Town Haunts by Cathy Spencer Page A

the
room.
    “Sherman, your
jacket,” May called after him, snatching up his coat from the back
of a kitchen chair and hurrying to the door with it. They heard his
feet pounding down the stairs, however, and May returned still
holding the jacket.
    “He’ll miss it.
It’s cold outside,” she said, slipping it back over the chair. She
sighed. “I wish we hadn’t done that. He’s upset enough as it is.
It’s not fair, kicking a man when he’s down.”
    “I’m sorry,
May,” Erna said. “We don’t seem to have learned anything useful,
have we? Evelyn was an unhappy woman, but she didn’t seem
frightened or worried before she died.”
    Tiernay said,
“All the more reason to hold another séance.”
    “Not that
again,” May groaned.
    “Look, Evelyn
is very unhappy. If we don’t do something about it soon, things
could get pretty ugly around here.”
    “How so?” Anna
asked.
    “I can’t say
for sure,” the young woman said, “but it stands to reason. A spirit
strong enough to get past my defences wants revenge on her
murderer. If we don’t find some way of appeasing her, Evelyn may
decide to take matters into her own hands. Believe me, we don’t
want that kind of trouble. And she’ll remember us. We were the ones
at the séance. She’ll focus all her unhappiness on us.”
    May said, “You
are seriously loony tunes, Tiernay. You’ve got to stop all this
garbage about séances and leave Sherman alone. I, for one, won’t
have anything more to do with it.” She turned to Erna and Anna, her
eyes searching their faces. “What about you two?”
    Anna looked at
Tiernay. “I think we have to do what’s best for Sherman. We’ve
dredged up a lot of unhappy memories and upset him with all this
talk of Evelyn being murdered. Why don’t we just let things settle
down for a while?”
    “I didn’t think
you were a true believer,” Tiernay huffed, turning her back on Anna
to regard Erna. “What do you say, Miss Dombrosky?”
    “I’m afraid
that I agree with Anna. I’m more concerned about the needs of the
living than of the dead.” May smiled triumphantly, sure of her
friends’ support. Tiernay shook her head and got up.
    “Well, I must
say that I’m disappointed in you ladies. I thought that you wanted
to help Sherman and Evelyn, but you’re afraid to deal with the
truth. I’ve got an appointment in five minutes, so I’m leaving. You
know where to find me when things start to go wrong. And they will
go wrong, I promise you that.” She strode out of the room with her
head held high, and they heard her clatter down the outside
stairs.
    “Witch,” May
muttered.
    “Now what?”
Anna asked.
    “I think that
we should wait and see what happens next,” Erna said. “We don’t
know if Tiernay truly believes in what she says, or if she and her
brother are up to some kind of chicanery. Meanwhile, I will apprise
Steve of what’s happened so that he can keep an eye on Sherman and
the Raes’ store. We must be prepared for trouble.”
    “I agree,” May
said, “but if Tiernay and her brother are up to something, I’ll be
the first to know it. Their store is right across the street, after
all, and I’ve got binoculars.”
    “Just be
careful,” Erna said. “If you see something that worries you, don’t
try to handle it alone.”
    “You bet. I’ll
be on the phone to you and Anna right away, first trouble I see.”
But looking at the stubborn expression on her face, Anna wasn’t
sure she believed May.

Chapter
Ten
    It was Thursday night, two days
after the discussion with Tiernay and just past the supper hour.
Anyone happening to look in the window of May’s Groceries and More
would have seen May and Gerry shouting at each other beside the
produce section. Gerry, tall and sturdy with a balding, egg-shaped
head and a full beard, was waving an apple at his mother. May was
standing next to a trolley heaped with grapes, clutching a scissors
in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other.
    “Look,