CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “I’ve been wearing that necklace for fourteen years. I tried to get it open to put a photo of him inside it but it would never open.”
“He had it sealed shut,” said Hiro using the small tools of a jeweler to pry it open. “This could bend it but we’ll have it repaired for you.”
“It’s okay. If something is in there, I want to know what it is,” she said watching him.
“There,” whispered Hiro. He lifted a pair of tweezers with a tiny flat object between the pinschers. It wasn’t even a centimeter square.
“Is that a drive? Can you actually put information on that?” she asked.
“You can put a lot of information on that,” said AJ. “You’d be surprised. I think your father was sending you a message as well. The drive, when under the microscope, has our name on it. G.R.I.P.”
“My eyes aren’t that good,” smirked Patrick. AJ slid it beneath a magnifier and showed the image on the screen. “I’ll be damned.”
“What’s on it?” asked Priscilla. “What is so damn important that he risked my life putting it around my neck and that Natalia was willing to allow someone to kill me, and River for it.”
“It’s encoded,” said AJ. “Give us a little while to decode it and we’ll pull everything off it. For now, we sit tight.”
“What about us?” asked Quinn.
“You go nowhere,” said Gator. “The three of you are too identical. Someone might mistake you for one another. Which might be why you were sent home. Maybe someone knew that if they were going after River, they’d only follow the two of them. You don’t leave.”
“And the rest of us?” asked U-Jin.
“How do you feel about shock jocks and conspiracy theorists?” smirked Ham. U-Jin stared at him, unfamiliar with the word.
“You want us to find Leopold,” said Moose. He looked down at his brother-in-law and smiled. “This is going to be fun”
“You’re not going alone,” said Gator. “Moose, U-Jin, Leif, Sebastian, and Forrest.”
“Forrest can’t go,” said Major. “The quads have the flu and if he leaves Maddie alone with them, he’ll be a dead man. Send Mike.” Everyone chuckled and Priscilla stared at River.
“What? What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Quads? You talked about all the twins and triplets here but you never mentioned quads, River!” Patrick and Christopher laughed, nodding at the woman.
“Don’t worry,” he said hugging her, “I’ll do my best to keep it to three or less.”
“We’ll be feeding U-Jin the information on the feeds to follow the transmission locales. You’ll need to move fast because he’s going to be on the move non-stop. Whatever he was doing in that coffee shop is somehow connected to all of this.”
“Let’s go,” nodded Moose.
“Hey, Moose? Try not break anything or anyone,” smirked Gator.
“How the hell is that fun?” He left the room with his squad as they all laughed at the big man.
“What do I do?” asked Priscilla.
“For now, the rest of us will wait for information from the tech team as to what’s on that disc and from Moose and his team,” said Gator. “The waiting is the worst part, Priscilla. Just know that you’re safe here and we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
Priscilla left the room, leaving even River behind. He started to follow and Patrick shook his head, gripping his son’s arm.
“She needs time to process all of this. Let her be for now,” he said staring at his son.
He watched out the window, following Priscilla’s steps as she moved toward the gardens. What he saw made him feel more at ease. A ghostly line of emotional support headed her way.
Priscilla took a seat on the cold stone bench, wishing she’d brought a blanket to sit on. She was wrapped in a warm winter coat, scarf, and even gloves, blocking the wind from attacking her body. But her ass was cold.
“Here,” said the soft voice. “You could probably use this.”
She turned to see one of the many friendly ghosts and smiled. Taking the blanket, she stood, setting it on the bench and then sat back down again.
“Oh, wow. Did you warm that before you came?” she smiled.
“It’s a gift,” nodded Nathan.
“Are you alright, honey?” asked Ruby.
“Yes. No. I think so,” she said smiling as she shook her head. “I honestly am very confused right now. I love that my father thought enough of me to keep that information, whatever it is, in safekeeping but I’m also pissed at him that he gave it to me and risked my life.”
“I’m not sure he knew it would risk your life when he gave it to you,” said Archie.
“Sorry. You’re the former soldier, Archie, right?” she asked.
“Yes,” he smiled. “Nathan gave you the blanket. That’s Ruby, Irene, and Matthew over there. Then we have Martha, Franklin, Claudette, Sven, Teddy, Charity, Genevieve, Grip, Eagle Feather, Tony, and Yori. Our newest ghostly brother is Hezekiah but he’s a doctor and spends his days at the clinic.”
“I hope I remember all that,” she smirked. “Do you know anything about this man, Lincoln Morris?”
“No, I’m sorry, we don’t,” said Martha. “He wasn’t killed here and I suspect his path was different than most that we deal with.”
“You shouldn’t worry about you and River,” said Claudette.
“H-how did you know I was thinking about that?” asked Priscilla. The other ghosts chuckled.
“We all have the ability to hear and see thoughts,” said Irene. “Claudette feels your anxiety around River. He’s as true as a man can be.”
“I know. I mean, I feel like I know that to be true. But how is this all connected? I was such a terrible judge of character with Natalia or Celine or whatever her name is. Was.”
“You weren’t a terrible judge of character,” smiled Grip. “It’s hard to see the truth when someone has spent a lifetime learning to lie. That’s how she was raised. She was taught to lie and lie well. I suspect that her step-brother knew that as well.”
“That’s why there was no forced entry. She opened the door to him. I’m going to bet that the plan was to allow him in to kill or kidnap River, and me, or just me. He was angry when we weren’t there.”
“Did Natalia know about your locket?” asked Grip.
“No. No, I don’t think so. She never mentioned it and I rarely wore it where it was visible. I tended to wear very conservation clothing and tucked my jewelry beneath the clothing.”
“So, chances are pretty good she wasn’t sure what you possessed or where it was located. All she knew was what her brother was telling her.”
“Did you say your name was Grip? Like the manufacturing site?” she asked.
“That’s right,” he smiled. “I died serving this team and I had quite an estate that I left to my partner. The team honored me by using the money to continue the work that Montana started.”
“That’s incredible,” she said nodding at him. She reached without thinking, touching his hand and was shocked to find it warm and solid. “How?”
“We have the choice,” said Matthew. “We can choose to be visible, to touch, to feel, to have others touch and feel. We can even choose to eat and enjoy a meal with the family.”
“Are all ghosts like this?” she asked.
“Not hardly,” laughed Ruby. “We’re the lucky ones. We get to continue to watch our families grow and love. It’s a rare gift and one we don’t take lightly.”
Priscilla nodded at them, feeling warmth around her, less of a chill and she knew it had something to do with all of them.
“Was my father trying to hurt everyone here?” she suddenly asked.
“I don’t know everything,” said Matthew, “but I know that your father was a good man who was not trying to hurt anyone. Rest easy on that.”
Priscilla stood, handing the blanket back to Nathan. She smiled at him, nodding as Martha took his hand.
“You can love one another as well?” she asked.
“We can,” nodded Yori. “Claudette and Tony came together after their deaths. Same for Martha and Nathan. Grip and Jonathon met while ghosts.”
“Truly remarkable.”
They watched as she walked away, heading toward the cafeteria for lunch.
“She’ll be alright,” said Matthew. “We’ll make sure of it.” Irene nodded then clapped her hands together.
“Let’s go see if we can annoy Gaspar at the animal sanctuary.”