8
Corbin
Lisa was crying, Sebbie was nearly crying while he comforted her, and Maggie was crying ghost tears. Very emotional family and ferryman moment. Only…
“How did you get her body over the balcony?“
I asked, since Lisa was probably not even five feet tall and skinny as a rail—there’s no way she could have lifted Maggie’s body.
She started crying harder, and I had a feeling her superhuman feat would remain a mystery. People gained weird strength when they were panicked.
I looked at Sebbie helplessly, because I had no idea what to do with a crying accidental murderer and her ghostly grandmother. Sebbie looked at me, then he shook his head, frowned, lifted his eyebrows, and then nodded his head.
In other words, We can’t punish her for what happened, but we can’t just do nothing. We’re going to have to help them, and we’ll think of something. (Sebbie was always optimistic, especially around death.)
He wasn’t wrong, though—something would need to be done. I left Sebbie to comfort Lisa and Maggie in their emotional moment, and I stepped away and texted Dexter. If we were going to figure out how to make an accidental murder look like a plain old accident, then I knew exactly who to ask.
“The problem is that there isn’t a body. Well, that’s a good thing, but also a problem,“
Toby said.
We were all squeezed into our stateroom—and believe me, there really wasn’t enough room. Dexter and Toby couldn’t see Maggie, so they kept stepping inside of her or putting a foot or hand through her by accident. It didn’t seem to bother her—she was mainly working on comforting her granddaughter—but it did look creepy. Lisa and Sebbie were sitting on the bed, I was standing near them, and Toby and Dexter were sitting on the couch.
“How is it a problem? Seems like a solution,“
Dexter answered.
Toby smiled at him fondly, shaking his head. “Because the family will never know what happened to her. They’ll wonder if she was kidnapped, or if she was murdered”—Lisa started sobbing softly again, and Toby shot Sebbie an apologetic look—“or if she was left behind on part of the trip. There will be a huge media circus surrounding it, everyone will get interviewed, and even if Lisa manages to not crack under pressure, it will become a huge spectacle. Her entire family will devote their lives to finding out what happened. They’ll crusade and search and it will consume them. Until one day, Lisa, overtaken by guilt, will confess exactly what happened the day that Grams died. Then, depending on which genre we’re living, it could be healing or catastrophic.”
“What genre?“
Maggie asked.
“He writes books for a living,“
Sebbie explained to Maggie and Lisa.
“Apparently rather gruesome ones,“
Maggie responded.
Lisa gave a hiccupy little laugh at Maggie’s dry tone, and Maggie went to try to hug her granddaughter, which once again got Lisa sniffling. “You were always so funny, Grams. I used to go to you whenever I was upset, but when Pop died… You weren’t the same. You started nitpicking everyone and everything.”
Toby clapped his hands together. “Focus, people. We have a murder to cover up, and not that long to do it.”
“But you just said there’s no body, so why the rush?“
Maggie asked. I repeated it so Toby could hear.
“Because they’re going to start noticing you’re missing, if they haven’t already. They’re probably slightly worried, but not too worried. By this evening, when it’s time to go to bed and no one can find you—that’s when they’ll sound the alarm. And then any opportunity we have will be lost.”
“Opportunity for what?“
I asked. “What exactly are we doing to avoid your calamitous prediction?”
Crow cawed from the balcony, obviously agreeing that Toby’s explanation of what would happen was far-fetched. Nevertheless, it would be good to give their family some closure.
“Was our ghost suicidal?“
Toby asked.
“Absolutely not!“
Maggie declared, her outrage clear.
“Ugh, that’s a no,“
Sebbie interpreted.
“Okay, so it can’t look like a suicide. It has to look like an accident. Over the balcony, you say? Drinking? Okay, we can work with that… Yeah, we can totally work with that…”
Toby got up and started pacing back and forth and mumbling to himself, and Margaret and Lisa talked in quiet voices. I got up and motioned Sebbie over toward the balcony door, putting my arm around him.
He sighed. “‘Let’s go on a cruise,’ Toby said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ he told us. I didn’t know we’d be involved in covering up a murder.”
“Well, technically, we solved a murder first, and now we’re covering it up. That’s really accomplishing a lot in our two days at sea. Maybe we’ll still be able to enjoy the cabana in the Bahamas,“
I told him.
He chuckled, looking up at me. “I love you, Corbin. I couldn’t do any of this without you. And I don’t just mean the murder mystery cruise thing. I mean the whole ferryman and reaper thing and… well, everything.”
“I love you, too, Little Reaper. And you make me infinitely happy every moment we’re together. I’m glad if I can help lighten your load even the tiniest bit, because you are amazing, and what you do is amazing.”
“Got it!“
shouted Toby, stopping midstride in the middle of the small room.
“Oh, boy,“
I murmured under my breath, and Sebbie gave me a light elbow to the ribs.
I had a feeling our evening was about to get very interesting.