The Ghost and the Halloween Haunt

by Anna J. McIntyre

  Danielle paused at the top step leading to the first floor and looked at Marie. “What will happen?”

  “Not really sure exactly—but what if I get stuck at some dreary place like the cemetery? It would hardly be worth sticking around.”

  “Is that what Eva told you would happen?” Danielle asked.

  “She didn’t say exactly, but suggested it might be best if we made ourselves scarce until after Halloween to allow whatever is going on to play out.”

  “And you can’t tell us what is going on?”

  “To be honest, I’m not really sure. It’s my understanding some spirits might be trying to get Walt’s attention. Something to resolve. Beyond that, I don’t know.”

  “Okay.” Danielle let out a sigh and started down the staircase. “We’ll just have to do the haunted house without your help. I don’t suppose we’re the first people who had to pull off a Halloween haunted house without real ghosts. Although, from what you’re saying, it sounds like there will be some ghosts here—just not to help us.”

  Marie glanced around quickly as if looking to see if anyone was eavesdropping and then looked back to Danielle. In a whisper she said, “I don’t think it will hurt if I tell you one thing—we don’t believe those footprints in your secret staircase came from a spirit.”

  After Marie disappeared, Danielle called the chief, asking him if he would mind lending a hand at the haunted house since Marie and Eva would not be helping. She then called the rest of the haunted house crew—just those who were aware of Marie and Eva’s existence—informing them of the spirits’ pending absence. Chances were, they would not be seeing the two spirits again until November arrived.

  Walt, Danielle, Chris, Heather, Ian and the chief huddled in the parlor, discussing what changes needed to be made to compensate for losing two ghostly helpers.

  “If we’re lucky, maybe our tea-loving spirit will return,” Heather said, glancing down at the tea set Danielle had left sitting on the coffee table.

  “I’m a little uncomfortable about all this,” Danielle said with a sigh. “It’s like this really is a haunted house.”

  “It always has been,” Ian reminded her.

  “That’s not what I mean,” Danielle said. “I’ve never been afraid in Marlow House. A haunted house—like Presley House—it scared me.”

  “And about killed you,” Heather added.

  “Yes.” Danielle nodded.

  “Eva assured us that we have no reason to fear for our safety,” Chris reminded them.

  “If there is something we need to worry about, I certainly don’t feel comfortable having Eddy and Evan here,” the chief said.

  “I don’t doubt what Eva says,” Danielle told the chief. “We aren’t in any danger. What I meant, it’s like we’re visitors to the haunted house—not someone just putting it on. Going through a haunted house, you never know what might jump out at you. But if you’re the ones responsible for putting it on, like us, we know what to expect around every corner.”

  “But not now. Now we have a couple of rogue ghosts up to mischief,” Chris added.

  “I rather like the idea,” Heather said. “A nice scary Halloween.”

  “I don’t like being scared,” Danielle declared.

  “Says the woman who has been seeing ghosts all her life and always seems so blasé about it,” the chief snorted.

  “I just don’t like them jumping at me, yelling boo,” Danielle grumbled.

  The next moment Evan walked into the parlor, wearing his ghost costume, and said, “Ginny’s not here yet.”

  Danielle glanced at her watch and then looked up at Evan. “We’re opening in a few minutes. She’s usually here by now. Maybe she can’t come.”

  “She did say they had to do something today,” the chief reminded. “Maybe it took longer than she expected, and she can’t come now. You’ll just have to haunt the upstairs without her.”

  Twenty-Two

  Danielle stood in front of Walt, straightening his tie. The two were alone in the library. In five minutes the haunted house would be open for business.

  “You look handsome,” Danielle whispered, leaning forward to brush a quick kiss over his lips.

  “Thank you, love. And while I fully support your desire to raise money for charity, I will confess I’ll be grateful when Wednesday gets here.”

  Dropping her hands from his tie, she looked up into his blue eyes and asked, “You aren’t having fun?”

  “Sitting for over four hours pretending to read a book while keeping it suspended in air and sending random objects flying about the library can get rather tedious. When I was a spirit, I never suffered from backaches or a sore backside. I could really use an extra cushion to sit on.”

  Danielle smiled apologetically. “I guess I didn’t think this through. We should have gotten more help—but considering the rogue ghosts—as Chris calls them—that might not have been wise. Perhaps a haunted house wasn’t such a terrific idea.”

  “I suppose I should be grateful I’m not Chris. I wouldn’t want to be wrapped in that suffocating mummy costume all evening, and that casket!”

  “Yeah,” Danielle cringed. “He told me it was pretty uncomfortable and that he wished he had gotten one with padding. But that old-fashioned wooden casket was his bright idea.”

  Walt grinned. “Yes, I believe he’s regretting that prop about now.”

  Danielle gave Walt another quick kiss and said, “It’s almost showtime.”

  Sunday evening was proving to have far less foot traffic than the first two nights. Danielle was not surprised considering the next day was either a work or school day for many people.

  By the time nine p.m. rolled around, Ginny had still not showed up, and they no longer expected her to come. Evan was disappointed, but he was so busy being the lone ghost on the second floor he didn’t have time to miss her.

  In the library Walt sat stoically on the chair next to the portrait, an open book floating before him. While he found the chore tedious, there were moments of amusement, which made him rethink his earlier response to Danielle. Yes, this is sometimes fun, he thought, entertained by the reactions of the people coming through the library. Minutes earlier a family had come through—a mother, father and two young children. They seemed to be having such a delightful time and were so intrigued by his trick, he began thinking of the family he and Danielle might someday have.

  The clock on the wall chimed, telling Walt it was ten p.m., when a group of four teenagers walked into the library—two girls and two boys. Walt assumed the two couples were on a double date. The girls kept staring at him, comparing his likeness to the man in the portrait. But then they jumped when they realized he wasn’t holding the book.

  “How does he do that, Kurt?” one of the girls whispered to her date.

  Kurt looked directly at Walt and asked in a loud clear voice, “How do you get the book to do that?”

  Walt smiled at him and then whispered, “Because I’m a ghost.” They all laughed.

  Kurt reached over to touch the book. Walt shook his head, silently telling him no. He reluctantly took back his hand. A moment later Kurt turned to the other three teenagers to say something, his back to Walt, when motion over their shoulders captured his attention. He froze, his eyes widened. Speechless, he pointed behind his friends.

  The three teenagers had been watching Kurt and had failed to notice Walt’s startled expression. He had seen the same thing as their friend. There, floating in the air above them, was the transparent image of a young woman.

  “Holy crap!” one of them shouted while the two girls let out screams of surprise. They then laughed.

  “Oh my gosh, scared me!” one of the girls said. “It must be a hologram.”

  “That’s probably what the book is too. A hologram. That’s why he didn’t want you to touch it,” the other girl said.

  They turned to Walt for him to confirm their theories, but Walt said nothing. Instead, he stared intently at the floating ima
ge.

  “Do you recognize me, Walt Marlow?” the vision asked.

  Walt looked from the unexpected apparition to the teenagers, who continued to chatter away as if this was all great fun. It didn’t seem as if they had heard the question.

  “They can see me,” she said. “As can you, Walt Marlow. But they can’t hear me. But you can, can’t you?”

  Walt blinked his eyes, but said nothing. He gave her a slight nod.

  “Do you recognize me?” she asked again. “You can answer when they leave the room,” the spirit told him.

  A few minutes later the teenagers left the library, leaving Walt and the apparition alone.

  “You look familiar, but I can’t place you,” Walt told her.

  “I’m Annabelle Fortune. Do you remember now?” She sounded angry.

  Recognition dawned. “Yes. Your husband worked for my grandfather. But why are you here?”

  “I need to know what happened to my husband,” she demanded.

  “You don’t know?”

  “Obviously I don’t know, or I wouldn’t be here!” she said impatiently.

  “I know he left Frederickport after I announced the sale of the company. I remember you came to me looking for him. I told you then I didn’t know where he was. I don’t know any more now than I did then,” Walt explained.

  “He would never have left me! I had to go see my aunt in Portland; she was ill. He couldn’t go with me. He said he had to stay here and see you. When I came back the next week, he wasn’t there. I never saw him again.”

  Walt looked sympathetically at the apparition.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped.

  “Like what?” he asked.

  “Like you feel sorry for me. Like I was a fool and didn’t really know my husband. Nothing was missing. He didn’t take his clothes, nothing. In fact, the day I left for Portland, I had to come back to the house to get something, and the piano Abe had bought me arrived early. I was so excited, I wanted to stay and play it—I wanted to thank him. But I had to leave and he had already gone to see you. Why would he buy me a piano if he was intending to abandon me?”

  Walt shook his head. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I know you were the last one to see him,” she told him.

  Frowning in confusion, Walt shook his head. “How can that be? I don’t even recall the last time I saw him, but I’m certain it was days before I heard he had left town.”

  “Then I suppose I’ll have to refresh your memory,” she said sternly. “After you announced the sale of your grandfather’s business, Abe told me he had to speak to you. There was something you needed to know. But your assistant kept telling him you were too busy.”

  “My assistant?” Walt frowned.

  “Yes. I don’t know her name. The morning I left, he said he was going to your house instead of the office, and make you see him.”

  “He never came. And if he did, I never saw him. Did he tell you what he wanted to talk to me about?”

  “Of course he didn’t. The Marlows and all their secrets. My husband used to say he was the keeper of those secrets. Loyalty to your family and what did it get us? What did you do to Abe!”

  “Mrs. Fortune,” Walt said in a calm voice, “you are obviously aware of my change of circumstance. I don’t believe you imagine I am a ghost.”

  “No. Of course not. I know all about you.”

  “Then can you imagine in the grand scheme of things someone responsible for the disappearance of your husband being granted a second chance, as I have?”

  “I learned long ago death is no more fair than life,” she said stubbornly.

  “What motive would I have to lie to you? I sincerely have no idea what happened to your husband,” Walt said in earnest.

  Annabelle stared down at Walt, doubt seeping in. The image of her body continued to float over the room.

  They were interrupted a moment later when Danielle walked into the library carrying a sheet of paper. The moment she spied the floating apparition, she froze and then said dryly, “I thought maybe it was something like this.”

  Without hesitation Danielle turned from Walt and Annabelle and affixed the paper she had been holding onto the outside of the library door. Neither Annabelle nor Walt could see the ‘Closed. Will open in 10 minutes’ that had been written on the paper in felt-tip pen, or that it had a bit of adhesive tape affixed to its edges. She shut and locked the door.

  Turning to Walt, she asked, “Who is your friend?”

  “Danielle, meet Annabelle Fortune. I believe I mentioned her to you. She and her husband used to live in Pete Rogers’s house. At least the house that used to be there.”

  Danielle arched her brow at the spirit and stepped closer, looking up at her. She then turned to Walt and asked, “What does she want?”

  “She seems to think I know where her husband went after he left Frederickport.”

  Danielle looked back up to Annabelle and motioned to the floor. “You think you can come down here?”

  Annabelle frowned. “I like it better up here.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s awkward looking up at you floating around like that. If you want us to help you, then come down here so we can talk.”

  With a frown, Annabelle’s spirit floated downwards until her feet touched the floor. “No one is behaving as I imagined they would. Aren’t people afraid of ghosts anymore? When I was alive, I would have fainted away had a ghost popped into my house and started floating about. Those young people who were here earlier laughed at me!”

  “Sorry about that. But they thought you were a hologram,” Danielle explained.

  “What’s a hologram?” Annabelle asked.

  “Think of it as a parlor trick to give the illusion of a ghost. They didn’t believe you were real. In fact, that’s why I came in here. When they were in the foyer, I heard them talking about the cool hologram of the ghost lady in the library floating about. So I came equipped with a sign to keep people out of the room while I talk to you.”

  “I just want Mr. Marlow to tell me what happened to my husband.”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t think he knows. The house you used to live in—well, the lot it was on—it recently sold, and when discussing its previous owners, Walt mentioned you and your husband. He told me your husband left town after he announced he was selling the company. He never said anything about seeing him. Or knowing where he went. I believe him.”

  “But Abe said he was coming to see your husband,” Annabelle whispered. “He said it was important, something Walt Marlow had to be told. And he would never have abandoned me.”

  “I am sorry, Annabelle,” Danielle said gently. “If your husband was on his way to see Walt and never arrived, then something must have happened. Do you have any idea what he wanted to tell him? Perhaps someone stopped him from seeing Walt.”

  “Are you suggesting someone murdered my husband?”

  “Isn’t that what you were suggesting I did,” Walt asked Annabelle.

  Annabelle considered his question a moment and then shook her head. “No. I just…thought maybe you sent him somewhere. Maybe there was an accident. Something you didn’t want made public.”

  “I honestly have no idea where your husband went or what happened to him,” Walt said.

  Annabelle looked from Danielle to Walt. “Then why am I here?”

  “What do you mean?” Danielle asked.

  “I feel as if I shouldn’t move on. I don’t know why, but I know it has something to do with Abe. It’s like he’s been calling out to me—since before I died.”

  “Walt told me you died on the beach, from exposure,” Danielle said gently.

  Annabelle nodded. “I heard him. He called for me. I went looking for him, but then I got so cold…and then…then…I died.”

  “Have you been at the Frederickport Cemetery all this time?” Danielle asked.

  “Yes.” Annabelle nodded.

  “If Walt can’t help you, maybe there�
�s someone else who can. We have to assume whatever happened to your husband, he is obviously dead now. Perhaps you need to talk to Eva Thorndike.”

  Annabelle shook her head. “No. I won’t talk to Eva about this. I don’t care for the woman. I’m trapped for eternity at the cemetery, never knowing what happened to my dear Abe, while she has freedom I can only touch once a year. And I know it has something to do with Marlow House.”

  “I’m curious about something. Why haven’t you come before on a previous Halloween?” Danielle asked.

  “I…I almost came last year, when I heard Walt was no longer on our side. But something told me this was the year.” Annabelle vanished.

  Twenty-Three

  Battery-operated gadgets controlled many of the props on the second floor of the haunted house. Marie’s primary job—when she had been there—was to keep an eye on the visitors as they traveled through the dimly lit rooms to make sure none got into mischief, while occasionally moving a random object to spice things up. However, even without Marie’s tricks, there was plenty for the visitors to see.

  Eva’s job had been to direct Evan and Ginny in their ghostly duties. Without Eva to give him direction, Evan tried to recall all that he had been told the first two nights. But he was not alone. His father, dressed as Lurch from The Addams Family, wandered the second floor, keeping an eye on things. The Lurch costume had been Eddy’s idea. Being asked to help at the last minute, MacDonald had needed a costume in a hurry, one appropriate for a haunted house. The Addams Family, being one of Eddy’s favorite movies, had inspired the idea, and it was also a costume rather easy to assemble with a black suit and some artfully applied face makeup and hair gel. MacDonald already had the suit, while Heather helped with the makeup and hair.

  One of the changes made since learning Marie and Eva would not be helping was to slow down the flow of people going through the open house. It hadn’t been a difficult task, since Sunday proved to have less business than the first two nights. The goal had been to let one group of people through the second floor at a time.