Chapter Thirteen
Callie
It was clear from Trey’s expression that he was just as shocked and unsettled by the waves of fragrance that now permeated Callie’s bedroom as she was.
Like the other ladies of her generation, Khaki had insisted on wearing her signature scent whenever she left the house.
And in a profession where she was encouraged not to wear perfume because she worked with the public, Callie had sometimes envied the older woman the ability to do as she pleased when it came to such things.
But because the older woman’s choice of perfume had been one of the first things they’d chatted about, Callie knew exactly what the perfume was called—White Linen by Estée Lauder—and she knew that not only had she, Callie, never owned any, she’d certainly never sprayed any in this suite.
“Has someone been in my room?” she demanded as she crossed to the French doors that led out onto a small balcony overlooking the bay, and threw them open.
By now she’d fully cat-proofed the area so she had no fear of Stella escaping, and though it was warm out, the fresh air off the water helped clear the painfully familiar scent of Khaki’s perfume from her senses.
Tears had sprung into her eyes by the time Trey stepped up beside her and placed a steadying hand on her back. Callie knew he’d been just as overwhelmed by the memories his great-aunt’s favorite scent had invoked as she had.
“You OK?” he asked, genuine concern in his voice. He returned her nod. “I’m sorry I pushed at you. I was just so—overwhelmed by it. For a split second I thought, oh good, Khaki’s here. I can show her what I did in the kitchen.”
Callie wiped at her eyes with her left hand and reached out to grab his left hand with her right.
She knew exactly what he meant because she’d felt something similar.
Every time she ran across a review of a book she thought Khaki might like, or thought of the name of a new author to give to a room in the inn, she had to remind herself that her dear friend was gone.
“Who would be so cruel?” she asked, staring out at the bay and watching as sailboats and various other watercraft came and went from the marina and families with small children, teenagers, and groups of young women walked along the boardwalk into town.
“Clearly this … a-hole as you would call him”—his voice held a hint of reluctant amusement mixed with the anger he clearly felt about the situation—“this a-hole decided that the Halloween sounds and destruction of property weren’t getting his message across.”
“But what is the message?” Callie asked, wishing that screaming out the question would do something besides make her hoarse.
“Are they trying to make us think Khaki is haunting the place now? Because I’m not any more convinced that ghosts are real than I was that first night with the howling cat sounds. ”
“What I want to know is how they did it,” Trey said through clenched teeth. “Because I thought changing the locks had done the trick, but clearly that was a delusion on my part.”
“I thought that had fixed things too,” Callie admitted with a sigh. “I guess if you’re deluded, so am I.”
Just then, she realized that she was still holding his hand. It had been so comfortable and natural, she hadn’t even thought beyond the comfort it gave.
She was wondering how to extricate her hand from his when he must have noticed it as well, because Trey let go of her hand like it was made of fire.
“Sorry about that,” he said, stepping away a little and giving her a sheepish smile. “I guess we were both a little more upset about that than we realized.”
Callie gave a nervous laugh. “I guess so. But just so you know, you did make me feel better.”
He gave her a searching look. “I did?” There was something almost wistful about his question. But surely, she was imagining that.
“Well, anyway, maybe we should see if we can figure out how they did do it.” Callie was starting to get angry about the invasion of her room now and needed some answers.
“Because I don’t mind telling you I don’t relish the idea of sleeping in my room when at any minute this creep might start pumping whatever scent he chooses in here.
’Cause it’s clear he wasn’t in here with a bottle of White Linen spraying away while I was bandaging your scratch. ”
Trey nodded. “Yeah, let’s see if we can figure out where it was coming from.”
It only took them about five minutes to find the customizable scent diffusers that had been plugged into three of Callie’s five outlets.
And by looking up the brand name of the scent receptacles online, they’d discovered not only that the scent bottles could be filled with whatever perfume the user chose, but they could also be programmed to go off at specific times.
“Man, technology has been this guy’s friend at every turn.
” Trey scowled looking at the laptop screen from where he sat beside Callie on her bed.
“Doesn’t anybody ever worry about all of these gadgets being able to connect to the internet?
Or eavesdrop on your every conversation? It’s creepy as heck.”
Callie agreed, though on this one point, she could reassure him.
“These particular diffusers don’t connect to the web.
Though there are some that do. And can even be controlled from your phone.
I guess we should feel lucky that our particular ghost didn’t want to shell out for the super-fancy ones. ”
“I guess so,” he said with a sigh. “But with no connection to a phone or the web there’s no way we can trace this back to the trickster.”
“Yeah,” Callie said with a smile. “I doubt we can convince Alex to shell out for DNA testing on our evidence.”
“Doubtful,” Trey agreed. “The way I hear it there’s a backlog already, so I doubt we’d be at the front of the line anyway.”
They were both quiet for a moment, as if they were each trying to decide what to say next.
Then, he gave her that crinkly eyed smile that made her tummy flip, and Callie was suddenly all too aware that they were sitting extra close to each other on her bed. “Thanks for tending my wounds, ma’am. I’ll try not to get on Stella’s bad side again so we don’t make a habit of this.”
He lifted his arm where the bandage was like a beacon against the tanned skin of his forearm.
“I regret to inform you that it doesn’t take getting on Stella’s bad side for her to attack.” She lifted her own arm and showed him the crisscross of scratches just below her elbow. “She attacks because she loves.”
To Callie’s surprise, he bent his head to look more closely at her cat-inflicted injuries.
When she felt his lips touch her skin, she felt a shiver run through her.
She was so startled by the connection that she must have made a noise because he looked up at her, and for a moment, they just stared at each other as the air between them grew more charged.
He’d just leaned toward her and lifted a hand to touch her face, when a familiar voice sounded from the foyer at the other end of the hall. “Trey! Callie!” Tricia sounded as if she was on the move and coming their way.
Leaning forward to touch his forehead to hers, Trey said softly, “Hold that thought.”
Then he stepped back and Callie ran her sweaty palms over the legs of her shorts and stood up. As they walked out into the hall, she saw that Tricia and Bobby were coming toward them from the direction of the lobby.
“It was awfully quiet in here,” Tricia said with a pointed glance from Callie to Trey and back again.
“My cat, Stella, scratched him,” Callie said with a gesture to Trey’s bandaged arm. “I was making sure he doesn’t die of sepsis.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
Bobby hid a laugh behind his fist. “We thought we’d come see if Callie would be interested in a sunset cruise.
The bachelorette party we had scheduled got canceled because they all got food poisoning, so we’ve got an empty spot.
And with the Fourth coming up in a couple of days, this’ll probably be the last chance to go out with us until later in the month. ”
Callie made a sympathetic sound. “That poor bridal party; what an awful time to get food poisoning,” she said. “Though I guess there’s not ever really a good time for it.”
“Truth,” said Tricia. “But the sunset boat rides are a lot of fun. And since you’d be going, I’d come too. It’ll be like a double date.”
Beside her, Callie felt Trey stiffen. “Oh no,” they both said at almost the same moment.
“We’re not—”
“We just—”
“Anyway,” Bobby said with a remarkably straight face, “if you’re interested, we shove off in a half hour.”
Callie felt all eyes on her. Deciding it sounded like a fun time, she gave a nod. “I’d love to. Thanks for the invite.”
“Excellent,” Bobby said, clapping his hands together. “You wanna come help me get the boat ready?”
This last question he directed to Trey, who agreed, and soon they were headed back toward the other end of the hall.
Once they were gone, Tricia turned and slipped her arm through Callie’s.
“You don’t have to tell me. But I would really love to know, for science, what Bobby and I just interrupted.
Because I swear to the Lord above, there was enough electricity coming off the two of you to light up the island’s power grid. ”