“You mean you bullied him into it?” Melinda suggested, wondering just how far along the road Jez had traveled.
“Bullied is a bit of a strong word, don’t you think?” He seemed affronted, but Melinda was not going to let him take the high ground. He had come this far and only needed to take a few more steps to admit just how the situation had arisen.
“He needs help,” he continued. “Tom needs help because I let him down. Either that or he should sell the business and walk away, but by the look of it, it isn’t going to be worth much if he keeps going the way he is. He needs to make a decision now, before it’s too late.”
“You’re not exactly in a position to help him, are you? And by the look of things he would be hard pressed to be able to pay anyone a decent wage and survive himself.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But if he had the right person helping out a few hours a day he might be able to get on top of it, especially if he got his wife to help him out with the paperwork a little. She’s a very able woman.”
“Well, why hasn’t he thought of that himself?” Melinda suggested.
“He did,” he said. “When he first came back she used to come into the office while the kids were in school, but we had a falling-out and she said she wouldn’t go back there again if she wasn’t wanted.”
“Sounds like you’ve had quite a few disagreements.”
“Yes, well, they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t do things the way I wanted to have them done.”
Melinda gave him a look to remind him that he was skating on thin ice. The more he tried to turn things around to blame other people, the less she felt inclined to try to help him and the longer he would be stuck here unable to do anything.
“Okay,” he raised his hands in surrender. “I didn’t listen to them. I told them that my way was the right way, and they didn’t like it. But I’d given most of my life to make a success of that place—to provide for my family and give him a future. It was breaking my heart to see them coming in and changing things. Even if they changed things for the better, it felt like they were telling me that I had been doing it wrong all that time. That hurt. It was like they were throwing everything back in my face.”
“And now?” she insisted.
“Now I can see that maybe they were right. Maybe the changes that they wanted to make would have brought the business up to date and made it easier to manage.”
“So how did you cope without Tom? It must have been hard going for you if you were doing everything on your own.”
“I had Dan Poole working for me then. Tom came in when Dan decided to retire to look after his wife. He was one of the best. He could listen to an engine and tune it like you might a concert piano. And I was thinking that he might be Tom’s answer.”
“How?” Melinda asked.
“Dan’s wife died not long after Tom came to work with me. He might be prepared to come out of retirement for a few hours a day, or maybe a couple of days a week. He’s a great teacher. He’d show Tom the things he doesn’t know far better than I ever could. And I would know that he would be in safe hands.”
“You’ve really given this some thought, haven’t you?” She could see that he had given the matter some thought, and maybe he had come up with something that would keep everyone happy. Most of all he might have found a solution that would allow him to pass over, and Melinda was grateful for that.
“You didn’t exactly give me a lot of choice, now did you? I can’t hang around here forever if all I’m going to see is things getting worse. It has to be better to try to point him in the right direction and then leave him to it.”
Melinda couldn’t argue with that. If it meant one more visit to Tom to try to sort it out once and for all, it would be worth doing. She only hoped that he would be prepared to listen to her again and not just throw her out on her ear.
“I can’t do it now, if that’s what you were hoping,” she said. She was already going to be late opening up the shop, and while there might not be a line of people down the street, she hated not being there when people wanted to go inside to take a look. She could have asked Delia to open up for her again, but she had been asking far too much of her lately already, and she didn’t want to risk losing any goodwill. Their friendship was too important for that.
“Maybe this evening?” he suggested.
She gave a sigh but agreed, making a note of the address. It was not far from her home, and Jim would be at home this evening to spend some time with Aiden. It was typical that on a week when his shifts meant that they could spend some time together, he was so tired that he could fall asleep early, or there were demands on her own time that contrived to keep them apart.
Once she had given her agreement, he left her to make the rest of the drive to the shop in peace. She was glad of a little time to get her thoughts in order. Maybe she was getting close to helping Jez pass over, and there had been a step forward at least with the girl. She had no doubt, though, that the little girl was her priority.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was midmorning by the time Ned managed to get hold of Melinda. He had dropped off Terri after she had promised to give him a call when she’d had the chance to look into the newspaper archives to see if there was any reference to a dead girl called Alice dating back to a time before the Chronicle had established its own website. He knew that it was a long shot, but it was one he thought was worth trying. He had even offered to do the search himself, but it seemed that was more likely to get her into hot water than spending some time on it herself. The good-night kiss had touched the corner of his mouth, and she had blown another when she turned and stopped at her door. For those few moments he had been floating on air.
“Hi, Ned,” he heard Melinda say when she picked up. “How are you doing?”
“I didn’t have any luck but I’ve managed to get some help.”
“Oh, yes?” she asked. “What kind of help?”
He told her all about Terri and their chat the previous evening. He heard the hesitation in Melinda’s voice when he told her that she was a reporter, but he managed to reassure her that Terri was not about to write a huge piece about them in the paper. He hadn’t mentioned Melinda’s name and even if she wrote a piece, which he didn’t believe for a moment she would, it was unlikely to do any damage to the university or the department he was studying in. There had been plenty of stories about their work in the past, and they were almost always dismissed without a second thought and forgotten in a matter of days. There was no story to tell, unless it was about the little girl herself.
“In that case I’ve got some more information for you,” she said.
“You’ve spoken to her?” He was hoping that she had not done any more than that. He hated the idea of her having resolved the situation without his help once he had started doing the work he had promised. He also didn’t like the idea of not having an excuse to see Terri again. Not that he really needed an excuse, or so she had said.
“Yes, just for a little while. We were right that her name is Alice, though. It’s Alice Fallon.”
“What else? Did you find out how she died or what’s keeping her here?”
“Not really. She disappeared when someone else came into the room, but she wants my help to find her sister.”
“Okay. If you leave it with me,” Ned said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
“And you’ll pass her name on to this Terri to see if it helps her to dig anything up?”
He could hear the smile in her voice and feel the heat rising to his cheeks. No doubt the minute she hung up, she would be calling his mom to let her know that he was seeing a girl. Before the day was out she would be on the phone giving him the third degree.
“Of course, but could you do me a favor, though?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Please don’t mention Terri to Mom.” Even as the words l
eft his lips he knew that he was asking the impossible.
“You bet,” she said, though he was not sure if he believed her. The chances were that by asking her not to say anything, he might have made sure that she wouldn’t be able to keep quiet about it. He was still holding the phone long after she had hung up, certain that he had made a mistake. He summoned Terri’s number on his phone and made the call, but it went straight through to her voicemail again.
“Hi, Terri,” he said, his voice much lighter, breezier than it had been when he had made the call the day before. “I’ve managed to get hold of the girl’s last name. It’s Fallon. Alice Fallon. Hope that helps. Let me know how you get on.”
He hung up and slipped his phone back into his pocket. He was hoping that she hadn’t wasted too much time digging around with so little information to go on yet, but hopefully this would speed the process up a little at least.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Melinda closed the shop early to pick Aiden up from school. She thought about going inside again in the hope that Alice had returned but decided against it. She didn’t think she would be ready to talk to her again until she had found out a little more about the girl’s family and hopefully found her sister for her. She was still a little puzzled over why she should want her sister rather than her mother; was she an orphan? Had she left her sister alone in the world? That would certainly account for the sadness—that was for sure.
Ned hadn’t gotten back to her yet, but she wasn’t really expecting him to have turned anything up so quickly. He would call as soon as his new friend had anything for them. She was glad that she hadn’t seen Delia since they had last spoken. She had the feeling that Ned didn’t want his mother to know that there might be a new girl in his life. He would tell her himself when he was ready, assuming that there was anything to tell.
“So how was your day, honey?” she asked as she strapped Aiden in.
“Okay, but the ghost wasn’t there at all today. Are you sure that you haven’t helped her already?”
“I don’t think so, but I spoke to her this morning. Her name was Alice Fallon when she was alive,” she said, then handed him a carton of juice from a bag of groceries she had picked up on her way to the school. He fiddled with the straw until he had managed to puncture the seal, then took a deep draw.
“Do you think she’ll be back?” he asked when he stopped to take a breath.
“I hope so. She wants me to find her sister for her.”
“I would want someone to find you if I was dead, but I know that you’d be able to see me.”
Melinda laughed and ruffled his hair. Sometimes he said the most obvious things that gave such an insight into his world. It was not always easy to know what he could see and what he couldn’t, but he always seemed to be able to identify the heart of a problem. So often he felt things rather than saw them, and that was what made his gift so special, though neither of them really had any idea of just how much he might be capable of as he grew older.
“I have to go out this evening for a while,” she said. “Is that going to be okay with you? I’m sure that you and Dad will have fun without me.”
“Sure, Mom. Have you got someone else you need to help?”
“I’m going to try.” She waited for his reaction but none came. He was just making conversation between taking slurps of his drink and was soon lost in his own thoughts as he stared out of the window, watching the world go by. Melinda wondered if he saw things out there that even she couldn’t see.
She was ready to leave the house by the time Jim came home from work. They had managed to speak earlier in the day, so her departure came as no surprise.
“You’re sure you don’t mind?” she said, though she knew what his response would be. She put out dinner for him and Aiden before she left with strict instructions for them not to worry about the dishes. The least she could do was clean up after them if she was going to desert them for the evening. She would rather be spending the time with them than trying to help a grumpy old man fix his mistakes, but she knew that he would be hanging around until she did.
“There’s ice cream in the freezer,” she said as she stood by the door, ready to leave.
“Can’t guarantee that there’ll be any left by the time you get home,” Jim said. “You’ve got a couple of guys here with large appetites.”
“I’ll survive without it,” she said, kissing Aiden before she left. “I’ll try not to take too long, so have a good evening, you two.”
They made their goodbyes and even before she had closed the door behind her, she was regretting agreeing to go to see Tom this evening. Evenings at home with Jim and Aiden were precious, and every time she missed one she felt a pang of guilt. She should have stood up to Jez. She should be doing things like this on her own terms, not allowing a ghost to dictate what she should be doing and when. He was bullying her in the same way that he had bullied Tom, always getting his own way no matter who he upset along the way. He might have been sweetness and light to customers like Dana, but that didn’t tell anywhere near the whole story. Clearly that part of him had just been an act. Her heart sank when she climbed into her car and found that he was sitting in the passenger seat once more.
Chapter Thirty
Ned had almost given up on hearing from Terri before the day was out, but he was about to head home from the university when his cell phone rang and her name lit up on the screen.
“Got your message,” she said. “Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you, but it’s been one of those days.”
“No problem, hope the name makes the job easier.” He had tried to do another search on the Net again himself now that he had the extra information but it hadn’t brought anything up. He had thought about giving Jim a call in case he could do a search of the hospital records, but he’d done that kind of thing before and had almost been caught. The last thing he wanted was to cause any problems, especially not without clearing it with Melinda first. There was no record in the phone book of anyone by the name of Fallon still living in the town. He needed an expert, and that was Terri.
“Piece of cake,” she said. “I’ve made you copies of everything you need.”
“You found her?”
“Of course. I don’t know how you could possibly have doubted me. It looks like it was quite a famous story back in the day. The little girl’s body was never found.”
“Are you still at work?” Ned said, his mind already racing with possibilities. This was clearly more than just a simple case of a lost soul. Something bad had happened to this child, and Melinda would want to know about it as soon as she could.
“I am. If you want to swing by the office, I’ll make sure that there’s an envelope waiting for you at the front desk.”
“What time do you get off?”
“Late one tonight, I’m afraid, so if you’re thinking of dragging me off to a bar again, I’ll have to take a rain check.”
“You have to eat, don’t you?” he said, echoing her line of the previous evening.
“Sandwich at my desk tonight, but if you give me a call this weekend I’m sure that I’ll be able to find a window for you.”
“I’d like that,” he said, though he wondered if he had competition for her time.
“Me too.”
Almost as soon as she had hung up he headed for his car. If he was quick he might even be able to pick up the envelope and drop it off at Melinda’s before it was too late. He didn’t want to call and disturb Aiden if she was trying to get him to settle down, but he still wanted her to have the information as soon as possible. He really felt as if he had been part of this and wanted to see it through to the end.
He spent much of the drive stuck in traffic as it crawled along. Ned had almost lost track of time and hadn’t even given a thought to the fact that he might get caught up in the rush hour snarl. He could have carried on working for
a while and still reached his destination just as quickly. But he was eager to read what Terri had managed to find out for him. He could have asked her to scan and e-mail the clippings for him, but she had been more than generous with her time and he didn’t want to take her for granted.
When he pulled up outside the newspaper’s offices in exactly the same spot he had used the previous evening he took a breath before getting out. It was hard to keep the smile from his face and just as difficult to keep the bounce out of his step. At that moment he felt that life was treating him well, and he hoped that it was going to continue.
The reception desk just inside the glass doors was manned by a man in uniform who looked at him with more than a little suspicion. Clearly it was late for visitors to come calling. “Can I help you?” he asked.
“I’ve come to pick up an envelope,” Ned explained. “Terri was going to leave it down here for me.”
“Name?”
“Ned,” he said. “Ned Banks.”
“Do you have any identification, sir?” the security guard asked.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked and fumbled in his jacket for his wallet. He produced his university ID card with the photograph that looked like it had been taken the day after one hell of a party. The guard took a couple of looks at it before he was happy that he was who he claimed to be.
“Could be anything in there,” he said. “It would be more than my job’s worth not to check that you’re the right person.”
Ned rolled his eyes in exasperation. He wanted to tell him that he was wasting time. He was tempted to open the envelope and tip the contents out in front of him to show that they were nothing of any importance, but that would make him no better than the guard. It would be better to just brush off the officiousness and walk away knowing that he had got what he came for.
The Empty Desk Page 11