My Hairy Halloween (Peculiar Mysteries Book 4) Read online

  The music was playing, people were laughing and chatting, and there were haunted house noises going off every few minutes. In other words, there was nothing peaceful about tonight, but I knew what she meant. Moving from San Diego to Peculiar had been a huge shock to the system in a really great way. I wouldn’t exchange country living for a big city ever.

  Brady and Jo Jo walked in. Brady was dressed as a vampire. I wasn’t sure what Jo Jo was going for. He was wearing all leather with fake scars on his arms and a sword on his side. He wore a long wig and had let his scruff grow out a little on his face.

  “Damn, he’s hot,” Willy said.

  “He’s nineteen years-old,” I cautioned her.

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about the vamp, not the Underworld wannabe.”

  Oh. She meant Brady. “You should go talk to him.”

  She smiled. “You think?” Willy looked uncertain of herself, which seemed strange since she was usually full of bravado and confidence. “The last time we spoke, he practically bit my head off.”

  I didn’t even know she’d met Brady before. More and more interesting. “How do you know Brady?”

  “When his son disappeared, I came in to help.”

  That night. The same night the serial killer used me as bait to lure Chavvah out. “Ah. Well, he was probably trying not to drink.”

  Willy gave me a sharp look. “He said something similar.” She tapped the dimple in her chin. “Maybe I’ll just go say hi.”

  I smiled. “You do that.”

  I kept my eye out for the monsters. I saw Roger, Evelyn, and Mark, but no Tyler. As long as he wasn’t here, people were safe, right? Maybe because of his burns, he wouldn’t show up. Ruth had told me he was already home, though, and that he was eager to get back to work.

  Voices raised, and not in a celebratory way. I heard Evelyn Meyers say, “I know you had something to do with it, Sid. You and Jean are out to get me.”

  Paranoid much?

  Jean blushed with hot embarrassment, and I thought Sheriff Taylor was going to burst a blood vessel in his forehead. “You are the only one holding a grudge, Evie,” Sheriff Taylor said. “You need to watch it.”

  “Or what? You’ll put more crap on my car?” She snapped her fingers at him and hissed, her raccoon side coming out. “I’ll make you pay. I swear it.”

  I saw the old man again. The one from the courthouse lawn. He stared daggers at Evelyn, and I seconded the feeling. That woman was a menace to her family and this town.

  Jackson Smart stood nearby, sipping from a punch cup. The other kids his age were standing nearby, but they were talking around him, not to him. Roger and Karina were paired off. Kyle and Dakota. Ugh. I hoped Ruth could stem that in the bud. Ever since she and Jo Jo had broken up, she’d been hanging out with that delinquent.

  Jo Jo, like Jackson, stood off on his own. But not for long. Soon, a beautiful blonde Little Bo Peep was flirting with him. It made my heart happy. I loved that kid like a brother, and I wanted nothing but wonderful things in his life. I’d been able to give him a message from his mother before her spirit moved on, and the act had bonded me to him. I had to look out for him. I’d promised Rose Ann.

  Mark Smart, who was not dressed up at all, spoil sport, walked over to Jackson and put his arm around his son’s shoulders. Jackson moved a little away from him. Aww. I felt sorry for Mark. His son would be heading off to college soon. I didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like when Jude left the nest.

  Babe, who was dressed like Thor, yummy yummy, strolled over like a mutherfluffin’ superhero.

  “Is that a hammer in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

  He grinned. “I’m always happy to see you, darlin’.” He stooped down and kissed me like he meant it. Yowza.

  “Not fair,” I said a bit breathlessly.

  “All’s fair in love, my beautiful gypsy.”

  God, I love this man. “When I finally pop this kid out and my six weeks of post-partum crap is done, I am going to lock you in a room and do you until we are both comatose.”

  Babe laughed. “I could use a good coma vacation.”

  The old man from earlier sat on a hay bale behind Roger and Karina. “Who is that?” I asked. I pointed where he was sitting.

  “Roger Parks,” Babe said. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Not him. The old guy behind him.”

  Babe looked to where I indicated.

  “He’s sitting on the bale of hay next to the candle.”

  “I don’t see anyone, Sunny. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” He put his hand on my forehead. “You don’t feel hot, but I’m going to get the doc, anyhow. I’ll be right back.”

  Babe didn’t see him. How could he not… Oh boy. The last time I was seeing things that nobody else could was when I was haunted by my deceased brother-in-law. Could the old guy be a ghost? I could only see shifter ghosts, after all. And I hadn’t seen one since the night I helped eight people cross into the light. It had been a traumatic night all around.

  I got up and started walking toward the old man. I wanted to talk to him. If he was who I suspected he was, then maybe I could help him not to hurt anyone else.

  “Hello,” I said.

  He ignored me as if I weren’t there.

  I tried again. “Hey. Are you Donald Franks?”

  His head snapped toward me when he heard his name. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Sunny.”

  “I’ve heard of you.” He waved his hand. “Can you see me?”

  Crap. I’d found my invisible man. “Yes. I see you, Mr. Franks. I do.”

  He pointed to Jackson. “They don’t see him. He’s a good kid. He came in every week to read to me those last couple of months. He deserves better. I can feel his loneliness. His anger. He needs my help to show them.”

  “To show them what?”

  “To show them they can’t push him around.” The old man shook his head. “I was ready to go, but at my funeral, each of them went out of their way to make him feel small.” He shook his gnarled fist at Mark. “He makes Jackson feel like he can never leave Peculiar.” He gestured to Evelyn next. “She talked to him like he was lower than pond scum.” The ghost glared at Roger. “He treats Jackson like his personal lap dog. They can’t get away with it. I won’t let them. And that cop,” the ghost spat, but nothing landed, thank heavens, “he just shoved Jackson out of the way at the courthouse like he wasn’t even there.”

  I hadn’t noticed Chavvah walk up. “Who are you talking to, Sunny? Billy Bob went up to the Johnson house to help Delbert bring down a couple more bags of ice. Babe is on his way to get him. He asked me to sit with you until he gets back.”

  “Donald Franks’ ghost is keeping me company,” I said.

  “Who?”

  Franks gave her a sharp look. Great.

  “You’re hurting his feelings. He just passed away last week.”

  “Oh.” Chav was dressed as Princess Leia, with the curled buns on both sides of her head and everything.

  “You look great by the way.”

  “Thanks,” she said, her tone worried. “You too.”

  Babe and Billy Bob quickly moved through the crowd toward us. Billy Bob was dressed as Hans Solo.

  “I’ve disappeared again, haven’t I?” the ghost asked.

  “I still see you, Donald.”

  “No one called me Donald. It was Donnie. I was always Donnie.”

  I remembered his wife had passed away thirty years before him. “Aren’t you ready to see your loved ones?”

  “Soon.” He smiled. The Monster Mash began to blare through the speakers. The party crowd sent up a cheer.

  “Oh no.” Heat crept up my body. I felt a pain in my side. Cramp. No. Not this. I tried to stand, but it was difficult.

  “Sunny!” Babe’s voice was sharp with alarm.

  “Get everyone out,” I said through clenched teeth. “I can’t stop him.”

  Tyler Thompson came into
the barn just as I heard the lyrics “graveyard smash.” “The Wolfman,” I panted. “Have to get them all out.”

  The hay bales caught on fire, and the blaze rose unnaturally quick. There was screaming and shoving as people tried to get out of the barn. The dry straw was going up like kindling.

  On our way out, Brady was running in, Willy on his heels. “Where’s Jo Jo?”

  “I…” Underworld. The leather outfit. Jo Jo wasn’t a vampire. He was a werewolf. In the vision, the invisible man hadn’t meant to hurt the wolfman, but sometimes innocent people got caught in the crossfire. Or in this case, fire-fire. “I saw him with Little Bo Peep in the back. You have to get him. Save him.” I moaned as another cramp pinched my middle. No, no, no. I wasn’t having this baby now. Not here. Not in chaos. Not again!

  “Jolon!” Brady bellowed. Like the king and queen of the night, Brady and Willy raced toward the back of the barn.

  Babe, the doc, and Chav practically carried me out the front. I couldn’t breathe as panic welled inside me. The pain was getting worse, and Jo Jo, Willy, Bo Peep, and Brady still hadn’t come out. Most of the guests were pulling water in buckets from the Johnson’s well and trying to put out the bales of hay, but the fire seemed to keep one step ahead of them.

  “Get me Jackson Smart!”

  My husband looked at me like I was nuts.

  “Do it!” I said, sounding like the demonically possessed girl from the Exorcist. Chav put her arm around me to steady me as Babe went to get the boy.

  When he came back with him, Jackson looked as freaked out as the rest of the guests. His face was red with stress, making his white hair even whiter. “You have to make him stop,” I told the kid.

  “I… Who?”

  “Oooooo.” Another pain hit and I had to wait for it to ease. “Donald Franks.”

  “He’s dead.”

  “I know.” Gah! Explaining sucked. “His ghost is avenging you on people who treat you bad. I need you to tell him to stop.” I pointed to where Franks stood just outside the barn doors, his arms crossed as he kept the fire going despite everyone’s efforts.

  His father Mark was at his elbow. “Mrs. Trimmel can see the dead, son. I was there the last time she did it. She helped a lot of people that day. If she says she sees a ghost, you must believe her.”

  I wanted to high-five Mark for believing me without me having to dance through a bunch of hoops, but instead I cried. I couldn’t stop the tears. “Babe, I need to go to Franks. Help me. Jackson, you come with us.”

  Babe and Jackson took me to where I told the ghost stood. “Donald Frank,” I said. “I’ve brought Jackson with me. He wants to talk to you.”

  The ghost turned his attention to me, and the fire in the barn dimmed. “I’m doing this for him.” Donald Franks had passed revenge and went right into delusional.

  “He knows. But all the people you want to harm are no longer in the barn. Do you really want to take innocent lives? Jackson doesn’t want that.” I nudged Jackson. “Tell him to stop. You don’t need him to fight your battles. Tell him this isn’t what you want.”

  “I’m okay,” Jackson said, not sounding at all convinced. “You can stop now.”

  “I wished we could have finished Gulliver’s Travels,” Franks said.

  “He says he would have liked to have heard the end of Gulliver’s Travels,” I relayed.

  Jackson blanched. “Christ, he is here.”

  “I told you that.” I couldn’t keep the annoyance out of my tone, but when the ghost turned his vengeful eyes towards me, I said, “He doesn’t want to see you picked on and ignored. He’s worried people won’t see you. The way they didn’t see him.”

  “Mr. Franks. I have family that loves me, and I have good friends, even if it doesn’t seem like it. I don’t want you to hurt anyone. Not for me. Please stop.”

  Franks narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe him.”

  “He needs more convincing.” The shouts of people fighting the fire were getting louder. “Convince him.”

  “I love my dad. I’d never want to see him hurt. Ms. Meyers, Roger, and Tyler Thompson don’t mean anything in my life. If you hurt them, you are doing it for yourself, not for me. You were a nice man. Kind. You told me once that you met your wife on a hunger mission. Don’t do this. Don’t be a man she wouldn’t have wanted to know.”

  The ghost’s face crumpled. He wailed with agony at Jackson’s words. The flames in the barn shot straight up into the air and then extinguished.

  The ghost vanished.

  “I felt that,” Jackson said. “It was like air and light.”

  Babe hugged me close to his chest. “You did it, Sunny.”

  “Jo Jo?” Had I been too late? My question as answered as Willy and Brady brought out Jo Jo and his date. They were coughing up a storm, but at least they were walking on their own. “Thank heavens.” I grabbed Babe’s Thor cape and blew my nose.

  “You are so sexy right now,” he said.

  “Shut up.”

  “Are you still having pain?”

  I stopped for a moment and assessed. Nope. The pain was gone. “I’m fine now. False alarm.”

  I could feel the tension drain from my man as he squeezed me so tight… Brrrzzztttthhssssss. Brrrsss. Ssssss.

  Epilogue

  Three weeks later…Thanksgiving.

  I sat up in bed. My stomach still ached from a long night in the delivery room. Billy Bob came into the room and handed our daughter to Babe.

  “She’s so beautiful,” Babe said. He swallowed as he gazed upon her face. “A ray of sunshine, just like her mama.”

  Chavvah got in on the auntie action. “She really is gorgeous.” Chav smiled at me.

  “We’re not naming her Sunny,” I said. “Give me my baby.”

  Babe and Chav chuckled, but they handed her over. My gosh, the sun really did shine from her. “What do you think of Dawn?”

  “Because with Dawn comes the sun,” Babe said. “I think it fits. What about a middle name?”

  “Adine, I think.” I looked over at my best friend. Adine was Chavvah’s middle name. In Hebrew it meant tender. I always thought it was lovely. “Dawn Adine Trimmel.”

  “You’re going to make me cry, Sunny.”

  “Join the club,” Ruth said, as she carried Jude into the room. “Happy Thanksgiving, folks.”

  Ruth had taken Jude when my labor started. I couldn’t believe I went into labor with Jude the day before Valentine’s Day, and now with Dawn, the day before Thanksgiving. Granted, she wasn’t born until this evening. Sixteen hours of labor had pretty much convinced me that an epidural would be on the menu if we had any more children. I couldn’t even close my eyes without reliving the pain of those contractions.

  At least the horror movie visions went away when Donald Frank moved on. Jackson couldn’t believe he’d made such on impact on another person. It’s convinced him to volunteer at the senior center even though he no longer needed it for a scholarship. Willy went back home to Kansas City after that weekend, but she texted me all the time. I’m betting she’ll be back. I think our little bobcat has her eye on a particular coyote.

  Evelyn and Roger are still assholes. Have a ghost seeking revenge should have shocked them into acting right. Like when the ghosts visited Scrooge McDuck. But no such luck. If they could have figured out how to press charges against a dead guy, they would have. I had noticed Tyler had been a little less gruff, though. Maybe some good came out of the haunting prankster after all.

  Billy Bob came back in the room. “Several people in town have brought left over Thanksgiving dinner for us. You all want to eat?”

  “I’m starved,” I said. “Having a baby is hungry work.”

  Babe kissed me. It was so sweet and gentle. “I love you, Sunny.” He kissed our daughter on the forehead. “You did so good.”

  “Yeah?” I looked down at Dawn. “We really did.”

  The End

  Find out what happened before this story


  with Sunny and Babe,

  and Chav and the Doc in:

  You’ve Got Tail (Peculiar Mysteries Book One)

  My Furry Valentine (Peculiar “In Between” 1.5)

  Thank You For Not Shifting (Peculiar Mysteries Book Two)

  www.peculiarmysteries.com

  Also by Renee George

  More Peculiar Mysteries

  You’ve Got Tail (Peculiar Mysteries Book One)

  My Furry Valeninte (Peculiar Novella 1.5)

  Thank You For Not Shifting (Peculiar Mysteries Book Two)

  www.peculiarmysteries.com

  Barkside of the Moon Mysteries

  www.barksideofthemoonmysteries.com

  Magic and Mayhem: Witchin’ Impossible Mysteries

  http://www.romance-the-night.com/magicandmayhem/

  Midnight Shifters Series (Urban Fantasy)

  www.midnightshifters.com

  The Cull Series (Paranormal Romance)

  www.ozarkshifters.com

  The Lion King Series (Paranormal Romance)

  www.lionkingshifters.com

  About the Author

  Renee George is a USA Today Bestselling author of urban fantasy, paranormal romance, erotic romance, contemporary romance, and romantic comedies that highlight varying themes. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, man-child son, two sweet dogs, and a senile cat.

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