The Ghost Who Dream Hopped

by Anna J. McIntyre

  Heather scowled at Chris. “Listen to Danielle. Shut up.”

  “Okay, kids, you can all argue after we get out of here,” Ian interrupted. “But Joe and Kelly will be picking us up in about fifteen minutes, and I’d really like to know if anything is going to be done about Beverly. Seriously.”

  “The chief is naturally concerned about Brian,” Danielle said.

  “That’s right. I forgot. He’s dating Beverly, isn’t he?” Heather said.

  “I have to admit, there was a time I might have been amused at the thought of Brian dating a black widow. Considering some of the crap he put Dani and me through,” Lily said.

  Danielle laughed. “I said practically the same thing!”

  “If you think about it, Brian doesn’t have the best judgment in women. Remember, he had a thing for Darlene Gusarov,” Lily reminded them.

  “So is anyone going to do anything?” Ian asked.

  “The chief said he was going to look into Beverly’s history. According to him, this might be some sort of pattern of behavior. If it is, then he really needs to pursue the case before she hurts someone else.”

  “But it’s possible she just snapped?” Heather suggested. “It might have been a onetime thing. And it’s not like she set out to kill him.”

  “Sure. I suppose.” Danielle shrugged.

  The doorbell rang. Lily glanced at her watch again. “If that’s Joe and Kelly, then they’re early.”

  When Danielle answered the door a few minutes later, it was Joe Morelli standing on the doorstep, a large manila envelope in his hand. While he was still good looking, he didn’t seem as good looking to Danielle as he once had, even with his wavy dark hair and brown eyes.

  “Hello, Dani,” Joe greeted her.

  Danielle’s eyes widened. “Wow, you haven’t called me that in a long time.”

  Joe shrugged. Since the two had first met, Joe had waffled between calling Danielle by her real name or nickname. Back in California many of Danielle’s friends had called her by her nickname, Dani, but in Oregon most people, except for Lily, called her Danielle. Joe was the exception, yet it had been a long time since he had used the nickname.

  “Where’s Kelly?” Danielle craned her neck and looked down the walk but didn’t see Ian’s sister.

  “Kelly’s in the car. She got a phone call just as we pulled up. Told me to tell you hi. Are Ian and Lily still here? We were supposed to pick them up across the street, but Kelly said her brother texted, saying they were here.”

  “Sure.” Danielle turned from the door and hollered, “Ian, Lily, it’s Joe!”

  Joe chuckled at Danielle’s outburst. She turned back to him and grinned. He handed her the envelope.

  “What’s this?” Danielle asked as she took it.

  “When they delivered Clint’s things—”

  “It’s Walt, Joe. Walt. That’s his real name and what he prefers being called.”

  Joe nodded. “Okay. When they delivered Walt’s things last week, this must have fallen out of one of the boxes. Looks like credit card receipts and paper they probably took out of the van.”

  “Thanks. I’ll give it to Walt.”

  “How long is he staying?”

  “I don’t know.” Danielle shrugged. “He’s in no hurry to leave. I like having him here.”

  “Really? Kelly told me when he was staying here the first time, you couldn’t wait for him to leave.”

  “I didn’t really know him that well.”

  “And you do now?”

  “He’s a nice guy, Joe. Sometimes it’s not wise to make snap judgments about people. And he has a lot to deal with right now—lots of adjustments.”

  “I imagine it would be hard, dealing with the death of his fiancée. But I understand he can’t even remember her.”

  Danielle was saved from replying to Joe’s comment when Ian and Lily joined her and Joe in the entryway.

  “It would sure be a hell of a lot easier if Ian’s sister had another boyfriend,” Danielle grumbled when she returned to the library.

  “Really? It would just mean you would see Joe more,” Heather said.

  Danielle frowned at Heather. “No, it wouldn’t. Why would I see him more?”

  Heather rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s obvious. If he didn’t have Kelly, he would be back to pursuing you.”

  “Absolutely not. It would mean I wouldn’t have to deal with him as much as I do.”

  “I thought you and Joe were friends now?” Chris asked.

  “He is a friend. But he’s always trying to tell me how to live my life! It’s irritating. Like he’s appointed himself my honorary big brother.”

  Chris and Walt exchanged glances.

  Danielle frowned at them and then asked, “What?”

  “Those aren’t brotherly thoughts he’s feeling,” Walt told her.

  “He still has a thing for you,” Chris said.

  “Oh, stop,” Danielle grumbled.

  “If I were Kelly, I wouldn’t be thrilled if my boyfriend was getting into his old girlfriend’s business,” Heather said.

  “He is not my old boyfriend!” Danielle insisted.

  Nine

  Since Walt hadn’t been to Pearl Cove yet, they decided to take him there for dinner on Wednesday evening. Chris drove and Heather sat in the passenger seat, with Danielle and Walt in the backseat.

  As they pulled away from the curb in front of Marlow House, Heather asked Walt, “What’s been the most surprising thing to see so far since you’ve been out of Marlow House?”

  “The gas prices were a shocker,” Walt said. “If you were driving a hayburner, you’d end up in a poorhouse in no time.”

  “Hayburner?” Heather asked.

  “I think he means a gas-guzzling car,” Danielle explained. She then added with a chuckle, “I thought he was going to have a heart attack when I stopped by the gas station today.”

  “Do you remember how much gas used to cost?” Chris glanced in the rearview mirror. Unlike when Walt was a ghost, Chris could see Walt’s reflection now.

  “I think it was nine cents a gallon,” Walt said.

  “Nine cents! Holy crap!” Heather gasped.

  “Don’t forget, people probably made in a week what an hourly wage is now,” Danielle reminded her.

  “I know…but still…nine cents?” Heather shook her head.

  “Has Walt seen much of the town yet?” Chris asked.

  “Not really. I took him downtown when he got out of the hospital. That’s pretty much where we were today. He hasn’t really been out much.”

  “Hey, Walt, you want to do a little sightseeing before we head over to Pearl Cove?” Chris asked. “We have a good hour before the sun goes down.”

  “I’d like that, if you don’t mind,” Walt said.

  “No problem.” Chris turned down a street leading toward some of the businesses located close to the waterfront.

  “Does any of this look familiar?” Heather asked Walt a moment later.

  He stared out the side window, concentrating on what he was seeing. “A little bit.” He pointed to a storefront. “I recognize that. Most of the buildings weren’t here in the twenties—but a few of them were. I think just up ahead there’s some property I own.”

  Danielle looked at Walt. “What do you mean? Property you own?”

  Walt shrugged. “Well, I used to own.”

  As they drove a little farther, they came to the Seahorse Motel, where Danielle and Lily had spent their first night in Frederickport.

  “There!” Walt said, pointing at the motel. “I purchased that land after I sold my grandfather’s business.”

  Chris pulled over and parked the car for a moment. He turned in his seat and looked at Walt. “You used to own the Seahorse Motel?”

  “Not the motel. There wasn’t anything on the land when I owned it.”

  “Did you sell it before you died?” Danielle asked.

  Walt shook his head. “No. It was part of the estate. Your aun
t Brianna must have sold the land years ago.”

  “I don’t know how she could have,” Heather said.

  “What do you mean?” Danielle asked.

  “When I was volunteering at the museum, I learned the Seahorse Motel is one of the oldest motels in town. From what I remember reading, it was established in 1930. The same family owns it today, although the original buildings were torn down in the sixties and rebuilt.”

  “Aunt Brianna would have been around ten in 1930. That would have meant Benjamin Smith sold it for her,” Danielle speculated.

  “Who’s that? Not Ben Smith from the museum; I doubt he would’ve even been born back then,” Heather said.

  “Benjamin Smith was Ben’s father. He was Brianna’s court-appointed attorney,” Danielle explained.

  “Why would he have been selling off her land?” Chris asked.

  “The Benjamin I knew was a weasel. If he was selling off his client’s property, I wonder what he got out of it. Which explains my Packard.”

  “I understand selling the car,” Chris said. “It’s not like Brianna was old enough to use it. But undeveloped waterfront property, that’s another thing.”

  “Ben was pretty insistent his father was the original owner—and that the vehicle hadn’t belonged to Walt,” Danielle reminded.

  “All that means is his father lied to him,” Walt grumbled.

  They had just been served their food—Ian, Lily, Kelly, and Joe—when Danielle walked into Pearl Cove with Walt, Chris, and Heather. Ian and his party were seated in a booth along the window with an ocean view. Kelly noticed their friends first, while the new arrivals hadn’t yet spotted Ian and the others.

  “I didn’t know they were coming. We could have all come together,” Kelly said.

  Lily glanced over at Danielle and noticed the hostess leading her and her friends to a table at the other end of the restaurant. No one in Danielle’s party had yet noticed Lily or the others. “I think it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Chris and Heather stopped at Marlow House when we were there, to see if Dani and Walt wanted to go get something to eat with them.”

  “So who is Chris dating now? Heather or Danielle?” Joe asked as he watched Danielle and her party walk to their table.

  “Chris is not dating Heather—or Dani. They’re all just friends,” Lily said as she grabbed a roll out of the bread basket and tore it in half.

  “I think Danielle has a problem keeping a man,” Kelly said with a shrug as she picked up her fork and started to scoop up some rice pilaf.

  About to take a bite of the roll, Lily froze and glared across the table at her sister-in-law. “Excuse me?”

  After taking her bite, Kelly smiled up at Lily. “Oh, I know Danielle is your best friend. But come on, you have to admit, she does have a problem holding a relationship together. She was divorced, wasn’t she?”

  “No, she was not divorced,” Lily snapped. “Her husband was killed in a car accident.”

  “I know, but wasn’t he with his girlfriend or something when he was killed?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Lily asked.

  “I don’t think we should be discussing Danielle’s love life,” Ian said. He picked up his cocktail and took a drink.

  “Or lack of one.” Kelly snickered.

  Lily tossed the uneaten pieces of the roll on her plate and narrowed her eyes at Kelly. “What is your problem with Dani?”

  Kelly looked up innocently. “I don’t have a problem with her. I was just making an observation. She obviously had issues with her marriage, and she gets great guys interested in her, but she does whatever she can to push them away. Chris is a great guy. Before that horrible hijacking, I thought they’d end up together, but now he and Heather are double-dating with Danielle and the guy who looks like Walt Marlow. And seriously, that Marlow guy can’t even remember his freaking name!”

  “Like I said, I don’t think we should be gossiping about Danielle,” Ian said.

  “Chris is not dating Heather,” Lily insisted. “They’re just friends and she works for him.”

  “But Danielle is dating that Marlow guy?” Kelly smirked as she dug her fork into a piece of halibut.

  “I think I saw Lily and Ian over there,” Heather said as she sat down at the table with her dinner party.

  “I wouldn’t mind asking Ian and Lily to join us, but spending the evening with Joe and Kelly is not my idea of a relaxing dinner,” Danielle said as she opened her menu.

  “I think they already had their food, anyway,” Heather said as she looked over her entree choices.

  Danielle glanced up and looked at the hostess, who was now some distance from them, walking away. “Is she new?”

  “I think so. She was here a couple of weeks ago when we came in. I told Chris she looked like she would be more suited for Hooters.” Heather giggled.

  “Heather! Not nice.” Danielle shook her head and chuckled.

  “That’s what I told her,” Chris said.

  Walt looked up from his menu. “Hooters? What’s that?”

  Danielle and Heather exchanged glances.

  “It’s a restaurant,” Chris said. “Their mascot is an owl.”

  Walt nodded. “Ahh…because of the sound an owl makes. But why would the hostess be more suited working there?”

  In reply, Heather giggled and Danielle blushed. Chris glared at Heather and said, “You started this. You tell him.”

  “Tell me what?” Walt asked.

  Heather shook her head. “I can’t!”

  Danielle looked to Walt and asked, “Remember when you told me what bubs meant in your time? Well, what used to be your time.”

  “Danielle, that was between you and me!” Walt admonished.

  “Well, in these times, bubs are sometimes called hooters.”

  Chris looked at Walt and started laughing. “Bubs?”

  After the server took their order and left, Chris looked across at Walt and noticed he was eyeing a brochure on the other end of the table. It was a brochure on the history of Pearl Cove and Frederickport. Danielle, who sat between Walt and the brochure, was in a conversation with Heather, who sat across the table from her. Neither woman noticed Walt hesitantly attempting to reach between them to grab the brochure. However, it became obvious that even if he did try to grab it, he would still be a few inches shy of reaching it.

  Chris was about to tell Danielle to hand Walt the brochure when it floated from the end of the table to Walt’s waiting hand.

  Both Heather and Danielle stopped talking and turned to Walt.

  “Did you just do that?” Danielle asked.

  “I didn’t want to interrupt you,” Walt explained as he opened the brochure.

  Heather laughed. “Umm, playing Houdini is sort of the opposite of not interrupting us.”

  “Not to mention, kind of an attention-getter,” Danielle added.

  Walt quickly set the brochure on the table and glanced around to see if anyone was looking. “I forgot. I suppose that wasn’t a wise thing to do.”

  “Just be glad Joe or Kelly weren’t looking this way.” Chris chuckled.

  “I’m sorry.” Walt closed the brochure and looked around the table guiltily.

  “You know, Walt, you were wondering what you could do for a living. You could do magic. Be the next Houdini,” Chris teased.

  “I saw Houdini once,” Walt said. “But I’m not much for enclosed spaces.”

  “Walt doesn’t need to do anything,” Danielle said.

  Walt looked at Danielle. “You want me to be a dewdropper?”

  “What’s a dewdropper?” Heather asked.

  “My guess, someone who doesn’t work,” Chris said.

  “He also sleeps all day,” Walt added.

  “You do have the sleeping thing down,” Danielle teased.

  “I still think a pet whisperer would be cool. Pet owners who are having training issues with their pets could bring them in to Walt, and he could talk to them.”


  “That will get me locked up,” Walt muttered. “But actually, I have thought of something.”

  They all turned to Walt. “What?” Danielle asked.

  “I’ve always wanted to write. I’d like to talk to Ian about it, see what he thinks.”

  “What do you want to write?” Heather asked. “Thought I was going to be a writer, but I tried and found it painfully boring.”

  “I love to read. Why not write? I thought I might try some historical fiction. See what Ian thinks of them.”

  Chris arched his brow. “Historical fiction?”

  “I’d like to focus on the 1920s.”

  Danielle smiled at Walt. “That would be perfect for you!”

  Chris picked up his glass of wine, and before he took a sip, he said, “They do say write what you know.”

  Ten

  Hands on hips, Beverly stood in one corner of her garage, surveying the space, pleased with how much she had managed to accomplish. After dropping off the boxes to Danielle, she had returned home and started sorting the remaining boxes Brian had taken down from the rafters. Beverly had never intended to do it all today, but she ended up working into the night. Once she got started, she couldn’t stop—not even for dinner.

  Where her car was normally parked was a pile of empty cardboard boxes. Next to the boxes were seven large black trash bags filled to the brim, each closed with a twisty tie. Most of what she had found in Steve’s boxes, she had decided to throw away. However, there were a few items she wanted to donate to the local thrift shop; those were piled in two boxes stacked next to the door leading to the side yard.

  She was too tired to move the pile of empty boxes or the full trash bags, which was necessary if she wanted to park the car back in the garage for the night. But she decided it wouldn’t hurt the car leaving it outside one evening, even if it did start raining. Giving the space one final look, she smiled and then turned toward the door and walked into the house, turning off the garage light as she did.

  Thirty minutes later she stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around her damp hair like a turban. She then grabbed her floor-length satin robe off the hook on the back of the bathroom door and slipped it on. When she stepped into her bedroom a moment later, she didn’t bother turning on the light. The nightlight was enough. She glanced at the alarm clock sitting on her nightstand, its numbers brightly lit. It was after ten p.m. Her stomach growled.