If Catfish Had Nine Lives (Country Cooking School Mystery) (18 page)

I’d only quickly inspected the picture Jake had found, but I knew the figure whose features were dancing in the torchlight from a hundred and fifty or so years ago was someone Esther would love to talk to. If only she could talk to ghosts.

It seemed that Astin Reagal was in the house.

“Uh-oh,” Gram said as she appeared next to me. “What do you suppose this is all about?”

“Not sure exactly, but that looks like Astin Reagal.”

The man on horseback was smaller than I thought he’d be; skinnier, with narrow shoulders. But Jake and Esther both had told me the riders were on the smaller side, so the horses could travel faster with the lighter load. Astin sat as high on his horse as his short stature would allow as the horse stepped in place, waiting for a command from its rider. But Astin looked around as though he wasn’t sure where he was.

“We should probably go talk to him. This might be his first time back as a ghost. His memory is probably all screwy. They’re so terribly confused on their first trip back to Broken Rope,” Gram said.

I glanced back at Cliff. Along with everyone else in the crowd, his attention was on the skit being performed on the stage. He smiled the direction of the skit, and I could see the shadow formed by his dimple.

“Let’s go around to the left a little so we won’t be noticed right away,” I said.

Gram nodded and then led the way.

Astin’s smell was distinctly horsey. It wasn’t a pleasant scent, but it wasn’t plug-your-nose awful either. Its pungency sharpened the closer we got.

“Astin?” Gram said as we looked up at the young man on the horse.

“I’m Astin Reagel,” he said, though he sounded uncertain. “Who are you?” The horse turned in an impatient circle.

“Hi, Astin, I’m Missouri Anna Winston, and this is my granddaughter Isabelle. You’re at the Broken Rope Pony Express station, but things are different than what you remember.”

“Different how?”

“You’re not in your time. You died a long time ago. You’re just back visiting.”

This was the first time I’d met a ghost who was on their first trip back. I hadn’t thought about how such a moment should be handled, but I marveled at Gram’s calm words. Surely it was more difficult than that to keep them from freaking out.

Astin’s face scrunched up as he thought for a long moment. The horse mellowed, and though it wasn’t completely still, it wasn’t jittery nervous.

“You say your name’s Missouri?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“And what are all those folks doing over there?” He nodded toward the campsite.

“It’s a long story, but none of them can see you. You will only be able to talk to me and Betts, and perhaps any other ghosts that might be around.”

Astin blinked rapidly. I looked at Gram—was he going to faint or something? But she stood patiently with her hands on her hips. She didn’t seem to be concerned, so I didn’t think I needed to be either.

“Well, I’ll be,” Astin said. “This is as strange as a purple lightning bug.”

“And it’ll probably get even stranger,” Gram said with a smile, “but I’m glad you understand what I’m saying.”

“I do. I really do.” He scratched his head. “I sure wish I could remember something other than my name. Anything would be good.”

“That’s normal,” Gram said. “You’ll remember a few things the longer you’re here. You won’t stay forever, though. If you’re like the others, you’ll come and go.”

“That right?” Astin sniffed.

“Yes, that’s right,” Gram said.

“What do I do now?”

“Anything you want. You can go pretty much anywhere around Broken Rope. Lots of you go back to the places you lived. Or died. Or were killed. After you remember things, of course.”

“There’s lots of us?”

“Yes.” Gram and I both looked at Joe. Astin didn’t seem to care much about the other ghosts in the vicinity, but Joe was certainly taken by Astin. He and his horse were stone still as they stared at our new visitor.

“I’ll be,” Astin said again. “Maybe I’ll go out by where my house was.”

“That’s a good idea.” Gram looked at me and shrugged. “But you might want to know that there’s a mystery around your death. Any chance you want to try to remember some of those details and clear that up for us?”

“I don’t understand.”

“You disappeared. Out on the trail. You up and disappeared,” Gram said.

“I disappeared? Did I have any kin?”

“Yes, you were married and had a baby, a son.”

“That’s terrible that I left them.”

“Not the best way to leave this world, but it was a long time ago. The pain that your demise caused is long dead, too, Astin. It’s been well over a hundred years.”

Astin whistled. “This shouldn’t be happening, should it?”

“No, it shouldn’t, but it does, and we deal with it.”

“Why can you two see me?”

“We have no idea.”

“Wait, a name just came to me. Was my son’s name Charlie?”

Gram looked at me.

“Yes,” I said. I leaned over and spoke quietly in Gram’s ear. “Can I tell him what his son did when he grew up?”

“Sure.”

“Astin, your son grew up and ran the general store. He was successful.”

“That’s good news.”

“You just never know,” Gram said. “You can’t spend a lot of time worrying about how things were. They won’t change and there’s always some good. However, it’s interesting to see if any of the mysteries can be solved. Like where your remains are located,” Gram said.

Astin looked down at us for a long time before he said, “I only remember this: I took a shortcut. I remember I wanted to hurry home. I took a shortcut. No, it turned out not to be a shortcut. I just thought it was one.”

“Do you remember where?” Gram asked.

“Sort of.” Astin looked toward the crowd watching the skit.

“Tell us,” Gram said.

He shook his head slowly. “I was almost home. I was almost home. That’s all I know right now.”

“I see.” Gram didn’t hide the disappointment in her tone.

“Astin!” Joe suddenly said.

“Yes, sir. Who are you? I thought only those two ladies could see me,” Astin said.

“Joe’s a ghost, too, another rider. Remember him?” I said.

Astin squinted and stared. “No, not at all.”

“Are you sure?” I said. “I think there’s some sort of connection between the two of you.”

“I don’t remember any connection at all.”

“Astin, Astin,” Joe said.

“That is my name,” Astin said as he inspected Joe again.

“You don’t remember me?”

“No, sir.”

“I didn’t think you would, but that’s not important anyway,” Joe said with disappointment lining his voice.

“What’s important is finding where you died. Were you killed, Astin? Did someone kill you?” Gram said.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to think on it.”

“Yes, think, Astin, think,” Joe said.

I looked back toward the campsite. The skit was still being performed. Even from where I stood, the stick horses didn’t seem hokey or contrived. Teddy and Opie were still sitting in the folding chairs, but Cliff was no longer in the spot by them. He must have gone to look for me, but just hadn’t made it this direction again.

“Gram, have you seen Jerome?” I said.

“Earlier, yes. Why?”

“He might be able to help Astin and Joe. He’s been looking for Astin’s remains. He might have a better idea. I think I’ll go look for him. You okay here?”

“I’m fine.”

I hurried back to the campsite.

As interesting as it would have been to watch and listen to Joe and Astin, I did think that Jerome might be able to help them. And I didn’t think Cliff needed to find me by the station again.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t immediately find either the ghost or Cliff, but I finally found Jake. He and Esther were sitting together on a long bench that was made out of a fallen tree trunk. They weren’t watching the skit. The bench was back from the main crowd and gave them enough quiet to talk about whatever they were talking about. I didn’t want to interrupt and I did want to interrupt. It was only a short time earlier that Esther had mentioned how unfeasible a long-distance relationship between the two of them would be. As close as they sat and as attentive as they were to each other, it didn’t look like she was sharing the same thoughts with him.

“Hi,” I said as I chose to approach.

“Betts, how’s your evening? Here, sit.” Jake patted the trunk on his open side.

“No, thanks, I’m looking for Cliff. Have you seen him?”

“The policeman who found us by the station? You lost him already?” Esther smiled.

“I did.”

“Haven’t seen him, Betts.” Jake squinted and then turned to Esther. “Could you excuse me a minute? I’m going to help Betts track down Cliff.”

“No . . .” I protested.

Jake stood. “It’s fine. I’ll be right back, Esther.”

Jake led the way away from the pretty redhead sitting on the tree trunk. We snaked around two small groups of poets. I hadn’t noticed that the skit had ended until I realized no one was looking toward the stage any longer. One of the groups we’d approached was listening to a woman read a poem; the other was laughing about a shared joke.

“Jake, I didn’t want to take you away.” In fact, I thought his exit from the tree truck was awkward and impolite.

“Betts, what’s up? You look frazzled. Can I help?”

“I look frazzled?” I said.

“Yes.”

“Oh. I didn’t know I looked frazzled.” I took a deep breath and swiped my hand over my hair to try to smooth the pieces that must have come out of my ponytail. “Well, we’ve got a number of ghosts, and I can’t seem to find the one who might be able to give me some answers or help the others.”

Jake blinked. “So you’re not looking for Cliff?”

“No, I am.”

“Why?”

“Because I think he’s looking for me.”

“Oh, okay. There are new ghosts?”

“One. Astin Reagal.”

“Really? Does he know where he died, what happened to him?”

“Not quite yet.”

“That would be valuable information.”

“I know. It might take a little time. Their memories and all.”

A low-level commotion seemed to build around us. For a moment I didn’t know what was happening. It took Jake and I both a second to realize that the crowd was all being drawn toward the stage.

“The skit’s over, right?” I said.

“Yeah.”

“Something else must be going on,” I said before I fell in step with everyone else.

The skit was, in fact, over, but there was another show being played out in front of the stage. The actors were Teddy, Opie, and Vivienne.

Vivienne was yelling at my brother. Teddy was standing and holding Opie behind him, though I could tell Opie wanted to be part of whatever battle was ensuing. Even injured, Teddy would never let a girl fight his battles, though he might have no choice with me. I continued to move toward them.

“You’re such a jerk. You totally deserved what you got,” Vivienne said.

“Back off,” Teddy said. “Just back off.”

“I will not. I have every right to be angry at you. You led me on.”

“No, I didn’t. I remember that part. I didn’t lead anyone on. I was just having a good time with everyone. I never led anyone on.”

I cringed. There was a pretty good chance that he had led someone on. He didn’t even realize he did what he did; his flirtatious nature was simply just him. But still.

“You’re not the brightest bulb in the pack, are you?” Vivienne said.

“Hey!” Opie said, but Teddy continued to hold her securely behind him.

“Maybe not,” Teddy said, “but I’m smart enough to figure out what’s going on here, and it needs to stop. You’re partially responsible for this.” Teddy pointed to his face.

What did he remember? I wanted to jump in to defend his honor, but I didn’t want to interrupt if we were about to learn more about the beating.

“Hey, folks, what’s the problem?” Cliff said as he appeared from the crowd. I wanted to cheer at his arrival, but I didn’t.

“This guy’s a jerk,” Vivienne said as she pointed at Teddy.

“And that’s reason enough to cause such a scene?” Cliff asked. “Let’s calm down and we can chat amongst ourselves about the problem.”

Vivienne grimaced at Cliff. He wasn’t wearing his uniform, but he’d been around enough that she should have known he was a police officer. He caught the grimace and sent her back an authoritative glare. It worked. She either finally recognized him or decided he was probably right. She nodded and then stepped around Cliff and seemed to be leaving the campsite. Cliff nodded at Teddy and Opie, and then he spotted me and sent me a look that said “Take care of these two,” and then turned to follow Vivienne.

I followed up on that unspoken request immediately and hurried to Teddy.

“I leave you two alone for just a few minutes and look what happens,” I half-joked.

“She came out of nowhere,” Teddy said.

“What did she say—I mean, at first? How did all of that start?” I asked.

“She called him some horrible names,” Opie interjected.

“S’okay, Ophelia. I can take it.” Teddy smiled at her. She calmed and looked away where she could pretend to focus on something else. “Almost the second she stopped to say something to us, I remembered more about her involvement in this.” Teddy pointed at his face. “I think she was the one who lured me out into the woods.”

“For the firewood? She’s the one who hit you?” I said.

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, I think she got me out into the woods, but not for firewood. I do think there was a guy involved, and I’m not just saying that because I’d be embarrassed that a girl might have done this to me. I would be, but I know we need to get the story straight.”