Jillian Chantal

Welcome to Tuesday Tales. This week we’re writing to the word prompt sharp. The heroine is talking to a ghost who still likes to work at the television station.

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“I’m Lula Mae Haverstock. Nice to meet you, Jed.”

“What brings you to my corner of the studio? It’s not my desk any longer, but I borrow it when the guy who took my place isn’t here.” Jed laughed. “Sometimes he comes in and wonders about what’s happened while he’s gone. I can’t move his things, but I do manipulate the computer. It’s like he can sense someone’s been using his desk and machine.”

“I was wondering if you knew of Paul. The engineer who just started working here recently.”

“Obviously, I didn’t know him in life and never spoke to him, but I did see him around. He seemed sharp and had a lot of potential as a sound engineer.”

“Sadly, he was killed last night or yesterday afternoon.”

“I heard some folks talking about that. Tragic. He was young and bright. He had a future here for sure. What do you know about what happened?”

“I’m helping in the investigation and we heard some rumors about a possible group or a couple of people working together to take equipment and sell it on the sly. We think it may have something to do with Paul’s death.” She shrugged. “Or maybe not, but it’s a start in our quest to find who killed him. There’s another tie to the studio in that another young man was killed in the same manner. That man was the former boyfriend of Jennifer Adkins.”

Jed made a face at the mention of the television host’s name. “That woman.”

While Lu agreed with that assessment, she wanted to know what Jed based his on. “What makes you say that?”

“Have you met her yet?”

“I have.”

“Then you know.” He faced the computer screen and blinked. A photo of Jennifer showed up. “Look in her eyes.”

Lu leaned forward and peered at the host’s face. “Okay. What am I supposed to notice?”

“Her eyes. They’re dead. She puts on a show to be happy and upbeat, but if you look in her eyes, you’ll see something is missing. She has no real empathy with other people. I’ve even seen her eyes go black completely when she’s displeased with someone or something. It’s like she is a snake in disguise as a sweet, fairy princess. It’s blood chilling.”

As someone who’d seen that switch off from sweet to nasty and back to sweet in a nanosecond, Lu knew exactly what he meant. “I’ve seen her make that switch. It was stunning.”

“More like scary. She might just be the one who did it—killed Paul.”