“How’s it going? Any leads?” I asked, settling into one of the visitor chairs on the opposite side of his desk. I perched on the edge and leaned over the desk to get a closer look. It was the same girl. There was no question that the ghost at the manor was Katerina.
Even if she didn’t remember who the girl in the pictures had been.
Nick shook his head and then scrubbed a hand down his face. He was exhausted. When Nick had a case, he poured his heart into it. I had a feeling this case was going to be particularly rough on him. And there was nothing I could do to insulate him from the inevitable outcome of his investigation.
“Nothing just yet. I tried calling the boyfriend, Bobby, to see what he could tell me, but I didn’t get an answer. He lives just outside of town. Looks like he rents a house on the back acreage of a ranch. I’ll try going by tomorrow and see what he has to say. If they live together, like Pearl says, then he’s probably the best person to ask in regards to where Katerina is.”
I concealed a cringe. He was talking about her as though she was still alive.
Bat wings, this was going to be tricky.
I forced a smile. “Sounds like a solid plan. If I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”
“You angling for a job? Junior partner or something?”
I laughed. “Not at all. I’m perfectly happy making coffee.”
And potions. Mostly the potions.
“You sure? You were incredible with the last investigation you stumbled into. You might just have a knack for this kind of work.”
It was eerily similar to something Adam had said. How did I always get myself into these messes? It didn’t matter, I’d learned my lesson.
“Thanks, but no. I’m good.” I pushed up from the chair and went back to the door. “See you at Siren’s Song tomorrow?”
“You know it.” He flashed a broad smile that set off the sparkle in his cobalt blue eyes.
I returned his smile and set out. “Night, Nick.”
“Night, Holly.”
Back at the manor, Adam was upstairs, still working on his computer, so after popping my head in to say hello, I went back downstairs, to the kitchen, looking for Boots. He normally bull rushed me at the front door, so his absence was strange. It didn’t take me long to find the oversize puffball. Gwen, Posy, Katerina, and Lacey were all gathered in the kitchen, and Boots was sitting near his food cupboard, looking around to see if anyone would notice him.
I smiled at his pitiful little face, surprised he wasn’t yowling his kitty lungs out.
“Your cat is half a minute away from being turning into my after dinner snack,” Lacey growled, flashing Boots an icy stare. “He’s been begging for over an hour.”
Boots blinked at her. Clearly not threatened. Ever since his part in taking down Gary the Gargoyle, he’d been infused with a new sense of bravery.
“Back off, Lacey. He just wants dinner. All you had to do was pop the top on a can and he would have left you alone.” Not bothering to point out that they also could have gone to a different room in the house if they didn’t want to listen to him fussing.
I sighed and stooped down to pull out a can of tuna. Boots circled me, ramming his head into my sides and arms as I worked to get his dinner. “Any luck on the memory retrieval?” I asked, craning around to glance at the ghostly trio.
Posy shook her head. “Not yet.”
Gwen shrugged. “It just takes time.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that part already,” I muttered.
When Boots had his food, I pushed up from the floor, closed the cabinet, and crossed to the sink to rinse out the can. When both the can and my hands were clean, I joined the ghosts, turning my back on Lacey, who was standing near the fridge, swirling her fake blood cocktail like it was a fine wine.
“Well, I spoke with Nick. He’s been trying to track down your boyfriend. Bobby. Does that name ring any bells?” I asked, bracing my hands on the counter behind me. I hoped to get in a few questions before Posy and Gwen shooed me off again.
“Bobby?” Katerina wrinkled her pert, ski slope nose. After a few moments, she shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. It doesn’t click.” She gave a frustrated sigh and Gwen made to pat her on the shoulder, though they couldn’t actually touch.
Gwen shot me an uncharacteristically dark look. “Holly, what did we tell you? You have to let it come out naturally.”
I pushed off the counter, ready to leave. “All I’m trying to do is get some answers to help give her family and friends some closure.”
Gwen’s face softened. “I know your heart is in the right place, Holly, but I assure you, this can’t be rushed.”
Posy nodded her agreement. “Gwen’s right, dear. If you try to force it, Katerina could risk losing those memories for good.”
“Really?” Katerina and I asked at the same time. Katerina’s face fell into an even deeper look of despair.
Gwen tried to pat her shoulder again. “Don’t worry, doll. We won’t let that happen.”
“I met a ghost once who didn’t know anything about their past life,” Posy said. “He had been a ghost for twenty something years and had no idea. He said that when he first woke up, as a ghost, he found a pair of wizards who tried to help him, using magic, and eventually, after their experiments to retrieve his memories concluded, he lost any hope of getting it back.”
“That’s so sad.” A pang of guilt swept through my stomach. “I’m sorry, Katerina. I’ll try to be more patient. In the meantime, Nick is going to keep looking for answers on this side of the Otherworld.”
The three women nodded.
“Thank you, Holly. And thank you to your friend, too,” Katerina replied. “I just wish I could—” her words cut off as her eyes flew open wide. She made like she was gripping the table top and then her eyes rolled back.
“Can ghosts have seizures?” I cried out, wildly glancing between Posy and Gwen.
They both shook their heads as Posy answered, “Not that I know of. We don’t have brains or muscles!”
Katerina shook and then suddenly, like the blink of an eye, she was normal again. “I remember a cliff!”
“A cliff?”
“Yes, a cliff. Over the ocean. There were a lot of green trees. They were so tall that I remember wondering how old they were. How many rings were on their trunks. Then he said—”
“He?” I repeated, almost shouting. “He who?”
Katerina shook her head. “I can’t see him. I hear his voice. It’s deep and stern. He told me it was a stupid thing to wonder about.”
We all hung onto the silence after her last statement, desperately waiting for more, but Katerina shook her head. “That’s it. That’s all I remember.” She buried her face in her hands. “That’s not good enough, is it?”
“No, no, Katerina. It’s good. You did really good!” I reached out, as though to pat her hand, before realizing that would be in vain.
She sighed. “But there are lots of cliffs around here. I saw them when I was on my way to the beach.”
“Wait, you didn’t wake up on the beach?” Posy said, her eyebrows raised.
Katerina shook her head again. “No. I remember seeing the ocean from up high, and then I walked and walked, trying to call for help, but there was no one around. When I saw the beach, with all the people, I hurried down to get someone to help me. I didn’t know that they couldn’t see me.”
“Posy, didn’t you tell me that the reason you’re bound to the manor is because you died nearby?”
Posy nodded. “That and the fact that this was the home I shared with my husband.”
“I don’t think I know your death story,” Gwen said, leaning back in her chair.
This was quite the revelation as Gwen knew everything about everyone. She spent most days floating around town, capturing gossip like butterflies in a net and stored it away in her mind. Forty plus years of gossip in a small town was a lot of information to hold onto.
Posy looked uncomfortable, glan
cing around at each of us in turn.
“Ugh. This is such a morbid conversation! Why would you all want to sit around talking about death all night long?” Lacey declared, before stalking from the kitchen, taking her crystal goblet with her.
“Isn’t she a vampire?” Katerina asked once the door flapped shut again. “Doesn’t that make her dead too? Technically?”
I nodded. “Ironic, isn’t it?”
A small smile flickered over Katerina’s lips. “Posy, can you share? It might help me remember. It seems like talking about something other than my memories helps to clear my mind.”
Posy considered us again but then finally agreed with a slight nod. “All right. After my husband passed away, I sunk into a deep depression and I couldn’t move on. Everyone told me to live life, go out and have an adventure. They told me to leave the manor and all of the memories behind. But I couldn’t go anywhere. It would have felt like leaving him. My Earl. Eventually, it got to be too much and I decided to join him.”
The room fell silent as Posy’s meaning sunk in.
The most tragic part of the story was that Posy hadn’t found her beloved Earl. If he was a ghost too, he was off somewhere else. I’d never asked, but I had a feeling she waited around, haunting the manor because she hoped someday he would make his way back too.
After a long moment, Gwen spoke, “I’m so sorry, Posy.”
Katerina and I echoed her sentiments.
“I just have one more question,” Katerina said, looking nervously at Gwen and Posy, as though she already knew the answer and didn’t like it. “What happens next? I mean, is this all there is? I’m stuck as a ghost forever?”
Posy smiled. “No, of course not, dear.”
Gwen shook her head. “I’ve had a lot of friends that passed on to the Otherworld. It’s a personal choice.”
This new tidbit of information shocked me. I’d never really known how ghosting worked. Gwen was perfectly content being a ghost. She loved being able to fly from house to house and glean gossip and stories every day. I understood that she wasn’t in a hurry to move on from this world. But Posy…I would have expected that if Posy had the choice to move on, she would have done it already. Unless, as I thought, she was waiting to see if Earl was still on this side of the Otherworld.
“So, why do you stay?” Katerina asked, voicing my own silent question.
“I like being a ghost!” Gwen said, her chest puffed out with pride. “This is the most fun I’ve ever had! Maybe someday I’ll get bored and move on, but for now, I’m perfectly happy staying here in Beechwood Harbor. What about you, Posy?”
Posy’s lip quivered and I gripped the edge of the table. When Posy got odd-balance things went haywire around the house. Her last meltdown had made the entire house rebel and I’d been blasted right off the porch steps. I glanced up at the ceiling, halfway expecting water to start seeping through it or a crack to appear.
“I don’t know how to move on,” Posy confessed, her voice small and quiet.
Gwen’s eyebrows hiked up her permanently wrinkle-free forehead. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve tried. I want to see my husband again, but I can’t figure it out. A long time ago, I even traveled to the Seattle Haven to see a ghost doctor. He couldn’t help me either.”
“A ghost doctor?” I used to live in the Seattle Haven and had never heard of such a thing.
Posy nodded. “He said it might be because of the manner of my death.”
Katerina looked between Posy and Gwen. “What do you mean, the manner? Is there a wrong way to die?”
“Because it was my choice. I didn’t wait for Death to find me. I jumped off the cliff right out the front door, down into the harbor. Sometimes I wonder if Earl was a ghost too. If he was there that night. If he watched me…” Posy’s voice evaporated into thin air and the house started to shake, as though sobbing on her behalf.
“Bat wings!” I gasped, clinging to the table.
From out in the hall, Lacey screamed and then ran back into the kitchen.
“Posy, it’s okay, take a deep—” I cringed and Gwen shot me a dirty look.
I wanted to disappear under the table.
Lacey snapped her fingers in front of Posy. “Posy! Snap out of it!”
I groaned. “Helpful, Lacey.”
Lacey’s icy stare landed on me. “Says the one who just told a ghost to take a deep breath?”
Posy wiped at her invisible tears and then started to float up through the table and toward the ceiling. We watched as she disappeared through the solid surface. I knew exactly where she was going. The attic.
Gwen glared at me and Lacey, before beckoning for Katerina. “Come on, doll. We’ll go comfort her.”
Before I could sputter an apology, they were floating up just as Posy had and disappeared into the ceiling.
“Great…” I muttered, staring at the ceiling as the walls trembled again.
Now, Beechwood Manor was on the verge of falling down, and I still had no idea where to find Katerina’s body.
CHAPTER NINE
ON MY WAY OUT of the kitchen, I pushed the door open just as another shudder went through the house. The tremor sent me lurching forward and I nearly crashed into Adam on the other side. He grabbed my shoulders to steady me. “Woah! Are you okay? I was on the phone with a client when all of a sudden the house went crazy.”
“I’m fine,” I said, stepping into his arms. He wrapped them around me and I melted against his solid chest. “It’s Posy that’s upset.”
“You don’t say.” Adam snorted. “What happened this time?”
“She was talking about her death story and her late husband.”
“Normal Friday night around here,” he said, groaning.
“It’s just so sad.”
Adam nodded, his chin brushing the top of my head. He waited out another tremor before asking, “Should we go talk to her before the pipes break?”
I smiled softly and looked up at him. “Gwen and Katerina are on it.”
He ran a finger down the side of my face as we broke apart. “Good. Where did you disappear to tonight?”
“I stayed to help at work and then stopped at Nick’s.”
“Aha.” He nodded, but there was a curtness to it that rattled me. “Well, you’re here now. So what do you say? You ready to go take that walk in the woods? Get out of here for a little while?”
I nibbled my lower lip. “Actually, I wanted to look something up.”
“What?”
“Before Posy’s ghost breakdown, Katerina remembered that she woke up on a cliff and walked to the beach when she spotted people. At the time, she didn’t know she was a ghost and thought she could get their help. But according to Posy and Gwen, you wake up close to where you die. So, to me, that means Katerina’s body is on a hiking trail or…at the bottom of one. So, I thought I would print off a map of the nearby hiking trails and see which ones overlook the beach I found her on.”
Adam’s eyebrows creased together. “Why do you need to worry about it? Isn’t finding her kinda Nick’s job?”
“Well, considering that right now, Nick thinks she’s just off on a vacation or a bender or something, I’d say he needs a little help.”
“And that has to come from you?”
I sighed and pinched my eyes closed. “Adam, why does it always have to be a battle? Nick is my friend.”
“And Evangeline is mine.”
“Ugh!” I tossed my hands up in the air. “That’s completely different!”
“How so?” he retorted, crossing his arms.
“For starters, Evangeline looks at you the same way that Boots looks at a fresh bowl of tuna.”
Adam wrinkled his nose. “Bad analogy.”
“Well, it’s the truth! She doesn’t want to just be your friend and you know it.”
“And what if I told you that Nick looks at you the exact same way?”
My heart flew up into my throat like a puck hitting the bell in one of
those strongman carnival games. “What are you talking about? That’s insane.”
Adam hitched his broad shoulders, his expression unchanged. “You might not see it, but I do.”
I shook my head. “No. He likes Cassie and she likes him.”
Adam unfolded his arms. “Holly, please, let’s just go outside, walk around, and forget all this.”
“I don’t feel like it right now. You can go by yourself.”
He set his jaw and I could see the muscles tensing. “Fine.”
The front door opened and we both whirled around to see Evangeline striding inside. She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, a forest green thermal shirt to fight off the chilly night air, and each of her hands were encased inside thick—but somehow still fashionable—leather gloves that went up to her elbows. Her raven hair was tied back in a loose ponytail. She smiled at us. “Hi, guys. I was just out playing with Flurry.”
Flurry was her familiar, a large, golden hawk. How she played with the massive hawk was beyond my imagination.
“Nice night for it,” Adam replied, slapping that stupid smile back on his face, as though Evangeline were a welcome presence in the middle of our argument.
At least the house had stopped shaking. That would be hard to explain to Evangeline. Yeah, your landlord occasionally goes berserk and causes location specific natural disasters, among other tricks.
“In fact, I was just going out for a run myself,” he said, giving me a pointed stare. “Holly?”
I glanced between him and Evangeline before locking onto his dark eyes. “I’m fine here, Adam. Thanks anyways.”
His nostrils flared but he set out of the manor without another word.
Evangeline watched him go and then looked back at me. “Is he all right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, he’s fine.”
“What are you up to tonight?” she asked, closing the door behind Adam’s haughty exit. “Potions?”
I smiled at the hopeful tone to her question but shook my head. “No. I’m working on something else.”
Twice the Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 2) Page 7
