Read beyond the grave 03 - a ghostly demise for Free Online

sure he took good care of you.” I wanted to make him feel a little better. There was nothing sadder than to see him listen to her talking about him and her not knowing he was there.
    “He did, in his own way.” She looked up at me. The edges of her eyes turned down. She said, “Sometimes it’s been easier with him gone though. Momma hasn’t had to worry about money since. And now that she’s dating.”
    The elevator bell dinged and the doors opened.
    “Dating! She is dating that sonofabitch Terk Rhinehammer. I knew it when I saw his car parked in front of that fancy coffee shop.” Cephus stormed out of the elevator, wringing his hands together. He pretended to have someone in a headlock and giving a noogie. “And my boy. He’s a big-time wrastler?”
    “Teddy is a big-time wrastler?” I asked
    “Wrastler?” Mary Anna cackled. “I haven’t heard that since my daddy was around.”
    “I mean wrestler.” Oh, Lordy. I was starting to sound like Cephus Hardy. “Is he a professional now?”
    “He does the small venues and is working his way up to the big-time WWE.” There was pride on her face. Her red lips curled into a smile. “Daddy would be so proud of him. He loved going to Teddy’s matches. He even helped Teddy come up with his signature move.”
    “Signature move?” I asked.
    “Yeah.” She smiled. “I’ll show you.”
    “Okay, but don’t hurt me.” I was a bit cautious.
    She wrapped her arm around my head and rested my chin in her elbow. She stuck her other hand around the other side of my head and wrapped her arms together like a bow. She did a little squeeze.
    “It’s sort of like a sleeper hold but Daddy and Teddy came up with a spin to it.” She dropped her arms, letting me out of her grip. “Now it’s a move—the Teddy Bear Hold.”
    “Really?” I was impressed.
    “Daddy would love that.” She took a deep inhale.
    That was pretty impressive. Not many people can say something was named after them. Not anyone I knew.
    “Morning, ladies.” Vernon Baxter was hard at work on a client in the basement.
    Vernon was a stately-looking older man with white hair and a sprinkle of pepper. His steel-blue eyes and debonair good looks reminded me of old Hollywood. I felt like I was standing between Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant.
    He was a retired doctor who performed all the autopsies in Sleepy Hollow. He used Eternal Slumber as his office. We had recently acquired the latest equipment and technology in the mortuary business when the town council voted to use some of the extra tax money to fund the upgrade. Things like the latest in DNA equipment to help the police solve crimes and some more real fancy technology that I didn’t even try to understand but Vernon did.
    “How’s it going?” I asked Vernon about his latest victim.
    “Everything’s as it seems.” He smiled and continued looking around the body lying on the cold, metal table.
    I try not to look at the clients when they are not dressed and without full makeup. That did give me the heebie-jeebies. You’d think a ghost would freak me out, but they didn’t. Their appearance was just like I remembered them. And that was a-okay with me.
    “What are you two doing?” He glanced up.
    I got a chill when I noticed the bone saw in his hand. The handle of the saw looked like the butt of a gun and the saw part was just that.
    “I forgot these.” Mary Anna stood next to her makeup station and picked up her scissors. “My best ones.”
    “That’s a little gross.” I shivered at the thought. “Do your clients know that?”
    “Nope. Dead or living, neither know.” She laughed so loud, I held on to the table just in case she did wake the dead and they decided to visit me.
    “Say, I hear Bea Allen is in town and staying with Leotta,” Vernon said.
    He didn’t look up as he hacked away on something. I didn’t know what it was he was sawing, but I could hear it.
    “You know Momma.” Mary Anna’s tone caught my attention.