“How dare you?” he said to his mom. “How could you interfere like that?” And then he laughed, maniacally, of course. He threw his head back and the wind carried his ironic cackle. “And, it took you five wives to realize that maybe I was the one who couldn’t have children? Those women took advantage of you, you fool. They took advantage of my future and the fortune I was supposed to inherit from you. You gave it to some useless women who wouldn’t have known how to be good wives even if they’d wanted to.”
Words of protest rumbled in my throat, but now wasn’t the time to point out how they all thought he was a pretty awful husband.
“If you’d just accepted my help,” Lynn said, “I wouldn’t have hurt you.” She looked at me. “I’m sorry I had to hit you, too, Betts. I didn’t really want to hurt you either, but I had to get out of there. I’m glad you’re okay. Would you please untie me now?”
“Uhm. Right,” I said.
The ghost train was closer, close enough that the glow of the light was coming into clearer focus in the distance.
I reached forward, but not hurriedly, and then something hit my back hard. I went down, face first on the ground next to the tracks. If I’d hit the tracks, I would have surely fractured bones in my face. As it was, the maneuver hurt badly enough. And I realized something. The tracks—they were no longer short and incomplete; they were whole and continuous. The ropes around Lynn’s limbs were real. How had Derek done that? There was no way the train could be somehow “real,” too, was there? Jerome had said that the viciousness of his murder had made him strong. I must have been seeing evidence of just how strong.
My mind worked through this information along with the pain in my back, shoulder, and face, and Jake/Jerome’s yells of protest all at once.
I saw stars for a second or two as I tried to turn my head toward Derek and Jake/Jerome. Jerome, even as a ghost, was strong, a big man who’d lived his life outdoors, doing things that required lots of physicality. Jake wasn’t weak, but he was more a lover than a fighter. Derek was pushing him around easily.
I needed to get Lynn off the tracks. Maybe Jake/Jerome could distract Derek long enough.
I pulled my woozy head up and crawled the couple feet back toward Lynn.
“Hurry, Betts,” she said.
I nodded, looked toward the train light, and then did the best I could. The knots were tight. Behind me, I could hear the scuffle between Derek and Jake/Jerome. It didn’t sound like one was doing better than the other, but I couldn’t move my fingers quickly enough. I hoped the train wasn’t real.
“Leave her alone, Betts,” I heard Derek say. “She deserves to die.”
While continuing to work the knot, I turned to see Derek being held back by his arms by Jake/Jerome. I was impressed by my friend’s strength.
“I can’t, Derek. I’m sorry for what happened to you, really I am, but I can’t risk someone else dying. I’ll tell the police what she did.”
“Hurry up, Isabelle,” Jake/Jerome said.
I turned my full attention back to Lynn and the approaching train light. A huge surge of adrenaline shot through me, and my fingers suddenly became stronger and faster. I pulled and yanked, and the ropes came loose. Lynn was finally free. She sat up and looked me directly in the eye.
“Thank you, Betts, you saved me. Thank you.”
“You’re . . .” I began.
Before I could finish, though, Lynn had shoved me down onto the tracks and pinned my body with her bigger one straddling over mine, her hands pushing on my shoulders. She looked back at the train light and then at me.
“Sorry, Betts, but you just can’t turn me in. I’m sorry.”
“What?” I said. I couldn’t believe two things—one, that she was so ungrateful. And two, that I hadn’t seen this coming.
I hoped that the train wasn’t real. Lynn was real. The tracks were real. What were the chances that the train would do me harm, though?
I didn’t want to find out. I squirmed and tried to move myself enough that I could get Lynn off me. I wished for more adrenaline, but fear seemed to be the overriding thing inside me now.
“Isabelle,” I heard Jake/Jerome yell. He was now being held back by Derek.
Why would Derek hold him back from helping me? I thought I understood, and decided I might be able to use the idea to my advantage. I grabbed Lynn’s arms and squeezed them tightly.
“If I go, you go,” I said.
Lynn’s eyes opened wide. She looked toward the train and then tried to pull herself away, but I held on with a viselike grip, hoping that we’d both get off the tracks because she didn’t want to die.
The train whistle blew and I realized that I could feel its vibrations underneath my back. I could smell the steam, the burning coal. It all seemed real. And I realized with a deep and sad regret that the ghosts were always dimensional in the dark when I was in the area, even, apparently, if the dark was an apparition. So the trains were probably fully dimensional, too.
This wasn’t going to end well.
At least I’d talked to Teddy.
Chapter 23
In the next instant and when the train seemed only inches away, Lynn was propelled off me and over to the other side of the tracks, and I was lifted and pulled back in time to feel the train brush my flying ponytail but nothing else.
I landed on the ground next to Jake/Jerome, who’d somehow gotten away from Derek and had enough strength—or could ghostly possessed bodies have adrenaline, too?—to push Lynn away and pull me off.
The train passed and then disappeared and so had Derek, leaving only me, Lynn, Jake/Jerome, and the ancient moonlight to cast a glow over the empty field. I would never know if the train really would have killed me. I figured that was a good thing. I looked at Jake/Jerome.
“Good job,” I said. “Thank you. Are you still Jerome?”
“I am, Isabelle.”
There was no mistaking his tone and the way he looked at me. I could see his gentle eyes as part of Jake’s pretty blue ones. Jake loved me, but not like this.
I looked across the tracks at Lynn. She was sitting up, but it looked like she was woozy and trying to gather her senses. She’d need a doctor, but I needed a minute.
“Derek’s gone?”
“Yes, he is. He made sure this trip was hard on everyone.”
“Are you going to leave Jake now?”
“Yes.”
“Any chance I’ll get to see you as you?”
“There’s no reason for me to stay right now, but I suppose I’ll be back someday. Just don’t know when or how. I would never have thought I’d jump inside other people’s skin, dead or not. I sure wish I could have sensed what that Elvis fellow had done when I was in him. Sorry about that.”
I waved away the apology. “But you’ll be back?”
He laughed. “I’m pretty sure. You seem to keep finding ways to get into trouble.”
I smiled. “Well, I can’t miss my chance, then. Don’t tell Jake.”
I leaned over and kissed him. Jake would never have kissed back on his own, but I was pleased to see that Jake was pretty good at kissing when he had some motivation, even if said motivation was an old cowboy ghost under his skin.
When I pulled back, he was still looking at me in that way.
“I’ll see you later, Isabelle. I’d say to stay out of trouble, but I think I’m going to have to give up on pretending I want that. Get into a little trouble, and let me come save the day again.”
“I’ll work on it.”
And then, Jake transformed back into Jake. The changes were subtle but obvious. Jake held his own shoulders a little differently than Jerome had held them. His head wasn’t quite as cocked to one side.
“You okay, Jake?” I said as I put my hand on his arm.
He looked at me a long minute. “I’m fine. I was here, too
, Betts, and I want you to know that I probably have cooties now.”
I laughed—feeling the fear and knot of tension in my stomach relax. “Sorry about that.”
Jake wanted to tease me, but he only smiled, too. “Well, I suppose it’s fine. I’m not telling Cliff, though. No way.”
I laughed. I thought that someday I might tell Cliff, but not today. “We should help Lynn.”
“Sure. You’re probably right.”
The night turned back into day—our present day. We gathered Lynn, who was fine but confused and shaken up just enough that she didn’t mind that we each held one of her arms as we took her directly to Cliff at the police station.
On the way, I explained that her very angry son would haunt her for the rest of her life if she didn’t just confess to her crime. I had no idea if this was true or not, but she’d seen enough (though I would never be exactly sure what she saw because I never asked) to know that she didn’t want to deal with Derek forever. Sadly, I got the impression that she hadn’t ever wanted to deal with him when he was alive either.
It was good that she listened to me and confessed, because the explanation for how Jake and I knew she was guilty would have been impossible to share. As it was, Cliff wondered why Jake and I both looked so disheveled. I just shrugged, and Jake told Cliff he’d been busy fighting off my amorous advances. Cliff and I laughed. Jake just gave me one of his ever-patient eye rolls.
Chapter 24
“That is a beautiful mirror,” Cliff said from over my shoulder.
I wasn’t sure why my dad had decided to put it up in the house, but it looked great in the spot he’d chosen—on the wall, right between some sliding glass doors that separated the dining room and the outside back patio.
“It is,” I said.
“It’s got an antique feel about. Mysterious. I like it,” he said as he put his arms around me.
I nodded and leaned into his chest. “I agree.”
“Teddy sent me in with the specific question as to whether you want a hamburger or two hot dogs. He said you never eat just one. I did not know that about you,” Cliff said.
“He’s right. I always thought that two hot dogs were equal to one hamburger. However, I’m really hungry. I’d like one hamburger and one hot dog.”
“Sounds perfect.”
The mysteries had been solved for a week now, and my parents had invited us all over for a barbecue, which meant that Teddy would man the grill. He was the best at it. Jake had joined us. So had Opie, and, so far, she and I had gotten along fairly well.
Lynn had, in fact, paid Derek’s wives to marry him and try to have a child with him. The five of the ex-wives had gotten together not too long ago and concocted a blackmail scheme. They’d gone to Lynn and told her that she needed to keep paying them or they’d tell Derek what she’d done, and they knew she couldn’t bear for Derek to know. She paid the blackmail for some time, but one of the ex-wives, Gina, the one I’d never talked to at the post office, told Derek about his mother’s involvement when he confronted her about her lavish post-marriage lifestyle. Derek had been devastated and was going to expose his mother—for her wife-paying scheme as well as the amount of money she’d received from Broken Rope from her lawsuit. She had moved the money to somewhere other than the United States, an offshore account, I’d heard, though I still didn’t quite understand what that meant, so the people of Broken Rope wouldn’t ever know what she took from them.
I remembered the strong onion scent as I left the school the day I was hit in the head. At the time I was in a hurry so I didn’t pay it any attention, but looking back I realized that I smelled it at probably the exact time Derek was killed. It might not have meant much, but it was interesting to me, and made me realize that I could never just ignore a strong, insistent smell.
The big piece that everyone had been missing had simply been Lynn’s personality. She’d lived in Broken Rope all her life and had made it her business to complain about almost everyone and everything. She knew that if everyone knew the amount of money she’d received from the city’s coffers, they’d think she didn’t have a right to complain about anything. She would have had to change her ways—and potentially share the money to help fix the objects of her complaints. Not her style. And, then when she so desperately wanted a grandchild and she knew that no one would marry Derek on their own, she used her money—and somehow found five women to take the bait. Even with the facts out in the open, the story was still hard to believe.
The ex-wives actually weren’t afraid of Lynn. They were afraid of their scheme being exposed. They almost had me. Almost. They were in for some legal trouble, but blackmail wasn’t as bad as murder, and attempted murder. Though I didn’t think Lynn meant to kill me by hitting me with the wrench, she sure had wanted me dead on the train tracks. I couldn’t tell anyone about that, but I didn’t argue the attempted-murder charge. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Cliff was going to make sure Lynn paid for her crimes.
Lynn had stolen the wrench from Roy’s toolbox, during the Monday-morning meeting at the cooking school. I’d seen Roy looking at the toolbox. Apparently he’d been looking for the wrench he was sure was inside it.
By stealing the wrench and killing Derek in the barn, Lynn thought Roy would be the main suspect. She’d never known that though Cliff and Jim were actually considering him, he’d never really made it high on the suspect list.
But neither had Lynn. Mothers aren’t supposed to kill their sons.
The last week had been pretty terrific for Cliff and me. He’d had some time off and our previous conversations about the weird thing that was the third party in our relationship had changed his mood substantially. He was no longer wary or suspicious. He still wasn’t ready for the details, but he had completely accepted the fact that I wasn’t cheating on him. Well, not really. He was at least okay with the otherworldly cheating, thinking it could never be a real threat.
I still didn’t completely understand why Jerome could only visit via others this time around. It must have had something to do with Derek, but I had nothing to substantiate that, and I really hoped I never would. I didn’t need to ever see Derek again. I wondered if I’d ever really see Jerome again, or perhaps he’d transitioned to only visiting via other bodies now.
Jake and I had talked about how we were going to tell Mariah the truth about her ancestor. We couldn’t not tell her, but we hadn’t formulated a plan yet. Another trip to Frankland was in our future. I wanted to check the pictures of Justice again, too. I wondered if the cowboy-hat swirls would still be there. And, of course, Jake and I both wondered if the accidental pond with the small fish was still there, but we weren’t sure we’d exit the freeway to take a close look.
As we stood together a moment, looking at my dad’s mirror, Cliff kissed the top of my ear and pulled me closer.
“Oh, please, must you two always be so in love?” Jake came in through the sliding glass doors.
“Yes,” Cliff and I answered together.
“All right. If you insist.”
Jake smiled at me and squeezed my arm before walking around us and toward the kitchen. If Cliff thought his behavior was odd, he didn’t say anything.
Jake and I had had many conversations about me kissing everyone, about me kissing him. Mostly, we laughed, but he made sure I knew that he knew who those kisses had been meant for and that I probably still had some issues to work through. I didn’t argue.
Gram was at the barbecue, too. Her nightmares were totally gone, and she was extremely grateful that the mysteries and murders had been solved.
I’d invited Roy, Todd, April, and even Paul. Paul had declined. So had Todd and April. Apparently they had a date—with each other. I almost applauded when April told me as much on the phone. Apparently there had been nothing strange at all about Todd retrieving a tool that had fallen off the back of a Trigger. It hadn’t been a wrench,
though, it had been a screwdriver. Derek and April had never gone out, and Lynn had never tried to arrange anything with her.
Roy had joined us, too, and was in the back, working on an idea to make the umbrella over my parents’ patio table go up and down easier. I was sure he’d figure it out. I was excited to hear that he and the woman he’d met online were going to meet in person in one week. We were all thrilled for him and Gram was giving him extra private cooking lessons. He was turning into quite the foodie. I’d already bought him some new clothes, but I hadn’t told him about them yet. I was still working on the best way to approach the subject of his lacking wardrobe.
“Hey,” Cliff said softly.
“Yes?” I said just as softly.
“I want you to think about something.”
“Okay.”
“Start putting a little thought into us getting married. You’ll need some time to let the idea soak in so I’m bringing it up now. But there just might be a proposal in your near future. Maybe.”
I pulled away, turned around, and looked at Cliff. This was not a huge surprise. He and I had been destined to marry since we were in high school, or so everyone thought.
But it was still a shocking moment. “Really?” I said, not able to keep from smiling.
“Well, this isn’t official yet. Just think about it. I want you to be sure.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t find the words to go with the swell in my chest.
Cliff laughed and then kissed my forehead. “You seem agreeable, but your eyes tell me you are scared to death. We’ll go slow, Isabelle, I promise. I’ll go tell Teddy what you want to eat.”
Isabelle? He never called me Isabelle.
I watched him exit back out the sliding glass doors and tried to figure out what I was feeling.
Happiness? Fear? Anxiety at the idea of commitment? Loving the idea of starting my own family? Worried about what Jerome would feel and think? Yep, all that, but other than the Jerome part, the rest of my emotions were probably pretty normal.
If Onions Could Spring Leeks Page 23
