Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin Read Free Book Online Page A

coming out there?”
    “I don’t know. But I think she’s hoping you can make her problem stop.”
    “Why not just return all the items?” I said, cringing as I spoke. That would be a big hit to this month’s revenue. Bye-bye eating out; hello macaroni and cheese for supper. Every night.
    “She likes the items,” Debra replied. “She would just like the bad ghosts that came with them to leave her alone.”
    “I promised her that I would come, and I’ll be there,” I said. “But I’m not sure what I can do other than remove the items. We could offer her store credit.” At least store credit wouldn’t take money out of my bank account.
    “Keep that as Plan B.” Debra was beginning to sound perkier. “I’m glad you’re taking this seriously.
    Good luck going out there.”
    I didn’t doubt that the ghosts were real. I figured I’d need all the good luck I could get. “Thanks. I’ll let you know what we come up with.”
    I hung up the phone and stared into space for a moment, trying to figure out how the shipment for Rebecca had gone so wrong. Then I realized that Teag was standing in front of me, snapping his fingers, waiting for me to come back to myself. “Cassidy? Are you in there? Yoo-hoo, Cassidy?” He was grinning, but I could see the concern in his eyes.
    “Rebecca must really be freaked out to have gotten Debra that upset.” I pushed the list of items toward Teag, and he frowned as he examined them.
    “None of these were spookies,” he said, glancing down the list. “I remember selling these to Debra. I packed them myself. You and Sorren had already been through them and cleared them.”
    I chewed on my lip as I thought. “Do you remember where any of the pieces came from? Did they all come from the same seller?”
    “I’ll check the records, but I don’t think so. I know that the vase came from an estate sale, and the lamp was from a nice couple who downsized to a smaller house. I’ll see what I can find out about the others.” He headed off like a man on a mission.
    I went to the back and poured myself another cup of coffee, thinking as I added the creamer and stirred it into the dark liquid. Somehow, perfectly normal items were turning into ghost-attracting menaces. Someone had mailed us a ring from a man who had been gruesomely murdered. Shadow men were turning up outside old houses. This sort of thing just wasn’t normal, even for us, and we stretched the definition of normal way beyond the limits of the dictionary.
    It’s just like with the opera glasses , I thought. Almost as if something activated their spookiness like turning on a light switch. But how? I went back through the list Debra had shared with me, wondering how such normal pieces could possibly generate a dangerous supernatural vibe.
    A tea set? Well maybe, if the previous owner had choked to death on a scone. I remembered at least one of the vases Debra had bought. If someone had used the vase as a murder weapon, it would have shattered, so that was out. I came up with even fewer ideas for the lamp, and none at all for the picture frame .
    One of the items on the list was a mirror. I’d heard of haunted mirrors, and they seemed to have a reputation for being especially nasty. By the time I considered the linens I was getting a little punchy from the stress and the caffeine. We didn’t sell blood-stained sheets, so I pictured a particularly hideous tablecloth my grandmother had always used for holiday gatherings. Remembering its ugly awesomeness made me chuckle. Memorable, but hardly haunted.
    “Glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor,” Teag said from the doorway. “Something you want to share?”
    I giggled. After all the stress, laughter felt good. “Just trying to figure out the mystery of the terrible tablecloth,” I said. I told him about my grandmother’s grapevine monstrosity.
    Teag just shook his head. “I guess you had to be there.”
    “Oh, come on! Don’t tell me your family