headed to the store. It was a warm fall day, typical for Charleston, and my strawberry-blonde hair was staying in place for once. One look at my hair and my pale skin, and there’s no doubting my Scots-Irish blood.
I was surprised when my phone rang on the way in to the store. It was Kell Winston, and he sounded worried.
“Could you meet me at Honeysuckle Café?” Kell asked. “I need to talk to you.”
Kell was an acquaintance; a college friend of Anthony’s and someone Teag and I had worked with on occasion. The sudden, urgent request caught me by surprise.
“Sure,” I replied. “In fact, I’m heading that way right now to grab coffee. Want to meet me there?”
“Done. See you in about fifteen minutes.” Kell ended the call, and I stared at my phone for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on and wondering if it could have anything to do with the ghost-eater we had run into the day before.
Honeysuckle Café is my favorite place to grab a latte. It’s a local coffee house on King Street, and thrives because of – and in spite of – being one-of-a-kind instead of a national chain. Inside, the café feels like a comfy living room with overstuffed chairs, piles of books, and vases of fresh flowers. People linger to actually have a conversation.
Although I was in a pretty good mood when I left the house, as I got closer to the coffee shop, the worse I felt about Tad’s ghost, like I had failed him. I let him down. He’s in danger, and I can’t help him. Some big bad monster hunter I am. Total effing failure. I caught my mood spiraling, and pulled myself out my thoughts. It took me a few minutes of giving myself a silent pep talk to shake off the awful feeling of guilt that had overwhelmed me. In fact, I was so deep in thought that I didn’t hear Rick ask me a question when I got to the head of the line.
“Big or little?” Rick, the barista, asked.
“Big – but I’m going with the chai latte special today,” I replied. The coffee bar at Honeysuckle Café is Rick’s stage, and he’s one of the reasons the place is so popular with King Street merchants and tourists. A sign on the wall over the espresso machine reads ‘Rick’s Place’ and with his long face and bedroom eyes, Rick is a dead-ringer for Bogart. He plays up the resemblance with a wardrobe of vintage clothing and snappy fedoras.
“Hi Cassidy!” Trina, the café owner, waved from over by the register. I thanked Rick for my latte and headed over to pay for it. The café has good food and great coffee, but the real reason I love going is because Rick and Trina hear all the news in Charleston, and are happy to pass it on.
“What’s new?” I asked as Trina rang up my order.
“You ought to ask Drea,” Trina replied, handing me my change. “They’ve had some excitement with the ghost tours.” I raised an eyebrow, encouraging her to go on.
“Valerie told me that she had to cut last night’s tour short because the ghosts were frightening the tourists and throwing rocks,” Trina nodded. Drea Andrews owned Andrews Carriage Rides, and Valerie was one of her most popular tour guides. I’d known both of them for a long time.
I frowned. “And she’s sure it wasn’t just teenagers playing a dangerous prank?”
“She’s sure.” Drea had come up behind me in line, back for a coffee to-go. “I was going to stop over at Trifles and Folly to tell you about it.” While we waited for her coffee, Drea continued the story. “Valerie’s been doing the ghost tour for years, and nothing fazes her. She swears that the regular ghosts know her and leave the guests alone.”
“But not last night?”
Drea paid for her coffee. “Nope. Valerie said that there were cold spots all over town. She heard knocking on fences, saw shadows that shouldn’t have been there, had an orb flash right in front of the group – and got pelted with pebbles even though no one was in sight.”
“Wow,” I replied. “I guess the customers got their money’s worth.” The ghost tours were Drea’s most sought-after excursions.
Drea didn’t look pleased. “There could have been injuries. Thank goodness no one was hurt.”
We said good-bye and I went to grab some extra napkins before I found a seat to wait for Kell. I didn’t even look