Chapter 13

“How’re we going to handle this?”

Gillian hung her jacket up. “We can’t. We have no way to contact Amelia, and even if we did, Samantha can be pretty overwhelming. We can’t turn her loose on the poor woman. Ghost.”

Jack smirked. “You do realize you’re trying to protect a ghost. Hello. She’s already dead. Not much else can happen to her.”

Gillian shot him a dirty look.

I ignored him. “I do have to call Samantha back. She may contact me at any moment. I’d rather not be blindsided. Any ideas?”

“Nope.” Jack didn’t look up from the computer but continued to work on the spreadsheet.

“Don’t think he wants to talk to her again,” I whispered to Gillian.

Gillian nodded and gestured toward the kitchen. “Let’s do some brainstorming.”

I followed her. “Figure out something?”

“I need coffee. Sit.”

I sat and waited. When she put a mug in front of me and sat down with hers, I said, “Ideas?”

She sipped. “We need Doris’ help but maybe one or two thoughts.” She took another sip and set the mug down. “Okay, this could get out of hand really quickly. I know you don’t want to, but you should call her immediately, invite her over, and be straight with her. We need to enlist Doris and let her know what she’s going to be in for. Samantha will not be happy to hear that Doris has never seen her fiancé on the beach.”

“Or she might be happy because it means he moved on.”

Gillian shook her head. “That’s optimistic. It doesn’t give her closure. That’s the downside of believing in ghosts or even knowing that they exist. Knowing that, you want to talk to your own loved ones.”

I nodded. “I get it. If it’s possible, you ask why not me? Why do other people get to talk to their loved ones?”

Gillian took another sip. “And she may not be happy that we haven’t told her about Doris before this.”

“True. Go warn Jack. I’ll call her.”

“Will do.”

I took a deep breath and tapped on Samantha’s number in my contacts list. “Hey, Samantha.”

“Hi, Cass. I planned to come over to visit today.” Her voice sounded tight.

“Oh, good. I was calling to invite you over.”

She didn’t answer right away, and when she did, I heard the surprise in her voice. “Really?”

“Yes, I want to tell you something I think you’ll be very interested in.” I held my breath.

“Good. What time should I come?”

“We’ll be home the rest of the day. Come any time you like.”

“I’ll see you soon.” She hung up.

I put my phone on the charger, picked up my coffee cup, and joined them at the dining room table. “She’s coming soon. Want to hide?”

Jack looked like he was thinking about it. “No. I assume you’re going to introduce her to Doris.”

“If Doris responds. I clearly don’t understand the afterlife.”

He snorted.

****

An hour later, Samantha swept in. As usual, she’d dressed dramatically. She reminded me of a zaftig redheaded zebra. It was an illusion brought on by the vertical black and white stripes of her wide legged pantsuit. Her earrings were huge rings of mother-of-pearl half hidden in her long, wavy red hair.

“C’mon in, Samantha. Want me to take your jacket?”

“No, I’ll unbutton it.” She did, revealing a fitted black silk blouse. She did a quick scan of the room. “I’ve heard some interesting things from Darius.”

I was so tempted to say ‘Really? What have you heard?’ but I wasn’t in the mood for games. “He told you about Doris and Amelia.”

Meeting no resistance, she nodded and relaxed a notch. “He did.”

“Have a seat.” She and I joined Jack and Gillian at the table. “We haven’t heard from Amelia since then.”

Samantha’s eyes narrowed, on guard again.

“She’s telling the truth.” Gillian leaned forward on her elbows. “We’ll try to get them to show, but we wanted to forewarn you. We don’t have any control over them.”

Samantha arched her left eyebrow.

“Seriously.” I glanced up toward the ceiling. “Doris, are you there? We want to introduce you to Samantha.”

Nothing.

I closed my eyes to avoid Samantha’s glare and whispered, “Pretty please, Doris? We need you.”

“About time you admitted it.”

At first her voice was disembodied. I heaved a sigh of relief as she materialized very slowly from glimmer to transparent.

“Doris, this is our friend Samantha. Samantha, this is Doris, my resident ghost.”

Doris, still transparent, curtsied. I wondered if something was wrong. This was an opportunity for her to ham it up. Normally, she would have taken full advantage.

Samantha did what most of us do and poked Doris. Doris’ form lost definition. Gillian and I exchanged glances. Even Jack paid attention now. Something was wrong.

“Is Amelia with you? Can you call her? Do you see others on the beach? Are there other ghosts in this house?” Samantha scoured the corners as if ghosts hid in the corners of the room.

“No. I’m alone. I’m sorry.” And Doris was gone.

“Where’d she go? I have more questions.”

I put a hand on Samantha’s forearm. “I know. None of us understands what’s going on with Amelia. We haven’t seen her since that initial appearance.”

Samantha opened her mouth, but Gillian cut in. “Doris didn’t look right tonight.”

“What do you mean?” Samantha frowned.

Gillian gesticulated. “Ordinarily, she’s, I don’t know, perky. That’s a dreadful word. She’s usually full of life. Uh, she’s usually energetic…for someone who’s dead.” She looked at me for help, her eyebrows peaked.

“I think Gillian’s trying to say that Doris generally appears more vibrant. It’s as if she’s been drained of energy. It might have something to do with Amelia.” I shook my head. “But I have no idea how.”

“How long have you been talking to Doris?”

The question I’d been dreading. There was no getting around it. “Almost from the beginning.”

She nodded and rolled her lips inward. “So all the time I was out filming on your beach…”

I hate innuendo. “Yeah, pretty much.”

I guess I deserved all this for not being honest with her in the first place. I’d thought she was amusing out there in her weird outfits with her camera trying to film ghosts. I hadn’t taken her seriously. What goes around comes around.

I took a deep breath and exhaled. “I apologize. I was not honest with you.” George’s face flashed though my mind. Guiltily, I banished the image. “I’ll…we’ll answer any questions you have now.”

“How many ghosts have you seen?”

“Just the two.”

“No men?”

“No. Only Doris and Amelia.”

She considered this. “Would you be willing to have a séance to see if we can reach a specific person who’s passed on?”

“I don’t want you to be disappointed.”

The glare she gave me could have fried eggs to a blackened crisp.

“Okay. Sure. Whatever I can do to help.” I ignored the warning look Jack shot me.

Samantha stood, chin in the air. “I’ll get back to you with the details.”

“Anytime.” I contritely followed her to the door to show her out.

When she left, I leaned against the jamb. “Hoo boy.”

“At least she didn’t fire you from the web site job.” Gillian managed a weak smile.

“Not yet,” Jack added.

“What are we going to do?”

“Hold a séance.” Jack snapped the laptop shut.

Gillian got up. “I’m making you another cup of coffee.”

“Thanks.” I sat back down at the table. “Jack, what do you think about Doris’ condition?”

My cell rang. “Ricardo.” I swiped. “Hey, Ricardo. Mind if I put you on speaker? I want to drink my coffee while it’s still hot.”

“No problem. Why are you drinking coffee at this hour?”

“Nerves. Samantha came by to see the ghosts.”

“Did she?”

“She met Doris, who seems to be out of sorts.”

Gillian set a fresh mug of coffee in front of me. She gestured at Jack, who nodded. She returned to the kitchen.

“Is she all right?”

“I don’t think either Doris or Samantha is all right. We’re close to releasing the web site for Crystalline, but I worried that, by not telling her about Doris in the first place, I blew our contract. I’m sorry, Ricardo.”

“One thing I’ve learned working for her, Samantha’s bark is often much scarier than her nip. She’s really a softy. She wouldn’t cancel on me.”

“She wants a séance.”

“A real séance?”

“Yup.”

“Wow. Okay. Did you agree?”

“I was in no position to refuse her anything.”

“No problem. We can do it.”

Jack chimed in. “You realize that she wants a real real séance.”

“You guys are stressing, aren’t you?” Ricardo asked.

“How could you tell?”

“Cass, two of your neighbors used to do séances at your house. Chill. With all of us and Dave and Mina, it won’t be a problem. They’ll know what to do. C’mon. It’ll be fun. Oh and by the way, Bobbo’s interested in us doing a web site for his comic shop. Hasta.” He hung up.

“I guess he called to tell us about the new job.” My phone chimed the disconnect.

Gillian said, “At least he’s not worried.”

Jack stretched. “We’ll sort it out in the morning. Try not to worry, sis.”

“C’mon, lover boy.” Gillian tugged on his sleeve. They took their coffee and retired.

“Night, kids. I’ll lock up.”

I flipped on the security lights and looked out the back door. All was peaceful and quiet. Even the waves had calmed down, merely lapping the shore. Thinking of Mina, I put the chain on, added my mug to the dishwasher, and ran it. Back in the living room, I turned on the light in my loft, took one last look around, and ascended the stairs to bed.