A Dastardly Death in Hillbilly Hollow (Ozark Ghost Hunter Mysteries Book 3) Read online

  “Did I wake you?” he asked as soon as I answered.

  “No – I was just about to go to bed,” I replied. “Everything okay? You ran out of the restaurant in such a hurry.”

  “Can you come outside?” he asked.

  “You’re at my house?”

  “Yeah, I’m parked around the side. Meet me in the old spot?” he replied. When we were kids, he would always sit on a huge rock that sat around the side of the back porch closest to his house, waiting for me to come outside.

  “Be right there.” I pulled on my muck boots, went downstairs, and carefully shut the kitchen door behind me as I stepped outside so it wouldn’t slam and wake my grandparents. Snowball reluctantly hopped up from her peaceful slumber to follow me outside.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, worried by this time, when I saw Billy.

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” Billy said, reaching up and putting his hand on my shoulder. “Emma, it’s Prudence Huffler. Margene called Tucker out to Prudence’s house this evening. The call I got was from him.” He took a deep sigh, shaking his head, and continued, his voice deep and serious. “Emma, she tried to kill herself tonight.”

  “What!” I couldn’t believe it. Prudence had been in a really dark place after Preacher Jacob had died, but she had seemed so much happier recently. “How? What happened?”

  “Margene stopped by to bring her something she had baked for her, and she didn’t answer the door. Margene used her key and let herself in, and found Prudence in bed, unresponsive. She called Tucker, and he called me from his car on the way. We arrived about the same time. She was still alive – barely – so we had the ambulance take her over to the county hospital.”

  “I don’t understand.” I didn’t realize until that moment that tears were spilling from my eyes. Prudence and I weren’t that close, but she was so young and I couldn’t imagine her finding herself in such a dark place that she felt there was no hope. My mind flashed to how happy she had looked when I had seen her in the dress shop just days before. Could she really have just snapped? I had to wonder.

  “She had taken some sleeping pills. I had given her a prescription for something really mild after Preacher Jacob died, but this was stronger – filled by an online pharmacy. I have no idea why she’d need those now. Anyway, she had obviously taken a lot of them. They pumped her stomach at the hospital, but I just – I don’t know if she’ll make it.” He slumped down and sat on the edge of the porch, elbows on his knees, running his hands through his hair.

  I sat down beside him and wrapped an arm around his back. “Billy, you couldn’t have known. I know you did everything you could to help her – you’re a good doctor,” I reassured him.

  “I just can’t believe that I would be so out of touch…that one of my patients – someone I’ve known for so long, could be in such a bad place and I just didn’t see it.” He shook his head back and forth.

  “You said they pumped her stomach at the hospital. Maybe she’ll pull through. She’s young…healthy,” I offered, trying to help him feel better.

  “Emma…” He paused, then turned to face me. “She’s in a coma. The odds of her coming back from that aren’t great.”

  Chapter 7

  After Billy left, I sat for a while and thought about Prudence. I couldn’t believe she would go so far as to try and take her own life. She may not have found the love she was looking for, and I knew she had been really down when Preacher Jacob spurned her advances, then died before she could try to change his mind. Still, she loved playing the organ at the church. She volunteered for several local charities, and was secretary of the Mount Olivet Church Historical Preservation Society. She had worked tirelessly to get the building on the Missouri list of registered historic places, and had finally succeeded. The early nineteenth century building was finally going to receive its official plaque, and be listed on the state guide to historic places. Now, it looked like she might not live to see her work come to fruition.

  After tossing and turning for a while, I must have finally been so exhausted that I drifted off to sleep. It wasn’t the crows that woke me the next morning, or one of Grandma’s rooftop serenades. Instead, it was the sound of my normally calm sidekick, Snowball, bleating. I opened my eyes to find her on my bed, her nose inches from mine, as she bleated at the top of her little lungs. Having never awakened to the smell of goat breath, it is an experience I would highly discourage anyone from trying.

  “What is your problem? And get your dirty hooves off my bed!” I gave her a nudge with my forearm and she jumped down. Still, she wouldn’t stop crying. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, cross-legged in my bed. “Seriously, what is…” I stopped short when I looked at the foot of my bed.

  Prudence Huffler was sitting on the edge of my bed, knees together, both palms in her lap, just as she did in church.

  “Hello, Emma,” Prudence said cheerfully.

  I gasped. “Prudence!” I shook my head as if to make sure I was really awake. “Oh no, Prudence, no! You didn’t make it?” I asked, tears starting to form in my eyes.

  “Didn’t make what?” Prudence asked, cocking her head to the side. When I had seen ghosts before, they had always been ethereal, diaphanous, and their appearance seemed tenuous. Prudence, though, did not look like the other spirits I had seen. She was almost translucent, but her color was vivid. She wore long-sleeved flannel pajamas with matching long pants. They were baby blue, and had a pattern of pianos all over them. Her brown hair looked the same color it always had, and the green of her eyes was a vivid emerald.

  “Prudence, I don’t know how to tell you this…” I had never before had to break the news to a spirit that they had passed on. I didn’t know what effect it would have on her. “You were in the hospital, in a coma. You-you tried to end your life, Prudence, and if I can see you, that means, well, I’m afraid you’ve passed on. I’m so, so sorry!”

  Prudence laughed, a small but hearty laugh with a little pig-snort at the end. Even in death the poor girl was not smooth.

  “No, Emma! I’m not dead!”

  “What? But….I can see you. You have to be dead,” I replied, growing more confused. I wondered if she was in some sort of ghostly denial.

  “No!” She waved her hand back and forth dismissively. “I’m in a coma. I was in the hospital, and everyone was making such a fuss over me. Dr. Will was there, and Tucker, and some nurses, and some doctor from the hospital was talking to Dr. Will. All of a sudden, it got really, really quiet. Then I heard a voice calling my name, so I got up and started walking toward it. I went out into the hall, and there was this bright light behind the door at the end, and that sounded like where the voice was coming from.”

  Prudence’s story reminded me of those shows Grandma watched about people who had been to the brink of death, and lived to tell the tale.

  “Anyway, as I got to the door, it sounded like my Granny Alene, but she’s been dead since I was in high school, so I knew it couldn’t be her. There was another hallway right before the doorway, and I walked down it instead. The next thing I knew, I was in your front yard, so I thought I’d come talk to you,” Prudence said.

  “Oh…okay.” Most of the spirits who had visited me had a particular purpose. I wasn’t sure how to make small talk with someone from the other side. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

  “Well, when I was in my room, I heard Dr. Will say that I had taken some pills and tried to kill myself. I know you and he are close, so I wanted you to talk to him for me,” she said.

  “You did take pills, Prudence. You did try to kill yourself,” I responded.

  “No, Emma, I didn’t! I would never kill myself. I don’t know what happened. I remember eating steak earlier that night, then I got a phone call, and remember when I hung up I had a terrible headache. I don’t remember a thing after that until I was in the hospital,” she said, shaking her head, her brow furrowed. “You’ve gotta help me, Emma! I can’t have people thinking I hurt myself. Especially Mama – she
’ll be devastated!”

  “Okay, Prudence. I’ll see what I can do to help. I can’t exactly tell people we’ve talked though, unless I want to end up in the loony bin. You don’t remember who you were with that night? Is there someone who might try to hurt you at all?” I asked.

  Her brow still furrowed and her face bearing more concern, she shook her head again. “No. I have no idea who would want to hurt me.”

  Suddenly, Prudence disappeared and reappeared once, then again, like the picture on a television when the power surges. “What’s happening?” I asked her, unsure if she would know any more than I did.

  “I don’t know. I feel strange.” Her expression turned to one of someone who looks like they’re about to be sick. “I think I have to go back, Emma. Please, just do whatever you can to find out what happened. Don’t let Mama believe a lie about me. You’re the only one who can help!”

  “I’ll try, Prudence, I promise,” I said. I started to reach out my hand to pat her arm, and realized I couldn’t.

  “Thank you, Emma! Thank you so –,” and with that, she disappeared.

  I had a lot to do before I met Suzy at the florist, so I got dressed, and met Grandpa at the barn, where he was putting hay in the feeder racks. When it got really cold, the goats would eat hay instead of grazing in the snow-covered pastures, and they, along with other small livestock, would sleep in the barn where they could stay warmer. I had forgotten how much preparation it took to get the farm ready for winter. With Suzy’s wedding just days away, and my new task of finding out what had happened to Prudence, my to-do list was overflowing.

  Around six-thirty, I texted Billy. He opened the clinic at eight, but I knew he got up early every day to work out and go for a run.

  ME: Hi. U get any rest?

  BILLY: A little. Sorry I woke you.

  ME: Don’t apologize! all 4 1. I’ll always b here 4 u.

  BILLY: Thanks Emma

  ME: Any update on Prudence?

  BILLY: Just called hospital again. No change.

  ME: Ok keep me posted. Wedding duty with suzy today. Text or call if u need us.

  I finished with the hay, and Grandpa and I raked out the pig pen, and fed all the animals. I had to get ready quickly, having agreed to meet Suzy at her shop by eleven.

  I stopped for coffee on the way, and gave the iced caramel one to Phoebe when I got to Posh Closet. “Thanks, Emma!” she said enthusiastically when she realized I’d remembered to include her. “Suzy’s in the back.”

  I walked into the stock room, and went to Suzy’s cozy little office in the back. “Wow, you’re cutting it close,” she said as soon as I walked in. “But, you brought coffee, so we’re good.” She grabbed a cup from the carrier and took a sip. “Emma, I’m not trying to be mean, but you kinda look like death warmed over this morning. You okay?” She was examining the dark circles that I knew were under my eyes.

  “I had a late night and an early morning. Billy stopped by. We were up until after midnight.” I sighed and heaved my shoulders, feeling the weight of my lack of sleep from the night before.

  “Really?” Suzy asked, arching an eyebrow. “Is that a fact? Tell me everything and don’t leave out one single detail.” She put her elbow on the desk and propped her chin on her palm. I gave her a serious look and her demeanor changed to one full of concern. “Oh, sugar! You’re not even playing, are you? What in the world happened?”

  “Remember when we were having dinner last night and he got a call and had to rush out? He called me around eleven and said he was at my place and could we talk. I came outside and he gave me such awful news.” I closed my eyes for a moment thinking of our conversation. “Suz, Prudence Huffler is in the hospital. She overdosed on pills and is in a coma.”

  “What? Emma, that’s awful!” Her face was full of disbelief. “When did this happen?”

  “It must’ve been late yesterday afternoon. Margene went to her house, and when Prudence didn’t answer, she let herself in and found her in her bed. I can’t believe it. It’s terrible!”

  “So,” Suzy asked, “does Billy think she tried to hurt herself?”

  “That’s what he said it looked like, but I don’t believe it. Remember? I saw her at the dress shop the other day when we were there for our dresses. She looked so happy, Suz! I can’t believe she’d hurt herself,” I said. Of course, I knew, from Prudence’s early morning visit that she had not tried to commit suicide like people thought. I just couldn’t tell Suzy about that. Seeing ghosts was bad enough, but if I tried to explain that coma patients were also able to disembody their spirits to visit me, it would be too much for anyone to believe.

  “Sorry to share such bad news when we’re in the midst of celebrating such a happy week for you,” I said, realizing what a downer the whole situation was.

  “No, I’m glad you told me. I’d feel like a total jerk if I’d been walking around oblivious. Let’s just hope, and pray, that everything works out okay and she recovers. Miracles do happen, after all. Look what happened to you. That taxi that hit you in New York could’ve killed you, and instead, the accident brought you back to us, in a way.” She gave me a sweet smile, and hugged me.

  “You’re right. We can’t know what will happen. Let’s go concentrate on something happy, okay?” I said, mustering a smile.

  We went over to the florist to confirm the flower deliveries for the wedding, along with the flower selections for Suzy’s bouquet, the bridesmaids’ bouquets, and the boutonnieres for the guys. Suzy had chosen white roses with little embellishments of navy here and there. The clusters would be held with wide navy ribbon, topped by a narrow silver ribbon. The mockup the florist showed us looked beautiful.

  As Suzy finalized the deliveries for the church and the reception, I went back to the cashier stand. I had decided to order some flowers to be sent to Prudence in the hospital. If, by some miracle, she did wake up, at least she would know people had been thinking of her, and I knew it would make Margene happy to feel like people cared about Prudence.

  I decided on a bouquet of pink, purple, and yellow assorted flowers as the most cheerful choice. The clerk took my information, and Prudence’s name as well. As she wrote in the delivery book, I noticed something unusual. There, just before my name on the page, someone else had requested a delivery for Prudence’s hospital room. I didn’t immediately recognize the name, so I squinted to make out the handwriting. Peter Snipes. I didn’t know him, but there was a Snipes Funeral Home in town. I wondered if he was any relation to Mr. Snipes, who I had always known. I never knew him to have any children, though, so perhaps it was coincidence.

  I wondered why this Peter Snipes, whoever he was, would be sending flowers to Prudence in the hospital. News always travels fast in a small town, but I couldn’t believe so many people would even know what had happened to Prudence already. I pretended to be texting, and made a note of the name in my phone so I could look for some information on the mystery man later.

  Suzy and I picked up our dresses and ran a few more errands around town before she dropped me off at her shop to pick up my truck. My ghostly visit from Prudence was gnawing at me, and I wanted to help her, if I could. I decided to go pay Tucker a visit and see what information, if any, I could get out of him.

  Chapter 8

  I swung by Sweet Adeline’s and bought a couple dozen of their jumbo cookies to take to the Sheriff’s office. I opened the box of treats to the deputy behind the desk, and asked to see Tucker. He grabbed a jumbo cookie and said, “Sure! He’s in – just go on back.”

  I tapped the door frame lightly before walking into Tucker’s office. “Hi Tuck, got a sec?” I asked.

  “Hi, Emma. Sure, come on in,” he replied, removing his feet from the spot on his desk where they had been parked, and taking on a more professional, police-like demeanor.

  “I brought you and the guys something from the bakery. I understand it was a long night, and thought you could use the sugar,” I said as I put the box of cookies on his desk.<
br />
  He tipped the front of the lid up with his fingertip and peered inside. “Mm, snickerdoodle! My favorite! Thanks, Emma. That was awfully nice of you.”

  “Listen, I heard about what happened with Prudence. I just can’t believe…” I paused, realizing that Tucker had no idea if Prudence and I were close or not. Maybe I could talk him into letting me into her house to look around. “I can’t believe she wouldn’t have told me she was in such a bad way.”

  “You two were close, then?” he asked.

  “Well, yes. I mean, after Preacher Jacob died, I reached out to Prudence. I felt so bad for her, and wanted to help. I feel like I’ve just spoken to her, really.” Okay, that part was not a lie, at least. I had just spoken to her, I just couldn’t tell him that.

  “I’m so sorry, Emma. I had no idea.” He stood and came around to my side of the desk. He had his thumb tucked into his gun belt, and put his other arm lightly around my shoulder, patting me reassuringly. He really was a good guy, and cared about the people of our little town. I almost felt bad for tricking him, but I needed information, and I needed it fast if I was going to figure out what happened to Prudence.

  “Things like this…” He shook his head. “They’re just so senseless. I wish I could do or say something that would help, I really do.”

  “Well, maybe…” I paused for a moment, then continued. “I mean, I’m sure you can’t – it’s probably against all sorts of rules.”

  “Well, tell me what you’re thinkin’ and I can make that call myself.” His dark blonde brows furrowed over deep blue eyes. Even when he was thoughtful or serious, he looked just a little bit like a cartoon superhero.

  “Well, I was wondering…if I could just swing by her place, maybe I could get an idea why she was in such a bad place that night. It might help me, I don’t know, deal with things better. But, I don’t know, you probably locked up after you were there, and I’m sure there’s some rule or something. I don’t want you getting in trouble on my account,” I said.