Brett completely agreed with her.
“That’s our job,” Yolan said.
“You couldn’t exorcise it?” Brett asked.
“Not this time. Ghosts can have a real mind of their own, just like people.”
“What do we do now?” Vernon asked CJ.
“We’ll have the car inspected, and then someone can take it to wherever it belongs, once someone picks up the tab for Brett’s damages,” CJ said.
“Ready to go home?” Brett saw that Ellie was shivering, and he didn’t want her out in the cold any longer if they could go.
She was staring at the car again though. “He died in a blizzard? In the car?”
“Yeah,” Yolan said. “Shorty had a wife and son he left behind. The son kept the car locked up in a garage but let reporters see it for news stories over the years. He never would do anything with it. Just left it like it was with a crumpled front bumper, bloodied broken windshield that Shorty’s head impacted with when the car hit the tree, and the tons of bullet holes all over the car. A real mess. A lot of newspaper accounts about the guy and his car were written periodically over the years.
“When Shorty’s son died, he willed the car to his grandson. He wanted to showcase the car the way it looked before his grandfather wrecked it and pretend his grandfather had never been a bank robber. The grandson inherited the car and refurbished it. He swears the car has a mind of its own. He called us to see if we could do anything about it. We were interested to see if it was truly haunted. It was different than other ghost stories we’ve done, and we’re always trying to find unusual stories for the show.”
“The previous owner was a bank robber? A violent criminal? But your first priority is to do a TV show on it. Instead of your first priority being people’s safety.” Ellie narrowed her eyes.
“How did we know it was really haunted? That’s the deal with what we do. People say things are haunted all the time. We have to investigate them to prove they are or aren’t. Ghosts don’t always appear for us even if they do exist. We had mechanics look it over, and they assured us it was safe. At least from a physical standpoint. We’d taken it out several times and nothing happened. So we were certain we had to check it out when it was snowing, just like the grandson said we had to. We didn’t know the ghost would take over the car like that and sideswipe another vehicle.”
“Had that happened when the grandson was driving it?” Brett asked.
“No. Though he said sometimes he’d see his grandfather’s face in the rearview mirror. He looked similar to the grandson’s father at that age. The grandson looks similar to the grandfather too. Anyway, the ghost didn’t do anything that would endanger the grandson except give him a near heart attack.”
“In a case like that, it sounds to me like the car should be buried with its owner. It belongs to him. Once it’s buried, that will be the end of that, and he’ll be at peace,” Ellie said.
“So who is haunting you, Ellie?” Vernon sounded pissed. “I hear you need a ghost exorcised yourself. Should you tear down the inn and bury the rubble to get rid of your ghosts?”
“It’s obviously not the same thing.” Ellie tilted her head to the side in a scornful way. “Shorty most likely died in a violent way in the car. He was probably attached to that car. And trying to separate the two could be impossible. What if the owner dies in a car crash that Shorty causes? Wouldn’t you feel responsible?”
“You might be right,” Yolan said. Vernon looked furious with him for agreeing with Ellie. “The Plymouth was his getaway vehicle. In the business he was involved in, nothing would have been more important to him.”
“Getaway car for a bunch of violent criminals?” Ellie asked.
“He was one of the bank robbers, but the Feds got tipped off somehow and the others never made it out of the bank alive. He was the only one who escaped and tore off in the car. The feds and local police were chasing him, and the snow was coming down heavily. Snow and ice covered the roads already. He hit another couple of cars, but they were big and heavy like his and didn’t suffer much damage. His car was riddled with bullets before he lost control, slid off the road, and hit a tree.
“They thought maybe he’d been shot. Despite the barrage of bullets, he never suffered one gunshot wound. After plowing into the tree, he lay gasping for breath, and the feds asked him why he did it. Why had he robbed the banks? He said the bank had foreclosed on his family’s farm. His father committed suicide. His mother died of a broken heart two weeks later. And Shorty wanted revenge,” Vernon said.
“Okay, so he got his revenge. Sometimes spirits like that won’t give up no matter what,” Ellie said. “No matter how capable you think you are at showing them the way out.” She directed her last comment to Yolan.
He inclined his head a little in acknowledgment.
Vernon’s phone rang. “Yeah? Okay, we’ll meet you there.” He ended the call and said to Yolan, “Come on. Let’s go. We need to meet with the lawyer at the jailhouse.”
“Who’s going to drive the car?” Yolan jerked his thumb in the direction of the vintage car.
“Stanton. Unless you want to. No way am I driving it.”
“Not me,” Yolan said. “He’s in charge. He can handle it or have it towed.”
“He’ll have to pay to have it towed. If all of this can be believed, no one’s driving that car in the snow from the ski resort,” CJ said.
“He’ll love to hear that,” Vernon said.
Yolan and Vernon climbed into their van and drove off toward town.
“What do you think, Ellie?” CJ asked.
Brett pulled her in close to warm her up.
“It’s haunted. I wouldn’t even want to ride in it.”
“Could you exorcise it?” CJ asked.
“Maybe, but I really wouldn’t want to try. Not if you have to drive it to get him to make his presence known. The car was used in criminal activities. The owner was a criminal. I told you what I’d do with it.”
“I can imagine what the owner of the car now would say to that.” Brett rubbed Ellie’s arm to warm her further. “Are you ready to go now?”
“Yeah.”
They said good-bye to CJ and left.
“I was surprised to hear Yolan couldn’t exorcise Shorty.” Brett turned the car heat on high for Ellie.
She settled back in her car seat. “That’s the thing. Making a claim like that is setting yourself up for failure in this business. We have to have an open mind and learn what we can about the entity. In no way do I automatically believe I can always take care of the spirit. Sometimes I can. Sometimes not.”
“If we can’t get Matilda to leave, we’ll have to move the piano, won’t we? Maybe back to my house?”
“Or to our house, if you’d rather move it there. It’s closer. But she may disturb us just as much. She hasn’t bothered you in the past. She might not if the piano is returned to your house. How do you feel about it?”
“Whatever you want to do is fine by me. I know we can’t have her disturbing your guests. You said Chrissy was angry about Matilda being there. How do you know that’s what it’s all about?”
“She told me. Well, us. My sisters and me.”
“She spoke to you?”
“Yeah. Some ghosts will. Others won’t or can’t. We never know for sure.”
“What I don’t understand is why the change? I never heard Aunt Matilda play before.”
“Maybe she’s angry you moved the piano out of her family’s home. Or because of the two of us were kissing. Well, it’s like she popped in to chaperone us and that was it. Now she’s here and can’t or won’t leave.”
“Do you think moving the piano back to my home will appease her?”
“Truthfully? I’m not sure. There was a case at a castle I read about concerning a woman who had a minor title and was destitute. A
laird took her in and gave her lodging, clothes, and food free of charge. She was his ward. When she became pregnant by someone on his work staff, he flew into a rage and killed her. The castle has been haunted ever since. Visitors to the castle—now a museum—periodically see a young woman in the clothes of the earlier century in the library. Visitors and staff have been telling stories forever about the woman and the laird.
“So the castle’s preservation society finally had the floor taken up to see if they could find any evidence that the woman had been buried there. Lo and behold, the woman’s remains and those of her unborn child were discovered. They buried the remains in a cemetery plot at the castle. She had such a fit about it that they returned her to the library and buried her where she had been before. So sometimes what you think will be a textbook way to give a person peace doesn’t work at all.”
“I would never have thought it. Stories I’ve seen about ghosts always show that finding the remains of someone who has been murdered and giving them a proper burial works. You must read up on a lot of cases.”
“Some. When we’re trying to deal with one, mostly in the business of renovating Victorian inns, we’ll see if anyone has encountered what we have and how they dealt with it. Sometimes we find a solution that works for us that way. Sometimes we don’t. That’s why we always say what works for one won’t necessarily work for another.”
“So did the woman at the castle settle down there?”
“She did. Some say they still see her, but she seems to be at peace where she is.”
“I hope my great-aunt died of natural causes and not because of anyone neglecting her or a drowning, accidental or otherwise. If it isn’t about how she died, what else could be causing Matilda to manifest herself?”
“Us?”
“She doesn’t think we should be together?” Brett was ready to move the piano to some other household if that was the case. But he didn’t want Matilda disturbing anyone else either. His great-aunt wasn’t going to dictate who he should see though.
“I believe she enjoyed helping to teach me lessons. So I don’t think that’s it. Maybe because you and I are practicing together, it’s made her want to play again. Playing the piano brought her real joy.” Ellie was silent for a moment, while Brett tried to think of anything he could recall of Matilda when Ellie asked, “How did she meet her husband?”
“He came to her for piano lessons. That was the story, anyway.”
“A grown man went to her for lessons? That’s kind of unusual, isn’t…” Ellie smiled at Brett. “I mean, you always wanted to take lessons. I wouldn’t think an older bachelor would suddenly take an interest in it.”
“I think that was the family joke. Great-Aunt Matilda was busy teaching piano lessons to pay the bills. She didn’t have time for frivolity.”
“Courting wolves?” Ellie asked.
“Right. So when he saw her, he fell hard for her. She wouldn’t take the time from her busy schedule to date him. She always said she didn’t need anything else. He wanted to prove to her that she did. So to convince her he could love her for who she was, he took lessons from her.”
“Was he good at it? Did they play duets together?”
“No. He tried really hard, or she wouldn’t have been won over. And she loved him for it. Just as she loved all her students who gave it half a try.”
“And she mated him?”
“Yes, with the condition that she be able to teach and play to her heart’s content whenever she wanted to. She made him the happiest wolf ever.”
“I really love your great-aunt. I wish I could have met her when she was alive.”
“I’m sure she would have loved you.”
“But no kissing until we were…” Ellie blushed. “Unless we were mated wolves.”
Brett laughed and pulled into the inn parking lot. “We got away with it last night.”
“We did.” She smiled, but then frowned. “You said she was seeing someone. In a boat. Not her husband?”
“She was widowed by then. I’m asking around today about who the other man was. I’ve asked if anyone had seen them boating on the river before her death. Unfortunately, many of the people who grew up with her or knew her the best are dead. The doc even. My grandmother. Her two girlfriends she was out with the day that my great-aunt died. Both were widowed. Remer’s grandfather. Probably the other man who she’d been seeing.”
“I keep thinking about what she left behind in the boat—and his glove. Would they have been drunk? Would the doc have noticed alcohol on her breath?”
“He probably would have, but he didn’t mention that in his findings. Maybe the water washed the scent away? Or maybe she never drank any wine. Maybe it was all the guy’s idea to drink, and she wasn’t interested.”
“But the bottle was empty. Not just partially gone?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s say a man brought her home after she’d drowned. Her clothes would have been soaked. That would have been suspicious. If he changed her out of them and into a nightgown, he would have had to dispose of them, right?”
“Agreed. He couldn’t leave them lying around. He couldn’t hang them out to dry. Grandmom would have noticed.” Then Brett frowned. “I do remember one thing. My grandmother was fretting over locating a dress that was Aunt Matilda’s favorite. It was her nicest, and Grandmom wanted to have her buried in it.”
“Let me guess—you think she was wearing her favorite dress when she went out with the stranger on the boat.”
“Yeah, I do. And unless anyone saw him with her dress, and whatever else she was wearing that day, I don’t know how we would hope to learn the truth.”
“How can I help to research this?”
“You have guests checking in today, right?”
“Yes. We’ve hired some staff to do the check-ins and other work. That way we can go to the ball. Laurel is going to relieve them for a time so they can attend too.”
“Sounds like a good plan. You have your hands full. I’ll keep asking around, seeing if I can learn anything that might give us more of a clue.”
“All right. But if you need help, let me know.”
“I will.” They got out of the car and Brett pulled Ellie into his arms and kissed her. “Do you think Matilda’s okay with us kissing?”
Ellie glanced back at the inn and Brett saw the lace curtains in the attic room move. “I don’t know about your great-aunt, but Chrissy seems to approve.”
He laughed, kissed Ellie on the mouth and gave her one more heartfelt hug. He had planned to ask her at the ball if she would mate him, so he wanted to stick to the plan and make this as memorable as could be. But right now, he wanted to just plain ask. “I’ll see you at seven.”
Chapter 14
Ellie felt like dancing on air after running with Brett as wolves. The way he hugged and kissed her, the reluctance he exhibited in leaving her… She really thought he might ask her to mate him right then and there. He was organized about everything—his research, his writing—and she didn’t think spontaneous was his style. She was thinking of asking him, but she thought he wanted to do it his way and make it extra special at the ball. She didn’t want to ruin it for him. If she had this all wrong and he didn’t ask her? She was going to sock him.
* * *
After leaving Ellie off at her house, Brett was finishing an article at work when he got a call from Yolan Wernicke. Brett hadn’t been expecting to hear from the Wernicke brothers. Especially not from anyone other than Stanton. So when Yolan called, Brett wondered if it was a ploy to learn more about the ghost Brett wanted to exorcise. Though they clearly had their hands full with the haunted car. “Stanton was bragging that you wanted a job done in secret. He said he asked five thousand dollars for the job since it wouldn’t be televised. He said you wouldn’t tell him if the ghost is at our cousins’ inn, but he highly suspects
it is since you’re seeing Ellie, and your brother is mated to Laurel.”
“He wants too much for the job. And it wouldn’t work anyway.” Brett wouldn’t verify where the job was.
“If it’s for our cousins, I’ll offer my assistance for free. I’m the only one of my brothers who actually has any abilities. Stanton just runs the show. He would have sneaked me in to do the real work in any event. To make up for how we treated my cousins, I’d like to make amends. So if they need a ghost exorcist at the inn, I’ll do it.”
“It has to do with my great-aunt.” Brett was sure that the Wernicke brothers wouldn’t know about her haunting the inn.
“Okay, well, like I said, if it’s for my cousins, it’s free. For anyone else—”
“Can you really exorcise a ghost?”
“Yeah. I’ve taken care of dozens. We have testimonials on our website. They’re real. I can give you a list of names and numbers to call to verify that the claims are genuine.”
“Thanks, I’ll…think about it.” Brett was afraid that if the sisters learned of it, his wolf would be cooked. Working with Yolan was a last resort. He really felt his great-aunt was his problem to resolve since he had given the piano to the ladies and caused all the trouble to begin with.
Brett looked up other ways to commune with ghosts. Ouija boards. Séances. He didn’t figure he could get away with using an Ouija board without someone catching him at it. Besides, he’d have to include someone who knew what he was doing. Same thing with séances. He’d be better off trying to speak with Matilda on his own. The question was, when would he have enough time to talk to her alone?
He called CJ and told him about Yolan offering to help get rid of the ghost and that he wouldn’t charge anything for the job if it was to help out their cousins.
“You trust him? As soon as he knows the ghost is at the inn, do you think he’ll keep it secret from the women? Or Stanton? Hell, what am I even saying? No, you did enough with the sage, and they were okay with it. Believe me, they wouldn’t be amused if you tried to sneak the Wernicke brothers in. Or even one of them who professes to have the ability to take care of ghosts.”