The sheriff had the decency to flush at Daphne’s words, but neither Kevin nor Debbie flinched.
“There are no such thing as ghosts.” Kevin stated again.
“So you’ve said.” Daphne retorted. “Multiple times. But saying it over and over isn’t going to change the fact that there are ghosts and that I can see them.”
“Prove it.” Kevin demanded.
“Okay,” Daphne said before turning to the sheriff. “Russ said he was lured here by a note left on his car window during Pamela’s party last night. He said that the note is in the left back pocket of his jeans. The note told him to meet someone at the gazebo at two this morning.”
The sheriff stared at her for a full two minutes before stalking off to the gazebo. He returned, carrying a sheet of paper in an evidence bag. He didn’t look happy. He held the note out so that Kevin could read it. “She’s right.”
Kevin snorted. “That doesn’t prove anything. Maybe you left the note. Maybe you lured him to the gazebo and killed him. It doesn’t prove that you can see ghosts.” He turned his back on her and spoke to Chris. “Chris, you need to take her back to the house, see that she’s packed and take her home.”
“No,” said the sheriff. “I can’t allow that. I’m sorry you’re upset Kevin, but neither Chris nor Daphne can leave town right now.”
“Why?” demanded Debbie.
“Because someone shot at my daughter, Eric, and Daphne today in the woods. Someone shot and killed Russ in the gazebo.” He turned to Pamela and placed a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry Pamela, I didn’t want to tell you like that.”
“Russ is dead?” Pamela asked in a small voice.
But she was drowned out by the outraged protests of Chris’s parents.
Kevin yelled, “You can’t possibly believe my son would harm anyone?” While Debbie shouted, “How dare you accuse my son of murder!”
The sheriff held up his hands. “I’m not getting into that here. I want Chris available for questioning. If I think you’re going to try and get him to leave town, I will lock him up in a cell to make sure that doesn’t happen. The same goes for Daphne.” He turned to Chris and Daphne. “Do I have your word, each of you, that you will not leave town until I tell you that you can?”
Daphne and Chris only nodded. It was Eric who spoke up. “She isn’t lying,” he said quietly. “She saw Stephanie’s ghost. She also saw Russ’s ghost. That’s how we knew that you needed to check the gazebo.”
“Maybe she shot him.” Debbie offered.
“Mom, Dad, that’s enough,” Chris said. “Daphne is my friend and my guest, and she’s been treated pretty poorly ever since she got her. First by me, and now by both of you. Dad, you may not believe in ghosts, but I do. You may not believe that Stephanie is dead, but I do. I believe everything that Daphne has said. Daphne doesn’t want me as a boyfriend any longer. I ruined that relationship; me, not her. She only stayed here to help me discover the truth about Stephanie, for which I’m grateful. I won’t stand by and let you continue to be rude to her.”
“Chris,” Debbie started but Chris just shook his head at her.
“No, I think you should both go home now. You’re not helping, you’re just making everything worse.”
Debbie and Kevin turned stoney glances on Daphne. Kevin opened his mouth, but this time it was the sheriff who interrupted. “Kevin and Debbie, Chris is right, you aren’t helping here. I’d like you to take Pamela home and take care of her. But I need to talk to her first. Please wait over there,” he pointed down the path toward the nursery.
Debbie and Kevin looked like they were about to argue, but after a glance at their angry sun, they walked away and stood watching the group.
Once the sheriff was happy with their distance he turned to Pamela. His expression was full of concern and sorrow. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
She nodded as she wiped away the tears that had fallen down her soft, round cheeks. “I know he could be difficult, but he was my nephew. I always saw him as a little boy. He had such a hard life, first with that worthless father of his and then after his mother was murdered.”
The sheriff nodded. “He probably would have had a different life if that hadn’t happened,” he said. “But I need to know more about his movements yesterday. Did you see him before the party or was the first time you saw him when he entered the auditorium?”
“In the auditorium. I wasn’t even sure he was going to show up, I don’t even know how he learned about the party. I haven’t talked to him since he left town.”
“Did you see him leave town that day? I remember talking to you that day and you said you saw him and Stephanie leave town.”
Pamela didn’t answer right away, then she shrugged, “I think I saw him, but I can’t remember for certain. I remember someone pointing them out to me. I saw his car and saw him driving, but I can’t remember if I saw someone with him. I must have though, if I told you I had.”
The sheriff paused and then asked, “Did you know anything about the duffle bag of money that Russ was talking about? The one he said that he found in your shed and belonged to his father?”
“No, I have no idea what he was talking about. His father barely had enough money to fill a wallet, much less a duffle bag. He must have been lying about that, too.”
“He wasn’t,” Daphne cut in. “He showed it to Stephanie.”
The sheriff gave her a look that said quite plainly that he would like her to shut up. Daphne just stared back at him. She was done being told off by people with closed minds.
“Well it is possible that he found it in the shed, I’ve let any number of people store things in there. I’ve never needed all of the space.”
The sheriff turned back to Pamela, “Who all had access?”
“Russ’s father did, which is why Russ thought the money belonged to him. I let all of the teachers who worked for me use it for storing their school supplies if they didn’t have room at home. Any supplies for the committees I was on were also stored there, and all the committee members had access.”
“So pretty much anyone in town?”
“Yes.”
“When did you last see Russ?”
“At the party. When I got home, he wasn’t there. To be honest, I was glad, I didn’t really want to talk to him after all the trouble he caused. However, I did hear him come in around 2:30 this morning. I thought about getting up and talking to him, but I decided not to and went back to sleep.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
“I think so, he was moving around in his room.” She frowned. “The room was a mess.”
“Would it be alright with you if I search through his things later?”
“Of course, any time.” Pamela said, yawning. “I’m tired though, I think I’ll go home and take a nap.”
The sheriff nodded and Pamela moved to join Kevin and Debbie. They stood on each side of her, guarding the older woman as they walked toward her house.
Chapter Twenty-One
After they were gone, Nicole turned to the sheriff, “What about my daughter?”
The sheriff sighed, “Nicole, I don’t know if Stephanie is alive or not. I would hesitate to believe someone who claims to see ghosts.” He flicked a look at Daphne. “I have a real body on my hands. I need to focus on Russ right now, I need to find out who killed him. We have a murderer in our town. I also have someone who shot at Sheila, Eric and Daphne. I don’t have the manpower to follow up on Stephanie, not right now. But I promise, I will do what I can to discover what happened to her.”
“Have you thought that maybe whoever killed Russ, also killed Stephanie?” Daphne asked him. “That whoever left him that note was setting him up to take the blame for her murder?”
“We don’t know Stephanie is even dead, much less murdered.” The sheriff said in exasperation.
“Look,�
�� Chris stated. “You may not believe Daphne, but I do. I saw her connect with Stephanie. I heard Stephanie’s voice through her. I heard her carry on a conversation with Russ. Something she said ticked him off, and he attacked her. He choked her. Russ said he didn’t see Stephanie that day, but he lied.”
“But you just said that whoever killed Russ killed Stephanie. I’ve seen the body, Russ didn’t commit suicide,” the sheriff argued.
“When I connected with Stephanie, the connection ended when she lost consciousness when Russ choked her. I believed that she was dead. But according to Russ, she only passed out. Her passing out brought him back to his senses. He checked for a pulse and, upon finding one, fled to avoid being arrested. Then he left town.”
“So you think someone came by and found Stephanie conveniently passed out and then killed her?” The skepticism was evident.
“Maybe. Russ said he thought he heard someone when he left the cabin. Don’t forget someone lured Stephanie to the cabin — they made her believe that Chris was getting home early from the Senior Trip and meeting her at 2:30. Whoever that was was expecting her to be there. Maybe they waited until Russ left and just finished what he had started. If she never gained consciousness again, then she wouldn’t have the memory of being attacked again.”
The sheriff shook his head while waving his hands as if trying to dispel her words. “Enough! This is a work of fiction.” He stared at Daphne. “This is all in your head, and you have these guys believing what you say as it if were fact. Knock it off. I’m not listening to any more; I have work to do.” With that, he turned back and stomped to the gazebo. Before he reached it, he turned back and shouted, “Chris, I want to see that letter you received from Stephanie. Becky, can you handle that?”
Becky yelled, “Sure thing Sheriff,” before turning to Chris. ”What letter?” she asked him.
“A letter that was supposedly sent by Stephanie to me after she left town,” Chris said. “But I don’t believe she sent it. Not anymore.”
“You don’t believe she ever left?” Becky asked.
“No, I don’t and your boss won’t do anything about it unless he has a body,” Chris said with distaste.
“So what’s stopping you from looking for it?” Becky asked.
They all just looked at her; she shrugged. “I have to admit that I’ve been giving it some thought ever since Russ said that she didn’t leave with him. If she never left, then that means she was killed here and buried somewhere, probably the woods. I’m sorry,” she said to Nicole when she saw Nicole start to cry.
Nicole shook her head and wiped at the tears, “No, you’re right,” she said. “It just makes me so sad to think that she’s been out there all this time. We should look for her. But I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“Like I said, I’ve been giving it some thought. I read through what the sheriff had documented on Stephanie’s disappearance. You’re wrong if you think he’s ignored it. Even before Russ came back, he spent time trying to find them. I think he wanted to check up on her and make sure she was alright.”
Nicole nodded, wiping away more tears.
Becky continued, “He didn’t have much luck. However, he wrote down what Stephanie supposedly took with her. As I understand it, she took two suitcases filled with clothes.”
Nicole nodded again, “She did. However, it was the clothes that made me wonder if she had really left.”
“How so?” Daphne asked.
“Because she packed wrong. When I was able to convince myself that she had left with him, I assumed she was just in a hurry, but when I forced myself to look at it logically, I knew she would never have made the mistakes that were made. Most of the clothes would have been fine, but she left shoes that she would have taken, and she took partial outfits.”
Daphne nodded. “So someone may have packed her things to make it look like she had left town?”
“Exactly,” said Becky, “and I think they would have buried those suitcases with her body or nearby. No one would want to be seen lugging suitcases around and they wouldn’t want the suitcases or the body found.”
“How does that help us?” Chris asked.
“Metal detectors,” said Eric and Becky simultaneously.
“That’s brilliant!” Chris said to Becky. “If we got a group of people together, we could use metal detectors to search the woods. I have one, so does Craig.”
“I think we all have them, it seemed to be a gift most parents gave their kids around here,” Eric said. “You even got Stephanie one.”
Nicole nodded. “Do you think it will work? Do you think we could find her that way?”
“Maybe, its worth a shot.” Eric said. “I suggest we start by the cabin and work our way out. If she was killed there, it may be that she was buried near there as well.”
“I’m going to go get Craig and see if Sheila will help.” Chris said, taking off toward the nursery.
“I’ll go grab mine and Stephanie’s,” Eric said taking off with Nicole toward his home, leaving Becky and Daphne alone.
“I believe you, by the way,” Becky said to her. “About seeing Stephanie’s ghost, well, seeing ghosts in general.”
“You do?” Daphne asked surprised.
“I do. I looked you up when I heard Chris was coming back home and bringing you with him. I saw the story about your discovering that Miguel Sanchez was murdered and who murdered him. Don’t tell the sheriff, but I called and talked to the detective on the case, Tom Martinez.”
“You should probably know that Tom is my brother’s best friend. So if you were looking for unbiased input from a fellow law enforcement officer, you would be out of luck.”
Becky laughed, Daphne liked its musical quality, light and delicate like wind chimes. “He told me that, wanted to be upfront about his relationship with you and your family. But he told me that you were the real deal and that if you said you saw a ghost, then I should believe you, too.”
Daphne rolled her eyes, “So he knows that I’ve seen a ghost here? That’s great, it means my brother knows. I was supposed to have come here to get away from all that.” Eric was coming towards them carrying two metal detectors, and they moved to meet him half way. “So is that why you believe me, because you talked to Tom?” Daphne asked Becky.
Becky shook her head. “No, I wanted to believe you before I talked to Tom, because I have a favor to ask of you.”
Daphne stopped walking and looked at Becky, “What favor?”
“Later. I’ll ask for the favor if and when we find Stephanie. She’s the priority right now.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Becky took charge of the group which now consisted of Craig and Sheila in addition to Chris, Daphne, Eric, and Becky. Nicole had gone home to rest. The sheriff didn’t know what they were up to, and Becky wanted to keep it that way unless they found Stephanie’s body.
“We’ll use the cabin as the starting point. I think we should search around the cabin, keeping it in the center. If we don’t find anything, then we’ll branch out.”
Eric gave Daphne his sister’s metal detector and gave her a quick lesson on its use. She’d never used one before, but she caught on quickly enough. She and Eric were given the area behind the cabin since it was a smaller area to search.
As Daphne followed Eric along the side of the cabin, she fought back a feeling of foreboding. With every step the feeling of dread increased. Daphne thought about how she felt when they found Miguel’s body and then earlier when they were approaching the gazebo. A part of her knew they were going to find something. A body. Maybe somehow she was able to sense the remains. That would be a new one.
“Eric,” Daphne said between shallow breaths.
“What?” He glanced back and stopped. “You look really pale, are you alright?”
“No, I’m feeling strange. Like I did earlier when we approached
the gazebo.”
“Maybe you’re still tired from earlier? It has been a long day.”
“No, I think its something else. I think Stephanie is back here.”
He looked at her and then glanced at the area behind the cabin. “Why do you say that? Do you see something?”
She shook her head. “No, but I feel something.”
They locked eyes for a moment before he asked. “You think you can feel her remains?”
Daphne nodded.
“Do you want to go back to my house?” Eric asked, putting a hand on her elbow to steady her.
She shook her head. “No, I want to help. I just think we both need to be prepared for what we’ll find.”
Daphne felt a sense of gratitude toward Eric. In the short time she had known him, he seemed unfazed by everything she had done and claimed. He never seemed to doubt her. He accepted her. It had been an emotional few days, but he had been a steadying force through all of the turmoil. Even though it was his sister that was missing. She was certain she would have gone home by now; if it hadn’t been for him. She thought she was staying to help Chris, but she realized she wanted to help Eric and his mom find some sort of closure as well.
Eric started at the far corner while Daphne stayed closer to the house. For several minutes the only sound was of their feet crunching through the snow. A couple of times their detectors set off alarms which proved to be nothing more than shotgun shells or nails. The alarm sounded just as the ground beneath Daphne’s foot changed. She felt something sag under her weight. She stepped back quickly. Squatting down, she brushed the snow away and found herself looking at a bunch of boards nailed together. Had Stephanie been buried in a make-shift coffin?
“Eric,” She called, but he didn’t hear her. She shouted his name louder until he looked her way. She gestured him over.
“What did you find?” He asked as he squatted next to her. “What is this?” He helped her clear the snow and soon they found themselves standing over a wooden square made of boards that were nailed into each other and then into whatever was beneath it. Eric tried to lift it, but the boards wouldn’t budge. “Stay here, I’m going to get the others.”
The Ghost Maker Page 14