“Interesting… would your grandfather be available for an interview? I have so many questions.” Somehow Austin lost the plot of this outing.
“Sadly, no. He passed away about ten years ago. He was a hundred and five. Lived a good long life. My dad seems to be on his way to following suit. He’s in his late seventies. He used to take us out there when we were kids, and tell us ghost stories. Swear one time I saw a man walking in front of the house. But there was no one but us out here.”
“Must be good genes. You’re lucky.”
“Going to be thirty this year. So old. My dad married a woman young enough to be my oldest brother’s… well, she was his girlfriend in high school. Makes for some weird family reunions. Knowing my older brother and my mom once did the deed…”
“I think I hit my head when I fell out of the carriage.” Austin finished his milkshake and set the glass on the table. “I fail to see what any of this has to do with the bodies in the cemetery.”
Detective Hightower leaned over the table. His face lost the affable puppy look he’d had just a moment before. “I saw them. The children. The ones you’re trying so hard to pretend weren’t there. But you saw them. I know you did. You and half of your crew saw them rise out of the grave as soon as you unearthed those bones and that chest. At first, I thought I was seeing things, but all of you got quiet. The looker with the long hair nearly fainted. Like she saw more than the rest of us. And not a single one of you said a thing.”
“Is that why you carted me off to the ER? So, you could separate us and start the interrogations?”
“You needed medical care. And I was free. The others are being questioned. Or they were. They’ve been dismissed. The bartender…” he checked his notes, “Rory Callaghan…” he lifted an eyebrow at Rory’s name. “Any relation to the great Callaghan pub down in Savannah? Man, when I was in the service, we used to stop in Savannah. I loved that place. The best burgers and beer in town.”
“Yeah, he’s one of those Callaghans. This Callaghan’s is a franchise. I used to wait tables down there when I was in college. Loved when the fleet was…” he rubbed the back of his neck as Detective Hightower’s face de-aged right in front of him. Young, crew cut, in blue fatigues… that lay on the floor of his tiny apartment on his day off… “Oh, god.”
“Small world, huh? Met a great guy there. I spent a sweaty couple of days with him. Wondered whatever became of him. And he turned up in my town… uncovering bodies of my distant cousins in the walls of the local haunted house. And… which one is it you’re seeing? The Cortlandt heir is new here. Never seen him before. But… the Callaghan kid… he would have followed you anywhere. Back then too, if I remember. Nearly tore me apart for giving you grief that night. God, I wanted to fuck you so badly. Never felt that way about anyone before… or since.”
“Uh. I’m not seeing anyone. Or sleeping with anyone. And… oh god. I remember you. This is… awkward as fuck now. Listen… I’m not interested. Not now. I’m heading back to Tennessee when we’re done. The job here is over now that the house… What will happen to the house now?”
Danny shrugged. “That will be up to Mr. Cortlandt. After we clear the crime scene, that is. Tell me, Doctor Baylor, will we find more bodies in that cemetery? I mean, besides the ones that are supposed to be there. Are those children buried in that cemetery?”
“You ask me that as if I would know? I wasn’t alive when those children died.”
“But you saw them? Same as you saw the redhead that sat on the edge of the grave while you dug. The missing redheaded stable boy… whose ghost led you to his body.”
“That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” Austin tapped the file he’d forgotten about and tried to pull it away. Detective Hightower ground his elbow down on it to keep Austin from getting it.
“Answer the question, Austin. That’s your name, right? I remember using it a few times… back in the day. When you put those pretty lips to good use. Wouldn’t want that getting back to your current flame. He might not like to find out his territory has been poached. And well… I’m seeing someone, but… for old times’ sake, god I remember your lips and your sweet ass. And the things we did to each other… makes me hot just thinking about it.”
“Are you trying to blackmail me? Didn’t you just hear me say the job is over? I’m going home. Heath doesn’t give a shit who I screw or don’t screw. I’m not his property.”
“Interesting… so it’s the Cortlandt heir, not the Callaghan heir. I would have laid odds on the other way around. I can see it. He’s handsome. Loaded. Coming off a disastrous divorce. Easy pickin’s.”
“I am not sleeping with my boss.”
“Then tell me the damn truth… are there more bodies out there in that cemetery? I counted at least six kids. And the infant. And the red-haired boy. The only one with any color to his… ghost. That’s what they were. Ghosts. And the one I used to see walking down the deserted street those cold days right after Halloween. I saw him too. He stepped out of the other Cortlandt and took the redhead’s hand, and they both walked into the sunset. Their ghosts were the only ones to leave… to be set free. Tell me I’m crazy.”
“You’re crazy,” Austin told him. But he wasn’t. And nothing had been the same since that moment. Heath had reverted to the man he’d been when he first came to the house. Cold and proper, and there was nothing left of the man Austin had… loved. That Osian had loved. Austin’s love for the man a ghost of his former life. He knew that now.
“I saw what I saw.”
“Are you going to tell that to your superiors down at the cop shop? That you followed the museum employees out to an unmarked section of the graveyard and watched the ghosts they dug up, walk around for five minutes before they sunk back into the ground… where they were buried. Except for three.”
“Three?”
“The infant. The one in the steamer trunk. She… you’ll find it’s a girl, by the way. Amelia Cortlandt’s daughter. Suffocated at her birth because she wasn’t a boy. The family needed a male heir. One the aunt had conveniently given birth to three weeks earlier. She suffocated the mother and the baby and the midwife helped her. Because… I have no idea why the midwife helped her. She probably helped her murder all of her brother’s wives and replace their children with her own. Her brother’s children. She… believed their blood was pure. All of his children were hers. I’m sure there are more than the six you saw. Probably buried in the cemetery. And you’ll find the bones of a thoroughbred stallion out there in the oaks somewhere. If you ever see the horse ghost again… be sure to follow him. Is that crazy enough for you?”
The detective recoiled. If he’d been kidding or flirting or whatever this all was… that was all gone now in the face of Austin’s confession. Hell, Austin half hoped he’d haul him off to the psych ward now. He needed the break from all this reality.
“The ghost stallion is a bit too hard to swallow,” the detective replied, dryly.
“Don’t recall you having a problem swallowing… back in the day.” Austin tossed that out just to see what reaction he’d get.
The detective blinked rapidly, his smirk giving way to a real smile. One that sparkled in his eyes. “Touché, Doctor Baylor. Guess you got some balls after all.”
“You’d know, you sucked them.” Austin was so going to prison. He’d confess to going back in time and murdering the entire family… hell, he’d confess to murdering the entire Roanoke Colony, if it would make this all stop. “Look, I just want to go home. I can’t take any more of this… town. I told you everything I know. Most of it I guessed from reading between the lines of old journals. The rest of it was just dumb fucking luck. I’m tired. I haven’t slept in two days. I’m tanked on pain meds… and you’re making threats that make me think my life is in danger. I’ll say anything you want right now and we both know it.”
“Ah… yeah… keep that ball sucking part to yourself, if you will. I’m not, exactly…”
“Gay? Yeah, I go
t that when you all but hit on my intern. The tall one with the hair. Bet the woman you’re seeing would be shocked to know you take it up the ass.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Are you… because I can’t stress enough that this feels like exactly that? Like you think I’ve done something here and maybe I might be crazy… you try staying in that house by yourself for weeks on end… you’ll go crazy too. Now… take me home or call me an Uber. I’m going to pass out, and I want to do it in my bed. Or take me back to the hospital—”
“I’ve seen the woman in the turret. Many times. The house is full of ghosts. Austin. I’ve seen them all my life. And not one person believes me,” Danny said, cutting him off… by shocking the shit out of him.
“You never saw the horse, with the blazing eyes… so… why would anyone believe you,” was all Austin could think to say in the face of that confession.
“No… that’s a new one to me. But I’ve heard stories from kids trespassing in the cemetery, usually in the summer months. There’s a story that’s been around forever about a demon horse running loose in the trees. I just chalked it up to alcohol and raging hormones. Even when I was a kid and getting fucked up in that cemetery. I… could never get past the little headless babies and the kids with no eyes… staring at me.”
“Headless babies? I didn’t see… the child, Ruth, ripping the heads off her dolls. She wouldn’t go near the new baby. I wondered… something was wrong with that child. I think she saw more than she should have.”
Danny opened his notebook again and flipped back a few pages. “You said… you thought the body in the attic might be the child Ruth. But she was buried… today. She was buried one hundred years ago today. And the old man died in August 1917. With a child around the same age as the one, you call Ruth. Tell me something? Why was the attic room left in that condition? The rest of the house was restored or renovated, but that attic, and don’t tell me some bull about the fire, that attic wasn’t touched during the renovation.”
“Because no one knew it was there. And that sounds insane. But not one person knew that room was there until last week. I’d been up there a thousand times, and I never saw the door to that room. There were crates and crates of stuff. Baby clothes. More journals. Scrapbooks. And… she said she had a private room. The woman who wrote the journals. She… would… give birth in that room and keep the babies that survived… or… the children with… incest. If she hid the boy in that room, he’ll be deformed in some way. But he was a boy. They tried for boys. Succeeded twice. Or more. God… just saying it all out loud sounds insane.”
“I’ll have them check the body for anything strange. Who do you think murdered the old man? Just… don’t worry about how it sounds. You’ve read the journals. You know the family better than anyone living. If the old man was up there doing what it appears, he was doing to that child…”
“Heath, that Heath, the oldest son. He killed him. I think… because the old man did it to him when he was little. And his sisters. I believe the old man had a serious problem. Sexually speaking. If he’d been up there raping that boy because he couldn’t talk, then—”
“No wonder the older son murdered him. Must have been hell living in that house.”
“It’s been no picnic, a hundred years later. So much…” he shook his head, realizing who he was speaking to and that he’d stopped worrying about how it all might sound. “The main house is oppressive. Like it’s… it’s like it’s alive and angry, and if you spend any time in certain parts of it… it takes its toll. We all feel it. We argue a lot in the house. Petty jealousies that don’t exist outside of the house come into play. Other things. It’s… odd.” No way was he telling this guy that the front room makes him horny… and has since he got there. “Listen, I need to get back. So, arrest me or take me home. I can’t see straight anymore. I’m asking nicely.”
The detective sighed and checked his phone. “Yeah. Thanks for finally talking to me. And… I can’t make you stay in town if I need to speak with you again as this is not an active crime. But… if you leave… if you’d give me a number where I can reach you… that would… uh… be helpful.”
Austin slid out of the booth and waited for the cop to follow him. He leaned over and whispered, “I don’t sleep with married men, Detective Hightower. If that… means anything to you. And… your ring… it’s in your pocket. The weekend we had was a long time ago, and your wife deserves more than the status of someone ‘you’re seeing’.”
He walked away and waited by the door to the detective’s unmarked car. Danny didn’t say a word the ten minutes it took to drive back to the Manor. When they got to the portico entrance, he handed Austin the file on the missing stable boy.
“You know, if you ever think about a career change… you’d make a hell of a detective,” he said as Austin climbed out of the car. “And Doctor… Austin,” Danny called out the window before he could take a single step. “I hope you find what you’re looking for. Take it easy.”
“Only way to take it,” he said to the car, as it drove away. Jemma waited for him on the stoop, worry on her face.
“What was that all about?” Jemma asked when he stumbled on the first step. “You look wrecked, Aus, what the hell did he do to you?”
“Fucked me real good.” Austin heard himself say. “Long time ago. When he was a sailor. He saw them, Jem. The ghosts. He knows.”
“Let me guess, he’s about to be thirty-years-old and he thinks he’s losing his mind.”
She wrapped her arms around him and helped him inside. She smelled so good Austin could stay in her embrace forever. “Yeah… no. He’s seen them, his whole life. Thought he was crazy. And yeah, he will be thirty this year… just like… all of us.”
“You sound high.” Jemma led him through the house and out the door that led to the apartments. “Rory is pacing a hole in your floor. He’s pissed that they took you away and we haven’t heard one word since. And you come back looking like you’ve been put through the wringer.”
“Broke my arm, again. When I fell out of the carriage. I heard the bone snap. Took time to get the old cast off and do the X-rays and put a new one on. Then he took me to breakfast and…”
“You found out you did him in the good old days.”
She sounded jealous. He smiled. “I did him. He did me… I didn’t remember him. He… uh… hit on me.”
“And you turned him down because you’re in love with someone else.”
“Pish.” Austin blew out a breath. “No. I’d… uh… I don’t do married guys. Especially guys on the down low, you know. He took off his wedding ring after yesterday afternoon. Thought I didn’t notice? I noticed. Where are we going? I have work to do.”
“To bed. Before you fall down. And… we are all fired. Remember.”
“Oh… yeah.” He’d forgotten. “Guess Workman’s Comp won’t be paying for that trip to the hospital then. Fuck… me.”
“Be careful what you wish for… I might just take you up on that offer.” They stumbled in his door, to find half of the inmates at this particular asylum waiting for them. “Or one of them might.”
“Or all three of you. That would be a first for me… might need…” He found himself in his favorite chair. The file folder stripped from his hand. “Okay. Nope. Too tired. Gonna have to take a rain check. After I sleep. For a month.”
“Have you eaten?” Rory was the one to ask. Because that’s what Rory did. Fed people.
“Yeah… some fries and a milkshake. Can’t keep much down right now. New pain meds. Oh… left those in the car.”
“Why did they arrest you?” That from Heath, who looked like a caged beast marking his territory.
“They didn’t. There were questions. And… uh… they’re going to… I think… want to exhume the bodies… the ones under the headstones… so… but you know that, don’t you?”
“Yes. That’s a foregone conclusion.” The uptight Heath was back. And Austin felt the fight leave hi
m. “Anything else?”
“My arm is broken… again, and it’s your fault this time… was the first time too, but that makes me crazy. Stop falling on me. And detective Hot-tower… I mean Hightower…”
“Hit on him,” Jemma finished, giving Heath a look that Austin couldn’t interpret.
“I turned him down. Don’t need that kind of… Danny the Sailor, god, what a weekend he was.”
“Danny the Sailor? That was Danny the Sailor?” Rory screeched. “Jesus, Austin… are all of your ex-lovers going to come crawling out of the walls around here?”
“Don’t say that. Something might get ideas and actually crawl out of the walls,” Austin said, watching the area over by the fridge for any signs of his ghost. “That was where he died. Right there where the fridge is. You built my apartment over… where I died. It’s why… you know. It’s why we’re all here. We… died here. All of us. Or we’re possessed by the spirit of someone who did. I’m not entirely sure.”
“Pretty sure I have nothing to do with this creepy place.” Rory settled into the chair across from him and propped up his feet.
Austin sank into his chair and let his head fall back on the cushion. He stared up at the wood beam ceiling, high overhead, realizing that there were nights that he dreamed about that ceiling. As if… “The last thing I saw… was the horse… and that fucking ceiling. God… I hate horses. I just never want to see either of them again. Can’t wait to get…” the sound of someone snoring in the distance, or maybe the sound was in his own mind. When he was so tired everything was funny as hell. “Home… She’s calling us home. Her children. This house. She’s calling us all home… can’t wait to go… home.”
Chapter Forty-Six
“Austin, are you expecting someone?” His sister interrupted his job hunt. Or rather his stare-at-the-computer-and-scream-silently time that coincided with searching the world for something he could do that wasn’t waiting tables. He considered the job of an exotic dancer at a club down in Nashville, but the cast on his arm would just look silly.
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