Free Janet McNulty - Mellow Summers 07 - Two Ghosts Haunt a Grove by Janet McNulty

snatched them from me, “It would be best if I am caught with them and not you. Now go home.”
    Infuriated, I stomped out of his office. Why didn’t anyone believe me? Kyle was a sleeze. I needed answers. I needed—
    My phone rang.
    “Mel,” said Jack on the other end when I answered.
    “Yes?”
    “I know you’re here at the station. Come down to my office. I have something to show you.”
    He hung up. I glanced behind me. Detective Shorts watched me carefully as though he knew what I was up to. Quickly, I turned back around and marched out of the area and into the main lobby. Once the door had shut behind me I headed for the stairs and to the basement where Jack’s office was. Curiosity really took hold of me. Jack rarely called with information. Usually I had to twist his arm to get his help.
    He waited impatiently for me when I walked in. “Shut the door.”
    I did.
    “What’s up?”
    “Well, since the other night when I went ghost hunting with you guys I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. So I looked up the transference of deeds for the Joseph Bourtonson’s place. The county owned it before Philip Kellmore bought it. He had received the deed last month.”
    “I’m not seeing a connection,” I said.
    “On the surface there isn’t any. But then I delved into the dispute filed by Stacy Kellmore against her brother Kyle. The dispute is not over the inheritance like the paper portrays, but over the Bourtonson property itself. Only the property.”
    “Yeah,” I said, “I was up with Detective Shorts over a copy of an updated will by Philip Kellmore. But it wasn’t signed.”
    “Updated will?”
    “According to it, the property was to be divided between the siblings.”
    “That would fit the dispute. She claims her rights to it were violated. Anyway, there is Philip’s sister, Alicia Kellmore. She is basically the matron of the family and runs everything, especially now that Phillip is dead.”
    “How does this tie into the Bourtonson place?”
    “According to Philip Kellmore’s credit card statement, he gassed up at the Last Stop once a day for the last week.”
    The Last Stop was a small, family owned gas station about halfway between here and the Bourtonson estate. “Not unusual if you’re planning to develop the property.”
    “Except he rarely visited his developments, especially to this extreme. And these stops were all done at around 2 in the morning.”
    Okay, now that was odd and Jack had my attention. “Two in the morning? What was he doing there at two in the morning?”
    “Good question,” said Jack. “And he had gone there the night before he died.”
    “And talked to me.”
    “I told you I had something.”
    “Jack, do you think Mr. Kellmore stumbled upon something? I mean something illegal, not a ghost.”
    “It’s possible.”
    “Pot farm?”
    “No,” said Jack, shaking his head. “College kids go up there all the time and plant a few, but no one bothers doing an entire farm there.”
    “I wonder what it was and would have been worth killing for. Is there a way to make someone with a heart condition have a heart attack?”
    “Plenty,” said Jack, “I knew a guy with a bad heart. The slightest scare would have triggered an attack. Philip Kellmore was old and known to have a bad heart. His constant trips up to that place and the stress at work wouldn’t have helped. So he may have seen something that scared the hell out of him, I’d say it’s possible.”
    “Like if he was a big believer in the ghost legends and then thought he saw it.”
    “Possible,” said Jack, “Anyway, I’ll keep digging and let you know what I find.”
    “Thanks.”
    I left his office and headed for the exit. Once outside, I yanked out my phone. Thanks to Detective Shorts, I now knew where Stacy lived. I dialed Greg first.
    “Hello?”
    “Greg, you off work?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Meet me at my place in twenty minutes.”
    “Why?”
    “Just do it.”
    I hung up and dialed