by Agatha Ball
I turned and walked back to Bitter Beans, flipping the sign from "Back in 5 Minutes" to "Open." Not that anyone missed me or anything. We had a couple customers, but I think everyone was waiting to come over until tonight. I took the time to text Nate that I had decided we had a date. He was completely onboard and said it sounded like a "spooktacular time." That's my man. And then I spent the rest of the time unpacking some new Halloween decorations Granny had ordered. We had some new pens with rubbery, dangling spiders on the end that wrote in white ink and some matching spooky looking journals with black pages. I grabbed a piece of blank paper to demonstrate how you could wile away the boredom by doodling out spider webs.
About an hour later, though, Granny came down from her apartment, grinning to beat the band.
"Grind up the good beans!" Granny exclaimed, coming over to give me a kiss on the cheek. "Just got off the phone with Richard and the bank, and we're one step closer to being the proud owners of Ralph's Hardware Store!"
I smiled. "Congratulations!" I said. "When do you think you'll be through all this mortgage stuff and able to move in?"
"Well, we still have to get the inspector out and go through escrow. And, of course then we have the renovations. But we are so close to the historical museum finally having its space!" Granny clapped her hands with joy. "And we were thinking that if it is ready in time, it might be a lovely place to hold our wedding."
It was almost too huge to contemplate. I gave her a great big hug. "I can't even think of a more perfect spot! I'm so happy for you!"
"We'll make sure to put free tickets to the museum in everyone's goodie bags," she joked with a wink. Granny started turning off the lights to the shop and flipped the sign to 'Closed'. "Now, shall we go over to the hardware store to say hello to Ralph and see if he wants to go out to lunch?"
"Lunch? You trying to butter him up or something?"
Granny bobbled her head noncommittally. "Well... there were those noises he was making about other interested parties – new hardware stores or offices or what-have-you."
"Madison was here talking about venture capitalists."
Granny cast her eyes to the heavens as if asking for strength. But then pulled herself back to earth. "I just want to remind him that while Richard and I might not have the deep pockets of some faceless corporation, we'll love his place like no one else."
"He would be a fool to sell to anyone but you."
"That's what I think, too," she said, grabbing her purse and throwing an orange pashmina over her tight black sweater as she stepped out the door. "Now, get out of that apron and get a wiggle on! Scoot!"
She didn't have to ask me again. I tossed the apron on a peg, smoothed my chestnut hair into its ponytail, grabbed my jacket, and raced outside.
"Ooo! There is a nip in the air!" she exclaimed as we made our way, arm-in-arm, up the road. Construction was still going on at the general store and Holly had stopped by Marnie's yarn shop to get away from the noise. They waved at us as we walked passed. I was jealous of how warm and cozy they looked. As we rounded the corner to head up the hill, another blast of wind struck us. Granny squealed and grabbed onto my arm like she was scared she was going to blow away.
"Oh, this is not going to be any fun going out into tonight," I shouted over the wind.
"Where you off to?" she asked.
I filled her in on Johnny's new tour at the cannery and how it was supposed to end at the Halloween festival.
"I don't think this is what they were talking about when people said they wanted chills!" Granny said as a gust blew her words away.
Finally, we reached Ralph's place and gladly stepped inside, the bell bing-bonging to announce our arrival.
Ralph jerked awake. He turned up his hearing aids. "What can I do for you today, Cindy?"
She walked over and stuck out her hand, "Ralph, I just wanted to stop by and say that I just got off the phone with the bank. Things are moving forward and we are so excited—"
His face darkened a little. "You sure about this? That you really want it?"
Granny was puzzled. "Yes. Of course. Is there... is there some sort of problem?"
Suddenly, there was the sound of people coming down the stairs. We looked over. Fred and Stan marched down the steps.
Ralph shook his head. "Whole place is falling down around my ears. Lots of work to be done." He hooked his thumb at the police officers. "Stan and Fred were telling me not to leave town or sell the hardware store until they finish their investigation."
"What investigation?" she asked.
But that's when Seaside's finest decided to get her up to speed.
Fred stepped forward. "Ralph, we're placing you under arrest for the attempted murder of Tango..." His face went blank. He pulled out his notebook. "Oh heck, I forgot to write down his last name. But Tango! The ghost hunter guy. Who did a séance here."
"I know who you're talking about," Ralph snapped.
"Well, someone cut that floorboard and we think it's YOU," accused Stan, waggling his finger at Ralph's face.
"And why would you think that?" Ralph said. It had the tone of a schoolmaster about to put an idiot child in his place.
"Your finger prints are all over the place!"
I saw Fred nervously rubbing his palms on his pants, leaving a trail of black dusting powder down the kaki-colored polyester.
"The reason my fingerprints are all over the place is because it is my storeroom!" Ralph reminded them.
"Now, don't go deflecting our investigation with your logic." He took his handcuffs out. "Now, are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?"
I saw Fred cross his fingers by his side, and then mouth, "Say the hard way... say the hard way..."
Ralph got up, dusting the seat of his stool. His foul mood permeated the entire room. "I'm gitting going. And you're going to see that you're a bunch of idiots for even thinking such a thing!" He snapped. He put his keys on his counter and slid them across to me. "Mind looking after the place, would you? Lock up on your way out."
We stood, stunned, as Ralph grabbed his beat-up hat and shuffled to the door.
Stan and Fred exchanged glances, like each was trying to figure out if they should cuff Ralph or if it was okay to just let him walk himself outside. They seemed to settle on following him sheepishly.
But that left Granny and me in charge of the hardware store.
"Oh my..." said Granny. She ran her eyes around the shop nervously. "Well, I suppose we should turn off the lights and make sure the windows are closed."
I had been here enough times in the past couple weeks, I knew exactly where all the switches were. I stormed over to the wooden stairs. "This is just nuts!" I said.
"To think they would suspect Ralph!" Granny exclaimed, placing her hand on her heart in shock. "I mean, he's no ray of sunshine, but why on earth would he damage his own building? Much less try to hurt a kid like Tango?"
But, as if summoned, the door opened and Tango hobbled in. He seemed surprised to see us. "Where's Ralph?"
"I'm afraid Stan and Fred hauled him in for attempted murder," Granny primly informed him.
"Attempted murder? Of who?" Tango asked.
"Of you," Granny replied.
"What?" said Tango, taken aback. Scrambling, he spurted, "My lawyer said I needed to file a report with the police in order to get Ralph's insurance to cover my medical bills—"
Granny threw up her hands. "You got lawyers involved? Did it even dawn on you to ask Ralph to help?"
"I did!" Tango insisted, his macho voice now taking on a distinct whine. "And he threatened not to let me hold my séances here and told me to take a hike!"
Granny shook her head like she couldn't believe what the world was coming to. She rapped her knuckles on the wooden counter. "Well, I'm afraid there won't be any séances from here on out."
Tango's face went several shades of red and he stepped forward, menacingly. "What are you talking about? I've been selling tickets! I'll sue you for obstruc
tion of my profits!"
Granny did not back down. She arranged her pashmina around her shoulders with her head held high. "Tango, you were injured, Ralph is not here, and we cannot allow you to be on the premises. Especially if you are talking about filing a lawsuit against Ralph."
"But— But—"
"Now, go off and find yourself another haunted place to haunt," she insisted. "Heck, even Echo decided to get creative and is taking his group out to the old cannery. This is not the only building in Seaside!"
That was not the answer Tango wanted. "Echo?? ECHO???" He gasped and sputtered as he tried to come up with a proper response. Finally, he blurted out, "I will OWN this place!" He clomped his way toward the front door and then spun dramatically on his crutches. "Just you wait! I will take Ralph for everything he is worth! And then won't Echo be sorry!"
And then he stomped out the door.
The cheery little bing-bong went off to let us know he had, truly, left the building.
"There goes one very angry young man," Granny said, shaking her head. "To think he would speak to us in that manner!" I could tell she wanted to say a great deal more about what she thought about him, but held it back. I'm not sure why. Probably because it's not nice to be mean to the injured. Instead, she turned to me with purpose. "Paige? Let's make sure that Echo character is wildly successful with his efforts, shall we?"
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stood in front of Johnny's shack and tugged at my sweater nervously. I craned my neck trying to spot Nate. A large crowd had gathered of people my age, and all the tall guys seemed to want to stand right in my line of sight. I wasn't sure if it was because they were completely clueless, or wanted to make sure I was looking at them. Maybe a little from column A... a little from column B...
Finally, Nate crested the dune. I'm not sure who smiled bigger, him or me, but it sure was great to see him. I couldn't help but notice the fellas around me found other places to stand as soon as they saw I had a boyfriend.
Nate gave me a kiss and took my hand as we waited with the group to go over to the cannery. I filled him in on everything that went down today, all the way to Stan and Fred arresting Ralph.
"They stuck an eighty-year-old man in a jail cell?" he asked, aghast.
"We gotta do something about them," I replied. "They are out of control." I jerked my thumb toward Main Street. "And now Tango is on a rampage because his séance room is now off limits."
Nate knit his brow. "He was crushed by a bookshelf because a floorboard gave out."
"Well, the floorboard was cut."
Nate gazed upon the happy group that had gathered for the tour, as if considering the character of each one of them. "Who would have done such a thing? It just doesn't even make sense."
But before we could consider it anymore, Johnny called out. "Your chariot awaits!"
He motioned to Main Street and we all moseyed our way up there. I had to laugh. Johnny had rented a party bus, complete with disco lights and dance poles. Nothing says party like rattling through the countryside, trying not to fall into each other's laps when you hit a pothole.
We piled inside and every seat was filled. Johnny evidently miscounted and ended up having to use the poles as a place to grip as he stood through the ride. The mood was merry, however, with people making their own fun.
Echo took shotgun and started a running commentary about the island's history, making sure to spin things so that the most innocent events had a more sinister spin.
"And now we go to the old cannery... that was closed and neeever reopened again... UNTIL NOW," he said awkwardly over the P.A. system.
Nate shook his head as we pulled into the parking lot. Johnny and Echo had evidently taken a page out of Tango's book and decided to up the theatricality of it all, but it was coming off a little cringy. And the new tour script Echo was testing was just the beginning. Johnny had gotten two inflatable air dancers, the kind you find outside of mattress stores and car dealerships. Except he had gotten ones shaped like ghosts and had placed them on either side of the door to the old building. In order to be seen, he had set up floodlights, which really highlighted all of the weeds growing up through the cracks in the asphalt. I didn't know if it made it creepier or just ratty. As we stepped outside, a music system was blaring the sound of creaky houses and rattling chains.
Johnny checked in with me for my approval. What could I do? I gave him two thumbs up, and he returned my thumbs up with his own thumbs up. Guess we were all good.
We walked into the building. It had been awhile since I had been here, and I realized it probably hadn't been long enough. I gave a little shiver.
But Johnny, again, had been inside, and had done his magic to make it seem some sort of haunted rave, and any real spookiness had been chased away. There were projections of ghosts rotating on the concrete walls and a sad smoke machine that was letting out little puffs of white clouds every now and then. The creepy sounds playing outside filtered in, but then abruptly they stopped. I cast my eyes over to Johnny to see what was wrong and noticed he was fiddling with a makeshift sound system. And then, out of nowhere, the theme to Ghostbusters started to play. Johnny pumped his fist to every "Ghost! Busters!" lyric.
Nate was all about it, though. He leaned over and murmured in my ear. "Have I said how great that goof is?"
"He brings the party with him..." I replied.
It seemed to take every ounce of will in his body to deign to be part of this, but Echo closed his eyes and focused like he was getting ready to enter the ring in a martial arts fight.
He opened his eyes and motioned to Johnny. Johnny cut the music, and then Echo stepped forward.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to this, a most haunted site." He then began droning on about the history of fishing and the canning industry. I saw the enthusiasm in the group start to wane.
Johnny motioned to him to pick up the pace, and I was impressed that Echo actually paid attention.
He pulled out his spirit box and fiddled with the switches. "There is a principal called an electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP. This machine does extremely fast radio sweeps. The white noise and the fast scanning of radio frequencies provides the energy and transmission that the spirits need to speak to us. They will control what words come through the radio."
He turned up the volume and it sounded like static and then someone was rapidly changing the channels. Suddenly, a word came through. "Hello."
Everyone gasped with the thrill as the static and channel changes continued, and I gotta admit, it was a little spooky.
"Is anyone there?" Echo asked.
There was more static, and then, once again, the word, "Hello" came out of the radio.
"It's real!" said a girl beside me.
Nate looked at me like he couldn't believe people were buying this.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" Echo asked.
There was a bunch more static.
And then the ghost box spat out: "Run." People started to get a bit more freaked, but then the word "to" came through the speaker. It was a sentence of some sort. We all leaned in. And then it said, "Me."
Echo mouthed it, putting the words together. Suddenly, he fixed his eyes on me and Nate. "Run to me." His face paled as it became not just repeating the words but a command. "RUN TO ME!"
So, we did.
And moments later, there was a crashing sound and the metal catwalk we had just been standing under collapsed and fell from the wall.
"DUDE!" Johnny exclaimed. As the dust settled, he called. "Is everyone okay?"
We all glanced at each other, checking on one another just to be sure. Nate took my face in his hands, as if to reassure himself I was still there and he was still there. We were fine.
We all turned to Echo. Shocked, he muted the ghost box. The silence without the static was deafening. We all stared at it and at him. And then he gulped. "So, I think the tour for tonight is over."
Chapter Twenty-Five
&nbs
p; As we climbed back onto the party bus, everyone was buzzing with what we had been through. They kept trying to figure out how the ghost told Echo to move us. Johnny walked from seat to seat, checking in on people and offering free boogie board rentals anytime. Echo had the tact to not try to spin any ghost stories on the ride back. We had our fill, thank you very much.
I leaned over to him as we jostled down the road. "How did you know?" I asked.
"I just knew," Echo said, shaken. "I just... knew."
I held Nate's hand tight. "That was so weird..." I said.
His jaw was clenched as he shot glances at Johnny. "It was so dangerous. I can't believe Johnny brought people out here."
I realized I needed to remind him we all were fine. He was still riding that high of fight or flight, and his lizard brain was telling him to fight. "It isn't his fault," I reminded him. "It is an old building."
Echo, to his credit, backed me up. "I was the one who forced Johnny to do this," he said. "I am completely responsible. I just wanted a way to show Tango up, that's all." He gulped. "It seemed completely safe when I was there earlier setting up."
"Well, it wasn't," said Nate. He then backed off, realizing that it wasn't Echo's fault either. "Accidents happen," he conceded. He gripped my hand tight. "I just don't know what I would do if I lost you," he said. "That catwalk could have killed us."
I got a cold chill down my spine, knowing the truth of his words.
Nate's mouth set into a grim line. "I'm thinking that we should tell Fred and Stan about this."
"What can they do about it?" I asked.
"Maybe just get out an alert to let people know not to trespass. Keep an eye out for anyone who tries to break in." He rubbed his forehead. "I just don't want anyone to get hurt."
"That sounds like a good idea," I reassured him, squeezing his forearm bracingly. "They'll have that place wrapped so tight in crime tape, no one will be able to get in there for the next century."
The driver dropped everyone off by the Halloween festival, but Nate and I decided to skip it. Johnny was really torn over whether to come with us or smooth things over with his guests. We assured him we'd handle everything and to stick with the folks who needed some reassuring.