Free Good Buy Girls 05 - All Sales Final by Josie Belle

was left of it.”
    “You noticed?” Sam asked in approval. “Good eye. Captain Bones it is. I’m going to call the county medical examiner in the morning and have him meet me here. There’s not much point in rousing him tonight, but I’ll stay and keep an eye on things.”
    “You’re going to stay here all alone?” Maggie asked.
    “Captain Bones will keep me company,” he said.
    “But it’s so creepy,” Maggie protested. “I don’t like the idea of you here alone at night. I’ll stay and we can take turns keeping watch.”
    “What if you see the ghost?” Sam asked. His tone was teasing but Maggie pretended it wasn’t.
    “I will scream my fool head off,” she said. “But since you’re so sure there’s no such thing as ghosts, I should be just fine and not ruin your sleep.”
    “Why do I get the feeling you’re mocking me?” he asked.
    Maggie gave him her most innocent look. He frowned. Clearly he was not buying what she was selling.
    “Come on, it’ll be fun,” she said. “Like camping out in a graveyard.”
    “I thought you were afraid,” he said.
    “That’s before I knew what we were dealing with,” Maggie said. “Obviously, our ghost is the soldier in the basement and I think if we identify him and give him a proper send-off, he will abandon the premises and our house will be all clear of spectral phenomena.”
    Sam looked at her. “You know you sound nuts, right?”
    “Listen,” Maggie said. Sam looked at her, and she shook her head. “No, not to me, listen to the house.” They both did. There was nothing but silence. “See? Since we found the body and have decided to figure out who he is, there’s been no creaking, moaning or door slamming.”
    “So, you still want to live here?” Sam asked.
    “Now more than ever,” Maggie said. “It’ll be like doing a good deed before we move in. Excellent karma.”
    “And if it was the wind?” Sam asked.
    “We’ll fix the drafts,” she said.
    Sam pulled her close, gave her a solid squeeze and kissed the top of her head.
    “All right,” he said. “You want first watch?”
    Maggie glanced around the room to where Marshall Dillon lay curled up in her sleeping bag.
    “Yeah, that sounds good,” she said.
    Sam climbed into his sleeping bag, and the cat—the traitor—got up, stretched and climbed in with him. Maggie positioned herself so she could see the cellar door. She wasn’t sure why, since Sam had blocked off the storm doors in the basement so no one could get in, and it wasn’t likely that Captain Bones was going to jog up the stairs to join them. Still, she felt better with her eyes on that door just in case.
    The mere thought of the skeleton coming upstairs made her shiver.
    “You all right?” Sam asked.
    “Just fine,” Maggie lied. “Go to sleep.”
    “Come here,” he said. He lifted his arm and pulled Maggie close. “We can do the first watch together.”
    Maggie didn’t want to admit how much better this made her feel, but it did. She wasn’t ready to face the ghost that inhabited their house by herself. And yes, even though she had told Sam she thought it was at peace now that they’d found its skeleton, she wasn’t 100% sure it wouldn’t rouse itself to scare them again. From what she’d heard and read ghosts were mercurial beings—or nonbeings as it were.
    She nestled close to Sam and listened to his heartbeat. It was slow and steady without a hint of anxiety. Before Maggie knew it, she was lulled to sleep like a puppy cozied up to the ticktock of a clock.
    *   *   *
    Morning brought the arrival of the county medical examiner along with Deputy Dot Wilson, who was Sam’s favorite St. Stanley police department employee, although he never admitted it.
    Maggie and Marshall Dillon were sitting on the back porch of the house, trying to stay out of the way, when Dot poked her head out the back door.
    “Morning, Maggie,” Dot greeted her.
    A short, well-endowed black woman with a badge, Dot walked