The woman had broader shoulders and shorter hair, a darker shade of blonde.
The couple suddenly ran for the water and dove in.
I sucked in air. Nope, definitely not Ellie.
“Come on, boy,” I whispered to Buddy. I rose and moved us carefully along the edge of the woods to our right. I didn’t dare move on into the trees, not knowing what creatures might be hiding in the thick underbrush.
My gaze flitted back and forth between the stony, packed earth in front of us and the couple cavorting in the water. They seemed to remain oblivious to our presence.
At the far end of the beach, I glanced back over my shoulder one last time.
The couple was standing in hip-high water, kissing, the woman’s long fair arms wrapped around Bruce’s neck. Even from this distance, I could tell that those arms were thicker than Ellie’s waif-like limbs.
Buddy and I scrambled around the curve in the beach.
This time, I left Buddy in my room and took Nugget down the stairs to the second floor, and encountered a half dozen closed doors. Which one was Ellie’s? I had no idea, so I went on downstairs to find Greta.
When we walked into the kitchen, she took one look at my face and her own paled. “What’s wrong? Did something happen to Ellie?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” But the heat creeping up my cheeks put the lie to that statement. One of the many reasons I have never used my master’s degree in counseling psychology to actually do any counseling—I’m not very good at hiding my feelings. A necessary skill in that profession, so the client stays focused on their own feelings, not yours.
“I think she’s resting upstairs,” I said, “But it’s time for another training session, and I don’t know which room is hers.”
“Turn left at the top of the stairs, then the second door on the right.”
“Uh, Greta, where does Bruce go all day?”
She froze for a moment in the process of drying a pan. “He has an office in town. The manufacturing businesses—his father sold them years ago. But there is still real estate to be managed.”
Real estate management, my foot, Ms. Snark commented inside my head. For once, I had to agree with her. Bruce wanted an excuse to stay away from the house for long periods so he could be with his lover.
“Thanks. Just curious.” I went back upstairs.
“Come in,” Ellie called out, in response to my light knock.
She was sitting up in bed, reading on an e-reader. She moved to throw the covers off her legs to get up.
“Stay,” I said, holding my hand up. “This training is done in bed.”
“What?” Her tone was more surprised than it should have been. I’d mentioned several times now that the dog would wake her up during nightmares.
It wasn’t like she had to do anything during that task, but I liked to have my clients go through a dry-run a few times, so it wouldn’t be startling the first time the dog woke them up at night.
“Which side of the bed is yours?” I asked.
Her cheeks turned pink. “Both. Bruce usually sleeps in his study.”
Oops. I’d stepped right in the middle of that pile of goo. And I should have expected as much.
I didn’t realize I was frowning until Ellie said, “Well, I mean we still get together, you know, but he thought I might sleep better without his ‘big sweaty body’ as he put it…” she made air quotes, “taking up more than half the bed.”
If Bruce Burke had been standing in front of me in that moment, I might have strangled him with my bare hands. Not only was he having an affair, but he’d abandoned his fragile wife to her nightmares and an amorous ghost.
I shrugged and tried to plaster on a smile. “Okay then, which side do you usually get in and out on?”
She patted the mattress with her right hand.
I took Nugget around to that side, held out my palm for her to touch it with her nose, the on-duty signal, then gestured for her to lie down. “Now, I want you to lie back and pretend you are asleep, then pretend you’re having a nightmare. Start thrashing around.” I backed away from the bed and stood by her closed French doors.
Ellie did as instructed. She even pretended to snore. Then she began to whimper and flail around a bit.
Immediately, Nugget was on her feet. She woofed softly, put her front paws up on the side of the bed and nudged Ellie’s arm.
Ellie laughed, opening her eyes, and threw her arms around Nugget’s neck. Then she yanked them back again.
“No, this is one of those times when you can be affectionate with her while she’s working. She’ll stay there so you can pet her and calm down, until you give her the signal to get down.”
“Which is?”
“Either the word down or this gesture.” I held my hand out parallel to the floor and moved it downward.
Nugget wasn’t focused on me, so she didn’t respond. But when Ellie repeated the gesture, she dropped her front feet to the floor, her tail wagging slowly back and forth like a fluffy red-gold flag.
I nodded slightly, pleased that Nugget was starting to look to Ellie for instructions, rather than me.
“Say light switch,” I whispered to Ellie.
“Light switch,” she repeated.
Nugget ran to the door and jumped up, flipping the light switch up with her nose.
Ellie laughed, as the dog returned to the side of her bed, tongue hanging out, eyes on Ellie.
Yes. I did a mental fist pump.
I was reaching into my fanny pack for some treats, when a draft of air, scented with wisteria, brushed my cheek.
Ellie’s head jerked around toward the closed doors.
I looked at the spot she was staring at.
“Do you see her?” Ellie whispered.
“No.”
“Do you smell wisteria?”
“Yes.”
Nugget’s head swiveled back and forth from Ellie to me. She knew something was happening but wasn’t sure what.
Neither am I, girl.
Ellie gasped and a hand flew to her mouth.
Nugget ran to the bed and put her paws on the edge, shoving her head into Ellie’s lap.
“She’s responding to your anxiety,” I whispered.
Ellie swallowed hard, still staring toward the window, then she deflated. “She’s gone.” She absently stroked Nugget’s ears.
“You saw the girl ghost?”
“Yes, she kept saying ‘Bruce’ and shaking her head.” Ellie shook her own head. “She sometimes warns me when the pirate is coming.” Turning toward me, her eyes wide. “Do you think she’s trying to warn that something’s going to happen to Bruce?”
More likely the teenage girl had become aware of Bruce’s affair. But as much as I wanted to expose his sin, I knew it would devastate Ellie. I kept my mouth shut and prayed that the ghost would do the same.
Instead I said, “That’s why you got upset earlier? When I described my dream about the girl ghost.”
Ellie frowned. “I doubt it was a dream.”
Now, so did I.
Dinner was close to being the most awkward event I’d ever endured. It almost beat out the last Baltimore Symphony reception I’d attended, after I’d found out my violinist husband was bonking a cello player, but I didn’t know which one. I’d spent the evening in a corner, stress-eating hors d’oeuvres and dissecting Ted’s every move as he worked the room.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much available for stress-eating tonight. Greta had served a white fish entree with brown rice and mixed vegetables. There was no sauce or butter on anything. But the freshly baked fragrance emanating from a big basket of wheat rolls made my stomach growl.
Ellie passed them to me without my having to ask. She had two on her plate.
“The girl ghost showed up today,” she said to Bruce, trying to sound casual, but there was a definite strained undertone.
“Oh yeah.” He gave his wife an indulgent smile. “What’d she have to say for herself?”
I so wanted to reach across the table and smack him.
“She kept repeating your name and shaking her head. I think…” Ellie glanced at him, then away again, “she might be trying to warn us of something.”
Bruce waved a nonchalant hand in the air. “You probably dreamed the whole thing.”
“I wasn’t dreaming. I was wide awake.”
“And I was there,” I blurted out.
“Did you see or hear this ghost?”
What’s with this guy? Ms. Snark commented. Again, I had to agree with her. What was with him? Before, he’d acted like he believed in the ghosts.
“No,” I said, “but I smelled her.”
He shook his head slightly. “Ah, that wisteria scent. It’s part of the legend. The power of suggestion, no doubt.”
Ms. Snark was making growling sounds inside my head, but I managed to keep them from coming out of my mouth. “I didn’t know it had anything to do with the ghost, until after I smelled it. Twice. The ghost was in my room earlier too.”
“Well, she’s never been known to harm anyone.” He stabbed a chunk of fish and forked it into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed. “Nothing to be worried about.”
I clamped my mouth shut. Ellie slumped in her chair, her expression miserable.
We finished the meal in silence.
I had reached the second-floor hallway when I heard. “Marcia, wait up.”
Bruce jogged up the wide steps. “Listen, I indulge my wife’s flights of fancy about these ghosts, but I’ve never seen them.” He’d reached the hallway. “And they never made an appearance when my parents were alive either.”
He leaned toward me. “Ellie drinks, you know,” he said in a confidential tone.
I gritted my teeth while struggling to keep my face neutral. “No, I didn’t know that.” And I didn’t believe it.
“I find vodka bottles stashed all over the house. I mean, she doesn’t get crazy or anything. She just takes a nip now and then. I mean, her life… She doesn’t have much quality of life right now, so who am I to judge if that makes it easier to cope. But it can make her imagination get the better of her.” He leaned even closer. “You know what I mean?”
I stepped back and pivoted toward the stairs to the third floor. “No, I’m not sure what you mean. Perhaps you think I was drunk too when I saw the pirate in the hallway the other night and smelled the wisteria today.” And with that, I ran up the stairs, wanting to get far away from this man.
I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
But I paused at the top of the steps, smiling a little. That was one of my mother’s many sayings. I could almost hear Will’s low chuckle and his deep voice saying, “Another of your motherisms.”
My chest ached. Miss you so much, sweetheart.
Huh, interesting. I almost never used endearments with Will, but that wasn’t the interesting part. Calling him sweetheart without having my usual mini-panic attack—that was interesting.
Despite the fact that I’d requested the use of the boat at dinner last night, it was gone by the time I got up the next morning. As was Bruce.
But Jack was available to shuttle us to the mainland, when we’d finished our breakfast—which turned out to be whole wheat pancakes. There was no butter or syrup, but Greta had produced a jar of homemade strawberry jam.
My tummy happy for a change, I loaded the smaller duffel bag with the dogs’ service vests, a travel water dish and a couple of bottles of water. Jack took me and the dogs to the little park in Dahlia.
I checked my car. It was fine.
Then I sat down at a picnic table to kill time until Jack brought Ellie to me. With the dogs napping in the shade under the table, I called Becky.
“Hey, girl,” she answered, sounding cheerful.
“Hey, yourself. How are the rug rats?” Her infant twins were my godchildren, and I adored them.
“They’re great. Winnie’s gained back the weight he lost last month.”
I swallowed hard, trying not to remember those harrowing hours when we weren’t sure if her son would survive.
“I can’t believe you’ve started using my nickname for him. You’re gonna scar him for life. It was just supposed to be a secret name between him and me.”
Becky laughed, and I pictured her in my mind’s eye—dark curls bobbing around her heart-shaped face. “Don’t worry. I only call him that when talking to you.”
“In other words, you’re jerking my chain.”
“Exactly. Hey, are you keeping track of this storm?” she asked, her voice now serious. “It’s up to a Cat-1 and it might go to a Cat-2.”
I strained my brain to remember the wind speeds of the different categories. I was pretty sure Cat-2 meant sustained winds up to a hundred and ten, with gusts even higher.
Dang it, hurricane season was supposed to be close to over.
“My host is keeping an eye on good ole Pierre, or I should say an ear. No TVs on the island, but he has a weather radio.” I paused. “Um, speaking of my host, you got a few minutes?”
“Until one or the other of my darlings wakes up, I do.”
I took a deep breath and told her about seeing Bruce and his lover on the beach. “I’m not sure what to do, Beck.”
“I don’t know that you need to do anything. If you weren’t living with the client at the moment, you wouldn’t even know about it.”
“True.”
“Does he seem to care about Ellie?”
I had to stop and think about that. “Yes, I think he does, in a kind of condescending way. But he’s not around much.”
“The way I see it, this could be a case of a total jerk taking advantage of his wife’s disability so he can screw around on the side. Or it could be a man staying loyal to his disabled wife, while trying to create some semblance of a life for himself. We really don’t have enough information to judge which is reality.”
“Well, coming down on the jerk side of things, he told me last night that Ellie drinks.”
“And you don’t believe him?”
I hadn’t at the time… “I haven’t seen any signs of her drinking.” The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I flashed to yesterday’s lunch. Ellie had been more animated, downright flamboyant at times. Could she have been a little drunk?
“Look, I know it’s hard to do, when you’re staying with them, and that detective part of you is no doubt vibrating by now.”
I chuckled. “You know me too well.”
“Just my take on it, but you probably ought to stay out of their business.”
I sighed. “You’re right, as usual.”
She purred into the phone. “That’s my preening-at-the-compliment noise.”
I laughed out loud. “You are also a nut.”
“Hazelnut.”
“My favorite kind.”
“Gotta go. The kiddies are stirring.”
“Give them a hug and a kiss from me, and say hi to Andy for me.”
“What? I can’t give him a hug and a kiss?”
“Of course, but don’t say they’re from me.”
The laughter in her voice as we signed off left me in a much better mood.
I vowed to take her advice and stay out of the Burkes’ business.
Ms. Snark snorted. We’ll see how long that lasts.
I wanted to argue with her, but decided not to bother.
I wasn’t a buttinsky by nature, but I also hated seeing people getting hurt.