There was nothing from Remy, but I could only assume he hadn’t wanted to wake me up. I went to the front door and opened it to look outside.
His car wasn’t in the driveway, but it was such a nice morning, I had to step out onto the porch to get some fresh air and early morning sunshine.
I stretched my arms above my head and closed my eyes as I tilted my head and face toward the sun. I noticed the Ghost Seekers’ van was parked in front of my house again, so I knew Bobby and Rachel must have returned at some point that night.
It was when I surveyed the rest of the yard that I got a shock. What I saw I would never forget. At first, I thought someone had TPed the tree in the front yard.
My breath caught in my throat when I realized it was a person hanging from the tree. “Stop it,” I said because I thought it was a spirit trying to scare me. “That’s not funny.”
But then something else occurred to me. I recognized the clothes the person was wearing. “Annika!” I called out because she was the first person I could think of who would help me. “Annika, I need help!”
I dialed the phone to call Thorn and ran across the lawn. The man was up in the tree and I couldn’t reach him. “Thorn, you have to come to my house right now. He’s dead.”
Just as I was about to tell Thorn who it was, the wind blew and the body swayed in the tree above me as the branch groaned loudly. It snapped, and I dropped the phone as I dove out of the way.
“Brighton, are you okay?” Annika yelled as she ran out the front door.
“I’m okay. I just… I couldn’t get him down, but the tree branch broke,” I mumbled.
I was on the ground, and my legs felt like jelly. Annika sank down beside me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “Did you call Thorn?” she asked and pushed back a strand of hair that was plastered with sweat across my forehead.
“I did.”
“Kurt!” The first of the Ghost Seekers came rushing out the front door.
It was Chris. He was still dressed in pajama pants with a blue diamond pattern and a white t-shirt, but he raced across the lawn and knelt down next to his friend.
“He’s dead,” Chris said. “He was in the tree?”
“He was,” I said. “The wind blew, and he just fell. He almost fell on me.”
My head felt fuzzy, and my fingers were tingling. I’d later figure out that I was going into shock. Not because of finding Kurt, but the combination of finding him like that and having his body almost fall on me was too much. Probably because I was already under so much stress because of the Thorn thing.
“What are you doing?” I asked when Annika grabbed my phone.
“Calling Remy,” she said. “He should be here.”
“We should all get away,” I said. “It’s a crime scene.”
Annika helped me to my feet, and we all retreated to the porch to wait for Thorn. When he arrived, Thorn got out of his cruiser and walked over to where Kurt lay on the ground.
“I’m going to make coffee,” I said, suddenly feeling antsy.
I wasn’t sure what it was, but something about the way Thorn ignored me when he showed up made me feel nervous. I knew he had a job to do, but he didn’t even look at me.
“I think I’ll make some food,” I said to Remy.
He’d come into the house and walked into the kitchen while I was pouring myself a cup of coffee. A look of concern darkened his face.
“Okay, I’ll help,” he said. “But maybe not a full spread like yesterday. You’re doing so much for these people, and you’re supposed to be running them off.”
“We’ll just do some bacon and toast then?”
“Sounds like a plan. Why don’t you do the toast and I’ll handle the bacon,” Remy said.
“Thank you.”
“Oh, I don’t mind. I like bacon. I’ll probably steal a couple of extra pieces since I’m cooking it,” he said with a soft smile.
“No, I mean not for the bacon. I mean, I am grateful you’re helping me with breakfast,” I sort of stammered. “I mean thank you for being here. Thank you for coming right away when Annika called and for being here for me.”
He’d been getting a pan out of the cabinet, but Remy set it down. He walked over and pulled me into a hug. “Always,” he whispered so softly I almost thought I’d imagined it.
“Did I hear my name when I came through the front door?” Annika asked as she barreled into the kitchen. “Oh. Sorry guys. Hey wait, group hug!” she exclaimed and wrapped her arms around us.
Annika went outside to tell the Ghost Seekers that there was food and coffee. Brody came down after smelling the coffee but was completely unaware of what had happened. We filled him in while we ate.
Eventually, there was a knock at the front door. I went to see who it was and was surprised to find Thorn standing on the other side.
“You could have just come in,” I said.
“I’m here as the sheriff,” he said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate to just walk in.”
“Okay. So what’s going on?”
I didn’t want to look over where the body was, but I couldn’t help it. The coroner already had Kurt covered and was taking him away. That was a bit of a relief.
“The coroner has ruled it a suicide,” Thorn said.
“What? No. No way. He wasn’t suicidal,” I said.
“There’s no evidence of anything else, Brighton,” he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve got to go back to the station and fill out a mountain of paperwork. Um. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Okay,” I said.
And then he turned and left. It almost took my breath away to just watch him walk off like that, but I managed to hold it together. I wiped away one tear that managed to escape just as Toto stood up from his spot on the front steps.
“I should get the rest of our stuff out of your house,” he said.
“Are you leaving town?” I asked.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do yet,” he said. “We’re going to go get a room at the inn and get out of your hair while we decide.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I said. “I’m supposed to be your guide while you’re in town. I’d rather if we just stayed here, if you don’t mind. Unless you guys want some alone time, but you don’t really need to pay for a room for that.”
“We don’t want to put you out anymore than we already have,” Chris said as he joined him.
“Well, there’s food and coffee inside. Please come in and eat. I would never put you out after something like this,” I said.
It was so quiet that you could almost hear people chewing their bacon in the house. No one said a word, and the air felt heavy and sad.
Then Rachel broke the spell. “I think it was a ghost,” she said. “I think something from this house attacked him.”
“Wait just a second,” Remy cautioned. “There’s nothing supernatural that could have done that to him.”
“What if he was possessed?” she said. “What if one of the ghosts possessed him and got him to kill himself?”
“If it did, it’s because of that crap in the basement,” Toto said. “Kurt warned you, and he paid the price for your mistakes.”
“Hey, don’t talk to her like that,” Bobby snapped.
“Guys,” I said. “Please don’t fight.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Rachel snarled. “We’re going over to the cemetery across the street to do some investigative work. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I intend to find every shred of evidence that a ghost from this house killed Kurt. And we don’t need a babysitter.”
“Kurt just died,” Link said. “Don’t you think we should put the show on hold for a bit. At least until after the funeral?”
“No,” Rachel said. “Absolutely not. Kurt would want the show to go on.”
“I’m going with her,” Bobby said. “Anybody that wants to join us, and be a part of a historical paranormal investigation, you know where to find us.”
> “What a jerk,” Toto said as soon as Bobby and Rachel were out the door.
“I can’t believe they’re doing this,” Chris said softly. “Did he really just indicate that they are going to use Kurt’s death for ratings? Is that what I heard?”
“Maybe they’re just in shock and possibly denial,” Link offered, but his words where half-hearted.
“What are we going to do?” Chris asked.
“What if she was right?” I said cautiously. “What if Kurt didn’t actually kill himself?”
I knew it was a crazy thing to suggest, but I believed it. It wasn’t that I believed that a ghost had possessed Kurt and made him hang himself, though that was still certainly possible, but it was more that I got the feeling someone had murdered him.
Who that was, I felt compelled to figure out. He’d died at my home. Not only would the news raise the eyebrows of the residents of Coventry, but the world at large too. If Rachel’s narrative that Kurt killed himself at Hangman’s House because of a possession got wings, paranormal investigators would flock to my town. If that dam broke, nothing could stop it.
One thing that could stop it was proof that he hadn’t killed himself. I could provide that if I could prove he was murdered.
Chapter Five
“Can I talk to you?” I asked as soon as Thorn picked up the phone. “Can we meet?”
“I’m supposed to spend time with Dani after work,” he said. “I’m sorry, and I promise that we’ll get together when things settle down.”
“Settle down?” I asked skeptically. “You think that having a child is going to settle down anytime before your daughter is an adult?”
“Brighton, please,” he said with a sigh. “I was really hoping you would be supportive of all of this.”
“I’m trying,” I said. “But you’re not giving me any opportunity to be supportive. Look, what about lunch? Surely you weren’t planning on having lunch with your daughter, right? Can you meet me for lunch?”
I kinda hated myself for begging him to spend time with me, but I wanted to talk to Thorn about the murder. He’d probably be unhappy when he found out why I wanted to get together, but whatever. He wasn’t exactly focused on my happiness either.
I knew that was probably unfair, but it was how I felt. It wasn’t my fault any of it was happening, and while I knew it wasn’t Thorn’s fault either, I also knew there was no way that I’d have just dropped him the way he had me. I knew in my heart that I would have tried to be so much more considerate of his feelings, and it hurt me that he wasn’t doing the same for me.
“Okay,” he said curtly. “Where do you want to meet?”
“Are you near the park?” I asked. “We could meet there. I’ll bring lunch.”
“That would be all right.” Thorn’s voice had softened some. “I’ll meet you in an hour?”
“Yes, I’ll see you then. Love you.”
“You too,” he said and hung up.
I set the phone down on the counter and took a deep breath. Something wasn’t right with Thorn, but I had to wonder if I was putting too much of myself into a relationship that hadn’t been going on for that long. Sure, there were strong feelings involved, but I had to wonder what I was doing to myself. Part of me knew he hadn’t earned my patience with all the grief he was putting me through, but that part of me wasn’t very loud yet.
“I wasn’t eavesdropping,” Remy said.
I looked up and he was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. I’d been feeling completely unsteady after hanging up the phone, but Remy’s presence instantly comforted me.
“I know you weren’t,” I said.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I think I’m just meeting with him to discuss the case,” I said. “It’s important for Coventry that we convince the authorities that it wasn’t a suicide. If we can’t, and Rachel and Bobby run with this ghost possession suicide theory, it’s going to be a mess.”
“You don’t have to pretend like you don’t want to see him on my account,” Remy said and took a step into the kitchen.
“I don’t think I’m pretending,” I said. “He retreats when things get hard, and I don’t know that I can deal with that. I thought I could. I mean, he promised he wouldn’t do it anymore. You saw all of this coming, and I didn’t listen.”
“This isn’t what I saw,” Remy said. “Not like this.”
“Then what did you see?” I asked. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. If I know, then it could just become some self-fulfilling prophecy. Let’s make some sandwiches.”
“Only if I get one too,” Remy said with a reassuring smile.
“We’ll see,” I said.
He pulled me close and gave me a hug. It felt good to have someone want to hug me as much as Remy did. After that, we made sandwiches and little bags of chips. We didn’t talk while we worked. Remy and I didn’t always have to talk. I never wanted to forget how nice it was just to be there working alongside him.
I got to the park before Thorn and found a bench that was in a quiet spot. The bench was toward the back of the park near a line of trees that marked the beginning of a wooded area, but I could still see the parking area.
Thorn arrived a few minutes after me, and I watched as he pulled his cruiser into a parking spot. He got out and looked around for me, and I waved to him once he looked in my direction.
He smiled at me and waved back. It was almost as unexpected as the heart flutter I got from it.
Thorn made his way over to me quickly and took his place beside me on the bench. “Sorry I was so short earlier. I haven’t been sleeping well, but I need to remember not to take that out on you.”
“I understand,” I said. “I brought food.”
“Oh, good. I’m starving.”
“You’re not eating well.”
“I’ve been spending most of my off time with Dani, but I haven’t wanted to eat with her and Sadie. I don’t want to give Dani the impression that we’re all going to be together, so I guess I just haven’t been eating,” he said.
“It must be difficult,” I offered.
“It has been,” Thorn said. “I honestly don’t know how I feel about all of this yet. I haven’t had time to process my thoughts on it, but that shouldn’t be your concern.”
“How can it not be my concern, Thorn?”
“I mean, we’ll have to figure it out eventually, but I have to figure it out first,” he said with a sigh. “We don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”
I took that as meaning he didn’t want to talk about it, so I dropped it. The truth was, I didn’t want to talk about it either.
“I do want to talk to you about Kurt’s death,” I said softly.
“Brighton, really?” Thorn was obviously annoyed.
“What?” I asked a little more curtly than I intended. “I was supposed to be their chaperone, and one of them turned up dead on my watch. Rachel is saying she thinks a spirit possessed him and made him commit suicide. If they run with that idea for their show, I can’t even imagine all of the repercussions for Coventry.”
“So you want to pretend like he was murdered just to keep that from happening?”
“I wouldn’t be pretending, Thorn. I really do think he was murdered. Kurt wasn’t suicidal.”
“Maybe it really was one of the spirits in your house,” he said more to himself than to me.
“No. It wasn’t that.”
“How do you know?” he asked.
“I just do. It’s my house, Thorn. If something like that was there, Meri and I would know.” But did I know that?
He’d made me doubt my conviction, and I couldn’t let that happen. My intuition told me that someone, a live person, had killed Kurt. I’d get to the bottom of it with or without Thorn.
“I’m sorry I upset you,” he said. “Thank you for bringing me lunch.”
After that we sat and ate our sandwiches in silence. With every moment that went by, I felt the distance bet
ween us turning into a gorge until Thorn finally tried to bridge it.
“I haven’t been good to you,” he said.
“It’s only been a couple of days,” I said.
And there it was. I was doing it again. I’d done the same thing with my ex-husband, Donnie. He’d neglect me or make me feel small, and I’d try to make him feel better.
“You wouldn’t leave me hanging the way I’ve left you,” he said and took my hand. “Not even for a couple of days. Not in a situation as intense as this one. I know that I’ve said I’d do better, and I really will. Would you be terribly upset if I came by tonight for dinner after my shift?”
“Not at all,” I said. “But be aware that I’ve got a house full.”
“Well, maybe we should wait then,” Thorn said.
“No reason for that. I don’t mind if you don’t.”
“All right then. It’s a date.”
Before I could say anything else, Thorn’s radio squawked to life. He had a call he had to take. As he was leaving, he asked me a question that made the whole uncomfortable lunch scene worth it.
“When you found Kurt this morning, were there any gloves on the ground or in the tree?”
“No,” I said.
“You didn’t pick up a pair or perhaps see someone else pick them up?”
“Nope. Why?”
“Oh, it’s just that the coroner made a comment that he’d expected to see scrapes on Kurt’s hands given how high he’d climbed. He didn’t know how he’d gotten himself up there without any scratches on his palms and without gloves, but I assume he was just careful. Or perhaps he had callused hands,” Thorn said before kissing me quickly and heading off.
But the callused hands thing didn’t seem reasonable to me. If that were the case, then the coroner wouldn’t have made the comment about the lack of scrapes. It was possible that he’d just been careful or lucky climbing the old tree, but it was also possible that he was murdered.
I went home with Rachel on my mind. She’d been very quick to offer the theory that Kurt had been possessed and committed suicide. Maybe just a little too quick.
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