Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist (Maple Hollow #1)

Dougall eyed me suspiciously. “Why are you so concerned about this? It was a year ago?”

Iris quickly wrapped her arms around me as I fumbled for an answer. “Come on, Dougall, haven’t you ever lost someone close to you? Jordyn needs closure. Can’t you help us out? Please?” She was too good at those puppy eyes.

“Ah, right,” Dougall said. “I’d forgotten you two were a thing.”

“You’re not the only one,” Lou mumbled.

“Well, you’ll have to ask Rudy about those reports.” He hooked a thumb behind him in the direction of the coroner’s office.

“Okay, we’ll go ask Rudy.” Iris started steering me away. “Thanks, Dougall.”

“I hope you get what you need for peace, Jordyn,” Dougall called after us. I turned and looked at him. “Such a sad thing, seeing that car in the ditch in the middle of the day like that. Seems like she’d been in a bad way.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Lou snarled. She clenched her hands into fists and stomped, and her boot collided with the wood floor, making us all jump.

Iris doubled over, pretending to cough and stomp her foot. “Ah, seasonal allergies,” she said, practically dragging me out the door. “Thanks again!”

She pulled me across the street and down a side alley, away from the prying eyes of the tourists teeming through the main square. “We are trying to prevent a malevolent spirit! Dragging Lou”—she waved at the air beside her—“around to investigate her death is only going to exacerbate the situation.”

I pointed at Lou. “She’s on your other side.” Iris opened her mouth, but I just pushed on. “I’m going on my date with Harlow tonight. We won’t have to worry about what she’ll do for much longer. It just seems weird, don’t you think?”

“I guess, but you and Lou were on the outs at the time. It’s not like she would have told you that she was planning to go on a bender and then drive into town.”

“Lou wouldn’t do that. Ever.” My voice cracked, and I looked at Lou. “Do you want me to keep digging or not?”

Lou drew her shoulders up, holding them there for a long moment before letting them drop low, defeated. It was the same shrug she’d used when she hadn’t wanted to choose what movie we watched or what pizza we ordered. Back then, her stubborn indecisiveness had been cute, now I wasn’t too sure how to feel. She’d always let me lead, and I knew this was my last chance to do something meaningful for her.

“It’s settled, then. I’m going to talk to Rudy.” I nodded to Lou, who gave me a small smile.

“I bet Dougall didn’t want to do a conclusive investigation,” Lou said.

I snorted. “That sounds like him. He’s all too familiar with doing that for missing tourists.”

Iris snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Hello! Care to clue in the living over here?”

“Sorry, I know this seems crazy to you, but I have to find out what really happened. Even if Lou passes back over after my date tonight.”

Iris sighed. “Fine. Of course, I’ll help. Not that you asked, but I’m invested now.”

“Thanks,” Lou and I said at once.

Iris and I fell into step with each other as we headed toward the coroner’s office. If we were lucky, Rudy would still be around and able to look into Lou’s files.

At the time, I’d only heard that Lou had been in a bad accident and that they’d assumed she’d been headed into town. No one had mentioned the smell of alcohol or that they’d suspected that she’d fallen asleep at the wheel. The time of death hadn’t been published in the obituary, but it had been odd that it had happened in the middle of the day but there had been no other vehicles involved. Had there been witnesses? Or perhaps someone else in the car with Lou?

Dougall not knowing much about the accident seemed off as well. He wasn’t the most intuitive guy around, but I would have thought the police department would have tried to dig a little more. Perhaps if Lou had been a tourist, it would have made sense that her accident had been brushed under the rug, but she was from Maple Hollow. Her parents had been part of the demonic council. Something wasn’t sitting right at all.

Maybe Rudy would have some answers for me. But before we could round the corner and head to his office, the café door blasted open and a woman screamed, “Help! Someone, call a doctor!”

Iris and I exchanged glances as my heartbeat kicked up to a thunderous tempo. My first thought was that I hoped it wasn’t Harlow, but I pushed that aside as Iris and I lurched into a full-out run.

10

HARLOW

Ihovered over the collapsed elderly woman as she lay flat on her back on the café floor. Her snakelike canines gleamed as her mouth opened and closed like a fish. Willow hurriedly shoved the other patrons out the door to make room for the medical emergency.

When everyone was gone, I shouted to my sister, “What is she?”