The Girl with the Uninvited Ghost: Pandemonium Cozy Mystery #1

Chapter 9

Mahogany entered Hot Brews, ordered an iced chai, and sat pondering her predicament with Guy when Evelina took an empty seat at the table when her shift ended.

"How's your cute ghost?" Evelina asked, eying the empty chair at the table.

"He's not mine, and he's not cute," Mahogany answered. She took a noisy sip of her chai, the ice clinking against the glass.

"Hey! I am too cute. I was dating a young lady from here before my murder, by the way. Karrie Samuels. Do you know her? Her brother hated me," Guy said. He stared pensively into the distance, his eyes misting over. "Karrie might have been the one."

Mahogany buried her face in her hands and groaned.

"I can see I did the right thing in poking around," Evelina said, pressing her lips into a line.

"Poking around what?" Mahogany said from behind her hands.

"I did some research on how to get rid of ghosts. There are two main ways to send murdered apparitions to the other side." Evelina shifted in her seat to better face Mahogany.

"I'm listening." Mahogany peeked through her fingers.

"The first is banishment, which doesn't send them to the other side but dissipates their soul through the cosmos." Evelina rolled her hands in front of her, as a magician would before pulling a rabbit from their hat.

Guy's mouth dropped open, and what little color his pasty, translucent skin held drained from his face.

"Tempting." Mahogany glared at Guy from behind her fingers.

"That method," Evelina continued, "takes a year to complete."

"A year?" Mahogany almost shouted, slapping her hands on the table. Several customers glanced in their direction. "What's the other way?"

"Solve the ghost's murder." Evelina scrunched her face apologetically.

Guy held his hands out. "I've been saying it since day one."

Mahogany shook her head, pink curls bouncing. "I don't know the first thing about solving murders."

"Sure you do," Evelina said, giving Mahogany a soft shove in the shoulder. "We used to watch all those detective shows as kids. We're already armchair mystery-solving pros. We just need to translate all we've learned from TV to real life."

"We?" Mahogany raised an eyebrow. "I remember sneaking away, but I was alone."

Evelina shook her head. "I followed you. Didn't you know?" She tapped her lip, her eyes distant. "All this time, I figured you knew I was there."

Mahogany was silent for almost a minute, considering Evelina's words. "No, I had no idea. You followed me?"

"Well, yes and no. I wanted to see what you were doing. You were much more interesting than the other kids at those boring Guild meetings." Evelina brushed the words away like they didn't mean anything.

"Oh, well, thank you for the offer, but this is my problem. I can take care of it on my own," Mahogany said, her head reeling. She'd never known that Evelina found her interesting. Most of the kids in Pandemonium had bullied her. Taking the lead from their parents, where humans were considered less than magical Folk and not deserving of respect.

Evelina crossed her arms. Her eyebrows arched high on her forehead, and her bow-shaped mouth puckered. "There is no way I'll let you do this alone. It's way too massive. An out-of-town wizard and his apprentice get murdered at a rental in Pandemonium? And my best friend almost gets killed as collateral damage?" She shook her head. "No way. I'm in for the long haul."