He had a tear in his eye. “Goodbye, grandma. I hope you have a nice trip.”
Rebecca, the sheriff, and I watched as Mrs. V went through that door of light. And then she was gone as well.
“What about me? Where’s my ride?” The sheriff asked me.
I looked at Jackson on the ground, in pain and holding his arm. Troy had tied a part of his shirt around the wound.
“Do you forgive him?” I asked the sheriff.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” he said. “He wasn’t himself. I sure hope the kid doesn’t get in trouble for it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he doesn’t,” I said.
He looked at Jonathan. “I was worried about who will be in charge after I’m gone. But now that I’ve seen Officer Valentine stepping up, I’m pretty sure Silver Bells Cove will be in good hands.”
“Look, there’s your door,” Rebecca said, pointing out the door of light in the distance.
“And so it is,” he said. Then he turned to me. “Thank you for everything. I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time for your gift. What you do is important. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I won’t,” I said. “Have a good one, sheriff.”
He looked at the door of light and smiled. “Oh, I definitely will.”
Rebecca and I watched as he too disappeared into the light. And then the light was gone.
“It seems everyone is moving on except me,” Rebecca said.
“Don’t worry, your time will come,” I reassured her.
“I don’t know whether to be excited or scared,” she said.
“Me neither,” I admitted.
Kane put his arm around me.
“Ready to get out of here?” He asked.
“Yeah, but first I have to do one thing.”
Twenty-Three
I took Jonathan aside.
“Do you know where the knife that killed the sheriff is?” I asked him.
“Should be inside with the body. We put both bodies in a room by themselves. That’s where we left the knife as well. Why?”
I looked over at Jackson. I could hear police sirens in the distance. The ambulance would be here soon to attend to his gun wound.
“We need to come up with a plausible story as to why you shot Jackson. And we also need to get rid of that knife, unless you want to put an innocent man into prison for a crime he doesn’t even know he committed.”
“I don’t know about that. I don’t feel good about tampering with evidence. As to why I shot him, well, that’s going to be hard to explain, isn’t it?”
“Exactly, which is why we need to come up with a plausible scenario. Can you think of one?”
“I could say he was acting erratically because of the gas leak?” Jonathan offered.
“That’s good. That could work,” I said.
“What are you two whispering about?” Kane asked, approaching us.
“We’re talking about how to explain all of this,” I pointed to Jackson. “All we have so far is a gas leak.”
“I guess telling people that he was possessed by a long-dead ghost is out of the question then?” Kane said.
“You can say that again,” Jonathan said. “I don’t want anyone to hear about that.”
“But they all saw what you saw,” I pointed to the gawking crowd across the parking lot.
“Gas leak, remember?” Jonathan said. “We’ll say it was a mass hallucination. Now the only thing we have to explain is how a steak knife ended up in the sheriff’s heart.”
“That’s a tough one,” Kane admitted. “Maybe he stabbed himself after seeing something that wasn’t there?”
“Doesn’t sound very believable to me,” Jonathan said. “I know I’d want to take a deeper look into it.”
“That’s exactly it,” I said, remembering what the sheriff had said. “Sheriff Mitts wanted you to be his successor. If you become the new sheriff, it’ll be up to you whether the investigation is closed or not.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” Jonathan said. “It means so much more responsibility. And it’s not like I’ve got decades of experience like he did.”
“Just put your name on the ballot and let the people decide,” I said.
“Maybe I will. But I won’t start thinking about that until after my honeymoon. But first I have to clean this mess up.”
I looked over at Sarah, who was now attending to Jackson as well.
“He doesn’t remember anything. I think that’ll work in your favor. The gas leak made him lose it and now he’s fine. You didn’t want to hurt him, you just wanted to stop him. It’s been a crazy night, I doubt anyone will be asking any questions right off the bat.”
Looking across the parking lot at the people there, it was obvious that most of them just wanted to go home. But not before they answered some questions. I was curious how many of them would actually admit to seeing ghosts. Not many, if I had to make a bet.
“We can say he was close to the gas when one of the pipes burst or something,” Kane said. “That made him act out of character and he was a danger to himself and others.”
I hated throwing Jackson under the bus like that, but it was better than him ending up in prison for murder.
The ambulance came, questions were answered, if only vaguely, and pretty soon we were all ready to go home. The fire department was still working on stopping the raging fire in the hotel. The building looked like it wasn’t going to be functional for a while yet.
Before I left, I ran into the hotel manager.
“How did this happen?” He asked no one in particular.
“A gas leak?” I offered.
He gave me a look that told me that he knew better.
I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s the official story anyway,” I said. “It’ll certainly go over better with the insurance company than talk of ghosts, right?”
He nodded. “Did you got rid of the main bad guy?”
“Yup.”
“What about the other ghosts?”
“I’ll come back here in a day or two and help the rest move on.”
“Thanks,” he said, surprising me.
“What for?”
“For getting rid of that murderous ghost. I thought this night would never end. I thought I was going to die in there.”
“You’re welcome, then,” I said. “Just remember me if you hear of any other hauntings, okay?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, I will.”
“Ready to go?” Kane asked, holding the door to his van open for me.
Rebecca joined us, taking a seat in the back.
“I think I should pay Jackson a visit,” I surprised myself by saying.
“What for? He doesn’t remember anything. Isn’t it better that way?” Kane said.
“It makes things easier for the rest of us, but no, it’s not better. Sooner or later, he might remember something. He wasn’t completely gone when Mad Jack took over his body. And if he starts dreaming about stabbing the sheriff, I can only imagine what kind of PTSD he might experience. He needs to know the truth.”
“It’s your call,” Kane said.
I saw Lucy, the TV reporter that Kane knew, arriving at the scene while most people were leaving. She was going to get her story one way or another. Jonathan was still there, waiting for the fire department to do their thing so that he could wipe any fingerprints off the murder weapon. I knew he didn’t feel good about it, but it needed to be done.
Troy and Sarah were keeping Jackson company in his hospital room. I asked for some time alone with the cop.
“I have to get back home, anyway,” Sarah said. “I definitely need a change of clothes. I’m sick of wearing this wedding dress.”
“Sorry your wedding was such a disaster. If only I’d looked deeper, beyond the surface, I might have noticed that that place was more haunted than any other place I’ve been in. I still don’t know how they did it. Remain dormant like that, I mean
.”
Sarah put her hands on my shoulders. “It’s not your fault,” she said. “Got it?”
I nodded. “It’s just…”
“I don’t want to hear it. You were an excellent maid of honor. No one could have predicted what happened in that hotel.”
Jackson’s arm already had a new bandage on it. I closed the door behind me for some privacy. Of course, Rebecca was there with me, as she usually was.
“It was a clean shot, through and through,” he said. “I guess I was lucky.”
“Jonathan didn’t want to shoot you,” I said. “You know that, right?”
“I don’t know what I know.” He pointed to the TV. He raised the volume.
Lucy was on TV, behind her the hotel we had all been trapped in.
“It is not clear what exactly happened here last night, but one thing that is clear is that two people are dead. Virginia Valentine, a senior citizen whose grandson is an officer on the force. And more shockingly, Sheriff Mitts was also found dead. His death is more suspicious because he was found with a knife wound in his heart. We’re also hearing reports that an officer has been injured and is currently in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. We’ll bring you the latest news as soon as we receive them. But right now, it’s clear that the police here are still trying to figure out what happened. A possible gas leak could be to blame.”
Jackson put the volume down, as Lucy walked around, giving viewers a view of the destroyed-looking hotel.
“Did Troy tell you anything?” I asked him.
“I asked, but he said that you know more.”
I was surprised that my brother wasn’t blabbing his big mouth, telling Jackson everything.
“First, I want you to know that none of this is your fault,” I started. And then I proceeded to tell him about his connection to Mad Jack, and how he took advantage of that to kill the sheriff.
“So you’re telling me it’s my fault all of this happened?” Jackson said, looking uneasy now. He looked at his hands. “I have blood on my hands,” he said to himself more than to me.
“That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m telling you the opposite.”
“But if I hadn’t been there, this Mad Jack psycho would never even have woken up? He wouldn’t have done what he did? Two people would still be alive?”
“You couldn’t have known. If you want anyone to blame, blame me. I’m a ghost hunter who deals with hauntings for a living, and even I didn’t notice that there were so many uneasy spirits on that property.”
“What now? Do I turn myself in?” Jackson said.
“No, of course not. As I keep telling you, it wasn’t your fault. I talked Jonathan into wiping the fingerprints off the weapon. We’ll make it look like the sheriff stabbed himself for some reason. The gas leak was causing all kinds of strange behavior,” I offered. “That’s the official story, anyway. I hope Lucy accepts it.”
“Do you really think people will buy that story?” He scoffed.
“I do. I know human nature. Most people don’t like to come that close to the supernatural. I’m sure the gas leak story will make them feel better about what they experienced.”
“And then you’ll still be seen as a kook by the rest of the town.”
“I’m used to it,” I said. “So, what are your plans? After getting better, I mean?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can go back to the police station, knowing that it was my hands that actually killed the sheriff. I think it’s time for a change.”
“Good luck, Jackson. If you need to talk, you know where to find me. I’ll do some in-depth research on the history of that place. So I might have more answers to give you soon.”
“Being related to a psycho is not exactly something I want to know more about, you know?”
“Most people don’t, but having answers will help you move on from this.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever move on from knowing that I killed somebody, even if I was possessed at the time,” he said.
“Just remember that it was Mad Jack, and not you, that did what he did, all right?”
He smiled weakly. “I’ll try,” he promised.
I opened the door.
Troy pulled me aside.
“How did it go?”
“As well as can be expected. He still blames himself, but once this blows over, I think he’ll be fine.”
“Good. He’s a good guy, you know? I hate to think of him blaming himself for any of this. Though it was pretty scary when he held that knife to my throat.”
“I didn’t tell him about that,” I said.
“Good. Poor guy already has enough on his plate.”
“He’s thinking of leaving the force because of this. So if you ever end up making that movie of yours, he might need a job,” I teased.
Troy nodded, no sense of sarcasm at all. “I think a change of scenery might do him well. Who knows, maybe I’ll become a talent agent and make millions off of him?”
We both laughed.
“Good luck with that, bro.”
Sarah was waiting for a ride.
“I didn’t feel like calling a cab. Is Troy coming?”
I looked back at him chatting with Jackson. “I think he’s not ready to leave quite yet.”
“So are you ready to go home now?” Kane asked for the third time.
I looked at the dress I was wearing. Then I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a window.
My hair looked absolutely dreadful.
“Yeah, I’m ready. I definitely need a change of clothes, a shower and maybe even a nap.”
“Amen, cousin,” Sarah said.
“C’mon, Rebecca,” I called to her. She was busy spying on Troy and Jackson.
“Coming!” She yelled as soon as she realized that she’d been caught in the act.
Twenty-Four
Not surprisingly, after my shower, I slept for twelve hours straight. I spent the late night and early morning researching stuff on the internet. I didn’t manage to find more than a few vague references about an asylum fire in the area. Once the library was open, much to the librarian’s dismay, I spent the whole day there. Troy and Kane joined me pretty soon after they found out what I was up to.
Jackson was already home. He needed some time alone, so Troy decided to hang out with me instead.
“He’ll be fine, right?” Troy asked me.
“Contrary to popular belief, possessions of that magnitude aren’t really all that common,” I said. “I know as much as you, Troy. We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”
“Do you know that he insists on having some iron and salt in his pockets at all times now? He’s becoming paranoid about being possessed again.”
“It’ll pass. Though I don’t think that’s such a bad idea. Who knows how many dead psychos he has in his family tree.”
“That’s not funny, Meredith,” Troy said, but he laughed anyway.
“Shh,” the librarian admonished us.
“Sorry,” I said.
“But we’re the only ones here?” Troy whispered.
“You gotta follow the rules,” Kane said. He smiled in the librarian’s direction.
“Stop it,” I told Kane. “Stop flirting with the librarian. The jig is up. She knows we’re an item now.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t still use my winning personality to get certain favors, does it?” Kane said.
“I think that’s exactly what it means,” Troy said.
“Troy has a point,” I said. “That is, unless I specifically ask you to turn on the charm. Right now, it’s not necessary. We already have all the necessary material here. It’s just a matter of looking through it.”
We spent hours, the three of us, looking through old historical documents, the mandatory latex gloves on all our fingers. Rebecca looked on, mostly bored by what she saw.
From what we could gather, we found out that there had indeed been an asylum in that general area. A mysterious fi
re killed all the patients there, who were locked in their rooms. There were dozens of them. No one was charged with the crime, of course. I hoped that whoever was responsible paid for their crime somehow. I wondered if the afterlife punished people who caused so much death and destruction.
Over the next several days, I made several trips to the burnt down hotel. The basic structure was still standing, but the inside was completely destroyed by the fire.
Over those several days, first my parents went away. And then, more painfully, my brother Troy had to go back to California. He and Jackson had made plans to become roommates if Jackson ever found the courage to go out west. Jackson already had bartending classes lined up so he could pay his way if he ever decided to move to LA. Troy started work on a horror movie screenplay.
The gas leak story took hold and people bought Jonathan’s account of the events. He and Sarah went on a honeymoon a few days after the fire, for some much needed time alone.
During all this, the hotel in ruins was my constant companion. And Rebecca and Kane, of course. And the ghosts that resided there, but hopefully not for long.
One by one, I woke each spirit up, like I did Molly. We found old records with information about most of the patients there. Little by little, I helped all of them move on to the next life, whatever that was.
On my last day there, I had helped six souls move on to the other side. It was midafternoon and I was exhausted.
Tears were streaming down my face. Happy and sad tears intermixed. The sad ones for the horrible treatment the patients here went through, and the happy ones because I helped them finally let go, move on.
Kane held me close, hugging me tight.
He wiped the tears away with his fingers and kissed me. I deepened the kiss. It felt good to be safe in his arms again.
“Ready to get out of here, for good?” He asked.
I looked back at the empty shell of a hotel that stood there. The hotel that used to be just land, and land that used to be an asylum before that, and land or something else before that as well.
It was empty now. I could almost feel the land underneath breathe a sigh of relief now that all the ghosts had moved on.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” I said and turned my back on that place for one last time.
Ghostly Wedding (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 3) Page 16
