Haunted Tales (5 page)

“What happened?” Andrew
asked,
his
eyes wide with curiosity and apprehension as he glanced around the room. “Is
she still here?”

Mary shook her head, still staring at the empty space where
Kristen had just stood. “No, she’s gone now,” she replied with a sigh.

“Why?
 
Why did she
leave?” he asked.

Taking a deep breath, Mary wiped the sadness from her eyes
and turned to Andrew. “She just remembered what happened that night and
comprehended that she was dead,” she explained. “That’s a fairly traumatic
realization.”

 
“What?” he asked.
“She’s been dead for over forty years. Why didn’t she figure it out sooner?”

“Well, I don’t have this all figured out perfectly yet,” she
said. “But it seems to me that often when death happens quickly, the spirits
don’t always understand they’ve passed on.
 
They wake up in their spirit form and just keep repeating the actions
from the life they lived.”

“But forty years,” he insisted. “Wouldn’t she see that the
faces in the classroom had changed?
 
Wouldn’t she notice that no one has been inside this school for a
decade?”

“I’m not sure how cognizant they are of life around them,”
Mary said. “Sometimes it seems like their life is just a playback recording of
what they did just before they died.
 
So,
perhaps in their mind, they see the things around them as if it were that day.”

She shrugged. “It’s not a perfect science,” she admitted.
“And I’m only putting together my own theories from the limited time I’ve spent
with ghosts.
 
Some of them are really
aware they are dead and are trapped here until something gets resolved, but
some are totally unaware of their situation. For them, the knowledge of their
death generally comes as a big surprise.
 
They keep living their life and going on with whatever was important to
them when they died.”

“So, does that mean she’s gone? For good?” he asked.

“No,” Mary replied, shaking her head and standing up. “It
just means she needs a little time to deal with the reality of her
situation.
 
I’m sure now that she and I
have met, she’ll contact me. But until then, we just wait.”

They both walked back to the hallway and stared at the
staircase. “Did she know who did it?” he asked. “Did she remember who killed
her?”

Turning to him, she met his eyes and sighed. “She never saw
him,” she explained. “Someone came up to her as she was leaving, grabbed her
from behind and started forcing her towards the stairs.
 
It sounded like it was supposed to have been
an abduction or rape, but she fought back and he pushed her down the stairs.”

“Rape?” he asked, incredulous. “This is Polo. People didn’t
get raped in Polo when I was a little kid.
 
That just didn’t happen.”

Mary smiled sadly. “Oh, it happened,” she said. “But victims
didn’t talk about it because they were ashamed or thought in some perverse way
that it was their fault. So many rapists got away with it.”

They started to walk towards the stairs. “Yeah, I understand
how they wouldn’t want to talk about it,” he said.
“Especially
back then.”

Mary stopped at the top of the staircase and turned to
Andrew.
 
“The problem with that secret is
the darkness. Just like a drop of ink in water, it spreads throughout the rest
of your life and darkens everything else,” Mary replied. “Unless it’s revealed,
unless light is shone upon it, it doesn’t go away.”

They stood in silence for a moment, staring down at the
steps. “So, how are we going to help Miss Banks?” he asked. “If she didn’t see
the man who did it, how can we possibly solve her murder?”

“Well, I guess we take it a step at a time,” she said, and
then she grimaced. “Excuse the horrible pun. I really didn’t mean it.”

Andrew actually smiled. “No problem,” he said.

“Besides, we are closer to solving her murder,” Mary said.
“Because we finally know that it was a murder. And we wouldn’t have known that
if you hadn’t saved the building.”

They climbed down the stairs in silence, each lost in their
own thoughts.

“Thank you, Mary, for coming out tonight,” Andrew said when
they reached the first floor and
were
walking towards
the entrance, “even if we never see her again.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “But don’t give up; I’m sure
we’ll see her again. In the meantime, perhaps you could think of some people we
could speak with who knew her and might know if she had an admirer.”

“That’s a great idea,” he said. “Her parents are gone, but I
can ask around and see if anyone remembers her and would be willing to talk. I
have to admit, though, lately people in town aren’t talking to me. I think some
of them think I should leave the past in the past.”

“They might be afraid,” Mary warned. “Even though it was
forty years ago, there’s probably still a killer out there who doesn’t want his
secret revealed, and he might be willing to kill again just to be sure.”

Andrew stopped in his tracks and looked at her. “You’re
right,” he said. “I was so busy thinking about her, I really never thought that
someone in our community is a cold-blooded killer.”

“The steps got closer, and the smell of blood was
everywhere,” Bradley said softly.

“You’re doing better, but you have to say it like
you’re
still there and you’re really scared,” Clarissa
coached. Then she paused and looked at Bradley. “You were scared, weren’t you?”

Bradley momentarily debated whether or not to protect his
ego and lie or tell the truth.
 
The truth
won. “I was totally freaked out,” he said with a smile. “I kept hearing
footsteps, but I couldn’t see anyone.
 
I’ve never been so frightened in my life.”

Clarissa clapped her hands together. “That’s perfect,
Daddy,” she said. “You need to tell your story like that.
 
You need to show how scared you were, and
that will scare everyone else.”

“You think?” he asked.

She shook her head eagerly. “Oh, yes, you actually even
scared me that time,” she said, holding out her arm. “See, I even have goosebumps.”

Laughing, he leaned forward from his chair and ran his hand
up her bare arm. “I see goosebumps,” he confirmed. “But how about all those
other times when you said you were frightened?”

She shrugged and slipped off the couch. “Oh, that was to
help give you confidence,” she replied with a smile, wrapping her arms around
his neck and giving him a hug. “Now that you’re actually good, you don’t need
it.”

He gave her a hug and kissed her on the top of her head.
“Thanks, coach,” he said. “I feel better already.”

“Did you ever actually see Earl?” she asked him.

“No, I never did,” he said. “I heard him, and I smelled
him.” He scrunched up his nose. “And he smelled disgusting. But I never saw a
ghost until Mary held my hand. Only then could I see them.”

“That’s good to know,” she said. She leaned back in her
father’s arms and then slowly looked around the room. “
Daddy,
has anyone ever died in this house?” she asked.

Taken aback for a moment, Bradley shook his head and
wondered why Clarissa would be asking a question like that.
“No,
sweetheart,” he said, “Not that I know of.
Why?”

“Just wondering,” she said,
squinting
her eyes and slowly examining the room.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She opened her eyes and nodded. “I’m great,” she said.
“Just checking.”

“Checking for what?” he asked.

She sighed and shrugged. “Just checking,” she said. “Where
was Earl when he came into the house?”

Bradley pointed across the room to the basement door. “He
was over there,” he said.

“Cool,” Clarissa said, wriggling out of Bradley’s hold.
 
She looked sideways, staring at the basement
door from the corner of her eye and walked forward in the living room.
 
Bradley grabbed her before she came into
contact with the fireplace. “Sweetheart, you nearly bumped your head,” he said.
“Didn’t you see the fireplace?”

She smiled up at him. “Oh, no, I didn’t,” she said. “Thanks
for catching me, Dad.”

He looked into her eyes. “Are your eyes okay?” he asked. “Is
anything blurry?”

“No,” she sighed. “Nothing’s blurry. Everything looks just
normal.”

His brow furrowed in concern. He studied her for a few
moments more and then placed another kiss on her head. “Okay, it’s time for you
to wash up and get ready for bed,” he said. “Up you go.”

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Okay, Dad,” she
said. She turned and walked toward the staircase, her sideways gaze still
locked on the area in front of the basement door.
 
Suddenly she stumbled and fell forward on the
staircase, but she was able to catch herself before she fell. Bradley was
immediately at her side.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Sure,” she replied carelessly. “I guess I just didn’t see
that step. Goodnight, Dad.”

“Goodnight,” he replied, concern in his voice.

He stood at the bottom of the stairway and watched her walk
up, ready to catch her if she stumbled.
 
What was going on with her? Was she having vision issues?
 
Could she have cataracts, a detached retina
or …a tumor?
 
His throat went dry, and
his heart pounded in his chest. Could Clarissa be terminally ill?

He took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair and
leaned up against the bannister. Good grief, he needed to pull himself
together. She stumbled and that was all. She was probably fine.

He stepped away from the staircase, then paused and looked
up the stairs one more time.
 
Well, just
in case, he’d ask Mary what she thought.

With a sincere feeling of gratitude, Mary parked her car
close to the front of the superstore in a parking space saved for pregnant
women.
 
She knew the exercise of walking
from the farther parts of the parking lot was good for her, but if she didn’t
hurry and get to the bathroom in the front of the store, she might embarrass
herself.
 
She hurried to the front of the
store.
 
She should have stopped at the
gas station in Polo, she chided herself.
 
When would she remember that her bladder currently had the capacity of
less than a tablespoon?

A few minutes later, feeling much better about life, Mary
took a cart from the cart corral and pushed it towards the seasonal
section.
 
As she approached, passing by
the cards and gift-wrap section, she heard a familiar laugh.
 
Turning her cart, she was surprised to see
Kate and Rosie laughing together in the middle of the gift-wrap aisle. She
glanced over at the cart and saw that the child’s seat held two purses.
 
They weren’t just laughing together, they
were shopping together.

“Hi,” she said as she approached them, keeping her voice
light.
“Fancy meeting you here.”

“Mary,” Kate exclaimed, looking more surprised than she
should. “What are you doing here?”

“Just picking up some Halloween candy for the school party,”
she replied. “Are you two shopping together?”

Rosie looked guiltier than Mary had ever seen. Were they
embarrassed that they were out on the town without her? They always called her
when they needed to go shopping, and they always shopped in a threesome.

Were they uncomfortable that they’d gone out shopping and
hadn’t called her? How many times had they done it?
 
Had they even gone into Rockford without
her?
 
What?
 
She wasn’t a close enough friend anymore?

“We just ran into each other,” Kate said.

But Mary knew it was a lie.
 
You don’t put your purse into a cart’s child seat unless you are
actually shopping together. That was the rule.

“Oh really?”
Mary asked, keeping
her tone friendly. “What a coincidence.”

Rosie laughed nervously.
 
“Yes. Yes it is quite a coincidence,” she stammered. “First I run into
Kate. Right, Kate? And then we both run into you.” She waved her hand in front
of her face nervously. “It probably looks like we are shopping together, but
we’re not. It’s just as you said, a coincidence.”

“Right, Rosie,” Kate added and forced a quick laugh. “A
coincidence, isn’t that funny?”

“Yeah, hysterical,” Mary replied, trying to keep the hurt
from her voice. “But Rosie, I didn’t see your car parked outside.”

Rosie blanched. “Oh, I didn’t drive here.
Ka
—, I mean, Stanley dropped me off. Yes, that’s right.
Stanley dropped me off and….” She looked confused for a moment and then turned
to Mary with a wide smile on her face. “And he went over to the hardware store
next door,” she continued triumphantly.
 
“He should be back soon, and then, of course, he’ll drive me back home.
Because I didn’t come shopping with Kate. We just met here,
er
,
coincidentally.”

Mary’s heart dropped.
 
Her two best friends in the world on a shopping trip
without her.
 
It didn’t matter if
she already had made plans for the evening, they could have at least called and
offered. Then she could have turned them down, and she would have known they
weren’t sneaking around being friends behind her back.

She slowly nodded at them, feeling at once betrayed and
decidedly de trop. “Well, I’d better get that candy before it all sells out,”
she said. “Have fun shopping.”

“We will,” Kate replied.
“By ourselves.
I mean alone. I mean, each of us, not together, alone.”

Mary nodded and smiled. “Right,” she said.

Once Mary and her cart had traveled around the corner, Rosie
breathed a sigh of relief. “I think that went well, don’t you?” she asked Kate.

Shaking her head, Kate removed the handful of packages of
paper tablecloths she’d thrown on top of the baby shower items as soon as she
saw Mary walk into the aisle. “I don’t know,” Kate said. “I think she might
have been suspicious.”

“No,” Rosie assured her. “I think we handled it really
well.”

“But we both had our purses in the child seat,” Kate said.

“Oh, no,” Rosie breathed softly. “Well, maybe she didn’t see
it. I was sort of standing in front of them.”

Kate relaxed. “You’re right,” she said. “She probably never
saw it.
 
I guess I worry too much.”

Rosie nodded. “Yes, you do,” she said. “Besides, I could
tell that she believed every word I said.”
 
She giggled. “I never knew I could be such an accomplished liar.”

Mary stood in the adjacent aisle blatantly listening to
their conversation and felt tears fill her eyes. She took a deep breath and
angrily tossed a bag of candy into her cart.
 
Well, if they don’t want to be
my friends, fine,
she thought as she whipped another bag into her cart,
I don’t need them anyway.