A Ghost in Time (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 3) (12 page)

“Her brother-in-law. He hated her, and he’s also pretty tall and skinny.”

I nodded, then thought of something. “Plus there are some who say he put a bee hive in her yard. And she’s allergic.”

“Right. Attempted murder or just an obnoxious joke? No one’s ever pinned it down.”

I looked at the list. “So those are the tall guys.”

“Except for Jason. He’s only about five ten.”

“True. But I say leave him in the mix.” I looked at her. “And add Danny Ortega.”

“The apprentice? He’s not very tall.”

“No, but he’s tough. And he might have the anger in him to do something to harm Star once they began to realize she wasn’t treating them fairly. No pay for work done tends to make anyone testy.”

“Okay. I’ll add him.”
 

We both looked the list over. It felt like there was something missing. “Is that all we’ve got?”

“One more,” Jill said firmly. “I think we should add Fred Carver.”

“Really?” I looked at her in surprise. “Why?”

“He’s tall, and he and Star were once an item. He’s despised her ever since their romance hit the rocks.”

I frowned. I hadn’t known that but I’d suspected something along those lines. “Star had a lot of romances for a still-married lady.”

Jill did a silly voice. “That ain’t no lady—that’s a deleted expletive.”

That made me laugh, but in a sad way. We didn’t really have a lot of names on our list. I played with adding Roy’s name, just to make it a bit more impressive, but that seemed crazy so I didn’t even bring it up.

“Okay. I’ll work on getting pictures of the ones Bebe doesn’t know very well so we can see if they remind her of her undertaker guy.”

Jill stared at me for a moment, then said, “Let’s do it. Let’s do it now.”

I looked at her, startled. “Do what?”

“Try the hypnosis.”

“What? Now? Tonight?”

“It’s not that late. And the sooner the better. There’s no time to lose.”

I shrugged. “Okay. But only if she agrees to it.”

Jill went back to the office to gather some supplies and I walked out to the car to wait for her. Dante was leaning against the driver’s door. My heart jumped and I wondered how I was going to handle having him along if Jill came with us.
 

He smiled at me, and then a strange thing happened. There was a weird sound, sort of as though someone had crashed a big hammer into a gong, far, far away. His smile disappeared and he turned his head as though looking into something in the misty edges of the night. Another quick look at me, and he melted away. I reached out, knowing it was no use, but he was gone.

Darn! Was he going to start fading away on me too?

Just then, Jill came out and I turned to greet her, but it was awhile before I got that last look on Dante’s face out of my mind.

Chapter Fourteen

I was surprised at how quickly we were able to talk Bebe into trying the hypnosis. Jill was at her most charming best and Bebe had to admit she would try just about anything if it would get rid of this weird blank spot she seemed to have regarding the incident.
 

Aunty Jane, on the other hand, was appalled by the whole thing.
 

“She not da kine doctor,” she told me scathingly.

“You don’t have to be a doctor to hypnotize.” I didn’t really know, but I thought that was true. “Anyway, Jill is going to give it a try.”

Aunty Jane sneered at the very thought of it and went off in a huff. She had no faith. But I wasn’t much better. Ordinarily I had a deep, deep distrust of this sort of thing. Remembering that made me waver. What was I doing here?

Jill set the mood by putting some Satie on the player at low volume and dimming the lights. She had Bebe sit on the couch and drew a stool up to sit facing her. Talking in a soft, sing-song voice, she created a picture of peace and beauty, describing a picnic in a mountain meadow and asking Bebe to visualize it. Bebe did just that, slowly, haltingly, closing her eyes. Jill reminded her of the day of the accident and slowly, surely, took her step by step to that drive up the hillside road—then tried to hand the description over to her. Bebe seemed to be thinking about it. Her head began to slip quietly to the side, and then she was leaning back, her head against the cushion. She was sound asleep.

Jill sighed. I sighed.
 

Suddenly I realized Aunty Jane was in the room, cackling into her hand. I sent her a reproving look, but no one else could hear her, so it didn’t really matter.

“Oh well,” Jill said. “You were right. It’s too late in the evening for this. Maybe we should try it tomorrow.”

“Sure,” I said. But I knew it wasn’t going to work, and I was surprisingly upset. If we couldn’t find out more about that evening, what were we going to do?

We left Bebe to sleep on the couch and I drove Jill back to her car. When I got home again, Aunty Jane was waiting for me.
 

“You ready now?” she demanded. “You out of time for this nonsense stuff. Let’s get to work.”

“You mean, on magic?” I wasn’t really clear what she expected of me.
 

“Yes. I mean on magic. My magic. I’m gonna teach you.”

“Now?” It was late and I was tired. “Can’t we just start tomorrow after we’ve had some rest and….”

“You think magic is just something I’m going to hand you, like giving you a wand?” she said, hand on her hip and eyes sparking. “No. Magic has to come slowly, like…like bodybuilding or losing weight. It’s gonna to take a long time and a lotta’ practice before you really know what you’re doing. Years. Many years.”

“But we don’t have years.”

“I know that. What I’m going to teach you now is a short cut way, and I don’t know if it gonna work. I do know it won’t work for long and it won’t work for much. Not yet. You need to be a kahuna for it to work right for you. And that’ll take time. Lots of time.”

I nodded. Though I’d been resisting, I was falling in line. I didn’t have much choice. “I understand.” I looked at Bebe on the couch. “Should we go…?”

Aunty waved her hands at the room. The lights were still on dim and the music was still playing softly in the background. “We can do it right here,” she said. “You ready?”

I looked at her, wondering what this was going to be like and a little scared. “Uh…sure.”

She nodded. “Okay. The first thing about magic is—it doesn’t come easy.”

“You said that.”

She glared at me and I realized this was all part of a lesson and I was supposed to absorb it, not go for an interchange of ideas.
 

Okay then
.

She fixed me with a stare. “Okay. Number one, not easy. Number two, you have to be born with it already inside you.”

“And you think I am.”

“Oh yeah. But know this. I don’t know how yours will work for you. Your way will be different from mine. But to do it at all…” She shook her head as though she just wasn’t sure if I could handle it. “To do it will take much hard work.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay. What do I have to do?”

“You gotta get put in the right state of mind. Focus. Concentrate. Learn to hover.”

“What?”

“Hover. You have to be able to rise above your body and see it from the outside.”

“How am I going to be able to do that?”

“It’s all in here.” She pointed to her head. “And in here.” She put her hand over her heart. “Your solid body will still be there, but your spirit…” She reached high as though to touch something. “Your spirit will be up here.” Her eyes were glowing in the dim light. “When you can do that, then I can teach you.”

I felt a fluttery feeling inside. Was it excitement? Hope? Or fear? “And all I have to do is focus?”

“Oh no. There’s much more to it than that. You’ll know when it begins to work.”

“But…”

“I’m going to give you words to say. That will help.”

Aunty Jane focused for a moment. Her eyes went dreamy and her hands rose into hula position. She began to dance as she began to chant.
 

I watched, mesmerized. It had been so long since I’d heard those ancient words and felt the emotions of my ancestors. As I listened, the tradewinds seemed to cool my cheek and the tropic sun beat down on my head. I felt things I hadn’t felt since I was a child. I heard the ocean, I smelled a plumeria lei. I tasted green mango and salt, I heard my mother calling me. Something caught in my throat and I bit my lower lip. Tears filled my eyes.
 

“Oh Aunty,” I said as she finished. “That was so beautiful!” Then it came to me why she’d done it. “But I can’t learn all those words.”

“No.” She laughed at me. “Not at first. Time come, you will. But right now, I just need you to learn the first line of that hula.
Ho’opuka e ka la ma hikina.
”

“What does it mean?”

She shrugged. “It could mean the sun is rising. Or maybe, that enlightenment is filling your heart.”

“Ah.” I repeated the old Hawaiian words and she corrected me quickly, repeating until I got it right.
 

“Now dance while you sing it.”

I danced. That part was easy. I’d spend many an hour at hula lessons as a teenager. And as I danced and repeated the chant, over and over, I began to understand what she meant by focus.
 

“I think I’m getting it,” I told her.

She nodded. “Okay then. Come into the kitchen. It’s time to make the tea.”

I boiled some water and she began looking through the cabinets, searching for certain teas and spices that she pointed out to me. She had me mix them in an open bowl, and then pour the hot water slowly over the mix while she performed another ancient Hawaiian chant. I had no idea what it meant, but I could see by the look on her face that is was supposed to be transporting, so I half-closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of the brewing tea, letting the atmosphere carry me.
 

I poured the tea into two cups and carried them out to where Bebe was sleeping. Waking her gently, I got her to sit up and have some tea, though I almost got the feeling that she wasn’t fully awake, and that the aroma of the tea was going to keep her in that groggy state.
 

We sat and drank tea and I talked softly about various things. Finally we put down our cups and I turned, following Aunty’s instructions, and took Bebe’s hands in mine. Looking deeply into her blank eyes, I copied what Aunty said like a responsive chant.
 

“Bebe listen to me. We are floating, you and I. We’re floating in time, floating in space. Now we’re going back in time, back to see your life two days ago. Do you remember?”

She nodded sleepily. “I remember,” she whispered.
 

“You are driving your car. You are so angry. You just talked to Star on the phone and she said awful things, things you can’t let go unpunished. So you are driving to Star’s house. You hope to catch her before she goes to the party at the country club. You are determined to have it out with her. Determined to get her to stop doing these things, saying these things about you and the people that you love. It’s just too much. You can’t let this pass, not this time. Do you remember?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“You’re driving up the winding road to Star’s house. The sun has just gone down. Darkness has fallen. You’re having trouble seeing the road ahead.”

“Yes.”

“And what happens next?”

Bebe nodded and took over the narration without a pause. “I’m so angry, I’m not paying enough attention to the road. I’m driving a little too fast and I come too close to the edge. I can hear rocks falling over the side. Another few inches and I could have gone over the cliff. That scares me. I pull to a stop and put my hand over my heart. It’s beating so hard. I almost went over. This is crazy. I can’t let a woman like Star put me into such a state. I have to go slower, have to be more careful.”

She paused and seemed to readjust herself.
 

“I go on. I’m almost to the big turn where there’s a mirror to show the road ahead. My headlights should hit it right now. I’m almost there. But wait.” She began to look worried, agitated. “Where is it? I’m already past it. I’m looking for it, but all I see is something blue. Where’s the mirror? I’m already making the turn in around the bend and I’m looking back for the mirror. Where is it?”

She gasped, half screamed, and put her hands to her face. “Oh no! I hit something. I see it for only half a second. What is it? An animal? A person? What did I hit? I don’t see it. Did I hit somebody? Oh no. I jump out of the car and run out and there’s Star lying in the road. Oh, the horror. I hit Star. No, no, no! She’s lying there and the blood….
 
No! She’s not moving. But these sticks, what are they for? Is she dead? Is she okay? No. She’s not okay. There’s blood everywhere. I can’t stop the blood. I have to call 911. But wait. There’s a man here, just beyond the edge of the light. Oh good. He’ll call 911. I should just attend to Star and see what I can do to keep her alive. But I don’t know what to do. And that man. Look. There he is again. He’s so tall and his face looks so ugly. My heart jumps in my chest. He looks like…he looks like Death. Oh no! It’s Death. I’m sure of it. He fades away and he’s gone, but I saw him. I don’t think Death would call 911. I have to get to my phone and call. I’m rummaging in my car, looking for my phone. There, I finally found it. I call 911, then go back out to look at Star. There’s that man again. He’s carrying something down into the brushy area. I listen for the paramedics. Why aren’t they coming yet?””

This entire narrative had chilled me to the bone but I had to keep control of it. I leaned forward. “Bebe, was anyone else there? Anyone besides you and Star and the man?”

“No. No, I look all around. But I’m trying to help Star.”

I took her hands again. “Who was the man?”

She shook her head fretfully. “I don’t know. Death, I guess. Maybe a ghost.”

“Not a regular man?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Did he say anything to you?”

“No.”

“Did you say anything to him?”

“Yes. I yelled, ‘Call 911’. But he didn’t do it. I had to do it.”