3
A small group of people clustered around the woman in the chair as she swayed from side to side. The metal rods in her hands swung wildly.
“They’re coming here,” she said in a low and deep voice. Did she sound like that earlier?
Our guide pushed through the crowd. “Okay, let’s make room to give her some space.”
“She’s a plant?” I whispered to Dane as we moved back a few steps. Would it be worthwhile to have someone on staff just to pretend to be possessed or talking to ghosts?
Maybe.
He shook his head. “No, check out our guy’s face. He looks freaked.”
I stepped a little to the left to get a better view. Dane had a point. Our guide’s face was ashen white, and his hand shook as he took one of the metal rods from her hands. “Come on, this is our chance.”
“What?” he asked but followed me.
I moved down a new hallway looking for a… something. I’d figure out what when we found it. “To get away from the crowd.”
We stopped in the middle of the aisle, and I stared at my next location. A closed door with the words “Personnel Only” written in big red letters. We were persons. Did that count?
“Princess, let’s not,” he said as I tried the door handle.
It opened!
I peeked my head into the room before stepping into it. “Holy shit.”
Floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets filled the back half of the space, with a small wooden desk against the front wall. “What do you think is in these?”
“Not William Drake’s cause of death,” Dane said.
He was such a negative Nelson.
A woman’s voice cut through my thoughts as I tried to open the closest cabinet. “You two cannot be in here. This is for museum staff only.”
“Oh,” I said, acting shocked as I twisted around. “I’m so sorry. We had no idea.”
Dane walked out of the room first. “Yeah, someone should put up a sign or something.”
I smacked his arm when the assistant on our tour wasn’t looking.
“We’re headed up to the main deck to see the airplanes and cool off from the evening. The tour will end in about an hour, and we’ll walk everyone off the dock,” she said, sounding calculated.
“Right, we’ll just head that way then.” Dane placed his hand on my lower back, sending little shock waves up my spine. “Come on, honey. We don’t want to lose the group.”
That’s exactly what I wanted to do, but I kept my mouth shut. He had a point about the cabinets not having paperwork on William’s death. But what case would William be on the ship researching? Or was he here just for fun? Did he get caught going through files and end up with the fishes as punishment?
I needed to talk to his friends.
The next morning came way too early considering we didn’t arrive back at our places until well after 3 a.m. Why did we have to hunt ghosts so late at night? Where were the afternoon ghosts?
Dane was already sitting at the small two-person table when I made my way down the spiral staircase that led to my sleeping area. I jumped in shock at seeing him and missed the bottom step of the staircase.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” I yelled as I pulled myself up from the floor.
He didn’t even stand and act like he planned to help me. “I brought you a coffee.”
I grabbed the tall mocha frappe from the table and took my first sip. The caffeine hit my veins like a jump start, and I moaned. It took two more sips before I remembered why he annoyed me this time. “How did you get in?”
