “Focus. You say you came back to warn us… hold on. Did you say forms to fill out?”

  “Oh, yeah. You have no idea what sticklers they are for rules on the other side. I mean, if you don’t have the right information in the right spot… of course, n
ow that I think about it that might just be their way of seeing who’s ready to come back. You know, like if you can’t remember your mother’s maiden name then you probably aren’t ready to come back and interact with all the living folks again? That sort of thing?”

  Miranda stared at him. That couldn’t be how the other side worked.

  Could it?

  Jack cleared his throat, looking at her expectantly.

  “Jack, honey, Kyle is struggling a little bit with the memory thing. He, um, can’t seem to remember what he came back to warn us about.”

  His mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”

  It was Kyle who answered him first. “Yes, big boy, I’m serious. You try travelling between planes of existence and see what it does to your mental acuity, hmm?”

  “Kyle… Jack…” For a moment Miranda wasn’t sure which one of them she needed to be quiet. Both, she decided. “Both of you just let me figure this out, please?”

  Jack sighed, and came over to her to put his arms around her waist. “Look, it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to have a conversation with two of us at once, when I can’t hear Kyle at all. Why don’t I go out front and enjoy the night air for a while and leave you and Kyle to talk.”

  She nodded, feeling grateful to him for that. “I’m sorry, Jack. I know this is all kind of awkward.”

  “Yeah, you could say that.” Jack combed his fingers through her hair and kissed her lips before giving a wave to Kyle—in the wrong direction—and slipping out of the kitchen.

  “He’s a good guy, really,” Kyle said, floating closer to Miranda and lowering his voice conspiratorially. “I mean, I would have dated him when I was alive. I wonder how he feels about after death experiences?”

  “Kyle!”

  “I’m joking!” he said, floating back from her with a goofy smile. “Seriously, he is one of the good ones, Miranda. You two are great together. Just don’t tell him I said that.”

  “I’d like to tell him why you’re here,” she muttered. She went back and sat down again. Kyle might be able to float through the air but her feet were still killing her. “So, tell me this. What’s it like up there?”

  “Ah, well, see… I remember that, but I can’t tell you.”

  She couldn’t hide her disappointment. “Why not?”

  “Because that is not for you to know while you’re still here.” Kyle said, shaking his head from side to side and mischievously wagging his finger at her. “That’s one of the rules they’re so strict about. If I break that one, they’re gonna snap me right back. I don’t want to leave until I’ve helped you out with… whatever I’m here to warn you about. So, stop asking.”

  “Oh. Well, sure. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

  “No, we wouldn’t. I mean, you wouldn’t want to pass up the chance to have me as your spirit guide, would you? You’d be going into this whole thing completely blind.”

  “Hold on there, boyo. Firstly,” Miranda said, trying not to be annoyed as she checked off each point on her fingers, “going into what whole thing completely blind? And secondly, since when are you my spirit guide?”

  “Like, all those times that you needed my help, that’s when. I mean, were you hoping for better?”

  “No, of course not. There’s definitely no one better to be my guide than the great and wonderful Kyle Hunter.” Miranda grinned. She really had missed her friend. His ego, his humor, all of their teasing little arguments. The last few months had felt empty without him. “Lead on, then, oh spirit guide.”

  “To be honest, I’m still trying to figure out what it is a spirit guide even does,” Kyle chuckled.

  “Oh, that’s reassuring!”

  “I know!” He was all out laughing now, the sound of it reverberating through the space between them. “Same old, same old.”

  “Sure is. Okay. Let’s get down to it. What do you actually know, Kyle? I mean, you must have some idea how or why you came back to me.”

  “I don’t know much. Not anymore. I know that something is coming, Miranda, and every time I think about it things are a little bit clearer. I think I’ll just get fed little pieces coming to me as I need them. There’s this whole big deal about free will for the people still left on earth and spirit guides aren’t supposed to interfere with that in any way. We’re are just supposed to guide. I think.”

  “You think? So, when you said you were here to guide me, you meant more like make suggestions for me? You must at least have some little idea of what’s going on.”

  “Sure I do.”

  “Okay, so do your spirit guide thing, and tell me.”

  “All right. So here it is. I’m pretty certain that whatever it is involves a mystery in your own family. Or somebody close to you, at any rate.”

  “Oh, that’s clear as mud.”

  “Sorry,” he shrugged. “It’s the best I can do right now.”

  “So… something terrible is going to happen? To someone in my family?” She stiffened in her chair. What could that mean? What tragedy was about to strike her, or Jack, maybe? Oh no, she couldn’t stand it if that happened!

  “Now, now, honey,” he said, hovering over to lay a cold, ghostly hand against her cheek. “It’s something from your family’s past. Ah! See, I remembered that. Ha, ha! It’s something from the past. Don’t worry, your hunky boyfriend is going to be fine.”

  Feeling an instant relief, Miranda raised both hands up to his, and was surprised at how real he felt.

  Miranda’s brain began to work, remembering all the family stories she’d been told as a little girl. What could have happened in the past that affected the present strongly enough to bring Kyle back from his eternal rest?

  She had no idea.

  The Wylders, her father’s side of the family, weren’t particularly mysterious at all. Her father had been an only child without any real extended family to speak of. As far as she knew, she was the last of them. Oh, there were likely to be distant cousins in there somewhere but her father’s line ended with her.

  Her mother’s side, the Cleary’s, were a steady enough family and in the same way as the Wylders, Miranda wasn’t aware of any members of the Cleary’s still out there.

  Except maybe her Aunt Connie, her mother’s sister. No one really knew what had become of her after she sort of disappeared years ago. Everyone just assumed she had moved on to somewhere. She was always talking about travelling, just like Uncle Horatio. The general consensus in the family was that she’d cut her ties with Moonlight Bay first, and one day she’d just pop round again with a bunch of tacky souvenirs to give out and lots of amazing stories to share.

  But now that Kyle had come to deliver a dire warning about something bad happening in her family, from the past, Miranda had to wonder if the real explanation for Connie’s disappearance couldn’t have been something more sinister.

  “Kyle, do you suppose…” she started to ask.

  She never got the chance to finish.

  A loud bang bang bang shook the back door, just to the side of the kitchen counter. Miranda jumped in her chair. Even Kyle was startled by it, his head snapping round to look that way.

  Through the window in the door, they saw the face of a man, illuminated by the security lights of the back yard.

  “Who in the world is that?” Kyle asked, the first of the two to recover from the shock. “Friend of yours?”

  “No. I don’t know him.” Miranda took several steps toward the door. The man knocked again, one solid bang of a fist this time. She took another step.

  “Don’t just open it, Miranda,” Kyle said, his voice full of concern. “It could be anybody. I’ll go get Jack. No, wait, that won’t work. You go get him.”

  “Kyle, don’t be silly. This is Moonlight Bay.” She very nearly added that nothing ever happens here, but she knew how wrong that was.

  She peered out through the glass door for a closer look at the man. The lights from the garden lent shadows at odd angles to his features, but she could tell
he was a fair-haired man, casually dressed in a checkered shirt and beige khakis, heavyset and graying.

  He was in such a state of agitation that Miranda felt a sudden sense of foreboding.

  Her gift, the same gift that allowed her to see ghosts, also allowed her to see flashes of things to come, flashes of insight that usually served her pretty well even when she couldn’t figure out what they meant.

  Right now, that insight was telling her that if she opened that door, the shadows that surrounded the man would come in with him. Darkness would enter her home.

  The man was waving at her now, his lips moving as he shouted something over and over, the words muffled by the thick leaded glass. He was also continuously casting looks over his shoulder, down the sloping garden of Ragged Rest. The back yard led down to the sandy shores of Moonlight Bay and the waters that gave the town its name. The look in his eyes was anxious.

  It was like something was following him, and he was running away in terror.

  “Seriously, Miranda, get Jack,” Kyle suggested again. “Don’t open it, please. This is your spirit guide talking. Listen to your spirit guide.”

  In every mystery they had ever gotten involved in, Kyle had always been the voice of caution, begging her not to do this or that or pleading with her not to go here or there. Caring for her always.

  “Yes,” she said finally, “I think you’re right.”

  She held up a finger to the man, telling him to wait, and then she turned and ran to get Jack.

  Racing through the house, she called out his name, over and over. Out front, he’d said. He was going out front to get some air.

  “Jack!”

  Miranda opened the front door and rushed out, right into Jack’s waiting arms.

  “I heard you,” he told her. “I heard you calling for me all the way out here. What’s wrong? What did Kyle say?”

  “What?” she asked, momentarily confused. “Oh. The reason he’s back. That’s not it. I mean, that’s important and I need to tell you but for right now there’s something else. There’s a man out back. He’s banging on the garden door and wanting to get in and Jack… I think he’s running away from something.”