by Kim Hornsby
She was right, but I didn’t like that she’d grabbed the tablet from Eve, so I needed to be clear of this before I gave in. “Did she grab the thing from you, Eve?”
“Sort of,” Eve said, always afraid of my mother’s aggressive actions.
“Give it back to Eve, Mother, and ask her nicely for it.” I said this forcefully, knowing I had Rachel’s lie to Ron floating around in the room with us.
My mother must’ve done just that because the next thing I knew she asked for the tablet. “May I have it?”
“Bryn?” Eve asked. I loved my cousin for stretching this out like the badass she is.
“Yes, you may, Eve.”
“Oh honestly, you two,” my mother said. “I’m sorry Ron. You’d think they were ten years old.”
I smiled and had to think Eve was smiling to have made my mother say this. “I’d like to hear what I wrote, when you find a translator,” I said, cheerfully.
“Of course,” Ron said.
I reached to shake his hand and as our palms touched, I sensed something from Ron that wasn’t related to the case. Something I wasn’t happy to discover. I sensed that someone waited for him tonight.
A woman.
His wife.
Chapter 9
If Ron was married, I had to wonder if Rachel knew. Did she find out and that was why she was now burrowing in at Floatville? As we stood in the driveway in the pouring rain saying goodbye to my mother, I sensed she was withholding something. I hoped it wasn’t that her boyfriend had a tan line around his left-hand ring finger.
“Are you going to sleep at Ron’s?” I asked. Rain pelted the mega-umbrella I held over us.
“Ron’s going to work at the station. Maybe I’ll come to Floatville with you.”
Eve had told me earlier that Rachel’s house next door looked normal. Front light on, lawn recently mowed. The exterminators who’d had her house tented had to be long gone by now. Bugs too. Why wasn’t she going home? My mother had a perfectly nice house with three bedrooms. “Why do you need to come home with us? Come on, Mother. Spill.” She’d indicated last weekend when she left Cove House, although she wasn’t fond of his small apartment, she’d been spending nights with Ron or at her house. This was strange. “Why not run across the driveway to your own house, Mother?” What was this woman not telling me?
“I’d like to wake up with you guys, make you breakfast.”
“Lie.”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“Another lie.”
She dug in her arsenal of untruths to find something else to try but I wanted to get in the van and out of the rain. “Mother, you can come back with us and sleep with me and Hodor but I’m going to have to know the truth.” I’d had enough lies from this woman for a lifetime of forgiveness. Now I needed to know why she wasn’t going home or to her boyfriend’s place.
“I’ll tell you when we get to Floatville. Let’s get out of the rain,” she said.
“Nope.” The drive would give my mother enough time to think up a story.
“I rented my house. Money is tight.”
That made more sense than a two-week exterminator.
“And Ron’s?”
“We had a fight.”
“That’s all I needed to know,” I said. “Let’s go.” My mother helped me into The Marshmallow where Eve and Carlos waited.
“She’s coming to Floatville with us,” I said. “Her house is rented out and she fought with Ron.”
“Bryndle!” My mother sounded horrified that I’d given up her secrets.
“What? They’ll know eventually why you aren’t going home at least. How long is your house rented for?” I was thinking Airbnb for the week.
“A one-year lease.” My mother sounded like it was no big deal when really it was a huge deal to me.
The only sound inside the van was Hodor licking something, probably on his back end, and sounding like he was really getting it clean.
“Where did you think you would live, Rachel, for that year?” My voice didn’t sound as bitchy as I wanted it to.
Carlos pulled out of the driveway and turned onto the street, the windshield wipers swiping like a metronome on the glass.
“You have two residences. I thought I’d go between.”
I gulped down my initial response about not assuming I’d take her in. You did not need to be a psychic to know that Carlos was waiting for the poop to hit the fan, or that Eve was groaning inside and saying a silent prayer that I’d refuse my mother entry to our lives.
Rachel continued. “If you’ll have me.” Her voice sounded weak. She didn’t sound like the battle axe she was. I knew this woman to be fierce, aggressive, inconsiderate. At least with me. She rarely backed down from an argument, or caved on anything, even when she realized she was wrong. Hearing her ask us if we’d have her melted something in me that I’d set up a decade ago to defend myself against. “We’ll have you. For a few days until we figure out what to do with you. But we will not have you for a year, Mother.”
***
It was too cramped for all four of us and a large dog at Floatville. And our increasing collection of gear. We needed to work, edit a paranormal show even though Ron had called to remind us that we were not to air anything from Mrs. G’s house, a stipulation that had been set before we walked into her house last night. We’d be charged with interfering with an ongoing investigation. Blah, blah, blah.
“Let me know when I can air the footage,” I said. “I’m thinking next month.”
He hadn’t asked to speak with Rachel and hung up before I could ask if he’d like to. After having her snore in my bed for the last five hours of supposed sleep, I wanted these two to make up and get back together but not if he was married. I’d almost asked her last night if that was what the fight was about but chickened out when my mother started crying and sniffing after she turned out the lights. If I’d been a really good daughter, I might have asked her what was wrong and we’d have sat up all night talking about how Ron cheated on her or how she worried he might have a wife, but I wasn’t set up to be daughter of the year. Too much water under the bridge and all that. And although I loved my mother and cared deeply, l did not want to hear another sad tale about a man who did her wrong. I’d heard so many tales over the years, I had become immune to tears and sob stories about lovers.
Rachel was still sleeping, not in any hurry to get out of bed, when I woke the next morning at ten. She wasn’t an early riser like me and had always loved to lie around in bed for hours in the morning, drifting in and out of consciousness. Like a cat.
Carlos, Eve, and I had breakfast at my little table, munching on blueberry bagels and cream cheese and something Eve called Surprise Fruit Salad. “I hope the surprise isn’t that the fruit is fuzzy and green,” I’d said.
“Negatory. It’s fresh produce from the joint on the corner.” Eve had just done a grocery run in anticipation of being at Floatville a few days.
But now that we were seated around the table, eating and talking about last night’s investigation, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in this fifteen hundred-square-foot houseboat and work.
Also, in the wee hours of the morning, while trying to find sleep, I’d worried that if Caspian was going to find me again, I might need to be at Cove House. That was his home. It had to be easier for him in the house he’d inhabited for over a century.
I’d wondered, more than once, if he couldn’t reach me because I wasn’t doing much to find his bones, something that had been part of our original deal if he’d stick around to give me sight. Now that he’d given my psychic sight back to me, and who knew how that happened, I felt beholden to use my abilities to find out where he actually died on the property. I hadn’t done that yet because the thought of his death left me feeling so despondent that I kept pushing the idea to the back corners of my mind. I did not look forward to investigating the death of this man and feeling his last moments as the life was sucked from his living body.
“Cantaloupe,” I said to Eve.
“Correct,” she countered through a mouthful of something. “That’s the surprise.”
“What time do you think the witch of the west will rise from her slumbers?” Carlos asked.
“I’ll make her get out of bed by noon,” I said stabbing something else in my fruit bowl. “I’m not exactly feeling sorry for her, but I sensed something from Ron last night that I did not like. I wish I knew exactly what it was.”
“She said they fought. Maybe you should try to get them to make up today.” Eve did not want Rachel in-house any more than I did.
“That’s the plan. If my mother can lie about her house being exterminated, I wonder what else she’s got up her sleeve.” I felt a little queasy as I put a chunk of something squishy in my mouth and tasted the sweetness of a ripe strawberry. Hodor jingled the string of bells by the door to indicate he needed to go outside. There were four people in this house--three who could take him outside and one of them was asleep.
“My turn,” Eve said rising from her chair.
“You know what?” I ventured. “I’ve been practicing going down the dock. Put the harness on him and let’s see if he can lead me to his grassy spot in the parking lot.” I stood and flicked out TapTap as an added precaution, finding my way to the coat hooks at the door. “Just a minute Hodor. Mommy is going to try this. Don’t lead me off the dock please.” I stuck my arms in armholes, realized the thing was upside down, laughed and tried again, all while Eve strapped the harness around my dog.
“Think he can pee in that thing?” Carlos asked.
“Does it cover his… area?”
“Nope,” Eve said.
“Well then he probably can.” I took the handle, opened the door, and walked outside with Hodor. “I’m not closing the door behind me in case one of you needs to do a deep-water rescue from the ocean,” I called back, taking off down the dock with my sweet dog lumbering slowly beside me.
The trip to the parking lot was dry and uneventful. Forty-two steps. When my feet hit the gravel, I praised my dog. “Good Boy. Now go peepee.” Hodor had a favorite spot on the other side of the lot where he sniffed and eventually emptied his bladder and anything else that needed emptying. It was when I switched to holding Hodor’s leash to give him some freedom, that I heard the swish above my head. It sounded like wings flapping and as they got closer, I knew it was the crow. Stretching out my arm for it to land, I waited. When it hit my arm and hopped to my shoulder, there was a deep sense of satisfaction for me. Eve had shooed this thing away, but I liked the bird. I was pretty sure it was the same bird I always encountered at Floatville. Maybe the crow had once been someone’s pet and was used to people. I didn’t get any sense of its past but with the weight on my left shoulder I stood very still.
“Who are you, Crow?” I whispered. “I’m going to name you if you don’t stop landing on me.”
With that, it took off.
I stood thinking about a name anyhow and decided if it ever did that landing stunt again, I’d call the crow Mr. Blackwell, Wells, for short. Hodor pulled on his retractable leash and I thought about how life on a houseboat was a bum deal for a Labrador retriever who belonged to a blind lady. I couldn’t take him to the park anymore or to the beach, not alone anyhow, and the house was small for a dog who loved to run. Cove House was better for him in so many ways. Probably for me too. Especially because it was where I had vision when Caspian showed up.
Since the accident, I hadn’t seen Floatville. Caspian had never come to me there. Thinking about that while Hodor did his thing, I made the decision to wake my mother, get her and Ron to either make up, or him to come clean about a wife, and head to Cove House later today. With or without Rachel.
I had to find Caspian’s bones.
Chapter 10
Rachel decided to come with us to Oregon, simply saying that Ron needed time to think about things. I decided not to press her, especially because I sensed she didn’t want to talk in front of Eve and Carlos. She said she didn’t want to be alone at Floatville, so when we loaded up and moved out, my mother was in the backseat with Eve, keeping abnormally quiet the whole way.
By the time we pulled through the town of Smuggler’s Cove, I’d had a two-hour nap and had to apologize to Carlos. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you, Dude. Last night took a lot out of me. Two investigations in two nights is too much.” Apparently automatic writing was like being occupied by a ghost and left me down a pint.
“What was the secret you found from Gibson?” Rachel asked as Carlos turned the van and slowed. I was pretty sure my mother wanted currency to use with Ron but I had no way of actually knowing that.
“I was just messing with him,” I said. “Did he look nervous?”
“Ha!” My mother was amused. “That’s my girl.”
“Ron’s partner looked like you were about to expose that he cross-dresses, let’s just say,” Carlos added.
“There’s Spook Central and Jimmy’s here already,” Eve said happily. She’d asked if Jimmy Big Ears could come visit this week. He was between jobs and had a few days off. “He wants to see me,” she’d said. “We’re kind of in a relationship.”
“You’re telling a psychic this?” I’d joked. “Yes of course he can come, but I don’t know if we have enough bedrooms for him to sleep in his own room.” Eve snort laughed at that one.
As soon as we parked, she burst from the van. Rachel helped me hook up Hodor in his harness and I let my dog lead me up the stairs to the front door of my house. Cove House was beginning to feel like home. I hated to say it, but these days, it was more convenient than Floatville, especially because my posse was growing in size every week. Next, Carlos would have a relative or significant other come to stay indefinitely. It was his turn to add to our flock.
Although Eve tried to take Hodor’s job of helping me mount the stairs, I dismissed her to simply hover and watch. I had TapTap helping on the other side just in case something stood in my way. I wasn’t completely trusting of Hodor’s guide dog abilities. Not yet.
Inside the door, I hung up my coat on the Thingie hook and felt Hodor stay at my left hip. “That’s my boy,” I smiled. Every day as a blind person I got a tiny bit more independent from Eve and anyone else I employed to help me get around. Rachel had assured me that she’d try to sleep in her own room tonight, the one she’d shared with Ron and as she nervously took her bags upstairs, I grabbed Hodor’s handle. “Kitchen,” I said, then headed off in that direction. Soon, he’d learn to take me all over the house.
Although I was still exhausted from two nights of investigating ghosts, I wanted a cup of tea before retiring to my room for the evening. Carlos had given me a MEL meter from our stash and I now turned it on hoping I’d get something ghostly as I fumbled around the kitchen.
After taking off Hodor’s harness, I let him out the kitchen door, then put the kettle on. Just as I placed the kettle on the stove, I felt a presence in the room. “Jacqueline? I asked the room. “Are you here?” The MEL meter clicked over on the table. “Jacqueline?” I said loudly. “Is that you?” It wasn’t Caspian or I’d have sight. The room grew frosty and I felt a cold hand on my right wrist, as though it was about to pull me somewhere. I swiveled around and my arms flew out instinctively. Nothing there. I felt nothing more as the MEL meter settled and registered the magnetic field and temperature. I couldn’t see a damn thing and I had to assume the touch had not been from Caspian.
“Jacqueline, I know you have reason to hate Caspian, and it must be hell to be stuck in this house with him. My job is to help ghosts pass on and that means I can probably also help you,” I added. My voice hitched in my throat at the words that I might help this woman who’d given us nothing but grief.
Minutes passed. Tea was made. The room was warm again and still I tried to find whoever had grabbed my wrist. I sat at the table and sipped my tea. “If you are Jacqueline,” I said pretty positive it was her who’d just been here, “give me a sign
.” I listened to the sound of wind outside the house, rattling something in the distance. I was just taking another sip when the meter went off again. The kitchen chair beside me slid across the linoleum floor. “Who’s there?” Hodor scratched at the door and I got up, bumping into the chair. I let him in. The meter continued to click as I closed the door on the night’s wind.
The hand that took my wrist had a strange feel to it. “If you are not Jacqueline, give me another sign.” I walked to the table, my teaspoon clattered to the floor.
“Who are you?” I wished I could see if anything in the room changed. Hodor laid down at my feet. “I’m blind,” I said, just in case this was one of the other ghosts Caspian said inhabited the house. “If you aren’t Jacqueline, or Caspian, can you give me another sign?” I felt around on the table for the Ghost Box I’d brought in with the Mel Meter and turned it on. I hated using this thing because the noise was so intrusive, like horribly loud white noise. “Who are you?” I now had a clear idea that the ghost in the kitchen with me was neither Caspian nor Jacqueline, and my heart raced to think I was making contact with one of the other entities.
When I’d once asked Caspian who the others were, he’d changed the subject, saying they rarely got through to this world. “Did they die in this house?” I’d asked.
He’d replied that they had, long ago, and doubted that I’d ever hear from them. “Belinda didn’t.”
“I’m Bryndle. What’s your name?” I said and waited.
The Ghost Box gushed scratchy noise into the room, like a large waterfall in the spring.
Then, I heard it. Somewhere in the static, I detected something. I didn’t catch the word but assuming it wasn’t a threat, I continued. “Nice to meet you,” I said, more cheerfully than I felt. I had no idea what was said, but something was very clear to me as I sat on the edge of the kitchen chair listening to endless static.
This ghost was a child.
***
I left the kitchen, hoping to find Carlos but soon realized that everyone had gone to bed while I made tea. At least, Carlos was not in the den and as I listened with my super-hearing, I heard nothing but the creaks of Cove House. Mounting the stairs with Hodor, I contemplated waking someone to share the joy that I’d gotten a word on the Ghost Box. Maybe from a child. Eve was busy with Jimmy though and Carlos would be tired from pulling an all-nighter on Monday and a mostly all-nighter on Tuesday. I let everyone sleep.
