“Don’t think I won’t kill you too, Eric,” she said, repositioning the gun.
“Like you did my sister and my dad?” Eric asked her.
She shrugged, “If I have to.” She glared at Daphne. “Not bad for a city girl. I didn’t think you’d be able to find your way back this way. It would have been better if you stayed in the woods and died there. Now it looks like I’ll have to kill you both.”
“Others know what you’ve done,” Daphne said, desperate to keep her from pulling the trigger. “They know this goes back to your fake kidnapping, Carmella.”
Debbie’s face contorted in rage as she shifted the gun toward Daphne, maneuvering it as Eric shifted her around behind him. “You bitch! I knew you were going to be trouble. I should have killed you both in the woods that day.”
“So you were the one shooting at us.” Eric said. “The sheriff found your spent shells and your footprints. Daphne’s right, it won’t be long before he figures out it was you who killed everyone.”
“Including Ramona Modena.” Daphne said. “She recognized your picture from the story on your kidnapping. She called and warned Kevin. Now Becky knows.” As she said her name, the ghost of Ramona appeared between her and Debbie.
“No one knows about that call,” Debbie argued. “I erased it when I heard the message. Stupid woman, she should have kept her mouth shut. I’ll find a way to silence Becky.” Ramona screamed and ran at Debbie, clawing at her face and hands. Debbie took a step back, rubbing her hands across her face as she glanced around her. So Debbie could feel the ghosts. This gave Daphne an idea.
“You killed the real Susan Spencer, didn’t you?” Daphne was rewarded by seeing the ghost of a young woman appear next to Mike, he smiled down at her in greeting. “Stole her identity in order to disappear.”
“I talked her into letting me use her identity to attend school. My grumpy grandfather wouldn’t hear of me attending college. He wanted me to stay home and take care of him. Like that’s how I wanted to live.”
A familiar-looking older gentlemen, dressed in dark blue pajamas with white piping, appeared next to the maid. He was soon joined by a young couple. He put his arm around the young woman with soft blonde hair wearing a nightgown, while she held hands with an attractive man with dark eyes and dark hair, wearing only boxer shorts.
“Then why did you kill your parents in order to go live with him?” Daphne asked.
“Because he had money,” she spat at Daphne. “My parents were poor, they worked every day in that restaurant, and I had to help. When we went to visit my grandfather for the first time, I knew I wanted to live there with him. The house was like a castle, complete with servants to do all the cooking and cleaning.”
“So you killed your parents, moved in with your grandfather, and then faked your kidnapping?”
“I wanted the money. I could take it and live my own life.”
“But the cops found you and the money, took you back to your grandfather.”
“He didn’t know I orchestrated the kidnapping, he was just happy I was home. But he told me he was going to make sure I was never at risk again. He planned on locking me up in that house, wanted to keep me protected.” She sneered. “I knew I had to take the money and get rid of him if I ever wanted my own life.”
As Debbie talked, four men slipped into the clearing behind her, likely drawn into the woods by their voices. The Sheriff put a hand out to stop Kevin, Craig and Chris from moving forward or saying anything to draw Debbie’s attention. The Dunning men didn’t move; they stood rooted to the spot as they stared at the woman they loved as she waved a gun at Daphne and Eric. Both Eric and Daphne kept their eyes on Debbie.
“Then you met Kevin and came here to Dunning’s Landing. You wanted to live here didn’t you? So when you heard Kevin arguing with his father and his father threatening to disown him, you killed him and Keith.” As Daphne mentioned them, their ghosts joined the small army of ghosts standing between Daphne and their murderer.
Daphne saw Kevin twitch at his wife’s admission, but she kept her eyes focused on Debbie.
“Why did you kill Russ?” Daphne asked. “He didn’t see you kill Stephanie.” Daphne saw Russ arrive. He avoided Stephanie and her father, moving to join Ramona.
“He stole from me!” she shouted. “I hid that bag of money at Pamela’s years ago, after I moved here. I kept it in case I needed it. That bastard found it and stole it. Maybe I would have let him live if he had taken Stephanie away, but then he was stupid to come back and brag about stealing it.”
“You left the note on his car the night of the party; that’s why you were outside.”
“I knew I had to kill him before he gave the sheriff the rest of the money. He would try and trace the money and I couldn’t be sure if he would uncover the link to my kidnapping.”
“Why did you kill Stephanie?” Daphne saw Chris glance away before pressing his thumb and forefinger against his eyes. She caught the sheriff watching her, and she hoped he had heard enough to at least look into her claims.
“She was a whore. I knew Chris could do better. I wanted him to go to school, find someone who had class. I was glad when he found you, but you’re a freak. You think you can see ghosts.”
There were now ten ghosts circled around Debbie, Daphne could see her shivering from the icy cold as they moved closer to her, sucking the heat and energy from the space around her. “You don’t believe in ghosts, do you Debbie?” Daphne said. “I guess if you did, you wouldn’t have been so quick to make so many of them. There are, by the way, such things as ghosts.” She allowed herself a quick glance at Kevin. He was watching her, listening to her. “They’re all here, all around you. Your parents, your grandfather, the real Debra Spencer, Ramona, Russ, Deputy Wells, Stephanie, your father-in-law and your brother-in-law. That icy cold you feel is them. They’re all around you. That tingling you feel on your face, your arms and your legs, that’s them.”
As Daphne hoped, the ghosts heard what she was saying and closed in on Debbie. She saw Ramona strike Debbie across the face and Debbie’s father swat her bottom like she was still a child. All of the ghosts closed in on her, some grabbing for the gun, others grabbing her. Debbie screamed and took a step back. She dropped the gun as she swatted at the air around her.
“Get them off me,” she screamed. “Get them off, you’re dead, I killed you, all of you, you have no control over me!” She pushed her way through the wall of ghosts and landed on her knees. She looked up into the faces of her family. She reached for them, but they only backed away.
“No, no, you can’t know. No, it isn’t supposed to be like this.” She grabbed the gun, jumping to her feet and swinging the barrel of the gun toward Daphne. Kevin grabbed his wife while the sheriff wrenched the gun from her hands. She backed away from her family falling to the ground weeping.
Relief flowed through Daphne as she saw the sheriff take hold of Debbie and the shotgun. He turned toward her and shouted Eric’s name as she slipped into the darkness.
Chapter Thirty-Four
She awoke to soft whispers and beeps, they were distracting but she was too comfortable and blissfully warm to be annoyed by the repetitive sounds. She could feel the aches and pains threatening to break through, but a shimmering wall kept them at bay. She could feel the drugs circling through her system, feeding the wall with power. She considered slipping back into unconsciousness but the whispering sparked her curiosity so she opened her eyes.
Her first thought was that she was still dreaming. She had to be. The last thing she remembered was being surrounded by ghosts and a crazy woman intent on killing her, but now she was surrounded by her family. All of them. Maybe she died, maybe this was her funeral. “Oh man, I don’t want to be a ghost,” she mumbled.
All turned to her and started talking at once.
“You’re awake!” Ice cried as she leaned over to kiss her
daughter’s forehead.
“You had us worried,” said Jason as he rubbed her hand.
Brandon sat at the end of her bed while Ariana was holding her other hand.
“Where am I?” Daphne looked around the room. She was definitely in a hospital, no doubt about it. The boring paint, dull but sparkling clean floors, ugly bed, and outdated television suggested hospital while the smell of disinfectant screamed it. “What happened?”
“We were going to ask you that,” Brandon said. “Eric called me and said you were in the hospital with exposure and exhaustion, but he didn’t give me any more information.”
Daphne frowned. She remembered Eric now, he had been there when she had confronted Debbie. “Debbie?” She asked, jolting up straight. “Did they…?”
“We got her,” came a voice from the door. Everyone turned to see the sheriff standing there.
He walked into the room removing his hat. After offering his hand to Jason, Jason shook it, “I’m Jason, Daphne’s father. This is my wife, Ice, Daphne’s brother, Brandon, and her sister, Ariana.”
“I’m glad you all could make it, Daphne could use family after what she went through.”
“She killed so many,” Daphne said.
“Yeah, we know. She confessed. To everything,” the sheriff said. “Even her attempt on Pamela’s life.”
“Is Pamela…?” Daphne started to ask.
The sheriff interrupted her. “She’s fine, awake and adamant that she did not try to kill herself. She accused Debbie of trying to kill her. Pamela says she was home drinking coffee when Debbie arrived, telling Pamela that she needed someone to talk to. She asked for a cup of coffee. Pamela believes that Debbie put the sleeping pills in her coffee when she was out of the room.”
“She wanted a fall guy. Wanted to get Chris off, didn’t she?”
“Looks that way.”
“Why did you believe that Chris had killed Stephanie?”
“Evidence, and too much of it. We found Chris’s and Stephanie’s cell phones in the well. We were able to recover the text messages between them that day. Chris’s phone was used to send Stephanie a message stating that he was getting home early and wanted to meet her at the cabin at 2:30. Then there were the gifts. Ellen had contacted me after seeing Chris with the key chain, the same key chain that Stephanie had bought that day.”
“We found them in Chris’s room,” he continued. “We also found the letters from Stephanie, including the letter that she supposedly sent after she disappeared. That letter was written by copying contents from the other letters.”
“Chris wouldn’t have killed her.”
“No, I had a hard time believing it myself, but the evidence was there. How did you figure out it was Debbie?”
“Eric helped there. I thought it was Kevin. I had a visit from Kevin’s father, I saw him being murdered after he fought with Kevin. I also connected to Ramona, and she remembered reading a book and warning Kevin.”
“Eric told me,” the sheriff said.
As if on cue, Eric walked in, followed by Nicole. They carried boxes whose enticing aromas had Daphne sitting up straighter in bed and sniffing like a puppy. “Italian.” She grinned as they put the food down and started handing around plates and silverware.
“Thought you might want something more substantial than hospital food.” Nicole smiled. Introductions were made as everyone settled down to eat.
“Can we get back to the story?” Ice asked. “I still have no idea what all happened here. So far, I know that poor Chris has a mother who has murdered people and that her last victim survived.”
“Two of her last victims,” the sheriff stated. “She was hell bent on killing your daughter as well.”
“But why?”
“I realized that Debbie was the killer, not Kevin,” Daphne said.
“When did you figure out it was Debbie?” Brandon asked.
“Wait, lets start at the beginning,” the sheriff said. “I’d like the whole story because I’ll need to figure out how to write this up so that the DA can believe it.”
Daphne said. “It starts and ends with Stephanie. I thought when I came to this town, I was going to get a vacation and a reprieve from all the upheaval over Miguel and Albert Ashe. What I didn’t know is that Chris invited me here to help him face down his own ghosts. He hadn’t been back in Dunning’s Landing since the day he believed Stephanie left town with his nemesis. I was angry with Chris when I realized he used me and was still in love with Stephanie. But I don’t believe he knew his own feelings until he was back here. When I saw Stephanie’s ghost, I knew I needed to let him and Eric know that she was dead.”
“You went beyond that and discovered how she died,” Eric stated. “You could have left it at telling us she was dead.”
Daphne shook her head. “No, I couldn’t have; you needed more than that and I knew I could give it to you. I couldn’t have left until I did all that I could do.”
“You connected with Stephanie?” Brandon asked.
Daphne nodded. “I saw her arguing with Russ and I saw him attack her. He choked her until she passed out.”
“Which sent Chris on a vendetta to see Russ arrested?” The sheriff asked. “This is why he was carrying around a shotgun?”
“Yes, he wanted to force Russ into confessing to her murder.”
“But instead, you saw Russ’s ghost in the gazebo.”
“Yes. I spoke to Russ and he said he had left Stephanie alive. He admitted to attacking her, but swore that he didn’t kill her.”
“So what led you to Debbie?” The sheriff asked, scribbling notes into his notebook.
“I thought it was Kevin. During the night, Kevin’s father showed me how he died. He had been arguing with Kevin, and then someone smothered him. I thought it was Kevin, since he was so strongly against the idea of ghosts. I thought he was feeling guilty. Then when I connected to Ramona, I discovered that she had read a book on true crimes and had called Kevin to warn him about someone she recognized in one of the photos. I thought she had recognized Kevin.”
“Becky said you found the book she had been reading which contained the story of the Romano kidnapping.”
“Yes, it contained police sketches of the suspected kidnappers. I asked Eric to scan them and send them to my phone. I wanted to compare them against photos of Kevin when he was younger.”
“But they didn’t match?”
“I didn’t get the chance to compare them. Eric called about what he had found in the case files.”
He turned to Eric, “These would be the files your father requested from the SFPD?”
Eric nodded. “Yes. There was a letter from someone who had been part of the investigation. Dad had asked him to look into the whereabouts of one of the maids that he had interviewed. Her name was Susan Debra Spencer.”
“And that’s what led you to suspect Debbie?” The sheriff asked Daphne.
“It didn’t, not by itself. It was when he said that Carmella had gone to live at the Richmond House that triggered it. There is a painting on the wall at the Dunning home that is of the Richmond House before it burnt down. I recognized it from photos that my grandmother had. I mentioned that I recognized it, and Debbie said she had been a maid at that house before it burnt down.”
“My dad was part of the investigation into the kidnapping of Carmella Romano. He was responsible for interviewing the staff, including the maids. He would have met the real Susan Spencer.”
“So why didn’t he tell anyone?”
“I think my dad wanted to get all the facts before confronting Debbie,” Eric explained. “However, Debbie must have known he recognized her and decided to get rid of him as quickly as she could.”
“But how did you figure out that Debbie was really Carmella?”
“Eric told me Carmella’s backstory,” Daphne stated.
“How her mother and father had been killed in a fire in the restaurant they lived over. In the Dunning house there are three paintings of buildings that were burned down. One was the Richmond House, one was the shack, and the third was the restaurant, Sparta. In all three cases, those buildings hosted a murder before they burnt down. Debbie had painted all three, which made me realize that she was the real killer.”
“And Debbie overheard you and attacked you?”
“I think so, I didn’t hear her come downstairs or into the kitchen. Craig had left to go pick up Chris and Kevin, and I thought Debbie was upstairs asleep. When I was on the phone with Eric and realized that Debbie was the killer, I heard her behind me. I threw the phone at her and ran out the door.”
“You didn’t run toward town,” Eric said. “When I heard you scream, I dropped the phone and told Mom to call the sheriff. I took the path to the cabin, but I didn’t see you.”
Daphne shook her head. “I was afraid to go that way, she had a shotgun and I knew there was too much open space along that path.” Daphne drank some water before continuing. “As I was hiding in the woods, I spotted Keith. I thought he was a hunter and didn’t realize he was a ghost until we connected and I relived his death. He was in love with Debbie and had met her to go hunting. She tricked him into putting his shotgun down, and then she shot him.”
“Poor Kevin. All this time he’s believed that Keith killed their father and then killed himself,” Nicole said.
“No wonder he didn’t want ghosts around. He was terrified of seeing either is brother or his father.” Daphne added.
“I’m surprised you made it out of the woods—connecting to ghosts exhausts you.” Eric said. Daphne saw Brandon and Jason give Eric a speculative look.
“I think it was the adrenaline. I was more terrified than I was tired or cold. It helped me stay on my feet. I knew I had to get to town so I was trying to move in the right direction. Luckily, Deputy Wells appeared and helped me. He kept me company and had Stephanie watching out for Debbie.”
The Ghost Maker Page 20