The waitress arrived with their food orders; both had chosen the shrimp plate with a delightful white sauce and roasted mixed vegetables.
“Enjoy!” she told them as she placed silverware and a plate of fresh crusty rolls between them. She winked at Nate and left them to their lunch.
The rest of the lunch hour passed in pleasant conversation, a little lighthearted teasing, and a deep sense of getting to know each other. All too soon Nate looked at his watch.
“Goodness, how the time has passed! I’d better be off—I have a client coming in fifteen minutes.” He dropped some money on the table to cover their bill.
“We might have some news for you later, too. Kelly will be there.”
Nate paused. “I’m not sure about all that. Couldn’t it be dangerous, to both Kelly and the baby?”
Noelia raised one disbelieving eyebrow. “It can’t be dangerous if there’s no such thing as ghosts,” she teased.
He laughed. “Point taken. So, I’ll see you, Kelly, her husband, and I suppose, Daniel, tonight at about eight?”
“Yes, we’ll be there. Oh, and Kelly asked if you would try and pull out some pictures of your wife, of Lydia, and some of her friends.”
“Sure, I can do that. I have them in an album. Lord knows, there’s been many an evening that I’ve just sat and looked through those pictures, remembering happier times.”
“Thank you for letting me bring Daniel. And don’t forget to set a seat for the ghost!”
Nate rolled his eyes, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and was gone.
• • •
The afternoon hours dragged by on slow feet for Noelia. Usually the volunteer duties kept her busy, but today she kept checking her watch against the clock to be sure it hadn’t stopped. She felt a responsibility to hover around Lydia while Daniel was there, not that she didn’t trust him, but because she didn’t want any misunderstandings if any of the nursing staff hadn’t been informed that he was no longer a banned visitor.
The soft glow she’d carried away from lunch with Nate was now lost, obliterated by a growing sense of unease.
Perhaps we shouldn’t mess with this whole spirit thing, she thought to herself. There are reasons why the Church is so against the whole idea.
But she couldn’t back out now. The happiness of two young people might depend on it—to say nothing of her own rapidly blooming relationship with Nate Westbury.
She telephoned Daniel to tell him what was happening and invite him to come to the meeting too, if he wished.
He was enthusiastic, although he scoffed at the idea of there being any otherworldly involvement. She almost told him that he sounded just like Lydia’s dad but thought better off it. His sense of humor might not stretch that far.
“If there is something going on, then it’s flesh and blood people that are causing it,” he insisted. “Did I tell you that Lydia’s friend, Corinne, has been calling me and dropping around to the house? I don’t know why—I never liked her, but she seems to think we have some sort of relationship, and I don’t know how to let her down without being harsh.”
“Oh, dear, that’s a problem,” Noelia said. They hadn’t told Daniel about their suspicions that the woman trying on the wedding gown was Corinne. That’s one crazy bitch, she thought, feeling sorry for the young man who was dealing with so much. He certainly didn’t need someone like that unstable young woman stalking him.
The three-hour shift felt more like ten, but finally Noelia went to the staff room to get her coat and bag, and a reluctant Daniel kissed Lydia’s cheek and left after offering profuse thanks to Noelia. As she passed the nurse’s station on her way out, Noelia felt a prickling on the back of her neck, as if she were being watched. She swung around and glanced into the office behind the nurses’ station, where a red-haired young woman in a trainee nurse’s uniform was peering out, partly hidden by the door so Noelia couldn’t get a good look at her.
“Who’s the little red-haired girl in the back office?” Noelia asked Nurse Wilkinson on the desk.
The older woman wrinkled her nose. “Oh, that’s Cora Baxter, a trainee that we’re allowing to intern here.”
“She seems very shy.”
“Shy?” The nurse leaned confidentially toward Noelia. “If you ask me, she has her head in the clouds far too much to make a good nurse. I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on her and see how it all pans out. I make sure she doesn’t perform any treatments, even delivering medicine, to a patient without supervision.”
Noelia smiled and wished them goodnight but she couldn’t shake the sense that she had known the young woman from somewhere else—and it hadn’t been a good experience.
Chapter Nineteen
Nate was also worried. He puttered about, setting out small bowls of snacks and napkins, and marshalling clean glasses and cups on his kitchen counter ready for his visitors. And all the while he had the odd feeling he wasn’t alone.
“Darn that Kelly and Noelia with all their talk of the supernatural and nonsense,” he snarled. The big grandfather clock in the hallway, an heirloom from his aunt, suddenly started to chime.
“That’s odd—surely it can’t be eight o’clock already?” A glance at his watch told him that there was still thirty minutes to go before the meeting. But the clock went on chiming, and Nate put his hands over his ears as it went past thirteen.
“Okay, I’m sorry about what I said! Jackie, if that’s you, please stop that infernal racket!” He couldn’t believe he was talking to his dead wife as if she were present, but as the clock stopped chiming, he remembered all the times he had talked to her about his worries about their daughter, how much he missed her, and when the loneliness in the empty house just plain got to him.
Just then the doorbell rang. He didn’t react right away, wondering if it was another malfunction, or a restless spirit playing tricks on him.
When the bell rang again, he hurried to answer the door, but Noelia, Kelly, and Brett were already entering the hallway.
“We thought maybe you hadn’t heard us, and the door was open so we came in . . . ” Brett said, pausing when he saw Nate’s puzzled face.
“I was sure I’d locked that door. I always keep the doors locked.” He frowned.
“Maybe Jackie is playing hostess!” Kelly quipped, and Nate gave a theatrical shudder. “I hope you don’t mind, Nate, but I invited Brett’s sister, Sasha, to come along. She knows Daniel and Lydia,” she added.
“What did I miss?” Sasha arrived moments later and looked at them questioningly.
“If only you knew! Did you know that a grandfather clock can chime indefinitely and shut off of its own accord when you apologize?” Nate shrugged.
“Oh, wow, wish I’d been here for that,” Sasha said, and Noelia frowned her into silence.
“What did I do?” Sasha whispered to Kelly.
“I think you were a little bit too enthusiastic about something that was probably rather scary,” Kelly explained.
Noelia went to Nate and hugged him. “Oh, it’s a whole new world to you, Mr. Scientist, isn’t it?” she said, kissing his cheek and not hiding her laughter.
“Honestly, it all gives me the creeps, too, but so far your ghost has been pretty well-behaved.”
“Have you forgotten how everything flew around at Wedding Bliss, and then the writing on the mirror? That was one angry ghost and pretty scary, I tell you,” Brett admitted, taking a glass of wine from Nate.
Kelly refused the wine but accepted a glass of iced tea, and Noelia said she was designated driver so it was iced tea for her, too. Sasha had brought her own water bottle and helped herself to a carrot stick from the dish of snacks Nate had prepared.
“That girl lives on water and raw vegetables,” Noelia said. “I’d love to see her scarf down a donut.”
“But I told you, I like vegetables,” Sasha complained, and the exchange lightened the mood.
Nate had just returned to the living room with a tray of drinks when the doorb
ell chimed again.
“That’s probably Daniel,” Noelia said, standing. “Maybe I should go and greet him.”
Nate stopped her. “Don’t worry. I am going to welcome that young man to my home. I think I owe him quite an apology.”
His words brought tears to Noelia’s eyes, and she hugged him as the doorbell sounded again.
Nate answered the door, and they heard the murmur of quiet conversation before he came back into the room with Daniel in tow.
“Danny and I are going to have a civilized talk about everything that has happened,” Nate said, offering a seat to his young visitor. “But right now, we have other things on the agenda.”
Once everyone was settled with their drink of choice and a napkin for snacks, Nate took his seat next to Noelia. “Kelly asked that I find some photographs of Lydia with her mother and with her friends,” he said. “I didn’t have any problem finding them—someone or something—was in this room on Saturday night and spread photographs all over the floor.”
He reached out and picked up a file from the round coffee table. He took out a sheaf of photographs but hesitated before passing them around. “These photographs were in pristine condition when I put them away in the bureau drawer. After the disturbance the other night, this is how I found them.”
He held the photographs out to Noelia, who gasped and passed them on to Kelly. She looked at them, winced, and passed them to Brett, then Sasha and they finally went to Daniel, who shook his head, looking sick.
Daniel fanned the photographs out on the table. “Look, all the faces with the red slashes—all are Lydia’s friend, Corinne. It looks like someone is very angry with her.”
“But what does it mean? If the ghost is Lydia’s mom, why would she be so angry with Corinne, her daughter’s best friend?”
A draft suddenly rode through the room, rippling the photographs and making everyone shiver. Nate frowned. “There are no open windows for a draft to come through,” he said. “This is more of the weird things that have been happening.”
“Oh, my, I think the Cranky Ghost is here,” Kelly exclaimed, looking toward the fireplace mantel. “Who are you?” Brett moved closer to her and grasped her hand protectively.
“You know who I am.” The voice sounded unused, distant, and the words seemed to ripple the still air. “And I’d thank you not to call me cranky, young lady. You’d be cranky, too, if you were stuck here trying to get people to understand something so simple.” Kelly repeated the words to the others.
There was a taut silence. Then a framed photograph lifted from the mantle, rose in the air a few inches, then was gently set down again.
Nate went pale. “Is that really my wife? Jackie? I can’t see anything . . . ”
The photograph was lifted and gently replaced again.
“I think you can take that as a yes, Nate,” Noelia told him.
Kelly stared at a spot by the unlit fireplace. “She’s standing over there, and she’s smiling at you, Nate. She’s trying to summon up the psychic energy to talk so that everyone can hear. Oh, and she says we shouldn’t call her Cranky Ghost just because we can’t understand what she thinks is clear as day.”
Sasha burst out laughing but stopped as soon as Noelia glared at her. “I’ve never met a ghost before, let alone one with a sense of humor,” she explained.
“I’ve never actually talked to a ghost,” Noelia said. “It feels kind of weird.”
“Lady, if you think this is weird, how do you think I feel? I’m between two worlds, and it’s not comfortable.” The words were little more than a whisper, but everyone heard them.
“So why are you here? And, more than that, how did you manage to come back?” Kelly asked.
“I had to get special permission—you know a bit about it. Peter, the last ghost you saw, told me about his conversations with you. But I’m not allowed to tell you everything—you must solve things yourself. Otherwise it would be, well, let’s just say we’re not allowed to come back and change things directly. It’s got to be the free choice of those we left behind.”
“But my daughter needed me, and I got compassionate leave. You’d understand that, being ex-military. Not that where I am is anything like the military . . . uh, what was I saying? Oh, yes, I can’t stay long, though, got other things to do, and I was beginning to think you guys would never figure anything out. It felt like banging my head against a wall, all the little hints I left . . . ”
“We’re doing our best, Mrs. Westbury!” Daniel said.
Jackie ignored him. “Anyway, my daughter needed me, and it seems someone needed to knock some sense into Nate’s head and get him to understand that Lydia is a grown woman and needs to live her own life.”
Nate groaned.
“And that he needs to get a life himself and stop meddling in his daughter’s. I love you, babe, I always will. But I’ve moved on to other work and you need someone in your life. You shouldn’t be lonely.”
“Aren’t you lonely over there? Wherever ‘there’ is?”
“Here? Heck no, not lonely at all!” she chuckled, a hollow sound that caused a candle on the mantel to flicker.
“Can’t you give us a clue as to why you’re here, and why Lydia is . . . is so afraid?” he asked.
“No can do, honey. Rules are rules, and the rules here are unbreakable. But you need to know that Lydia isn’t coming back to you, because she is so afraid of something that happened, that someone she thought cared about her has hurt her very badly.”
Nate drew in a sharp breath. “Was that because of the fight we had before she left that night?”
“That’s between you and your conscience, Nate Westbury! But no, the bond between you and our daughter will never be broken. You have time to set things right.” The voice was getting fainter, and without another word, Jackie Westbury was gone. Noelia wondered if they’d ever see her again.
She shivered. “Goose walking over my grave,” she whispered.
Nate distributed more coffee and soft drinks. Everyone refused his offer of wine or anything stronger, saying they were having enough trouble keeping their heads clear with a ghostly presence without adding other alcohol to the mix.
They talked for a while, trying to work out what Lydia needed to make her feel safe enough to come out of her coma.
“There’s a reason why Jackie has slashed red ink across Corinne’s face in the photographs. But why would Lydia be angry or afraid of her best friend?”
Suddenly, Daniel stood up, looking ashen. “Corinne has been calling me and emailing, saying she thinks we should get together, and she actually used the words ‘now that Lydia is out of the way.’”
“And she’s the woman who was in the store, trying on Lydia’s wedding dress,” said Noelia. “That’s what Jackie meant when she said to ‘keep that bitch away from my daughter’s wedding dress!’ Brett, do you remember she also called her fiancé Danny?”
Nate gave Daniel a hard look. “Have you done anything to encourage the girl? It sounds as though she’s not too tightly wrapped.”
Daniel laughed. “Is that your professional diagnosis, doctor?” He shook his head, but before he could continue, Brett interrupted. “I never forget a face, so I was puzzled when that woman said she’d never seen me before in her life. But she had—she’s the one I saw walking along the road, it must have been the night of the crash, although I didn’t know anything about that. She must be the one who left Lydia there after the accident.”
“She really is a crazy woman,” Noelia murmured. “Poor girl. And poor Lydia.”
Chapter Twenty
Noelia stayed behind to help Nate clear up after the others left. She admitted to him the evening had been so intense she needed some time to just relax and absorb what had happened.
“You’re not kidding,” he said with a smile. “You’ve met this kind of thing before, but I can tell you, spending an evening chatting with one’s dead wife feels very, very strange.”
“Yeah, I’m not s
ure how Kelly does it. I think sometimes that she may have more contact with restless spirits than she says—or maybe it’s just the odd ones who seek her out.”
“How did all this start with her? I mean, did she have invisible friends as a child that were written off as imaginary playmates?” Nate poured milk into a small saucepan and waited for it to heat before adding a touch of cinnamon, a spoon of honey, and a couple of spoons of cocoa powder.
“That smells delicious,” Noelia said, wondering how much of Kelly’s private business she should tell the man. He was, after all, a psychologist. Would he try to analyze her friend and find some way of discounting her gift, even after all he’d seen?
She voiced her concern to him as they settled down on a cozy love seat in a small alcove off the kitchen—both had preferred not to go back to sit in the living room where his late wife had so recently held court.
Nate slipped his arm around her and pulled her close. “I’m not looking to discredit her, Noelia. After what I witnessed this evening, it would be hard to say that Kelly’s brain wasn’t wired right, and she was seeing things that didn’t exist.
“If that were the case, after all we saw and heard tonight, bearing in mind we all experienced the same things, it would mean we were all suffering from the same kind of mass hysteria—something I’d find even harder to believe than that my dead wife was standing by my living-room fireplace.”
Noelia took a deep breath. She was always a little awed by this story. “You know Kelly was in the armed forces, right? One day they were on a patrol, guarding a supply convoy, when one of the vehicles tripped an IED. After the wreck, they found themselves under enemy fire and several officers were wounded. Kelly, who’d suffered shrapnel wounds to her head, managed to drag one of her wounded comrades to safety before being wounded again herself.
“When she woke up in a military hospital in Germany, she saw guys from her unit standing around her bed. They told her something she’s never spoken about, and she fell asleep again. When she woke up, she asked the nurse where her friends were and learned the comrades she had seen had all been killed in the attack or in other earlier bouts of combat. All the men she’d seen around her bed were dead soldiers whose spirits had visited her one last time.
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