The Ghost from the Sea (7 page)

D
anielle parked
her car in the side drive at Marlow House. Turning off the ignition, she glanced up toward the attic. Walt was probably waiting for her, she thought, wondering where she had been all this time.

Just as she got out of the car, she heard Lily call her name.

Danielle looked down the drive, toward the street. She saw Lily walking in her direction; she assumed from Ian's house.

“Where've you been?” Lily asked when she reached the car. Danielle continued to stand by the Ford Flex, her keys in one hand and the strap of her purse draped over one shoulder. She was trying to decide if she should go into the house first and let Walt know what was going on, or head straight to the beach.

“Stopped at the beach, over by Chris' house. The chief was at the wreckage with Joe and Brian. Then I went to the museum and stopped at the police station.”

“Wow, you've been all over the place. What's up?”

Danielle glanced at the kitchen door and then decided what she wanted to do next. Dropping her keys into the front pocket of her purse, she looked at Lily and asked, “Would you walk down to the beach with me?”

“Sure, what for?”

“I'll explain on the way.”

Together Lily and Danielle headed down the driveway to the street. As they walked, Danielle told Lily about her day since the two had returned from Marie Nichol's house.

“So what do you want me to do?” Lily asked.

“I never got around to asking the chief who he has watching the Eva Aphrodite. But who ever it is, I was hoping you'd help distract him, keep him busy—strike up a conversation, ask questions, whatever, while I try and get Jack's attention. I'd like to convince him to come back to Marlow House with me. I have some questions for him, and I think Walt needs to talk to him. I keep thinking of me and Lucas.”

“You and Lucas?”

“Sure. We had unresolved issues. When Lucas first showed up, I didn't want to talk to him. But Walt and Chris convinced me I needed to see what he had to say. They were right. As for Jack and Walt, there must be some reason Jack showed up at Marlow House yesterday.”

“I still can't believe the chief thinks Walt is dangerous.”

“Something about what Ben told him made him wonder if Walt was responsible for those murders.”

“That's another thing; I can't believe those poor people were all murdered like that.” Lily cringed.

“Hey, remember, you can't say anything to anyone, not even Ian. I promised MacDonald.”

Lily chuckled. “Did he say you could tell me?”

“No. But I tell you everything.” Danielle flashed Lily a guilty yet not remorseful grin.

“Foolish man,” Lily said with a laugh.

Just as they got to Chris' house, a police car passed them and pulled behind the other Frederickport squad car already parked down the street.

“It's Joe,” Lily said, when she saw him get out of his car.

“What's he doing here?” Danielle groaned. “Why would the chief send him down here; he knew I was going to try and talk to Jack. How does he expect me to do it with Joe here too?”

By the time they reached the squad cars, the officer who had been watching the wreckage climbed into one of the vehicles and drove off.

“Hi Joe. What are you doing here?” Danielle asked when she and Lily reached him.

“Eddie's wife called; their kid broke his leg, and she had to take him to the hospital. I came to tell him.”

“Does this mean you'll be standing guard?” Lily asked.

Joe smiled. “Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. But it could be a little warmer. So, why are you two back down here?”

“Thought we'd come have another look,” Lily told him.

Joe nodded toward Danielle. “Danielle was down here a couple hours ago.”

“This is practically my back yard. Plus, I wanted to check on Chris's house,” Danielle lied.

Joe shrugged, turned to the beach, and started walking toward the wreckage. Lily and Danielle followed alongside him.

“So how's Chris? You said he was in Chicago?” Joe asked.

“Yeah. He'll be there for a couple of weeks.” Danielle fixed her gaze on the upper deck of the Eva Aphrodite. She didn't see Jack.

Stopping a few feet from the yellow tape, Joe turned to face Danielle. “I guess the Eva Aphrodite is technically yours. Any plans?” he asked with a grin.

Before Danielle had a chance to answer, Jack appeared—not on the upper deck of the Eva Aphrodite, but standing between Joe and her.

“What do you mean it's hers?” Jack asked Joe. He then turned abruptly and faced Danielle. His nose was just inches from hers. “Are you Danielle?”

Joe asked Danielle another question, and when she did not respond, Lily looked at her curiously. She noted the way Danielle's eyes had widened, and the way she seemed focus at the empty space between them and Joe.

But it's not empty space
, Lily thought.
I bet Jack is standing there
.

Abruptly stepping toward Joe, Lily inadvertently walked through Jack.

“Hey, watch it!” Jack shouted.

Lily grabbed Joe's right hand and said, “Joe, I wanted to ask you something about this…” she then pulled him away from Danielle, leading him to the boat. Danielle could hear Lily chattering away a mile a minute, yet what she was actually saying, Danielle had no idea. Instead, the spirit standing before Danielle had captured her attention.

“I know you can't see or hear me, but I'm getting tired of this. All these people coming and going. They just walk right through me. What am I supposed to do? Why am I here? Why doesn't Walt want to see me?”

Danielle pulled her cellphone from her back pocket and put it to her ear, pretending to take a call. Her eyes darted to Lily and Joe and back to the apparition. “Jack, if you come with me, we can discuss it,” Danielle said in a low voice.

“Did you just call me Jack? Can you see me?”

“Yes, I can see and hear you. But they can't.”

“Are you dead too?” he asked.

Danielle smiled. “No. I'm alive. But I can see people like you.”

“Dead people?”

Danielle smiled again.

“I'm a ghost aren't I?”

“Walt prefers spirit.” Danielle said.

“You know Walt?”

“Yes, I live at Marlow House.”

“What are you to Walt?” Jack looked Danielle up and down with curiosity. “You aren't really his type.”

Danielle arched her brows. “His type?”

“It's those bloomers. You some sort of farmer? Never knew Walt to go for the country girl. At least not one wearing men's clothing. Pretty face though. I bet you'd be a hotsy totsy all dolled up. Anyone ever tell you that?”

Danielle smiled. She remembered Walt once saying something like that to her when they had first met. She recalled Walt used to call her jeans farmer pants. “Will you come back to Marlow House with me?”

Jack considered her question a moment, and then shook his head. “I don't think so.”

“Don't you want some answers?”

He narrowed his eyes and studied her. “What do you mean, answers?”

“I'm pretty good helping people like you. If you come back to Marlow House, where we can talk alone, I can help you.”

“I don't need any help. And I don't want to see Walt. He doesn't want to see me. He made that perfectly clear earlier.”

“You have to understand, he was surprised to see you. It has been a long time.”

“No reason for him to accuse me of betraying him. After all I've been through! That certainly isn't the welcome I expected.”

Danielle glanced over her shoulder. She could see Joe was inching back in her direction, in spite of Lily's enthusiastic attempt to keep him away from her.

“Jack, the police removed a metal box from the Eva Aphrodite this morning. Did you see them take it?”

“Yeah, I did. Don't know what business they have taking things off the boat.” Folding his arms across his chest, he stared past Danielle, looking at the wreckage.

“Did you know what was in it?”

“Not until they opened it.”

“You mean the police?”

Jack nodded.

“Do you know how the box got on the boat?”

“Sure. Some guy left it there.”

“What guy?” Danielle asked in a whisper.

Jack shrugged. “I don't know. He came around a few times. Never would talk to me.”

“When was this?”

“I don't know. Before we came here.”

“Are you saying you were on the boat before it arrived back at Frederickport yesterday?”

Uncrossing his arms, Jack propped his balled hands on his hips and looked Danielle up and down. “How do you think I got here?”

“Are you saying you arrived here on the Eva Aphrodite?”

“Yes.”

“Did Walt lie to me?” Danielle muttered under her breath.

“Lie about what?”

“He said you weren't on the boat when it went out that last time.”

Jack sighed and looked momentarily confused. “I don't think I did.”

“Are you saying you weren't on the boat?” Danielle asked.

Jack looked out to sea and scratched his head in confusion. “I haven't figured it out. I don't remember getting on the boat. I just remember being there. And…everyone was dead.”

Danielle studied Jack a moment. “Were you dead? When you first remember being there?”

Jack shrugged. “I must have been. I don't think I could live under water.”

“Under water?”

“Yes. We were under water.”

“Is that the first thing you remember about being on the boat?”

Jack nodded.

“Was anyone else there?”

“Yes, but they were arguing, shouting at each other.”

“Was this when you were under the water?” Danielle asked.

“Yes. And then they all left me. All alone. I wasn't even supposed to be there.”

“Tell me about that box, the one the police removed today.”

“Like I said, some guy put it there. He didn't say why.”

“Who was he?”

Jack shrugged. “How am I supposed to know?”

“Well, what did he look like?”

“Hard to tell with that mask on.”

“He had a mask on?”

“Certainly. How else could he breathe under water?”

“Are you saying he had a diver's mask on?”

“I suppose that's what it was. And fins on his feet. Had some sort of tank on his back. Never seen a contraption quite like that one before, but it seemed to work for him.”

“Where was the boat when he left the box on it?”

Jack let out a sigh and turned back to face Danielle. “Where do you think? On the bottom of the ocean, of course.”

Her conversation with Jack was cut short when Joe returned with Lily. Still holding the phone to her ear, she looked from Lily and Joe to Jack. “I have to go now. Lily and I are going back to Marlow House; we're hoping Jack will be there.” Danielle smiled and then tucked her phone back into her back pocket.

“Is Jack one of your guests?” Joe asked.

“More of a friend of a friend.

J
ack followed Lily and Danielle
, who crossed the street and started walking down the sidewalk toward Marlow House. Instead of trailing behind them, he stayed to Danielle's right, on the road.

“Your friend can't see me, but she knows I'm here, doesn't she?” Jack asked.

Briefly glancing over her right shoulder, Danielle saw Joe standing on the sidewalk across the street, watching them return to Marlow House.

“Yes,” Danielle said after she looked back down the street.

“Is Jack with us?” Lily asked in a whisper.

“Yes Lily, he's on my right.”

Lily leaned back and looked to her right behind Danielle, at where she imagined Jack was probably walking. “Hello Jack, nice to meet you.”

“I thought you said she can't see me.”

“She can't. Lily, Joe is probably wondering what you're looking at,” Danielle reminded.

Lily looked behind her. Joe was still watching. She gave him a friendly wave goodbye and then looked back to Marlow House. “I imagine you're right.”

Danielle glanced over to Jack. “I have questions for you, but I might as well wait until we get back to Marlow House. Walt will probably want to hear the answers too, no reason to ask everything twice.”

Jack responded with a nod and kept walking. From the corner of her eye, Danielle studied him. She wondered how old he had been when he had died. He looked to be around her age, early thirties. She hadn't noticed before, but he wore a thin mustache. Had his hair been dark like Walt's it might have looked attractive. However, with his sandy colored hair it practically disappeared on his face. At first glance, one might think he needed to wash above his upper lip.

It was a nice enough face, but Danielle thought he needed to tone down the men's hair oil. She could only imagine the stain that hair had left on a pillow. However, since he was no longer alive, and his body—along with his head of hair—was only an illusion, it was no longer an issue.

She assumed his death was around the time the Eva Aphrodite went down, because he mentioned the spirits of the murdered passengers and crew were still there when he had arrived—they were arguing. However, it was entirely possible his death occurred a few years later, and the spirits had lingered. Perhaps they had made the decision to depart after Jack had shown up. His arrival might have served as the catalyst to help them come to terms with their new reality. She thought of Lucas, and how he had lingered for months in a building not far from the site of his death before he continued on his journey.

They were halfway down the street when they noticed a Frederickport police car driving toward them. Danielle assumed it was on its way to the wreckage site. She was surprised when it pulled over beside them, causing Jack to leap out of its way, onto the sidewalk behind Lily and herself.

With its engine still running, the vehicle parked and the passenger side window rolled down. Danielle peeked into the car. It was Chief MacDonald.

“I was just heading down to the beach to tell Joe he can leave. You can come with me, and see if you can find your ghost,” he told her.

Danielle leaned into the open window, resting her elbows on the car door. “I don't need to now.” She nodded toward Jack. “He's here. He's going back to Marlow House with us. You almost ran over him.”

The chief turned off his engine and moved closer toward the open passenger window. “He's with you now?”

“Yes. He's agreed to go back to Marlow House with me, and talk to Walt.”

“Why did he call me your ghost?” Jack sounded annoyed.

Danielle looked over to Jack. “Don't let the chief bother you, Jack. He doesn't understand.”

“I don't understand what?” MacDonald asked.

Danielle looked back at the chief. “How some things you say might be offensive to someone in the spirit realm.”

The chief let out a sigh. “I guess this means you'd rather I not come with you.”

“I don't think that would be a terrific idea. But I can tell you what I learned about that metal box you found on the boat.”

“What's that?”

“According to Jack, the Eva Aphrodite was under water. A diver visited the boat. That's who left the box.”

“Does he know who killed the passengers and crew?” the chief asked.

Danielle glanced at Jack, who shook his head no. She looked back to the chief. “No, Chief. I get the impression his spirit showed up on the boat after everyone was killed.”

“So he wasn't killed there with the rest of them?”

“I don't think so.”

The chief didn't respond immediately. Finally, he said, “You be careful Danielle. If it wasn't Walt, maybe it was him.”

After the chief drove away, Jack asked, “What did he mean? If it wasn't Walt, maybe it was him?”

Danielle shook her head. “It's not important.” She started back down the street again.

“Does everyone these days know about people like me?” Jack asked.

“What do you mean?”

“When I was alive, if I started having conversations with someone other people couldn't see, I'd be called crazy.”

Danielle laughed. “Trust me; I've been called that often enough.”

“Called what?” Lily asked.

“Crazy,” Danielle told her.

“But your friend here seems to accept that I'm here, even though she can't see me. And that cop who just drove away, he did too.”

“There are three people in my life who accept my ability to communicate with spirits. You've met two of them.”

“He didn't meet the chief,” Lily reminded. “You didn't actually introduce them.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Danielle conceded.

“Who's the third person?” Jack asked.

“A friend of mine, who's out of town at the moment, and who, by the way, can also communicate with spirits.”

They paused a moment when they reached the sidewalk in front of Marlow House. Danielle looked up to the attic window. She didn't see Walt there, but Max sat in the window, watching them.

“It looks just as I remember,” Jack said. “Although, that police car your friend was driving looks nothing like the cars back in my day.”

Danielle looked over to Jack, who stared up at the house. He didn't appear to be in a hurry to go inside. “I understand you were over here yesterday.”

“Yes. I saw Walt. He told me he doesn't want to see me.”

“He's changed his mind,” Danielle assured him. “You have to understand, seeing you after all this time came as quite a shock to him.”

“I think I'll go back to Ian's house,” Lily announced. “You know how I hate these one sided conversations. Anyway, you don't want Ian and Sadie coming over here, interrupting the reunion.”

“I suppose that would be for the best,” Danielle agreed.

When Lily crossed the street and headed for Ian's house, Jack turned around, and watched her. “She's rather a doll, even if she does dress like a boy. Is she going to George Hemming's house?”

“Yes. Her boyfriend lives there now.”

“And George?”

“Well, George has been gone for years. But his daughter still owns the house.”

Jack looked at Danielle. “George had a daughter?”

“Oh that's right, I don't imagine Marie was born when you lived there.”

He shook his head. “No, George didn't have any children when I knew him.”

They watched Lily disappear into the house.

“Your friend's boyfriend, he has a dog, doesn't he?”

“Yes he does. How did you know that?”

“I went to George's house first. After I got here. The dog was in the kitchen. Walt called it Sadie.”

Danielle smiled at Jack. “Yes. Sadie and Walt are old friends.”

“I could swear I heard the dog ask me a question.”

“It works like that for spirits—being able to communicate with living animals.”

Jack looked at Danielle and smiled, as if he had just figured out a mystery. “You mean like the dolphins!”

“The dolphins?”

“Yes, they'd come by the boat sometimes, and we'd talk. It scared me at first, but I found it comforting, having someone I could talk with. Although, they didn't speak in words, exactly. It's hard to explain.”

Danielle nodded. “I think I understand. Was the boat always underwater—I mean when you were on it?”

“Yes. As far as I can remember.”

“How did the boat get here?”

Jack smiled again. He looked up the street, toward the beach where the Eva Aphrodite had landed. “I believe I brought it here.”

“How did you do that?”

“That diver—the one who left the box—had just gone back to his boat. I watched him. After the boat disappeared, I started wondering, could I have gone with him? Had I missed my chance to leave?”

“Couldn't you just leave without a boat?”

Jack turned to Danielle. By his expression, it was obvious he thought her question absurd. “How would I do that? I was on the bottom of the ocean.”

Danielle shrugged. “I don't know. You got there some way.”

“Well I didn't know how to do that,” he said, sounding annoyed. “But when the sun came up the next morning, I imagined the Eva Aphrodite afloat again—back on top of the water—taking me home.”

“You harnessed your energy?”

“What does that mean?”

“Spirits can sometimes harness their energy and move objects. You obviously moved the boat from the bottom of the ocean and brought her here.”

Jack let out a sigh. “Perhaps, but when I was on the boat, I could never get anything to move. And since I've arrived back at Frederickport, nothing—I haven't been able to move a speck of sand.”

“I imagine you used up your reserve. Getting that boat up off the bottom of the ocean and then bringing it here, it probably required all the energy you amassed in the last 90 years.”

I
an stood
at the living room window, staring across the street at Marlow House. Lily had arrived a few minutes earlier, but had immediately excused herself to use the bathroom.

“You want to go get something to eat?” Lily asked when she entered the living room a few minutes later.

Ian turned from the window and faced her. “Who in the world is Danielle talking to?”

Lily frowned. “What do you mean?”

“She's been standing across the street talking to herself for the last five minutes.”

Lily walked to Ian and looked out the window. “Umm, she's probably on the phone.”

Ian shook his head. “No she isn't. She's not holding her cellphone. And the way she keeps moving her hands around, it's like she's talking to someone.”

“Because she is,” Lily insisted. “She's talking to someone on the phone. She obviously has earphones on.”

Ian looked again and shook his head. “No she doesn't. I don't see any wires.”

Lily grabbed Ian's hand and pulled him away from the window. “Oh, you're just being silly. Of course, she's on the phone. She's using one of those wireless earphone thingies.”

“When did she get one of those?”

Lily shrugged. “I don't remember. Sheesh, Ian, you think Danielle has finally gone over the edge?”

“You're right she probably is on the phone. But considering all the crap she's been through this last year, I wouldn't blame her.”

Lily stood on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss over Ian's cheek.

He smiled down at her. “Let me go change and we can go grab something to eat.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

Ian headed for the hallway and then paused. He looked back to Lily. “Do you think we should ask Danielle to go with us?”

“Oh heck no. That girl is nuts.”

Ian just laughed and continued to the hall.

After Lily heard Ian shut his bedroom door, she pulled her cellphone from her pocket and sent Danielle a quick text message:
Go into the house. You look crazy talking to yourself. People can see you!