The Skinwalker Conspiracies - 02 (15 page)

 Reaching the stairs Paul said, “I don’t know about you Mrs. Lawrence, but I am having the time of my life.”

Tabitha spun gracefully and leaned against the metal railing before smiling and saying, “I hope it’s always like this.”

She started to say something else, but there was a snap and the part of the stairwell she was leaning against broke free. Paul’s terror was my own as she floated for just an instant with a horrified look on her face. His large arms were too slow, like the tuxedo had turned to lead. Tabitha fell with her arms flailing and a shriek that found its way into every corner of my brain.

I bolted upright panting and weaving from side to side. The waste bin next to my bed was as far as I could get before spewing what little I’d eaten that day. After that was gone, I dry heaved and wretched for what was probably thirty seconds, but might as have been five minutes.

There was a bump against the frame of my bed and Silas found his way to my side. In a deep voice, made gravelly by long hard years of living, he asked, “Everything okay, Mike?”

Coughing for a couple of seconds, I managed a reply, “Different shit. Different day. Same old Mike Ross. You should know better than to ask that question.”

“Want to talk about it?”

I took the ring off my finger and put it on the night stand. “I’m going to go rinse out my mouth and then get dressed. We can talk about it on our way to Galveston.”

“Galveston?” the preacher asked. “What about Oswald?”

“He can wait. I need to go to Galveston.”

“Was it that important that we needed to leave this early?” Silas grumbled from the back seat and adjusted the pillow. I checked out, filled up a thermos of coffee from their “free” continental breakfast and grabbed six of the packaged breakfast pastries. I figured that squared the books for us leaving five hours early.

“Well, we’re going two hundred and fifty miles in the wrong direction. I need to see if Tabitha’s ghost is still there.”

“Why is that?”

I didn’t have a good answer. “I just do. It’s important and I could tell it was something haunting Paul for the rest of his life.”

“Fair enough, Michael. I’m just along for the ride. Maybe when we get to Galveston, you can find a good barbershop,” he said while scratching the scruff on his neck. “I need a good razor shave.”

I started the Caddy and pulled out of the hotel’s parking lot into the early morning traffic. “Admit it; you just don’t want to watch me make a fool out of myself in front of a dead girl.”

He laughed. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine. If you’re lookin’ for me to talk you out of it, I ain’t gonna. If the woman’s still there, helping her cross on to the next life is a good thing and something worth doing. One thing I know about this life is that you may never get the time to do enough of these good things, so make the most of what time you do get.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “Before you go back to sleep, I noticed something during the fight last night and forgot about it until now. I could see Travis out of both eyes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m not sure what it means. My powers are getting stronger. Do you think I should be worried?”

He paused before he answered. “Worry about the things you can control and not the ones you can’t.”

That was the problem with my life … too many things I couldn’t control.

While stationed at Fort Hood, I’d never been to Galveston. Given my limited interests at the time, there was plenty to do in the local area without driving for several hours. Going to the beach, was usually the most extravagant vacation Mom’s threadbare budget could afford. In high school, the other kids would talk about the exotic destinations for spring break. Mine was just on the other side of Washington DC at the parks and public beaches along the Chesapeake Bay.

I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful shit. Mom and I had a great time, but my anger was usually a matter of circumstance. A day at the beach, in my mind, was associated with being poor and not having enough to do anything else.

Imagine how much fun Iraq was when it was all sand and no water?

One year, I got a pretty good tan and a girl - whom Jimmy Wilkes had just started dating - asked me where I’d gotten it. I lied and said I went to Ocean City. Unfortunately, that had been where she went and she started asking me about where we stayed and the places we ate.

Not being a terribly good liar back then, I said a few things and then asked her point blank why Jimmy was interested in such a “nagging bitch.”

That went over as well as could be imagined. Jimmy always did sort of blame me for the two of them breaking up.

 Galveston had obviously changed in the years since Paul Lawrence lost his bride there. There were few landmarks to go by. First I tried finding the hotel they stayed at, but the best I could tell, the hotel had been torn down and some expensive condos put in its place. After parking and getting Silas to a barbershop, I figured my chances were better on foot. Clutching the ring in my hand, it felt warm, so I took it out and placed it on my finger.

If there was anything to this pyschometry thing I was doing, I supposed it would help lead me in the direction I needed to go.

Hunting amongst the buildings was no use. Everything had changed, so I went down onto the beach and walked along the sand. It was getting close to lunchtime and many were abandoning the waters for something to eat. I moved among them, wishing I’d traded my sneakers in for some flip flops. That’s when I noticed the gentle tug on the ring and let it lead me.

About thirty yards down the way, I spotted a translucent lawn chair with someone in it under an equally spectral beach umbrella. Getting closer, I saw that there was an ethereal basket next to the chair and some objects that looked like books in it.

It was her! She had a similar hat on to the one in the memory trapped in the ring and the bathing suit was the same one piece. In her hands, she had a ghostly image of a magazine.

Tabitha didn’t bother glancing at me, but an expression of displeasure crossed her face as my shadow fell across her.

“Guess I have to move again,”
she said aloud.

“Actually, I came a long way to see you,” I replied.

Okay, now that got her attention. Startling ghosts was a guilty pleasure of mine. It was one of the few perks of the job.

“What? You can see me?”

“My name is Mike Ross. Why don’t we take a walk and find someplace more private before people start gawking at me and think I’m talking to no one?”

She crinkled her nose and stood up. The phantom magazine she was holding slipped to the ground. I picked it up and placed it in her basket, which made her do a double take.

“Well, it’s a change from sitting out in the sun and reading. Lead on Mr. Ross.”

“Actually, since it’s your beach, you lead and I’ll follow.”

“Okay then, this way,”
she started off north and east, where the beach narrowed into a rocky strip. She looked over at a couple just settling and spreading out a blanket and told me to wait here.

I watched her skip across the sand and to the couple. The woman was smoking a cigarette and I watched Tabitha put her finger on it as the woman brought it to her mouth and pull a spectral duplicate of it away. The woman looked sharply to her right, the kind of way that people do when they think something is there. She frowned and shook her head as Tabitha walked back to me.

“Sorry,”
she said taking a drag.
“Haven’t had my morning cigarette and something tells me I’m going to need it.”
She stopped and looked at me sideways.
“What? It’s not like it’s going to kill me!”

I chuckled and said, “I guess you’re right Mrs. Lawrence. Still, I’m pretty impressed that you can do that so easily. Most ghosts I know struggle with doing what you just did. Even the really powerful ones.”

“Is that so?”
she answered.
“Guess I’m lucky then. My husband always used to say that I had a knack for getting what I wanted. So should I ask how you can see me, or should I skip to the more interesting question of why are you here?”

I pulled off the ring and held it up for her inspection. “Paul’s wedding band. I got it in a pawn shop. I’m sensitive to the memories he left impressed on it. As for who I am, I’m what’s called a Ferryman. I help the dead pass on to the next life.”

“Well, if you think I’m ready to go, you’re barking up the wrong tree, Mr. Ross,”
she said crossing her arms and flicking the end of her cigarette.
“I am waiting for my husband. He promised he’d come for me.”

“Do you know if he’s still alive?”

Tabitha grimaced and admitted,
“I haven’t seen him in a long time. He’d come down here once a summer on the day of my accident. Paul would tell me about his life and all kinds of other things, but he hasn’t been back for the last eight years.”

“Do you know where he lived?” I asked fearing the answer.

“Dallas,”
she answered.

“Damn!” I looked down at the sand. “That’s what I thought. I can go to the car and get my laptop and find a place with internet access, but I’m guessing he won’t be coming here.”

“Why not?”
Tabitha answered looking both angry and afraid.

“There’s a powerful ghost in Dallas. He destroys other ghosts. He probably destroyed Paul.”

“Why on Earth would anyone want to hurt Paul? He’s a good man!”

I opened my palms and said, “The ghost is crazy. If it explains anything it’s Lee Harvey Oswald.”

She scowled for a few seconds before I added, “Seriously, I’m not kidding.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.”
She threw the phantom cigarette into the sand and stamped on it.

“Mrs. Lawrence … Tabitha. Let’s just say that most of the ghosts I encounter aren’t the friendly type. Take a good look at my eye. I got that from a ghost at The Alamo.”

“I was meanin’ to ask you about that. I just figured someone beat you up. Nice little shiner you got there.”

“Comes with the job, I guess. It was William Travis, if you need to know.”

“You’re pulling my leg now aren’t you?”
She seemed momentarily distracted from her anger. The way her moods changed at breakneck speed was something that both frustrated and amused Paul to no end.
“Did you meet Bowie and Crockett too?”

“No, he was the only famous ghost there.”
One of the few left now, I added to myself.

“Alright, I guess I followed you so far. So, how does the ring work into this?”

“When I slept, I had dreams. The memories in it were from your honeymoon with Paul. They were his memories. It was like I was there.”

I could see the skepticism on her face building.
“How do I know you’re not pulling a fast one, Ross?”

“He dragged you out into the water and dumped you. You said he ruined your perm. Then you went and had lunch in a little deli. He had a B.L.T and a coke. You had a tuna fish sandwich and a glass of water. You made him play Sonny and Cher’s “
I Got You Babe”
on the jukebox along with “
You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling.”
You pretended to get mad at him when his third selection was “
I’m Henry the Eighth I Am
.”“