Haunting Danielle 27 The Ghost and the Mountain Man

by Bobbi Holmes

  “No, but I have a collection at my house you are more than welcome to look through. They belonged to my cousin. She was a bit of a hoarder, I’m afraid.”

  “I heard about the collection of newspapers you donated to the museum. I’m eager to see them, but I understand they aren’t here yet,” Heather said.

  “No, they’re being bound. But I heard this morning they might be back in a day or so. Originally I heard it would be another week or more.”

  “Great. So about those magazines of yours, would you mind if I stopped by your house sometime and looked at them?” Heather asked.

  “You’re more than welcome to see them.” Ginny glanced at her watch and then looked back at Heather. “In fact, I’m getting off in ten minutes. You could come to my house now if you want.”

  “Thanks for the offer, but I have to go back to work,” Heather said glumly.

  “When do you get off work?” Ginny asked.

  “Five.”

  “Stop by then. I’ll be home. Please do,” Ginny insisted.

  “Let me go with you,” Chris offered after Heather returned to the office and told him what she intended to do.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “You’ve never helped a spirit move on before,” Chris reminded her.

  “Are you saying I can’t do it?”

  “No, but—”

  “I can do this. Anyway, I can’t just show up with you. And considering Caitlin’s age, she might refuse to move on when she sees you, and instead of her haunting her old house, she’d be haunting my office, mooning over you. That would be so annoying.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Chris scoffed.

  “You aren’t coming,” Heather said before turning her attention back to the paperwork on her desk. Heather remained steadfast, and when she left work on Wednesday for Ginny’s, she didn’t take Chris with her, yet she talked him into dropping Bella off at her house on his way home.

  When Heather arrived at Ginny’s house, she was shown to the study. Bookshelves lined one wall, with a desk under the window on another wall, its blinds drawn. In the center of the room stood a card table, and on it, stacks of vintage magazines. The overhead ceiling fan along with a floor lamp provided ample lighting for the card table.

  Ginny showed Heather to the stacks of vintage magazines. Heather sat on one of the two folding chairs at the card table, while Ginny sat across from her. Heather wasn’t sure how this was going to play out. Would Caitlin’s ghost simply show up, and if she did, how could she talk to her with Ginny in the room? Or would Heather need to make an excuse to look through the house in search of Caitlin?

  While trying to work out the logistics in her head, Heather found herself distracted by Ginny, who prattled on, peppering Heather with questions about her recent abduction. Yet, by the questions, Ginny didn’t seem that interested in the kidnappers or why or how Heather and the others had been taken captive. Ginny seemed intrigued about the mountains where they had been taken, and more interested in what they might have seen or discovered while up there.

  “She knows you were there. Did you find it?” a woman’s voice asked.

  Startled by the unexpected sound, Heather looked in the voice’s direction and saw Caitlin’s spirit standing in front of the bookshelves. Heather stared at Caitlin a moment while Ginny, unaware of the ghost’s presence, asked Heather another question.

  “Ginny, could you get me a drink of water, please?” Heather blurted, her eyes never leaving Caitlin’s.

  “Yes, of course. I have to run to the bathroom too, so I’ll be a few minutes.” Ginny stood.

  That would be perfect, Heather said to herself. She wanted Ginny out of the way so she could talk to Caitlin.

  After Ginny left the room and was out of earshot, Heather asked, “You’re Caitlin, aren’t you?”

  “Who are you?” Caitlin demanded. “I heard what she said. You were up there, weren’t you? Did you find it? It’s not yours. It’s mine!”

  Heather stood up, her gaze never leaving the ghost. “Did I find what?”

  “I heard her talking to Cory about you coming over here. By their conversation, it’s obvious you found something up in the mountains.”

  “Are you talking about Bud’s treasure?” Heather asked.

  Caitlin smiled. “So, you know. Did you find it?”

  “No. Tell me about the treasure,” Heather asked.

  Caitlin laughed. “I’m not stupid. You’re trying to find it for yourself. But you can’t have it!”

  The next moment the bookshelves shook while Caitlin’s apparition slowly floated up toward the ceiling. Mesmerized by the sight, Heather stood and stared, yet let out a scream a moment later and jumped to one side when one of the two bookshelves came crashing down, landing full force on the card table, sending it and the vintage magazines to the floor.

  Now flat against one corner of the room, the fallen bookshelf blocking her way to the door, Heather felt her heart pounding in her chest as she looked warily at the remaining bookshelf still standing.

  “What happened?” Ginny yelled from the doorway.

  Instead of answering, Heather looked back to Caitlin still hovering by the last standing bookshelf. In the next moment, Caitlin vanished.

  “Brian, Heather Donovan is here to see you,” Joe announced when he walked into the break room.

  Brian, who sat at the table, looked up from the coffee and frowned. “Heather’s here?”

  “She’s up front. Said it was important, that you were the only one she wanted to talk to. I have to admit, I am curious.”

  Brian stood up and left his coffee sitting on the table. Leaving Joe in the break room, he stepped out to the hall and headed for the front lobby. When he got there, he found Heather, visibly shaken, pacing by the front desk.

  “Heather? What’s wrong?” Brian asked.

  Heather resisted the temptation to jump into Brian’s arms and instead glanced over his right shoulder and spied Joe walking down the hall in their direction.

  “I need to talk to you, alone,” Heather whispered.

  With a nod, Brian took Heather by the arm and led her down the hallway, past Joe, and back to the break room. When they entered, he shut the door and locked it. The next moment Heather flew into his arms.

  “I almost got killed by a freaking ghost!” Heather blurted, holding tightly to Brian.

  “You what?” Brian asked, pulling away from Heather and placing his hands on her shoulders. He looked into her eyes.

  “Caitlin. That crazy ghost tried to kill me with a bookshelf!”

  Brian eased Heather into a chair at the table and urged her to calm down. He brought her a glass of water, and after a moment she took a deep breath and recounted what had happened to her since meeting Ginny at the museum.

  “I almost went to Chris’s house. I needed to tell someone. But I figured he would just say he told me so. He wanted to go with me. And I don’t think Walt and Danielle are home yet.”

  “So I wasn’t your first choice?” Brian gently teased. He now sat in a chair next to her, holding one of her hands.

  Heather shrugged. “You were my first non-medium choice.”

  Brian smiled.

  “But dang, does this mean I’m not an innocent? I thought I was a good person,” Heather grumbled.

  “What are you talking about?” Brian asked.

  “Eva always said a ghost couldn’t hurt an innocent.”

  “If you think about it, you didn’t get hurt. Shaken up, but not hurt.”

  “Yeah, but only because I jumped out of the way at the last minute. I sprained my ankle.” She looked down at her right ankle, stretched out her leg, and then turned her foot from side to side.

  “You didn’t sprain your ankle. You walked back here from the front without a problem,” Brian reminded her.

  “I was running on adrenaline,” Heather argued.

  Brian leaned forward and kissed Heather’s nose.

  “Joe might walk in,” Heather noted
.

  “I locked the door.”

  “Oh.” Heather leaned toward Brian and dropped a kiss on his mouth.

  “You know, we can’t stay in here and make out,” Brian said.

  “Why not?”

  Brian grinned and then asked, “What did Ginny say when she saw the bookshelf on the floor?”

  Heather leaned back in the chair, Brian no longer holding her hand. “She freaked, tried to figure out what had happened. At first, I’m sure she thought I had somehow done it, but I told her I saw it shaking, so I stood up and then jumped back just in time.”

  “So you lied?”

  Heather shrugged. “What else was I going to do?”

  “You should not go back there.”

  “I agree with you.”

  Twenty-Five

  When Brian unlocked and opened the break room door, he came face-to-face with Joe, who stood in the hallway as if ready to open the door.

  “Thanks for your help, Brian,” Heather said as she marched into the hall, giving Joe a perfunctory nod and a curt, “Goodbye, Joe.”

  Joe watched Heather walk down the hallway while Brian picked up his now cold cup of coffee from the table and carried it to the sink.

  “What was that about?” Joe asked, walking into the room. “And why was the door closed?”

  “Obviously we wanted some privacy,” Brian said, rinsing out his cup.

  “What’s going on with you two?” Joe asked.

  “I told you, we’re friends. She had a problem and needed someone to talk to.” Brian refilled his now rinsed cup.

  “You mean like a bookshelf almost falling on her?” Joe asked.

  Brian frowned to Joe. “How do you know about that?”

  “I just talked to Kelly on the phone. Ginny called her all upset, said Heather was over at her house, and the bookshelf in her study fell over and could have killed someone. She said Heather claimed it fell over on its own. But Ginny doesn’t see how that is possible.”

  “It could have been a minor earthquake,” Brian suggested.

  “We didn’t have an earthquake,” Joe said.

  “I don’t always feel earthquakes, but it doesn’t mean there wasn’t one nearby.”

  “Kelly checked after talking with Ginny. There were no reported earthquakes in the area.”

  “What does she think happened?” Brian asked.

  “That Heather tried to move it for some reason. Why was Heather over there in the first place?” Joe asked.

  “Ginny had invited her over to look at her vintage magazine collection.”

  “Which was destroyed when the bookshelf fell. She’s sick about it,” Joe said.

  “Heather didn’t say anything about the magazines being destroyed,” Brian said.

  “Probably because she raced out of there after the bookshelf fell over. I guess Heather had asked her for a drink of water, and when Ginny left to get it for her, the bookshelf fell. She’s pretty upset.”

  “Yeah, well, Heather was upset too. Imagine minding your own business, reading some magazines, and you almost get killed when a bookshelf falls over. Ginny’s just covering her butt since Heather hurt her ankle. She’s probably afraid Heather might sue.”

  “Heather hurt her ankle?”

  Brian shrugged. “She thought she sprained it, but I’m sure it’s okay. But still, Ginny didn’t know that.”

  “When did Heather get interested in vintage magazines?” Joe asked.

  “Heather’s interested in lots of different things.”

  Walking to her car in the police station parking lot, Heather debated going straight home or stopping over at Chris’s house. Now that she had calmed down after almost being squished under a bookshelf, she felt she could discuss the matter with Chris. Or perhaps she would see if Walt and Danielle had gotten home yet. At least with them, she could mention speaking to Brian about the incident. While Chris understood Brian knew about ghosts, she didn’t feel he would understand her relationship with Brian. As she reached her car, she asked herself, What is my relationship with Brian?

  While trying to answer the question, she dug around in her purse, looking for her car keys. Just as she found them, a voice said, “You could have been killed.”

  Heather turned to the voice and looked into the gray eyes of a scraggly-looking young man wearing worn jeans and a faded blue T-shirt.

  “Excuse me?” Heather asked.

  “If you found what I think you did in the mountains, it belongs to Caitlin,” he said.

  “You know about Caitlin?” Heather asked.

  “I know she wouldn’t be happy with you snooping around. Looking into things that are none of your business. Whatever you found, you can’t have it. It’s not right,” he said. “It doesn’t belong to you.”

  “Who are you?” Heather asked.

  “I’m a friend who doesn’t want to see anyone hurt.” He turned and hurried away.

  Heather watched him leave and noted the car he got into before he drove away. Shaken, she unlocked her car door, got into the vehicle, and locked the door. After shoving the key in the ignition, she pulled out her cellphone and dialed Brian.

  “That was quick,” Brian said when he answered the call. “You’re not home yet, are you?”

  “No. I’m still in the parking lot. I just had the strangest encounter.” She told him about the young man who had approached her, describing him and his vehicle.

  “That sounds like Cory Jones,” Brian said.

  “Why does that name sound familiar?” Heather asked.

  “We were talking about him the other night. He lives next door to Ginny and was friends with Caitlin. Cory’s the one who found the body.”

  “The way he talks, I wonder if he’s like me,” Heather asked.

  “He is a little odd,” Brian said.

  “I didn’t mean like me in that way,” she said with a snort.

  Heather went straight home from the police station and fed Bella. She called Danielle to see if she and Walt were back from Astoria.

  “I was getting ready to call you and see if you were okay,” Danielle said.

  “What do you mean?” Heather asked.

  “I just got off the phone with Lily, who said Kelly told Ian you were at Ginny Thomas’s house, and a bookshelf about fell on you. You didn’t do anything to the bookshelf, did you?”

  “No. But Caitlin did,” Heather said.

  “Why don’t you come over. Chris is here now, he worried about you going to Ginny’s, and then I told him what Lily told me. Lily and Ian are on their way over here. We’re ordering pizza.”

  “I’ll be right there,” Heather said.

  The Beach Drive mediums, along with Lily and Ian, sat around the dining room table at Marlow House while Connor played on the floor nearby with Sadie. By the time the pizza arrived, Walt, Danielle, and Heather had each told the others about their recent ghostly encounters.

  “That does not make me feel terrific about Caitlin almost killing Heather,” Lily said.

  “Thanks, I think,” Heather grumbled.

  Lily looked to Heather and said, “It’s just that Eva is always telling us ghosts can’t hurt innocents.”

  “We were talking about Heather, not an innocent,” Chris teased.

  “Oh, shut up,” Heather snapped. “Anyway, like Brian said, she didn’t hurt me, she just shook me up.”

  Chris and the others looked at Heather. Chris arched his brow. “Brian? When did you tell Brian about this?”

  Heather shrugged. She figured bigmouth Joe would tell Kelly, who would tell Ian. “I sorta stopped by the police station after it happened. Like I said, I was shook up, and I needed someone to talk to, and the police station was close by.”

  “Brian?” Chris snickered.

  “Anyway, when I was there, I had a strange encounter with someone named Cory Jones.” Heather told them what Cory had said.

  “That’s weird. Is Cory a medium?” Danielle asked.

  “Sounded like it,” Heather sa
id.

  “What I’m wondering, is it safe for Ginny to be in the house with Caitlin?” Ian asked. “I sure don’t like the idea of my sister going over there.”

  “Why, isn’t Kelly an innocent?” Heather snarked.

  Lily giggled, and Ian gave his wife a harsh look.

  “Oh, come on, Ian, you have to admit that was funny,” Lily teased.

  “I don’t call someone almost getting killed by a bookshelf funny,” Ian said.

  “Actually, that part wasn’t too funny. Scared the crap out of me,” Heather said.

  “I wish Marie or Eva would show up,” Danielle said. “Where are they?”

  “One problem with ghosts, they lose track of time,” Chris reminded her.

  “Eva or Marie need to handle Caitlin. It doesn’t sound like she’s aware she’s dead, and while I’m fairly certain the universe won’t let her antics hurt Ginny, she can still do a lot of damage,” Danielle said.

  “Not trying to be funny, we really don’t know if Ginny is an innocent or not. But if she isn’t, then I guess it’s the universe’s call,” Heather said.

  “We need Eva and Marie to handle her and help her move on,” Danielle said.

  “I told you not to go over there alone,” Chris told Heather. She responded with an eye roll.

  “I suppose Marie or Eva can also figure out if Cory is a medium,” Lily said.

  “Or just creepy.” Heather snorted. “By the way, according to Brian, Cory is the one who found Caitlin’s body. Brian was on that call. He said he couldn’t figure out who was more hysterical, her mother or Cory.”

  “You’ve sure been chatty with Brian a lot,” Chris noted.

  Heather glared at Chris. “So?”

  “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m curious to find out what happened to this Teddy guy,” Lily said. “Are you planning to talk to his second wife’s ghost again?”

  “It was obvious she did not want to talk to us,” Walt said. “She knows more about what happened that day, but I don’t imagine she’ll talk to us again. Maybe Eva or Marie can get her to open up.”