Chapter 27
Pete
“What?” I exclaimed; not sure I heard him right.
“The sister died there too,” Rino repeated.
“They both died from scarlet fever along with their mother who passed just a week before them.” I finally got the ghost’s name, which was Alice White and her sister, who was called Louise.
Since they didn’t have unique names, it had taken Rino a few hours to find the information, but considering we had the house they’d both died in, he eventually found it.
“But then… Where’s the sister? And why does Alice believe she left with the pearls?
” I questioned. It didn’t make any sense.
Alice acted like she and her sister had just died, she knew nothing about technology and seemed oblivious where most ghosts at least knew what was going on around them from new owners and TV.
The house was hidden away from other houses, making it secluded, which didn’t help Alice at all, but still.
“I’m still working on that. But Pete?”
“Yes?”
“I fear this involves a cursed item.”
“Nope,” I replied. I was not touching that. Na ah. Nope. Not that.
“Pete….” Rino said, and his tone told me it very much would be my problem too.
I gave up and let out a deep breath filled with all of my nopes and will to live. “Why do you believe a cursed item is involved?”
“If someone dies and latches themselves onto an object, like a pearl necklace, then they’ll lie dormant in said necklace until it is removed from the location the curse happened at.”
“You believe that’s why Alice is acting like it happened yesterday? Because she got freed when the necklace was taken?”
“That’s just my theory. But it would explain why the mother and sister aren’t here. The mother cursed it unknowingly, then Alice got the necklace but Louise was the last to own it, having stolen it from her dead sister. I believe both Louise and their mother are cursed to the pearl necklace.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. “Where are we supposed to find it then? Just google cursed necklace and hope for the best?”
“Pete…” he warned. He was getting tired of me acting like a brat. I could tell.
“Fine,” I relented. “I’ll ask Alice more questions when she shows up again. I’ve been alone for two hours now, so it hopefully won’t be long.”
“Keep me updated. I need to know more about the pearls to find the exact ones. Like color or something.”
“I didn’t even realize there were different kinds,” I groaned.
He laughed. “Talk soon.”
I was starting to feel hungry again and quickly ordered a food delivery with my phone.
When Rino had stopped by with my new phone yesterday, he’d brought me food and some toast I ate for breakfast, plus two bottles of water since we had no idea if the water was safe to drink or not.
The new owner wanted to renovate and maybe even remove parts of the house, so we figured she hadn’t bothered with the pipes, not that she was inside for long.
It seemed Alice didn’t appear before the new owner had bought the house, which led me to wonder where those damn pearls had gone.
I stood from the couch and walked into the bathroom to pee. I was glad the toilet at least worked fine, even if there was no soap for me to use. I would need to ask Rino to do another grocery store run for me if I was stuck here for longer. I could possibly bathe here too…
Just as I’d finished relieving myself, Alice popped into the bathroom, startling the shit out of me. “Fuck!” I yelped, tucking my dick away.
“I thought you had left,” she accused with a glare.
I refrained from rolling my eyes at her. “As you can see, I did not, in fact, leave.”
“Yes. I see that.”
I did another breathing exercise and remembered Rino needed information. “I need some details on how the pearls look.”
“Oh. Are there different kinds of pearls?” she seemed truly confused about it.
Not willing to admit I hadn’t known either, I continued. “Yes, there are several. I just need to know the color and their size, maybe how the clasp looked.”
“Well, they were small and off-white in color. The clasp was gold.”
“Thank you, I’ll let Rino know.” It had helped after I’d introduced myself and Rino to Alice. It seemed like she was warming up to us a bit and I felt less and less like I was about to get a picture thrown at me. Which was nice.
Daisy was feeling better after getting hit in the head and Kyle was already out of the hospital, having only a few bruises while Daisy had gotten a nasty concussion.
I was walking back into the living room with Alice behind me as I called Rino. He answered almost immediately. “News?” he asked as a greeting.
“The pearls were off-white and small. The clasp was gold,” I informed him.
“I figured. Seed pearls were popular back then, which will make it harder to track them down, sadly.” I was just about to suggest getting my mom to help, when he said, “hang on, Pete, someone is calling me.” Then he put me on hold and I was forced to wait.
I figured I might as well talk to Alice. “Rino found out how you and your sister died.” I knew this wasn’t a pleasant topic, but she seemed to believe her sister might have killed her, which wasn’t the case.
“Okay? Enlighten me.”
“You died of scarlet fever along with your mother who passed away just a week before you did.”
“I remember that!” She smiled, which was really out of place considering we were talking about how she and her family had died.
But who was I to judge? “Louise got sick first, then Mom, then me. Mom was the first to go and just before she died, she gave me her pearls, telling me she would always be with me if I wore them. She still believed we were young enough to survive it.”
“Was that why you remembered it as Louise killing you?” I questioned, hoping she would be willing to continue talking now that I was finally getting somewhere.
“I never said that. I just remember her taking it off my neck as I died… and then I woke up dead and she was gone, and so was Mom and the necklace.”
I nodded and was just about to ask more when Rino’s voice cut through the phone again. “Pete?”
“I’m here,” I answered.
“So, I believe I’ve found the pearls.”
“What? How?”
“Your mom was the one who called before. She got an assignment from someone who believed they were haunted by a ghost. Guess what she was wearing?”
“The pearls….”
“Yep. Linda told me it seemed suspicious that two women from the Victorian era were following this woman around and causing her trouble if they were her family. We all know that normally those ghosts tend to protect their family line, this wasn’t that.”
“What happened then?”
“Linda is bringing her to you.” He laughed at my lack of response. “Have fun!” Then the bastard hung up on me.
“The thief is coming here? With my mom and sister?” Alice asked warily.
I nodded. “It appears so…”
Three pissed off ghosts, two mediums, and one thief all sat in a living room.
It shouldn’t have sounded like the start of a bad joke, but it did.
Too bad it was my reality. My mom had walked inside the house with confidence as she’d dragged the pearl thief along with her.
We already knew the woman wasn’t a relative, so those pearls had to have been stolen from the house.
We now sat and began our interrogation; the thief just had no idea three ghosts were there too.
“Your name is Nikita, right?” Mom asked, likely wanting to ease the woman into it.
“Yes, I told you when we met,” she snapped, clearly not liking being back here.
Mom simply hummed. “And do you know why I brought you back here?”
Nikita shook her head. “I have no ties to this place.”
Mom pointed at the necklace around her neck. “It appears you do.”
Nikita looked down, even if she couldn’t see the pearls since they sat so high up her neck. She touched them gingerly instead. “These are mine. Passed down through generations.”
“Liar!” Alice roared, flipping the only table in the room, making Nikita jump from the couch.
“Sit down,” I ordered firmly. “We don’t like liars, so tell us why you stole the necklace. We’d also like to know how you even got in here in the first place.”
Nikita seemed to realize she’d lost and she finally admitted, “I was the realtor. I found the necklace in a drawer upstairs and left with it before the new owner showed up. I thought no one would miss it! This house has been empty for years and there are no living relatives!”
“When you took the necklace out of the property, the curse got activated,” Mom explained.
“C-curse?” Nikita stammered.
Mom nodded calmly. “You have three ghosts who are very angry with you, so I would suggest you take it off and hand it over to me.”
Nikita didn’t even hesitate. She quickly unclasped the necklace, handed it to Mom and hurried out the door. She would have a fun time finding her way back home since Mom drove her here.
“What do we do now?” I asked, looking at the pearls.
“Now we help them move on.”
And so, we did. Each ghost touched the necklace and then we helped them move into the light.
It was a rather easy thing to do with them having found peace together again.
Curses happened by accident, and the ghosts often got riled up because of it.
I’d heard it could be disorienting and confusing, which quickly turned into anger, then rage.
If the ghost or ghosts that were affected by said curse could touch stuff, it could end up deadly for the living people around them.
When we knew they were truly gone, I asked. “What about the pearls?”
“I believe a museum would like to display them. It feels wrong leaving them here when the house is getting renovated anyway, and since they’re no longer cursed, it will be safe.”
“See?” Mom said with a knowing grin. “It went perfectly! And they were so thankful too!” I rolled my eyes affectionately.
Yes, she’d been right, but I doubted the man we’d spoken to at the museum was excited about the necklace.
He seemed far more enamored with Mom, who was oblivious to it, of course, or she was just that good at ignoring men’s advances on her.
I hoped I never found out which it was.
“You were right,” I smiled softly. I’d missed my mom. I should really see her more often. “I’ve missed you,” I admitted.
Her eyes shone as we stopped in front of our cars. “I’ve missed you too, hon. I know things have been busy with the mansion. How are things with Jackson? I never hear anything.”
I rolled my eyes again, then felt my cheeks grow warm before answering, “Things are good. Really good.”
“I’m glad. I always liked Jackson.” I nodded, I knew as much. Mom had sort of adopted him into our family.
“When the renovations are fully done, you can come over for a barbeque in the garden. Ida too. I know Jackson would love you both spending time there with us before we open for our members.”
“I still can’t believe you’re doing that,” Mom laughed.
I’d been horrified when Jackson had told her what his plans were back when we’d told them we were moving in together.
But Mom had merely laughed and asked a bunch of questions.
Like how would we vet the members? Where would we find them?
Cleaners? Cooks? She had ideas too, much to my added horror.
“Jackson is excited about it,” I said, not defensively, but I needed her to know I was fully on board since my man wanted this.
“I have no doubt. He couldn’t stop talking about it and his many plans.
I like that you’ll have that together. Some people say you shouldn’t work with your partner, but I believe you’re the sort of couple who works great together.
You’ll build each other up and help make sure you both succeed.
And I can’t wait to see where you’ll end up together. ”
I was too speechless to answer. I knew she liked Jackson, and that she supported our future business.
But this was way more support and trust than I’d ever expected, ever hoped for.
In the end I ended up just saying, “Thank you.” And then my phone rang.
It seemed my man couldn’t stand me not being there anymore.
So, I kissed Mom on the cheek and told Jackson I’d be home soon.