by J A Whiting
They carried the soup and bread and salad out to the table on the deck where Viv lit the jar candles and the cousins sat down to eat. The dog and cat went down the steps where they settled on the grass to guard the yard against chipmunks and squirrels.
Viv sipped from her wine glass. “You said the new ghost and the workmen ghosts were dressed in clothes that looked like fashion from the early nineteen-hundreds.”
Lin nodded as she took a bite of the bread Viv had made. She closed her eyes as she chewed. “This is delicious.”
“So what was going on in town at that time?”
“Well,” Lin said, “Prohibition was in force in the whole country back then. The on-island economy had improved due to tourism. I can’t think of anything else.” Lifting her spoon, she sampled the corn chowder and gave Viv an appreciative look. “I wonder what the building that houses the inn-restaurant used to be. We should go to the museum and see if we can find out the history on that building. That could tell us what the place was used for in the early nineteen-hundreds.”
“Good idea. Maybe that will explain what the men are loading and hauling around in that lot.” Viv passed the platter of bread slices to Lin. “You told me that Mrs. Perkins’s family has owned those two houses on Fairview Street for decades. Maybe we could look into that and see if there’s any connection between who lived in the houses and what was in the other building.”
“Anton might be able to help us.” Lin spooned the last bit of soup into her mouth. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow.” Looking at her watch, she said, “Jeff and John will be here for dessert soon. We should clean up and I’ll whip the cream.”
“I need to warm the hot fudge, too.” Viv and Lin had planned an ice cream sundae bar for the evening’s dessert. Nicky glanced up and wagged his tail when he heard the word dessert.
The sun had set and fireflies could be seen flickering in the dark yard. A pleasant breeze fluttered over the deck now and then and rustled the leaves in the trees.
“Let’s just sit for a few more minutes,” Lin suggested. “It’s such a beautiful evening.”
Viv lifted her wine glass and eyed her cousin. “Are you planning on ruining the night with a visit to Fairview Street later?”
Lin grinned. “Possibly.”
“Maybe the guys will walk down there with us.” Viv’s voice was hopeful. Rubbing her forehead, she complained once again. “I really wish these ghosts weren’t so puzzling. Why can’t they just say what they want?”
“You know they don’t work that way.” A little sigh slipped from Lin’s lips.
“Maybe you should have a talk with them.”
Lin smiled. “They don’t talk to me, remember.”
“Well, maybe you could talk to them. Tell them what we need in order to help out.”
Lin reminded Viv what happened when she attempted to talk to a ghost. “That time I tried to talk to Sebastian, he just disappeared.”
As Viv chattered on about how to get ghosts to be more forthcoming, a strange sensation washed over Lin and the breeze suddenly turned cold and chilled her skin. Lin’s heart started to pound and she shifted her eyes towards the yard where she noticed Nicky and Queenie sitting at attention looking up at something that she couldn’t see.
Slowly, a shimmering figure materialized in front of the animals. It was the ghost from Fairview Street. The man was dressed in a cap, white shirt, vest, and trousers. His face was expressionless, except for his eyes which bore into Lin’s.
As the air around her body dropped nearly ten degrees, Lin began to shiver and although she could hear Viv’s voice, it seemed as if her cousin was speaking to her from inside a faraway tunnel. She could hear Viv call her name, but the ghost held her attention so strongly that she couldn’t pull herself away in order to answer.
The ghost took a step forward. He held something in his hand. Extending his arm, he seemed to be offering it to Lin. She leaned forward slightly trying to see what it was.
Lin rose from her seat and as she did, Viv took hold of her arm. “What is it?”
The shimmering light emanating from the ghost grew brighter and Lin watched as the atoms began to swirl, faster and faster. “Wait,” she called out. Before the word was out of her mouth, the ghost had disappeared.
Lin sank back onto her seat as Nicky and Queenie raced up the steps to the deck.
Viv stared at her cousin and gently placed her hand on Lin’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Was it a ghost?”
Lin nodded causing her long brown hair to spill around her face. “It was the ghost from Fairview Street.”
“What did he want?” Viv sat in the deck chair next to Lin.
Lin’s face looked pale. “He held something in his hand. I think he was offering it to me.”
Viv’s eyebrows scrunched together. “What was it?”
Lin shifted her eyes to Viv. “I think it was an invitation.”
8
“An invitation?” Viv’s voice was loud and high-pitched and her eyes were like saucers as she placed her hand against her cheek. “An invitation to what?”
Shaking her head, Lin leaned back in her chair. “I have no idea.” The visit from the ghost had left her weak and unsettled.
Nicky rubbed his head against his owner’s leg and she reached down to pat him.
“What makes you think it was an invitation?” Viv frowned.
Lin bit her lip in thought. “It looked like a fancy envelope, cream-colored. The first thing that popped into my head was that he was handing me an invitation.”
“Did he say anything to you?” Viv pressed her finger against her throbbing temple. “Did he communicate in any way?”
Rubbing her arms to ward off the chill that had overtaken her when the ghost appeared, Lin shook her head. “No, nothing.”
Viv let out a groan. “As usual. That just emphasizes my complaint that these ghosts need to learn to speak.”
Lin managed a chuckle. “Why don’t you arrange a meeting with them?”
Ignoring her cousin’s suggestion, Viv went on. “This whole thing makes me nervous.”
“More than all the previous times?” Lin shrugged into the sweater that Viv had removed and handed to her.
“Yes, because of what we said earlier. You don’t see the ghosts that Mrs. Perkins can see. I don’t like it. Are they trying to trick you into something? Is this new ghost really working together with those workmen-ghosts to trick you somehow? Get you to do something?”
Lin raised an eyebrow. “That seems like kind of an elaborate plan.”
“I feel uneasy.” Viv wrapped her arms around herself.
Lin reached over and rubbed her cousin’s back. “We’ll be careful.”
Viv looked at Lin with worry lines etched into her forehead. “Don’t let anything happen to you.”
Touching her finger to her horseshoe necklace, Lin felt a quiver of anxiety pulse through her veins. What did the ghost have in his hand? Was it really an invitation? If it was, then what was she being invited to? What did he want from her?
Lin stood up. “Let’s go set up the ice cream sundae bar. The guys will be here any minute.” She lifted some of the dishes from the table and Viv pushed herself up and joined in clearing the deck table.
The rest of the evening went as planned without any ghosts making an appearance. The four young people made their sundaes and sat at Viv’s dining table enjoying the ice cream, chatting, and laughing. Lin wanted to tell Jeff about the ghost and what seemed to be an invitation in his hand, but Viv’s boyfriend, John, didn’t know about Lin’s special skill so she decided to wait until the next day to share the details of the evening visitation with Jeff.
While playing a board game together, John brought up the work on Mrs. Perkins’s house. “I heard a glitch came up at the house on Fairview.”
Jeff placed a few lettered tiles on the game board. “Yeah, I heard from Kurt earlier. Mrs. Perkins was not pleased about the delay in the renovations, so Kurt called in some favors fro
m his plumbing contractor friend. The work that needs to be done will only push off the timeline for completion by a week.”
“Lucky for Kurt and his business.” John nodded. “Polly Perkins has a reputation. No one wants to get on her bad side.”
Viv and Lin shared a look.
“What do you mean?” It was Viv’s turn to play, but she didn’t make a move to form a word on the game board. “What kind of a reputation does Mrs. Perkins have?”
Eager to hear John’s reply, but not wanting to appear too interested, Lin pretended to move some of her lettered-tiles around on the wooden holder on the table in front of her.
“She’s kind of a witch.” John took a swallow from his glass of beer. “She’s loaded to the gills, probably one of the wealthiest women on the island, or the mainland, for that matter.”
“Really?” Lin looked up. “How did she make her money?”
“Well, she inherited some from her parents. She took their import-export business over and it took off. She invested in real estate and that took off as well.” John groaned looking at the few options available on the game board. “Her husband owned an oil company before he died, but ole’ Mrs. Perkins was the smart cookie in that family.”
“What’s her reputation?” Lin asked.
John reluctantly made his move on the board. “She does a lot of charity work and is known for her generosity, but in business? Look out. Shrewd, hard, mean. Mrs. Perkins gets what she wants and woe to anyone who gets in her way. I hear she’s a lot like her father was.”
“She didn’t seem like that when I met her.” Lin thought about her conversations with Mrs. Perkins and nothing she said or did suggested a hard-boiled business person. “She seemed kind of to-the-point, but not nasty or rude.”
John smiled. “To-the-point is a good way to describe her. If you cross her, she’ll get to the point all right. Actually, you’ll get the point.”
Viv frowned. “What does that even mean? You mean Mrs. Perkins would hurt someone?”
“Maybe not physically, but she’d basically ruin your business reputation. It would be hard to get any work if that old bat sullied your name.” John took another swallow from his glass. “Rumors have swirled around that she put a number of people out of business, and over nothing, really. Somehow she felt they crossed her, she did her thing, and they lost their businesses.”
“Come on,” Viv scolded. “I don’t believe it. How could she do that?”
Jeff and John leveled their eyes at Viv.
“Is that really true, do you think?” Lin wondered how much was rumor and how much was fact.
Jeff cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t cross the woman.”
“A few years ago, Mrs. Perkins worked with one of the Realtors in our office. A deal went sour and Mrs. Perkins was not pleased. I don’t know what happened, but that Realtor quit and left for the mainland.” John shook his head. “I wouldn’t work with that woman no matter how much the commission might be.” A corner of John’s mouth turned up and he narrowed his eyes. “Or would I?”
His comment elicited chuckles around the table.
“You heard she’s having an event at her house as soon as the renovations are completed?” John studied the board plotting his next move.
“Mrs. Perkins is having an event?” Lin asked.
John nodded. “It’s a charity thing combined with a show-off her house type thing.”
Jeff said, “Kurt told me she expects everyone who worked on the place to show up for the event.” He looked at Lin. “You’ll be expected to attend, too.”
“Me?” Lin gulped. “But I’m just doing the yard.”
Jeff nodded. “It’s supposed to be all hands on deck.”
“I wouldn’t cross her, if I were you.” John warned. “Do good work and do what she expects and you’ll be golden. Otherwise, you’ll be a leper and you’ll lose all your clients.”
Lin sat up, indignant. “I don’t believe that.”
“At your peril.” John shrugged.
“We’ll go together.” Jeff smiled at Lin. “It might be fun.”
“Are you invited?” Viv asked her boyfriend.
“Yup. The whole office is going.” John winked at Viv. “Which means you’re going, too.” Moving a few tiles to his letter holder, he added, “Our engraved invitations will be arriving very soon.”
Viv flashed her cousin a look as Lin’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly at the mention of the word, invitation.
The game ended with the four of them yawning and complaining about having to get up early the next day for work. Because of the late hour, the girls decided to postpone their return visit to Fairview Street for another evening and Lin decided to stay overnight with Viv because she was too lazy to leave the house and go home. While the girls were cleaning up, they discussed Mrs. Perkins and the invitation.
Viv put dishes in the dishwasher. “Mrs. Perkins sounds like a monster.”
“I wonder though.” Lin washed some pots in the sink. “A prominent business person attracts all kinds of comments and rumors. The woman is a good business person. People talk and exaggerate.” Lin eyed her cousin with a grin and joked, “I’ve heard the exact same things about your business tactics.”
Viv whirled, her eyes wide. “What? People say I’m a monster?”
Lin continued to tease. “You run a tight ship at your business. You know, unhappy customers, unhappy employees, they say negative things and talk spreads.”
“Oh, no.” Viv put her hand over her mouth.
Lin chuckled. “I’m teasing you. People only say good things about you. You and I are small fish business owners. We don’t draw the attention that someone like Mrs. Perkins does.”
Viv gave her cousin a scowl. “I don’t know why I fall for anything you say.”
Lin’s face took on a serious expression. “What do you think about the invitation?”
Viv crossed her arms over her chest. “It could be a coincidence that John talked about Mrs. Perkins’s invitation right after the ghost held one out to you.”
Lin lowered her chin and looked up at her cousin with skepticism.
Viv batted at the air. “Oh, I know. When these ghosts are involved, there are no coincidences.”
Lin took sheets for the guest bed out of the linen closet. “I guess we’ll plan ahead and get new dresses then.”
Viv cocked her head in a quizzical posture. “Why?”
Lin thought of the ghost’s evening appearance and how he extended the envelope to her. “Because, we’re going to be attending an event we were just invited to.”
9
As Lin knelt by the flower bed pulling out weeds, Anton and Libby Hartnett sat in lawn chairs listening to her story about last night’s ghostly appearance. Whenever Lin moved to another section of the garden, Libby and Anton dragged their chairs across the lawn so they could continue to hear Lin’s report about the ghosts.
The sun was high in the sky and the air carried some humidity causing Lin’s sleeveless shirt to cling to her back. A drop of sweat traveled down her temple and she used the back of her hand to brush it away.
Anton paged through the book in his lap while Libby sat in the chair with her hands resting on the wooden arms. When Lin discussed Mrs. Perkins and what John said about her being hard driving and mean, Libby nodded her head slightly. “John isn’t far off in his description. Polly Perkins has one desire … to accumulate wealth. She’s ruthless in business. The woman has put many people out of business.” Libby’s eyes hardened. “Unnecessarily.” Looking over at Lin working in the flower bed, she warned, “Be careful around that woman, Carolin.”
Lin turned and sat back on her heels. “Really? I’m just the gardener. Why would she bother with me?”
Libby’s voice was forceful. “There’s something about Polly Perkins that doesn’t sit right with me.”
“How do you mean?” Lin pulled her sun hat forward over her forehead to shade her eyes.
“For one,
I think she’s unethical.” Libby smoothed her skirt. “I also think she can be dangerous. Let me modify that. I know she can be dangerous.”
Lin eyed the older woman and absent-mindedly noticed that the heat never seemed to bother her. “Dangerous, how? In business? Does she take things too far? Must she win at all costs?”
“Yes.” Libby wasn’t giving much information for Lin to go on.
Narrowing her eyes, Lin made eye contact with Libby. “Dangerous? In what way is she dangerous? Is there something else besides putting people out of business?’
Libby’s lips were pressed together in thin lines. “Possibly.”
Lin had been puzzling over why the ghosts had showed themselves recently so she decided to move the conversation in a different direction. “Why do you think these ghosts have shown up now? From the way they’re dressed, the ghosts look like they lived in the nineteen-hundreds. That’s over a hundred years ago. Why visit now? What could have drawn them out?”
Libby glanced at Anton. “What do you think? Have you found any pertinent information?”
Anton pushed his black eyeglass frames up to the bridge of his nose. Lin was glad to see that he, too, was feeling the effects of the heat. The man was flushed from the warm temperatures and had little beads of sweat forming over his upper lip like a see-through mustache.
The historian sat straighter in his chair and cleared his throat. “I’ve found some information. The way the men’s clothing was described tells me that they were probably living and working during Prohibition. I wouldn’t be surprised if those ghost-men are loading bottles of alcohol into crates for shipping to the mainland, likely a job they performed during their lifetimes. During that period in history, the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard contributed to the movement, or smuggling, of alcohol. Ships lingered about ten miles from the islands, and acted as liquor “stores.” That section of water was called “Rum Row.” The gangs had short-wave radios on the island that were used to communicate with the ships. There was quite a bit of money to be made in smuggling. Actually, some impressive fortunes were made and the people making the money were very protective of their territory.”
