by Nell Dixon
Steve had moved on his chair, placing a gap between me and him. I wondered if Mary Ann planned to haunt me forever if he didn’t marry me.
“Time for a cup of tea, I think.” Lou announced. Colour had come back into her face but she continued to watch me with an anxious expression.
“Champion suggestion, we’ll give you a hand. I could murder a cuppa.” Brian, Chloe and Mike followed Lou out of the room while Beaner, Sarah and Mand huddled together at one end of the table clearly excited by their success at communicating with the dead.
“Well, that was weird and not to mention somewhat embarrassing.” I tried to break the ice with Steve. I hoped he didn’t think I’d somehow rigged this evening.
How awkward would that be if he thought I was that desperate to get back with him and get him to propose?
“Yeah, very weird.” I couldn’t tell what he might be thinking from his tone or his expression.
“It’s okay you know, you don’t really have to marry me, just because a ghost with romantic inclinations told you to.” I tried a touch of humour even though my chest ached again and I wanted him to hold me, kiss me, tell me he loved me.
“Its fine Kate, you don’t need to give me a get out clause.”
I stared into his dark eyes trying to work out what he meant.
“Tea's up!” Brian breezed back into the room carrying a tray. The others all followed behind him with Lou holding the biscuit barrel.
I turned back to ask Steve what he’d meant but he had already moved away from me to claim his mug of tea and was busy talking to Chloe.
“Talk about receiving a sign!” Lou sidled up to me munching on a custard cream.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Steve pat Chloe gently on the shoulder.
“I think Mary Ann forgot to ask Steve if he loved me.” My words came out as an agonised little comment.
Lou immediately popped the rest of her biscuit in her mouth and gave me a fierce hug.
“It’s no good Lou." I sighed. "I don’t think even ghostly intervention can put us back together now.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Lou hastily finished her biscuit and glanced across the room towards Steve.
“Don’t be so fast to write him off, Kate.”
Beaner crossed the room to join us.
“I think our work here is almost done for this evening, Kate. Brian is collecting the audio and video equipment from upstairs. Sarah and Amanda are happy to conduct a cleansing for you before we leave which should help to settle and soothe the house.”
“Do you think she’s at peace now, Mary Ann?” I don’t know why I asked except it seemed important.
“My guide tells me her purpose has been accomplished,” Beaner said gravely.
Okay then. “Um, thank you.”
“No, it’s I who must thank you. It has been a privilege to communicate with Mary Ann Bean.” He favoured me with another of his scary smiles before gliding back across the room towards Mand and Sarah.
“That bloke gives me the willies.” Lou gave a little shudder.
Brian and Mike left the room, presumably to retrieve the electronic equipment.
Meanwhile Sarah and Mand placed a small brass dish on the table and an incense burner. They placed some sticks in the burner and lit them with a match. Within minutes the slightly sickly fragrance of incense began to fill the air. They then produced what looked like a bundle of pale, dead grass and lit it. Once it began to smoulder and smoke they moved around the room wafting it around the fireplace and the doorframe before leaving the room to presumably do the same thing elsewhere in the house.
“Sage, to cleanse the atmosphere,” Beaner explained as he followed after them.
I hoped it wouldn’t set the newly installed smoke detectors off. I didn’t want to stay in the same room as Steve and Chloe. It hurt too much to see them with their heads together talking intimately in the corner of the room. Instead I collected the tray of mugs and headed for the kitchen. Lou picked up the biscuits and accompanied me.
The darkened kitchen was empty but smelled of burned grass and incense. I dumped the tray on the worktop and sucked in a breath. At least in here I could take advantage of the shadows and not worry about my emotions showing. I felt completely wrung out.
“Are you all right?” Lou put the biscuit barrel down and placed her arm around my shoulders. “That was intense in there.”
“I don’t know anything anymore, Lou. I’m so confused. It comes to something when even a ghost feels they have to intervene in your love life.”
“Hey, chin up.” She gave me a little shake.
“Sometimes I think Steve might still have feelings for me and then he seems to change his mind. He’s never loved me enough to want to marry me or to plan our future, and why is she here? I don’t understand.” My insides were raw, I just wanted them all to go home and leave me alone.
“Oh Kate, you and Steve need to sort this out together. I gave my word so I can’t say anything but he does still love you. I told you, it’s not what you think between him and Chloe.” She bit her upper lip as if she’d said too much leaving me to wonder what she knew that I didn’t.
Brian entered the kitchen. “The equipment is all packed up now, Kate. I’ll be in touch when we’ve reviewed the tapes. I’m hoping we may have something on there. It’s been a super evening. We haven’t had one this good in ages.”
At least tonight had made someone happy. I walked with him along the hall to the front door where Mand, Sarah and Beaner had all donned their coats and were waiting to say goodnight. When I opened the front door it looked as if the rain might have finally stopped, although the tree branches were still rustling in the breeze.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to witness my ancestor speaking. I would have liked to ask her more questions, but perhaps another time?” Beaner fixed his pale blue eyes on me and I squeaked some sort of reply. Right now I wasn’t sure if I was up to having any more ghostly conversations.
“My card.” Beaner pressed an embossed ivory card into my hand.
Then, after a few more pleasantries they were gone, leaving only Steve, Chloe, Mike and Lou in the house.
I’d barely started back down the hall when the knocker on the front door sounded, making me jump. I turned back to answer it, assuming that someone had forgotten something.
“Hello Kate, I got to talk to Lou.” Gary leant on the door frame. His cream-coloured hoodie was soaked with rain and water dripped from the ends of his hair onto his shoulders. The rancid odour of stale beer wafted towards me.
Lou walked towards him, an irritated expression on her face. “What are you doing here? Look at the state of you.”
“I love you, Lou. We’ve got to get together, we’re having a baby.” He staggered a little and clutched at the door for support.
Mike, Steve and Chloe all appeared in the hall.
Lou’s right foot began to tap on the floor tiles, a sure sign that she was annoyed. “Gary, we are not having a baby. I am having a baby – you are drunk. For the millionth time, I don’t love you, you don’t love me. The baby changes nothing.
Now go away.”
He swayed on his heels and appeared to be attempting to focus on Lou.
“You don’t mean it. You know we’re meant to be together. You always take me back, you know you do. I love you, Lou.”
“I am not arguing with a drunk. Go away and sober up.” She turned her back on him and started to walk back toward the kitchen. The others shuffled to one side to allow her through.
“She won’t talk to me. Kate, make her talk to me, she’s having my baby.”
Gary grabbed at my arm.
“Oh, for heavens sake; go home Gary.” There had been scenes like this before from him, every time they split up, in fact. But this was the first time he’d turned up on my doorstep. Normally he went to her flat and annoyed her neighbours by drunkenly singing Wet,Wet,Wet songs under her window at three in the morning.
; I shook my arm free of his grasp and he stared at me with a hurt expression before lurching away back off up the front garden path.
“Will he be okay?” Chloe asked.
“I expect so. He always has been before.” Lou answered as she came back into the hall.
“You look tired, Lou. Do you want a lift home?” Mike stepped forward.
Lou nodded. “Will you be okay, here Kate, if I go now?”
“Sure. I’ll call you in the morning.” I lifted my sister’s coat from the rack and passed it to her. To my surprise Chloe joined Lou and Mike at the front door.
“Mike is going to drop me off at the pub on the way to Lou’s. Thank you so much for letting me come tonight. I’ve always wanted to do a real ghost hunt. I love anything psychic and when Steve told me about your ghost I drove him mad till he said I could come. It was all right, wasn’t it?” Doubt clouded her large eyes.
“Of course.” What else could I say? Truthfully I didn’t care any more.
“It’s been amazing.” Unexpectedly, she kissed my cheek leaving behind a smudge of pink lip gloss and the scent of vanilla.
She beamed at me and waved as she followed Mike and Lou through the front door. I closed it behind her and turned round to find Steve standing by the entrance to the lounge.
His dark gaze was fixed on my face. “It looks as though it’s just you and me.”
“Unless you count Mary Ann.” I tried a smile.
Steve’s expression remained solemn. “So where do we go from here? I thought moving into the caravan might help but seeing you everyday and knowing you’re here….” He halted.
My chest ached so much I could hardly breathe. How could loving someone hurt so much? “I only know we can’t go back. We can’t turn back the clock and pretend everything is all right. If everything had been fine we wouldn’t have split up, would we?” My cheeks were wet with tears. I didn’t know what the answer was.
“We both made mistakes, but I love you, Kate. It’s late now and we’re both frazzled from the heebie-jeebies stuff but promise me that you’ll think about us?”
“What about Chloe?” My spirits had lifted when he said he loved me but there was someone else’s feelings to consider.
A dull flush stained Steve’s cheekbones and he looked a bit sheepish. “I suppose I kind of hoped I’d make you jealous but I swear I’ve never dated Chloe.
Don’t you think she’s a little bit young for me? I give her singing lessons and helped manage her band. She’s on the verge of a record deal and I didn’t want her to get stitched up. That’s all it is. You can ask her if you want, she’ll laugh her socks off.
Her crush is the drummer – or rather it was until she met your friend Mike tonight. I think they might quite like each other.”
It sounded as if Lou had been right. I felt really stupid and deservedly so. I should have known better than to let Nasreen poison my mind.
“Oh, I see.”
Steve frowned. “Do you think there was anything in all that lot tonight? That Mary Ann really was the ghost woman you kept seeing?”
I couldn’t understand why he wanted to know unless he still thought I had been making the whole thing up. “I swear Amanda, Sarah and Beaner had no idea of our relationship so why would they make that stuff up?”
“How do you feel about the cottage now? Now that you finally know who the woman is that you kept sensing and seeing?” His dark eyes gazed into mine.
I hadn’t had time to consider that question properly. Whether it was the effects of the incense burning or the mystical wafting around of the dried burning sage the cottage did seem to feel a little different. It was strange how mine and Steve’s relationship appeared to have become enmeshed with the story of the cottage.
“I don’t know. I suppose I’ll have to see how it feels over the next few days.”
“And us? Will you see how you feel about us too? Promise me you’ll think about us, Kate. About giving us another chance.” His voice sounded gruff.
I didn’t know what to say. “Can we talk tomorrow?” I needed time. I knew what my heart kept telling me but my head said it had been an emotionally charged evening and whatever happened next between me and Steve, I had to be certain.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The sound of a text arriving in the inbox of my mobile phone woke me the next morning. I’d tossed and turned all night after Steve had left, trying to work out what I wanted and if we could make a real go of things between us again.
‘Police coming this a.m. Come over. Mum’
My stomach lurched and I called her straight back. Nothing like someone else’s problems to clear away the fog in my brain.
“What’s happened? Did they say why they were coming?”
“I don’t know why. They obviously have some news to tell me but I honestly don’t know if it’s going to be good or bad. Though what could be good, apart from that they’d recovered some of my money, I don’t know.” She sighed down the phone.
Poor Mum. “I’ll get Steve and we’ll be right over,” I promised.
My response had been automatic. Was that it? Was that my answer? After everything that had happened between us I still loved him. He was the man I wanted to be beside me if the police had bad news. He was the man I wanted to be beside me for ever. He’d indicated last night that he felt the same way about me. Could I be brave enough to try again?
As soon as Mum had rung off my mobile rang again. This time it was Lou.
“Has Mum just rung you?”
“Yes, I spoke to her a few seconds ago. She said the police are calling round.”
Lou was silent for a minute, “I hope they’ve got some of her money back.”
“I hope so too, but I think that might be a long shot. Do you want a lift over there?”
She laughed. “How did you guess? By the way, what’s happening with you and Steve? Did you sort things out?”
“Not exactly. There are a lot of things we need to talk about.”
“But you love him, and he loves you. Blimey Kate, what more do you want from a bloke?”
“It’s not as simple as that.” Was it?
A heavy sigh gusted down the phone. It didn’t sound as if my sister was impressed by my argument. “Bloody Gary turned up here late last night.”
“What did you do?” I hoped he hadn’t been serenading her again. The neighbours had threatened to complain to the council the last time he’d done it.
“I told him to sod off. When the baby's born then if he’s the dad and he’s prepared to make a regular commitment to the baby then that’s fine. But it’s over between me and him and has been for ages.”
“What about Jamie?” I’d warmed to Jamie now I’d got to know him a little better. He’d certainly appeared to have changed from the womanising chauvinist I remembered from a few years ago.
“I dunno with Jamie. Maybe if I wasn’t pregnant we could take more time to see where that was going, but if the baby turns out to be Gary’s then it’s asking a lot to take on someone else’s baby.”
“And if it’s his?” I asked.
“Then he would have to make a commitment to the baby, not necessarily to me. Let’s face it: I’m going to be looking like the side of a house in a couple of months time so he’s not likely to be fancying me much is he? I’ve done a lot of thinking and assuming I’ll be going it alone as a parent seems to be the sensible option.” Her tone sounded rueful.
I said goodbye to Lou and scrambled to get washed and dressed before hurrying down the garden to knock on the door of Steve’s caravan.
He opened the door half-dressed in just his faded Levi’s and my heart flip-flopped with desire.
“We need to go to Mum’s. The police are coming, I said we’d call for Lou on the way.” It suddenly hit me that it had never occurred to me that Steve wouldn’t come with me. Despite everything that had happened between us he was always there for me.
“Did she say why the police were coming?” He reached behind
him to pick up a pale blue tee shirt and began to pull it over his head.
“No, she doesn’t know.”
“Okay, got my keys, lets go.” He jumped down the steps and pulled the door shut behind him before locking it with the key.
“Are you okay?” He halted beside his truck to look at me.
I nodded. “Thanks for coming with me.”
He dropped a brief kiss on my hair before crossing round the front of the cab to climb into the driver’s seat. I followed after him, my pulse racing from his sudden show of tenderness.
The traffic was light as it was Sunday morning and it only took a few minutes to collect Lou and drive to Mum’s.
We’d barely had time to install ourselves on Mum’s sofa when the police arrived. A young female police officer and her male colleague. The police woman took the spare armchair while Mum sat on the other one. The much larger policeman perched on one of Mum’s dining room chairs. They both refused Mum’s offer of a cup of tea as the policeman took out a notepad and pen.
“We have received word from our colleagues in Nevada that they apprehended a man answering the description you provided of your husband, Chuck Delgado. They emailed this to us this morning.” The police woman produced a picture from the pocket of her tunic. “Could we ask you to confirm if this is the man you know as Chuck Delgado.” She passed it across to Mum.
It was a shot like the ones you see on American TV crime shows of a full face and side profile picture with a number board.
Mum paled but nodded. “Yes, that’s Chuck. Where did they find him?”
The police woman took the picture back and returned it to her pocket. “The man you have identified as Chuck Delgado is also known as Charles Mount, Chuck Branscome and Chuck Martinelli. He’s wanted in three US states for bigamy, fraud and obtaining money by deception.”
We all gasped. I caught hold of Mum’s hand as her eyes filled with tears. “He seemed such a nice man.”
The policewoman looked uncomfortable and her colleague fidgeted on his chair.
