Dead Man Talking

by Jana DeLeon

  “Okay,” she said finally. “I’m going to roll with this. Mainly because I don’t see another option. So you’re a ghost and your name is Cornelius?”

  “That’s me.”

  “Where did you come from? I’ve certainly never seen you before and I spent a lot of time in this lighthouse before moving away. And until last night, I’ve never heard my aunt mention you.”

  Cornelius shrugged. “I don’t know where I came from. One day, I was just here.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “I don’t know. Time doesn’t really matter much when that’s all you’ve got and there’s plenty of it. But I think it was right after what Sapphire refers to as The Great Chicken Escape.”

  Zoe thought back to when Sapphire’s friend Zelda—also not her given name—had decided that owning chickens would be a good idea and had moved them onto her back porch. One night, Zelda forgot to latch the door and the chickens had invited themselves out for a stroll. It didn’t end well for several of the chickens, or Zelda, who ended up with a sprained ankle after chasing them half the night, but there was a pretty happy fox strolling around the next day. Sapphire had told her that story, barely managing to get it out between peals of laughter, right after Zoe had moved away.

  “About six years?” Zoe asked.

  “If you say so.”

  “Okay, but I still don’t understand why,” she said. “Ghosts are supposed to come back for a reason—at least that’s how it is in the movies. You’re supposed to be exacting revenge against the people who wronged you or preventing some great tragedy from occurring.”

  Cornelius frowned. “Six years would be a bit too much lead time on a tragedy, and I can’t do anything about people who wronged me. They died years ago. That’s the first thing Sapphire checked for me.”

  “So you just lurk around here, scaring people? Can you at least put on a full set of clothes?”

  “You think I’m happy about this? This is the way I was buried and I haven’t figured out how to change it yet. This coat goes with my best pair of trousers. That louse cousin of mine who poisoned me not only ran off with my wife but did it in my favorite pair of pants.”

  He sighed. “I really miss those pants.”

  “Not your wife?”

  “Not really. He could have had her if he’d asked. He didn’t have to kill me for her. Maybe for the pants, though.”

  “So if you have no business that you have to attend to here, why don’t you leave?”

  “Do you think I haven’t tried? I head outside and start walking but every time I get to the forest, I feel this huge rush of blood to my head and then I’m right back in the lighthouse. I can walk all the way down the path to the ocean, but if I step one foot into the water, same thing.” He grinned. “But look at the upside. You always have someone around to talk to.”

  “Goody. I take it you don’t talk to Dane?”

  Surely he would have mentioned the talking ghost during any one of their discussions of strange things happening at the lighthouse.

  Cornelius shook his head. “Men don’t ever see or hear me. Only women.”

  Lucky us.

  Suddenly, a thought occurred to Zoe. “Were you in the lighthouse when my aunt fell?”

  “Of course. Who do you think woke her up? Darn woman sleeps like the dead—if you’ll pardon the expression—especially when she takes one of those sleeping pills. I almost went hoarse yelling.”

  “Wait. Sapphire takes sleeping pills? Since when?”

  Cornelius shrugged. “She was having trouble sleeping. Used to pace her bedroom most of the night. Couldn’t sleep during the day, either. The doctor said insomnia sometimes happens with age and gave her these pills to take when she couldn’t sleep.”

  “And she took one that night?”

  “Yeah. I talked to her right before she went to bed and she had one out with a glass of water on her nightstand.”

  “I bet that didn’t help with the memory loss thing, either.” Zoe had a friend who’d been prescribed sleeping pills, and after the police discovered her wandering in the middle of the street in an evening gown—none of which she remembered—she’d decided it was better to exercise herself into exhaustion in order to get some rest.

  Cornelius nodded. “I was about to start spooking the cats, hoping one of them would take a run across her and wake her up. All of them can see me but they usually dash off and hide when I’m around.”

  Which probably explained why one of them had taken flight off the occasional table earlier. “Why were you trying to wake Sapphire up?” she asked, a bit confused now that she had put everything he’d said into perspective.

  “Because those men were in her kitchen and they didn’t belong there.”

  Zoe felt her pulse spike. “You saw people in her kitchen the night she fell?”

  “Of course. Two of them.”

  “Did you recognize them?”

  He shook his head. “They were wearing ski masks.”

  Zoe struggled to control her disappointment. For a second, she’d thought this entire mess was going wrap itself up on the eyewitness testimony of a ghost. “Other than the masks, what did they look like?”

  “Tall. One thinner. One heavier-set but not fat. The bigger must have been the leader because he did all the pointing and talking.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said a stone was somewhere on this property and Sapphire had a map. Then they started digging through the drawers in the coffee table and end tables. That’s when I ran upstairs to get your aunt.”

  “And what happened after that? Did they hurt Sapphire?”

  “They never touched her, but they caused her to fall. When she came downstairs, the leader shone a flashlight directly in her eyes and blinded her. She stepped wrong and fell down the last three steps or so. I ran into the laundry room where some of the cats were hiding and chased them all into the living room. All those cats zooming around freaked the men out and they left.”

  “They got freaked out by a bunch of cats?”

  “Have you ever seen ten cats throwing a fit? It’s not something you want to be in the middle of, and the beams from the flashlights zipping around the room only made it worse. The thinner one started yelling about demons and witches and bolted out the door. The leader went over and took a closer look at Sapphire, then ran after him.”

  “Did they leave on foot or in a car?”

  “It was a truck…a dark color, but I can’t be certain if it was black or blue. It was cloudy that night so there wasn’t any moonlight to help.” He looked worried. “I wish I could have seen more. Sapphire is a really nice lady. She agreed to let me hang out inside the lighthouse as long as I promise not to stroll around all the time stirring up the cats or walk into the bathroom when she’s in there or her bedroom when she’s sleeping. I broke my promise that night.”

  “I’m sure that time was okay with Sapphire.”

  “She’s not mad at me? Did she say that?”

  “I’m afraid not. My aunt doesn’t remember anything about that night except going to bed. The next thing she remembers is waking up in the hospital. I told Dane all of this when I got back from the hospital. Didn’t you hear any of it?”

  He shook his head. “I was out for most of the day. I like to sit on the big stone at the end of the path and watch the ships and sailboats as they go by. I used to love sailing. Now I can’t even dip a toe into the water.” His expression turned wistful as he looked out the window.

  “Okay.” Zoe rose from the chair and started pacing. There was a lot to absorb and she was currently overflowing. She had accepted that Cornelius was real and was a ghost, although assimilating that knowledge into her daily life was going to take a bit more time. She also had confirmation that her aunt had indeed fallen because of intruders.

  Oddly enough, the hardest thing to process was that two people not only believed some old legend that she didn’t even remember, but they had broken into the light
house to steal a treasure map that probably didn’t even exist. So all she had to do was figure out who else knew the legend of the magic emerald and thought that bit of fiction was worth risking prison time over. Dane could help with background on anyone Sapphire remembered.

  And maybe—just to be thorough with the investigation—she’d ask her aunt about that treasure map. It couldn’t possibly be true, but as long as she was going to play Scooby-Doo with Cornelius the Chatty Ghost, then she might as well do it right. She looked over at Cornelius, who was watching her pace, and flopped back down in the chair again.

  Now all she had to figure out was how to explain all of this to Dane without him wrapping her up in a straitjacket.

  He watched the lighthouse from the nearby woods. Lights were on downstairs and up on the third floor. The blinds were closed, but he could see slivers of light peeking out through the cracks. Not only was the lighthouse inhabited, it had apparently been taken over by a night owl. His options weren’t any better in the daytime, either. The contractor was there every day and usually didn’t leave for lunch. He’d hoped the lighthouse would be empty for several nights with the old woman in the hospital, but a younger replacement had shown up before he could get back inside. He’d been working the night before and hadn’t had the opportunity to come back to the lighthouse, but given that the other woman had already taken up residence, it wouldn’t have done him any good anyway.

  He’d watched the contractor this afternoon when he changed the locks. It was inconvenient that his key would no longer work, but not a huge problem. Nothing the contractor had bought in the Everlasting hardware store would be overly difficult to bypass.

  If only his partner hadn’t freaked over those damned cats.

  Okay, so he’d admit that he thought it was creepy…all he could see in the bursts of his flashlight was fur and claws and teeth. And the sound. Who knew cats could sound that scary? Granted, at that point, the cats weren’t the bigger issue. The bigger issue was in thinking the old woman had called the police before she’d headed downstairs. Even though local law enforcement weren’t exactly overrun with competence, they carried guns.

  Still, they’d probably had ten minutes at least before the cops would have shown up. They could have used those ten minutes to search for the map. But instead, they’d both fled the scene like they were being attacked by cougars rather than a bunch of housecats.

  He looked up at the third floor again. He’d bet anything that’s where the map was. Somewhere in those journals that Sapphire had talked about. He just needed a window of opportunity so that he could get inside the lighthouse and get a peek at those journals. The contractor wasn’t going to finish anytime soon, so daytime was out. That was fine by him. It was easier to disappear into the shadows at night.

  What he needed was a way to get the girl out of the lighthouse in the middle of the night.

  Suddenly, a thought hit him and he smiled.

  He knew exactly what he was going to do.

  Chapter Six

  Zoe was up, showered, pacing her aunt’s bedroom, and well into her second pot of coffee before 7:00 a.m. Which was somewhat extraordinary since she hadn’t fallen asleep until after three and had done the majority of that sleeping face-planted on the desk in her aunt’s bedroom. Not exactly the most comfortable position, and her neck and shoulders were making sure she was aware of it every time she moved. Sometime around five, she’d shuffled over to her aunt’s bed and collapsed on top of it, not even bothering with the covers.

  She’d been through stacks of journals but so far, there had been no mention of the magic emerald or any other treasure for that matter. Maybe Monte was right and the entire story was hokum. The problem was, how did she get whoever broke into Sapphire’s home to believe that as well? Cornelius stood next to the bed and watched as Zoe paused to refill her coffee cup with the last of the second pot she’d brewed.

  “You’re going to give yourself a heart attack with all that coffee,” Cornelius said.

  “Right now, this coffee and fear are the only things keeping me awake. I’d prefer it just be the coffee.”

  Cornelius nodded. “Understandable. Are you worried about speaking to Dane?”

  “No. Not at all. I mean, I’m just going to tell the man who I was once involved with that a ghost has verified my intruder theory and that despite the absurdity, they were indeed in search of a magic emerald that likely never existed. What could possibly go wrong with that conversation?”

  “You were once involved with Dane?”

  Zoe glared at him. “That was your entire takeaway from that statement? The whole part where he’s going to think I’m nuts because I’m claiming a ghost told me all of that didn’t register with you as potentially more important?”

  “I suppose so, but there’s nothing I can do about that.”

  Zoe frowned, an idea forming. “Why not? Can’t you move something? I mean, even a little flutter of paper would help make my case.”

  “I’m afraid not. I keep trying, especially when Sapphire bakes, but my hands just pass right through everything I attempt to touch. That’s why I don’t sit down. I give it a shot every day, but I fall right through chairs.”

  “You said you sat on the rock at the ocean, and you walk up the stairs in the lighthouse?”

  Cornelius shrugged. “I didn’t say it makes sense, but that’s what I’m working with.”

  Zoe threw her hands in the air. “You can’t touch things, men can’t see you, and you can’t leave the property. You can’t even put on a pair of pants. How the heck are you supposed to help me with anything?”

  “I can scare the cats.”

  “Yeah, because cats never spook.”

  Cornelius gave her an inquisitive look. “Why would you want me to leave the property?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “In your list of my failings, you included the fact that I can’t leave the property. What advantage would you have if I could?”

  “Easy. If the intruder came back, then you could hop in his truck and go for a ride-along until he took off the mask or went home or both. Then you could identify him.”

  Cornelius brightened. “Oh, you’re right. That would have been very handy.”

  “Well, we don’t have that in our playbook, so we have to stick with what we’ve got.”

  “I’m not really sure what that is.”

  Zoe sighed. “Me either.”

  The sound of Dane’s truck pulling up out front made her stiffen. “He’s here.”

  She put her coffee cup down on the desk and started for the stairs.

  “Come with me,” she said to Cornelius.

  “Why? We’ve already established there’s nothing I can do to help prove my existence.”

  “I’ll think of something,” Zoe said, and started down the stairs. She just had to do it in the seconds it took to get to the kitchen.

  Dane had unlocked the front door and was walking inside when she stepped into the kitchen. He looked at her in surprise.

  “I was afraid I would wake you but I see you’re already dressed.”

  “Sleep and I were not a team last night.”

  He gave her a sympathetic look. “I didn’t figure you would be.”

  “No worries. Coffee and I are a team this morning and we’ll manage to pull it off.”

  “Maybe after you visit your aunt, you could get some rest. It might be easier during the day…and while I’m here to watch things.”

  It was something she’d already considered, but Dane’s concern made her feel a little warm and fuzzy. It was nice but also uncomfortable.

  “Maybe,” she said. “Look, there’s something I need to tell you and you have to promise me you won’t call me crazy.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “That is never a good intro for a declaration.”

  “I know, but it’s the one I’ve got. So?”

  He shrugged. “Okay. I won’t call you crazy.”

  Crap. She’d us
ed the wrong terminology and he’d caught it. He would keep his promise not to call her crazy, but he had every right to think it all he wanted.

  “There were two men who entered the lighthouse the night Sapphire fell. They were looking for a map that shows where the emerald is hidden.”

  His eyes widened. “And you know this how exactly?”

  She took a deep breath and began. “This is where the I-promise-I’m-not-crazy part comes in.”

  She told him about the noise she’d heard the night before and her introduction to Cornelius. Then she went on to relay Cornelius’s description of the events the night Sapphire fell. Dane’s face remained completely blank, not even so much as a twitch. When she stopped talking and looked at him, he simply stared at her for several uncomfortable seconds.

  Finally, he blew out a breath. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  “You promised.”

  “And I’m trying really hard to keep that promise, but you have got to know how that sounds.”

  “You’ve lived in Everlasting your entire life. This whole town is a study in oddities. Are you going to tell me you don’t believe any of them?”

  Even Zoe had to admit that there were some things in Everlasting she’d never been able to explain with common knowledge. Like Sapphire’s affinity with cats.

  “Yeah,” he said. “There are some strange things that happen here and I don’t have a good explanation for all of them, but there’s a huge difference between the occasional oddity and claiming a ghost is talking to you.”

  The anxiety she’d felt ever since she’d awakened shot up several notches, and Zoe struggled to come up with some way to prove to Dane that Cornelius was real. She looked over at Cornelius, who was standing next to the couch, an idea forming.

  “Cornelius,” she said.

  “Wait,” Dane interrupted. “You’re saying he’s standing in this room. Right here? Right now?”

  “Yes. He’s over by the couch.”

  Dane squinted at the couch. “Then how come I can’t see him?”

  “Only women can see him.”

  “That’s kind of sexist, isn’t it?”