Since neither of them had to carry a camera or a backpack, Kate took the opportunity to link her arm through Michael’s. He had looked cute that morning at breakfast, but thanks to the addition of a scarf and jacket, he was absolutely dashing. Kate wasn’t sure what it was, but there really was something about a guy in autumn clothes.
Knowing that she’d be spending the day in front of a camera, Kate had tried her best to look nice, especially after her less-than-glamorous appearance at the breakfast table. She didn’t think she’d done a bad job. Her hair flowed freely down the shoulders of her stylish pea coat and her form-fitting jeans tucked easily inside her chocolate-colored boots.
“Okay, according to my GPS, it should be right up here on the left,” Luke announced.
Sure enough, a sign hanging over the door to the shop read, Waterside Treasures: Antiques, Sea Shells, and Maritime Collectibles.
Kate knew the second she set foot inside the nautical-themed gift shop that she’d made a mistake bringing along her credit card. From the collection of lighthouse statues to the picture frames decorated with shells and sea glass, all the way to the model ships and driftwood sculptures, there was no way she’d be able to walk out of the store empty-handed.
“This is pretty neat, huh?” Michael asked.
“I want to own everything in this shop,” Kate replied as a door opened in the back and a middle-aged woman with fading sand-colored hair emerged.
“Hello there!” she greeted them with a friendly smile.
“Are you Marian Davis?” Luke asked, stepping forward.
“I am. Welcome to Kennebunkport,” She held out a hand for him to shake.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us,” Luke said.
“Oh, it’s my pleasure. I’m a big fan of the show, and something of a history buff, so this is all very exciting for me.”
After quick introductions, the crew set the scene for the interview. Peter, JT, and Gavin filmed while Luke and Gail talked with Marian.
“Now, you are actually related to Joanna Stanton, is that right?” Luke asked her.
“Yes. Her cousin, Sarah Baker, was my great-great-great grandmother.”
“That’s pretty awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about Sarah?”
“Like Joanna, she was an only child. They were only two years apart in age, so they were extremely close, like sisters.”
“And did they remain close after Joanna married Sterling Hall?” Gail asked.
“Yes. In fact, Sarah was a bridesmaid in their wedding. They were constant companions up until Joanna’s death.”
“How about Sterling? Was Sarah close to him?” Luke asked.
“The entire family was close to him. They all knew how much he adored her. He would have done anything for her, and he gave her everything he had and more and they loved him for it. He stayed in close contact with them after she passed, and since he had no family of his own, he left everything to the Stantons in his will.”
“Including the manor?”
“Yes, but it’s no longer in our family. It went to my great-grandfather’s brother, but he was something of a gambler, and he had to sell it to pay off his debts. I do, however, have this...”
Marian stepped behind the sales counter and knelt down behind the cash register. Kate could hear her rummaging around for something. Moments later, she reappeared, clutching a velvet jewelry box the color of raspberries.
The entire crew watched with curious eyes as Marian opened the box to reveal a spectacular antique garnet necklace. Clasp to clasp, garnets glittered, forming a chain of flowers, or perhaps they were snowflakes, or maybe even stars. Larger stars of the blood-colored gems hung at the base of the necklace, reminding Kate of jeweled fireworks. Again, she found herself in awe of an elegant and vastly beautiful piece of Sterling and Joanna’s love story.
Luke whistled. “Now that is a necklace.”
“It was gift from Sterling. He was always showering her with presents, but this necklace was her favorite. He made sure that it went to Sarah after Joanna died, and it’s stayed in the family ever since. One day, it will go to my daughter.”
“That’s incredible,” Gail replied.
“You know a lot of times, spirits can become attached to items that they loved or valued when they were still alive. Have you ever noticed anything supernatural about the necklace?” Luke asked.
“Not that I can recall. Of course, if there was any sort of paranormal activity, my house is so hectic that I probably wouldn’t even notice. I’d just think it was one of the kids.”
“You know, there is a lot of activity that goes unnoticed just because people aren’t open to it,” Luke told her. “But if I had to guess, I’d say you were pretty open to it.”
Marian grimaced. “I’m undecided,” she confessed.
“I thought you were a fan of the show!” Luke exclaimed, feigning offense.
“I am! But I’ve never had a reason to believe a ghost would be haunting me.”
Kate glanced up at Michael. He’d already tuned out of the interview and his eyes were locked on a wall full of seascape paintings. She took that to mean there wasn’t a ghost in sight.
“Well, it’s probably best to keep it that way,” Luke acknowledged with a wink.
Gail, on the other hand, stared at the necklace with a contemplative crinkle in between her eyebrows.
“What are you thinking about, Gail?” JT asked.
“I’m just wondering...” she replied without tearing her eyes away from the gemstones. “Joanna may not be interested in the necklace anymore, but maybe Sterling would be.”
Luke’s eyes lit up. “Gail, you’re a genius!”
“What do you mean?” Marian asked.
“You know that we’re in town investigating the haunting at Stanton Hall Manor,” Luke said. “Well, we’ve made contact with Sterling, but only very briefly. He either doesn’t want to talk to us or doesn’t understand that he can. Either way, if you’d like to stop by later this evening and bring the necklace, we might be able to use it as a trigger object.”
“What’s a trigger object?”
“If he sees the necklace, we might be able to get more of a response from him,” Gail explained.
“Do you think that would really work?” Marian asked.
“It has in the past. And if Sterling loved Joanna the way that everyone said he did, then he is going to be seeking anything that might be able to connect him to her. I say we give it a shot. That is, if you don’t mind,” Luke said.
“I don’t mind at all. I’m interested to see if it will work,” Marian told him. “How will we know if it does? Will you have your little knick-knacks and gadgets that you’re always using?”
“We’ll have those on hand, but I’m counting on my friend Michael over there to let us know when a spirit shows up. He’s sort of our secret psychic weapon.”
“I’m not psychic,” Michael insisted, but Luke ignored him.
“Can you actually see spirits?” Marian asked him.
“Yes.” Although his secret had been out for months now, Kate knew that Michael was still hesitant to affirm it. She hoped that this experience would be good for him, maybe help him to be a little more confident.
“And yet, you claim that you’re not psychic?”
“He’s just being modest,” Luke told her.
“It’s not that. I’ve just never thought of myself as a psychic. You know, when you think about psychics, you think about people who can read minds or see into the future. I can’t do anything like that. I’m just haunted. To be honest, I’ve always thought of it as kind of a curse.”
“Oh, but it’s so wonderful what you can do,” Marian told him. “To not have to lose loved ones to death, and to give those who are grieving peace and comfort in the fact that their loved ones are still with them. It’s such an extraordinary gift. I think you are very fortunate.”
“You see, Mikey? Everyone gets it but you,” Luke remarked.
Mi
chael shrugged. “My grandmother has always told me that it’s a gift, and I’m working on seeing it as one. I’m just not there yet.”
Kate took his hand and laced her fingers through his. She knew it was difficult for him to acknowledge that there was anything even remotely positive about his ability, and she was proud of him for making the effort. Marian was right. His sixth sense was extraordinary and wonderful and miraculous. But there was something else that Kate had never taken into consideration until that moment.
Ever since she’d found out about Michael’s gift, she’d tried, like Luke and Marian, to convince him just how amazing it was. She’d been adamant, almost pushy about it. She hadn’t stopped to think that while Michael knew his talent was exceptional, maybe there was a reason he couldn’t accept it as a positive thing. Others went out of their way to tell him how wonderful it was, but they never asked or even wondered why he’d worked so hard to keep it a secret all those years, or why he didn’t see it as the gift that the rest of the world obviously considered it to be. He was the only one who truly knew what it was like to be in constant communication with the dead, yet rarely did anyone bother to ask his perspective.
Perhaps she too had been a little too quick to try to convince him that his curse was actually a blessing in disguise.
Luke didn’t seem quite as burdened. “You’ll get there someday, Mikey,” he assured his friend before turning his attention back to Mrs. Davis. “So, what do you say, Marian? Care to join us tonight for a little ghost hunting?”
“I’d be honored,” she said.
After the interview wrapped, Luke announced that everyone could go off and do their own thing as long as they all met back up at the van at two o’clock.
“Another interview?” Gavin asked.
“Nope. It’s a surprise,” Luke replied with a grin.
“‘A surprise.’ In Luke Language, that could mean anything,” Michael muttered to Kate once everyone had dispersed. “He probably booked us for a tour of a haunted lighthouse, or maybe he made reservations at a haunted restaurant.” When Kate only responded with a feeble nod of her head, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she answered a little too quickly. “How come?”
“You look so serious. Is something bothering you?”
“No, it’s just...” she began. Then she stopped and looked around. A gift shop was not at all the proper place to have any sort of meaningful discussion. “Do you want to take a walk?”
“Sure,” he replied.
So they made their way back out to the not-at-all-crowded street and began to stroll down past the colorful shops and restaurants and boutiques until they reached the bridge overlooking the Kennebunk River, which, Kate knew, eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. It was far from the most beautiful river that Kate had ever seen, but the sky was clear, and the water reflected its deep, dazzling color. There were a few small boats out and Kate even noticed a few kids fishing off the small dock across the water. A restaurant called The Clam Shack stood at the far end of the bridge, and next to it, a Seafood Market. Both buildings were supported by wooden stilts that extended down into the water, reminding Kate of her very first trip to Galveston, when, at the age of six, she’d asked her father what they were for.
“They protect the houses and buildings from being washed away by the water,” he explained.
Kate hadn’t been all that impressed by his answer. “Why don’t they just not build by the water?” she asked.
Her father just laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “One day, Pumpkin, you’ll understand.”
Kate did understand now. Everyone wanted waterfront property. Rivers, lakes, oceans, it didn’t matter. Waterfront homes sold, and because it was in high demand, it was, unfortunately, very expensive. Regardless, Kate had always wanted some sort of small cabin or lake house of her very own to decorate from front door to back porch, and as it turned out, the maritime atmosphere of Kennebunkport only fueled her ambition.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Michael asked her as they walked hand in hand along the bridge.
“It’s nothing really,” she confessed. “It was just something you said back there... everything kind of resonated with me for the first time.”
“What was it?”
“When you were talking about how you have to try to see your ability as a blessing. I don’t know, it really made me stop and think that maybe everyone has pushed you too hard to make you accept it as something wonderful. Maybe I’ve pushed you too hard.”
“Kate, no,” Michael began. “Why would you think that?”
“Because I’m always telling you how cool it is or how lucky you are, but the truth is, I have no idea what it’s like to be you. I’ve never stopped to think about how confusing or lonely or out of place you must have felt because of it, just how interesting it was for me. And I’m sorry for that.” Kate hadn’t expected to cry, but as she spoke the words, she could feel a knot forming at the back of her throat.
“Kate, look at me,” Michael instructed. She did. “You have nothing to be sorry for. The only reason I’ve made as much progress in accepting this gift, or sixth sense, or whatever you want to call it, is because you’ve made me see it from a different perspective. Until you came along, I only ever thought about how awful and awkward my situation was for me. This negativity I’ve carried around with me my entire life... it’s so selfish, and it’s something that I’m trying to overcome. Old habits, unfortunately, die hard. And even if I did finally manage to kill them, they’d probably just come back to haunt me like everything else,” he offered with a wry grin. Kate laughed, relieved and happy to hear him joking.
“You know, we still have a while until two,” she said. “Do you want to go and try The Clam Shack?”
“Do you like clams?” Michael asked.
“I’ve never had them, but I’m feeling adventurous.”
“Then by all means, let’s go.”
Chapter 15
It took a little longer than Luke had instructed for the group to reconvene back at the vans. Michael and Kate were the first to arrive back, followed shortly by Luke, JT, and Peter. Gail and Gavin, however, were noticeably absent.
“I’m going to kill him,” Kate muttered to Michael.
Judging by the look on Luke’s face, she wasn’t the only one who felt that way. As much as Michael enjoyed mocking Luke for his over-enthusiasm and stupid hairstyle, he had to admit, he was sort of scary when he was angry.
“Are you freaking kidding me, Gail?” Luke snarled as he whipped out his phone and began punching in what Michael could only assume was a very aggressive text message.
“Forget texting,” Kate told him as she held her phone up to her ear and waited impatiently while the line rang. Michael watched her heave a frustrated sigh when the call went to voicemail. Instead of leaving a message, however, Kate hung up the phone and dialed again. And again. And again.
“What are you doing?” JT asked her.
“Calling him until he answers. Trust me, it annoys him a whole lot more than leaving a catty voicemail,” Kate remarked, hitting the Call button for the fifth time.
“Man, you don’t want to miss a call from her, do you?” Peter asked Michael.
“Oh, I’d never do this to Michael,” Kate assured him. “My brother, on the other hand...”
“If they don’t get back here soon, we’re going to miss our boat,” Luke said, still visibly aggravated.
“What boat?” Kate asked.
“We’re supposed to be going on a whale watching tour. It’s the very end of their season, and I thought it would be sort of a fun thing for us to do, especially since we have y’all here. But if they’re not back...”
He didn’t finish his sentence, but he didn’t need to. Kate’s expression had gone absolutely blank. It didn’t take a psychic to know that if Gavin’s tardiness prevented her from going on that whale watch, the afternoon would end in some manner of violence, or at least a tremendo
us amount of sibling warfare.
It became even more apparent when Kate forsook her attempt to irritate Gavin by flooding his phone with missed calls and actually left him a message, “Gavin, you need to call me back right now,” she hissed. After she hung up, she turned to Luke. “I am so sorry about all of this. I told him last night that she was off limits.”
“Trust me, I don’t blame him,” Luke sneered.
“Okay, good,” Kate said. At least somewhat mollified by his response, she moved on to the more pressing matter. “We can’t, you know, leave without them, can we?”
“I wish we could. But Gail has the credit card that we need,” Luke responded.
“Dang it,” Kate muttered through clenched teeth. “I am seriously going to kill him. I am going to kill him, and then I’m going to make him buy me a plane ticket so that I can come back here at the peak of whale watching season and then I’m going to make him pay for my tour.”
Gavin and Gail finally showed up about thirty minutes later, long after their boat had been scheduled to leave. By that point, Kate and Luke’s nerves had both been shot, JT looked like he was fighting a huge headache, and Michael was feeling exceptionally uncomfortable. Peter alone seemed unaffected by the high tensions amongst the group as he wandered around aimlessly, snapping pictures on his iPhone. Michael wondered briefly what the captions would read.
“Everyone’s angry. Great show so far.”
No, Peter probably wouldn’t post anything like that. He was, by far, the happiest member of the Cemetery Tours crew. He never seemed to be in a bad mood, which was pretty incredible, considering how much time he spent chasing down dead people.
As soon as they appeared, both Gavin and Gail tried to explain why they were late, but neither Luke nor Kate cared to listen to excuses.
“Where have you been?” Kate demanded.
“I’m sorry. We went to grab a bite to eat, the restaurant was crowded, and then we started talking...” Gavin trailed off with a sheepish grin.
“And you didn’t think to check the time? What about your phone? You really couldn’t have taken ten seconds to call me back when you saw you had twenty missed calls?”
Between Worlds (Cemetery Tours Book 2) Page 11