Chapter 26
“Happy to see you boys in so often, but if you come in any more than this, I may need to reserve a table for you,” Sammy teased as she sat their food down with a wink before walking away.
The diner was rather busy at the moment, so she didn’t really have time to talk. Given how busy it was, Ollie hadn’t spotted their ghost yet.
He snagged a fry and dipped it in his cheese sauce, before popping it into his mouth.
“Think our ghost will show up soon?” Noble asked, before taking a bite of his burger.
Ollie sighed. “I hope so… It would suck if she decided to stay hidden when we finally have the mirror.”
The man hummed in response and took another bite.
They were quiet as they ate, but then Noble’s gaze seemed to drift off, and after a moment, he softly rasped, “Behind you, by the jukebox.”
Ollie briefly glanced back and spotted the ghost of Irene Genson right where Noble had said she was.
He barely held back the excited squeal he wanted to let out as he quickly pulled the mirror from the chest pocket of his overalls.
Though, he supposed he shouldn’t be that excited to possibly see something gruesome.
Was it disrespectful to be excited about learning how someone died?
That was something to think about later…
Well, it wasn’t like he was happy she died. He was just happy to see the mirror he’d worked so hard on in action. Like, he’d risked various injuries by fire, and lost multiple baby hairs just to make it, so he could be happy about it, right?!
Swallowing hard, he held the mirror up, as if he was looking at himself, before tilting it until the jukebox was in view. At first, nothing out of the ordinary showed, and disappointment was starting to take hold when an odd rippling slid across the surface of the mirror.
“It worked!” Ollie whisper-yelled as Irene appeared, his eyes widening as he fully took her in.
She was facing the jukebox, her back to him, but that served them well, as that was where the mark was.
Stark blood-red spots were splattered and speckled on the back of her uniform, marring her usual black and white existence.
All of it appeared to have come from the brutal wound at the back of her head, where Irene’s skull was clearly caved in.
It reminded him, startlingly, of the wound that had killed the serial killer, William.
Ollie held the mirror further away from himself when Noble leaned over the table so he could see, before pocketing it when the man quickly sat back with a frown on his face.
“I’m guessing you couldn’t see it?”
“No. But then, I’m not a witch. I imagine I won’t be able to use any of the tools you make. And I’d guess that while the mirror takes most of the effort out of actually seeing the mark, it likely still requires some sort of passive magic to use it. Magic I do not have.”
Ollie pursed his lips. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“What did you see?”
“Her head is bashed in at the back. Like, her skull is fully caved in. Think…William.”
“So, unless Irene was in a major accident, she was probably murdered. Now the question is…does how she died mean she doesn’t know who did it?”
Ollie wrinkled his nose. “Only one way to find out. And since I’ve been able to talk to two of the four ghosts I’ve met so far, and can clearly talk to Pumpkin, even if she can only meow back, let me pretend to go to the restroom and see if I can whisper to her on the way.”
“Why not just pretend to mess with the jukebox?”
He blinked and then giggled. “Oh, it doesn’t actually work. Or rather, it’s not…one you can select from. It plays from the radio and has a digital display controlled through an app I believe, despite how it looks. So it would be weird for me to do that.
“They used to have an old one that you could select songs on, but it broke about five years ago. And Georgie was having such a pain trying to find replacement parts that he just replaced it, and this one was likely cheaper than finding an old-fashioned one.”
“Ah, I see.”
Noble watched Ollie cross the diner, slowing briefly as he passed the ghost and the jukebox on the way to the restrooms. He wasn’t surprised when Irene straightened up as Ollie did, before turning his way, and almost hesitantly, ‘walked’ over.
If you could call it walking when her feet weren’t actually touching the ground.
Noble covertly looked up at her when she reached the table, in a way that wouldn’t seem odd to anyone who happened to look over. “Hi.”
Irene’s mouth opened, and she was obviously talking, but no sound came out.
“Yeah…I’m going to assume I need Ollie here to actually hear you, so you may want to wait until he gets back before saying anything important.”
Her mouth shut, and Noble could only assume she had heard him.
He glanced over as Ollie stepped out of the restroom and hurried back to the table.
“Did she say anything?” the little witch asked softly as he sat down.
“She tried, but I couldn’t hear her.”
Ollie blinked. “Oh, maybe I need to be here for it to work? I haven’t really tested it out. And as far as I know, every time Annabel and Jahla were in the same room, I was also there,” the man mused, before looking over at Irene and saying, “Hello.”
“Hello,” she spoke, her voice sounding almost hesitant, as if she was worried it wouldn’t work again. But fortunately, this time, sound actually came out.
“Heard that,” Noble drawled. Wanting to get past the introduction stage of things quickly, he said, “Hi, I’m Noble, and this is Ollie. Could you confirm that your name is Irene Genson?”
“I am.” She giggled happily, before quickly blurting out, “This is so strange. No one’s ever been able to see me.
So, as you can imagine, talking was pretty much out of the question.
Though, now that you can see me, and I can talk, I’m not really sure what to say.
It’s almost like I’m rusty. Which, if you knew me, you’d find hilarious.
Ask anyone who did and they’d say I was a chatterbox, and frankly, could probably stand to say less! ”
Noble didn’t know her at all, but based on what she just said, without taking even a fake breath in between sentences, she was likely correct about the last part.
Not that ghosts needed to breathe, but he assumed—like the taking steps while floating thing—it was automatic.
Besides, she had in fact taken a breath at the end.
Ollie smiled. “So, hi, Irene. Yes, we can see you and hear you. And we are here to help you…move on? That is the best way I can explain it, I think. I can’t tell you exactly where you’ll move on to, but I am assuming you have something keeping you here.
But before we get into all that, our best guess is that you were murdered. Is that right?”
“Yes!” the ghost chimed, way too brightly. “Not a fun experience, although I don't remember dying per se.”
“Do you know who killed you?” Noble asked.
Irene shook her head. “I don’t.”
“Can you tell us what you do remember?” Ollie pressed.
“What I remember… Well, I stayed behind alone after closing. I didn’t intend to that day, but decided at the last minute, after locking up, that I wanted to get some paperwork done. While my name may not have been in the diner’s name, I am…or rather, I was technically the co-owner.”
“I’m surprised I didn’t know that…” Ollie mused with a frown, as if it would be normal for his Baby to know about some small detail from over sixty years ago.
Then again, with the man’s love of history, maybe it was. Funny how Georgie didn’t bring that fact up, though.
Noble asked, just to confirm, “So, you opened the diner together with Marlow Babs?”
“Yes, we were friends and business partners, and we split all the expenses equally. Anyway, as I was saying, I stayed behind in my office to work. It was quite late by the time I finished, but as I was leaving my office, I heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Thinking nothing of it, I headed in, just to be sure we weren’t being robbed, which I suppose was stupid of me.
I only made it a few steps into the kitchen…
and there was this—” Her face pinched. “—horrifying crunch, and pain, and then…the next time I opened my eyes, I was like this.” She waved at herself.
“How was your relationship with Marlow? Or better yet, Georgie?”
“Good. Good, the man was my best friend, and had been since we were teenagers. Marlow was—ah… What do you young people call it now?” She frowned, then her face suddenly brightened up as she chimed, “Oh, right!
He was the introvert to my extroverted-ness!
He liked to stay inside, and was always pretty quiet, but he was a good, kind man, and a great friend.
His wife could be a bit high-strung, but still pretty nice.
“As for Georgie, I mean, he was a good kid. A good man now, I suppose. Though I don’t know why you are asking about them. I really don’t think they’d hurt me. They…” She frowned, trailing off for a moment, before wispily saying, “Someone else was there…”
Ollie’s eyes widened. “Someone was there? Didn’t you say you were alone? Though I suppose you obviously weren’t alone if someone killed you…”
“I thought I was, but now that I’m saying it, I realize I wasn’t.
At least, I think I wasn’t… I’m not actually sure if what I’m remembering really happened.
It’s just so…vague in my mind now. But you see, there was this really nice padded bench in the kitchen.
It was in a little nook, hidden behind some supply shelves.
Sometimes the staff liked to nap on it. And right before I died, I saw eyes staring back at me through the cracks between the supplies. They were wide and scared.”
He looked briefly at Ollie, before turning back to the ghost. “Did you recognize them?”
Irene’s frown deepened, as she stared blankly for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, no. Maybe at one point I did, but now they aren’t clear enough in my head for me to place them.”
Ollie took a calming breath. “So, someone killed you, and someone else witnessed it happening. The question is…why did they stay quiet? And an even better question, for you specifically, Irene…do you know why you are still here? What is holding you back?”
Noble had some guesses on the first part, but kept them to himself, and instead added, “If it’s revenge, I’m afraid you’re out of luck, as whoever did it is likely dead already, or near to it age-wise.”
The ghost sighed heavily. “I don’t care about revenge. But…I have a family. Two younger brothers, who I practically raised myself after our parents died. They were…only eighteen and twelve when I went missing. I just want them to finally know what happened to me…”
Ollie sniffled, his eyes now glossy. “I get that. Do…do you think me telling them would—”
“No,” Irene cut him off. “Neither of them ever believed in such things as ghosts. As much as I loved everything supernatural, they fell in love with science instead. They would likely think you insane if you tried.”
Yeah, they sounded like Ollie from not too long ago. Not that his little witch had a particular love for science, more a love of disbelief.
“Fair enough,” Ollie murmured solemnly, nodding as if he wished he still did not believe.
Snorting, Noble stated, “The other option is your body being found. Do you happen to know where it is?”
Though, depending on how whoever murdered her got rid of it, it was possible there wasn’t much left, and hadn’t been for a long ass time. He supposed they’d cross that bridge if they had to.
“I do,” Irene said, almost hesitantly. “Yet…I don’t think I can tell you where it is.
Like, I feel I could go there myself, but when I even think about trying to tell you where, my mind goes fuzzy.
I don’t know why, but I’m sure if I could go with you, I’d be able to direct you straight to it. Which doesn’t—”
“Then that is what we will do!” Ollie chimed.
She winced. “No, see, that’s what I was going to say. It doesn’t make sense that I’m even sure of it, because I can’t actually leave the diner. And believe me, I’ve tried…many, many…many times.”
“So that may not be a problem now—maybe.” Ollie pursed his lips. “Let us finish eating, and when we get up to leave, try to follow me, and see if that changes. Because the car ghost that I met before you was able to leave with me, I think. I mean, it doesn’t hurt to try, right?”
Irene nodded, saying, “I’ll do that,” before floating away.
With Noble waiting outside already, and Irene right behind him, Ollie paused to take a deep breath before stepping out of the diner.
He sighed when he turned around and watched the ghost disappear as soon as she tried to step past the threshold. “Okay, new problem.”
“Yep…”
Heading to Noble’s truck, after they climbed inside, the man said, “I’d bet money on it being Marlow that killed her. It would make the most sense, as the place was locked up, and he’d have a key to get in. As for the witness…”
“Georgie,” Ollie groaned. “I hate to think that either of them are involved. Marlow was a bit on the quiet side, but he was a really sweet man, from what I remember… Yet, it does make the most sense. Like, no one breaking and entering would take the time to clean up or move a body, unless they knew her. Of course, I’m just assuming they cleaned up.
We won’t actually know until the police records are in our hands. ”
“Even if blood was a lot easier to hide back then, given it was the sixties and the chemicals they used weren’t as advanced and sensitive detection-wise.
Not to mention, that crime scene procedures themselves weren’t as thorough.
With the location being so connected to the possible killer, I can’t imagine they didn’t at least try to clean up.
Though, all that being said, Irene herself doesn’t think Marlow could have done it. ”
“Yeah, well, maybe both her and I are just that bad at judging people…”
“Some people are just really good at hiding things, Ollie. You can’t blame yourself for that,” Noble said, as he gently ran a hand over his upper back in a comforting manner, before pulling out of the parking lot.
He sighed. “I suppose…”
“Question…what do we know about the wife?”
Ollie’s brow pulled at that, as he tried to think over what he knew about Marlow’s wife, and found a whole lot of nothing.
“Not much? I know her name was Darline. But she died long before I was born. I want to say, from some sort of cancer, but I can’t be sure if I’m pulling that from thin air, or if someone actually told me.
I feel like Marlow mentioned her before, but… it’s very vague.”
“Right, should we head straight back to the library or…get ice cream?”
“Oh, ice cream!” Ollie giggled.