Haunting Ellie (38 page)

“Tarnation!” Alex bellowed. “I don’t want to climb inside you again, I just want to touch my own flesh and blood.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Elizabeth said. “He
is
your own flesh and blood, he’s part of you and you’re part of him. If you touch him, you become him.”

“I think she’s right,” Jon said. “So for now, let’s just
pretend
you want to show some grandfatherly affection, okay?”

Alexander’s laughter bounced off the walls. “Grandfather, huh? Has a nice sound to it, although I would have preferred hearing
Pa
or
Dad
once or twice.” Alex waved the thoughts away. “That’s neither here nor there anymore. What matters now is finding evidence to clear my name. So, what do we have so far? Phoebe’s diary?”

“Which, more than likely, no one will believe,” Elizabeth stated.

“Amanda’s note?” Jon asked.

“Personal and private, and I don’t intend to share it with anyone, except maybe the two of you
” Alex declared. ‘It says Thomas was my son, but any fool can look at the pictures and figure that out.”

“So we have nothing,” Elizabeth said.

Alex shrugged. “What about this?” He reached into his inside coat pocket and withdrew an envelope. “I’d almost forgotten about it.” He took a piece of paper from inside. “Jedediah Dalton gave this to me the day he signed the property over. It was a copy of what he planned to say at the wedding, and he figured I might be too caught up in the excitement to hear his words. He wanted to make sure I knew how he felt.”

“Why didn’t you show it to me before?” Elizabeth asked.

“It’s one of those personal and private things I didn’t want to share. Guess maybe I should have.”

Alex slowly unfolded the stationery and began to read.

Alexander,

You are my partner, my friend, and the son I always wanted. The greatest treasure I could give you, for all you have meant to me, is my daughter’s love. But that she has given to you freely.

Now I have only one thing left to give, and I do so just as willingly. All that I own is yours
—
my home, my businesses, my wealth. Share them, as you will your love, with my daughter, your children, and your children’s children.

And be happy.

Your servant,
Jedediah Dalton

“Do you think this is enough proof?” Alex asked.

Jon felt a tightness in his throat for the pain, the loss, and the truth of what that piece of paper meant. He sought out words to say to Alex, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “That note won’t do us any good at all,” he said finally.

“And why not?” Alex fired back.

“Because the moment it leaves your hands, it will disappear. We see it only because you want us to, just the way we see you.”

“We need tangible evidence,” Elizabeth stressed.

“I died with it in my pocket,” Alex said. “That means I must have been buried with it.”

“You don’t want us to dig up your body, do you?” Elizabeth asked incredulously.

“Hell, no! But I don’t see any other choice.”

oOo

“Are you sure this is the right spot?” Jon asked, as he tossed another shovelful of dirt out of the four-foot hole he’d dug.

“Of course I’m sure,” Alex bellowed, as he paced back and forth. “Just keep digging.”

They were at the far end of the basement, a dark, cobweb-strewn place no one in his right mind would venture to unless he had a perfectly good reason. At least the dirt was easy to dig, Jon thought, as he shoveled another load, and another.

He hit something hard and closed his eyes, fearing he’d hit bone. As much as he wanted to uncover
that letter Alex had carried in his vest, he didn’t want to find the body.

“
What was that?” Elizabeth asked, leaning over to look into the pit.

Jon moved the lantern closer to the spot where his shovel was stuck into a good eight inches of dirt. “I don’t know.” He knelt down and began to dig more cautiously with his fingers, moving out only a handful of dirt at a time.

Something white came into view, and he swallowed deeply. He moved a few more scoops of dirt, then dusted a thin layer away with gloved fingers.

He closed his eyes and leaned back against the edge of the hole.

“What’s wrong, Jon?” Elizabeth called down.

He looked up into two pairs of worried eyes. “I found it,” he whispered. He turned his gaze downward again, and the empty eye sockets in Alexander’s skull stared back.

“Want some help?” Elizabeth asked.

He shook his head. “No, thanks. It’s bad enough that one of us has to do this. Maybe it would be better if you didn’t look down. You either, Alex.”

“You’re damn right I won’t look down. I’ve got a hell of a lot of memories about that dirt, and none of them are pleasant. No need dredging them up now.”

Jon went back to work, bit by bit tossing dirt into a bucket and handing it out to Elizabeth to dump. Slowly, he uncovered more. Tattered shreds of fabric, rotting leather shoes, a tarnished belt buckle, and a few coins that had fallen from where a pants pocket once had been.

“Have you found it yet?” Alex called out.

“Not yet.”

“Well, hurry up. I’m not particularly fond of this place.”

Jon dug around the edges of the skeleton looking for something, anything, but he knew his search was useless. What could he tell Alex? That it had been too long? That there was nothing here but bo
nes? But he had no choice in the matter; he had to tell him the truth.

Standing up, Jon easily looked over the top of the hole. He smiled weakly when he saw Elizabeth. A deep sadness furrowed her brow, and he realized she knew.

Jon looked across the basement to the place where Alexander paced back and forth, back and forth, twirling something on his finger.

The ring.

Amanda’s wedding ring.

Jon knelt back down and blew dust and dirt from the delicate fingerbones that lay haphazardly at the body’s side. Luke Winchester hadn’t laid Alex gently to rest in the bottom of the hole before shoveling in dirt. He’d dumped him, and Jon felt the sting of tears in his eyes for the treatment Alex hadn’t deserved, for the experiences—the wife, the son, the other children—Alex had missed.

At least the ring wasn’t missing. At least Luke hadn’t robbed Alex of that, too. Maybe it was that ring that had kept Alex and Amanda tied together forever.

Jon climbed up to the basement floor and Alex was immediately at his side. “Do you have it?” he asked.

Jon shook his head. “Most everything’s disintegrated. I’m sorry.”

Alex just stood there and stared at him, the corners of his mouth turned down in disbelief. “I thought this was my chance. I thought... hell, what does it matter? I was getting used to sticking around this place. Maybe you can take me out for a stroll once in a while, when you’re in need of a little pain.”

“Stop it, Alex,” Elizabeth snapped. “Stop it right now. We
will
get you out. We
will
prove your innocence.”

“How?” Alex thundered. “Do you think Luke Winchester left anything behind saying he killed me?”

“Maybe not, but...”

“But what?” Jon asked when he saw the look of intense concentration on Elizabeth’s face.

“Matt told me that Luke Winchester liked trophies, reminders of his conquests, and that half the animal heads hanging at Winchester Place had belonged to him. Maybe Luke kept all the property deeds when he robbed the bank, especially the one saying Alex was the rightful owner to the Dalton estate. Luke would have gloated over that victory.”

“And how do you propose we find something like that? Break into Matt’s home and search for it?”

Elizabeth smiled slowly and nodded.

“I d
on’t think so, Ellie,” Jon said. It wouldn’t look good for the mayor of Sapphire, Montana, to be caught breaking and entering.

“Do you have a better plan?” she asked.

“No, but...”

“But nothing,” Elizabeth tossed back. “I’ll go alone if you don’t want to help me.”

“It’s dangerous. It’s insane. Hell, Ellie, it’s illegal. But… I’ll go, but you’re not going with me.”

“You’re not going
without
me.”

Jon smoothed dirt from her cheek. She looked pretty, and he couldn’t imagine doing anything ever again without her. “You can go, but only if you do what I tell you to.”

“Would I ever do anything else?” she asked.

“Always.”

He grabbed the blanket he’d brought down to the basement, and lowered himself once again into the hole. Carefully he covered Alex’s body and stood silently for a moment, his hands folded in prayer. No one had said a prayer when he was buried, but Jon vowed that when all this was over, when Alex was reunited with Amanda, he and Elizabeth would give him a proper burial.

Suddenly he realized he’d said “when all this was over,” and for the first time he truly believed they’d find a way to help.

“Are you about ready to get out of here, Alex?” Jon called out.

“For one hundred years,” Alex yelled back. “Can’t you hurry it up?”

That’s what he liked to hear. He would miss the cantankerous old guy, but he’d have a lot of memories to hold on to.

Jon gripped the edge of the hole to pull himself out, but the ground caved away from around his fingers and he fell, slamming backward against the wall.

Dirt crumbled away, layer upon layer, and slowly, wood slats appeared where a solid wall of soil once had been.

Jon looked over the edge of the hole at Elizabeth and Alex. “I think I’ve discovered Luke’s tunnel
into the bank.”

“Made a convenient grave, didn’t it?” Alex said, his laughter filling the basement. “I might have had a chance to struggle and get free if he hadn’t already had this
thing dug.”

“
Let’s see if it still leads into the bank,” Elizabeth said, looking far too eager for Jon’s comfort.

“I’d rather break into
Matt’s house before we break into the bank. My chances of conviction might not be as high that way.”

Jon set the lantern on the basement floor and crawled out of the hole. Elizabeth put her hands on his cheeks when he finally stood before her. She brushed away dirt and mud from his nose and chin, and then she kissed him. “Maybe
they’ll give us adjoining cells.”

Jon laughed. “I’m the mayor. Maybe I could talk the judge into a single.”

Alex cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, do you think you could give my situation a moment’s thought instead of jabbering on and on about prison accommodations? I’ve got a woman waiting somewhere for me, and I’d sure like to get to her before another century passes.”

“How do you propose we get Matt out of the house?” Elizabeth asked, turning away from the window that looked out across the park next door and down to the end of the street. They’d taken turns watching Winchester Place. In the late afternoon Jon had seen Matt go into his all-too-ostentatious house, and together and separately they’d waited for him to exit, hoping some business or other engagement would draw him away. But the man wasn’t cooperating.

Just as Alex had said earlier, it seemed useless, Elizabeth thought. Surely there must be some better plan. Of course, from the looks of her companions, she was the only one who cared.

Alex sat on one end of the chesterfield, twiddling his thumbs, and Jon sat at the other, leaning back with his fingers wrapped behind his neck. His eyes looked closed, but she knew they weren’t. They watched her, and she felt the same shiver she’d felt that first day. This time, though, it wasn’t a fear of the unknown that sent that tremor through her body, it was anticipation of what was yet to come.

Slowly he rose and walked toward her, slid his
fingers into the hair at her temples, tilted her face, and kissed her. “Maybe it’s time we asked someone else to help us out.”

“And who do you know besides me who’s willing to break into a man’s house to help a ghost?”