Ghostly Wedding (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 3)

by Aubrey Harper

  “Not much. We saw that blurry form but then it just disappeared,” Jonathan said. “So you helped her move on, I presume?”

  “You presume correctly.”

  “So are you telling us that we’ll need to go through this with every ghost in this place?” Troy asked. “That might take forever.”

  I shook my head. “Molly told me about some Mad Jack guy. He’s the one in charge. He’s the one making them do these things. If I can get to him, I think the others will remember their humanity. Or at least I hope they will.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think a salt circle will hold that guy,” Kane said. He had some experience in the matter.

  “No,” I said. “That’s why we need to find some iron. And then we can worry about finding this Mad Jack fellow.”

  The lights above flickered right then and there.

  And then they went out altogether.

  Perhaps Mad Jack decided to find me before I could find him.

  Twenty

  “Everyone, remain calm,” I said.

  “Calm? You’re joking?” Troy said. He managed to turn the flashlight on on his phone. That helped.

  “Do you think they’re in trouble?” Sarah asked. She obviously meant the people in the great hall.

  “I hope not,” I said. “Let’s just hope they’re all in those salt circles. It might make things a bit harder for the ghosts.”

  Jonathan turned on his flashlight as well. Kane joined in, too, until we were pretty well lit. If there were any ghosts headed our way, we were going to see them.

  “Do you hear that?” Rebecca asked me.

  I listened in. In the distance, I could hear something that sounded like a howling wind.

  “They’re coming here,” I warned the others. “Prepare the holy water and get as much salt as you can.”

  While Troy and the others lit up the salt circle, the rest of us picked up as much as we could. No salt would go to waste if we had anything to say about it.

  Rebecca and Mrs. V went to check out the howling noise. They came back pretty quick.

  “They’re coming in fast,” Mrs. V said. “You better protect my Jonathan.”

  With that in mind, after we picked up the salt, we huddled around Jonathan. He wasn’t happy about it, but he knew better than to complain. Valentine was not a name loved by Mad Jack or his crew.

  The rogue spirits attacked at once, but we were ready. A mix of salt and holy water kept them at bay. They kept dissolving as they tried to get to Jonathan. Once they figured out that they weren’t going to be successful, they turned their attentions on me. Thankfully, Rebecca was quick on the draw. She protected me and dissolved, along with the ghost that tried to hurt me.

  But then I felt something darker, more powerful approaching. It was Mad Jack, if I had to make a guess. He was a tall, dark figure.

  “You will pay,” his distorted voice said. If I didn’t know any better, I might think that I was dealing with an actual demon.

  Father Young held out his cross, as if going against a vampire, and started reciting a prayer.

  Mad Jack laughed, a terrible laugh that reverberated through all of us.

  We were surrounded by his ghosts now and we were fast running out of things to fight them off with.

  I held the little salt I had in my hand. I also had some holy water. I had the bright idea to combine the two. Maybe it would make each more powerful than the other. The others followed my lead, or at least those that had some of each left.

  I shook the mason jar.

  “You need to let these people go,” I said to Mad Jack. “They need to move on from this plane.”

  Mad Jack just laughed.

  “Not bloody likely,” he hissed.

  “Molly had moved on, and so can you,” I told the other ghosts. “She went through the door of light and she’s happier than she’s ever been. You can do that, too. From what I’ve heard, Mad Jack is the one with the biggest grudge. But it’s been over a century since all of you died. Those you hold responsible are dead as well. They have moved on. So why haven’t you?”

  The faceless ghostly forms looked at each other. I knew they were intelligent, thinking creatures, just like Molly was. They just needed to be reminded of their humanity.

  “No!” Mad Jack screamed as he noticed that his hold over the other ghosts was wavering. “She is lying!”

  I threw the salt and holy water mixture at Mad Jack. I was sick of his lies.

  Mad Jack dissolved into black smoke and started to circle us, taking his ghosts with him.

  The lights turned back on, flickering. And then they were back on completely.

  “That was…something,” Troy said. “So, what now? I don’t think that guy will be easy to catch.”

  “Let me worry about that,” I said. “Now let’s go look for some iron.”

  “What about the others? Shouldn’t we check on them?” Jonathan said.

  “The sheriff would have come and told me if anything happened back there,” I said. “But if it makes you guys feel any better.”

  “I think I’ve had my fill of the supernatural for a lifetime,” Father Young said. “I think I’ll stay in the great hall.”

  “Not before we get some more water from the kitchen,” Jonathan said. “You’ll need to bless it for us, Father. That salt and holy water mixture Meredith came up with will come in handy.”

  Father Young nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

  “But it’s just a bandage,” I warned Jonathan. “We need to find iron if I have a chance of defeating this guy for good. I don’t think talking will get through to him, that’s for sure.”

  We stopped by the kitchen and got more water and jars. Father Young said he’d bless it in the great hall. He seemed in a hurry to get back there, and I couldn’t really blame him.

  We didn’t run into any ghosts on our way back, which was a small mercy. We needed to regroup before we faced Mad Jack and his merry band of freaks again.

  Everything in the hall seemed in order. People looked shaken because of the lights going out, but they looked otherwise unharmed.

  “How did things go on your end?” The sheriff asked, floating toward me.

  I explained what had happened. I even told him about Molly.

  “So there is a way to help them,” he said. “Now all we need to do is find some iron, right?”

  Jonathan talked to the hotel manager about any iron that might be hiding in plain sight. He had already told us that he didn’t know, but maybe he would remember something that slipped his mind before. After all, he was the only one who knew the hotel better than anyone else.

  “What’s going on here? Can we leave now?” One of the hotel, not wedding, guests asked, huddled close in a tight circle of salt.

  “Not yet,” I told him. “But you’ll be the first to know when it’s safe, all right?”

  The man gave me a nasty look but I just ignored him.

  On one side of the room, Father Young had started blessing the pots full of water.

  “This is crazy,” another person said. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

  I went over to where the older folks congregated. They didn’t look happy to see me, but this needed to be done.

  “Any of you ever heard of a guy they call Mad Jack?” I asked them.

  “The only Mad Jack I’ve heard of is Jack Churchill, who was a British army officer,” said an older gentleman. “But he died in 1996, so I don’t think he fits the description of the one you’re describing.”

  “Yeah, not so much. The Mad Jack I’m talking about is one that died in a fire well over a hundred years ago. He was a patient, or prisoner I guess, in the asylum that used to stand on these grounds.”

  “Mad Jack will get you, if you don’t do your chores. Mad Jack will slap you, if you’re not a common bore. Mad Jack will stop you, if you’re being too polite. Mad Jack will come your way, if you’re awake in the dead of night,” sang an older lady.

  “What’s
that?” I asked her. “Sounds like a sinister nursery rhyme.”

  “My mother used to sing me some parts, the other parts the kids around the neighborhood came up with. We never knew it was about a real person.”

  “He’s very much real, and he’s not here to play games,” I said.

  “I think we’ve got something,” Jonathan called to me. Then he looked up at the lights. “Let’s just do it before these lights start flickering.”

  One of the hotel guests said they had noticed what looked like iron material somewhere in the hotel. When we asked the hotel manager about it, he just shrugged his shoulders.

  “You can’t destroy our property. I won’t allow it,” he said.

  “People are dead,” I reminded him. “And we’re all trapped here. Do you really think this is the time to think about your precious hotel?”

  “It’s a new construction,” he said. “And I was put in charge of keeping it running smoothly. So, no, I won’t budge. If I thought it might help, I might change my mind, but I don’t. Each thing you tell me sounds crazier than the next. And what is that priest doing, anyway?” He pointed to Father Young, who was blessing yet another pot of water. “You’ve turned my hotel into a freak show.”

  “I think’s it’s a bit late for that,” my mother said from one of the salt circles. “Give my daughter what she needs so that we can just get out of here already.”

  “I will not be talked to like this,” the manager said. “I will be treated with respect.”

  Jonathan pushed his way past the hotel manager. “Let’s go, Meredith. If we have to, the police department will pay for any damages his precious hotel suffers.”

  “That’s all I’m asking,” the hotel manager said.

  “If this place becomes haunted again somehow, expect to pay a premium price for my services,” I warned the manager.

  He gave me a blank look. “Then maybe I’ll just shop around,” he finally said.

  “Good luck with that,” I retorted.

  “Meredith, maybe we should focus on the task at hand,” Rebecca reminded me. “I don’t like this trapped feeling. It’s one thing for the living to be trapped here, but being dead allows for certain freedoms the living don’t have, and this Mad Jack fellow has managed to take even that away from us.”

  She had a point.

  So Kane, Jonathan, Troy, Mrs. V, Rebecca and I went in search of some of that iron. Thankfully, it wasn’t that far away. It was actually in one of the rooms on the first floor.

  “Kind of old-fashioned, isn’t it?” Troy said, looking at the iron over the A/C unit. “I’m guessing this is only in the more expensive rooms?”

  “Your guess is probably right,” Jonathan said.

  It took some doing, but between the three of them, they managed to get the thing from the ground.

  The only problem we had now was how to file it down into smaller bits.

  “Anyone got any ideas?” I asked the living and the dead.

  None knew the answer it seemed.

  “We’ll need a knife or a grater or something,” Kane finally said.

  “The kitchen,” Troy said. “Unless there’s a utility closet around here somewhere.”

  Pretty soon, we were armed with all kinds of tools. We decided it was best to go back to the great hall and start grinding, because who knew when Mad Jack would decide to show up again.

  We created a nice little station in the great hall, not far from one of the salt circles. If the light even flickered once, we’d know where to go.

  Kane was armed with a cheese grater, Troy had a hammer, and Jonathan just looked on, instructing each to try a little harder once the other had failed.

  Iron wasn’t one of those materials that responded well to being beat it seemed.

  Pretty soon, though, and after many complaints from wedding and hotel guests alike, we had enough ground iron to start making a salt and iron mix that would hopefully be strong enough to hold a spirit as powerful as Mad Jack. And once he was under control, the others would soon follow no doubt.

  Once I’d mixed the mixture, I was ready to take on any spirit.

  “Are you sure that’ll be enough?” Kane asked me, after he pulled me aside so that the others couldn’t overhear.

  “It’ll have to be,” I said. “But it won’t be easy. Mad Jack knows what I’m up to. Let’s just hope that I can trap him before he can hurt anyone else.”

  Twenty-One

  We had to take salt from one of the salt circles. The people in it were not happy, but they obliged. I explained that this was the only way to stop all this.

  As a sign of solidarity, the others offered their salt circles as well. It was a nice gesture, though not totally necessary. That didn’t mean I didn’t take them up on it, though.

  I armed Sarah, Jackson, and Jonathan with regular salt to ward off the rogue ghosts. I saved the salt and iron mixture for myself. Kane and Troy had some of that one as well, so that when we were ready to trap Mad Jack, we could just do it without much thought.

  “I don’t like leaving the people in the hall exposed like this,” Jonathan said as we headed to search for Mad Jack.

  “They have some salt left. They’ll be able to fight off whoever is there. Besides, the sheriff is back there. If anything happens, we’ll be the first to know,” I reassured him.

  Jonathan didn’t look convinced but he didn’t argue, which was a small mercy. We needed to focus on taking Mad Jack down and then we could worry about everyone else. The only thing still nagging at me was the sheriff’s murder. I wanted to believe that Mad Jack had been responsible for that as well, but now I wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t shown any sign so far that he could wield a knife around all by himself.

  I didn’t voice my concerns because we needed to focus on one thing at a time.

  Rebecca went ahead of us, to warn us of any danger up ahead, but the hotel was surprisingly quiet.

  “Maybe he decided to hightail it out of here after his encounter with you?” Troy offered.

  “If that was true, then we’d be able to leave,” I said.

  Rebecca tried but was pushed back quite forcefully.

  “Nope, we’re still stuck here. He must have an army of ghosts out there keeping this place locked up tight.”

  “Has Rebecca tried flying through the ceiling and then over the building like that?” Troy said.

  “Yeah. She couldn’t get to the roof. Apparently, there are ghosts keeping guard up there as well.”

  “So we’re completely surrounded?” Jackson said. “That’s good to know.”

  “I think the spirits sense the iron and salt mixture,” Rebecca said. “I know I certainly do. Maybe they’re trying to keep their distance?”

  That was a good point. But what else could we do? We needed to face them eventually. Then I got an idea.

  “We already know where they are,” I said. “They’re right outside these walls. Or at least some of them are.”

  “So you’re giving up on catching Mad Jack?” Kane said.

  “Don’t worry, he’ll show up once he realizes what’s happening,” I said.

  We made our way back to the great hall.

  “Is it done?” The sheriff asked. “It sure doesn’t feel like it.”

  “Nope, but it will be soon,” I reassured him.

  I stood in front of the great hall’s double doors. The ones that were so hard to crack before, except now I had a secret weapon.

  “If I do this right, we should be able to leave this place. So everyone, get ready to run,” I told the gathering crowd behind me.

  “What about you?” Gran asked me.

  I smiled. “I have some unfinished business with this Mad Jack guy. I’m going to make sure he can never do anything like this again.”

  She nodded in understanding, but my mother was less than enthusiastic about the idea.

  “No daughter of mine will sacrifice herself for the greater good. As soon as it’s open, you’re coming out right with us,
honey.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I’ll be right behind you guys.”

  “You’ll be in front of us. I’m not leaving you in this death trap,” my mother said.

  “Agreed,” my father simply said.

  I was surprised they were the ones so worried about me. All this time I thought that they barely knew I existed.

  “She’ll be fine, Lisa. This is what she was born to do,” Gran reassured my mother. “She’s the expert when it comes to this kind of thing, not us.”

  “And I’ll be right beside her,” Kane reassured them.

  “Me too,” Troy said. “I’m not leaving this place until Meredith does.”

  “I’ll be with her, too,” Jonathan said. “This is a police matter as much as it is a ghostly one. Plus, this Mad Jack guy ruined my wedding. I’m going to be there when he goes down.”

  It felt good to have so much support.

  Even Sarah stepped forward, but Jonathan stopped her.

  “I want you safe and sound. I promise I’ll be right out,” he kissed her passionately on the lips. “And then we’ll start the rest of our lives together.”

  “But he wants you, Jonathan,” she said. “He already killed your grandmother. I can’t bear to lose you, too. Please tell me you’re getting out of here with me.”

  Jonathan gave me a look.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “She’s making a lot of sense, dude. This Mad Jack guy has a thing against your family. Your blood. I wouldn’t take any chances if I was you.”

  “He killed my grandmother,” Jonathan said. “I’m not sitting this one out. I’m going to be there when he’s destroyed.”

  “Please tell him he doesn’t have to do this on my account,” Mrs. V said. “Tell him to go and be happy with his new bride.”

  I relayed the message.

  “Sorry, grandma, but I won’t be happy until I avenge your death,” Jonathan said to the air.

  “Are we going to do this thing or not?” The hotel manager asked. “People are growing restless.”

  He was right. The people were losing patience fast. I took some of the iron and salt mixture in hand and threw it across the threshold.