Ghostly Town (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 4)

by Aubrey Harper

  “And why is that?”

  She floated closer as if someone was eavesdropping on us. “One of the ghosts I ran into is a real perv. He was in the process of following around a woman who was undressing.”

  “Eww. Good thing I can see them then. And that I have you here to keep an eye out.”

  “What are you on about now?” Kane asked, wanting to be included in the conversation.

  “Oh, just some pervy ghost,” I said.

  “Are there any other kind?” He said.

  He realized his mistake as soon as he saw the look on my face. “I didn’t mean you, Rebecca. I meant other ghosts,” he said and lifted his hands up as if to protect himself from that which he could not see.

  I laughed. Rebecca was less amused.

  “One of these days, I’m not going to be so nice,” Rebecca said.

  “He’s not driving,” I reminded her. “So go for it if you want.”

  “No! Please don’t!” Kane protested as he covered his head with his hands.

  Rebecca rolled her ghostly eyes and crossed her ghostly hands across her chest. “The living can be so pathetic.”

  “Relax, Kane,” I said. “We were only joking.”

  Kane relaxed a bit. “That’s not funny.”

  “It made me laugh,” I said.

  I didn’t change my clothes when we went out to get something to eat. Rebecca decided not to go with us, because “watching you guys eat is super boring.”

  We found a nice little restaurant close to the inn, and surprise of surprises, it actually had a few free tables.

  “Maybe there was a failed inspection recently?” Kane offered.

  I googled the restaurant’s name on my phone and looked under News. Nothing came up.

  “I think we’re safe,” I said.

  The food wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t awful by any means either. Just this side of average, which was good enough for two hungry people that had been on the road for way too long.

  Once we were back at the inn, we saw that there was some commotion inside. A lot of people were going in and out.

  “What’s going on?” I asked the receptionist.

  “Oh, nothing special. Just a few séances.”

  “There’s more than one?”

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “One just finished. There will be another one at nine o’clock.”

  “Where exactly is it?” I remembered to ask. “My invitation just said it was at the inn.”

  “The main hall, down that way. You can’t miss it.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Kane and I went upstairs to freshen up and get ready for the grand event. I changed my clothes but didn’t don a dress like I’d planned. Kane changed his shirt and that was that.

  Rebecca was still missing in action. I wondered what kind of ghostly fun she had gotten into this time. I hoped she would make an appearance at the séance because I was really interested in her reaction to the whole thing.

  We slowly made our way downstairs, running into people giggling and talking amongst themselves. “That was wild,” one of the people said. “Totally! Let’s do it again!” another one answered.

  At the door, there was a man that looked like an old-fashioned butler might look. He looked us over and did not like what he saw if the look on his face was to be believed.

  “Invitation?” He asked, looking like he was fully expecting us not to have one.

  I handed him the invitation with my head held high.

  He smiled a fake smile and let us through.

  It was when we were inside that I realized why his reaction had been so unpleasant. Most of the people in the darkened room were dressed in old-style clothing that might have been popular at the séances in the nineteenth century.

  “Is this a dress-up party?” I asked one of the women closest to me, who looked like she had time traveled there.

  “Only if you want it to be. I only got this outfit because there was a discount at the store.”

  “There’s a store that sells these clothes?”

  “Oh yeah. It’s right around the corner.”

  I looked at Kane.

  “Maybe it was that place we thought was a restaurant because there were so many people waiting outside?” He offered. “You’re the one who didn’t want to wait in line.”

  “Maybe,” I said, not very pleased. If I knew we had been invited to a costume party, I probably wouldn’t have even come. Or if I did, I’d at least make it fun by actually dressing for the occasion.

  There was chatter in the room as what looked like at least two dozen people waited in anticipation for the medium to arrive. The only light in the room was candlelight and there were a few servers passing by with drinks on their silver platters. I grabbed one before the server had a chance to run away.

  I took a large gulp of the wine, which actually didn’t taste that bad. And it was cooled as well.

  Kane laughed. “Nervous much?”

  “No. Why would you say a thing like that?”

  He took my glass and helped himself. Before he could finish the whole thing, I snatched it back. “Get your own, mister.”

  And that’s exactly what he did. Just as I finished the remainder of mine a server passed and I put my empty glass on his platter.

  “No more drinks for you?” Kane commented when he saw that I didn’t replace the empty glass with a full one.

  “No. If I want more, I’ll just borrow some from you,” I said.

  “Touché.”

  “Ladies and gentleman,” the man who was taking invitations at the door said. Now he was standing in the middle of the room, right next to the big round table there. “If you would please quiet down. Mr. Mathers will be with us shortly, and in order for him to make contact with the other side, we will need you to remain calm and quiet. And most of all, respectful.”

  A few people nodded their heads. I just looked around to see if I could spot Rebecca anywhere. No luck. Where could she be? I knew ghosts weren’t really the best at keeping track of time, but surely she could feign a look at one of the many grandfather clocks around this place?

  When Mr. Mathers arrived, he looked surprisingly frail and old. I wondered if the man was well over a hundred years old.

  Kane gave me a look that told me he was thinking the same thing.

  The man who had introduced him was now helping Mr. Mathers into his seat.

  A few people clapped but the man helping Mr. Mathers put a stop to that with a motion of his hand.

  “Please stop that,” he said. “The spirits are very sensitive to any noise and they might not come forward if the atmosphere is disturbed in any way.”

  A few of the servers went around picking up empty glasses and on their way out, they extinguished the surrounding candles. Now the only candle left burning in the whole room was the one on the table where Mr. Mathers was seated.

  “Do we have any volunteers?” Mr. Mathers spoke, his voice sounding gravelly and almost like a whisper. “You see, we need energy to help the spirits manifest.”

  A few people stepped forward.

  They took their seats, but Mr. Mathers looked right in my direction then. “What about you, young lady? Care to join the circle?” He asked me.

  “Of course,” I said as I stepped forward. Kane was right behind me.

  We completed the circle of eight, nine if you counted Mr. Mathers.

  “Please hold your hands,” Mr. Mathers said.

  I had Kane on my right side and a woman in her forties to my left. She smiled and looked quite happy to be there.

  “Close your eyes and clear your minds,” Mr. Mathers instructed us. “Focus only on your breath. Slow it down and deepen it. And welcome the spirits into our circle.”

  I reluctantly closed my eyes, peering out on occasion. I had to have my eyes open to see ghosts, so I wasn’t really sure what all of this was about.

  After a few minutes of that, Mr. Mathers finally instructed us to open our eyes.
<
br />   “I can feel them close,” he said.

  I looked around into the darkness but could see no ghost at all. Not even Rebecca.

  “Yes, they’re here. They’re close,” Mr. Mathers said, as he looked up at the ceiling. I looked up, too, and could see nothing there.

  Maybe the man was a charlatan after all? For a moment there I was ready to believe, but now I wasn’t so sure. The atmosphere of the dark room and the candlelight certainly felt eerie, but I sensed no dead people in the vicinity. I wondered what plane Mr. Mathers was tuning into because it certainly wasn’t the one I was so accustomed to.

  “Yes, come forward,” Mr. Mathers said. “Use my voice as your tool. Come forward and share your message with us.”

  Mr. Mathers closed his eyes then and lifted his head toward the ceiling.

  “Enter me,” he whispered.

  Then he started to convulse.

  A few people expressed shock and worry.

  “This is perfectly normal,” the man who helped out earlier said. “Keep calm.”

  Mr. Mathers opened his eyes then, and they were only whites, no irises or pupils in sight. Even I sat back in my seat. It was creepy, I’ll give him that.

  Then he opened his mouth and let out a low hiss. “Yesssss,” it sounded like to me.

  And then the candle flame went out and we were plunged into total darkness.

  I heard a few gasps around the room. I felt the woman next to me let go of my hand. I fumbled a bit until I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. I turned on the flashlight feature and illuminated the darkness.

  Mr. Mathers was slumped over the table, his eyes wide open as if in horror. He looked quite dead.

  More than a few people let out screams and then started to clumsily make their way out of the room.

  I looked behind the dead body and saw a familiar looking man standing there. It was Mr. Mathers. Or rather, it was his ghost that was staring back at me now.

  Three

  It wasn’t long before the whole room was almost empty. And then the lights came on. I saw that the man who had introduced Mr. Mathers earlier was now standing by the light switch.

  “What are you still doing here?” He asked me.

  “I’ll wait for the police to come,” I said.

  Kane had already called them. And now we waited.

  “That won’t be necessary. Please go back to your room. This is the staff’s problem to deal with.”

  Mr. Mathers gave me a knowing look. He still did not utter a word, though, and now I wondered why.

  “No, thanks. I’ll stay right where I am. I suggest you close down the inn so that the police can question anyone who was here at the time it happened.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “This was obviously a natural death.”

  I looked at the bulging eyes and the look of horror on the corpse’s face. “It doesn’t look all that natural to me. Some might even say it was supernatural,” I said, testing the waters.

  “And what would you know of it? You’re just a tourist,” the man said.

  “Actually, my main job is as a ghost hunter. And Kane here is a private investigator.”

  “Glad to be of service,” Kane said with that smile of his on full display.

  The man looked annoyed.

  “I’m Meredith Good, by the way,” I said. “What’s your name?”

  The man looked at me crossly.

  “It’s Henry,” Mr. Mathers said. “Henry Smithson. He’s been with me for years.”

  “Henry Smithson,” I said out loud. “So you’ve worked for Mr. Mathers for a long time?”

  “How did you know that?” Henry said as he looked around nervously. “Who are you?”

  “I am who I said I was. I’ve even been interviewed on TV if you can believe it.”

  “Someone must have told you my name,” he said.

  “Yes, someone did.” I looked over at Mr. Mathers’ ghostly form then. “Mr. Mathers himself. He’s standing right there.”

  I pointed him out to Henry. Henry looked at the spot I was pointing at.

  “I don’t see anything,” he finally said, as if that settled it.

  “Neither do I,” Kane said. “But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t see anything.”

  Just then a familiar face entered the room.

  “Rebecca! Where have you been?” I asked her, paying no mind to the looks that Henry was giving me.

  “That’s a story for another day,” she said as she looked over at the dead body, and then at the man to whom it belonged to. “I see you’ve got your plate full at the moment.”

  “Nice to meet you, young lady,” Mr. Mathers said as he floated over to Rebecca. They actually shook their ghostly hands.

  “It’s so nice to meet a ghost that also happens to be a gentleman,” she said. “Though I am sorry about that,” she said as she looked down on his corpse.

  Mr. Mathers chuckled. “It’s not your fault, dear. In fact, I’m not sure if it’s anyone’s fault at all,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked him. “It looked pretty violent from where I was sitting.”

  “Oh, was it?” He asked. “I can’t really remember. One moment I was getting in touch with the spirit world, and the next here I was, in it.” He looked down at his see-through form and floated around. While he still looked fairly old, he had more spunk to him now.

  “You said something about making contact with a spirit and then you made a hissing noise after your eyes were all whites. I thought it sounded like an elongated ‘yes,’ but I can’t be sure. Of course, after that, the lights went out so anything could have happened.”

  “What are you on about, woman?” Henry asked, looking more than a little bewildered by the whole thing. You’d think he’d be used to all this spirit stuff by now, having worked with Mr. Mathers all these years. “Are you mad?”

  “Hey, man, that’s not very nice. I know it’s weird. God knows I still get weirded out by my girlfriend talking to what looks like nothing but air to me, but she has a gift, and you should respect that,” Kane said in my defense.

  I smiled in his direction. “That was sweet. Thank you.”

  Kane winked. “Any time,” he said.

  Henry Smithson looked at the pair of us like we’d lost our minds.

  “I’m surprised by your reaction, Mr. Smithson,” I said. “I would have thought that you would be used to stuff like this by now.”

  “Oh, the old chap here has always been a skeptic, from the day I met him,” Mr. Mathers said. “I remember the first séance he attended. You could see his face turn a ghostly white because of the change in temperature that we could all feel at the time. A few candles blew out by themselves. But instead of becoming a believer, Henry became even more of a skeptic, convinced that it was all malarkey and self-deception.”

  “Interesting,” I said. “But then if he was such a skeptic, why did he stick by you this whole time?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Mr. Mathers said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Ah, so you were partners in more ways than one?” I said.

  “You catch on quick, lass,” Mr. Mathers said and chuckled. “I forget how long we’ve been together now. More than sixty, less than seventy years, I’d say.”

  Henry looked as white as a ghost. “Is he actually here? Are you actually communicating with him now?”

  “Of course, I am,” I said matter-of-factly. “What have I been saying all along?”

  “But you didn’t even perform a séance? How is this possible?”

  “I’ve always been able to see the dead, ever since I was a kid. I never needed to do anything special to make contact with them. They just appeared to me.”

  “You’re far more gifted than I ever was,” Mr. Mathers said. “I needed to enter a trance state to make contact, and even then, it was not always easy to make sense of what they showed me.”

  “So you were the real deal?” I asked him.

  “Of course,” he said, lo
oking offended by the question. “There are a lot of charlatans in my line of work, but I am not one of them. I take pride in my work.”

  I looked around at the setting we were in.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Mr. Mathers said. “But a man has to make a living, and the people do like a show.”

  That much was true, I knew from experience.

  Just then, the door opened wide and a couple of police officers entered the large room. Right behind them was what looked like a detective.

  “Who are these people, Mr. Smithson?” the detective asked Henry.

  “They’re guests. They were here when it happened. They witnessed the whole thing.”

  “Is that true?” The detective asked me.

  I nodded my head. “I was sitting right across from the man when he dropped dead. But I wasn’t the only one. This room was full of people. I’m sure Mr. Smithson can give you their names so that you can question them, too.”

  The detective smiled. He was a man in his fifties with thinning hair and what looked like a permanent smug look on his face.

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job, Miss…”

  “Ms. Good,” I corrected him. “Meredith Good.”

  He looked at Kane.

  “Kane Xavier,” Kane said. “I’m actually a PI, so if you need any help on the case, I’m more than willing to help.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” the detective said. “I assume you’re staying at this inn?”

  I nodded.

  “For how long?”

  “A few days,” I said.

  “Good to know,” he said. “Now tell me exactly what you witnessed here.”

  Kane and I both gave our version of the events. Henry gave his as well. We were all pretty much on the same page.

  Then we were summarily dismissed by the detective. Henry stayed behind to deal with the police and the inn’s employees.

  Mr. Mathers followed me, Rebecca, and Kane out of there.

  Once we were safely back in our room, we could continue our conversation without being interrupted by rude detectives.

  “I’m afraid I don’t remember my last few moments, through from what you lot have said, they sound quite dramatic,” Mr. Mathers said. He floated around the room. “I feel as light as air. I haven’t felt this good since I can’t remember.”