"I wonder if you could help me out." DeeDee Robertson smiled at the pretty girl sitting behind the solitary desk at the Schuyler Square Times.
"It's my lunch hour," the girl replied without looking up from a copy of Cosmopolitan. "Come back at one."
"Is there someone else I could speak with?" DeeDee asked. "The editor, perhaps?"
The girl lifted her head with a deep sigh. "You're looking at her. Please tell me you're here with a juicy story. I'm absolutely desperate for news. Our page one story at the moment is a shoe sale at Payless. Yawn."
DeeDee wanted to ask why, if she was so desperate, the girl was sitting on her duff reading a trashy magazine instead of out hunting for a news story but she bit her tongue. Alienating the press was never a good idea. "My name is DeeDee Robertson. My husband Steve and I are about to move into a house where a murder took place about ten years ago--"
The brunette's eyes lit up. "I take it you're talking about Mary Austin? You're moving into her house? What about Veronica Chandler? Are you kicking her out? Are you and your husband ghost hunters or just kind of freaky?"
The smile faded from DeeDee's face. "Neither. We inherited the house."
"Who left you that house?"
"Ron Schuyler."
Mindy practically leaped over her desk. "Come in, DeeDee, and have a seat. I'm sorry if I seemed a little abrupt but it's been a long day." Mindy laughed. "Make that a long week. Running this paper is quite the challenge and sometimes it gets to me."
"I understand," DeeDee said. She did understand. Her job used to get to her too--although she'd never take it out on a customer. Not having to go to work every day was going to be one of the best things about moving into their new house. Without a mortgage payment they'd be able to make it on Steve's pension. Which was why she had to get this whole ghost nonsense straightened out. DeeDee most definitely did not want to spend her golden years with a ghost.
"All right," Mindy said as soon as the two were settled at rickety table covered with sticky rings from countless glasses of Coke and cups of coffee. "How can I help you?"
"Steve and I are wondering what happened to Mary Austin. I don't mean to sound gruesome but I need to know a few things before I can be comfortable in that house."
"Of course! I'll tell you what I know: Mary was strangled in the living room."
"That's all you know?"
"Pretty much. I dug up the stories and read them a little while ago and that seems to be the sum of what happened. No suspects other than her estranged husband and no motive. Just a good, old-fashioned murder."
DeeDee felt sick when she thought about someone's life getting snuffed out in front of that darling brick fireplace. "What about the ghost? Who's reported seeing her?"
"Just about everyone in town. Always the same thing. People are walking past Mary's house and they see her standing in that bay window. I've never seen her myself but plenty of other people have."
"And no one knows what happened to her husband?"
"The police think he took off for Spain." Mindy leaned forward and spoke confidentially. "Personally, I have my doubts. I think someone else might have done Mary in. She had quite the reputation around town according to my sources. There were several men who might have been happy to finish her off."
"Do you suppose you could help me figure out who did kill her?" DeeDee asked.
"Why?"
"So her soul can rest in peace and so I can move into that house without being afraid of bumping into her every time I pull the curtains in that damn bay window!"
Mindy considered. "I'll help you out if you'll met me write about it in the paper."
"I don't know--"
"Oh, come on! It would make a great story."
"I'll have to talk it over with Steve."
Mindy sighed deeply. "You do that and let me know what you decide. But you're going to need help, DeeDee. You'll never be able to figure out a cold case like Mary Austin's murder without some local assistance."
DeeDee got to her feet. She wasn't sure if she wanted to work with Mindy. Mindy was so...young. And obnoxious. Maybe she'd try to figure it out herself first and see what happened. "I'll let you know," she promised.
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