The Ghost in Mr. Pepper's Bed Read online

  “Percy?”

  “That’s my name,” came a chirpy reply and a head popped up as well. “Ah! Deputy Kirchner, I’ll bet you’re here to have your teeth cleaned.”

  Percy gave Tommy a brilliantly toothy grin while tilting his head to one side in a gesture of assessment. The smile was excited yet disconcerting at the same time. With a fluidity of movements, Percy was up and hustling Tommy to the back.

  “Wait,” the deputy tried to slow Percy’s train down, “I’m not having my teeth cleaned for another four months, I think. Anyway…that’s not why I’m here.”

  The thin, lanky man-bun-wearing receptionist ignored Tommy’s protests and pointed to the dentist’s chair as he rattled around in the cabinets.

  “Honey, I’m just doing my job. I was told Laney would be doing a cleaning on you this afternoon.” He turned to face Tommy and in a low whisper with eyebrows highly elevated for effect, “Dr. D’s idea. It’s a little test, if you know what I mean.”

  Percy leaned back with one hand resting on his hip and lowered one eyebrow while leaving the other arched and his mouth pursed.

  “Decisions, decisions, deputy. Personally, I’d get in the chair and pray she didn’t find anything disgusting in there.” Percy pointed with his thumb in the direction of the hallway and whispered, “That man is tricky. It’s his way or the highway, guarantee you that.”

  Tommy assumed the position in the chair and let Percy wrap a bib around his neck. This time the poster was of a dancing white tooth holding a toothbrush and wearing a dress. Trying not to feel or look ridiculous, Tommy waited for Laney to come in.

  It was her laughter he heard first. An involuntary smile broke across his face at the sound of it. Full of melody and mirthful rolling notes, the laugh was a contagious one, making those who heard it, or maybe shared in it, feel a sense of joy. While they’d been in school, everyone had loved and courted Laney’s laugh.

  “Tommy!” she exclaimed coming around in front of him. She reached down and gave him a warm hug. “It’s so good to see you. I know we live in the same town, but I truly haven’t seen you since graduation. Looks like you’ve been busy.” Smiling, she reached down and lightly touched the badge above his left chest pocket.

  He’d been so taken by her entrance and her devastating beauty, that, for a moment, he didn’t answer her. If it was possible for a woman to radiate sweetness, Laney did. A fierce truth suddenly struck him. He loved her and he always had. How could a man ever treat her cruelly or indifferently? Her ex-husband must have been a soulless brute.

  She blinked waiting for his response.

  “I’ve been busy,” was all he was able to say in return.

  Laney smiled softly. She fingered the kiddy bib lying across his chest. “Yes, I can see that and it looks good on you.”

  “The bib?”

  “No, the uniform under it.”

  He couldn’t think of anything to say back. His mind reeled for a minute.

  “Are you really going to clean my teeth?” he asked with a half chuckle.

  “Yep, I am.”

  She’d already sat down behind him and lowered him into position. Reaching up, she flicked on the overhead light and said, “Open up and let’s see what Dr. Dempster was talking about when he said your mother would be mad as a hornet.”

  “Tammbee…” he said, trying to say her name, but her metal tools were already tapping around inside his mouth.

  “Hmmm, yes, let’s get you fixed up, and afterwards, we can take a look at those forensic files.”

  Twenty minutes later, after his teeth were cleaned and they’d laughed about the silly antics of their teenage years, Tommy followed Laney back to her office where all the dental records were kept.

  “I’ve been going through the files to narrow down women who would have been customers in the age group you gave Dr. D. yesterday,” Laney said, reaching down below her desk and pulling up a stack of about five manila folders.

  “The woman would have been approximately thirty years of age at death.” Tommy pulled the forensic report out and showed Laney the details of the skeleton’s upper and lower jaw. Multiple radiographs, or X-rays, showed different angles of the upper and lower rows of teeth.

  “Do you see this?” she said pointing to one of the postmortem X-rays of the upper jawbone. “It shows that this person had a crown on her first upper right molar. Also, down on the lower jaw on this X-ray, you see that the back two molars on the lower left have filings. All we need to do is go through our list of possibilities to make the match.”

  “Who do you have fitting the time frame?” Tommy asked.

  “Age was my first criteria. The women had to be between twenty-five and thirty years of age one to two years ago. That actually gave me twenty-seven women initially. Then I removed those women I was certain were alive, deceased or had moved.”

  “How did you account for the ones who’d moved?” Tommy asked.

  “Once I removed the living and the deceased, I telephoned the others. There were four left to find. I was able to speak with three of the women who had moved while one had died in a car accident and was buried. Her family members attended her funeral.”

  “Are you certain? Were you able to find a death certificate?”

  “Oh yes, and once those four were removed from the pile, that left these three. I couldn’t find information on them. They are Rose Turner, Poppy Turner, and Autumn Campbell.”

  “Rose Turner is supposed to be living in Australia. I’ll check on her, but what about Autumn Campbell? Any ideas on her?” Tommy asked.

  “Autumn is in the Army and it’s like pulling teeth to get confirmation from the United States military. That’s going to take some time. Her family moved years ago. I think Autumn’s case, Tommy, is in your wheelhouse of expertise. The Army will want official documentation. But, look at this. I don’t think you need to worry much about Autumn, because if we compare the radiographs of Poppy Turner at twenty-five and the radiographs from your forensic report, you’ll see they are an exact match!”

  They studied the four sets of radiographs on the light board and without a doubt, there was the crown on the first upper right molar and the two fillings on the bottom back left two molars.

  “If that isn’t enough proof, this X-ray shows something particular to Poppy. The front two teeth are slightly separated like the ones in Poppy’s premortem X-rays. If you asked some people who knew her, and maybe Dr. D. will remember, they might know if she did have a gap between her two front teeth.”

  Tommy gave Laney an admiring grin. “You would make an incredible detective. You’ve done some great work here.”

  “It’s been fun, actually. I liked narrowing down the field of possibilities. I’ve always wanted to go back to school.”

  Tommy jumped on her idea with enthusiasm. “You should. Maybe forensic dentistry. It would be tough, but you were always a good student in school. It shouldn’t be too hard for someone like you.”

  Laney looked at him with an odd expression on her face.

  “What is it? Did I say something wrong?” he asked concerned he’d stuck his foot in his mouth accidentally.

  “You thought I was smart in school?” she asked with a perplexed look.

  He stared at her for a second, not sure where the conversation was going, but he nodded in the affirmative and answered, “Yeah, Laney, you always made good grades, and look at you now, running this entire office. You’ve definitely got the intellectual and organizational chops to handle college.”

  Laney kept looking through the files, her mood appearing distracted.

  “Tommy,” she said, looking at him with eyes that had known mistrust and deep hurt, “do you mean what you said? Dr. D. is always telling me I should go back to school, but he’s like a dad to me, so I thought he was just being sweet.”

  “Why have you forgotten about how well you did in school, Laney?”

  It took a few moments, but when she did speak, it was with uncertainty.

>   “My husband, Jacob, was…well he did a number on my confidence. We were married a few years, but it took three of those years to finally get the courage to leave him.”

  She shivered.

  “Let’s not talk about it anymore,” Laney said with a smile. “It’s been so nice seeing you and remembering old times.”

  Tommy knew the kind of man Jacob was. One who liked to demoralize women and make them feel worthless because he hated himself so much. Working domestic violence cases, at least one a month, had taught Tommy that brutes like Jacob were a dime a dozen.

  “Hey,” he said softly and waited for her to look up into his eyes. “You can do anything you put your mind to, Laney Bodwell, anything. As for Jacob, I feel sorry for him.”

  She smiled and asked, “Why do you feel sorry for that jerk?”

  Tommy probably blushed when he answered, but it would prove to be the second best four words he would ever utter in his life.

  “Because he lost you.”

  Sonya never missed the mark on the loves and losses in the lives of the humans she knew. That day, for some reason, the universe wanted Tommy Kirchner to fall in love, get a new dog and give both of those souls a chance at a better future. Some days are good that way.

  Chapter 22

  The rainstorm was a gentle summer affair with no strong gusts or sharp rips of lightning to split the nighttime sky. Evening had come and occasionally, a soft rumbling rolled across the valley, giving everyone who heard it a tug on their deepest senses of what it meant to be a creature that lived on this mysterious, beautiful planet.

  Sonya donned her canary yellow raincoat and red rubber boots. Grabbing both an umbrella and some pepper spray, she headed for the garage to get her green 1959 Morris Minor. Not exactly the most trustworthy machine, it would do the trick when wet weather threatened. Willard was going as well, but he had to stay in the car. His bath was still fresh and Sonya hoped he’d stay mud-free for at least forty-eight hours.

  “It’s just you and me, Willy. Fritz is trying to work things out with his wife, so we don’t have backup. We’re off to go see Ryan Houseman about Poppy. She needs to see him, even though it might put me in some trouble with the sheriff.”

  Willard was delighted by this proposal because, like most dogs, he loved going somewhere in the car. Sonya had picked up the keys with the red dangling toy bus indicating her solid intent that they were traveling by enclosed vehicle. This also meant they would stop and get ice cream at the Dairyette at some point in the trip. Willard practically pranced out to the car.

  It was a short trip to Ryan Houseman’s tractor dealership. The streetlights of Willow Valley were alight and made a soft, yellow glare through the Morris’ rain-soaked windshield. Not having the best pair of windshield wipers made the going slow, but at last, she pulled the car into Houseman’s Tractor, Inc. The exterior lights were not on, causing Sonya to fear everyone had left for the evening, but on closer inspection, she saw a large pickup truck parked alongside the building giving her a ray of hope.

  As she stopped her car, Willard whined softly.

  “None of that, Willy. After we’ve finished with our job tonight, we can get our ice cream treat.”

  Something down inside of Sonya wavered as she turned off the motor. Ryan Houseman didn’t know her at all. He would probably think she was a nutty lady if she went in there and told him a story about séances and affectionate ghosts who had lost their way. It might get dicey, for sure.

  Taking herself in hand, Sonya got out of the car. It wouldn’t hurt to try. Sticking her neck out had landed her in trouble before. But, Poppy needed help. If Houseman told her to get lost, so be it, she’d find another way.

  “Be good, Willard,” she said to his intelligent, upturned face. He settled back down on his blanket in a position that told her he understood. With the door shut and the umbrella opened, Sonya went up to the main entrance. Best to be direct, she thought.

  Upon stepping up to the massive glass windows that flanked one entire side of the showroom, Sonya saw a long, tall reception desk and behind it, barely visible from the top, was a man’s head. The head moved, occasionally, as if in a reading motion or working on a computer. As Sonya got closer, a motion detector must have picked up her movements turning on a bright light directly above the entrance doors.

  Like it or not, she’d been seen. There was no going back. A nice-looking man in his early thirties stood up from the desk with a questioning expression.

  Sonya smiled confidently and raised her hand in a gesture of greeting. The man waved awkwardly and returned a weak smile. He moved hesitantly from behind the reception desk and walked through the showroom toward her. As he reached the glass doors where she stood, he scanned the parking lot.

  Without unlocking the door, he called through the glass, “How may I help you?”

  Sonya took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Houseman?”

  The man’s forehead furrowed and his eyes squinted, but he answered, “Yes.”

  “Ryan Houseman?” Sonya said, realizing she hadn’t made sure he didn’t have a brother or another Houseman family member who might work here as well.

  “I’m Ryan Houseman. Is there something I can help you with?”

  He continued to stare at her uncertainly.

  Sonya spoke loudly. “My name is Sonya Caruthers and…well…I need to talk with you about Poppy Turner.”

  She saw that her last two words had stunned him. He’d had his hand on the door, but at her mentioning of Poppy’s name, he drew back like the glass was hot to the touch and shook his head.

  “Don’t come around here, ma’am, saying that name unless you’re here to tell me she’s alive.”

  Sonya’s heart dropped into her stomach. She saw the pain in his eyes. To make this action of hers right, she had to keep pushing forward.

  “Ryan, I’m sorry, but I need to talk with you. If you won’t open the door, please come to my home where we can discuss what’s happened to Poppy. I live at 3 Pickwick Street.”

  Taking one of her cards from her coat pocket, she slid it through the gap between the two doors. He took the card and looked at it. Reaching up, he flipped the lock and opened the door.

  “Please come in, Mrs. Caruthers. I guess whatever it is you have to say, can’t hurt. Come on over to my desk, and have a seat.”

  She followed him back to where he’d been before and they sat down across from each other. He gave her an uncertain smile as if to say, “Well?” Sonya jumped in with her best approach.

  “Ryan, the other day you may have heard that a body was found in a half-dug pit at The Whispering Pines RV Park. On that same day, one of the residents there was awakened by an unusual experience. His name was Mr. Saul Pepper and, though you may find this hard to believe, it was a spirit of a woman who did the waking.”

  No movement from Ryan, but Sonya knew from his expression, he regretted letting her in the door. She hurried on with her tale.

  “I know you’re thinking that I’m a loony, but this spirit introduced herself on the next day as Poppy.”

  Ryan sat motionless. After a few seconds, he ran his hands through his hair. Sonya continued, “I believe it was Poppy Turner, and she has asked to see you.”

  Sonya waited. Ryan studied her with narrowed eyes for a long moment as if he smelled something bad. His nostrils flared, and he shook his head slowly.

  “This is crazy. Lady, I don’t know whether to ask you to leave or call the hospital to have them come pick you up. As for using Poppy Turner’s name to get in here tonight, you better hope this hasn’t been a ploy by you or someone else to break in here.”

  He reached down under his desk and pulled out a gun, laying it on his desk.

  At the revelation of the gun, Sonya took a deep breath. It was time to pull off the kid gloves. She had one trick up her sleeve, but if it didn’t work, she’d have to hightail it out of Ryan Houseman’s office and pray she didn’t get a visit from Sheriff Walker tonight.

  �
�Poppy misses you and she wants to see you one last time. She loves you and she said to say ‘Monkey Face’ so you would believe me.”

  As she said it, she leaned back in her seat with raised eyebrows. All her hopes depended on that endearment hitting the mark. It had been a fib, of course, because Poppy never had told her, but the pet name had been mentioned twice, once by Mr. Pepper and once during the séance. Sonya kept her fingers crossed.

  Ryan stood up out of his seat and bellowed, “How in the hell, did you get that…that…name!”

  In an effort to stay calm in the face of the blast, Sonya responded in a firm tone. “I didn’t. It was what the spirit whispered to Mr. Pepper on the morning it woke him. A terrible row ensued immediately after because Mr. Pepper’s wife was horribly annoyed that Poppy was…well,” Sonya tried her best to not make Poppy look like a tart, “confused about where she was and with whom. Poppy, herself, called for ‘monkey face’ during the séance along with your name, so if you’re Ryan ‘monkey face’ Houseman, I have the right person.”

  Still on his feet, Ryan prowled like an angry lion back and forth behind his desk shooting rather hostile looks in Sonya’s direction. “Ma’am, no one, and I do mean no one, knew that name. Did Pepper’s wife call him that?”

  “Absolutely not,” Sonya replied. “Mr. Pepper hates monkeys.”

  Resuming his seat, Ryan glared at her from across his desk. “Are you telling me Poppy is dead?”

  “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, Ryan. Poppy is dead,” Sonya said softly, but then quickly added, “Only in the physical sense is she gone. Her spirit is very much alive.”

  No one spoke. On the highway outside Houseman’s Tractor Inc., cars and semi-trucks made a lonely whooshing sound as they passed. For what seemed like an eternity to Sonya, she waited to see if he would listen. Ryan finally let out a sigh.

  “If she’s dead, it’s almost a relief. I’m not saying I believe you,” he threw his hands up in the air in a gesture of incredulity at the insanity of the situation, “and I happen to hate monkeys, too. Poppy loved them, so I let her call me that.”