Chapter 5

 

THE LOG HOME that Martha and Earl drove us to was nestled back into the tall snow-covered trees and looked, pretty much, like one of those pictures you see on Christmas cards. Even in the darkness, I could see enough to tell that to stay here would cost the kind of money that only rich people had. Then I remembered that now, of course, I was one of them. The thought made me chuckle out loud as we clomped up the thick wooden steps onto the porch and Renee raised a grazed eyebrow at me.

“Nothin’,” I said with a shrug.

“Still not used to Ivy League, huh?”

Her words took me back for a second as Martha bickered with Earl about which key was the right one.

“How . . . ?”

Renee’s eyes twinkled. The moonlight danced in them as it peeked from behind the clouds.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Serves me right for fixing your head, huh?”

Her skin had a milky glow. Blue light washed everything with a silver shine. The trees twinkled like they had lights on them. I almost felt the need to capture the moment somehow or maybe play it on my violin. I could hear the strains of Moonlight Sonata in my mind then wondered if she could hear it too the way her eyes twinkled at me. 

“I could pretend that,” Renee said, one corner of her mouth curling in a grin.

“But?” I had no idea why I was whispering or why the music seemed to be filling my head. 

Martha and Earl finally opened the door. They continued their marital debate as we followed them into the darkness.

Renee turned and cocked her head. I was still looking at her for an answer as we stood in the doorway.

The dim moonshine illuminated her, making her almost shimmer. Renee was one of those women whose beauty shone from within her. Not in a flashy way, but a quiet, gentle pulse. She always inspired me and somehow, in the doorway, I felt the itch to compose something just for her. Maybe I’d smacked my head on the snow. Maybe I’d been locked up in the CIG base too long, I didn’t know. Good thing she was used to me gawping at her.

She leaned into me and nudged my shoulder with hers. “You were mumbling out loud.”

The lights blinked to life as Earl fired up the generator. We were standing in the sitting area. Pictures of lakes and mountains were on most of the walls. Some kind of furry rug thing sprawled out under the clump of wood for a coffee table situated in front of the biggest fireplace that I’d ever seen. My eyes drifted over the open plan space—a homey-looking kitchen with lots of shiny silver equipment separated from the sitting area by a breakfast bar. To the right behind a fancy dining table and a grand piano were a huge set of floor-to-ceiling windows. I couldn’t see nothing beyond them now but they were like a work of art all by themselves.

“Great blackbear in a box!”

“Look over there then,” Renee whispered as Martha and Earl started to fill the huge fridge with goodies from their bags. I followed Renee’s directions and let out a wheezed breath as I saw the half wall separating the small gym, a study area, and I was pretty sure from the lettering on the door at the back that there was a sauna there, or maybe a shower. I squinted to try and read the letters. No, I was pretty sure it said sauna.

“Mezzanine,” Renee stated. “A home away from home for you.”

The floating staircase up to the next level drew my eye and I had to stop my feet from following. All it needed was a waterwheel attached to the side and Renee would be right.

“Nah, I ain’t got a gym at home.”

“You’re never leaving here, are you?” Renee asked. She must have seen the excitement, rumbling and bumbling in my stomach, through my wide-eyed look.

“Not unless they arrest me.”

Martha hurried back and smiled at us like mothers do to small children when they are being goofy to the point of cuteness.

“This is some place, Martha,” I said.

She waved it away. “Oh, it’s nothing, just one of the small cabins but it will do until we can get you back on your way.”

I went to say that this place was anything but small but Martha started issuing directions.

“The bathroom is at the back, next to it is the utility room.” She started talking about settings for the machines and I drifted off and wandered to the staircase.

“Boo.”

I spun around, feeling like I’d been hit in the butt with a Taser gun. Martha was still yabbering away to Renee about how to get the most out of a wash cycle. I looked for Earl. He was in the kitchen with his head under the sink, I guessed fiddling with the stopcock.

“Over here.”

An icy cold shiver ran up my spine, and I turned to glare at a very shocked-looking blob of shadow hovering next to the gym.

“Quit it,” I muttered.

“You can see me?” it asked. I could hear the astonishment in its voice.

Here’s the thing with ghosts and me. I don’t “see” them specifically. I can feel them and when they are about, I get a visual in my mind’s eye just like I would a vision. Sometimes, like with Nan, they are a sudden inexplicable breeze, a swirl of energy as they reach across whatever separates this world and wherever they are.

Hovering shadowy blobs were a new one on me. “I can see something,” I whispered. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Like?”

I glanced at Earl who was now swearing to himself and rubbing an oily hand over the back of his receding hair. “Like a light or somethin’.”

“Are you trying to be funny?”

I felt a ripple of cold shoot up my arm as blob-shadow poked me.

“No and quit poking already,” I said, rubbing the spot on my arm. “So, do you have a name? A reason why you’re hanging around.”

“Can’t remember,” Blob said. “I don’t know how long I’ve been here.”

I looked down at Earl who had just bashed his head on the edge of the cupboard he was being swallowed by.

“Earl,” I said. “You got ghosts?”

Smack, another load of cussing and Earl’s shocked, slightly paling face appeared. “What did you say?”

“Ghosts. People that hang around when they are meant to go someplace else.” I got another poke for my words as Earl’s eyes widened and he looked around as if searching for it.

I lowered my voice to address Blob. “You torture him, don’t you?”

The mischievous laugh confirmed my suspicions.

“Earl,” I said, trying to snap the guy’s focus back to me. “You know who it is?”

He nodded, glancing around the room. He tugged at his shirt collar with an oily finger. Blob moved closer.

“Who?”

He got to his feet and peeked down the hall toward where Renee and Martha were now discussing the perils of odd socks.

“Supposed to be Randy. He was all of nineteen, broke into the cabin with a group of friends.” Earl shivered. “Was way back, way before my old grandpa was even born.”

“And this Randy,” I said, looking at Blob and trying to see if it was following the conversation. “What happened to him?”

“We renovated the place,” Earl said, his hands clasped together. His wedding ring looked a size too small for his chubby fingers. “Found bones.”

“Randy’s?”

Earl shrugged. “Either way, he went missing. The whole town went out searching for him and he was nowhere to be found.” He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “His sweetheart was distraught but less than a year goes by and she married his best buddy.”

Blob pulsed with rage and I shuddered.

“Who?”

“Who?” I asked. “Who was the best friend?”

Earl pulled up his trousers by the waistband as if to reassure himself that they were still there. I didn’t get why as his belly was more than big enough to keep them from falling down.

“Jasper McKinley,” he said. “Ancestor of the McKinley family over on the east side of town.”

Before I could ask anymore, Martha and an exhausted-looking Renee came into the kitchen area. Blob hovered over by the windows but I could feel his sadness.

“Well, we’ll leave you to it,” Martha said, tutting at Earl as he scratched his head and glared at the open cupboard. “Earl and I will be in the café should you need us.”

Earl nodded in agreement.

“Stay until you need to,” she said. “Better to be safe, yes?”

Renee and I walked them to the door.

Earl mumbled an apology. “I’ll come back and fix the water tomorrow. Pipe must be frozen or something.”

They went on their way and Renee turned to me, hands on hips. “Okay, what is going on?”

Blob and I both tensed with her tone. “What do you mean?”

“Aeron, you were babbling to yourself in the hallway.” She raised her eyebrows, eyes narrowed. “Martha started asking if you’d gotten concussion in the avalanche.”

“Ah,” I said, noticing that Blob was now laughing. “I was meeting a local.”

Renee flew to my side, gripped my arm until her nails dug in, and squealed as she hid behind me.

Blob laughed even louder.

“Relax,” I said, trying to get her to stop cutting the circulation off. “He’s a pain in the butt with a sneaky sense of humor but he’s not all bad.”

Blob looked as shocked as any floating shadow could.

“His name could be Randy.”

“Could be?” Renee asked, clinging to my arm like it would stop Blob from scaring her.

“From what Earl said, his best friend could have killed him to marry his girl.”

Renee put her hands to her mouth. “Oh that’s awful.”

Blob agreed.

“Aeron, we have to do something,” Renee said, peeking around my shoulder. “He needs our help.”

“Randy was around before Earl’s grandfather was born,” I cut in before Blob and Renee ended up re-enacting some kind of ghostly murder club. I gazed at Blob who looked almost like his arms were folded.

“And?”

“And,” I said to Blob, making Renee stare in his direction as if wondering who I was talking to. “That means that Earl is what . . . late sixties maybe?”

Renee shook her head. “I’d say fifties.” She leaned into my ear. “Is he here?”

“Okay fifties,” I answered, pointing in Blob’s direction. “Which would make his dad about seventy or eighty and a grandfather ninety to a hundred.”

Renee, I guessed, had already cottoned on to where I was going with my explanation as she was too busy squinting at the spot Blob was hovering in.

“Which would mean Randy was killed or died over a hundred years ago at least.” I watched her scouring for what she so clearly couldn’t see.

Blob slunk its shoulders, which was an odd sight, considering he was just a muddy shadow. “What do I do now?”

“Maybe you could ask Nan for help?” Renee said, wandering over to where Blob was. “You helped free the girls back in Oppidum when you got justice.”

“Renee,” I muttered as Blob edged closer to her. “We’re here for a night and Nan is supposed to be resting not gallivanting around in ether space solving mysteries.”

“Ether space?”

I shrugged. “Sounds good and I’m keeping it.”

Blob moved over to the staircase and seemed to slump down onto the steps. “I hate being alone.”

Boy, did my heart swell up with those words. “Great. I’m not some kind of detective.” I looked at Renee. “We’re meant to be training, Renee. We’re meant to be doing what CIG wishes, or did you forget?”

Renee scowled as I used the word CIG but I rolled my eyes.

“He’s a spook, who’s he gonna tell?”

“Fine,” Renee said, her eyes tracking over my face. “But we could try and help a little?”

“Nan is probably resting after saving our hides earlier,” I raised my eyebrows at her. “Or did you forget that?”

The blush crept not only up Renee’s cheeks but through her aura too. I was gonna start to tease her but a gust of wind announced Nan’s arrival.

“What’s cookin’, Shortstop?”

“Great,” I muttered. Like Blob, I could hear Nan loud and clear as though she were standing in front of me. That was a new one too. “Now you’ve woken her.”

Renee jumped and squealed as if Nan had nudged her in the back and both Blob and Nan laughed. I guessed all ghosts found it fun freaking out the living, must have been hard trying to fill the time.

“You,” I said to Nan. “Are meant to be resting like you promised? And you,” I said to Blob, “should be looking for lights or halos or some kind of choir.” I turned to Renee. “And you should know better than to talk to things you can’t see.”

“Shortstop,” Nan said. “Stop your whining and tell me why I’m here. I ain’t got all night, there’s a card game going on.”

For some reason that surprised me. “You play cards? Since when?”

“Since always,” Nan said. “But I lost my best opponent when your grandpa passed so I’m making up for the lost time.”

The visual of my Nan and the grandfather I’d never met together again and playing cards made me smile. A big smile from somewhere so deep within that it felt like I was in the fields in summer with the warmth on my back.

“Focus,” Nan interrupted. “You can croon later.”

“Renee here,” I scowled at Renee who had leaned against the grand piano, “decided that Blob there,” I pointed to him on the stairs, “needs justice in order to pass over.”

“Him?” Nan asked. “He’s older than me!”

“My point exactly.”

Renee wandered over, waving her hands through the spot where Nan was speaking. “I need headphones or something,” she muttered. “What is she saying?”

A breeze lifted Renee’s hair off her neck, and she shrieked.

Nan and Blob laughed.

I folded my arms and sighed. Scaring Renee was clearly the new sport. “Can you figure out who this blob-specter-thing is?”

Renee hurried over to me and ducked under my arm. Commander Renee Black, big hero, terrified of spooks. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, attempting not to shake my head at her. She was a dimwit.

She looked up as I thought it, shrugged, and burrowed in further. “Don’t do spiders all that well either,” she mumbled, clutching hold of me.

“I’ll ask your grandpa. Get back to you when I know.” I jumped, which made Renee jump. Nan had been silent for so long I thought she’d gone.

“We’re leaving tomorrow,” I called out after her.

A tutting drifted on the air to me. “Come now, Shortstop. If you got made to stop here, you got things to do here.”

I hated the sound of that but she was gone before I could ask questions.

“What?” Renee asked. I guessed she’d felt me tense. “What’s wrong?”

Not wanting to scare or worry Renee anymore and pretty much knowing that Nan was right, I walked to the kitchen and reached under the sink. It took one quick turn to shift the stubborn stopcock.

“Nothing that some hot chocolate won’t fix,” I mumbled. “And a change in identity.”