Chapter 10
“Ifeel like we got off on the wrong foot,” Keri says after ordering a sweet tea.
“How so?” I look up from the menu.
“My son was trespassing, and then last night…I swear I’m not judging you with anything but jealousy.”
I smile. “It’s fine.”
“For what it’s worth, Jared swears he wasn’t trying to spy on you. He thinks your house is haunted.” She rolls her eyes and sighs. “Better than the alternative, right?”
“Yeah. And it is a big old house. I think it’s haunted too.”
She laughs and slides her menu to the side of the table, already knowing what she’s going to order. “I won’t tell him that. And trust me, he won’t be bothering you anymore.”
“Actually, I was wondering if he’d want to do some yard work for me. I’d pay, of course. The house itself is a lot of work and the yard was a mess when I moved in. I don’t want it to get worse.”
“Oh, he’d jump all over that. He’s trying to save up to buy a new car. He hates the old one we gave him. Though, you don’t have to pay him. We’re neighbors and he still owes you for not arresting him.”
I wave my hand in the air. “Nah, he doesn’t owe me. I can tell he’s a decent kid.”
Keri raises her eyebrows. “That’s subjective,” she says on a laugh. “Everyone says teenage boys are so much easier than teenage girls, but it’s like I don’t even know that kid anymore.”
That’s because she doesn’t.
“I love him, don’t get me wrong. And I’ll send him over after school if you’ll be home.”
“Yeah, I will be. Thanks.”
“No problem. It’ll be good for him to do some work too. Kids are so lazy these days.”
The waitress comes over to take our orders. Keri orders a salad with the dressing on the side, and I order a BLT.
“Can I ask you about the boyfriend situation?” She crosses her arms and rests them on the table, leaning in.
“Sure.”
“How did it come about? Were you with one first and then the other came along?”
“Not really. I met them both at the same time.”
“Were they together?”
The simpler the lie, the easier it is to believe as well as recall. “No, not in that sense. They’re friends and that’s all.”
“So you three never…you know.” She wiggles her eyebrows. Her nosiness reminds me of Gemma, and I feel a weird tug on my heart. I should still be mad at her. But dammit, I kind of miss her and I’m worried she’s going to die from lack of medical care.
“No, not all together.”
“This is so interesting. Sorry for bombarding you.” She bites her lip and grabs her drink, sliding her finger up and down the glass. “You’re the coolest person I know.”
I laugh. “No one’s ever told me that before.”
“You’re a homicide detective who’s caught two serial killers in the last few months and you’re dating two gorgeous men.”
“Well, when you say it like that, I do sound pretty cool.”
“Exactly!” she says, and we laugh. Our food comes quickly, and we talk the whole time throughout lunch.
Unlike Gemma, Keri and I have nothing in common.
She comes from money, both her parents are alive, well, and over involved.
She got pregnant when she was still in college, dropped out, did hair for a while before she started blogging, which is what she does full time now.
I had no idea you could make a living blogging about online coupons.
“This was fun,” she says as we stand to leave. “We’ll have to get together again.”
“Yeah, we will. Give me a few more months to get my house in order and maybe I’ll have a housewarming party.”
“If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask. I can live vicariously through you and pretend that mansion is my own.”
I laugh. “Deal.”
I grab the next index card off my stack and look at it, thinking for a minute before flipping it over. Rose quartz represents love and can be used to restore trust to a relationship, encourage healing, and dispel negativity.
“Yes,” I say out loud when I see I’m right.
I grab the next one and can’t remember what onyx is used for.
I flip the card over and read the info three times, trying to commit it to memory.
I’ve been going over my cards for the last hour, having flashbacks to my college days, though with this subject matter I feel like I should be wearing a pointed hat and a robe.
Yawning, I put the cards away and lean back, sticking my legs out into the sun. I’m on the back porch, and the sun is shining down on me in full force. It’s weird how long I’ve lived without actually living.
I close my eyes and rest my head against the brick of the house.
I’m dozing off when a car pulls down the driveway.
I’m expecting Jared, so I gather up my cards and go inside, looking out the kitchen window.
He gets out of the car, hand shielding his eyes as he looks up at the roof of the house.
The gargoyles aren’t there anymore, buddy. Time to get over it.
“Stop it,” I mutter to myself. I feel bad for Jared, remember? He’s an annoying pain in the ass but he needs direction from a responsible party, and I’m the only person I know to do it.
Too bad Jacques couldn’t take him under his wing—not literally, of course—but he’s the better teacher. It would be a good setup, actually. We could blame any discrepancies between his time and ours on the language barrier, or make up some story about how he lived in a village where there wasn’t—
I’m getting ahead of myself and I need to stop. Jared might not be that bad if I give him a chance. I wish someone had given me more of a chance when I was his age.
“Hey,” I say as soon as I open the door. He’s inching his way up to the porch, looking at the spots where Tom and Gil used to stand.
“What really happened to them?” Jared asks, pushing his keys into his pocket.
“They didn’t like it there. Birds shit on them.”
Jared looks at me, not sure if I’m joking or not. He pushes his shoulders back and surveys the yard. “You better be paying well for me to fix up this shit hole.”
“You better watch your fucking mouth or I won’t pay you jack-shit.”
“Fine. Sorry.” He scuffs his foot along the cobblestone path, rolling loose stones beneath his shoe. “So what’s the plan?”
“The plan is to start with mowing the lawn in the front and around the house and I’ll answer a few questions.”
He comes up the porch steps, taking two at a time. “Questions?”
“You do have questions, right?”
“I have a lot,” he starts, still staring at me like he’s not following. I’m no good at this counseling thing. Or this talking to teenagers thing.
“Do you remember the first time we had the pleasure of meeting?”
“How could I forget? You threatened to arrest me.”
Ignoring his subtle jab, I cross my arms and lean against a stone pillar on the porch. “You came here looking for answers, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, so?”
“You never got those answers. Maybe I’ll tell you some.”
He stares at me, blinking, but doesn’t reply for a good thirty seconds. “Why?”
“Because I recognize something in you I have in myself.”
“If you’re going to say devilish good looks, you can save yourself the embarrassment now.”
I laugh, and Jared looks flustered. “Your surly attitude is familiar too, though mine came from my lack of family and constant bereavement from male cops telling me I wasn’t good enough just because I have tits and a vagina.”
At the mention of boobs, Jared’s eyes fly to my chest. He blinks rapidly and looks away.
“Look, kid, I get it…knowing something is wrong and not being able to let it go. Refusing to take no for an answer and trusting my instincts. Throw in how your parents disapprove of your interest in the paranormal and I gotta say I feel for you. Just a little, tiny, minuscule amount, though.”
He doesn’t shoot back another stupid comeback or try to prove how cool he is to me. Instead, he nods and perches on the edge of the stone railing.
“This house is haunted, isn’t it?”
“It wasn’t when I first moved in, but it might be now,” I confess.
“How is that possible?”
“You know how adults are always warning kids not to play with Ouija boards? Don’t.”
His mouth opens a bit in shock, and his eyes widen with interest. “You have a Ouija board? Can I see it?”
“Definitely not. It’s too dangerous.”
“Then why did you—”
“Yard work first,” I interrupt.
“Do you even own a lawn mower?”
“There’s one in the barn out back. I have no idea if it works.”
Jared makes a face. “Are you serious?”
“Yep. Hey, I’ve lived in apartments pretty much my whole life and I actually planned on selling this place.” I push off the pillar and start down the steps. Jared follows.
“Why would you sell this place? It’s fuck—I mean freaking—awesome.”
“Awesome doesn’t pay for repairs or put in central air.”
“Why’d you stay?” He falls in step with me.
“It’s been in my family for years. I don’t have much in regards to them, so the sentimental value got to me. Plus, I can’t sell a haunted house, now can I?”
Jared laughs. “I’m sorry, uh, about your family. What happened to them?”
“My parents were murdered.”
“Shit—shoot.” He shakes his head. “Sorry. I can see why you’d want to hang onto the place then.” He gives me a wry smile. “Plus, ghosts are kinda cool and all.”
“Have you ever seen a ghost?”
“Yeah,” he says excitedly. “Twice.”
“Where were you?”
“Are you going to arrest me if I tell you I was at a graveyard?”
“People are allowed to go to graveyards.”
“It was one of the historic ones.”
A lot of the historic graves around here are open to the public, but I’m not going to bother getting into it. Jared thinks he’s cool by doing something “illegal” and then seeing a ghost. I’ll let him have this.
“I won’t arrest you. Scout’s honor.”
“Cool, thanks. A friend and I went there at night last summer and some freaky shit went down.” He smiles thinking about it. “Weird sounds and this blue fog that came out of nowhere. And then we saw a gray shadow run past. Freaked us out but was so awesome.”
“Sounds pretty awesome. And the second ghost?”
“Still promise you won’t arrest me?”
I raise my eyebrows. “I’ll try my best.”
He grins. “Eastern State Penitentiary.”
“You broke in?” If he did, I’d actually be impressed.
“No. We were on a tour. That place is crazy haunted.”
“So I’ve heard.” We get to the barn and I tug open the large door. A cloud of dust rains down on us, and I turn my head and wave it away.
“What about you, Mrs…Ms…uh, what do I call you?”
“Ace is fine.”
“Ace? What kind of name is that anyway?”
“It’s a nickname. My full name is Acelina.”
“You should go by Lina. It’s more feminine.”
“Darn, where were you twenty years ago when I started going by a nickname? You could have warned me about the dangers of having a masculine-sounding nickname.”
“Okay, okay, it’s kinda cool, actually.” He squints, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the dark. “That thing looks fairly new. Get it some fresh gas and it might start.”
“That’s good to know.” We step out of the barn and I shove the door closed again.
“You know, a job like this is going to take a long time. You’re paying hourly, right?”
I press a smile. “I already worked out how much to pay you with your mom.”
“Really? She’s so cheap. She low-balled me, didn’t she?”
“A little. Do a good job and don’t annoy me and I’ll throw in a bonus on top of another answer.”
Jared looks up at me, smiling. “I think I’m going to like this job, Ace.”
“Good, because you’re right about it taking a long time.” I look at the mess of the yard and sigh. “Just clean it up so the neighborhood association the people on this street pretend they have won’t give me the stink-eye when they drive by. It doesn’t have to be perfect.”
“I’ll try. And speaking of ghosts…please tell me you have inside police details about that guy who got attacked by one.”
I give him a quizzical look. “A guy got attacked by a ghost?”
“That’s what he’s claiming. Said a crying woman in a pink dress came out of nowhere and scratched the shit out of him. The air got all cold and everything, like a classic textbook haunting. Then she walked through the wall and vanished.”
A crying woman in a pink dress…who’s also a ghost.
Motherfucking shit balls. This can’t be a coincidence.