Before Wesley answered the question, the kitchen door opened, and Kelly Morelli, Ian’s sister, popped her head into the doorway and said, “Hello.” She stepped into the house and closed the door behind her.
“Hi, everyone. Excuse me for dropping in, but I saw Ian’s car out front, and I figured he was back from the hospital.”
“I got here a few minutes ago,” Ian explained.
“Morning, Kelly,” Danielle and Walt chorused, still sitting at the kitchen table.
“Kiwi,” Connor called out from his highchair.
Kelly walked to her nephew and, in doing so, stepped into Wesley.
“Clown!” Connor called out, pointing to his aunt.
Wesley quickly stepped away from Kelly and gave a shiver. “That was gross.”
Kelly frowned at her nephew. “Why did you call me clown?”
Connor pointed to the ghost Kelly couldn’t see and babbled something she couldn’t understand.
Kelly turned to her brother and shook her head, confused at her nephew’s ramblings, but she quickly changed course and asked, “How is Lily? How is my niece? When can I see them?”
“Like I told you on the phone, not until this afternoon. Mama and Emily Ann are sleeping.”
Walt stood up. “Kelly, can I get you some coffee?”
“That would be great.” Kelly flashed Walt a smile.
“Go ahead and sit down.” Walt walked to the cabinet to get another coffee cup while Kelly made her way to an empty chair at the table. In doing so, she again walked through the ghost.
“Stop doing that!” Wesley shouted. “No one is even listening to what I want to ask you. Everyone keeps walking through me.”
Wesley vanished, and then Connor said, “Clown!”
“What is he talking about?” Kelly asked as she sat down and turned back to her nephew. Connor pointed to where the ghost had been, while slamming his other hand on the highchair tray.
Walt handed Kelly a cup of coffee while Ian distracted his son. By the time Walt sat back down in his chair, Connor seemed to have forgotten the ghost, and Kelly turned her attention to her brother.
“Why didn’t you guys call me last night?” Kelly asked Ian.
“It was late. I didn’t want to wake you up.”
“How late?” Kelly asked.
Ian shrugged. “I don’t know, after ten?”
Walt and Danielle exchanged glances but didn’t comment. It hadn’t been that late.
“I really wanted to be there,” Kelly whined.
“Sorry, Kelly, but I didn’t even think about it. Lily’s water broke, and at the time she wasn’t having contractions, so she was a little worried, especially because she wasn’t due for three weeks. We just took off to the hospital.”
Kelly turned her attention to Danielle. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“We were kind of busy too,” Danielle said. “We had two infants and a toddler to get ready for bed.”
“Come on, one of you couldn’t have taken a few minutes to call me?”
“It really wasn’t my place. It was Ian and Lily’s news.”
“Oh poop. That is ridiculous,” Kelly grumbled.
“Kelly, we called you as soon as the baby arrived,” Ian reminded her.
“I wanted to be there during the labor.”
“I told you Lily was not comfortable with it.”
“But Lily said she would think about it,” Kelly countered.
“No. I think you’re the one who told her to think about it for a couple of weeks after she said no.”
“And she said she would think about it.”
“And she did. The answer was no.”
“She didn’t think about it for two weeks. I just asked the other day.”
Ian rolled his eyes. “She really didn’t have a chance to give it two weeks, considering the baby came a couple of days after you asked her.”
“Which would have been plenty of time to allow me to be there. I can’t believe you would do that.”
“Kelly, the important thing is Lily and the baby are both healthy,” Danielle interjected. “And frankly, I understand Lily not wanting anyone in the labor room with her but Ian and the medical staff.”
“You had Brian and Heather with you when you had the twins,” Kelly reminded her.
Danielle chuckled. “I really didn’t have a choice. It was sorta a surprise, and I needed their help.”
Kelly slumped back in the chair, the mug of coffee cupped between her hands. “I just am so disappointed. I really wanted to be there.”
“Why?” Walt asked.
Kelly glanced up at Walt and then back down at her coffee. She didn’t answer immediately. But finally, she said, “I thought it would be a good way to bond with…with Lily.”
“You wanted to bond with Lily?” Danielle asked.
“I thought if I was there with her and Ian during such an important time that I’d share something with them that they didn’t share with anyone else.” Kelly sipped her coffee.
Ian let out a sigh and reached over, giving his sister a pat on the knee. “I love you, Kelly, but someday when you have a kid, I don’t want to be in the labor room with you.”
Kelly glanced at her brother and wrinkled her nose. “Ew, I wouldn’t want you there.”
Ian arched his brows at his sister, holding them in that position as if waiting for her response. After a moment, Kelly chuckled and reluctantly said, “I guess I understand why Lily didn’t want me there.”
On Saturday morning, Joe Morelli walked into the chief’s office and found Brian Henderson sitting at the desk at the computer. Brian glanced up briefly from the monitor and gave Joe a nod and a quick hello before looking back at the screen.
“What are you doing in here?” Joe strolled to the desk and then glanced down at a slip of paper sitting next to the keyboard. Sprawled across the paper in handwriting he recognized as Brian’s was the name Wesley Sadler.
“Just looking up something.”
Joe reached down and picked up the small piece of paper, giving it a closer look. “Wesley Sadler, that name sounds familiar. Who is it?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
Joe dropped the paper back on the desk. “What for?”
“Just doing a favor for a friend.” Before Joe could ask another question, Brian said, “Hey, Heather told me Lily’s baby came early. You’re an uncle again.”
“That’s what I’ve been told. I guess her water broke last night, and they went to the hospital. The baby came early this morning. Kelly was a little upset.”
“Upset, why? I heard the baby’s healthy despite being early, and the mother is doing good.”
“She really wanted to be in the delivery room during the birth.”
“Really? Lily was okay with that?”
Joe shrugged. “She just talked to Ian about it the other day. No one knew it was going to come this early.”
“The most important thing is the baby and mother are fine.”
Joe was about to say something else when his name was called through the intercom to come to the front office. As soon as Joe left, Brian resumed his search.
After a few minutes, he found an obituary for a Wesley Sadler from Frederickport, who had died in January. It included a headshot of the deceased. Brian screenshot the image, AirDropped it to his phone, and then messaged it to Heather, asking, “Is this him?”
A few minutes later, Heather called Brian.
“That looks like him. What did you find out?” Heather asked.
“I’m just starting. Before I go down the rabbit hole, I wanted to make sure I was chasing the right rabbit. I’ll call you when I get more information.”
“Thanks, Brian.”
“Did you go back home?”
“I’m over at Chris’s house. I figure if Clay follows me here, at least I’ll have another medium to help me deal with him.”
Brian Henderson told Joe he was going to Heather’s house for lunch when he left the police department that afternoon. He didn’t bother telling Joe he was actually going over to Chris Johnson’s house, where Heather was spending the afternoon.
Early in his relationship with Heather, he’d occasionally felt pangs of jealousy over Heather’s relationship with Chris Johnson, aka Chris Glandon. But who could blame him? Chris, who was Heather’s friend, boss, and fellow medium, was also ridiculously rich and had a face and body that drew the attention of women and gay men.
Heather was also much younger than Brian. Theirs was an age gap that often drew criticism. From the outside, people often saw nothing more than a man in a midlife crisis dating a woman young enough to be his daughter, with some wondering if he intended to start a family at his age, or if Heather understood he’d be more like a grandfather to their hypothetical children than a father.
Brian had no desire to remarry, and had already had a vasectomy, while Heather had no desire to marry or have children. Brian, a no-nonsense seasoned cop, found an unexpected comfort in the quirky company of an offbeat medium, who, unlike other younger women he had dated, never tried to impress him or anyone else, and despite looking like a member of a witches’ coven, she held a rigid code of ethics he respected.
When he arrived at Chris’s house, he found Heather and Chris sitting on the back porch, eating pizza and watching the ocean while Hunny, Chris’s pit bull, and Bella napped nearby.
Chris offered Brian a beer but was reminded Brian had to go back to work. Instead of a beer, Chris brought Brian a glass of iced tea and offered him some pizza, which he accepted.
They chatted briefly about the newest resident on Beach Drive, Emily Ann Bartley, and then turned their attention to the information Brian had learned about the ghost.
“He was an insurance agent, lived in Frederickport, but died in California this past January. He was at some work seminar when he had a heart attack. Married, no kids. They brought the body back to Frederickport, and he’s buried in the local cemetery. That’s about all I could find on him.”
“Why hasn’t he moved on?” Chris wondered.
“And why did he go to Marlow House?” Heather asked.
“If this guy has been hanging out at the cemetery, wouldn’t Eva and Marie know him?” Brian asked.
“Yeah, but we can’t ask them until they get back,” Heather explained.
“Well, at least you know who he is,” Brian said.
“I’ll tell Danielle about him when Chris and I go over to Marlow House in a little bit. We’re going to watch the twins while they go over to the hospital to see Lily and the new baby. When they get back, Chris and I are going to the hospital to see them. Want to meet us over there?”
“I’d love to, but Joe’s planning to go over there with Kelly, and I promised to be back at the station. The chief’s not working this weekend.”
“I bet you’re glad the chief is back to work,” Chris said.
“Clay, as a replacement, made us appreciate the chief more,” Brian said with a snort.
“I don’t even want to think about Clay,” Heather groaned.
Chris looked at Heather. “You’re going to have to face Clay sooner or later. I know what it’s like being stalked by a ghost. He’s not going to give up until he tells you what he wants.”
“Isn’t stalk the same as haunt?” Brian asked.
“I guess it is.” Chris turned his attention back to Heather. “But my point being, let’s find out what he wants from you. After we come back from the hospital, let’s go over to your house, and I’ll stay with you. Maybe he’ll show up.”