A Ghostly Mortality: A Ghostly Southern Mystery (Ghostly Southern Mysteries)

by Tonya Kappes

  “I remember.” Charlotte’s voice was low and sad.

  “Now you remember,” I said in a sarcastic tone and threw my hands in the air.

  The men looked between each other.

  “Who are you talking to?” the guard asked with a curious look in his eye.

  “Her.” I pointed to Charlotte. “Her ghost.”

  “You’re nuts,” the dry cleaning man scoffed. “She’s nuts.” He turned to the guard.

  The guard kept his hand next to his hip.

  Charlotte said, “I had a family that swore their sister was an organ donor and it was on our paperwork. When I went to get the paperwork, it was not on there. The security guard is the only person here at night and able to get into my office with his key. I was putting two and two together that he was going in and changing the organ donors to non-organ donors. He was stealing their organs and selling to the black market.”

  “I’ve seen her, so I’ll be going.” I smiled and hoped they were just going to let me go. I was wrong.

  The security guard pulled his gun from under his shirt and pointed it at me. “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Boss, she’s going to rat us out.” The other guy was a bit jumpy.

  “Nah, she’s trespassing. The Hardgroves don’t want her on the property and it was filed with the police, so technically I could just shoot her saying she trespassed.” He had a point. “Then we can put her body upstairs, clean up this mess and get on with our business.”

  “You honestly think that you are going to get away with harvesting people’s organs and selling them?” The thought of them doing this made me sick.

  “The liver you just had in your hands is going to a good woman. I’m saving lives.” He smiled.

  “You are stealing. How does Gina Marie not know this?” I questioned. “Or does she?”

  “I walked in on him and Arley stealing the organs from the deceased even if they weren’t organ donors and selling them to the black market.” Charlotte was still standing over her body. “The other guy is Hardgrove’s cleaning driver. The Hardgroves have him come at night and pick up the laundry. It makes it easy for him to transport the ice in, extract the organs, put them on ice and get them out without anyone noticing.”

  “That is what Gina Marie meant when she said that you needed to double-check the donation card when I thought she meant clothes, etc.” It was all coming to me. Granted, it was coming to me at the absolute wrong time, but at least I was going to cross over with Charlotte knowing what exactly happened to her.

  “And Arley Burgin?” I asked, shocked.

  “What?” The security guard took a step forward. “Did Arley tell you about this?” He spat. “I told him to keep his big mouth shut.”

  “Why did you involve Arley?” I asked, dumfounded that Arley would do such a thing.

  “I needed eyes on the inside and his daddy needs a lung. When you’re dying, you do desperate things to stay alive or keep the ones you love alive.” He stepped closer, the gun still pointing at me. “Like right now, I bet you’d just about do anything to keep me from putting a piece of lead in you right now.”

  “You never said anything about us killing people.” The van driver’s face flushed pale. “You only said already dead people.”

  “Shut up, Jenkins!” the security guard screamed over his shoulder. “Shit happens. Things come up and plans change. Do you want to go to jail for the rest of your life or do you want her to go away as if this never happened?”

  The van driver didn’t say anything. The silence was deafening.

  “Now.” The security guard’s voice had considerably calmed down and was steady. “I’ve got to decide what to do with you.”

  He took a walk around me and gave me a good once-over.

  “You just might be the lung Arley’s daddy needs.” A slow, calculated smile curved on his lips. “See, it’s not a bad thing that you will be joining your sister. She has a beautiful kidney that’s going to get me thousands of dollars.” He winked and shoved the gun in my side.

  I winced from the pain of the barrel hitting my lower rib. I gulped. I’d done gotten myself into one hell of a situation.

  “I don’t think anyone is going to do anything anymore.” Arley Burgin stood at the door like a knight in shining armor. “Pete, this is over. I can’t let you do this to anyone else, even if my daddy don’t get a lung.”

  “Shut the hell up, Arley, and get over here and tie her up with some of that rope over there before I gut you and give your daddy your own lung.” Pete waved the gun. “Hurry up before anyone else shows up.”

  “I’m not going to do this.” Arley held his ground.

  “Fine. Your choice. Dan, do your job,” Pete instructed Dan.

  Dan hesitated and looked at Arley. Arley’s chest puffed out like a puffer fish and he stood ramrod straight, preparing for Dan to hit him.

  Suddenly a can was thrown into the room spewing all sorts of smoke.

  Chapter 18

  “That’s her,” I heard Charlotte say. “When she wakes up, she will see you and help you.”

  “Are you sure?” the small voice asked. “I’ve been waiting a very long time.”

  “I’m sure,” Charlotte confirmed. “She’s my sister. She’s got a special gift. She can see us and help us go to the other side. I only wish I had known it while I was living.”

  The sound of footsteps came from the left and Charlotte stopped talking.

  “Are you sure she’s going to be okay?” The comforting and sweet voice of my mama asked.

  “She will.” Doc Clyde was standing next to me. “She’s just got a case of the ‘Funeral Trauma’ on top of the traumatic events that took place last night.”

  I sucked in a deep breath and slowly opened my eyes.

  “She’s coming to.” I could hear Daddy as two shadowy heads looked down on me. The overhead lights peering around them. Their faces came into focus.

  “Mama, Daddy.” It took everything in me to smile. My insides lit up when I realized I had survived Pete’s gun. “Was I shot?”

  “No, honey. Thank God,” Mama cried and patted my hand. “I don’t know what I’d have done if both my girls were gone.”

  “Move it.” Granny shoved Mama to the side and looked at me. “You did it.”

  “I did what?” I asked confused.

  “You saved Charlotte and a whole lot of other victims from the big organ scam.” Granny scooched down a little to let Jack Henry in view.

  A blanket of relief came over me when I saw him. Every single person I loved was standing in the room. Even Charlotte.

  “I love you, Emma Lee.” Jack bent down and kissed my lips. “You scared me to death, though.” He put his hand on my forehead and ran it across the top of my head.

  “Give the lovebirds some room.” Granny shooed everyone out, including Doc.

  “You’re not mad?” I asked.

  “I would be if you’d been seriously hurt.” The chair legs screeched across the hospital tile floor as he dragged a chair next to me. “But you did a good thing.”

  “How did I get here?” I asked. The last thing I remembered was Pete’s gun sticking in my side.

  “It was Arley. After you left the softball field so abruptly, I got a little nervous. Arley asked me what was wrong and I just said that you were on edge because Hardgrove didn’t let you see Charlotte yet.” Jack shook his head. “He mumbled something about you being a good person and he couldn’t do it to you. Then spilled his guts.”

  I started to remember everything with Pete and Dan while they had me at gunpoint.

  “He said that he had told the security guard his daddy was going to need a lung transplant and that’s how the plan was hatched. Arley was the inside eyes and he told the security guard everything about everyone’s files. Arley would only give out information from the inside and the security guard would go in and change the files at night when no one was around. The laundry service driver even got involved by transporting th
e organs where they needed to go. Since everything was done at night, he never got caught.” Jack rubbed his fingers against his thumb. “They were getting upward of ten thousand dollars an organ.”

  “The price people pay.” I couldn’t believe it.

  “Arley said that Charlotte had come in unexpectedly that night when Pete was harvesting and she caught him with an organ. He strangled her with some rope and dragged her outside behind the bushes. That’s why she’s got dirt on her outfit. Sammy Hardgrove had Arley go to his apartment to fix a few things and that’s how Arley knew about the apartment. Pete had Arley convinced the police would see Arley as the mastermind since he was always in the building, so he used that to manipulate Arley into doing whatever he needed.” Jack rubbed his hand up and down my arm. “Arley was stuck in between a rock and hard place because he really liked you and he wants his dad to live. So he took the body and left her in the apartment.”

  “Hard place?” I questioned. “He was doing illegal things.”

  “I know that and you know that, but in Arley’s world, he had to justify his actions somehow, so when I said something at the softball field about you not taking Charlotte’s murder so good, he came clean.”

  “I really thought Gina had done it.” I bit my bottom lip wondering how wrong I was.

  “She didn’t. Nothing to do with it,” Jack confirmed. “I think she’s more shocked than any of us.”

  “How did you know I was there?” I asked.

  “I jumped online and pinged your phone. I didn’t want to call you and let your phone ring because I figured you’d gone and gotten yourself into a pickle.” He smiled. “I called Lexington police and told them what was going on. They sent over the SWAT team and saw that linen van there, which Arley identified as the guy that actually did all the organ extraction, not only for Pete but also for another funeral home in Lexington. He was going to take out Charlotte’s kidney but you ruined that.”

  “Thank goodness.” I sat up in the hospital bed.

  “Thank goodness he came clean and the SWAT threw in the can of tear gas.”

  “I remember now.” I recalled the smoke. I shivered, thinking about how close I had come to becoming a Betweener client of my own. Jack took off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. My heart warmed with his kind gesture. I was one lucky girl.

  “The tear gas instantly knocked everyone out.” He patted my leg.

  “What about Arley?” I knew he was wrong and what they had done was wrong, but he did save my life and Charlotte’s organs.

  “He will spend some time in jail and Pete was arrested on first degree murder charges along with gross misdemeanor of a corpse. Several corpses.”

  “It’s time.” Charlotte caught my attention and looked off into the distance.

  “No, wait.” I turned my attention to Charlotte. “No,” I begged. A lump formed in my throat. A burning sensation collected on my eyelids and inside my mouth where my nose met my throat. “Please, don’t go.”

  “Charlotte?” Jack asked. I nodded. “She’s crossing over?”

  I nodded again, barely seeing him through the puddle of tears in my eyes.

  “I’ll leave you alone for a minute.” Jack quietly slipped out of the room and shut the door behind him. I knew he was going to not let anyone in and give me a minute with my sister.

  “Please, no.” I reached out and Jack’s coat fell to the floor.

  “Emma,” Charlotte gasped and pointed to the coat.

  There was a small velvet ring box that had fallen out of the pocket.

  “It’s a ring.” Charlotte’s eyes danced with delight. “You are going to get married.”

  “No.” I gulped back the bittersweet moment. “Not without you by my side.”

  “I have to.” Charlotte ghosted herself next to my bed. “I’m sorry for not being the big sister you wanted me to be. You are going to be a beautiful bride.”

  She pointed to the coat.

  “Now pick it up and act like you don’t know anything about it.” She looked so angelic with the brightest smile across her face. Her eyes lit up like stars. “Let him wow you with how much he loves you and adores you.”

  I did what she asked me to do and put the coat on the edge of the bed.

  “You are a great big sister.” The tears flowed down my face. I extended my arm and held my fingers out to touch her. “Please, don’t go. Please.”

  “It’s a shame, you know. I helped families get their loved ones in the ground while you helped their loved ones cross over. We would’ve made a heck of a team. Now it’s my turn.” Charlotte took a step backward and looked over her shoulder. “I love you, Emma Lee. You remember that and take care of Granny.”

  “Wait,” I sobbed as Charlotte faded away.

  The pain struck deep in my heart and I fell back on the bed.

  Jack Henry walked back in and crawled in the bed with me and held me tight, rocking me back and forth, comforting me as I mourned the loss of my sister.

  A couple of hours later, Doc Clyde gave me my discharge papers because nothing was hurting but my heart. I was on the other side of the funeral business today. I was able to feel the pain my clients’ families had as they would sit in front of me making the arrangements for their loved ones. In some sick way, this was probably going to make me a better undertaker. Be more sympathetic, in a way.

  “This is the first time I’ve seen her grieve,” Granny said in a hushed whisper as they rolled me down the hospital hall in the wheelchair Doc Clyde insisted I use to get to the car.

  “We are here to help,” Mama assured her.

  As we passed the waiting room next to the nurses’ station, I saw Princess Candy and the Dennis boy sitting in some chairs.

  “Wait!” I put my foot down to stop the wheelchair. Slowly I got up so I wouldn’t pass out and I walked over to them. “Is the baby okay?”

  “The baby is fine.” Candy rubbed her belly. “It’s my mama. She got her kidney transplant today.”

  “Wonderful news.” I clapped my hands together. “I’m so glad you didn’t have that big wedding because now you can have your mama and your baby there.”

  “We can never thank you enough.” The Dennis boy stood up and hugged me.

  Like a breeze, Charlotte whispered into my ear, “I told you it was my turn to give back.”

  “Charlotte?” I questioned and put my hand up to my lips.

  “Yes,” Candy teared. “Your mama and daddy found those papers Charlotte had left for you. Somehow she knew her kidneys were supposed to go to my mama.”

  “Her lungs went to Arley’s daddy.” Jack patted my shoulders and had me sit back down in the wheelchair.

  I had completely forgotten about the papers Charlotte had left. She must’ve known something fishy was going on in her morgue and written up her last will and testament before she’d gone down and seen the guard harvesting all the organs. But it all made sense now. As much as I wanted to mourn my sister’s death, I knew that she had done a very good thing in the end that made up for all the bad things she’d done while living.

  Even her funeral and repass was a celebration. The entire town square was filled with mourners coming to say their goodbyes. Charlotte Rae would’ve loved all the attention she was bringing to Eternal Slumber. When I was questioned about her epitaph choice of words It’s My Turn, I knew the real meaning behind it. Charlotte knew it was her turn to give back unselfishly, but the townsfolk thought it meant that Charlotte had put so many others in the ground that it was her turn to go into the ground.

  I sat under the gazebo with the ghost cat next to me and watched the line of Sleepy Hollow citizens curl down the sidewalk and up the steps of the funeral home waiting their turn to get inside to pay their respects to Mama, Daddy and Granny.

  “Here kitty, kitty.” A familiar voice called and l looked up.

  There was a young girl and a much older woman running after her.

  The ghost cat jumped to its feet and stared at the young gi
rl coming toward us.

  “Kitty!” The girl outstretched her arms and ran as fast as she could. The cat darted off in her direction until it reached her. The young girl picked up the cat and hugged it tight.

  “Put it down,” the woman instructed the girl and looked up at me. “Lovely day, isn’t it?” The woman adjusted the hem of her shirt.

  “Not really.” I pointed to the funeral home. “My sister’s funeral.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” The woman was doing some very familiar hand gestures toward the girl and cat.

  “He does love to aggravate you.” The young girl laughed when she put the cat down and it tried to rub up on her leg.

  I laughed.

  “You.” The young girl looked up at me. “You can help me.”

  “What?” the woman spat and looked up at me.

  “She can see me. The ghost at the hospital told me.” Then her voice hit me like a ton of bricks. When I was in the hospital, I vaguely remember Charlotte telling someone that I could help them cross over.

  “No.” The woman jerked. “She cannot help you.”

  “Yes, I can,” I said to the woman. The cat ran over to me and sat down on the step. “Are you a Betweener?” I asked the woman. I’d never met someone with the same gift as me.

  “She is, but she won’t help me cross over. We are twins and I was murdered years ago. She says if she helps me, then she’ll never see me again.” The young girl begged, “Please, help me and Mr. Whiskers.”

  “So, you are Mr. Whiskers?” I ran my hand down Mr. Whiskers’s fur before I glanced up at the little girl and her grown twin sister staring back at me.

  “Well?” The little girl twirled her pigtail around her finger and dug the toe of her sandal in the dirt patch on the ground. “Are you going to help me or not?”

  The Ghostly Southern Mystery Series

  Enter the world of Tonya Kappes!