Bing closed the plastic tab on the lid of his coffee and stood up. I noticed that he was wearing a big ring. His Magician’s Guild ring—he always wore it. I reminded myself that lots of people wore big rings, especially class rings and rings from organizations.

“What if it wasn’t the bronzes? What if they were after something else?” Bing said. His eyes held mine and I got the impression he was trying to tell me something. Or warn me.

Cordelia, Hattie and Josiah swiveled their faces toward Bing.

Cordelia’s forehead took on another layer of wrinkles. “What else would they be looking for? The only other thing in there is books.”

“That’s right,” Hattie said, pushing herself up from the couch. “Unless there is something else of value that the killer knows about and we don’t.”

Josiah tilted his head. “That could be. Seems like this is getting to be more and more of a mystery.”

“It sure is,” I said.

Cordelia and Josiah stood up and the four of them made their way to the door.

“See you tomorrow, Willa,” Cordelia said.

“Bye,” Hattie turned and waved.

“See ya,” Bing nodded.

“Later,” Josiah said as he shut the door behind him, leaving me alone in the bookstore.

Well, almost alone … Lavinia’s ghost swirled into view as soon as the door was firmly shut.

“So, how was my funeral?”

“It was nice. I’m surprised you weren’t there.” I got to the bottom of my coffee and tossed the cup in the trash.

“Oh, it’s kind of tacky to show up at your own funeral.” Lavinia looked at me as if she was surprised I wasn’t up on the latest ghost etiquette. “So how does it look on finding my killer?”

“Well, it wasn’t Ophelia,” I said.

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Lavinia made a face. “I mean, I figured it wasn’t, but still, I would have liked it to have been her. We didn’t get along.”

“But I did find a new clue that I need your help with.”

“Oh?” Lavinia’s ghostly brows swirled upwards.

“The police found some gray hairs clutched in your hand. They think you might have pulled them from the killer,” I said. “Do you remember pulling out the hair of the person that pushed you?”

“Let me think … I was walking toward the back of the stairs. I saw a shadow, then felt the pain in the back of my head. Then someone pushed me, right at the top of my back … I flailed my arms, grabbing out for anything to keep from falling.” Lavinia looked up at the ceiling, screwing her face up in thought. “Yes! I remember reaching out and grabbing on as I was falling. I heard a grunt. A few hairs ripped out. And then I fell.”