“Alright, there’s something you should see.” He got up and motioned for us to follow him.
If Rebecca hadn’t already told me what was in store, my imagination would have been in overdrive right about now.
We followed Gregory to one of the back rooms. There was only a table and a desk and a computer and printer. The rest of the room would have been bare if it hadn’t been overstuffed with boxes and papers and all kinds of stuff like that. There were even some yearbooks strewn about.
And then there were the walls. They were covered in what looked like the mind map of a madman, but the more I looked at it, the more it started to make sense. Years and dates were connected to certain names and pictures.
“This… this is incredible,” I finally managed to say.
“Some might say mad,” Gregory said. “After my wife died, you could say these unsolved cases became my obsession.”
“Did you ever get close to figuring it out?” Kane asked.
“You’d think that after all this time I would have, but sadly no. All my breakthroughs turned into dead ends. I’ve made my peace with it that I might go to my grave not knowing.”
“Can I borrow some of those yearbooks?” I asked. “I know what she looks like obviously, I just need to find a name that matches the face.”
“There’s more in those boxes over there,” he said, pointing them out. “I got what I could from the surrounding towns. But most of the women on this wall, they weren’t from around these parts. They were just passing through.”
While Kane took the boxes of yearbooks back to his van, I stood in front of the tableau in front of me and marveled at all the years of work Gregory put into it.
He took a sip of his beer. “My friends, the ones that still talk to me that is, say I’ve lost it.”
“Don’t listen to them. This is great. At least someone cares about these women.”
“I hope you find your friend in one of those yearbooks,” he said. “That should at least be a start to figuring out what happened to her. And if her case is connected to these women, I’d like to know what you find out.”
Just then, Kane came in, looking a bit flustered from carrying the heavy boxes. I told him to give Gregory one of his cards. I wrote down my cell number on it as well. I had my own business cards but I couldn’t very well give one to him now. Not until I had a good look through those yearbooks first.
Once we were back in the van, I looked back at all the boxes that weren’t there before.
“You did good,” Kane said.
“Let’s just hope it pays off.”
Ten
My office was too small for all those boxes, plus I wanted some privacy to look through everything. If there was anything important, they could leave me a note or a voicemail.
It was just me and Kane at Gran’s house. Since the boxes were too heavy to carry upstairs, we settled in the living room and hoped we would be done by the time Gran came home. Then we got to work.
Rebecca hovered as we meticulously looked at every picture and name of a girl who had even a passing resemblance to Rebecca. It was no easy task, that was for sure. A lot of girls and women at that time had the same look. Long brown hair, parted in the middle. I could just imagine the rest of Rebecca’s ghostly outfit on the girls as well. Bell bottom jeans that went out of fashion decades ago now. Finally, after what felt like a better part of the day, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a picture of one Eileen Smith.
“Eileen Smith,” I said out loud.
That got Rebecca’s attention. She was hovering over my shoulder again in no time.
“I think I prefer Rebecca,” she said.
“You and me both,” I said.
Kane stopped looking through the yearbooks as well and joined us by staring at the picture. A lot of good it did him. The only thing he had to compare it to was the police sketch I helped make a while back.
He compared the two side by side. “They look pretty similar,” he said.
“Identical,” I had to admit once I really took a look at my ghostly friend and added a couple of years to the picture in the yearbook.
“I think it’s her,” I said to Kane. Then I turned to Rebecca. “I think this is you.”
I don’t know if Rebecca was overjoyed or not. Her back was to me, and even though I could see through her, I couldn’t exactly see her facial expressions now. She was staring at the wall in front of her, her thoughts probably as far from this place as possible.
“Eileen Smith,” Kane said. “At least we have something we can work with now. I’ll start the internet search and I’ll ask a few of my buddies on the force to look into it.”
“Thanks,” I said. Then I thought about whether to share this information with Jonathan. He wasn’t exactly being very nice about me investigating my own friend’s murder. I decided to hold off a bit until we had more information. Right now there was someone much more important I needed to get this info to. I took a picture with my phone and sent it over to Callie. She replied pretty quickly that she was going to print it out and try her best. I thanked her and put my phone away.
All those years of searching and now I was finally starting to get some answers. I left Kane on the floor, surrounded by old yearbooks, and joined my friend by the wall.
I almost reached out, but I knew that wouldn’t do any good. The only comfort I could offer her now would be words.
“You okay?”
“Who was I?” She said after a long silence. “Do I even want to know?”
“Of course you do,” I reassured her. “And I’m sure you were as wonderful when you were alive as you are now.”
Rebecca smiled. “You really know how to make a girl feel better about herself, don’t you?”
“I’ve had years of practice, and I learn from the best,” I reminded her. I couldn’t even count the number of times Rebecca had been there for me over the years. Comforting me when I felt like a freak, when my boyfriends would do shady things behind my back, when my supposed friends would spread rumors about me without my knowledge. Through it all, Rebecca was there. Not just with the bitter truth, but with words of comfort.
Before the lovely moment could continue, Kane decided to barge in between us. Rebecca moved out of the way looking as deflated as ever.
“I think I found her family,” he said.
That got Rebecca’s attention.
“What does he mean? Please ask him to tell me more. Please,” Rebecca practically begged me.
I stopped myself from telling her to slow down. I got the gist of the message anyway.
“Do they live close by?”
“They’re in the state, about a three-hour drive away, though,” he said. “I also found this.”
He handed me his phone. It was a missing person poster. Rebecca’s face stared back at me. I had him send me the link. I took a screenshot of it and sent it over to Callie as well. Every little thing could help, she had said after all.
“Does it say why I was missing?” Rebecca asked.
“Last seen hitchhiking in the Brownsville area,” I said, reading the info on the poster out loud. Then I turned to Kane. “How did you even find this?”
“Apparently, some people have weird hobbies. They hunt down stuff like this and put it online. I found it on a missing persons of Ohio website.”
“Well, thank goodness for those people then,” I said. “So, what’s our next move?”
“I have an address, but it’s getting pretty late. We’ll get there after dark,” he said. “I say we wake up bright and early tomorrow and see if we can’t hunt down any living relatives in Brownsville. I hope they still live there. The info wasn’t exactly up to date.”
It was decided then. While I helped Kane take the stuff back to the van, Rebecca paced back and forth in the living room. I asked if she was fine and she just nodded.
“I will be,” she finally said. “I hope.”
Kane and I decided to take the old yearbooks back to Grego
ry. There was no reason for us to hold onto them. I kept the one with Rebecca’s picture, of course, but that was it. I wondered if I should refer her to as Eileen now? But no, that was just too strange. At least until she got her memories back.
Rebecca came along for the ride but it was clear her mind was far away. I had to remind her to go on ahead of us just in case. She came back a few moments later.
“You won’t believe this,” she said. “But old Gregory’s got a ghost.”
“What do you mean?”
This was the last thing I expected her to say. That he was moving bodies, maybe, but this? No.
“Don’t tell me it’s one of his victims.”
“I didn’t exactly have a chance to question her, but she looked more like she was looking over the guy than haunting him. She got lost pretty quick when she saw me.”
“How interesting,” I said. “I guess now that I got what I hoped for from the yearbooks, it wouldn’t hurt to tell him what I really do for a living.”
“Do you really have to?” Kane said.
“You know I do. What if that ghost is somehow connected to all this? I can’t exactly leave that stone unturned, now can I?”
Kane sighed. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
I turned to Rebecca. “Go and see if you can find this mysterious ghost woman while I introduce the world of the paranormal to Gregory. Somehow, I don’t expect him to be open to the idea.”
Gregory looked surprised to see us back so soon.
“I wasn’t expecting those back for a few days at least, or ever, if I’m to be honest,” he said. “What gives?”
I told him about what we found.
“I’m glad,” he said. “Maybe I can add her name to my files.”
“The ones on the wall?” Kane joked.
“Come on in then,” Gregory said, ignoring him.
Once all the boxes were put away, we settled down in the living room.
“There’s no easy way to say this,” I started, “but I think you might have a ghost problem.”
Gregory laughed. “You can’t be serious?” He said when he realized I wasn’t joking.
I handed him one of my business cards.
“Was this all some ruse to get me to hire you? To what? Exorcise my place or something?”
“Sorry, but that’s not it at all. And I don’t plan on charging you, if you need my help that is. You see, that family friend you helped me find? She’s not exactly gone.” I told him all about how Rebecca came into my life. With each word, he looked more and more perplexed. Kane was starting to squirm in his seat as well. I was used to it, though. Most people weren’t very open to the ghost thing. But at least he didn’t tell me to get out of his house. Yet.
“I think I’ll have to ask you to leave,” he said.
And there it was.
I got up to go just as Rebecca came into the room, with another ghost right behind her.
“I’m Marjorie, his wife,” the ghost said.
“Oh,” I said.
“Beat it, freak,” Gregory said.
“It’s Marjorie,” I said.
His features softened just a smidge.
“That’s cruel,” he finally said, after deciding that I was nothing but a common con artist. “I can get my shotgun if that’ll help you move faster.”
“There’ll be no need for that,” Kane was quick to say as he guided me toward the front door. “We’re sorry for bothering you.”
I gave an exasperated look to Rebecca. Then Marjorie finally spoke up.
“Silver Bells Park, a beautiful sunny day. His dog practically ran me over,” Marjorie said, with a smile on her face.
I relayed the information to Gregory. He was so stunned he had to sit back down. I did the same, and so did Kane, very reluctantly I might add.
“You…you couldn’t have known that…”
Marjorie shared more private memories with me and I relayed them to Gregory. It was pretty hard to ignore all of that, so he finally asked me the question I was waiting for since I told him about her.
“Is she all right? Can I talk to her?”
I smiled in her direction. She was standing behind her husband, her ghostly hands on his shoulders.
“She’s right there,” I said. “She heard every word.”
Tears streamed down Gregory’s face. His macho facade had worn all the way down by now.
Husband and wife got reacquainted, but not in the way either probably thought it would happen. And then I broached the subject that was my specialty.
“Most people move on,” I said to them both. “There’s a door of light and you just step through. If you haven’t moved on, that means there must be some unfinished business.”
“There was a door of light, but the only unfinished business I have is this man right here. So until he crosses over with me, I’m not going anywhere.”
Gregory laughed a hearty laugh after I told him what his wife had said. “That’s my Marjorie,” he said, wiping away tears of joy now. “She was always the stubborn one. Even heaven wasn’t exempt from that in the end, I suppose.”
We spent a few more hours there, just me helping the two reconnect again after all this time. Cancer had taken Marjorie from Gregory way too soon, but now they could make up for that. As long as I acted as a sort of ghostly translator, that is.
But it needed to end. I was getting quite exhausted going back and forth between the two.
“Is she still here?” He asked me as I was preparing to leave.
“She’ll always be here,” I said. “And yeah, that includes while you do all that embarrassing stuff, but she says she mostly makes herself scarce during those parts.”
We both laughed.
“That was nice,” Rebecca said on the drive back home.
“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?” I agreed.
I wondered what the future held for my own ghostly shadow. I knew Rebecca was thinking the same.
Eleven
Brownsville wasn’t as dark or gloomy as I had pictured it in my head. Maybe it was back when Rebecca, or Eileen, lived there, but now it was a regular small town in the USA. Small businesses were the majority in the town square, though there were a few bigger chain stores strewn about as well.
“Anything look familiar?” I asked Rebecca when we got out of Kane’s van. It was already midafternoon.
Rebecca looked around the town square. Then shook her head. “No.”
“It’ll come to you,” I said. “Eventually,” I added when I saw the expression on her face. Yeah, there was no way I had of knowing that. I was just trying to be a supportive friend.
“Where to from here?” I turned around and asked Kane. He had his face in his phone, obviously looking for directions.
“Our next step is to get some food and relax a bit from all that driving. Then we’re going into the town proper. According to what I found online, there’s a Gertrude Smith living in the house that an Eileen Smith lived in before she disappeared.”
“How old is she?” Rebecca asked.
I relayed the question to Kane. After a few minutes of searching, he finally found something.
“In her seventies at least,” he said as he looked through his phone. “Oh, here it is. Seventy-five years old.”
Rebecca turned around.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“That might be my mother,” was all she said.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “But I’m going to be the one that’s going to have to talk to her.”
Rebecca smiled at that. “She’ll probably think you’re crazy.”
“As most people do,” I said and laughed. “I can’t really blame them, though I do wish that they’d make it easy for me at least some of the time.”
While Rebecca went out to explore the town, Kane and I got a bite to eat.
“Are you sure about this?” He asked while we waited for our order.
“Sure about what exactly? Talking to Rebecca’s
mom?”
“No, I mean about going after this serial killer. If he’s still around…”
I knew what this was about. Kane was worried about me. I couldn’t really blame him. All of this wasn’t like any of my usual paranormal investigations. Find the ghost, help the ghost move on. If it doesn’t cooperate, make it leave. And then my work would be done. But solving murders? That only happened occasionally, and not by choice. But when it came to Rebecca? I needed to do everything in my power to help her move on. To finally get some answers. I said as much to Kane.
He sighed. “I just hope that whoever is responsible for this is long dead.”
“I’m not sure if that would make much difference,” I said. “I’ve seen some pretty nasty ghosts in my time. Some of them could cause more harm while dead than when they were alive.”
I shivered just thinking about some of the nastier pests I had to get rid of.
Once we finished our food and drinks, we met up with Rebecca back by the van. She was waiting for us.
“Anything?” I asked her.
She shook her head sadly. “I thought the local school might look familiar at least, but it looks like it’s been rebuilt since then.”
We drove in silence for the rest of the way.
Gertrude Smith lived in a small house in a nice neighborhood. The kind of place where the neighbors all still talked to each other, probably.
“Do you want to go on ahead?” I asked Rebecca.
“If I have to,” she said. She didn’t look too happy about it, but she did make her way out of the van.
“How exactly are we going to go about this?” Kane asked me.
“Do you have that missing person poster?”
He nodded. He took it out of his jacket pocket and handed it to me. I unfolded it and stared at the all too familiar face. I took a deep breath.
“We might as well tell her about the body they found,” I said. That should break the ice.
Kane knocked on the door. It took a minute or two for the elderly woman to open the door, though.
“How may I help you?” She asked sweetly. I wanted to tell her to be more careful opening the door for strangers, but since this time her friendliness was working in my favor, I decided to keep my trap shut.
Ghostly Endings (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 5) Page 7
