Dead and Breakfast (8 page)

Evelyn tilted her head. “Victoria again?”

Autumn nodded. For a second, she was tempted to squeeze into the chair next to Evelyn’s desk and disclose all that she had learned about Inez in the past two days, but she thought better of it. Bringing up ghosts would only make Evelyn bristle.

“Victoria’s certainly not the nicest girl on the island,” her mom said.

“Did you know Liam used to date her?” Autumn regretted the words the moment she uttered them. She knew her mom already disliked Liam. Her comment could only solidify that opinion, which she didn’t think was fair.

“Well,” her mom said, clucking her tongue. “I’m not surprised. Certainly shows Liam’s true colors.” Evelyn glanced at the glow of the computer monitor. “I hope you’ll be the bigger person and be nice to Victoria even though she may not deserve it. Her grandpa owns most of Key West. And he’s taken a particular interest in the Cayo. I’m considering asking him to be an investor.”

Autumn scrunched her face. She thought it funny that Liam should be harshly judged for dating Victoria, but not Autumn for being a phony and sucking up to her.

Evelyn pressed her fingers into her eyes before sipping her coffee. “I better get back to work. These accounts are a mess.”

Autumn took that as her cue to leave. As she turned to go, her mother asked, “Can you find Mrs. Paulson extra towels?”

Autumn sighed. Her investigation into Inez would have to wait.

#

After nearly tripping over the old shovel, Timothy stumbled onto the patio with a sour expression. “I swear, your shenanigans are going to get me killed. Or worse, you’re gonna make me tear my dress shirt.”

Liam sat on the patio chair, feet away from him, dabbing at a cut above his eye with the hem of his T-shirt.

“Should I get the first-aid kit? Again?” Before Liam could protest, Timothy called out, “Mama!”

Cora Newbold popped her head out the door, took one look at Liam, and emerged a moment later with a large, white handbag. She unzipped her bag and removed a clear pouch that held Band-Aids, gauze, and ointment.

Cora was heavy-set and wearing a turquoise blouse and matching head wrap. She and Timothy shared the same dark eyes and wide nose, but Timothy’s chin ended in a point. Cora’s round face was maternal and soft, although she was no nonsense as she rummaged through the medical supplies. She gingerly lifted a dark curl away from Liam’s cut. He wondered if this was what it was like to be cared for by a mother.

“How did this happen?” Cora’s accent was thick with the islands.

Liam inhaled her spicy, citrus perfume. “I tripped over a shovel. There’s so much crap in the shed.”

Cora narrowed her eyes at the blood on his forehead. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” said Liam in a tight voice.

Cora gave him a halfhearted nod, but Liam could tell that she didn’t believe him. “It seems that the ghost has it out for you.”

He sighed. This again. Sure, he thought he saw a girl in the pool, but ghosts just don’t go around drowning people. Stuff like that doesn’t happen. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”

Cora dabbed at Liam’s cut with a piece of gauze. A line of red blood bloomed on the white cotton. He winced as she applied pressure. “That’s the thing about ghosts. You don’t have to believe in them, but they believe in you.”

She placed Liam’s hand onto the gauze and ordered him to hold still while she rummaged through the first-aid kit for ointment.

“What does that even mean?” he asked. “They believe in you?”

Cora twisted the cap off the bacitracin and squeezed the cloudy gel onto a bandage, which she stuck to Liam’s forehead. “My ancestors believe that spirits seek out the living when they need assistance.”

“If this spirit needs my help, then why does she keep trying to kill me?” Liam scoffed.

“Ah-ha!” Timothy cried out. “So you do admit that ghost girl took a swing at you with a shovel? Did she also bust your lip?”

“I’m not admitting anything,” said Liam. “It’s crazy to think that ghosts are real. Or that they can lift heavy shovels.”

“Hush,” said Cora with a wave. “There
are
presences in this house. And this one, in particular, is trying to communicate with you.”

“Why?” Liam asked.

Timothy examined his well-manicured nails as if they were more interesting than this conversation. “You might want to talk to Miss Autumn. She has some theories.”

Liam rose and touched the now-bandaged cut on his head. “That’s ridiculous.”

Cora closed the first-aid kit. “My son is right. Autumn seems very connected to the spirit world. Unlike any young person I’ve ever met. She’s a conduit for the dead.”

Someone cleared their throat and they all froze. No one had heard Evelyn’s footsteps as she entered the patio. “Liam, did you take care of the bird?”

“Not yet, Mrs. Abernathy. I got clocked by a ghost.” Liam glanced at Timothy and Cora, waiting for a laugh, but their eyes widened and they both gave imperceptible nods. Okay, so don’t talk about ghosts in front of the boss lady.

Evelyn’s eyes flitted around the pool area. “Please take care of it before you go home.” She said to Cora, “Mrs. Paulson requested grouper for dinner. Is that doable?”

“Sorry, not today, Mrs. Abernathy. There was no one to go to the wharf.” Cora slid the first-aid kit into her bag and headed inside with Evelyn, who muttered something about “guests expecting fresh seafood.”

Timothy lingered outside with Liam. “Talk to Autumn. By the way, she has your ring.”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“Yeah, she flashed it at me before she did this.” Liam pointed to his swollen lip.

“She hit you?”

“No, she bit me.”

“Miss Autumn bit your lip?” Timothy sounded incredulous. “When?”

“Last night. After midnight.”

Timothy put his hands on his hips. “You came back here at night to search for the ring?”

“Crazy, right?”

Timothy’s pupils grew. “On second thought,
I’m
going to talk to Autumn. You go bury that bird and then go home. Your ring is safe for now.”

“What do you mean ‘for now’?”

But Timothy had already slipped through the sliding glass doors. Liam remained outside alone, with a cut on his forehead, about to say a eulogy for a bird.

#

After returning from the January room where she left Mrs. Paulson a fresh stack of towels, Autumn hurried to her bathroom. She turned on the hot tap and waited for the shower to steam up. That was the thing about truly old houses—the water pressure sucked, and it took an eternity for the water to be anything but arctic cold.

Autumn faced the bathroom mirror and slid the ponytail holder out of her hair. The brunette strands were stringy, damp from sweat. Mascara caked under her lashes, leaving flecks of black in the creases below her eyes. She saw herself as Liam must have seen her yesterday. A mess.

Autumn thought back to Inez. The way she carried herself. Tall. Elegant. Important. Being inside Inez’s memories gave Autumn an understanding of what it was like to be a woman people noticed. And yet, despite Inez’s self-confidence and beauty, she longed for something too. Not a something, Autumn realized, a someone. Someone she couldn’t have.

Steam billowed around Autumn. The ring glinted next to the soap on the sink, taunting her. Calling her. Timothy would rat her out to Liam any moment, so it was now or never.

Autumn slipped the ring on her finger and steadied herself against the edge of the pedestal. She waited for the slight wave of dizziness.

This time when Inez climbed inside Autumn’s body, the ghost didn’t transport Autumn back in time. She hovered inside her and whispered, “What do you want to know?”

Autumn glanced at her reflection. An amber ring circled her normally brown irises. “Who are you?” Autumn felt an invisible hand guide her as she traced a letter into the steamy condensation: a lowercase
t
.

Okay, that’s a start. No true last name, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get information on a girl named Inez T., who died in the 1960s.

Autumn grew bolder. “Who killed you?”

Again, her hand lifted, as if guided by another force, and she wrote L-E-O on the glass.

Autumn gasped. “Are you sure?” She stared at her reflection, but Inez didn’t answer.

“Take me back,” Autumn demanded, “into your memories. Take me back to the day you died.”

Autumn’s vision clouded and then cleared. Leo Breyer loomed in front of her, his face an angry mask. Autumn’s gaze darted around, but they weren’t in the patio. They stood in corridor with doors on both sides. A school? The only illumination came from the gymnasium. Leo continued to yell at her.

A shadow lurked behind him, but Autumn couldn’t make out the form. Man or woman, she wasn’t sure.

Spittle came out with Leo’s words, and his skin grew reddened, as if he was on fire.

“I can’t take you anymore,” he screamed at her.

Autumn shrank back and laughed.

Leo’s eyes widened. He raised his hands as if to strike, and then blackness.

Autumn felt lighter. The spirit had lifted and was gone. Her vision cleared and she was back in her bathroom.

“Dammit!” Autumn cried.

She heard a pounding on the door. Her mother. “Are you almost done in there?”

“Just a minute,” she called back.

Autumn stepped into the hot shower and let the water wash away her sweat and grime. The ghost told her what she wanted to know, but she couldn’t shake her uneasiness. Inez didn’t seem exactly trustworthy. Autumn needed proof. Proof that Leo was in fact Inez’s killer, or proof that he wasn’t. Either way, she needed Liam’s help.

#

Liam cradled the dead bird in the shovel and carried it to the far corner of the yard where the Cayo’s back fence butted up against the neighbor’s property. A large banyan tree pushed against the fence, and its roots protruded from the earth. The trunk reminded Liam of a sea monster rising from the ocean, unfurling its tentacles. The tree must’ve been a hundred years old, at least.

The Marlberry grew underneath the Banyan tree, the shade providing just the right amount of darkness for the shrub’s bright green leaves and pink flowers. It was a pretty, albeit neglected garden. Just the right place to bury a dead animal. No one came back there.

Liam spotted a gap in the tree roots and considered it a fitting place to bury the bird. He dug a small hole in between the roots and scooped out the dirt, forming a pile of earth. He wouldn’t need to dig deep—the bird was barely the size of his palm.

Using the tip of the shovel, he nudged the bird into the tiny hole and then went to pile on the dirt. But something stopped him. Liam crouched and examined the dirt mound. He poked at it with his finger and uncovered a round brass pin, roughly the size of a quarter. Liam brushed off the loose dirt and held it up, hoping to read the inscription in the fading afternoon light. He could barely make out the name. St. Veronica’s School for Girls.

The pin seemed familiar, but Liam couldn’t remember why. He slipped it into his pocket, and covered the dead bird with dirt.

After he and Randall got their business off the ground, Liam swore he would not think about dead things, animals or people, for a long, long time.

#

Shortly before dinner, Autumn sat on her bed, a history textbook lay in her lap. Timothy knocked on Autumn’s bedroom door.

“What’s up?” she asked Timothy, who was dressed in a gray suit vest with a light blue shirt underneath. No bowtie. “Gotta date?”

“I have study group tonight.”

“Cyrus?” Autumn wagged her brows.

A smile crept up on Timothy’s face. “Maybe. Not that it’s any of your business.” Timothy leaned against the doorframe and softened his stance. “Listen, I know you think I’m all beauty and no brains—”

Autumn laughed.

Timothy narrowed his eyes. “But I’m telling you something important. You cannot keep channeling that ghost. She’ll kill you.”

Autumn rose and went over to the sputtering air-conditioning unit. She smacked the metal box until it roared back to life. “You’re being dramatic. The ghost only wants my help.”

“Something tells me she doesn’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Timothy scratched his cheek. “This spirit seems pretty bitchy. And not bitchy like Katie either, but more mean-spirited.” He laughed. “No pun intended.”

Autumn whipped around. “She deserves justice, doesn’t she?”

“Who are you kidding?” Timothy couldn’t keep the annoyance out of his voice. “That’s not what you’re doing. You’re exploiting her to get a college scholarship.”

“I’m not! She’s confused and unstable, and she’s likely to hurt Liam. Not me.”

“Channeling a ghost is risky. You do it too often, she’ll take over your soul. You won’t be Autumn Abernathy anymore. You’ll be Inez in Autumn’s body.”

“I’ve only channeled her twice. First, when I put on the ring and had no idea that would happen. And second, a little while ago in the bathroom.”

Timothy held up three fingers. “Three times. You’ve channeled her three times.”

“Huh?”

Timothy leaned against the mismatched painted walls as if he was straddling the border of two countries, and crossed his arms over his chest. “You channeled her in your sleep last night. And you bit Liam’s lip in the process.”

Autumn felt her stomach flip flop. “That couldn’t have happened. I don’t remember seeing him.” Although, she recalled a dream about lions.

“Were you wearing the ring in your sleep?”

Autumn had placed the ring next to her on the bedside table. She shook her head.

“Crap. Things are progressing faster than I thought. That’s what happens when you let a ghost into your body. She thinks it’s her new home and she’ll evict you right quick.” Timothy pushed off the wall and smoothed down his vest. “The boy knows you have his property anyway. He’s expecting it back.”

Autumn sighed heavily. “I didn’t even learn much. All I got was her last initial and she called out Leo Breyer as her killer.”

Timothy held up his hand. “Hold up. She named Liam’s grandpa as the murderer?”

“Yup.”

“Sounds like your work is done, then. Ghost girl solved her own crime. Now you just need to communicate that to her, and she’ll leave Liam alone. Case closed.”