Little Ghost Lost (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 5) by J.D. Winters Page A

and held it up. We gaped at each other.  
    “What the heck?”
    “This isn’t old,” I pointed out needlessly. “In fact, I’d say someone bought it at Victoria’s Secret last week or so.”
    Jill nodded, eyes sparkling. “Do ghosts wear sexy lingerie?” she asked.
    “Not that I’ve ever noticed.” I threw the item back into the drier and closed the door. “I have a feeling this belongs to a real live woman. But who?”
    “There’s no heir to the property, right? Didn’t old man Pennington give it to the city?”
    I nodded. “The strange thing is, Celinda told me that her husband thought he should be the heir.”
    “That man who was just murdered?”
    “Right. He claimed to be Pennington’s illegitimate child. He even went to court, but his case was dismissed or denied or something like that. So I guess that will no longer be an issue.”
    “Unless Celinda decides to fight for it.”
    We looked at each other and both sighed at the same time.  
    “I wonder if she’s back yet,” I said.
    “Was she planning to come back today?”
    “I don’t know. Actually, I doubt it. She was talking like this was going to be a whole weekend worth of selling art stuff for her.”
      “Poor thing. Can you imagine? Coming home from something like that to find that your husband has been killed in your own living room.”
    “Library,” I corrected.
    “Library,” she repeated with a shrug. “It must be a shock. Unless of course she did it.”
    My jaw dropped. “What are you saying? She was in Cambria.”
    “Was she?” Jill gave me a wise look. “You’ve taught me enough about this murder business to know you can’t count on surface evidence.”
    And you know what? She was right.  
    But I didn’t want to think about that. I was going to have nothing to do with this little murder. Let someone else take the bit and run with it. Not me. It was none of my business.
    “Bite your tongue,” I told her. “We’re not involved and that’s the way I hope it will stay.”
    “I’m just sayin’,” she said with a sassy smile.  
    I rolled my eyes. “Let’s go upstairs,” I said, remembering the bedroom that had looked like it was currently being used by someone. Which was odd. No one else was supposed to have keys to this house. “I think I may know where our negligee-wearing bimbo spends her nights.”
    We turned to go up and something flashed by, almost like a butterfly sailing through the air, leaving a shiver behind. My breath caught in my throat and I gasped softly. I knew my holiday from ghosts was probably over.  
    “What is it?” Jill said. To my surprise, she seemed to be completely attuned to my reactions.  
    “Did you see that?” I asked her warily.  
    “No. But I saw you.” She grabbed my arm. “You saw something didn’t you?”
    I managed a smile and shook my head. “No, it was nothing,” I lied.  
    She didn’t buy it but she wasn’t going to push me, not yet anyway.  
    “Are we going upstairs?”
    I hesitated. I had an impulse to call it a day and get out of there, but that would be silly. I would just have to come back again later. I might as well get this inspection finished while I had a chance of doing it with Jill by my side.  
    “Sure,” I said. “Let’s go.”
    We went. From the look of things, most of the bedrooms had been emptied out long ago—all except for a couple just off the landing, including the one that looked as though someone had slept there lately. We wandered down the hall and into one empty room after another, not talking much.  
    Finally, she turned and looked at me. “Is this the floor you fell from?”
    I nodded.
    “Which room?”
    I took her into it and gestured toward the still-open door to the balcony. You could see where the railing had bent and crumbled. My heart beat faster just looking at it.  
    “Don’t go out there. In fact, we should board the doorway up so no one else goes out there.”
    “Good plan.”
    We stared at the balcony