Read Online The Ghost and the Femme Fatale by Alice Kimberly - Free Book Online Page B

“You’re heading to the home of the melt- in- your- mouth bear claw? Treat me and I’ll help you out.”
    “It’s a deal!”
    I opened the trunk so Seymour could stash his mail. Then we set off down Cranberry Street toward the busy bakery. All along the main street, the faux antique Victorian streetlamps were festooned with posters advertising the movie festival’s films. Many featured the voluptuous form of the young Hedda Geist,
    star of Wrong Turn , Man Trap , Bad to the Bone , Cruel and Unusual , and Tight Spot .
    “Did you go to the lawn party at the Finch Inn last night?” I asked Seymour.
    “You bet,” he replied. “I never miss a chance to goad Fiona Finch. Did you see the way she and Barney renovated that miniature storm tower she calls a light house? I told her I liked it better when it was painted Day- Glo orange and covered with graffiti—”
    “Oh, come on. I haven’t seen it yet, but it can’t be that bad. And who needs graffiti? It’s just an eyesore.”
    “Hey, you can learn a lot from reading that stuff. Archaeologists search for Roman graffiti just to get a feel for what the common people were thinking.”
    “But that’s history—”
    “Yeah, and I learned the romantic history of Quindicott High School from that old tower, before Fiona defaced it. By the way, do you happen to know anything about a girl named Brenda? She’d probably be in her midtwenties by now, and—” Seymour stopped in his tracks. His slightly bulging eyes bulged a little wider.
    I followed his gaze to the front of Mr. Koh’s grocery store, where a beautiful young blonde was selecting fresh fruit from the store’s wooden bins. I recognized her immediately.
    “That girl,” I whispered, “she was with Hedda Geist last night. Do you know who she is?”
    “Her name’s Harmony Middleton,” Seymour informed me. “She’s Hedda’s granddaughter.”
    The girl wore a hot pink tank top over white, very short shorts, and a young man in jeans and a rock band T-shirt was obviously flirting with her. I recognized the shaggy dark hair and the shamrock forearm tattoo. It was Dixon Gallagher, one of Bud Napp’s part- time employees at the hardware store, and I wondered if Bud had used him on the final fix- it work he’d done for Brainert’s theater.
    A roaring engine suddenly shattered the quiet on Cranberry. I turned to see a black- and- chrome motorcycle pulling up to the Koh’s fruit stand. The rider was a big guy, wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket. Without pulling off his ebony helmet, or lifting its tinted visor, he grabbed a drink from the outdoor refrigerator. Then he turned to observe Harmony and sauntered over to her. He finally pulled off his helmet. but I couldn’t see the blond man’s face. I could tell he was making some kind of joke, purposefully finding a way to join the conversation. Harmony laughed and smiled at him, pushing his beefy arm playfully while Dixon smirked and folded his own tattooed arms tightly.
    Seymour shook his head. “Like moths to flame.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “That same little scene got played at least ten times at last night’s lawn party—except with different players.”
    “What do you mean exactly?”
    I’ll tell you what the postman’s saying, Jack piped up in my head. Harmony just might be a chippy off the old block .
    “Excuse me?”
    She wears skirts that defy gravity. She buys underwear with loose elastic. In other words, she’s a real —
    “Okay, okay!” I told the ghost. “I get it!”
    “That girl not only resembles her granny,” Seymour said, “she attracts male admirers the way Hedda did back in the day. And let me tell you, the wolf pack was circling Harmony for hours—much to Hedda’s chagrin.”
    “Oh, really? Hedda didn’t like it?”
    “As soon as Harmony started flirting with the young men at the party, Hedda had some trivial reason to call the girl over and order her around. It seemed pretty obvious she didn’t like