After getting a quick bite to eat, I was ready to officially start the day. The only trouble was that I had no active cases. My celebrity seemed to have faded over the past year or so. Only the people with real problems seemed to come to me, and that was only as a last resort. I guess it didn’t help that one of the national gossip rags had practically demolished by reputation with a profile that included half-truths, outright fabrications, and more than a little character assassination. I had an inkling a certain powerful man I had pissed off was behind it, but little old me couldn’t really afford a lengthy defamation suit so I just let it go and hoped for the best.
I walked around aimlessly, trying to burn off all the sugary sweets I was so fond of when Rebecca reminded me about a certain someone.
“You haven’t checked on him in a while, have you?” Rebecca said.
She was, of course, referring to Derek Powers, a man who had died when I first came back to my hometown. He was murdered, in fact. And now he was stuck in a sort of limbo state where I couldn’t help him move on. Sometimes ghosts stayed in that state for decades. I’d tried everything ever since. Salt, iron, you name it. He just wouldn’t snap out of it.
“But you have,” I reminded her.
“Maybe you’ll notice something I missed. You are alive, after all.”
“So you keep reminding me,” I said. I headed for the car but then changed my mind. A walk would do me good. It would give me time to think things through about Kane and me.
But I couldn’t really do that because Rebecca kept flying up ahead of me. She was in a talkative mood today, it seemed.
“Where do you think that scary ghost went?” She asked as she turned to face me.
“The one at the Smith house? I don’t know. You should have a better idea than me. You know I can’t see anything but the light when those portals open. Did you happen to catch a glimpse of anything?”
“No,” she said, sounding resigned to her fate of possibly never knowing.
“Maybe because whatever place he was going wasn’t meant for you?” I offered. It was strange. Even with my whole life seeing dead people, I was still no closer to finding out what actually happened after death. When the ghost actually moved on. Sure, some of the ghosts I’ve helped over the years described seeing beautiful things and familiar faces, but what did it really look like once they passed through that door and left this world for good? It was anyone’s guess.
Rebecca didn’t say anything to that, which was just as well. I saw Derek Powers in the distance. Or at least the blur that he became after he died.
Rebecca went ahead in front of me. She usually tried to get his attention, and sometimes she even succeeded for a second or two, but then he went right back to being oblivious to the world around him. It wasn’t a total loss, though. At least he was by a beautiful lake.
“Meredith! I think it’s working!” Rebecca yelled.
That certainly got my attention. I practically ran over to where she was standing.
Rebecca did not lie. I could actually make out Derek’s features. He looked just like he did when he died. He still seemed to be out of tune with his surroundings, but less so than usual.
“Derek?” I started tentatively. “It’s Meredith Good. Do you remember me?”
“He just looked at you!” Rebecca said excitedly. “Should I try going in there?”
“Let’s do that as a last resort,” I said. “I don’t want you to get trapped in his own little world.”
I waved my hand to try to get his attention.
“Your name is Derek Powers,” I said. “And you’re dead!”
Rebecca gave me a dirty look.
“What? He needs to snap out of it.”
“I’m…I’m what?” Derek managed to say.
“He’s coming back,” Rebecca said. “He’s almost in tune with our frequencies. Just keep talking to him.”
I reminded him of how exactly he ended up there in the first place. I told him about his killer and the punishment the killer got for the crime.
“That’s why everything’s been so strange,” he said, and now he was standing in front of me, almost as clear as Rebecca.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Derek looked around. “How long have I been stuck here?”
“Almost three years,” I said. “Do you see a door of light around here by any chance?”
Derek looked around and then shook his head. “No. I don’t think so.”
“It’s okay, sometimes it takes a while. Maybe you have some unfinished business?”
“I’d like to see how my family took my death,” he said. “I can’t even imagine…”
“I can help with that,” I said. “Do you think you could leave this place?”
Derek took a few tentative steps forward, but then he stopped. “There’s something pushing me back.”
It was his fear that was holding him back. But thanks to modern technology, distance would not be a problem. While Derek told me names, I in turn found them on social media on my phone. And that’s how Derek saw his family. They’d mourned him. And they still posted about him, especially on his birthday and how much they missed him, but their lives were also slowly moving on. His sister just recently had a baby.
“Five o’clock,” Rebecca said.
I turned around and saw a few people heading our way. A nice walk by the lake, no doubt. Not to look like a totally crazy person, I pretended I was doing a vlog and started talking to my phone.
“If there’s anything else you guys would like to know…”
“Show me my killer. The trial. Anything you can find,” Derek said, quickly taking the hint even without Rebecca’s help.
“So senseless,” he said after I’d shown him everything. Thankfully by now, the couple was long gone.
“It usually is,” I said.
Derek looked off into the distance.
“You see it, don’t you?” I said, stating the obvious.
“It’s so beautiful…”
I wanted to ask him what exactly he saw, but since it took so long for him to come back to himself, I didn’t want to push it.
I looked in the direction he was staring at and saw a door of light. It was right in front of the lake. It was beautiful on its own, without even seeing what was behind that door.
I turned around and saw tears in Derek’s eyes. “Charlie, my dog, is waiting for me.”
“Go ahead,” I said. “If you’re ready to move on, just walk through that door.”
Derek took a few tentative steps toward the light, and this time it actually worked.
“It’s pulling me toward it!” He said, sounding more excited than scared.
“That’s how it usually works,” I said.
“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for bringing me back to myself.”
“You did most of the work yourself,” I said. “And Rebecca helped a little too.”
Derek thanked Rebecca as well. Then he walked right into that door of light without any hesitation. He disappeared into the light and then the door of light faded as if it was never there at all.
I could hear sirens in the distance.
“Do you want me to check it out?” Rebecca said.
“No, it’s probably a cat stuck in a tree or something,” I said.
I stood there for a while yet and admired the way the sun shimmered across the lake. Then I was ready to return to the regular world. If nothing else, at least I helped someone today. Sure, I didn’t get paid for it, but you can’t put a price on some things.
Back at my office, I saw a familiar face waiting for me.
“Jonathan? What are you doing here?” I feared the worst and quickly looked into my Gran’s bakery, but she was there, smiling behind the counter while serving a customer. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“We found something. I thought maybe you could do your thing and see if there might be a ghost that could illuminate some things for us.”
I thought about teasi
ng him for asking for my help since he made it his mission in life to ignore my gift. But he had a serious look on his face. This was no time for jokes. “What exactly did you find, Jonathan?”
“Bones,” he said. “Human,” he added, though of course, he didn’t have to.
My day was about to get a lot more interesting.
Three
I followed Jonathan’s cruiser in my own car, Rebecca’s ghostly form right next to me.
“I can go ahead,” she offered.
“If you want,” I said. “But we’ll be there soon anyway.”
Rebecca decided to stick with me and I was glad for it. The company, even if it was of the ghostly variety, felt welcome right about now. I thought after what happened at the wedding, the ghostly activity in town would simmer down. But it looked like things were going to get interesting again. Just when you thought Silver Bells Cove was boring, human bones just happened to turn up. If only Kane was here to see it…
There were already several police vehicles parked close to what looked like an empty field. It was actually pretty close to where I used to play as a kid.
“Sheriff Valentine,” Tim, one of the officers, said.
“Just make sure no one enters the scene,” Jonathan said. Then he turned to me. “Time to do your thing.”
I followed him to the middle of the field. Then I saw it. A hole in the ground. I held my breath as I approached. Then I saw human bones, almost perfectly intact.
While Rebecca went around, trying to see if there were any ghosts in the vicinity, I got closer to the bones.
There were bits of what looked like clothes around the body, but they were badly disintegrated. The body must have been down there for a very long time because the only thing that remained of the person were the bones.
I took a good look around. “How did you even find the bones in the first place?” It seemed like an unlikely place to start digging.
“One of Ned’s sons got a metal detector for his birthday and he was taking it out for a test drive when the thing beeped right here. He started digging, and instead of treasure, he just happened to find this.” Then he took out a plastic baggy from his jacket pocket. “Oh, and this.”
He held it up to the light. It looked like a gold watch. Thin. Something a woman would wear.
“Does it have initials?” I asked.
“No such luck, but it does have an inscription. For our darling daughter. Love always, Mom and Dad.”
I looked around the scene but the only ghost I could see was Rebecca, who was currently standing over the shallow grave, a thoughtful look on her face.
“Anything?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “If these bones have a ghost still roaming around, it’s not anywhere around here.”
I relayed the information to Jonathan.
“Great,” he said, obviously disappointed. “Now we’re back to square one.”
“Not necessarily,” I said. When I saw the befuddled look on his face, I continued. “I’ve met someone, actually two people, that could help you out. It’s going to be unorthodox, though.”
“When is anything involving you not unorthodox?” He said. “As long as your friends can be discreet, I’m all ears. I haven’t been sheriff for long. I can’t have bones turning up in my town without finding out who they belong to and what happened. I can just imagine the headlines tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry, I have a feeling this will be solved in no time,” I said. And then I looked through my phone for their names. I spotted Callie’s first. Then Rachel’s. Who should I call first, I wondered.
Instead of calling them, I sent each of them a text. Much more efficient. I asked them if they were busy and if not, if they could come down to Silver Bells Cove to have a look at some bones and personal belongings of the victim.
That was all I could do for now, so Rebecca and I made our leave. On our drive back to my office, I got a call from Kane.
“Hey, babe,” he said. “What’s up?”
There was no use in lying since he would find out soon anyway. I told him all about the bones and how Jonathan actually asked for my help.
“Sounds a lot more fun than what I’m doing,” he said. “Hopefully I can wrap it up quickly and join the fun.”
“Don’t hurry on my account. Besides, I have to wait for either Callie or Chloe to come down here anyway.”
“Either way, it sounds like you’re having a lot more fun over there. See you soon.”
The first place I went to when I came back into town was my Gran’s bakery. I told her all about the bones.
“How awful,” she said, while one of her employees served the few customers. “It sounds like they’ve been there a long time, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. Too bad that inscription didn’t have a year on it. Or a name we could track down.”
“I’ll ask around if anyone remembers someone going missing,” she said.
I said thanks and went back to my office, pastry in hand, of course.
Rebecca paced back and forth across the small space while I enjoyed the pastry, all the while thinking what my next move should be.
“Any ideas?” I asked Rebecca after I was done.
“You’re asking me?” She said, flabbergasted. “Isn’t that kind of your thing?”
“You’re right, it is, usually, when there’s an actual ghost to talk to. But this time all we have are some bones. I guess I’ll just have to hope that either Callie or Chloe can help out. Are you sure you didn’t sense anything out there?”
Rebecca quickly shook her head, but there was no mistaking that look on her face. She was holding something back.
“Spill it,” I finally said.
“It’s nothing or probably nothing,” she said. “But as soon as I went to those bones, there was a feeling of dread I couldn’t shake off.”
“I felt it, too, but it’s probably because we’re most likely dealing with a murder victim here.”
“No, it felt different,” she said. “I just don’t know in what way yet.”
Just then I got a text message back. It was Rachel. I read it out loud for Rebecca’s sake.
“Hi, we’re in the middle of shooting a possible pilot episode for a show. But Chloe will be available right after that. Unless you want us all there? It could be fun. :)”
Before I could reply, I got a text message back from Callie.
“We’re on our way to you now. You couldn’t have picked a better time to get in contact. Things were getting boring here!”
I texted Rachel back not to worry about it now that I had another psychic on the way, though of course if Chloe had the time, she was more than welcome to stop by.
Then I texted Callie back that it sounded great. I texted her my office address and my grandma’s home address.
“Well, that’s settled at least,” I said to Rebecca. “Now all we have to do is wait.”
Callie, Dax, and Lily arrived at the end of the day, just as the sun was setting on the horizon.
Callie and I had been texting ever since they arrived close by. Now here they were, parked in front of my grandmother’s place, who was gracious enough to let them stay the night until they could book rooms at the local inn in the morning.
“So what’s all this about?” Callie asked once they were settled in. She was sipping a cup of tea, courtesy of my grandma. In her other hand she had a pastry, that Marmalade, one of my gran’s cats, was trying very hard to get hold of.
“You better eat it before the cat gets it,” my grandmother joked when she asked if anyone needed anything else.
“We’re fine, Mrs. Good,” Dax said. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
“Yes, thank you very much,” Lily said with a mouthful of pastry.
Dax rolled his eyes while Callie just laughed.
“Thank you so much for having us,” Callie said. “We’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow morning, promise.”
“Don’t worry about it. Any friends of Mered
ith are welcome here.”
Gran had an early start tomorrow so she turned in, letting us younger folks to finally get down to business.
“So, as I said in my message, they found some bones in town.” I told them about the whole metal detector thing and how there was a watch with an inscription at the crime scene.
“Good,” Callie said. “I can definitely use that to see if I can get any visions.” Callie looked around nervously then and lowered her voice. “Is your ghost friend here right now?”
Rebecca rolled her eyes, ready to show Callie just how close she was, but I held her back.
“Behave, they’re here to help,” I said to Rebecca. Then I turned to Callie. “You could definitely say that.”
Dax visibly shivered.
“That wasn’t me,” Rebecca said in her defense.
I laughed.
Even Lily looked a bit uncomfortable now.
“Guys, she’s no different than you or I,” I said in Rebecca’s defense. “She just doesn’t have a physical form anymore.”
“You say that like it’s the most normal thing in the world,” Lily said as she looked around nervously. Her eyes darted back and forth as if there was some invisible predator ready to strike at any moment.
Rebecca rolled her eyes again. “The living can be so thick sometimes.”
“It is for me,” I said to Lily. “I see dead people all the time.”
Callie smiled. “I guess we’re not too different in that regard. I see things as well, but in an entirely different way. Though I’ll certainly never forget when I saw your friend.” She shivered just thinking about it. Ghosts tended to have that effect on people.
When I met Callie for the first time, Rebecca went through her and Callie actually had a vision of what Rebecca looked like. I got the impression that she didn’t want a repeat of that experience, and I couldn’t really blame her.
The next morning, Dax went by himself to book some rooms at the local inn while Callie, Lily, Rebecca, and I went to the police station to see a sheriff about a certain watch that was found at a certain crime scene. Kane had called me late last night and said he needed to pull an all-nighter.
Ghostly Endings (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 5) Page 2