Ghost Writer - Pandora Pine Page 0,57

for him to be this nervous. “Are things going well in your marriage?”

Gasping, Cope admitted that was the last question he thought he’d hear out of Jude’s mouth. “Why on Earth would you ask that?” Cope hissed.

“Peg?” Jude asked. He kept his attention on the woman in front of them. She looked as if she were about to have a nervous breakdown.

“How did you know?” Peg’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“You cheated on Marc with another woman, didn’t you?” Again, Jude’s voice was soft, filled with empathy.

“Jesus Christ, Jude,” Cope muttered. What the hell was going on here and why the hell did Jude think it had something to do with a lesbian affair?

“I did.” Pulling her hand back from Cope, Peg lowered her head.

Jude reached out for Peg’s hand. “Hey, there’s no shame here. You’re talking with two gay men in a shop filled with a shit-ton of other gay men. Gay is busting out all over the place in this shop. Being gay or bi isn’t the point.”

“What is the point?” Peg dried her eyes with a bakery napkin.

“Did the haunting start after your first lesbian interlude?”

Interlude? Who the hell was the man sitting next to him? If the situation weren’t so serious, Cope would have burst out laughing at Jude’s word choice.

Peg’s eyes widened. “That same night. I’d been with Maddie at her house. I felt lower than mud when I got home that night. Marc doesn’t understand me. He never has.” Peg shrugged. “I don’t even know why I married him, I’m the one with the money.”

“Same!” Jude snorted.

Cope laughed, thankful the mood in the room had been lightened.

“I thought I was going batshit crazy later that night when the knocking started. I figured it was some weird figment of my imagination.” Peg’s color was starting to come back, making her look like a new woman.

“Let me guess, the hauntings got worse every time you met with Maddie?” Jude was scribbling notes on his pad.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. How do you know all this if the ghost wouldn’t talk to you?” Peg looked back and forth between Cope and Jude. “And aren’t you the P.I.? I thought Cope was the medium.”

Cope couldn’t hide his smile. “Yeah, I thought I was the medium.”

Jude puffed out his chest. “Have you ever heard of a woman named Geneva Beecher?”

“Yes!” Peg’s eyes widened in surprise. “Isn’t she the poor girl who swan dived off the widow’s walk decades ago?”

“Right,” Jude agreed. “I’d been doing research about her before you got here. The rumors circulating at the time of her death suggested that Geneva killed herself because she’d been outed as a lesbian.”

It was Cope’s turn to feel stunned. “How do you know that? It’s not like a detail of that nature would be in public records.”

“You’re right. It wasn’t,” Jude agreed. “There’s a special website I like to visit that keeps up with local hauntings and stories about ghosts from long ago. They also have a Rumor Has It page, where you can search for names or properties and read rumors of hauntings or other happenings. There were several stories on this page intimating Geneva was gay and had been found out.”

Damn. Cope never would have guessed her sexuality was the reason Geneva made the decision to end her life. Nothing much had changed in one hundred years of LGBTQIA history. Young people were still taking their own lives because they saw no other way out. Cope took a deep breath. He needed to keep his head on straight and not let his emotions overwhelm him.

“I hate to ask, Peg, but does your husband know about the affair?” Jude’s eyes never left Peg’s.

Peg nodded miserably. “I think he wants to use it, and the haunting, to get me committed.”

“Jesus Christ.” This was exactly what Cope and Jude suspected. “Do you have someplace safe you can stay? I don’t recommend you going home.”

“I can stay with Maddie. I’m going to file for divorce. Marc was never good for me.”

Jude pulled out a business card, writing his cell phone number on the back. “You call us anytime, day or night. I mean that.”

“We’ll be in touch when we have some more information to share with you.” Cope’s heart ached with all they’d learned this morning.

“I know I shouldn’t have to ask this, but you’re not going to share any of this conversation with Marc, right?”

“Never,” Jude assured her. “Neither one of us could stand him the day we met him.”

Wasn’t