I returned from my late lunch with Striker to find Pandora still asleep in her bed. Apparently, she’d slept the whole time, as I didn’t find signs of any mischief in the shop. She looked completely exhausted and was barely able to trot out to the car for the ride home. I worried once again if something was wrong with her. Should I make a vet appointment?

“What’s with you, Pandora? Are you coming down with something?” Did cats come down with colds like people? I’d had Pandora for several years and hadn’t known her to get sick once. “You’re acting like you’ve been out running around all afternoon instead of sleeping in the sun in your cat bed.”

Pandora let out a snore.

I put my hand on her head to feel if she was hot, and she stirred slightly, purring lazily. “Do I need to take you to the vet?”

Pandora’s eyes flew open. Mewooo.

Weird, it almost sounded like she said “no” as if she was really trying to communicate with me. It wasn’t the first time I’d thought that, but it was the first time I was willing to entertain the thought that it might actually be true.

As soon as I opened the door of my Jeep, my worries about Pandora’s health were put to rest. Pandora sprang up and leapt over my lap, out of the car, and onto the porch. I figured the promise of getting her supper must have rejuvenated her.

In the kitchen, Pandora ran straight for her food bowl while I rummaged in the cabinet for cat food. “You want salmon or tuna?”

Meowna.

“Okay, tuna, it is.”

I set about filling up her dish, and Pandora hopped up on the counter again, batting at the dandelion tea. This time I didn’t yell at her. She was right. I needed to drink some of that tea to encourage an Albert sighting.

“Yeah, I get it. I need to find out about Desmond and Barney.” Great, now I was talking to her as if I expected her to understand. Funny thing was, she was looking at me just like she could.

I finished filling her cat bowl and started making tea. Good thing I’d eaten a lot at my late lunch with Striker, because I didn’t have any food here. And without Striker to bring me dinner, I’d have to fend for myself.

I found a tomato and a jar of jalapeños in the fridge. I sliced the tomato and set each slice on top of a Triscuit then topped each of those off with a jalapeño ring while the water boiled.

Once everything was ready, I retired to the living room and lounged on the couch, sipping the tea and munching the Triscuits. It was a good combination if not a little spicy. Too bad I didn’t have any sour cream to cut the heat.

My gaze fell on the paperweight. Maybe it would show me a clue. But tonight it didn’t show anything unless you’d consider a reflection of my white ceiling a clue. Maybe it didn’t produce clues on command. It might be like ghosts who never popped up when you wanted information from them but always seemed to be around when you didn’t want them.

Across the room, Pandora sat in a chair, staring at me intently. I was glad that she seemed to have perked up, but honestly, it was kind of unnerving the way her unblinking eyes were glued to mine. I stared back, thinking she would look away. Nope, she kept on with her luminescent, unwavering stare. Well, if she thought I was going blink or look away first, she had another think coming.

Out of the corner of my eye, a misty swirl caught my attention, and I wavered.

Meow!

Pandora’s triumphant meow indicated her jubilation at winning the staring contest, but I didn’t care. The mist was starting to take a human form. I gulped down the rest of the tea.

“Albert?”

The mist continued to materialize. Yep, definitely human.

“Albert, is that you?”

“Huh? Oh, yes, it’s me.” Albert came into focus.

“How are you doing?” I asked, wondering if that was an appropriate question for a ghost. Albert didn’t look like he was doing that great.

“Oh, sorry, Willa. I’m a little distracted. You know the checkers tournament is tomorrow morning, and well… this will be the first time in thirty years that I won’t be in it. Seeing all my old friends there…” Albert sighed. “Oh well. Nothing can be done about it, but I feel so very odd.”

“I’m sorry, Albert. It must be awful to be in limbo, still seeing your old life but unable to be part of it. Maybe I can help you move on to the afterlife. I hear it’s much nicer than the state you’re in now.”

Albert perked up. “Oh, really? Well, then I’m all for that.” Then he turned thoughtful. “Though I will miss seeing my family.”

“I hear over in the afterlife, it only seems like a short while before you are reunited with your loved ones.”

Albert looked dismayed. “Well, I wouldn’t want them to die soon.”

“Oh, no. No,” I corrected. “They live out their full lives here, but it just seems quick to you over there.” At least that was what I’d heard from Franklin and Robert.

Albert appeared to be mollified by that, and he sat down on the chair. “Very well, then. What can I do to help?”

“A couple of things. First I wanted to ask about Barney Delaney. Your son-in-law, Desmond, said he saw you arguing. What did you argue about?”

Albert waved his ghostly hand around. “Oh, that Barney. He’s very serious. Guy can’t take a joke. You know we both collect stamps, right? Of course, being former postmasters, that’s not unusual, and Barney is in the antique business, so he knows a lot. Anyway, he wanted to know if I had any uncanceled stamps from my day. Well, I thought he was implying that I would have stolen them right off the letters! I got a little hotheaded, and we had a row.”

“Oh? Why would he think that?”

“Turns out he didn’t. It was a misunderstanding. He wasn’t implying any such thing. Then, of course, when the talk turned to checkers, it got a little heated again. You know there’s a strategy to checkers, and we differ on best practices. It looked like we were arguing, but it was really just passionate debate.”

“No, I didn’t actually know that,” I said, taking another Triscuit, tomato, and jalapeño snack and munching on it. If he and Barney weren’t really arguing, then Barney had less of a motive for killing him. This was good information as far as narrowing down suspects went, but I hoped he wasn’t going to launch into a long-winded description of how to play checkers. I doubted there was much of a strategy.

Albert scooted forward in his seat. “Oh certainly. Well, you know, if you’re the one to go first, you should—”

“Albert,” I cut him off. I didn’t really have time for this. Ghosts were notorious for not hanging around very long, and I didn’t want to waste time talking about checkers when I could be getting the scoop on the next suspect: his son-in-law, Desmond. “I really could use your help on something else.”

Albert looked cross. “Well, I thought you said you wanted to hear about checkers strategy.”

“Maybe later. First, I want to help you get to the great beyond, and for that, I need to ask about your son-in-law, Desmond. I’ve heard some talk that he’s not quite on the up-and-up.”

Albert made a face. “Well, I have to admit, at first, I didn’t think he was good enough for my Gemma, but you know, he’s not such a bad guy.”

“Oh really? You mean you got along well with him?”

“Well, of course we had a few tiffs,” Albert scoffed. “But he ended up being okay.”

“I heard he was selling off some of your old postmaster memorabilia. Stamps and stuff.”

“Well, I had given him a few things.” Albert’s face fell. “I’d hoped he was starting his own collection, but if he was selling them off, I guess not.”

“What about his carpal tunnel problem?”

“Yes. Bad thing, that. He’s been out of work for quite a while, you know.”

“I know, but do you think the problem is real?”

“What? Well, of course it is. The doctor said so.”

I sat back and ate another Triscuit. I wondered about that. Albert seemed pretty sure that Desmond wasn’t a faker or a cheater, and I had to admit that I was kind of hoping for Albert’s sake that he was right. It would crush him to discover his own son-in-law had killed him.

Albert had said he’d given the stamps and other memorabilia to Desmond, so maybe he hadn’t stolen the things he was trying to sell to Barney. It was also possible Albert had given him some stamps and memorabilia and Desmond had taken some too. I’d have to investigate further. It was clear I wasn’t going to get any more information on Desmond from Albert. I had one last person to ask about.

“And what about Nathan Anderson?”

“Who?”

“He’s friends with Desmond. Did you ever give him stamps?”

“No. Never heard of him.”

That didn’t mean much. If Nathan was into something with Desmond or trying to get at the letter through Desmond, Albert wouldn’t necessarily know who he was.

“So will you be at the checkers game tomorrow?” I asked.

Albert stood, his ghost swirling and fading. “Of course I will. In spirit. Now I hear the ethers calling. I hope what I had to say was of use, Willa, because this limbo just is not fun. Hopefully you’ll be able to help me soon.”

Albert poofed away, and I was left in the room, alone with Pandora.

Meow. Pandora looked at me knowingly.

“That wasn’t very enlightening, was it?” I asked.

Meoooo.

“But I kind of believed what he said about Desmond, didn’t you?”

Pandora trotted over to the couch and jumped up in my lap, rubbing her head against my hand and purring. I took that as agreement. She kind of believed Albert too.

“And it seems like Barney and Albert really were friends. At least they didn’t have a big heated disagreement that would warrant Barney killing him.”

Meroop.

“I suppose that leaves Felicity,” I said.

Pandora stopped purring and jerked her head to look at me. Meooo.

I got a very negative vibe from the cat. Clearly, Pandora did not like Felicity. Who could blame her?

“Yeah. I don’t like her very much either, and that’s why she’s my next best suspect. Well, her and Nathan.”

Pandora frowned at me. Maroo.

Pandora’s meow sounded like the word no. As in “No, I don’t like her either.” No surprise there. I had a feeling she liked Fluff even less, judging by the way they hissed at each other through my store window.

“I really hope Desmond wasn’t taking advantage of Albert. Albert seems nice, and I’d hate to think of anyone taking advantage of him like that.”

Meow.

“But someone killed him. That person’s going to have to go to jail. If it turned out to be Felicity, that would just be dandy.”

Meyoooow!

I took that as agreement, even though it still sounded like a no.

My phone dinged on the coffee table. A text from Striker.

Thinking of you. Have a good sleep.

Good feelings washed over me as I snuggled down on the couch with Pandora. Albert had cleared up a few things, and I was one step closer to finding his killer. Not only that, but I felt like I was developing a closer bond with my cat, not to mention taking my relationship with Striker to a whole new level.