Cemetery Tours

by Smith, Jacqueline

  “Yeah. Stop changing the subject. What did Gavin do to you?” Trevor gave a snort of derision.

  “It’s not what he did to me,” he answered. “It’s what he’s doing to her. It’s what they’re all doing to her!” Suddenly, Michael felt his irritation begin to ebb, only to be replaced by a fresh wave of concern.

  “To Kate?” Michael asked. Trevor looked as though hearing him say her name made him sick. “What are they doing to Kate?”

  “They’re lying to her! They say it’s to protect her. But they have no idea!” Trevor growled and punched the wall. The result was a barely audible thump, like a small rubber ball being bounced against a surface. Michael waited for him to calm down before he spoke again.

  “Then talk to me.”

  “What do you care?” Trevor snapped.

  “I care about Kate. And I don’t want to see her or Gavin suffering anymore because of you. Do you have any idea what you’ve put her through?” Michael instantly regretted his words. Trevor threw him a look of such vile contempt that for a moment, Michael thought he was going to send him flying over the railing. Instead, the ghost heaved a heavy sigh.

  “I never wanted to hurt her,” he said. “I just don’t know what to do. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

  “I know.” Michael tried to choose his words carefully. He didn’t want to antagonize him further. And he really didn’t want to be punched in the face. “But taking it out on Gavin isn’t going to make things better.” Trevor looked like he very much wanted to dispute that, but he remained silent. “Talk to me. Maybe I can help you.”

  Trevor gave a short, mirthless laugh.

  “That’s the thing. If I talk to you, you’re not going to want to help me.”

  Michael didn’t doubt that. In fact, he would have liked nothing better than to turn his back, walk down the stairs, drive off, and never speak to Trevor, or any ghost, ever again. But that wasn’t going to happen. No matter what Trevor had to say, Michael was going to listen.

  “Try me.”

  Chapter 21

  Sitting alone in the waiting room of Medical City Plano reminded Kate of how much she hated hospitals. Everything about them resurrected bad memories, from the heavy smell of medication mingled with dying flowers to the bare, colorless walls to the sounds of wheelchairs and gurneys being pushed down long, narrow hallways, that, for so many, held no escape. Kate had been one of the lucky ones. She’d walked out of that very building. But knowing how close she had come to death unnerved her. Now, waiting for Gavin, she couldn’t imagine how her family must have felt during their three week stay, not knowing when or if she would ever wake up again. It made her feel guilty for being so short with them.

  Pining for any sort of distraction, Kate pulled out her cell phone. It had been almost an hour since they’d left Michael in the parking lot. She hoped he was alright.

  Just as she was pressing the Call button on her phone, the door to the waiting room swung open and Michael appeared. It took only a second for him to locate Kate. When she stood to greet him, he took her in his arms and held her for a long time. She didn’t mind at all. His embrace was warm and his arms were strong and comforting. But she did find it a little peculiar. The way he held her, it was almost like he expected her to disappear and he wanted to savor her.

  “Is everything okay? I was starting to worry,” Kate said after he finally let her go.

  “Yeah, I just got caught up,” he replied half-heartedly. He didn’t sound at all like things were actually okay, but before she could press him further, he asked, “Where’s Gavin?”

  “They took him back for X-rays about twenty minutes ago. He seemed to be talking a bit more clearly, but he was still pretty dazed.”

  “Do you think he has a concussion?”

  “I don’t know. He hit the wall pretty hard.”

  “Do your parents know?”

  “No. And unless there’s something critically wrong with him, I’m not going to tell them.”

  “That’s probably a wise decision,” Michael said, but he still sounded distant and his eyes were fixed on a spot on the floor.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Kate asked. He glanced up at her.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “You look like you’ve got something pretty heavy on your mind.”

  “It’s nothing,” he told her. She didn’t believe him.

  “Did you talk to Trevor?” Michael didn’t answer her. She knew him well enough now to know that when he didn’t answer her questions, she was usually correct. “What did he say?”

  Michael blinked, and when he finally did answer, his words surprised her. “I’m not sure I should be the one to tell you.” Kate wasn’t sure what to make of that.

  “Is it bad?” When he fell silent again, she realized she wasn’t going to get anything more out of him. “You know what, never mind. Maybe I don’t want to know.” That was about as far from true as she could possibly get. But as long as Gavin was still with the doctors, she didn’t need anything else to worry about. She already felt guilty for the way she’d behaved earlier that afternoon. Maybe if she hadn’t gotten so upset with Gavin, if she hadn’t forced him to say those things about Trevor, then none of this would have happened.

  “Are you alright?” This time, Michael asked her.

  No, Kate wanted to say. No, I’m not alright. There’s a psychotic ghost haunting my apartment, he put my brother in the hospital because of the way I egged him on, and neither one of you will tell me what’s actually happening.

  Instead, she just muttered, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just...”

  “What?” Michael asked.

  “I’m just worried that this was all my fault. You know, if I hadn’t been antagonizing Gavin, then maybe Trevor wouldn’t have attacked him.” Michael didn’t respond immediately. The longer it took him to contradict her, the more convinced she became that she was correct.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” he told her. “It was only a matter of time.”

  Oh great. That made her feel a lot better.

  Time wasn’t moving fast enough. Why hadn’t she heard anything yet? And why wouldn’t Michael tell her what Trevor had said? She was so sick of not knowing, of being left in the dark. To make matters worse, whatever Trevor had told Michael had left him detached and distant, right at the moment she needed him most.

  “I’m not sure I should be the one to tell you.”

  Thinking back on Michael’s ominous words reminded Kate of what Gavin had said to her just moments before the attack.

  “I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”

  Kate wracked her brain, trying to figure out what could have happened that would make both Gavin and Michael so determined to protect her. Maybe Gavin really had done something horrible, something that he knew would devastate her, so he kept it a secret. If that was the case, then what? Would he live the rest of his life in Trevor’s shadow? Turn himself in? Would she have to -

  No. That wasn’t it. There was no way. She knew Gavin better than anyone else on the planet. He wouldn’t hurt a soul.

  But then what else could it be?

  Before she could dwell on it any further, the door opened and a doctor appeared. He was tall with thinning hair and a thick mustache. He smiled and held out a hand as he approached them.

  “I’m Dr. Morchower. Are you with Gavin Avery?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Kate and Michael both stood to greet the doctor. “Is he okay?”

  “Oh yes, he’s going to be fine. We’re releasing him now. He had some pretty nasty cuts and some glass embedded in his right arm, but we cleaned him out and stitched him up. We’ll need him back in about two weeks to take the stitches out. He has a mild concussion and he did chip a bone in his left elbow, so I’m sending him home with a prescription for painkillers and he’ll have to ice the bone every three or four hours for the next few days. Make sure he rests that arm for at least a few weeks, and if it’s not better in month, he’ll need to see a spe
cialist.”

  “Thank you so much, Doctor,” Kate said, nearly trembling with relief.

  Gavin appeared moments later, sporting a row of dark, thin stitches on one arm and a sling the color of a sapphire to support the other.

  “Have that prescription, son?” Dr. Morchower asked. Gavin held up a slip of paper in his right arm.

  “Hey,” Kate smiled. “How are you feeling?”

  “Kind of achy,” Gavin admitted.

  “Well, let’s get you home and then I’ll run and pick up your prescription.”

  “Why don’t I take him home?” Michael asked. Both Gavin and Kate looked at him. “That way, you can just go straight to the pharmacy.”

  Kate realized that Michael intended to talk to Gavin alone, so she didn’t argue. “Gav, are you okay with that?”

  “Fine,” he grimaced. Kate knew he was hurting, and as much as she wanted to know exactly what Gavin and Michael were now both hiding from her, she hoped that whatever Michael had to say wouldn’t put too much pressure on him. After all he’d been through, what he really needed was to rest. But, she realized with a sinking feeling, that wasn’t going to happen as long as Trevor was around. Gavin needed to be free of whatever bound the ghost to him. If anyone could help him now, it was Michael.

  “Okay,” Kate agreed. “I’ll see you boys at home.”

  ~*~

  “Thanks for all this,” Gavin muttered roughly as Michael drove him home.

  “Don’t mention it,” Michael replied. Gavin exhaled slowly and rested his head back against the seat. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” he muttered. “It’s funny, I didn’t even realize my elbow was hurting until they told me it was chipped. Now it hurts like hell.”

  “Yeah, I broke my arm falling out of a tree when I was seven. It’s not fun.” Michael made his best attempt at casual conversation while simultaneously trying to figure out how to steer it back to Trevor. “So what did you tell them? When they asked what happened to you? I mean, I’m guessing you didn’t tell them the truth.”

  “What, you don’t think they’d believe that a freakin’ ghost threw me into a wall?” Gavin asked wryly and sniggered at his own joke. “I told them that I was helping my sister bring in a box of old picture frames and fell down the stairs.”

  “So what exactly did happen? I didn’t really get a lot out of Kate. She was kind of freaking out while she was trying to explain it.”

  “Yeah, she does that,” Gavin remarked. “We were just bickering. I was pissed because she’d run off again without telling me where she was going and she’s still mad about everything that happened yesterday. Then she asked me about Trevor and BAM.” Gavin clapped his hands for emphasis. “You know, we used to argue when we were younger, but we never had full blown fights until we moved here.”

  “Really?” Michael was surprised. He thought all siblings fought. He and Jonathan certainly had.

  “Yeah. And it’s my fault. I never listened to her when she said that there was something in the apartment. I just thought she was being paranoid, like always. I mean, I like to think I’m pretty open minded, but ghosts?” Michael glanced at him. “Well, I guess you’d believe it. But think for a moment if you didn’t have your spectral vision or whatever. You’d think it was just her imagination.”

  “I don’t know what I’d think,” Michael admitted. “I guess it all depends on whether or not a ghost would have a reason to be there.”

  Gavin sighed. “I didn’t even consider it until she said his name. God, that scared the living hell out of me. After that, I just didn’t know what to believe. Until today, anyway.”

  “And now?”

  Gavin was silent for a few brief moments. “I think he really wants to kick my ass. And I guess he has a pretty good reason to,” he acknowledged. Michael didn’t dispute him.

  “You know, he was the one who ransacked your old apartment.”

  “Are you serious?” Gavin asked. Michael nodded. “What else did he tell you?”

  Michael hesitated. “He told me everything.” Gavin closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his unslung hand. “It’s none of my business. This is between you and Kate. But Gavin, I think you know now that he’s never going to leave you alone until she hears the truth.”

  Gavin stared pensively out the window. “I was trying to do what was best for her.”

  “I know.”

  They didn’t speak for the rest of the car ride home. Gavin remained transfixed inside his own mind. Michael honestly didn’t know what he would decide. He wasn’t even sure what to hope for. A huge part of him didn’t want Kate to find out. But the small, rational voice in the back of his mind reminded him that she had a right to know. She needed to know.

  Trevor was waiting for them inside Kate and Gavin’s apartment. Gavin breezed past him and disappeared into his bedroom. Trevor looked up at Michael.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” was all Michael had to say.

  “Ow! Dammit!” Gavin suddenly cried. Michael sprinted down the hall and into his room. Gavin was kneeling next to his bed, wincing in pain.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just forgot these were here,” he indicated the stitches that ran down the outer side of his right arm. The area around his wound was red, and Michael realized he must have put pressure on them. “Hey, do you think you could give me a hand?”

  “Sure.”

  “There’s an old suitcase under here. It’s about as far back as it can possibly be. Do you think you can reach it?”

  Michael obliged, but he wasn’t happy about it. Crawling around the tight, dusty space beneath Gavin’s bed reminded him of the summer his uncle had managed to talk him and all of his cousins into retracing a path that had led to the discovery of some underground caverns in San Antonio. That path included tunnels, sometimes barely a foot high, that required them to slither along their bellies like snakes. Michael had become so claustrophobic that he’d almost blacked out. He’d avoided cramped, suffocating spaces ever since.

  Finally, after reaching and shoving several boxes aside, he found a tattered, brown suitcase and dragged it out from beneath the bed.

  “Thanks, man,” Gavin said.

  “Don’t mention it,” Michael replied as Gavin unlocked the case and pulled out a large black photo album.

  “Look, I know this probably won’t be a lot of fun for you, but would you mind staying? I think it will be better if you’re here.”

  Honestly, Michael thought his presence would make it a lot worse, but he agreed just the same.

  Kate arrived home about thirty minutes later, clutching a small white pharmacy bag and sack full of groceries. She didn’t seem at all surprised to see Michael still there.

  “I had twenty minutes to kill, so I did a little shopping,” she explained. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m okay,” Gavin assured her.

  “Good. The pharmacist said you’d need to get something in your stomach before you take this, so what would you like?” She asked all of this as she was putting the groceries away. Michael realized just how hard she was trying to act nonchalant. She knew that they were going to talk to her, but Michael couldn’t tell if she was hoping to initiate it or trying to deter away from it.

  “In a minute, Kate. There’s something that we need to talk about,” Gavin said.

  “Okay,” she complied and joined her brother and Michael in the living room. She took a seat on the couch next to Gavin. Her eyes fell almost immediately onto the photo album in his lap. “What’s that?”

  “I’ll show you in a minute. First, I want you to see this.” He handed her a single photograph of a tall man with dark buzzed hair, warm eyes, and a winning smile. Kate stared down at the handsome face and frowned. “Do you remember him?”

  “No, but... I think I had a dream about him.”

  “His name is Trevor Hanson,” Gavin told her. “And he was your fiancé.”

  Chapter 22

 
; January 6 of That Year

  Gavin Avery was content.

  No, he was more than content. It was a gray winter day and with a rare layer of fresh snow on the ground outside his apartment, a fire crackling in the fireplace, and a beautiful girl in his arms, he had to admit he had it pretty damn good.

  “You know what sounds really yummy right now?” Tiffany Stanford asked, nuzzling his neck. Gavin could think of several responses, none of them very appropriate, but the last time he’d made a dirty joke, it had ended up as Tiffany’s Facebook status. It might not have been as embarrassing if she hadn’t tagged him in it, but what was done was done.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Eggnog,” she sighed and wrapped her arms around him.

  “That does sound good,” Gavin said with a huge stretch. “Too bad I haven’t been to the store this week.” Even if he had, he wouldn’t have picked up eggnog. Not that he had anything against eggnog. But given the choice, he’d almost always pick something else.

  “We could go right now,” Tiffany suggested.

  “Uh...” Gavin glanced out the window. It was snowing again. Although he was fairly certain he could handle driving to the grocery store at the end of his street, there was a reason all of the businesses were closed that day. Most Texans were bad enough drivers without the threat of ice on the road. Snow made the streets of Dallas downright hazardous. “Sorry, Hon, but I don’t feel like risking my life for a cup of eggnog.”

  “Gavin, there is a Wal-Mart at the other end of the block.”

  “Yeah, and there are lunatics out there who think they know how to drive in snow.”

  “So does that mean we’re canceling on Kate and Trevor tonight?”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Gavin replied, though he didn’t want to. They were supposed to meet his sister and her new fiancé at Olive Garden that evening for a belated New Years/engagement celebration. Although Gavin thought she was a little young to be engaged, he had to admit that he was happy for Kate. Trevor was a good guy, and anyone with eyes could see how much they loved each other.