Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,71

neck, it was going to be a real doozy.

Chapter Fifteen

Kipa and my father were busy in the yard when I got home. I saw that they were pruning back the roses and other bushes that needed trimming during autumn. I waved at them, then headed inside, thinking I should call Rain. I had also promised Tyra I’d find out where to send the ring that the ghost had been up in arms over. Or, in fog. Or whatever it was ghosts got up in.

I went in my office and sat down at my desk, looking up the phone number of Tyra’s landlord. He answered on the first ring.

“Mr. Williams? My name is Raven BoneTalker and I’m a friend of your tenant Tyra Smith. I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

His voice was gruff, but friendly enough. “What can I do for you?”

“I know this is going to sound strange, but I’m trying to find out the last name of the people who owned your house you rent to Tyra before you did. Hiram and Denise?”

He paused, then asked, “Why?”

I really had been hoping he would just answer and leave the reasons alone, but I let out a sigh and said, “Here’s the thing. We found something that belongs to one of the daughters. We want to see that she gets it.”

Another pause, then, “Is it expensive?”

I could see where this was going. As the owner of the house, he had the right to keep whatever he found in there. I decided a little lie was in order. “Not at all—just something small and sentimental.” That was true, even if I had fudged on the expensive part.

Sounding disappointed, he said, “Hold on. Let’s see…Hiram and Denise Overland.”

“Thanks!” I hung up before he could ask me anything else.

Turning to my computer, I entered “Kaitlin Overland” into the search engine and added quotes around the name. Then I added “Seattle” and waited.

“Oh man, six thousand results?” I frowned, trying to scan through them, but there were so many I didn’t know where to start. So I added Hiram and Denise’s names to the search bar. This culled the field. A few moments later, one of the links led to a newspaper article announcing a wedding. Kaitlin Overland had become Kaitlin Vandyke. I brought up another tab on the browser and searched on Kaitlin Vandyke, and Seattle. Sure enough, results brought up her phone number. Thank gods she hadn’t been Kate Smith.

I called the number and when the woman came on the phone, I identified myself and said, “I was wondering if you might be the same Kaitlin Vandyke who once lived in Seattle, whose father was Hiram and stepmother was Denise Rigby?” I then read off the address.

Sounding a little paranoid, she confirmed that she had lived in that house.

“The current tenant found something belonging to your stepmother that she wanted you to have. It’s her wedding ring from when she married your father.”

There was silence, then, a moment later, she cleared her throat. “What makes you think my stepmother wanted me to have her ring? I always thought she hated me.”

I thought about making up some fib about a note, but that just seemed to be begging for trouble. Finally, I said, “Do you believe in ghosts, Kaitlin?”

This time, her voice was fainter. “I’m not sure. If anybody would come back as a ghost, it would be Denise. She was a miserable woman and she was so paranoid that she might miss out on something that she was constantly sticking her nose into everybody’s business.”

I frowned. “Well, I’ve spoken to Denise’s ghost. I got involved because she was trashing the house. Anyway, she led us to a trunk with the ring in it and told me she wanted you to have it, that you were her favorite.”

Kaitlin laughed. “If I was her favorite, then I feel bad for my brothers and sister. Okay, I’ll bite. What do I have to do in order to get this ring? Send you my credit card number for postage?”

I paused. She clearly thought I was some scammer. “No. I just need your address so I can mail it to you. A post office box would be fine, too. If you don’t want it, then I’ll just give it back to the owner who bought the house and he can do what he likes with it.”

There was another pause, then Kaitlin said, “You really think I was her favorite? She was always hardest on