The Ghost of Christmas Secrets

by Anna J. McIntyre

  Thirty-Six

  “This is all a mistake,” Simon insisted after the chief helped him back in his chair.

  “Someone hit me,” Loyd whined. “I want to see my attorney! I want to press charges.” He started to stand up.

  “Please sit down, Mr. Glandon,” the chief ordered, gently pushing him back in his chair.

  “We’re going to leave now,” Chris announced, turning to the door.

  “Wait! Chris!” Simon called out. “It’s all a misunderstanding. You can’t believe we’d try to hurt you.”

  Chris didn’t turn around again, but walked out of the office with Walt and Danielle.

  “This is all a mistake. I want to see our attorney,” Loyd insisted.

  “I’m not sure why we’re being arrested,” Simon said. “You said attempted murder, but what proof do you have that we did anything to try to harm our nephew and Miss Boatman?”

  “I want to see my attorney before you ask me another question!” Loyd blustered.

  “They’re bringing in a phone so you can call your attorney before we take you down to lockup.”

  “Lockup? Surely you don’t expect us to spend the night in jail? It’s Christmas Eve,” Loyd protested.

  “This is outrageous,” Simon snapped.

  “While we wait for them to bring us the phone, I’d like you to watch something.” The chief turned on the tablet. He arranged it so both men could watch. A video came on the screen.

  “What are we looking at?” Simon asked.

  “Chris put up a few cameras in his office—even in the kitchen area. This afternoon was captured for posterity—along with sound.” MacDonald started the video, and to the Glandon brothers’ horror, the afternoon at the foundation office replayed on the tablet. It proved to have excellent audio, capturing the chilling words Loyd had whispered to Chris.

  “Well, this was an interesting Christmas Eve,” Joe said as he and Brian watched through the two-way mirror.

  “You probably need to get home to get ready for your brother-in-law’s open house,” Brian said.

  “Haha. He isn’t my brother-in-law.”

  “Yet.”

  Joe glanced over to Brian. “You think they’re still having it?”

  “According to Danielle, they are. When they left, Danielle said she wouldn’t let Chris’s uncles ruin the rest of Christmas.”

  Joe shook his head. “Does Lily even know what went on here?”

  “If she doesn’t, I imagine Danielle will tell her when they get home.”

  Joe glanced at his watch. “Let’s get those jokers the phone so we can take them off the chief’s hands and get them booked. I imagine he wants to get home to his boys.”

  “I imagine you want to get home to Kelly.”

  Joe let out a snort. “I’m not sure about that. She was pretty pissed at me when I had to come in today at the last minute.”

  “I’m not sure you should have slugged them,” Danielle told Walt as he held open the passenger door of the Packard so she could get in. Chris had already gotten into the back seat. “After all, they are kind of old.”

  “I’m glad he did it,” Chris grumbled. “I wish I’d done it myself.”

  “Happy to oblige, Chris.” Walt closed the car door and then headed for the driver’s seat. When he got into the Packard, he added, “I would have happily killed them, but I didn’t want to risk their spirits sticking around.”

  “No, I agree with you there,” Chris said, leaning forward, resting his arms on the back of the front seat. “I’ll just be satisfied that those two SOBs will be spending the rest of their miserable lives locked up behind bars. Eva was right, I shouldn’t have let them back into my life.”

  “It might be better this way,” Danielle suggested.

  “Better?” Walt choked out. “You could have been killed.”

  “But I wasn’t. And if they weren’t staying in our house where we could keep an eye on them, then who knows, it is entirely possible they might have tried something else and been successful.”

  When they got home, Lily and Ian were waiting in the living room of Marlow House with Heather, Marie and Eva.

  “We let ourselves in,” Lily announced when the three walked into the living room.

  “I see.” Danielle tossed her purse on an empty chair.

  “What happened today? I’m right in the middle of wrapping brie cheese in pastry when I get a call from Walt, telling me you and Chris are okay, but to stay home and don’t say anything to anyone until you can explain,” Lily asked.

  Danielle perked up. “Oh, you’re having brie cheese in pastry tonight?”

  Lily met the comment with a glare and then continued. “Heather tells me she was framed for your murder, but you are alive, and I have to wait until you get home to explain. And then the chief calls and says the uncles have been arrested and you guys are on your way home and will explain everything. What happened?”

  Danielle let out a sigh and took a seat. She began by telling about Zara Bishop.

  Thirty-Seven

  December 23

  Walt and Danielle stood in front of the Bishops’ bedroom. Danielle knocked on the door. There was no reply. She knocked again. The door opened a few inches.

  “Yes?” Noah peeked out.

  “We need to speak to you and Zara,” Danielle said, Walt standing at her side.

  “This isn’t a good time. Zara is taking a nap.”

  “I’m afraid Zara is going to have to wake up.”

  “Please, Danielle, this really is not a good time,” Noah said.

  “You can either let me in, or wait for the police chief to arrive, because if you don’t let Walt and me in your room, that’s who I am calling, Noah Church.”

  Noah stared at Danielle through the small opening for a moment and then reluctantly opened the door.

  Zara stood by the window, her eyes on Walt and Danielle.

  Danielle walked into the room, her eyes meeting Zara’s. “Do you always take your naps standing by the window?”

  “What do you want?” Zara asked.

  Danielle glanced back to Walt, who stood just inside the room, the door still ajar. “Walt, you’d better shut the door all the way. I don’t think we want anyone else to hear this.”

  With a nod Walt shut the door, and Danielle turned to face Zara.

  “What do you want?” Zara repeated, clearly agitated.

  “I’m sorry you ended up in a freezer. But why are you here?” Danielle asked.

  Zara frowned at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Danielle lurched forward and grabbed Zara’s right hand—but her hand moved through Zara’s like it was air.

  Zara gasped and stumbled backwards, her eyes wide. “How did you know?”

  Danielle stared at the woman. “I was right. You are a ghost. You had us all fooled.”

  Zara looked over to Noah and sighed. “Okay, Noah, it’s time.”

  “Perhaps we might go somewhere more private,” Noah suggested. “I don’t want to chance Loyd or Simon hearing us.”

  “I don’t think that will be a problem,” Danielle said.

  Zara looked Danielle in the eyes. “It could be if they overhear our discussion. You see, they’re the ones who murdered me, and they’re planning to kill you next.”

  Fifteen minutes later Walt, Danielle, Zara and Noah were up in Walt’s attic apartment’s sitting area.

  “First, I would like to formally introduce myself,” Noah said. “My name is Noah Church, and I’m Chris Glandon’s biological brother.”

  Danielle stared dumbfounded at Noah. “His brother? Are you sure?”

  “I can see the resemblance,” Walt observed. “Marie thought he looked familiar; I think that’s why.”

  Noah nodded. “I’m ten years older than Chris. Our father died in a car accident right before Chris was born. Like Chris—like our mother—I can see spirits.”

  “How do you know Chris can?” Danielle asked.

&nbs
p; Noah laughed. “He could see Zara, couldn’t he?”

  Danielle frowned. “Yeah, but…so you didn’t know until you got here?”

  “I think we need to start at the beginning, but first, what did you mean when you told Zara you were sorry she ended up in a freezer?”

  “Because her body was found in a freezer in a storage yard. They just made the identification.”

  “So it was a freezer,” Zara muttered.

  “You didn’t know?” Danielle asked.

  “She was confused after it happened,” Noah explained. “But as I said, we should probably start at the beginning.”

  “Noah and I were in foster care together,” Zara told them. “My mother was a drug addict, always looking for her next fix. She died of an overdose when I was eight. But until that time I had been in and out of foster care for a couple of years. She would clean herself up, get me back, then fall into her old habits, until she overdosed and there was no coming back. If she had any family, they never came forward. It was just me and her, until there was just me. And then there was Noah.”

  “After Mom died and I went into foster care, Zara and I became close friends. Zara was the first and only person who I ever told about my—well—how I could see ghosts. You see, my mother had the gift, and after my father died, she could see him—of course I could see him too, and well, when our neighbors realized my mother was claiming to see her dead husband—and her older son seemed to be buying into her delusion, they called social services.”

  “I can’t even imagine how that went,” Danielle muttered.

  “Not good. They put me and Chris in foster care and locked Mom up. She had a breakdown. My father came to me and said goodbye, said his sticking around was hurting our family, and promised me that once he moved on, they would let Mom come home again.”

  “But she didn’t come home again, did she?” Danielle asked.

  Noah shook his head. “No. She committed suicide. I think she just wanted to be with Dad, and quite honestly, considering her mental state back then, had they let her go, she might have killed Chris and me before committing suicide. I realize that now.”

  “Wow,” Danielle muttered, slumping back in the sofa.

  “And you just stayed in foster care?” Walt asked.

  “According to our records, there was mental illness in the family—Mom and me, since I had been foolish enough to claim I had seen my father too. No one was anxious to take that on. At the time, I thought I was helping Mom, trying to show them she wasn’t crazy.”

  “So you stayed in the system?” Danielle said.

  “Yes. When they put us in foster care, they separated Chris and me. I never knew what happened to him until Zara started researching.”

  “You see,” Zara interrupted, “I knew I didn’t have anyone out there, but I knew Noah did. I wanted him to have his brother. Because, well…”

  “Because Zara had been like my sister,” Noah interjected. “And she didn’t want me to be alone when she was gone.”

  “Gone?” Danielle asked, looking from Noah to Zara.

  “I was diagnosed with ALS,” Zara explained. “I didn’t tell anyone, not even Noah. I wasn’t afraid to die—but I was terrified of the disease. I suppose in some ways I should be thankful that the Glandon brothers killed me. It was virtually painless.”

  “Don’t even say that!” Noah snapped. “You weren’t ready to go. They had no right!”

  Zara smiled softly at Noah. “I know. I would never have done what your mother did. I understand life is precious.” She looked from Noah to Danielle. “But I didn’t want Noah to be alone when I left. I wanted him to have his brother. So I started looking. That became…well, my new bucket list. I finally tracked down who had adopted him, but I couldn’t find him. I suspected he might be in Frederickport, but I wasn’t sure. So I went to his uncles for help.”

  “Zara led them to believe she was his long-lost sister,” Noah explained. “She knew things that supported her claim, things she had learned about the adoption.”

  “You say they killed you, why?” Danielle asked.

  “They saw me as competition. I didn’t realize that at the time. What I didn’t know, they were planning to insert themselves back into Chris’s life. They certainly didn’t want a long-lost sibling mucking up their scheme.”

  “They drugged her, and when she woke up, she was in a small confined place.”

  “The freezer,” Danielle muttered.

  “I didn’t know where I was,” Zara said. “It felt like a coffin; it was dark and hard and cold. I tried to yell for help, but I was so sleepy. And the next thing I know, I’m standing next to a boat, and Loyd and Simon are there. I try to get them to listen to me, but they can’t see or hear me. I was confused. I followed them back to their house.”

  “She was there for months, not understanding what had happened to her,” Noah explained.

  “I still wanted to find Chris. I kept begging the uncles to help me. Of course they couldn’t hear or see me. I still hadn’t grasped that I had died. It’s hard to explain—I knew, yet I didn’t.”

  Walt nodded. “I understand exactly what you mean.”

  Zara flashed Walt a smile and then continued. “One day, when I was trying to figure out how to find Chris, I started thinking about Frederickport, and suddenly I was here, standing on the pier. It’s weird, I didn’t even find that strange. I eventually returned to the Glandons and, by that time, figured out I was dead—that they had killed me. I also knew they intended to kill Chris. So I went to find Noah. I knew he would be able to see me.”

  “We couldn’t just go to the police,” Noah explained. “They would think I was crazy.”

  “And I didn’t know where my body was.”

  “Zara kept tabs on Loyd and Simon, listening to them plot and scheme. When they made plans to come for Christmas, we realized we’d need to come too. But we didn’t know if Chris was like me and my mother.”

  “I decided to come back to Frederickport one more time before I came with Noah. But I got lost and ended up in a cemetery in Silverton. I met another ghost, Ramone Cavalier, and I asked him how to get here. He told me about all of you, how you could see people like us. He’s a friend of those ghosts who I’ve seen hanging around—Eva and Marie.”

  Danielle smiled. “So Marie was right. You did see them.”

  Zara nodded. “I never told Ramone why I was coming here. In fact, I don’t think I ever told him my name. Once he mentioned a spirit friend who knew the people who lived at Marlow House—where the Glandons were planning to stay—I was careful what I told him. I didn’t want him to tell his friends.”

  “If you knew about us, why didn’t you save yourself some time and just tell us everything?” Danielle asked.

  “I wanted to,” Noah said. “But Zara reminded me we really didn’t have anything on the uncles to have them arrested. We didn’t even know where her body was. The best we could do was warn you of their intentions. She wanted to figure out what they had planned before we went to you.”

  “But now I think I know what they’re planning,” Zara said.

  “You said they want to murder Danielle? Why?” Walt asked.

  “Loyd went through one of the file cabinets at Chris’s offices. He got copies of Danielle’s, Heather’s and Chris’s signatures, along with the codicil to Chris’s will that makes Danielle executor and beneficiary of Chris’s estate. He then sent it to a man he hired who forged a new codicil. It doesn’t remove Danielle, but adds Simon and Loyd in case something happens to her. Their intention is to poison both Chris and Danielle and then frame Heather, claiming she killed them because of jealousy. Of course the police will conveniently find the new codicil in Chris’s file cabinet, and it will be signed by Heather and Danielle. Heather will deny signing the codicil and Danielle will be dead, so she won’t be able to say anything. Heather will go to prison for killing Chris and Danielle, and the uncles will finally get control of the Glandon Foundation. And trust me, their i
dea of philanthropy is not what Chris envisions.”

  “When do they plan to kill us?” Danielle asked.

  “I don’t like the way you say that—so calmly,” Walt seethed. “I could easily strangle them both right now.”

  “Walt, we need to catch them,” Danielle said, “so they go to prison.”

  “Danielle’s right,” Zara agreed. “They plan to poison you. Loyd says poison is a woman’s murder weapon. They drugged me, and I suspect they put me in that freezer so people might think I committed suicide if my body was ever found. But that is only speculation.”

  “From what Zara has pieced together, they’re trying to figure out how to get you, Heather and Chris all over at the foundation office at the same time. Once there, they intend to find some way to get Heather to leave early and go home. After she leaves, they’re going to suggest you all have a Christmas toast, their way of thanking Danielle for letting them stay here.”

  “Some thank-you,” Walt grumbled.

  “Well, gee, I think we should help them out,” Danielle said.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Walt asked.

  “I think I need to go see Chris.”

  “The only reason I’m agreeing to this and not just shooting those two—” Walt began.

  “I know, Walt,” Danielle interrupted. “You don’t want their ghosts sticking around Marlow House after you kill them.”

  “Exactly!”

  Thirty-Eight

  Sleepily opening his eyes, Max stared at the shiny gold ball. It swayed back and forth ever so gently, catching the reflection of the Christmas tree lights. Reaching out one paw, he batted it lightly, sending it swinging in the branches.

  “Max! What did I tell you about that!” Walt said sternly.

  The cat looked up to the man towering over him.

  “If you want to nap under the tree, leave the ornaments alone. That was the deal, remember?”