Free Grave Doubts (A Paranormal Mystery Novel) by LYNN BOHART Page B

bird on
the carpet, to the chipped piece in her hand. Was there a connection?  As she
studied the broken piece of urn, something else caught her attention.
    The area rug
was out of place.
    Why hadn’t she
noticed it before?  The rug usually sat in between the fireplace and the coffee
table − not underneath the coffee table. Lee’s head riveted back and
forth from the coffee table to the fireplace, calculating distances. The carpet
had been moved a good three feet. She picked up her purse and all of its
contents and placed it on a side table along with the piece of porcelain. Then
she pulled the marble-topped coffee table away from the sofa and lifted the
entire corner of the rug. She couldn’t control the small cry that escaped her
lips. There was a fresh gouge in the perfectly polished hardwood floor, almost
exactly where the porcelain had been held prisoner by the rug’s fibers. Lee
leaned over and stuck her finger into the indentation, as if the jagged edges
might tell her a story. The question was − did the broken vase have
something to do with Diane’s death?  And if so, what could Lee do with this new
piece of information?
    She replaced
everything and picked up her purse, dropping the piece of porcelain into her
pocket. Then she reached for the camera and the bird, convinced now that something
besides suicide had taken Diane’s life. Finally, she grabbed her coat off the
back of a chair and started for the door.
    She had just
stepped into the entryway when something dark flashed past the large mirror on
the wall, making Lee nearly jump out of her skin. When a second image flitted
past her right shoulder, she spun in a circle, dropped her purse and ran for
the meat skewer. She grabbed it off the coffee table and backed up to the
fireplace, shaking with fear.
    Seconds passed
and nothing else happened. No sound. No movement. Her heart raced, drumming an
incessant beat in her ears. With faltering footsteps, she finally inched
forward and peeked around the corner of the sofa into the entryway. She
expected someone to jump out from around the corner, but what she saw made her
dizzy instead, and she dropped her defensive stance in shock.
    Lying on the
carpet, just in front of the mirror, was a long dark feather.

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Adrenalin
propelled Lee home in a blur. She couldn’t remember leaving the condo or
getting into her car. She couldn’t even remember finding her car keys. Her
heart was still racing, and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. By the time
she entered the area surrounding the campus, she felt completely frayed at the
edges.
    She was
positive she’d left the onyx bird on her vanity at home. Yet, somehow it had
shown up on Diane’s floor, one eye glinting in the low light. She was just as
positive her purse hadn’t fallen to the floor all by itself. And the feather
hadn’t been anywhere in the house when she’d arrived. So, what the hell had
happened?  There were only two explanations. Either someone had been in the
condo with her all along, or…or…what? What was the second explanation?
    With a sudden
twist of the steering wheel, she swerved to the curb and stopped. A big truck
rumbled past, throwing rainwater against the car as she put on the emergency
brake. She sat with her head resting on the steering wheel for a full minute.
Eventually, the adrenalin pumping through her veins began to slow, and she sat
back.
    Privately, Lee had
always accepted the possibility that there were things no one could
explain. But she couldn’t say exactly that she believed in the paranormal. In
fact, she’d attended a party once at an abandoned house in college that was
reportedly haunted, and spent the entire night flinching like a school girl at
suspicious noises. So, if ghosts were real, she knew she didn’t have the
stomach for them. Faced now with something that could only be described as ab normal,
she wondered if she was going nuts. She had no idea how to explain anything
that had just