Dead Man Talking

by Jana DeLeon

  “I hope it doesn’t involve Monte’s boat. He’s horrible at cleaning. You can smell the thing a mile away.”

  “Well, if it does, we’ll have all afternoon to shower.”

  “The cats would probably love it.”

  Zoe nodded, the question that had been hovering in her mind finally making its way out. “You really can talk to them, can’t you? I mean, I’ve seen well-trained animals—my news station did a special on performance animals a couple months ago—but your relationship with the cats is a whole different thing.”

  “Communication with them is my gift. I’ll admit that it’s a bit odd and unfortunately, plays into that whole crazy cat lady thing, but we don’t get to pick our magic.”

  Zoe had refused to believe Sapphire when she’d claimed an unearthly affinity for chatting with the cats, although Zoe would have been the first to say that her aunt was gifted at training them. But in the past six years, Sapphire had seriously upped her game, especially with that whole toilet training thing.

  Cornelius had forced Zoe to reexamine her narrow views. Or perhaps normal views was a better way to put it. Being face-to-face with a real talking ghost tended to make one reconsider a lot of things. Now she was reassessing every absurd claim she’d ever heard an Everlasting resident make and wondering how many were true, even partially so.

  “Can they talk back?” Zoe asked. “I mean, I know they talk but do you understand what they’re saying?”

  “Not in the way that I understand you. There are no words, but I feel their emotions and it allows me to understand what they’re trying to communicate.”

  “But they understand your words.”

  Sapphire nodded. “I think at one time, I probably had an ancestor who could understand their language. Maybe the gift decreases as it passes on from generation to generation or maybe the gift is altered by the person it inhabits. Our biology is all the same but all different, so that would make sense. After all, aspirin can react different ways in different people.”

  “That’s an interesting thought. You’ve never found anything in the journals about an ancestor who had an affinity for animals?”

  “Unfortunately, no. It was the first thing I searched the journals for, hoping to find ways to increase my own skill. I thought perhaps the innate ability could be honed, bettered, if I had instruction, and perhaps that’s the way it used to be also. Back when people believed and weren’t so dismissive.”

  Guilt coursed through Zoe. She’d never been dismissive of her aunt’s beliefs but she’d humored her, and that was just as condescending.

  “I’m sorry I never really believed you,” Zoe said.

  Sapphire squeezed her hand. “Please don’t apologize for wanting to be a normal person with normal family. Very few believe. In Everlasting, the percentage of the population that believe in or have gifts themselves is much higher than normal, but the disbelievers are growing every day.”

  “Probably because with every generation we get more jaded and convinced we know better. Like me.”

  Sapphire smiled. “You’re not nearly as bad as some. But you definitely got your father’s stubborn streak.”

  “Does he have an ability?” Zoe asked.

  “I don’t think so. I’ve watched all these years, of course, in case his gift was latent and was going to show up later in life. Mine didn’t until I was twenty-eight.”

  “Really? So you were my age?”

  Sapphire was silent for several seconds. “The gift tends to act the same way along bloodlines. The journals contain few references to gifts but they were mostly written by men. The ones that were written by women all hint to changes that happened but not until they were approaching thirty years old.”

  Sapphire’s tone changed as she talked, growing more serious, less conversational, and suddenly Zoe realized why.

  “You think I have a gift, don’t you?” Zoe asked. “The women in our family acquire their gift around the age I am now, so you think it’s going to show up.”

  “I think it already has.”

  “Why? Because of Cornelius? You told me women with lineage in Everlasting can usually see him. My seeing him doesn’t prove anything more than you seeing him does.”

  “It’s not Cornelius. It’s the weather.”

  “What about it?” Maybe that hit on the head that Sapphire had taken had done more damage than they thought.

  “You haven’t noticed the odd things happening with the weather? Think about it. The night you arrived the forecast was completely clear yet a thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere. The same thing happened right after your frustrating conversation with Deputy February. Then there was the hail. Even if you want to dismiss the first two as flukes, you of all people know better than to dismiss that hailstorm.”

  Zoe stared. “You think I made those things happen? That somehow I can influence the weather?”

  “When I was talking to people today, I checked. That hail only fell on my property. No one else saw even a tiny sliver of ice.”

  Zoe shook her head, afraid to say anything. Afraid of the uneasy feeling in her stomach.

  “You’ve always been fascinated with the weather,” Sapphire said. “Even when you were a child, you’d beg your parents to let you stand in the garage and watch the storms blow in. You’ve made it your life’s work. Even before you started coming into your gift, there was something inside you that knew.”

  Zoe looked out the windshield at the clear blue sky. It wasn’t possible and yet somehow, she knew what her aunt said was the truth.

  “You’re saying that if I figure out how to control it, I could whip up a storm sitting here in this parking lot?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “But you just said—”

  “I think you influence the weather, but I don’t know how far that influence extends. Cats outside of Everlasting don’t understand me, and I don’t feel anything from them.”

  “Why would that be?”

  Sapphire shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because of the emerald. Maybe the power of that stone is what makes everything in Everlasting possible but its reach only goes so far.”

  “I—I just—”

  Zoe stopped talking when she saw Monte’s truck pull around the corner of the parking lot and head their way. It was probably just as well. She needed some time to think about everything Sapphire had said.

  “What’s that in the back of his truck?” Sapphire asked.

  Zoe leaned forward and squinted. “It looks like crates.”

  When Monte pulled up next to her, she could clearly see the wooden crates with the name of an appliance manufacturer stamped on the side.

  “Your kitchen appliances were delivered today,” Zoe said. “That must be the crates they came in. But surely he doesn’t expect us to ride in those things back to the lighthouse.”

  “It’s not a bad idea, really. At least as not looking suspicious.”

  Zoe climbed out of the car and gave Monte and Sam a wave as she walked over to his truck. Monte pointed to the crates.

  “Pretty smart, huh?” Monte asked.

  “If you like bouncing around on a block of wood,” Zoe said.

  “Oh, Dane took care of that. We lined the bottoms with the cushions from Sapphire’s outdoor furniture.”

  “Come on,” Sapphire said, and climbed into the back of the truck. “It will be an adventure.”

  “Says the woman who does yoga.” Zoe sighed and followed Sapphire into the truck. Monte and Sam joined them and removed the side panels from the two crates.

  Zoe leaned down to check it out. It wasn’t horribly small and there were two cushions on the bottom. She could probably sit cross-legged on one and use the other for her back. Still, it was a good thing neither of them were claustrophobic. The crates had tiny narrow cracks between the slats of wood that would allow in some light, but basically, they were going to be closed in a small box.

  “Age before beauty,” Sapphire said and crawled inside the box,
positioning the cushions exactly as Zoe had figured she would. Once she was seated, she gave Monte a thumbs-up and they attached the panel to the front of the crate.

  Zoe shook her head and crawled inside the box. It took her several seconds to get positioned, then Monte and Sam closed her up and she sat in semidarkness wondering where things had gone so wrong. Last week, if anyone had told her she’d be locked in a crate on the back of a pickup truck, contemplating her supposed ability to control the weather, while waiting to perform a takedown of criminals with her ex-lover, she would have asked what they were smoking.

  But here she was.

  Everlasting proving once again that truth was stranger than fiction.

  The unloading process proved a bit more difficult than the loading. Dane had Monte pull his truck around to the back of the lighthouse, then the three men managed to lift the crates off the back of the truck and onto the ground. There was a slight drop right there at the end and Zoe was thankful for the cushions. Then she was tilted sideways onto a dolly and wheeled into the lighthouse.

  Sapphire was already bent over touching her toes when Zoe crawled out of her crate and rose to a standing position, probably with far less grace than her aunt had managed. Monte and Sam were both grinning at them like they’d reeled in the catch of the day, and Zoe couldn’t help but smile back at them. The past twenty-four hours were probably the most exciting they’d had in years.

  “Are you all right?” Dane asked.

  “Fantastic,” Sapphire said. “I meditated on the way here, and now I’m relaxed and ready for a power nap.”

  “I ate two cinnamon rolls on the way,” Zoe said, “so I’m ready for a power nap as well.”

  Dane smiled. “I was afraid you might be mad about the unorthodox travel arrangements.”

  She shrugged. “It was clever. If the thieves were watching, there’s no way they would have guessed. That’s all that matters.”

  Sapphire went over to Monte and Sam and gave them each a hug and kiss on the cheek. The old fishermen looked pleased and just a little embarrassed.

  “Thank you for helping with this,” she said. “If you all don’t mind, I’m going to head upstairs for a hot shower and some rest.”

  “I should get upstairs as well,” Zoe said. “Thank you guys. I owe you a beer.”

  “Make it a whiskey,” Monte said, “and you’ve got a deal.”

  “Whiskey it is,” Zoe said.

  “Do you need me to bring anything upstairs for you?”

  Zoe shook her head. The last thing she wanted was Dane in her bedroom. She’d just spent thirty minutes closed in a box with nothing but the cinnamon rolls and her own thoughts, several featuring the man in front of her. What she needed was more space and less noise to try to make sense of them all.

  “If you could just grab me a soda from the fridge,” she said, “I’ll take it up with me.”

  “A bottled water for me,” Sapphire said.

  Dane retrieved the drinks and the two of them headed up the stairs. They stopped on the landing at Zoe’s room, and Sapphire studied her for a couple seconds, then hugged her.

  “You look like you needed it,” Sapphire said. “I know things are weighing heavy on you. I can see it in your eyes. I can feel the burden you bear like it’s my own. But the decisions you have to make are ones I can’t help you with. They have to come from your heart and not the desires of an old woman. I love you, Zoe. And all I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy.”

  Zoe’s chest constricted and she kissed her aunt on the cheek. “I love you too.”

  Sapphire nodded and headed upstairs. Zoe watched until she rounded the stairs and went out of sight before going into her bedroom and closing the door behind her. First, she would take a long hot shower to loosen up her back and neck. Then she planned on crawling into bed and thinking about her life until they were stiff again.

  She gave it five minutes, tops.

  Two hours later, Zoe sat cross-legged on the bed, her laptop in front of her. She read the email one more time before moving the pointer to the Send button. She hesitated, biting her lip. This was it. This one click would change not just her entire life but her entire life’s plan. It would erase six years of hard work with the first sentence.

  Consider this notice of my resignation.

  She tapped her finger once on the track pad and flopped back against the pillows she’d stacked up behind her. She closed her eyes and waited for the horror of what she’d done to hit her, but instead of the intense regret and overwhelming what-have-I-done feeling that she expected, she felt only one thing.

  Relief.

  And what does that tell you?

  She knew the answer but it was hard to admit that she’d made a mistake. That the one thing she’d thought would make her happy, wouldn’t. That the city she’d thought she’d love, she hadn’t. The truth was, she’d been pursuing the job with such a single-minded focus that she’d never stopped to consider whether she still should. As for LA, she was certain it was perfect for some people. Just not for her.

  She’d been there six years and didn’t have a single person she could honestly call a friend. Plenty of acquaintances, but no one she confided in. She’d been to the beach exactly four times, and two of them were for her job. She couldn’t afford a bunch of designer items, so the shopping wasn’t a draw, and even though the die-hards loved California for the weather, she actually missed the cold. Sure, it was a horrible pain in the rear to shovel drives and maneuver vehicles on ice, but that first snow of the season was always so beautiful. That light blanket of white covering everything in sight, casting the entire town in a different light.

  And then there was the pull of Everlasting.

  She hadn’t wanted to admit it, but ever since she’d looked up at the lighthouse that first night, she’d had the overwhelming feeling of belonging. That this was her place. She knew that nostalgia and love for Sapphire were a big part of her feelings, but the core sense of rightness went so much deeper than that.

  And then there was Dane. She’d thought time would erase her feelings, but it had only hidden them from her conscious mind. But her love for him had still resided deep inside, just waiting for the right time to bubble up. In LA she’d managed to keep it at bay, but returning to Everlasting was the only catalyst it needed to leak out into her consciousness. When he’d kissed her, she thought it meant he’d felt the same, but she couldn’t be certain. It might have been familiarity that had drawn him to her during an emotionally charged moment. Which meant that regardless of her feelings for him, Dane wasn’t necessarily a part of her future.

  So, taking stock, she currently had no job and no man, but she had a place to live and her aunt contending Zoe had the magical ability to influence the weather. If nothing turned up on the job front, she could always fall back on charging farmers for bringing rain. Given that she could be working with limited range, she might not make enough to fund a 401(k), but she could probably keep Sapphire in the ingredients for baked goods. On the plus side of things, despite LA’s high cost of living, she had quite a bit of savings—probably because she’d done more working than living. And since her apartment was so small, she didn’t have a lot of things to pack.

  She blew out a breath. Closing in on thirty, single, unemployed, and living with her aunt and ten cats. She’d become a collection of walking stereotypes.

  But at the moment, none of that mattered. Right now, the only important thing was catching the thieves. She could figure the rest of it out later…when all she had was time.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “You can come down now,” Dane called from the bottom of the stairs.

  Zoe and Sapphire had been waiting for his call on the second-floor landing. It was the end of his official workday, and he was securing the lighthouse, which meant closing the blinds and drawing the drapes. Now they could go downstairs without worrying that someone would see them.

  When they reached the first floor, Zoe gasped and moved out
of the way for Sapphire to see her kitchen. The backsplash still needed to be installed, but the white Carrara marble countertops were so beautiful against the soft green cabinets that Zoe couldn’t believe it was the same old brown kitchen that had been here before.

  “It’s gorgeous,” Sapphire said, moving forward to run her hands along the counter. “When you showed me the materials, I knew it was going to be, but it’s so much more than I even thought it would be.”

  “Wait until I get the backsplash done,” Dane said.

  “I’m definitely sleeping down here then,” Sapphire said. “Or maybe I’ll just skip the sleeping and spend all night baking.”

  Dane smiled. “Let me get it finished, then you can go all nocturnal.”

  “Speaking of nocturnal activities,” Zoe said, anxious to get on with the plan and get things back to normal.

  Dane went into the laundry room and returned with a rifle. “I had Monte and Sam pick this up from my house earlier. You were a good shot with skeet,” he said to Zoe. “I don’t suppose you’ve done much shooting in California, though.”

  Zoe took the rifle from him. “No, but I haven’t forgotten how. Besides, all I should have to do is point. I’m sorta hoping to avoid any actual shooting.”

  “Me too,” Dane agreed. “But we need a big enough threat to keep them in place and this should do it. The sun is going to set in about twenty minutes, so I’m going to head home. It should be dark by the time I get back. I’ll use the shoreline to come back and approach the lighthouse from the beach. I turned the front porch light on but intentionally left the back one off. It’s cloudy so I should be able to get back inside without being seen.”

  Dane’s cell phone rang and he checked the display. “It’s Monte.”

  He answered the call and frowned. When he hung up, he looked over at them. “Monte said the Belmont brothers were in the bar this afternoon and Frank Belmont had a black eye. Sam asked him what the other guy looked like and he just scowled at him.”

  “It was the hail,” Sapphire said.