Madison Johns - Agnes Barton Paranormal 02 - Ghostly Hijinks (12 page)

* * *

How does one conjure a spirit?
I thought, thinking of Caroline as I paced my room. Andrew wasn’t here now and it would be the perfect time to talk to her, but I was at a loss as to how to proceed. I guess I should ask Caroline how it all works. It would be helpful if I could just utter a simple phrase and she magically showed up, but I guess things just don’t work like that. I then decided to say out loud, “Caroline, where are you?”

Laughter began behind me and I whirled—there Caroline was lying down on the bed with her hands interlaced behind her neck.

“How long have you been there?”

“A few minutes. Ever since you started thinking about how to find me.”

“I didn’t think that exactly, but I’m happy that you’re here now.” I sank into a chair. “Something happened earlier and I just don’t know what to make of it.” I then told Caroline about what happened in the bathroom with Eleanor and how someone or something cut her out of the sweater she was trapped in.

“So, you never saw anyone come out of the bathroom when you went back there with the scissors?”

“No, and Eleanor said it was quite cold after her sweater was finally removed. Is it possible a ghost did the deed—helped Eleanor, I mean?”

Caroline sat up. “I’m not sure, but I suppose I could ask around. You said she was cut out of the sweater with a knife?”

“Yes, and my first thought was that it might be the—”

“Shhhh, don’t say
his
name or
he
might show up.”

I sighed. “I was under the impression that
he
stayed in the library.”

“Just because that’s where he’s been, doesn’t mean that’s where he’ll stay. Spirits aren’t rooted to a particular spot, you know.”

“You were once rooted back in East Tawas. You told me you were stuck to hang out on US 23 after you were ran down, remember? Until you decided to attach yourself to me.”

“Hey, I never actually decided that. It’s just what happened. I still haven’t figured out how this dead thing works.”

“Me, either, when it comes to you. So all I have to do is to think about you for you to appear?”

“Pretty much, unless something scary happens. Then I’m outta there like yesterday’s news.”

I frowned. “That’s another thing. If you want to be part of the partnership, you can’t be doing that. Eleanor and I might really need you and what good would it be if you won’t stick around to help us out?”

“You’re both pretty resourceful. Besides, I don’t want to come between you and Eleanor.”

“You won’t. No offense, but Eleanor and I are thicker than molasses. There’s just no way you’d ever be able to do that.”

There was a knock at the door. Caroline flew into the dresser, and it took a few minutes before she was able to disappear completely. I had to chuckle a little at that and answered the door, but there was only a box sitting there on the floor. I picked it up and wondered if I should open it or not until Caroline appeared next to me. “I don’t think this looks too dangerous,” Caroline said. “Open it.”

I shuffled inside. “You open it.”

“Fine, then.” She reached through the box and came back with a cowboy boot as the box popped open. “Like I said, harmless unless you want to use this boot for walking all over someone,” she winked.

I waltzed over to the bed, feeling a bit foolish now. I pulled out western apparel in the form of a fringed vest and matching skirt that, along with the cowboy boots, would look very western indeed. I found an envelope and opened it, scanning the card that was inside with only the words, “Compliments of Francine Pullman.”

Caroline read the card and said, “How neighborly of her.”

“Indeed. I had the impression that I’d rubbed her the wrong way yesterday.”

“If you did, she’s over it.”

Not wanting to offend Francine if I saw her today, I donned the clothing, which fit quite well. “What do you think?” I asked Caroline as I struck a pose.

Caroline clapped her hands. “Love it. I can’t wait to see what your friends think of it.”

“I hope you stay invisible to them while you do that. Andrew didn’t take well to seeing the spirit in the library yesterday.”

“I see. So he put a real scare into him, did he?”

“Sure did, but a spirit brandishing a knife is a pretty scary sight. He even slashed at Andrew.”

“Oh, I see. I’m sure not looking forward meeting him.”

I smiled at Caroline as we parted ways at the elevator, hoping that she’d actually meet Douglas and not leave me all alone with the angry spirit.

Chapter Nine

When I entered the dining room, I treaded lightly in my brand new cowgirl attire and I had to admit, I loved the feeling of the apparel. Luckily, I had a button-up white shirt to wear underneath the vest. I couldn’t wait to see what Andrew thought about my new ensemble. Too bad Andrew didn’t have any western apparel, too. I imagined that he’d look like quite fetching wearing black with a gun belt around his narrow waist.

After a few minutes of looking, I couldn’t see Andrew at our regular table, but instead, there was a much larger table in its place.

Halfway there, I even spotted three older women that I didn’t recognize until I stood at the table. The one in the middle smiled and said, “Well, Agnes, it sure looks like you fit in here with that western apparel.”

I squinted. “Mrs. Barry, is that you?”

“Of course, and you remember Mrs. Peacock and Mrs. Canary, right?”

I nodded at the ladies. “Oh, but of course. Fancy meeting you ladies so far from Redwater, Michigan.” Redwater is a small town in Michigan’s thumb area that Eleanor and I had vacationed at before. “Is Birdy here, too?” I asked, indicating Mrs. Peacock’s foul-mouthed Macaw bird.

“Oh, no. One of my neighbors is looking after Birdy. He’d never last through an airplane ride here,” Mrs. Peacock said.

I smiled at Eleanor, who sauntered to the table. “I have western apparel, too,” she said, showing off her denim skirt and matching shirt, lifting it just enough so I could see her cowboy boots.

“Well, obviously we must have made an impression on Francine yesterday when we met her. I’m so shocked she sent us some real authentic western apparel,” I went on to say.

“I know, right? Where’s Andrew and Mr. Wilson?” Eleanor asked the group of women.

“They haven’t shown up yet, but I hope they are wearing western apparel, too. You’ll look like perfectly matched couples then,” Mrs. Barry said.

Since we didn’t see the men coming, we took a seat just as the server brought over the coffee, winking at me. “I have a special coffee just for you, Agnes, compliments from the Tumbleweed Saloon. Bertha Anne brought it special just for you.”

I had to still my racing pulse and wanted to do a happy dance. “Oh, and what did she bring Redd?”

“Hopefully not an STD. That woman has been chasing Redd for quite a time, but I have the sneaking suspicion that he’s just not all that interested in her.”

Just then, I caught sight of Redd sneaking out of the kitchen, a finger pressed against his lips in a shushing motion. The door whipped open and Bertha Anne asked, “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“I-I’m late for a meeting,” he said as he raced across the dining room and flew through the door leading to the back of the hotel.

Bertha Anne threw up her hands. “I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” she muttered as she walked by.

“You could act a little less eager,” Mrs. Barry said. “Some men just don’t like an aggressive gal.”

“No? Well, I guess I could try that, but I swear that man is playing too hard to get. Do you know he’s never even been married before?”

“Perhaps he’s not intending to ever be, married I mean, if that’s your plan,” I said. “I just don’t take Redd for a marrying man.”

“That’s such a disappointment. This town just doesn’t have enough eligible bachelors.”

“I can’t imagine so. Why did you move here, then?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I suspect Leister’s gold, but the people around here won’t even talk about it all that much. How am I ever going to figure out where it is if folks won’t even talk about it?”

“Perhaps because they don’t know.”

“I guess, but at least more men will come to town with the Gold Rush Festival coming tomorrow,” Bertha Anne said as she walked away.

“That’s why we’re here,” Mrs. Barry said. “Best ribs in Nevada, they say.”

“Oh, have you been here before, then?”

“Certainly have. Why else would we be here? Never heard about Leister’s gold though. That’s worth checking into.”

“I wouldn’t recommend doing that. There’s a missing family in search of it, and Eleanor and I are doing our best to find them before they perish.”

“Missing, you say. Are you two here on a case?” Mrs. Peacock asked.

“We didn’t come here to investigate one, but it kinda fell in our laps.”

“Sounds like business as usual,” Mrs. Canary added.

We had our breakfast with the normal small talk about Mrs. Peacock’s Macaw, Birdie, almost being taken by animal control after it escaped from its perch and nested in a tree near a playground, foul mouth and all.

I just about jumped straight out of my skin when Caroline snickered in my ear. “Meet me by the library door.” And here I thought I’d like it better if she were invisible. Not so much.

“Hurry up, Eleanor. We should … er ... look for our menfolk.”

We said our goodbyes, promising to catch up with Mrs. Barry and the bird sisters at another time, preferably before Mrs. Barry had slammed back too many beers as she had a wont to do.

Caroline was standing by the library, now in visible mode to us, as Eleanor and I joined her. “What’s up?” I asked Caroline. “Did you ask the spirits if they were the ones who helped Eleanor earlier?”

“What?” Eleanor asked with whitened face. “So you think it really was a ghost that cut off my sweater for real?”

“Well, of course. Who else, since we’re the only ones staying on the third floor?”

“Not for long,” Caroline said. “Niles said that the hotel gets pretty booked up during the Gold Rush Festival.”

I’m not sure I like the sound of that. It was hard enough to share the bathroom with four people as it was. “I see. So did you find out anything or not?”

“Actually, yes and no. I asked Niles, who vehemently denied it. He told me he tries his best to not interact with
live ones
, as he calls the living.”

“How about Crazy Mary?”

“She denied it, too. Right before she threw me out of the attic and told me to never come back. I think she thinks Niles and I are an item.”

“Oh, what makes you think that?”

“She told me is how. I tried to explain to her how she has it all wrong, but she’s not the listening type. Niles told me that sums up Crazy Mary in a nutshell.”

“Is it true that she murdered Niles and then took her own life here at the hotel?”

“Oh, I’m not sure. Niles never told me that, but I suppose it sounds about right. My own life was ended not too differently when my fiancé was upset that I was leaving him.”

“Don’t blame yourself. Nobody has the right to end anyone’s life, no matter what they do.”

“Niles assured me that he never betrayed Crazy Mary.”

“And yet, he hasn’t told you the whole truth as of yet. Be careful, Caroline.”

“I plan to be, but I’m already a ghost. There’s not much else Crazy Mary can do to me.”

“This is nice and all, but why are we here now, Caroline?” Eleanor asked.

“We’re going to ask Douglas if he was the one who helped you out earlier, Eleanor. He’s the only spirit in the Goldberg Hotel that is known to wield a knife.”

“I don’t much care,” Eleanor admitted. “And I sure as heck am not going back in that library. We barely escaped with our lives the last time.”

“I assure you that won’t happen this time. I won’t allow Douglas to hurt either of you,” Caroline said. “Please, Eleanor, come inside with me. We’ll go in together as a brave front.”

“I just don’t see why?”

“Come on, Eleanor. I really need to know.”

“Why?”

“Because if The C— I mean Douglas, has come upstairs once, I would like to know if he plans to do it again, is all.”

“It will be okay, I promise I’ll stick with you girls this time,” Caroline said as the library door creaked open. She floated into the room with us following her.

“I don’t think he’s in here now,” I said.

“Maybe we should come at another time,” Eleanor said, as she made a mad dash to the door, but before she made it there, a black mist surrounded her and she screamed at the top of her lungs, with her palms out as if trying to push it away.

The mist backed off a few feet, and Douglas’s ghostly formed appeared from it. “Please, stop screaming. It really grates on my nerves.”

Eleanor clamped her mouth shut. “Oh, I-I’m sorry, but you scared me.”

“Didn’t mean to, dear lady. I’d hate to scare you away.” He smiled, a jagged knife in his right hand.

“What if you put the knife down, then? You’d look a whole lot less scary that way,” Eleanor suggested.

Douglas waltzed to the far side of the room. “I just can’t. Believe me, I have tried, but it’s all for naught.”

“I see. Well, you poor dear. Were you the one who helped me out earlier upstairs?”

“Yes,” he said, bashfully now. “I-I heard quite a commotion and your cries for help and I had to take a peek.”

“A peek?” Eleanor exclaimed.

“I-I didn’t mean it the way it sounds. I’m certainly not a pervert, you know.”

Eleanor laughed nervously. “That certainly doesn’t make me feel any better, but thanks for helping me out. You never even nicked me with that knife of yours.”

“I’ve never tried to actually harm anyone I’ve slashed at before, but today I knew I had to help you out. Your cries for help were pitiful.”

Eleanor’s hands went to her hips. “Why do you do that anyway? Scaring folks like that just isn’t right.”

“I know. It’s just that I just started a really good book and hate to be disturbed.”

“Oh, what are you reading?” Eleanor asked, interested.

“
Moby Dick
. It’s a great book with so much action and adventure, don’t you think?”