Grave Misgivings

by Lily Harper Hart

  “Everyone here hates her,” Christy said. “Don’t kid yourself.”

  “Fine,” Nick said. “Everyone hates Marla.”

  “That would be a great sitcom,” Maddie mused.

  Nick grinned. “It would be the top-rated show in Blackstone Bay, that’s for sure.”

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Christy said, patting Maddie’s arm. “I’m really sorry about what happened.”

  “I am, too,” Maddie said. “It happened, though, and dwelling on it isn’t going to do me any good. I have to put it behind me.”

  “That’s a healthy attitude, in theory,” Christy said. “I’m not sure how practical it is in reality, though.”

  “I can’t think about that right now.”

  “We hung a blanket over the mirror,” Nick said.

  “I don’t blame you,” Christy said. “I would ask to switch rooms.”

  “This is our last night here regardless,” Nick said. “I’m not moving all of our stuff. Once sunrise hits, we’re out of here.”

  “We’re staying until we find Cassidy,” Maddie corrected.

  “Mad, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but there’s an off chance we might never find Cassidy,” Nick said.

  His words were sobering. “What?”

  “We don’t know where she’s at,” Nick said. “We don’t know that seeing us together didn’t … cause her to snap.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “Oh,” Christy said, realization dawning. “You think she might have killed herself, don’t you?”

  “I think that’s a possibility,” Nick said. “That doesn’t explain the broken necklace, though. I know Kreskin said that it could’ve accidentally fallen off, but I don’t believe that. I think someone … or something … took her from that room.”

  “Something?” Christy asked, arching an eyebrow. “Like the something that went after Maddie in the mausoleum?”

  “Exactly,” Nick said. “That’s why we’re going down to the cemetery. We need you to hold things together up here while we’re gone.”

  Christy clicked her heels together and mock saluted. “You can trust me, sir.”

  “You’re cute,” Nick said. “I’m serious, though. Don’t tell anyone where we’re going and keep your eyes and ears open. We need you with all of your faculties intact … so no drinking.”

  “Honey, if I never drink again it will be too soon,” Christy said. “Trust me on that front.”

  “Just be careful,” Nick said. “Maddie is my priority, but I’m partial to you, too.”

  “Right back at you, handsome.”

  Eighteen

  “Absolutely not.” Nick crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Maddie with a firm look. “You are not going into that mausoleum alone.”

  “I’m not asking to go in alone,” Maddie said. “In fact, I’m terrified to go in there alone. I’m asking you to go in there with me and let me look around to make sure there’s nothing … freaky … in there. Then I want you to leave me alone so I can talk to Rose.”

  “Why can’t I be in there when you’re talking to her?”

  “I don’t think she likes you.”

  Nick stilled. “Why not? I’m a charming man. Just because I can’t see her, that doesn’t mean I can’t schmooze her.”

  “You’re the most charming man in the world,” Maddie said, poking his ribs playfully. “I don’t think she dislikes you because you’re not charming. I think it’s because you’re a man.”

  “Oh,” Nick said, straightening. “I guess I can live with that.”

  “Awesome,” Maddie said.

  Nick linked his fingers with hers and walked into the mausoleum first. He made sure the door was wide open so there wouldn’t be any mistakes, and then he proceeded to search the small room. “Cassidy isn’t in here,” he said.

  “Did you expect her to be?”

  “No. It would’ve made things easier.”

  “It would have,” Maddie agreed. “Since when do we do things the easy way, though?”

  Nick shrugged. She had a point. “Do you see anything else in here?”

  Maddie glanced around, leading Nick completely around the room for another turn before she was satisfied she was alone. “It’s not here.”

  “I’m still not keen on leaving you alone in here, Maddie.”

  “You’re going to be right outside the door,” Maddie pointed out. “You’ll hear if I need you.”

  “I … promise me you’ll be careful.”

  “I promise.”

  Nick pulled her close and gave her a warm hug. “I love you.”

  “I love you more,” Maddie whispered, giving him a soft kiss.

  “That’s not possible, love.”

  ONCE Maddie was alone she found she wasn’t sure how to proceed. She’d never tried to summon a ghost before. Rose was different than the other spirits she’d encountered. Instead of trying to cling to the mortal plane – or being anxious to cross over to the other side – she was stuck in limbo. It made her … unpredictable.

  “Rose?”

  Maddie waited to see if the woman would appear. For some reason she had the distinct feeling that she was being watched – and not in a creepy way. It felt as if Rose was present, but apparently she wasn’t thrilled with the idea of showing herself.

  “I know you’re here, Rose,” Maddie said, hoping her voice didn’t betray the edginess clouding her heart. “I really need to talk to you. If you could just spare a few minutes, I promise I’ll be quick.”

  Maddie heard Rose before she saw her. “I thought you were dead.”

  Maddie swiveled, following the sound of the voice until her eyes landed on the filmy woman in the corner. “Hi.”

  “Seriously, I thought you were dead,” Rose said. “What are you doing back here?”

  “I need to talk to you,” Maddie said. “Something bad has happened.”

  “Yeah, you almost died.”

  “Worse than that,” Maddie said.

  “What’s worse than that?”

  “Have you seen anything … weird … around here this morning?”

  “Well, I did see a blonde woman hanging around a mausoleum so she could talk to a ghost.”

  Maddie made a face. “You have an interesting personality.”

  “Right back at you.”

  “One of the women staying up at the house with us has disappeared,” Maddie said. “You haven’t seen her, have you?”

  “I haven’t seen anyone but you,” Rose said. “My social life isn’t exactly buzzing these days.”

  “What about the … thing … that was in here with me yesterday?” Maddie asked, changing tactics. “Have you seen that again?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  “Evil.”

  Maddie sighed, frustration bubbling up. Getting Rose to open up was like pulling teeth. Since she was dealing with a ghost who didn’t have any teeth, it was starting to feel as if she was climbing a mountain. “Rose, I’m really tired,” Maddie said. “I’ve spent the past three days sharing a roof with the woman my boyfriend used to sleep with and the pain in the ass who has gone out of her way to make my life hell for as long as I can remember. I need your help.”

  “Maybe I need your help,” Rose countered.

  Maddie was surprised. “How can I help you?”

  “I’ve been thinking about what you said. I want you to help me pass over to the other side. I don’t know what will be waiting for me there, but it has to be better than here.”

  “If I help you, will you help me?”

  Rose nodded

  “Okay,” Maddie said. “I need some information first, though. How did you die?”

  NICK was restless as he paced outside of the mausoleum. The walls of the small building were thick, and even with the door open he couldn’t hear Maddie. He’d stuck his head in briefly, relieved to find her holding a one-sided conversation, and then stepped back out. He’d promi
sed to give her space to work, and he had every intention of keeping that promise.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  Nick jumped when he heard Max’s voice, swiveling quickly. “I’m … um … what are you doing out here?”

  “I’m looking for Cassidy,” Max said, his face unreadable. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “That’s what I’m doing, too,” Nick said.

  “Alone?”

  “Maddie is in the mausoleum,” Nick said, opting not to lie.

  “Why would she possibly go back in there?” Max asked. “After yesterday, I would think she’d be terrified of that place.”

  “That’s not how Maddie rolls,” Nick said. “When she’s scared of something she likes to meet it head on. She’s hanging out in there until she isn’t frightened.” As far as lies go, it was a lame one. Nick couldn’t think of a better story on the spot, though.

  “I guess that makes sense.”

  Thankfully for Nick, Max was dealing with a hangover so he wasn’t exactly quick on the uptake. “Did you find anything while you were searching?”

  Max shook his head. “The truth is, I was looking and yet I wasn’t just looking. Does that make sense?”

  “Not without the proper context,” Nick admitted.

  “I didn’t realize that it would be so hard to come back here,” Max said. “It’s been almost six years since I’ve seen this place, and for a long time I considered it my home even though it never really was.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not sure you’ll understand this … heck, I’m not sure I even understand it,” Max said. “The thing is, I’ve always been jealous of Aaron. I was worried I would still feel that way when I came back.”

  Nick furrowed his brow, confused. “You guys have been best friends for twenty years. If you’re jealous of him, you’ve done a good job of hiding it.”

  “I’m not saying I sit in a little room and hate on him,” Max said. “It’s just … my mother was a servant in that house. Aaron always treated me as an equal, and his father didn’t treat me like I was anything other than an equal, but his mother always looked down her nose at me.

  “Even though I lived under the same roof for years, I always knew that living below the main floor wasn’t the same as living above the main floor,” he continued. “I was a kid, and I shouldn’t have grasped that people have certain stations in life, but I always did.”

  “I don’t know what to say, Max. I never thought about you having to deal with stuff like that. I guess I was never a very good friend to you.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” Max said. “I like you, but it’s not like we were close. Your life was all about Maddie even back then. She was your best friend.”

  “Does Aaron know you feel this way?”

  “We’ve never talked about it,” Max said. “It makes me feel ungrateful to complain about stuff like this when he’s been such a good friend to me. He never once talked down to me, even though he would’ve been allowed to because that was his house and I was just a temporary guest.”

  “Aaron isn’t the type of guy to look down on someone,” Nick said. “He’s a good guy.”

  “He is,” Max said. “I’ve never understood why he moved away, though. I’ve always loved that house. I thought he did, too. It’s almost as if he hates being here, though. I think that’s why he invited everyone to stay here this weekend. He didn’t want to be alone.”

  Nick stilled, an idea niggling the back of his brain. “When you were living here as a kid, did you ever see anything … abnormal?”

  “I once saw Aaron’s mother throw a thousand-dollar tea set away because one cup had a tiny chip,” Max said.

  “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “There’s a cemetery on the property,” Nick said. “It would make sense that maybe there were other things – ghosts even – hanging around. Did you ever see anything like that?”

  “Are you asking me if I ever saw a ghost?”

  “I … yes.”

  “No,” Max said. “No offense, man, but I don’t really believe in that stuff. Do you believe in ghosts?”

  “I believe in a lot of different things,” Nick said. “I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that the human soul exists beyond this world.”

  “I guess,” Max said, shrugging. “I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a ghost, though. Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  The two men lapsed into silence for a little bit. Finally, Max broke it. “I’m going to head back up to the house. Do you want me to wait for you?”

  “I’m just waiting for Maddie,” Nick said. “We won’t be long.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you up there.”

  “MY LIFE wasn’t happy even when I still had it to live,” Rose said, her face taking on a far off quality. “My husband wasn’t interested in being married to me, and the only reason he did it is because he was expected to deliver a male heir.

  “The times were different then,” she continued. “Women were expected to work in the house, never outside of it, especially when they were well off like we were. I didn’t want to marry anyone when I was younger. I wanted to be a nurse. That’s all I ever wanted. Still, I was raised to listen to my father, and when he told me I was expected to marry Jim, I did what I was told.

  “I wouldn’t say that our life together was happy, but it wasn’t terrible either,” Rose said. “Once I gave birth to a son, Jim pretty much left me alone. I wasn’t a priority to him and he wasn’t a priority to me. We even had separate bedrooms.”

  “That sounds awful,” Maddie said.

  “When you have responsibilities, awful is a state of mind,” Rose said. “I did the best I could, and when I announced to my husband that I wanted to be a nurse, he didn’t put up a fight. I expected him to, but he seemed just as excited to get me out of the house as I was to leave.

  “The last few months of my life were the best months I ever had,” she said. “I was working sixty hours a week, and yet I was never tired. I found a purpose for myself that didn’t revolve around running the staff or mothering an entitled child.

  “Oh, don’t look at me that way,” Rose said. “I loved my son, but he was a brat. His father gave him everything he wanted, and that kid learned at a young age that all he had to do to get some attention was to pitch a fit.”

  “I wasn’t judging you,” Maddie said hurriedly.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Rose said. “I’m getting off track anyway. You want to know how I died. This is just a long way of telling a short story. One night a few weeks before Christmas I came home from a particularly late shift at the hospital. I was the only one up in the house. Everything else was dark.

  “I took a shower. I had a late snack. Then I went to bed,” she said. “I was sound asleep when it happened. Something woke me up. I wasn’t sure what it was right away. I was groggy and confused when I opened my eyes.

  “Everything was still dark around me, and when I lifted my hands I found that a pillow was pressed against my face,” Rose said. “I have no idea who was in the room with me. I never saw a face, and I never heard a voice. I struggled to fight whoever it was off, but it was too late.

  “After about a minute and a half, I just … drifted away,” she said. “It was almost peaceful.”

  “That’s horrible,” Maddie said.

  “In the grand scheme of things, there are worse ways to go,” Rose said. “I know you’re going to try to help me pass over, but that’s all I have for you to go on. I don’t know who killed me.”

  “Do you think it was your husband?”

  “That would be my best guess, but there really is no way for me to know,” Rose said. “I’m not sure he had the courage to kill anyone. Can you help me without knowing who killed me?”

  “I hope so,” Maddie said. “I need to give it some thought, though. While I’m doing t
hat, I need you to do something for me.”

  “You want me to look for the missing girl, don’t you?”

  “That’s exactly what I want you to do.”

  “What do I do if I find her?”

  “Come find me,” Maddie said. “Come find me right away. I don’t care if I’m around a bunch of people. Find me and I’ll find a way to get away from everyone. I can’t explain what’s going on, but I feel like I’m running out of time. If we don’t find Cassidy in the next few hours, I’m really afraid that we never will.”

  “We’re working together on this now,” Rose said. “If the last months of my life taught me anything it’s that I can do whatever I put my mind to. I’m putting my mind to this.”

  “Good luck.”

  “To you, too.”

  “I think we’re both going to need it,” Maddie said.

  Nineteen

  “Do you think Rose is going to be able to find Cassidy?” Nick asked, his fingers linked with Maddie’s as they walked back toward the main house.

  “I think she’s got a better shot at it than we do.”

  “Why aren’t you more excited then?”

  “Because I need to find a way to put Rose to rest,” Maddie replied. “She’s so sad.”

  “It sounds like she’s more disengaged than sad,” Nick said. “If I had to guess, her life was just as depressing as her after-life. Wow, there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”

  “Look at all the conversational topics I’ve brought into your life with my return,” Maddie teased.

  “You’ve brought a lot more to my life than that, Mad,” Nick said. “You brought sunshine and light back into my life, too.”

  “Oh, so schmaltzy.” Maddie pinched his cheek and shook it.

  “So pretty,” Nick said, dipping his mouth to hers.

  “Well, I’m glad to see that your ex-girlfriend’s disappearance and probable death hasn’t gotten in the way of your romantic weekend,” Marla said, appearing on the back patio as the couple approached.

  “I’m glad to see you’ve taken the time to fix yourself a drink instead of looking for your friend,” Maddie shot back.

  Nick’s eyebrows flew up his forehead, surprise washing over him. Maddie was rarely catty, but she was in fighting form right now.

  “Hey, I’m trying to make myself feel better,” Marla said. “My best friend is probably dead in a ditch somewhere.”