Chapter 2
Glass shattered on the tile floor as the woman tossed her plate at the man but missed.
“She’s giving me ideas,” I said as Dane walked in front of me, keeping me secure from the fray. He was also interrupting my view of the proceedings and forcing us to leave our pizza.
She screamed, and the man ducked for cover as she picked up a chair. Darn, now things were getting good. I wanted to see who won because it definitely looked like the woman had him on the run.
Dane glanced back at me once we made it safely outside. “You are trouble everywhere you go.”
“Me?” I opened the Uber app and scheduled us a ride back to our place in downtown Charleston.
I had us staying in neighboring Airbnb condos in the tourist section, so we had an authentic feel of Charleston.
Also, the place had a spiral staircase in the pictures.
Telling me not to stay at the place with a fancy staircase when it was in budget was worse than passing up a fifty percent off shoe sale. A proper woman did neither.
“What exactly did I do to break up a couple at dinner?” I asked as a blue Chevy Trax slowed at the curb. I checked the information on the app and walked toward it.
Dane’s long legs kept up with me easily. “They probably saw you, and something in their DNA awoke for drama. It’s your aura.”
I rolled my eyes at him, much like he had at me when he first sat down. “Funny. I guess the third time is not the charm.”
“Huh?” he asked after closing my Uber door and getting in on the other side.
I buckled in, making sure not to look at him while I did it. “It’s our third case together, and you’re just as annoying as on our first.”
“Don’t you know? That’s why they pay me extra, princess.”
* * *
“You’re really making us go on a ghost hunt on our first night here?” Dane asked as we walked along a narrow sidewalk toward the large gray ship anchored at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It was just a short Uber trip over a bridge away from the main section of Charleston.
“Yes, but let me stop here and get a picture of the boat.” I snapped a photo quickly, doing my best to get a good view of Charleston in the background. We’d come back with official cameras and get more B-roll footage, but this gave people something to work off.
With the way the moon shone over the waves on the water, the boat gave off an eerie ghost vibe. It was perfect.
Dane scoffed beside me.
“What? You don’t like my shot?” I pulled my phone down and reviewed my images. I liked them.
He shook his head. “Your photos are fine, but your terminology is disrespectful. She’s a ship.”
“Really? Does anyone care?” Dane spent years as a Navy SEAL. He definitely cared, but I cared way more about grinding his gears.
It worked. He turned and strutted off toward the boat, shaking his head. “A boat is for recreational activities. Ships are much larger and used for shipping or military purposes. They deserve respect.”
“It’s 10:30, which means they’ll be boarding us for our tour on the ship soon, so get a move on,” I said even though I was a full pace behind him. “And of course we’re going on the tour. This is where Will died. This boat while on this very tour. Everything begins here.”
Therefore, we would too.
A small group of people had formed a circle next to a long dock that led to the ship. It didn’t look all that sturdy, and I had a moment of concern, but not enough to keep me from it. If the dock broke, it was literally Dane’s job to save me, and he needed to earn his keep.
“What’s our cover?” Dane asked as a man and a woman, each hauling a black trunk behind them, approached the group.
We maintained a short distance away from everyone else. Because we were staying in separate rooms at a large condo association, I hadn’t come up with a cover for why we were here. The simple answer was a couple together on vacation, but thinking about dating Dane made my gut do weird things.
“Let’s just go the newlywed route. It’s worked for us before,” he said as the man greeted our group.
I nodded. “Yeah, fine.”
If he didn’t have a problem being fake married to me, I didn’t have one being his fake wife.
“Hello, everyone. Are you all here for tonight’s paranormal investigation aboard the USS Yorktown?” the man said.
A chorus of confirmations greeted him.
Adrenaline hit my veins, just enough to get me excited about the evening. I loved investigating cases, and this one had so much potential. I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into it.
“Great, let’s get started,” the guide said and led our group onto the dock, over the water, and into the boat… er… ship.
We set up shop in the theater room. Yes, the ship was huge and had a theater onboard. I guess I understood what Dane meant. An entire city on the water. It wasn’t until you were in it that you developed an appreciation for what they’d built and then the men who lived in it.
Our guide and his assistant placed various pieces of equipment along the theater’s staging area as he began his speech. “This ship is actually the fourth vessel to carry the name USS Yorktown.”
“See how he calls it a ship?” Dane whispered in my ear as we moved closer.
I pretended not to hear him.
“The government commissioned this ship in 1943, and it participated in multiple campaigns over the course of its enlistment,” the guide continued.
He gave us an overview of the history of the ship, promised us a tour and time to explore on our own, and then reached for the first piece of equipment behind him.
“This, my friends, is an EMF detector. Has anyone seen one of these before?”
A few people in our group raised their hands.
“Great,” he said, holding it up to the group. A light flashed red and beeped. “It seems the ghosts are making an appearance early tonight.”
We followed the guide through a quick tour of the ship while he also showed us how to use the various equipment.
The death ratio on the USS Yorktown was low, making me skeptical it had a pile of ghosts waiting to kill William, although his EMF detector did beep at various places on the ship. Were they ghosts?
The tour ended back in the theater room with our guides letting participants wander certain parts of the ship on our own. Dane and I both grabbed EMF devices and set out toward the exit of the room.
“Just make sure you stay on the main walkways and don’t leave the ship. Our exit doors are locked to keep others from entering the ship. We’ll have some time to explore the top deck outside when we leave,” the guide yelled at those of us making our way from the room.
We walked out into the main area, and I tried the doorknob of the first room we came to.
Locked.
“Whoa, princess. Let’s not be doing that,” Dane said, trying to stand between me and the door.
I pretended not to hear him. “It’s fine. I’m just testing them.”
“You’re going to be testing us right off this ship,” he said, trying to walk between me and the doors as we made our way in the opposite direction of the other group members.
I paused when our path opened up into three different options. “Why do you guess William was here?”
“He liked ghosts?” Dane said, holding out his EMF device and picking the left option for us.
Another couple from the group passed us, clearly on their way somewhere in particular. How did they remember where things were?
They turned a corner, and I tried another door quickly before Dane stepped in front of it. “He researched many of the city’s haunted stories for his blog.”
“That would have been useful information to have before we started this,” Dane said, walking to the next door before I got there.
What was he all upset about? “I told you about the blog.”
“Not the ghost part. That’s the important part.”
I shrugged, searching for another door or room full of ghosts. “I’m the investigator, and you’re the hired help.”
The muscular, super-hot hired help.
“I hear them talking to me!” a woman yelled back in the direction we came. “They say to get out. Get out now!”
“What the hell?” I asked and turned to walk back the way we came toward the yelling.
At the exit of the theater room, in a red padded chair, a woman with blonde hair sat as if in a trance. In her hands, she had two long rods poking out from sticks where she held them. They flew together in a cross, uncrossed, and then returned.
“We’re all in trouble if we stay here. This is their ship,” she said, her voice sounding far away yet right there.