Day Shift
Page 35

Not everyone came back, of course. Bobo’s girlfriend Aubrey hadn’t, and she’d been a murder victim. It was a fact that those who’d met violent deaths were much more likely to walk forever as ghosts. Joe had figured he’d see Aubrey striding across the barren land to reach the river or coming into the shop to play her irritating flirtation games.
But meeting up with the ghost of her murderer had been a much more painful prospect. Luckily Joe hadn’t seen that one, either.
Joe made himself look at the faces forming nearby. Mildred, well, that made sense. And he recognized the homeless man who’d roamed around Midnight for ten years, attracted by the town but scared of it, too. He saw a Native American woman who had something urgent to say, and she muttered it through Manfred’s lips . . . but in a language they couldn’t understand. Olivia’s eyes showed white all around at hearing Manfred speak in tongues, as it must have seemed to her.
Then Rachel Goldthorpe said, “I’m sorry he’s giving you trouble.” The other three hadn’t ever heard her voice, but they never doubted this was the dead woman.
Manfred was even sitting like someone else, Joe realized. His shoulders were slumped with age and illness, and he was a little back from the table as though there were more of him to accommodate. She must have been a heavy woman, Joe thought.
Silence reigned, and Joe thought, None of us know what to do. We all thought Manfred would question the spirit, if she appeared. They hadn’t foreseen it was possible that Rachel might inhabit the psychic.
Joe said, “Rachel, where did you hide the jewelry?” He was not frightened of the dead, but he was uncertain how to handle the situation, which was a first for him.
Rachel said, via Manfred, “In Morton’s study. Where Lewis will never look. He and his dad never got along.” She shook Manfred’s head sadly.
“Where in the study?” Joe asked, trying not to sound impatient.
“Inside . . .” It was like a cell phone had dropped the call.
“Inside what?” Olivia snapped.
“I see the world . . .” Rachel whispered, and then Manfred was back in his body. His eyes opened. He looked from one of them to another. “I feel like something happened,” he said. “Tell me what it was.”
“Are ghosts always irritating and vague? Is that part of dying?” Olivia said.
Chuy released her hand. “Olivia,” he said reprovingly.
“Well, it was exasperating,” she said. “At least now we know which room.”
“Could someone tell me what happened?” Manfred looked from face to face.
Joe said, “Rachel paid us a visit. She said she’d put the jewelry in Morton’s study, because Lewis and Morton didn’t get along. Inside something.”
“Inside what?”
“She didn’t tell us that. We lost the connection before she could specify. She said something about the world. How do you feel?”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever been taken over like that,” Manfred said. “Interesting experience, and a little too personal for me.” He seemed excited about the possession, rather than exhausted or terrified, which was what Joe would have expected.
“That was an interesting experience for all of us,” Chuy said. “I thought we’d be here for hours trying to summon a spirit, and she popped into you like a hand into a puppet.”
“I’m not sure I like that analogy,” Manfred said. “But I’ll accept it. I was definitely somewhere else.”
Olivia stared at Manfred. “I couldn’t do that,” she said. “I couldn’t lose control like that.”
“Then the chances are overwhelmingly good that you won’t,” Manfred said. “Usually, the spirits visit people who are open to the experience. I hate to sound all abracadabra, but it’s true. I have a theory or two about why spirits are so vague.”
“Let’s hear them.” Olivia got up and leaned against the kitchen wall. She seemed too restless to sit any longer.
“I think maybe they lose their hold on specifics about the world, in the first place. If you were in a whole new situation and had no contact with the universe you’d known all your life, you might not remember every little thing, either. If we can talk to a spirit, they’re sticking around because they haven’t reached their final destination, for whatever reason. But they aren’t in the world any longer, so a lot of worldly stuff no longer seems important to them. My alternate theory? They do it to aggravate us. Because if they aggravate us, they’re still important to us and interacting with us and affecting us.”
“Interesting,” said Joe. “In this instance, identifying the room and using the qualifying ‘inside’ may be specific enough. I don’t suppose there’s any way you can just go to the house and tell the daughters that’s where you suspect the jewelry is hidden?”
“No,” Manfred said. “Because they’ll say, ‘How did you know?’ And I’d have to answer one of three things: ‘A little bird told me.’ Or, ‘Your mom’s spirit possessed me and told my friends.’ Or, ‘I know it’s there because I hid it there.’ Guess which one they’d believe?”
“But at least the jewelry would be found, and the case would go away,” Joe said.
“Leaving my reputation ruined. Psychics don’t have much reputation as it is, and you can imagine that my business would sink like a stone if it was widely believed I’d robbed an elderly lady out of her sparklies and then tried to return them when I’d gotten caught out.”