“Which was what?” Wilson asked.
“Apparently Danielle gave Heather a house key before she left, and told her she could use her Internet if she needed to—something about Heather’s router not working correctly. I went over there the other day to feed the animals and was quite surprised to find Heather sitting in the library.”
“What was she doing?” Wilson asked.
“Using her computer.” Joanne shrugged. “She was using the Internet, just like she said Danielle told her she could.”
“Why were you surprised Danielle would give her a key?” Wilson asked.
“I don’t think they’re all that close. Although, Heather did stay at Marlow House for a time when she was having some work done at her house. She just lives down the street. But now that I think about it, Danielle gave her a deal, because she was having some money issues, so I suppose it makes sense she offered Heather the use of the Internet while she was gone. I was just surprised Danielle forgot to tell me.”
“Money problems?” Wilson asked. “What kind of money problems?”
Brian spoke up. “Heather inherited Presley House—it was located a couple blocks away from Marlow House. It burned down this past Halloween. Afterwards, Heather discovered she didn’t actually own it anymore.”
“How is that?” Thomas asked.
“Apparently her mother failed to pay the property tax,” Brian said.
“Oh, that’s right!” Joanne said. “Earthbound Spirits got their hands on it. She was kind of bitter about it. And then there was that thing with the emerald…”
HEATHER SAT in the Frederickport Police Department’s interrogation room, staring across the table at Special Agent Wilson.
“No. I did not use the phone at Marlow House. Why would I? I have a cellphone. Anyway, I didn’t go over there on Tuesday.”
“According to Joanne Johnson, you have a key to Marlow House, and she found you there when she went to feed the animals.”
Heather shrugged. “Yeah, so? Danielle said I could use her Internet. Ask her. And I’m sure Joanne will tell you that’s what I was doing when she saw me there—using the Internet. But I didn’t go there on Tuesday, and I certainly didn’t use the phone.”
Narrowing his eyes, Wilson glared at Heather. “Ms. Donovan, someone called the Frederickport Police Station from Marlow House and told Officer Henderson where they would find Danielle Boatman and the others.”
Heather arched her brows and smiled. “Really?”
“Whoever made that call knows something that can help us find the people responsible for hijacking that plane and kidnapping your friends. While the caller did the right thing by coming forward with the information, they can’t keep protecting the kidnappers. These are very dangerous people.”
“And you think I made that call?” Heather asked innocently.
“I understand you’ve been having money issues.”
“So? A lot of people have money issues.”
“Perhaps, but you’ve had rather a bad string of luck lately, haven’t you? You lived at Marlow House when Chris Johnson did, you probably figured out who he really was, maybe started resenting the fact he had far more money than he needed, and here you were, trying over and over again to do the right thing, but getting deeper in debt. Somehow you hooked up with the wrong people, got involved with the hijacking scheme, but when Chris got hurt, you realized you couldn’t go through with it, so you made those phone calls. Come clean, Heather, and help us put these guys away, and I’ll see what I can do to go easier on you.”
“Interesting scenario, but total fantasy. I had zip to do with the kidnapping.”
“No one else has a key to the house but you and the housekeeper, and she has an alibi for the time the call was placed.”
Heather let out a sigh and leaned back in the chair, her gaze meeting Wilson’s. “I didn’t make the call. But…strange things happen at Marlow House.”
“Strange?” Wilson frowned.
Heather leaned forward, her expression serious, and she said in a whisper, “Some say Marlow House is haunted.”
“Haunted?”
“I think it’s the ghost of Walt Marlow. He was murdered in that very house—they found his body hanging in the attic.” Heather dramatically shivered and then added, “So gruesome.”
“Are you trying to tell me a ghost called the police station?” Wilson asked indignantly.
Heather shrugged. “I have no idea who made that call. But I’m just telling you what I’ve heard about that house.”
THE CHIEF SAT SILENTLY behind his desk and listened to Special Agent Wilson vent about his recent interview with Heather Donovan. Also in his office were Agent Thomas and Officer Henderson.
“Fact of the matter, anyone could have made that call,” Brian said. “If that golden retriever can get through the doggy door, who’s to say a small adult can’t? We know a child can.”
“I can’t see just anyone going through that doggy door,” Wilson said with a snort. “That’s a good-size dog on the other side. I’d say whoever made the call was familiar with the golden retriever.”
The chief chuckled. “Goldens aren’t known for their killer instincts, and I imagine whoever made that call could have easily won her over while in the backyard by giving her a few dog treats.”
“Perhaps. But I didn’t appreciate all that nonsense about ghosts,” Wilson snapped.
“In all fairness to Heather,” the chief added, “she doesn’t think it’s nonsense. Heather does believe in ghosts.”
WILSON CLIMBED into the driver’s seat of the dark sedan and angrily slammed the door shut. “Someone made that damn call.”
“You know what I kept thinking when I was listening to her?” Thomas asked as he leaned back in the passenger seat. He had been with the chief in the office next to the interrogation room, listening to the interview.
Wilson slipped the key into the ignition, yet he didn’t turn the car on. “What?”
Thomas turned in his seat and looked at his partner. “I kept thinking of the times we’ve been to Marlow House.”
Wilson stared at Thomas. After a moment of silence, he said, “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. But I absolutely refuse to believe in ghosts.”
“Something happened in that house when we were there, and you know it. We never talk about it, but we both felt it.”
THIRTY-SIX
“We need to send him to Vegas,” the doctor told Danielle that evening. He stood with her near the doorway to Chris’s hospital room.
“No. I told you I want to take him with me back to Oregon,” she insisted.
The doctor glanced over to the bed where Chris lay unconscious, showing minimal signs of life. “And I told you, Ms. Boatman, your hospital there is not equipped to handle Mr. Glandon. I know you have Mr. Glandon’s power of attorney, but I’m willing to fight you on this. I sincerely don’t believe moving him to Oregon at this time is in his best interests.”
Danielle looked over to Chris and then back to the doctor. “What if he was conscious?”
“That, Ms. Boatman, is the problem. He’s not conscious.”
“But if he was, would he be able to return to Oregon?”
“Obviously, if that’s what he wanted. But I don’t really see your point,” he said impatiently.
Looking back to Chris, she studied him a moment. Finally, she turned to the doctor and asked, “When are you planning to move him?”
“If you cooperate and I don’t have to fight you on this, I was hoping to have him moved tomorrow afternoon.”
“HOW’S CHRIS DOING?” Lily asked when she answered Danielle’s phone call thirty minutes later.
“The doctor wants to send Chris to Vegas,” Danielle said. “And honestly, I don’t know how I can argue with him about this. They’re better equipped to handle him in Vegas than our little hospital in Frederickport, and I understand why the doctor believes I’m being utterly irresponsible insisting I send Chris to a small Oregon hospital.�
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Lily responded with a loud snort.
“What was that about?” Danielle asked.
“I was remembering how Stoddard insisted they send me to Oregon when I was in a coma.”
“We all know Stoddard didn’t care what was best for you. But I do want to make the right decision for Chris.”
“So how does he get back to his body if he’s here and the rest of him is in Vegas?” Lily asked.
“Tell him to try!” Danielle said impatiently. “He certainly is not going to do it if he’s hanging around there.”
“I don’t think it’s that easy. We talked about it last night. Walt doesn’t think Chris can just will himself to Havasu since he has never been there when he was alive. He might be wrong, but if Chris tries and Walt is right, that means Chris’s spirit could end up wandering aimlessly until his body dies.”
“That’s chilling. Did Walt tell you that in a dream hop?”
“No. Remember, Heather came over and played interpreter.” Lily had talked to Danielle briefly when she had arrived back in Marlow House, but their conversation was cut short when Danielle was interrupted by a nurse coming into Chris’s hospital room.
“Then you bring him here,” Danielle suggested. “And if he’s not able to connect while he’s still in Havasu, then he can follow his body to Vegas. That way he has a much better chance of getting back to normal.”
“What do you mean bring him there?”
“Get the next flight back to Vegas. When I was checking flights, the best one is under five hours from Portland. In Vegas, you can rent a car and drive to Havasu; there’s no direct flights from Vegas to Havasu and no bus service. Depending on the flight, you should be able to make it in about twelve hours. I know that’s pushing it, but even if it still took a couple extra hours, you’d get here before Chris has to leave for Vegas.”
“You want me to escort his spirit there?”
Danielle, who held the phone to her ear, nodded. “Yes.”
“You do understand that I can’t see or hear Chris, don’t you? I’m no more sensitive to his type of spirit than I am Walt. In fact, Heather can’t see him—only glimpses. So maybe you can’t either.”
“I’ll be able to see him,” Danielle insisted. “I saw you.”
“You do know it’ll be like I’m traveling with my imaginary friend,” Lily told her.
“I know. But you can do this.”
Lily let out a sigh. “Okay. I’ll need to come up with a good story for Ian. After all, I haven’t even been back twenty-four hours.”
“Thanks, Lily.”
LILY STOOD at the kitchen table, where she had just placed a pad of paper and pen. At the top of her voice she said, “Walt, are you in this room?”
The pen floated up from the table and then dropped back down. After it hit the table, it rolled off and onto the floor. Lily leaned down and picked up the pen, setting it back on the table.
“I will take that as a yes. Is Chris with you?”
Again the pen floated up, but instead of suddenly dropping down to the table, it wrote yes across the paper before settling gently back down on the tabletop.
“Good,” Lily said matter-of-factly, taking a seat at the table. “Here’s the thing…” She went on to recount her phone conversation with Danielle. When she was done, she said, “Okay, Chris, are you ready for a little trip?”
The paper with the “yes” written across it lifted up into the air and then floated back down onto the table.
Lily stood up. “Good. Now I need to check flights, make my reservation, and then come up with a good story to tell Ian.”
“SHE’S GOING BACK to Havasu? But we just got back from there,” Kelly said when Ian got off the phone with Lily.
“Danielle needs her. I guess the doctor doesn’t want to send Chris back here, which doesn’t surprise me. At least, not in his current state. Lily doesn’t want Danielle to be alone.”
Kelly shrugged. “I guess I understand, but why didn’t Lily just stay in Havasu?”
“I don’t know, Kelly. All of us were just so anxious to get home, we didn’t think about how it was going to be for Danielle there all alone.”
“Are you going with her?”
Ian stood up and glanced at his watch. “No. she wants me to stay here, since I have Sadie. Plus, she wants me to keep an eye on Marlow House and Chris’s place.”
“Does she need a ride to the Portland airport?” Kelly asked. “I was going to head home anyway. I could drop her off.”
LILY FELT as if she were traveling with the Invisible Man. Although, from what she recalled of the Invisible Man, he was able to do Walt-like tricks, such as move objects, while Chris seemed unable to make his presence known. She just hoped he was still with her. It would be very embarrassing to learn she had misplaced him along the way, and the times in which she whispered to him—such as when she was about to go into the ladies’ room and asked him to wait by the door—that she had actually been talking to herself. But then she remembered being embarrassed was the least of her worries if Chris wandered off and got lost en route to Havasu.
Getting to her ultimate destination took longer than Danielle’s estimate. Lily rolled into the parking lot of Lake Havasu City’s hospital a few minutes before 9:00 a.m. She was exhausted, having been up all night, and to keep awake she talked nonstop from the time she picked up the rental car in Vegas to when she parked her car in front of the hospital. It was a one-way conversation—or at least that was what she assumed. Lily never heard the times Chris shouted, “Please stop talking, or I am going to jump out of the car right now! I can do it, you know!”
DANIELLE SAT in the chair by Chris’s bedside, looking at the inexpensive flip phone she had purchased at K-Mart. According to the instructions, she could send text messages. She was tempted to give it a try and send Lily a question, asking when she would be arriving. But then, she remembered that would not be such a terrific idea. The last thing they needed right now was for Lily to look at a text message and get in a car accident.
She was just setting her phone on the nightstand when Chris walked into the room, followed by Lily.
Jumping up from the chair, she cried, “Chris, you’re here!”
Lily smiled. “I guess that means he made the trip.”
“I almost didn’t,” Chris said with a grin.
“I’d love to give you a hug, Chris, but I’ll hug Lily instead,” Danielle said with a laugh as she threw her arms around Lily and gave her a quick welcome hug.
“Why do I feel like second choice?” Lily chuckled, accepting the hug. “Oh, I know why, because I am.”
Danielle flashed Lily a giddy grin. She looked at Chris. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
“Oh, and thank you, Lily, for coming all the way back to Havasu. I bet you didn’t get any sleep, you poor dear,” Lily muttered under her breath as she wandered over to an empty chair and sat down. She yawned.
Danielle turned to her roommate. “Lily, you have to know how grateful I am you brought him!”
Lily waved her hand dismissively and yawned. “I know. I was only pulling your chain.” Lily yawned again.
Danielle turned back to Chris. “The doctor says they’ll be transporting you to some hospital in Las Vegas.” She glanced at her watch. “He said it would probably be right after lunch. But if you can get back in your body and wake up, then you can tell them you just want to go back to Oregon. According to the doctor, there’s nothing wrong with your body. You had a concussion, but according to all the tests, there’s nothing physically wrong with you.”
Chris walked over to his body and looked down at it.
“We know why he hasn’t gone into his body,” Lily called out from the chair. “The same reason I stayed out of mine. Hard to reconnect when you’re not in the same room.” She yawned again.
“If there’s nothing physically wrong with me, why do I have a bandage on my head?”
“You took a nasty fall,” Danielle reminded him.
“I guess you gashed your head open pretty bad. Carol Ann had to stitch it up. It’ll probably leave a scar.”
“No big deal,” Lily said from her chair. “Chris was too pretty anyway.”
Danielle couldn’t help it, she chuckled.
“Good, you’re here,” a nurse said when she entered the hospital room. “She glanced over to Lily. “Oh, you have company?”
“This is my friend Lily. She came to be with me while Chris is transported to Las Vegas,” Danielle explained.
“That’s what I’m here for. They’re going to arrive a little early to take him.”
“How early?” Danielle asked.
“I’m here to get him ready,” the nurse explained.
“Noooooo,” came a groan from the hospital bed. A monitor blared.
Rushing to the bedside, the nurse began checking Chris’s vitals while asking him questions. The monitor still blaring, Chris grabbed hold of the nurse’s forearm and held it tightly, forcing her to look him in the eyes.
“I am not going to Las Vegas,” Chris said in a raspy voice. “I am going home, to Frederickport.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
“I guess he’s not going to Vegas,” the doctor said after he finished examining Chris. Danielle stood by his side while Lily remained in the chair, trying desperately to keep her eyes open.
Chris, who was sitting up, leaning against the elevated end of the hospital bed, asked, “When can I go back to Oregon, Doc?”
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t release you in the morning.”
“Not today?” Chris asked.
The doctor laughed. “I’m glad to see you’re anxious to get moving. But let’s take this one step at a time. And when you get back home, I expect you to see your own doctor immediately.”
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