Ghost of a Chance Book 1 in Above the Grave Trilogy (13 page)

“They killed Lezetta the same day that Mary Ann was
found? There was no trial?” She asked amazed.

“There wasn’t time for a trial. Some of the people that
lived around here snatched her up and drug her out here where
the cemetery is now. They tied her to a tree that once stood
there and set her on fire. I was clueless as to what was going
on. I was told that they put a sack over her eyes and stuffed her
mouth with a rag soaked in lantern oil to keep her from cursing
them.
If she was an evil woman, a bad witch, than she
bewitched me, as I never saw it.”

“Where were you when all of this was going on?”

“I was at the morgue, trying to find out what had
happened to my sister. They told me that her eyes had been
hollowed out and that some strange words and symbols had
been carved into her arms and legs. Later I was told in secrecy
that some of the markings had to have been made before the
day that she was murdered. None of it made any since and to
this day I am still baffled. I never got to see her body. They
burned it as well because of the assumed witchcraft.” He
paused and she felt his fingers rubbing her hands. “Who is
Jack?”

“That is going to require another glass of wine.” She
said taking a deep breath and sitting up again.

 

After she filled her glass of wine and took another
large drink she cleared her throat.

“Jack was my step
-father. I hated him from the first
moment that I saw him. He was such a creep. I tried to tell my
mother over and over again that she was a fool, she of course
wouldn’t listen. She never did when it came to men. Love can
be very blinding, I suppose.”

“You don’t really know though do you? Have you
ever been in love, Miss Drew?” He asked brushing his fingers
through her hair.

“Never before.” She said.

“Before what?” He asked, almost a whis
per, he was
sure that he didn’t want to hear the answer to that. As far as he
knew, and he had been with her every day, she wasn’t courting
any one.

“I was only twelve years old at the time.” She said,
ignoring his question, “My mother had to work late and when
she finally did get home she found him on top of me, so
dangerously
close to taking
what
every
girl
should hold
precious to them.” She looked up to where she thought that his
face may be again. “I know that times are different now than
they were in your time, people don’t wait until they are
married. It should still be special, you know?”

She felt his grip tighten around her arm.
When she
winced he loosened up and rubbed gently, absent mindedly
where he hadn’t meant to hurt her. His body still felt tense
next to hers though.

“No man should ever take what doesn’t belong to him.
Not ever, no matter how badly he desires.” He said sincerely.

Neither one of them spoke for a very long time. He
could feel her breathing getting heavier and knew that she had
drifted off to sleep. He slowly moved his arm out from behind
her and gently laid her head on the pillow. He bent down to
kiss her very lightly on the forehead. What he wouldn’t give to
kiss her lips. They weren’t his to take though, and he could
feel his non beating heart breaking, knowing that they never
would be.

Drew dreamed that night of a very tall man with coal
black hair and eyes green as the Irish hills. They were walking
through beautiful gardens that had been planted around the
castle, holding hands in the moonlight.
She wore a long
evening gown of ivory silk and flowers braided into her hair,
pink ones. She did love pink. He was charming in a dark suit,
his long wavy hair tide back into a pony tail.
He was so
striking and in her dream he was hers. In her dream they had
just been married and he would forever be with her. She pulled
her head up to look at him and to claim the kiss that was placed
on his lips for her. The moon shown in his eyes and in his eyes
the moon melted and turned black. For the first time since she
had been dreaming of this man she felt afraid for her life.

Chapter 5
Chains

When Drew woke the next morning her hand was
throbbing. She unwrapped it to see that it was a pretty nasty
cut and she knew that she was going to have to go to the
doctor. She didn’t really want to have to leave the house and
she definitely didn’t want to have to pass the cemetery. She
wondered how unheard of it would be to have the graves
moved. Ridiculous she thought, and probably illegal as well as
disrespectful.

She rolled over, half expecting Brendan to be laying
there with her. She knew better though. He had disappeared
again as she knew that he would. It felt so good to fall asleep
in his arms.
Why was she having these feelings now she
wondered? After all of these years of hating men, now she was
dreaming about one and wishing that she was in bed with
another. Wait, that wasn’t right. She didn’t really want to be
in bed with him.
Did she?
That was something that she
couldn’t even consider thinking about. He was a ghost for
crying out loud. Even if she had wanted to it wasn’t possible.
Drew realized then that it was probably what she wanted since
she could never really have it. That was her luck after all.

She had wanted to do some more asking around about
the spirits that were now haunting her life and evidently her
heart. Getting up and getting out of the house was probably a
pretty
good idea
anyway.
Besides, it
was
a very
large
coincidence she realized, that the first person that she asked
about Brendan O’Keefe knew exactly who she was talking
about. She wondered just how many other people thought they
knew what had happened there so many years ago.

Drew had gotten dressed
and tied her
hair
back,
leaving one skinny and fading pink braid tucked behind her ear.
She planned on being on her bike a while today. She had a lot
of driving to do. She wore a pair of faded blue jeans with holes
in the knees and a lacy black tank top with her black Harley
boots that had taken some time to get cleaned after their wade
in the pool. She never wore very much jewelry.

After making her bed for the first time in as long as she
could remember and straightening up her room, she headed for
the front door.

“Good morning, my Sunshine. Where are you going?”
Brendan said, again from the top of the stairs.

“Wow, déjà vu.” She said. “I’m going to the doctor to
have my hand looked at. It looks pretty bad. Then I thought I
would do some shopping. Need anything?”

Her hand was on the door knob awaiting an answer.
She was feeling very shy and nervous all of a sudden.

 

“Ha, Ha.” He said. “I don’t believe I will be needing
anything today, but I thank you for asking all the same.”

His voice made her tingle all over and sent her stomach
spinning. She needed to get away she realized. Run!
She
thought to herself and then shivered as she remembered the
voice in the graveyard.

“Ok then. I will be back soon.” She opened the door
then and before she could step out she felt his hand on her
shoulder.

“While you are out putting your nose into other
people’s business, could you pick up some chocolate?” He
said.

She turned around and shut the door. “What do you
mean putting my nose in other people’s business?” She said
and her face turned red.

“You know exactly what it is that I mean. You are
going off to find out what happened so many a year ago. I
should try to stop ye but it would do no good. So, be careful
what it is your getting yourself into.”

“Wow. Heavy on the Irish this morning aren’t we?
What is the chocolate for?” She asked. “You can’t eat
anything…can you?”

“No, but after all the moaning you did in your sleep
last night I thought you could use some for ye self.” He
cleared his throat, “Yourself.” He corrected with a smile in his
voice. He couldn’t hide the Irish no matter how hard he tried.
“At least that’s what that Cosmo book of yours said.”

Drew blushed even brighter now. “If I could see you I
would slap you right now.” She said and walked out the door.
“Smart arse.” She said before the door closed. She heard him
laugh heartily though and it made her giggle as well.

Imagine, a one hundred year old sexy voiced, male
Irish ghost
lounging
around reading
Cosmo (and eating
chocolate). She laughed so hard on the way to her bike that she
didn’t even notice the black caped figure hiding in the trees.

On the way to the road, down her drive way, she
slowed down past the cemetery. There had been no wind the
night before or that morning evidently; the candles that had
been lit the night before were still burning. She felt a chill go
up her spine and picked up her pace so as to get the hell as far
away from that place as possible.

She wondered how much a camcorder would cost. She
wouldn’t mind catching whoever her trespasser was.
Maybe
she could have them arrested for arson. She doubted it though.
Something told her that she wouldn’t want to see what went on
in that cemetery after the sun went down.

As Drew passed the spot on her drive where she had
met the previous owner of her new home, she wished that she
could kick herself for not thinking of it before. She pulled over
to dig her phone out of her pocket to call the man who had sold
her the house in the first place. He said that property had been
handed down from generation to generation. Surely he would
know something about his family history.

When the man answered Drew asked if they could
speak about the house that she had purchased from him. His
first thought was that she wanted to get out of owning the
home.

“No,
no, sir.
The house is lovely.
I
was
just
wondering if you had any information on the history of it.”
She explained.

“Oh, well then in that case.” He was happy to oblige
but not over the phone.
He asked her to meet him at his
favorite coffee shop in the French Quarter in half an hour.
“Now don’t be late or I will have to meet with you another
time.” He said.

She didn’t know what was with this guy and his ten
and thirty minute time frames or his impatience, but he so
reminded her of the white rabbit in Alice and Wonderland. In
fact, the phrase “curiouser and curiouser” seemed to fit her life
perfectly at the moment. It wouldn’t surprise her one bit if a
bodiless cat or a pot smoking caterpillar popped out at any
moment.
She wanted all of the information that she could
obtain from him so she was happy to meet him as soon as he
asked. She had a few minutes to kill so she thought that she
would swing by the library again first. Drew wanted to know
where the little know it all librarian had come up with her
knowledge of the past.

Of course when Drew arrived at the library the young
girl was nowhere to be found. There was an elderly woman in
her place.

“Excuse me.” Drew said politely. “I was wondering
where the young lady was that was working here about a week
ago.”

“She is off today.” The librarian whose name tag read
Beulah said.
She looked up at Drew through thick pop bottle
glasses and pursed lips. “Is there something that I can help you
with?”

“I don’t suppose you know anything about a Brendan
O’Keefe who died in 1860 do you?”

The lady smiled and said, “I may be old young lady,
but I am not quite that old. I don’t know anything about
anyone by that name myself. You are more than welcome to
use our computerized archival. If there was anything printed
back then you could find it either under the name or the date.
The computers are down that hall and through the first door on
your right.” She said pointing a knobby little finger towards a
nearby hallway. “Please be sure and clean up your area when
you are finished.”

“Great! Thank you!” Drew said. She heard Beulah
mumbling something about damn kids and messes, but she
didn’t have time to eves drop on the crazy old lady’s private
conversation. She only had about fifteen minutes left before
she had to be at the coffee shop and she wanted to make sure
that she wasn’t a minute late. She thought that she could take a
few minutes anyway just to see what she could come up with.

When Drew typed in “O’Keefe” in the library’s search
engine she found that there weren't many listed in the New
Orleans area and not much had been printed in the New
Orleans papers through time containing the O'Keefe name.

What she did find was interesting though. There was a
small article about the suicide of one Brendan O’Keefe in
1860. It said that his body was found in the family cemetery
hanging from a tree.
He had used the tomb of one Lezetta
Leblanc to step up on and then jumped off of the edge with his
neck hanging from a rope. There were no signs of struggle.

“Of course not.” Drew said out loud. There wouldn’t
be any sign of a struggle in the cemetery since Brendan had
been murdered in his house.

There was one other article that had been written April
11, 1850. It spoke of the O’Keefe family that had arrived from
Ireland the month before. It was mostly about the beautiful
castle that was being built by the O’Keefe’s in New Orleans
and how the gardens that would be surrounding the property
would be open to the public.

She supposed that since New Orleans was a big city,
they probably had a lot more important things to write about
than an obvious scandal so, it was no wonder she couldn’t find
anything else. She realized that she would have to come back
later when she had more time to look up Lezetta LeBlanc.