“That’s a new one,” I said. “Before, you used to be embarrassed to be even seen with me.”
“That’s not true and you know it. Besides, what’s in the past is in the past. We have to focus on the future. I talked to a few of my Hollywood friends and they say you could get your own reality show if you wanted to.”
“I know. I heard all the offers and I declined them. I like my privacy, thank you very much.”
“You always were a strange girl, weren’t you? Always going your own way. When people shunned you, you just held your head up high. Now that they want you, you turn your back on them. I just don’t understand what’s going on in that little head of yours.”
“I already told you. I like my privacy,” I said.
“Then why did you go on those shows in the first place?” She asked, taking a sip of her tea.
“Because I needed the money.”
“If you need money, you know you can always ask your mother. I’m more than willing to lend you some.”
“No, thanks. I can take care of myself.”
She looked around the kitchen. “You’re living with your grandmother,” she pointed out, in case I didn’t get the hint.
“I like living with Gran,” I said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I really need some sleep. We can talk more tomorrow, all right?”
“Don’t worry, Meredith, we will.”
I went up to my room and left the door open just a crack in case one of the cats wanted to curl up.
“It could have been worse,” Rebecca said, giving me one of her pity looks.
“Don’t worry, it will be once my father arrives. I can’t wait.”
Four
When I woke up I had almost forgotten about last night, but Rebecca didn’t let me forget it for long.
“She’s down there. She doesn’t look too happy,” Rebecca said.
I went down to get some breakfast. “What’s wrong?” I asked my mother when I saw she wasn’t in the best of moods.
“Your father is on his way,” she said. “He called Madeline. He’s bringing a plus one to the wedding.”
“Interesting,” I said. Neither of my parents had remarried but they’d been separated so long, I didn’t see what the big deal was.
“It’s not interesting, it’s rude. This is a family affair. Your father never knew proper etiquette. Now if he was married to this woman, that would be another thing. But he’s not.”
“Maybe he will?” I offered.
My mother raised her eyebrows. “I’m sure that’s going to happen.”
“So when are they due?”
“Later today. In the afternoon probably.”
“Where are they staying?”
“At the local inn,” she said. “They planned on coming here but once he learned I was already here, he changed his mind.”
Before I could get involved in another one of their useless fights, I decided to change the subject. “What about Troy?”
“I know as much as you do, Meredith. Your brother isn’t known for RSVP’ing anything, now is he?”
That much was true.
“Well, have a nice day,” I said. “I’ve actually gotta go to work.”
“Can I come with? It’s so boring here. Plus, it’ll give us a chance to catch up. Who knows, maybe I could even watch you working firsthand.”
She used to tell me that I was probably mentally ill but now that I’d been on a few celeb shows, she wanted to watch me use my gift firsthand.
“Fine,” I said. “But please try to refrain from saying anything while I’m with my clients.”
“This car is a death trap. Why don’t you buy a new one?” She said once I’d parked it in front of my office.
“Because I like it,” I said, trying to avoid another argument about money.
There were thankfully no people waiting for me today. I hoped for a slow day because I didn’t want to parade my gift around like a monkey for my mother’s benefit.
Before long, Kane made his appearance, which was the last thing I wanted.
“Who’s this handsome tall glass of water?” My mother said.
“That’s Kane, a local PI,” I said.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Kane said. “I was just wondering if you want anything from the bakery?”
“Hello, I’m Meredith’s mother,” my mother extended her hand.
Kane immediately took it in both of his. “So nice to meet you. I thought you were a client for a second there.”
“No, no. So how long have you been dating my daughter?”
“Mom!” I was quick to say.
Rebecca snickered in the background. I threw her a disapproving glance.
“How did you know?” Kane asked. “I doubt Meredith told you we were dating. We’re taking things slowly, actually.”
“A mother always knows. Besides, a handsome fellow like yourself, it would be a waste if you weren’t dating.”
I put my hands over my face, trying to hide the embarrassment.
“Well, I’ll be on my way. I’ll let mother and daughter catch up.”
With that, Kane was gone. I wanted to run after him but refrained when I saw a potential client approaching.
“Here we go,” I said, preparing myself.
Half an hour later, the client gone, my mother turned to me with a pitiful look in her eyes.
“Is this really what you want to be doing? Dealing with these people?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I didn’t mean anything bad by it. But that last client, that woman. She seemed to be more in need of therapy than a psychic.”
“I’m not a psychic. I’m a ghost hunter.”
“A ghost hunter. Yes, sure, whatever you want to call it.”
“There’s only one way to find out. I have to visit her house. If there’s nothing there, I’ll tell her so.”
“Can I come along?”
“Nope. Not with that attitude.”
Before we could get into another fight, another familiar face was approaching the office. He looked a lot older than I remembered. My father.
“There you are,” he said. “I just got into town.” He gave me a quick hug. Poor Rebecca had to move out of the office because people kept walking through her.
“Hi, dad, how have you been?”
“As well as can be expected,” he said. Then he looked around my office. “Is this what you’ve been up to since moving back here?”
“Yup,” I said.
“Well, it’s…something, that’s for sure,” he said, obviously searching for something positive to say. Then he turned to my mother. “Hello, Lisa.”
“Richard. Where’s your hussy?”
“Don’t call her that. Rachel is a respectable woman and I won’t stand for it.”
“How old is she, Richard? Is she younger than your own daughter?”
“Actually, she’s in her late thirties if you must know. What about you, Lisa, do you have anyone special in your life or is your personality still driving everyone away?”
“Stop it! Stop it!” I yelled. “I feel like I’m a kid again. It looks like you two haven’t grown much since then.”
“Sorry, honey,” my father said. “I guess it’s just easier to fall back into old patterns. Isn’t that right, Lisa?”
My mother looked away. “It’s all right, Meredith, your father is just being himself. Always just thinking about himself and no one else.”
“You’re the one to talk. I didn’t see you staying behind to raise the kids.”
“Because that’s what a woman is supposed to do when her husband abandons the family?”
While they continued to argue, I slipped out of the office and they barely even noticed. Then I turned around.
“Neither of you were parents to me. Gran raised me and Troy. So neither of you have a right to talk about who’s a better parent. You were both awful.”
“I sent money,” my father said.
“So did I,” my m
other chimed in. “Once my career took off, I visited you guys and took you out on holidays.”
I shook my head. “You’ll never get it, will you? And you wonder why Troy barely talks to either of you. I’m starting to think that he had the right idea. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going next door to the woman who raised me. By the time I come back, I expect both of you to be out of my office.”
“Don’t you think that was a bit harsh?” Rebecca said as she followed me next door to the bakery.
“Not harsh enough,” I said.
Sadly, Kane was long gone by now. He thought I needed some alone time with my mother. How clueless he was. Did he think I could still have some kind of relationship with my mostly absent parents?
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Gran asked as soon as she saw me. She didn’t have many customers at the moment and she had a helper today anyway.
“My parents are next door arguing up a storm,” I said.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll have a talk with your mother. Do you want anything to eat?”
“No, I was just trying to get away from the noise. I told them to be gone by the time I came back, but I didn’t see them leave.”
“Maybe you should spend some time with them. I can prepare a family dinner. Hopefully Troy arrives soon. It would be nice to have the whole family over.”
I nodded because I didn’t have the heart to tell Gran that that sounded like a terrible idea. That many Goods under one roof would never end in anything but a huge fight. And if father brought his new girlfriend along, which I wouldn’t put past him, I could see things escalating very quickly.
I came back to my office. My father was gone, but my mother was still there.
“You’re my ride, remember?” She said when I gave her a “what are you still doing here?” look.
“That’s right. I forgot. I can call you a cab if you want?”
“No, that’s not what I want. I just want to spend some quality time with my daughter. Whether you believe it or not, I want what’s best for you. And I’m interested in how your life is going. So, how did you meet this Kane fellow? He seems nice enough.”
“When I first came into town, we were working on the same case. Well, I handled the ghostly angle while he focused on the mundane side.”
“That sounds romantic.”
“It wasn’t. We only started dating recently. I don’t know if it’ll work, though.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I don’t know. He’s great and all, I’m just not sure I’m ready for a serious relationship and that’s definitely what Kane is interested in.”
“Take my advice: once you’ve found the one, hold on.”
“Are you talking about dad?”
“God no,” my mother was quick to say. “But there was someone else and I still regret letting him go. Don’t be like your mother. Don’t let fear of something ruin something that could last, okay?”
“Yeah, I guess.” I still wasn’t sure if I knew what she was talking about. Plus, what did she know about relationships? “I can’t believe you’re giving me relationship advice,” I said.
She laughed. “Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. Speaking of relationships, how do you feel about your cousin marrying your ex?”
“Sarah and Jonathan? I’m completely fine with it,” I lied.
She gave me a knowing look. “You don’t have to lie to me. I’m your mother.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m over Jonathan. I was over him long before he and Sarah were a thing.”
“Just keep telling yourself that. So, are we going to that lady’s house?”
I looked at the clock. “In a bit. Why in such a hurry?”
“I told you. I want to see my daughter in her element.”
“Why? Just because now I’m in demand.”
“Now that you can actually make some real money at this thing, I’m interested to see what you can do.”
“You should talk to Kane. There was a ghost the other night that put on quite a show but Kane couldn’t see any of it because he wasn’t gifted.”
“I gave birth to you, missy. Who says that I’m not gifted as well?”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Are you?”
“Not as far as I know. But maybe I’m a late bloomer.”
I looked at Rebecca.
“Don’t tell me one of them is here right now.”
“It’s just Rebecca. You remember her. You told me she was just an imaginary friend I would outgrow.”
She looked at the spot I was looking at. “I can’t see a thing. Are you sure she’s really a ghost?”
“Yeah, I think I’m pretty sure. I’m kind of an expert in the matter, remember?”
“So, are we going or not?”
“You’ll have to keep your comments to yourself if I bring you along. We’re going inside a person’s home, not some abandoned property. I have a reputation to keep.”
“And what kind of reputation is that?”
“A professional one.”
My mother looked around my tiny office. “Maybe you should start by keeping this place in order. There are pieces of paper everywhere. And why do you have so many old newspapers lying around?”
“They are in order, I just have to file them away. And the newspapers are for research. Not everything can be found online, contrary to popular belief.”
“Touché,” my mother said. “So are we going or not?”
“You’re worse than Kane. Yes, we’re going, let me just file these away.”
She tapped her fingernails on the desk as I worked to quickly put everything away in order.
“We’ll have to stop by the library on our way there,” I said once I was ready to go.
“The library? Boring. Is it still that tiny place that was here when you were growing up?”
“Yup, one and the same. Let’s go.”
Rebecca followed us to the car.
“It could be worse,” she offered helpfully.
But we both knew that it couldn’t. I just needed to keep my wits about me while my parents were in town. I had a feeling that that was easier said than done, though.
Five
The ride to the library was awkward, to say the least. My mother kept trying to talk about Kane but I just ignored her.
“I already told you everything you need to know.”
She didn’t look convinced.
“There’s always more,” she said, but thankfully stopped asking, at least for now.
The library was where I left it and so was the librarian, who gave me a curt nod when she saw me.
“More research?”
“Yup. This won’t take long. I’ll just check out some old newspaper clippings.”
My mother looked around the small space. “You know, I’ve seen closets bigger than this whole place,” she said.
The librarian obviously heard that and made a noise, but she didn’t say anything. She just turned her back to us.
“Well, I like it,” I said, trying to stay in the librarian’s good graces.
I focused on the address the client had given me and proceeded to look at any mysterious deaths that could have occurred there. But even after almost fifteen minutes of looking online as well as the newspapers, I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
“This is mind-bogglingly boring, Meredith. I don’t know how you do it.”
“It’s my job,” I said. “I get paid to do it. Besides, sometimes I find out something interesting that most people have forgotten.”
“You should write a book. Books are all the rage these days.”
“Nah, I’m good. I’m too busy living my life to be writing about it.”
The library trip was a bust, so that only left one thing on my agenda: visit the client and see if I could see or sense anything on her property. She had complained of all the classic haunting signs: sudden and unexplained chills, strange noises in the night, things moving and disappearing. Of course, it could just b
e an old house and a forgetful owner.
The house was on the end of a street, which was always an interesting thing. I don’t know why but they always had a creepy energy even when they weren’t haunted.
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” my mother said before I even knocked on the door.
“You’re more than welcome to wait in the car,” I offered.
“I’m not a child, Meredith,” she said and kept it at that.
Rebecca gave me a knowing look and disappeared into the house before the owner could even come to the door.
“You’re early,” Stacy, my client, said.
“Sorry, should I come back at another time?”
“No, it’s fine.”
She let us in.
“You’ve already met my mother,” I said.
After they exchanged pleasantries, I was ready to get to work. There wasn’t much to this particular case, though. There was a dead person in the house. Rebecca found her in a bedroom in the back.
“It’s your mother,” I said. “She has something to tell you.”
Stacy listened intently as I told her about the money buried under the house.
“We were wondering where all her savings went,” she said. Then we went to look for the hidden treasure. The ghost of her mother was there overlooking the whole thing. Once the treasure was found, there was close to $30,000 in cash.
Stacy handed me the second fee right from the stash of cash.
“Thank you so much,” she said. “Is she still here?” Stacy looked around.
“Yeah, but the door of light is already here. She’s at peace now and she says she loves you,” I said.
Tears streamed down Stacy’s face. “Thank you. I love you too, mom. You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’ll see you in heaven when it’s my time.”
I just watched as her mother went through the door of light and disappeared, her mission accomplished.
“She’s gone,” I said.
Back in the car, my mother finally spoke up. She was uncharacteristically quiet during the whole visit.
“That was quite something. Is it always like that?” She asked.
“Every ghost has a story. Most of them are just people who don’t realize they’re dead or can’t move on for one reason or another. Usually, they aren’t related to who they’re haunting, but sometimes, as in Stacy’s case, they are.”
Ghostly Wedding (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 3) Page 3