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The next afternoon, I was working at the counter. Johnny had stopped by to see if we had any leftover cinnamon rolls from the morning and I was more than happy to bag them up. Granny was getting ready to head over and talk to Ralph about the building and that pile of stuff. According to her posse, Stan and Fred had done door-to-door canvassing to see if they could find the owners. It appeared to be things people had offloaded at garage sales or dropped off at our donation center. There was no telling how it got into Ralph's building.
Johnny sat there in amazement as I filled him in. But before we could fully get into it, Echo wandered in.
Johnny placed his hands on the side of his face and shouted, "ECHO! Echo... echo..." across the store like he was standing on the lip of the Grand Canyon.
Echo's lips pursed. "Never gets old, Johnny."
I'm pretty sure if Johnny wasn't his bread and butter right now, he'd leave in an insulted huff. But he stayed. He was still a little green around the gills, but on his feet.
"Glad to see you're alive," I said.
He shook his head, bitterly. "They said it was just a 24-hour flu," he grumbled, "but I still think I was poisoned." He pointed to the menu board. "Could I get a peppermint tea?"
"Sure thing," I replied, trying to be gentle as I could be. The guy was not exactly a "peppermint tea" kind of person, so I knew he was feeling even rougher than he looked, which was pretty bad.
I handed over the bag of pastries to Johnny and he opened them up. "Want one of these?" he asked, pulling out one of the gooey, yeasty rolls.
The sight of them pushed Echo right to the edge of hurling in the middle of the shop floor. "No, man. I'm still not quite myself."
Johnny shrugged as he bit in. "Suit yourself."
I grabbed a cup and filled it with the hot water, then set the tealeaves to brew. "Well, I'm glad you're okay," I said. "Feeling sick isn't any fun."
But suddenly, Tango came storming in. Echo winced at the noise.
Meanwhile, I winced because Tango pointed his finger at my face angrily and started shouting at me for absolutely no reason. "What is this I hear about you and Johnny leading ghost tours? And that you planted someone in the hardware store pretending to be a ghost?"
"DUDE! Chill out. That is so not what happened. It was a break in," said Johnny. He leaned forward to clarify. "And not like the 1980s cult classic break dance movie."
Tango folded his meaty arms across his chest, ready to throw down his facts. "Really? Because I heard from your tourists that they saw a ghost."
"No," I said, handing Echo his tea. "It was probably just some teenager causing trouble. There was a window with a broken latch. And even when Ralph fixed it, the wire latch popped off by itself and the window opened."
I had meant it just to mean that the window was not secure and someone could have easily broken in. However, Tango and Echo looked at one another with excitement, their animosity forgotten for just a moment.
"A poltergeist," Echo said, reverently. "A real, live poltergeist." He pulled out his phone. "I gotta post this on the Most Haunted message board." He paused to double-check with me. "And you actually witnessed this?"
"Um, I was standing there, but I don't think—" I started to say.
But Echo cut me off, turning his back on me to discuss this new information with Tango. "She's been there for both of the instances in the hardware store. The paint pans AND the window latch. The psychic activity in that site is off the charts..."
Tango pointed at Echo. He was practically trembling with excitement. "Don't you dare try to claim this discovery. This is MY story. I'm the one who asked her about it while you were ordering..." he sniffed in the general direction of Echo's drink, "...a peppermint herbal tea? Seriously, dude."
"I'm feeling rough, OKAY?" Echo regathered his dignity. "Listen, it was MY tour group that saw the face in the first place and MY employee who was there to witness the latch moving itself."
I corrected him. "I'm not your employee."
"You were on the tour taking care of my customers."
"But—"
"And I hear you were carrying my ghost box."
"Yes, but—"
"Then you are a part of my team."
Johnny raised his hands in celebration. "Welcome to the team, Paige!"
"No, I'm not—"
Echo took out a wad of cash from his pocket. "Here's the tips Johnny gave me from last night. I wasn't there, so these are yours." He shoved them into the Bitter Beans tip jar and mashed them around in the money already there.
I sighed, defeated. Even if I fished the dollars out, there was no way of knowing if I would be over or under paying Echo, and I sure as heck wasn't going to short myself or Granny for this idiot. "Fine," I said.
"I need to know everything you saw," said Echo, urgently.
"I already told you," I replied.
"This is going to be the find of the century!" he exclaimed.
Tango leaned toward me and threatened, "You can either tell us what happened or we can ask Ralph for his side of this story."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't go bothering Ralph with this," I cautioned. "He's old and mad enough over all the crap whoever broke in brought."
"Wait. There was stuff brought in there?" Tango asked.
"Yeah, a bunch of old photo albums and antiques some people sold at a garage sale."
Echo and Tango suddenly faced each other, electrified. It made me wonder if they had always been sworn enemies. They were both buzzing to share this discovery with the other.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Echo asked.
"That the poltergeist brought us the artifacts he wants us to look at in order to bring him peace?" Tango replied, his eyes sparkling with the thrill of this find.
"EXACTLY."
They both turned to me in unison.
"We need to see those albums," Echo stated.
"It is a matter of paranormal security," Tango pressed.
If these two idiots were determined to believe that some otherworldly specter had grabbed a bunch of stuff out of a donation box and left it for them, so be it. I tried really hard not to roll my eyes. "I'll see if Ralph gave them to Granny or what."
Tango held up his palm. "I get to see them first," Tango stated for the record.
I guess the moment of unity brought about by a common goal had been shattered.
"Excuse me??" Echo retorted. He tried to square off with me. "You're MY employee."
"They are GRANNY'S artifacts now and you can both look at them at the same time," I snapped.
Echo and Tango were taken aback, but that, too, only lasted a moment. They exchanged a dark glance, like each of them was blaming the other for the fact I wasn't a ray of frickin' helpful sunshine.
"I should get to work," Tango said.
"And I," added Echo.
They kept their eye on each other as they walked out, as if waiting for one of them to double-back and get dibs on the ghost junk.
Johnny shook his head sadly. "They should both really explore the idea of living in the moment. Those two dudes are miserable."
I heard Echo mutter, "I'll see them first..."