Ghostly Town (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 4) Read online

  I’ve never been scared of anything more than I was scared right now at this moment. This thing, whatever it was, had the power to snuff me out of existence. I did not doubt that.

  “Ignore it,” I said to Chloe. “And put your other hand on the medium’s left shoulder and I’ll put mine on his right. We will be the ones taking over tonight.”

  Chloe put her hand on the left shoulder while I put mine on the right and as soon as I did, the darkness flooded with light.

  Fourteen

  I instinctively pulled my hand away from Chloe and found myself in the basement again, standing next to her. By the look on her face, she was back too.

  Then I saw something else. I saw that red hue Rebecca had talked about. Then I saw something even more sinister than that. Ghostly faces started to come out of the walls.

  “Get out!” They screeched in unison.

  “Run!” I told the others as we made our way out of there. I helped Chloe a few times. Kane and Mike were the last ones out, and they shut the door behind them.

  Then we ran up the stairs.

  “This is crazy!” Jacob said, sounding out of breath. A few times he even dropped his camera.

  Once we were safely upstairs on the ground floor, we stopped and caught up on our breathing.

  “What was that back there?” Mike asked both me and Chloe.

  “I’ll tell you later,” I said. “You guys won’t believe what we saw.”

  “We were starting to get worried,” Kane said. “I’ve never seen you zone out like that.”

  “Thankfully, Chloe does it all the time, so we reassured him that it was perfectly normal,” Rachel said.

  “I don’t know about that,” I said. “It definitely didn’t feel normal to me.”

  “Me either,” Chloe said softly. “That thing we saw? What could it have been?”

  The crowd was starting to leave. Apparently, the séance was over.

  “Wait here,” I said. “I have to find out what actually happened.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Chloe said. “I have to know, too.”

  “Why don’t we all go?” Jacob said. He looked around nervously. “I mean, I’m pretty sure there were some pissed off spirits down there. We’re sitting ducks out here.”

  “Maybe because we’re not supposed to be here at all?” Mike said.

  “We should take this stuff back to the van,” Rachel offered. She looked like she was about to fall over from the heavy backpack she was carrying.

  “Good idea,” Mike said.

  “Kane, you can help them out,” I said. “Chloe and I will be back in no time.”

  “I’m coming, too,” Rebecca said.

  Kane reluctantly helped the ghost hunters pack up. Whether they had caught anything on their equipment remained to be seen. But I was sure that what Chloe and I had experienced was the reality of the situation, and it was a scary one.

  The owner of the inn was busy saying goodbye to people. Chloe and I stood back while Rebecca offered to go into the séance room to check if there was any dead body there. I wanted to go with her but I didn’t have a ticket.

  Mere minutes felt like hours while we waited for Rebecca to come back. When she finally did, I immediately gave her a questioning look.

  “No dead body. And the only ghost in there is Madeline’s. So whatever you guys did while you were zoned out must have worked.”

  I relayed the message to Chloe.

  “Good,” she said. “Now let’s get out of here. I’m starting to get dizzy.”

  It made sense. Chloe was sensitive to psychic impressions and right now we were surrounded by people giving off psychic vibes. I thanked the universe that my gift was just seeing and talking to ghosts. I didn’t know how I would handle it if I was constantly bombarded with psychic information that I had no interest in. No wonder Chloe was so reserved and skittish.

  We made our way through the crowd before the inn owner could spot us. The last thing I needed was a lecture from her on how right she was. If she only knew…

  We met up with Kane and the rest of the ghost hunters at the parking lot behind the inn. There were people walking around, going back to their cars. I heard a few times words like “spooky” and “creepy” being used. It was better than them talking about yet another dead medium.

  Once we were by the Ghostly Hunters van, with a quite amusing logo that got more than few comments from the passing crowd, Chloe and I were finally ready to tell the rest of the gang what exactly had happened.

  Once we were done, everyone looked like they had just seen a ghost. Even Rebecca looked a bit shocked.

  “I tried reaching you, but I couldn’t,” she said. “I’m so sorry, Meredith. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t thought to make contact with the medium…”

  “It’s all right, Rebecca.”

  “I was filming the whole time, but from the sounds of it, most of the action took place on another plane. Am I getting that right?” Jacob said.

  I nodded. “I guess so. Well, except for that last bit.” I turned to Rebecca. “Did you see them at the end?”

  She nodded her ghostly head. “Yup.”

  “Rebecca saw them, too,” I informed the crowd. “So if you were still filming at the end there, that’s your best shot of capturing something on camera.”

  Mike turned toward Chloe. “Did you get anything we can use?”

  Chloe shook her head. “I experienced all the things that Meredith just talked about. It was just utter darkness. Of course, I felt a malevolent energy. And that thing at the end? If I didn’t know any better, I would say it was probably a demon…”

  “Maybe it was,” Rachel said. “Maybe we should bring in a priest to perform some kind of exorcism?”

  “I’ve never encountered actual demons in all my years of ghost hunting,” I said. “I’m not saying that they don’t exist, but all the ‘evil’ entities I’ve encountered ended up being dead people who were still earthbound for one reason or another.”

  “That didn’t look like a dead person,” Chloe said. “It looked like a monster.”

  “It was scary looking, that’s for sure,” I agreed. “And it felt powerful. But maybe that’s because the spirits worked in unison. Maybe they were trying to project fear to scare us away?”

  “Maybe,” Chloe said but she didn’t look convinced. She looked shaken to the core by what she saw. “I think I need a long shower after that.”

  Rachel perked up. “You better take a cleansing bath,” she said. “I’ve got a new mix of herbs that should take all that negative goo right off.”

  “If you say so,” Chloe said.

  “We should probably get going,” Mike said. “It’s getting late.”

  “Make sure to call us if you have anything on tape,” I reminded them.

  “Good luck going back in there,” Jacob said. “You couldn’t pay me to spend a night in that place.”

  Mike laughed at that. “We’ve stayed in plenty of haunted hotels,” he said.

  “That’s different. Those ghosts didn’t kill people!” Jacob said.

  We waved goodbye as the ghost hunters drove off.

  “That was scary,” Kane said. “I was this close to putting a stop to whatever you were doing.”

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t. Because I have a feeling if you had, the medium at tonight’s séance would be dead.”

  “So what’s next? You stopped one death, but how are you planning on stopping the next one? Chloe didn’t look like she was looking forward to making this a regular thing.”

  “Neither am I,” I said. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll try to do some research on the town. There must be some reason why they made this town their home.”

  “Maybe they were attracted by all the mediums calling out for spirits?” Kane offered.

  “That makes sense,” I said. “But there must be something more. Why are they so angry? Why are they so bent on causing harm?”

  “That’s a puzzle f
or another day. Right now, I’m ready for a good night’s sleep.”

  Rebecca went ahead of us to check on Charles. I ran into a few spirits on my way up. I told them that tomorrow I was going to make a list of all their grievances and that we would work from there. And to think that I was doing all of this work for free. If only ghosts carried cash on them.

  The next morning, I woke up from a blissful night of sleep. Even I was surprised how well-rested I was. I couldn’t remember any nightmares at all.

  “That’s strange,” I said as I got up.

  Once Kane asked me what in the world I was talking about, he informed me that he had a good night of sleep as well.

  “Maybe whatever you did yesterday worked?” he said. “Maybe they won’t hurt anyone else?”

  I laughed at that. “If only. I don’t think it’s that simple. I bet we pissed them off even more. I was thinking, maybe we should go to that church after all.”

  “You’re not being serious?” Kane said.

  “I meant with the ghost hunters,” I said. “I’m not going there by myself again.”

  “Good.”

  After a quick breakfast, I gathered all the ghosts I ran into in a private corner of the inn. The lady with the ghost cat looked annoyed and left as soon as she saw the gathering of ghosts that was taking place. I had a notepad and pen in hand.

  “Okay people, one by one, tell me everything you remember about your earthly existence and tell me what I can do to help you.”

  One by one, the ghosts told me their sob stories. Some of them actually did bring a tear to my eye, but I quickly wiped it away because I simply did not have time for that.

  Thankfully, most of them remembered their names. The few that didn’t, remembered other things I could use to work out who they had been while they were still alive. Most of their requests dealt with informing any of their living relatives about what really happened to them. A few even talked about hidden treasures they left behind somewhere in their houses.

  The last to come up was the young woman that had taken care of Barry.

  “I…I’m not sure if you can help me,” she said carefully.

  “There’s no one else around. Just say it. I can’t help you if I don’t know what your situation is. Why don’t we start with your name? Do you remember it?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Mary. Mary Wellsworth. But please don’t look me up.”

  “Why not? How am I supposed to help you if I don’t?”

  “I don’t know if you can help me,” she finally said. She had her ghostly face turned away from me, as if she was embarrassed to even be looked at. “I did a bad thing, and I’m not sure there’s anything good waiting for me in the afterlife.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I…I jumped off a bridge. It was all so trivial once I found myself still alive in this form. A man I thought I loved was marrying another woman and was stringing me along. I was so heartbroken that I found myself walking to the bridge without even realizing it. I only realized what I had done when I was staring down into the water below. I thought how simple it would be to just jump and have all my problems go away. But now I’m not so sure. I thought there would be blissful nothingness after death, but it appears my mother had been right all along. There is life after death. But is there a hell for people like me, too?”

  “Over the years, I’ve run into a few suicides who were afraid that they were going to hell. I helped them move on. Their door of light opened and they looked delighted as they stepped through. So unless some kind of trickery is involved, I don’t think there’s a hell for people like you out there. I think the hell was actually the life you were living. I don’t think anyone but you can judge you for your decisions. They didn’t live the life you lived. They didn’t feel the things you felt.”

  “Thank you for saying that,” she said.

  “And besides, I’m pretty sure you’ll get a few extra points for taking care of Barry all this time.”

  She laughed. “Maybe. But that’s not why I did it.”

  “You did it because you’re a good person,” I said.

  Then I saw it. A door of light opened up behind her.

  She turned around slowly. Ghostly tears streamed down her face. She looked radiant and alive again in its glow.

  “It’s so beautiful,” she said.

  “It’s all there for you. All you have to do is step through.”

  “Thank you,” she said and then turned to go. And then she and the door of light disappeared together.

  I felt a bit euphoric, as I did every time I helped a lost soul move on. I just wished that was the only thing I had to worry about. I had a feeling that the cabal of spirits that were gathered in the basement and elsewhere weren’t about to stop what they were doing. And I needed a way to stop them. I didn’t think that doors of light were going to do the trick for these types of spirits, but I guess that remained to be seen.

  Fifteen

  “They got something,” Kane said when he found me sitting by the fire. When he saw all the writing I had done, his eyes widened. “Busy morning?”

  “Something like that,” I said. “So who found what?”

  “Well, not exactly found per se, more like captured. Jacob sounded pretty excited on the phone. They want us to go over to their place and see for ourselves.”

  “I hope this isn’t going to be a waste of time,” I said as I got up to go.

  “That’s right, I almost forgot. Ghosts are a natural part of your life. For the rest of us, not so much.”

  “Yeah, yeah, but first let’s find Rebecca and Charles.”

  “They’re missing? Again?”

  “Not exactly. They asked for permission to get lost, but I think they’ll want to be there for this.”

  I looked around the inn. Kane accompanied me, even though he wasn’t going to be of much help in looking for the duo. I ran into someone worse than a ghost: the inn owner.

  “Did you hear what didn’t happen last night?” She said, obviously proud of herself for being right.

  “Maybe you were just lucky this time. Let me guess, there’s another séance tonight?”

  “As a matter of fact, there is. And I would suggest that you stay away. It seems the only time someone drops dead is when you and your boyfriend are there.”

  “Ma’am, are you trying to imply something?” Kane stepped forward and asked.

  “Not at all. But I would like the two of you to make your visit to this town short. Detective Oswald says a lot of things I don’t agree with, but that’s not one of them.”

  “This is how you treat paying guests?” I said.

  “I saw the two of you snooping around yesterday with that ghost hunting group. I’m not sure what you thought you were doing, but I won’t have that kind of thing under my roof. I expect you to pack up and leave by end of the day. I’ll reimburse you for the days that you already paid for. Good day.”

  And with that, the inn owner/receptionist walked away with her head held high.

  “That woman has a screw loose,” I said. To say that I was livid would be an understatement. “What gives her the right?”

  “I don’t like it either, babe, but it is her inn. She’s the boss. I guess maybe we should start packing up our stuff?”

  “As if we have that much to begin with. But fine. We’ll throw it in the van. I just hope that we can find a place to stay on such short notice.”

  Kane smiled. “There’s always the van,” he said with a glint in his eye.

  “Absolutely not,” I said. “I’m not spending another night in that thing.”

  “C’mon, it wasn’t that bad. I thought you liked it. Didn’t you think it was romantic?”

  “Romantic? More like uncomfortable and not to mention scary. There’s a reason I don’t go camping.”

  Kane laughed at that. “You’re scared of the woods at night? And you call yourself a ghost hunter?”

  “Shut up,” I said jokingly.

  We went
up and packed our things. I left a note on the dresser for Rebecca basically telling her we were on our way to meet the ghost hunters. While Kane took our bags to his van, I got my money back from the inn owner.

  “Thank you for choosing the Ghostly Inn. I hope you had a nice stay,” the inn owner said with a fake smile on her face once our transaction was complete.

  “Bite me,” I spat back and turned my back to her.

  Once I was in the car, I remembered the piece of paper that was in my pocket.

  “I think I just did something stupid,” I said to Kane and told him what I had just said to the inn owner.

  “I kind of like this side of you. And you can’t say she didn’t deserve it,” he said.

  “That’s not it. But most of the ghosts I’m helping out hang out at the inn. I guess I can tell Rebecca to inform them of the situation. But first I have to find her. And if she comes to the inn looking for me, I won’t be there.”

  “I’m sure she’ll turn up. She always does. Besides, you left that note. Maybe the other ghosts will know where we’re headed as well?” Kane said.

  He was right. Besides, even without the note, Rebecca always had a way of finding me. That was one of the benefits of her being a ghost, I guess.

  Once we pulled up in front of the Victorian, we were immediately greeted by an excited Rachel.

  “You won’t believe this,” she said as we got out of the van. “They actually did it this time! We have video and audio evidence of spirit activity! We’re going to be rich!”

  “I would temper your expectations,” I said. “In this age of super realistic fakes, I doubt anyone will take what you have seriously.”

  “Is she always this gloomy?” Rachel asked Kane.

  Kane laughed. “This is actually her on a good day,” he joked.