Page 3 of Guy
The two of them got the house that they’d grown up in, and she was thrilled for them.Having her own home, it was nice to know that they’d not be taking hers.She hoped so anyway.They weren’t left any money, and that was all right too.It was Margaret who asked her how much the policy wasthat she’d gotten from their mom.
“She was my mom too, you know.”Margaret scoffed at her and told her that they’d say if she was her mom or not.That must have made better sense in her head because it meant nothing to her when she said it.“It was enough that I don’t have to worry about taxes for a while.”And that’s all she told them.
“I was going to have a fit if you got the bigger house.We wouldn’t even all fit in that little one that you grew up in.”She said it was perfect for her.“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?Well, so long as you don’t try to take it from us, I don’t care where you live.But that insurance policy needs to be divided up five ways.Shawn and I should get twice as much as you do because they were both our parents.”
“No, I don’t think so.She left that to me.And I’m going to keep all of it.As I said, it’s not all that much, and it will go a long way in keeping me in my house.Besides, I think my dad left you two some money too.”She said he did her too.“Well, he was my dad before he was yours, so that makes sense.”
After they left with the deed to the house, she decided to wait until they were gone for a little while before venturing out on the streets.She wanted to go and see her home as it was hers now, but was afraid that they’d follow her and do something terrible to it.It would be like them to tear up her home instead of theirs just because they could.
“Ms.Gross, you have a phone call.”She said she didn’t know who could be calling her as she had a cell phone.“I don’t know, but he told me to tell you it was Guy.”
“Oh.”Going to the phone, she said her name when she picked it up.Guy was talking to someone else, so she waited.She could have sworn that he called someone Belinda, but was sure she just heard that wrong.When he got on the phone with her, finally, she wondered why on earth he could be calling her.
“Shawn and Margaret are planning to ambush you when you go to your place.”She asked him how he knew that.“I just do, all right?They want the money from the check.They really couldn’t care less if it’s ten dollars or ten million, they feel that you owe it to them for getting it, and they didn’t.”
“You have to tell me how you know this and how you know my mom.She’s been gone for a while, and since I’m sure you didn’t know her as a kid, you have to tell me.”He said she’d not believe him.“Mister, I’m pretty open-minded and will believe most anything.Even if you were to tell me that she’s a ghost and she’s haunting you.”
He didn’t say a word.His end of the conversation was so quiet that she had to look at the phone to see if she was connected.Asking him if he was still there, he told her that he was and that he did see her as a ghost.
“I don’t believe you.”He laughed.It was a bitter laugh, too, that hurt her heart to hear it.“Who would believe you can see ghosts.No one does.”
“My niece does, and she helps them.Several weeks ago, I was hit in the head and nearly killed by a human.I’m a shifter wolf.I don’t suppose you believe in those either, do you?”She said she knew some shifters.“So you’ll believe a man turns into a wolf, but not one that can see your dead mother.If it helps you at all, I’m going to help solve her murder, too.I believe I can do it.”
“They did it.Just like they killed my dad, Shawn and Margaret did it.I don’t know how, and I have no proof, but as sure as I’m sitting here, they killed them both off.”He told her he was sorry.“Not as sorry as they’ll be when I get it figured out.”
“I can help you.”She asked him why he’d do that.“As I said, your mother is a friend of mine now, and she’s been keeping me company.”
“Because you can see her ghost.”It wasn’t a question, but he answered it anyway.“I don’t want to believe you, but I feel that you’re telling me the truth.I mean, why would you lie to me about seeing her?You have nothing to gain.”
“You have nothing I want either.Not your money nor your house.I have that and a house.”He was sort of rude, and she asked him what that was about.“I don’t like people.They’re rude most of the time and don’t understand when someone is rude back to them.Hang on a minute.Your mom is goingto see if they’re still at your home.By the way, she said not to go to the bank either.They’ll catch you there for sure.That’s a wonderful idea.Belinda said to use some of the money you got for a security system.Don’t get yourself dead before you can enjoy your home.”
Yes, he was a rude shit.
Chapter 2
Belinda didn’t like that the kids were still hanging out at Amber’s place.They were in their new car, she wondered how they could afford that—and watching the house while they got food delivered to them.They were a pair, the two of them.
She thought about how Amber said that they’d killed her.She didn’t know how, but she thought that they had.They had killed their father, too, she’d said.Thinking about the night that she’d been killed, she no more knew what had killed her than what she had explained to Guy.
Coming out of the car when it had been nasty cold, Belinda had thought that she’d fallen.Hit her head on the cold ground and died.But the police report said that it was more than likely a baseball bat that had hit her, and the blunt force trauma had busted her head wide open, and she had bled out.Guy had gotten all kinds of paperwork from the police, but none of it pointed to a murder.He was also writing about her death.
Guy had been writing books since he was twelve years old.He had all kinds of pieces of paper in a box where he had kept all his ideas for his first book.His family didn’t know that he wrote, and he didn’t want them to know, but she thought it was neat how he’d just sit down at the computer and write and write for days without stopping.Then he’d get up, eat something, and go back at it.She wouldn’t tell him this, of course, but she thought it was wonderful how he did it.Just typing whatever he wanted to the paper and going on to the story.There was also the way he was filling out the house that they shared.
It wasn’t small, the house.It had five bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, as well as a media room—the one he used for his office, as well as a living room, den, dining room, and the nicest kitchen that she’d ever been in.There were other rooms, too, ones that she had no name for, but he would get a few boxes in, put together whatever was in them, and then put it in a room.She liked, too, that he broke down his boxes so they weren’t a mess around the house.Guy also kept a neat house.Never anything out of place or in the way.
“This report here says that you were robbed, too.The store you were in said that you paid cash for your groceries and had a good deal left over.But your wallet was empty, as were your pockets.”He looked at her when she came into the room.It still startled her when someone would look directly at her these days.“Do you remember going into the store at all?You said you were getting out of the car to go in, but according to this, you’d already been in there.”
“I think I was going back in.I seem to remember not having any ice cream and wanting to go back in and get it.It used to be my one treat I’d give myself.”She asked him the name of the grocery store.He told her.“I remember that now.It’s been so very long that I’d forgotten that.Mr.Smithies Grocery had just about anything you’d want for being a small place.”
She could tell that he didn’t care.Guy would be stubborn about things and rude the rest of the time.She thought that he was lonely rather than just rude, but that was just her.He wasn’t just nasty to her but to anyone who came by.But for the little girls that she’d seen.Selma and Harley.
Selma could see ghosts because she’d been shot in the head by her father.It wasn’t an accident like she thought, but he’d shot her on purpose.Killing her because her momma loved her was a sorry excuse.Harley had been shot, too, but not as life-threateningly as Selma had been.She’d been able to see ghosts since then.Belinda worried about her at first, dealing with the dead, but Harley was her protector, and that made them a good team in working together.They were beautiful, too, just like their father.
All the Frazier men were beautiful.She supposed they’d be called handsome, but she thought that the way they looked was just too beautiful to ignore.Their dark curly hair and their strong musclesmade them eye candy too, she’d thought that she heard them called.Whatever they were, she’d loved to have been around when they were turning into men instead of children when she’d been old enough to date them.
Guy, unlike his brothers, wasn’t as outgoing.He would sit in his house all day at the computer and write.They loved to get out and do things.It wasn’t as if he never left the house; he did on occasion, but for the most part, he’d write all day or tinker around the house on one of his many household projects.
“You never answered me about your husband.Did you want me to see what I can find out about his death?Do you want me to get a death certificate too?”She said that she’d never thought of him being murdered, but now that it was out there, she wanted to see.“What are the details surrounding his death?Do you know?”
