AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She waved for Adam to follow her to the stairs. They passed the “toxic waste dump” entry to the haunted house and climbed up to the third floor. She led the way to the darkened cupola.
Without turning the lights on, Bee peered through the telescope, which was already pointing in the direction of the boardwalk.
“I don’t see any…wait a minute.” She twisted the focus knob, her voice lighting up with excitement. “I’m not sure, but that might be it. Look.”
She stepped aside, gesturing for him to approach the telescope. He didn’t know how to explain that he really didn’t want to, that he’d had enough of Marcus’s ghost and tragic love story.
He peered through the eyehole at the boardwalk.
Tension constricted his chest. Yeah, that was “it” all right. The same illusion he’d seen yesterday, a white shadow floating back and forth from one side of the railing to the other. Barely visible…unless you were looking for it.
It was fainter today, silhouetted against the gray twilight like a charcoal etching. Still, it was there, and it was moving. His head suddenly ached from the pressure of scientific explanations about light and molecules.
“I think it’s Millicent.” Bee was almost vibrating with anticipation, her eyes so bright that her glasses reflected her irises. “It has to be Millicent.”
Adam straightened, pushing the telescope aside. “Why do you think that?”
“She’s been waiting for John to return.” She looked through the eyehole again, then gave a happy little laugh that flew right underneath Adam’s heart. “This is it, Adam.”
“This is what?”
Bee turned to face him, her smile widening. “If Captain Marcus’s ghost is still lingering because he’d been unable to propose to Millicent, and if she’s still haunting the boardwalk, then that’s the answer. They have to be reunited. And I’d bet anything that it has to happen on Halloween. He was planning to propose to her on Halloween, and he was supposed to return in mid-October…so that means Millicent comes back every year, waiting for him to return.”
Adam’s jaw tightened. He wanted to believe her. Hell, he wanted to tell the world the library was haunted.
He’d seen the same illusion that she’d seen. He’d been spooked by noises in the basement. He’d questioned the probability of the coincidences that had occurred in the past week. He was apparently as susceptible to the power of suggestion and psychological tricks as the next person.
But this was ridiculous.
“So I’ll write that into the script,” he finally said, curling his fingers reflexively into his palms. At least the episode would have a solid storyline, though he didn’t find much satisfaction in the thought.
“Millicent is trapped too.” Almost as if she hadn’t heard him, Bee paced to the display case. “She doesn’t know John is haunting the Gardenia House. But he knows she’s at the boardwalk. That’s why the telescope is always pointed there…he’s looking for her, just like she’s looking for him out at sea. But she’s looking in the wrong direction. We have to tell her that he’s in the house. No.”
She spun on her heel, her whole face lighting with excitement. “We have tobring her here.”
Silence fell, crackling with electricity. The wordweechoed through Adam’s head. Bee was watching him as if she were almost expecting him to agree with her and jump right on board the John and Millicent ghost train.
His phone buzzed with a notification. He remembered the messages cluttering his inbox, the questions about his plans and his career. He hadn’t yet replied to any of the emails.
Because he was following Bee around on her quest for ghosts.
“I’ll write it into the script,” he said again. “We’ll film Clyde telling the story tomorrow.”
She looked away, but not before he caught the disappointment lessening her excitement.
His insides twisted. The faint smell of pipe tobacco filtered into his nose.
“They need to be reunited.” Bee started toward the door, her ruffled skirt rustling around her legs. “That’s the answer.”
Adam wished it were that easy. Maybe two days ago, it would have been. He could have followed Bee anywhere she wanted to go—to the cupola, the basement, Wonderland, wherever the wild things were—and enjoyed being in her world of seafaring ghosts and mystical signs from the universe.
But now?
He had a real shot at resurrecting his legitimate career. In leaving behind the pseudoscience he’d been dealing with for three years, he could restore his and his family’s reputation in the scientific community.
It was like one of Bee’s magical portals opening up and showing him that he could actually grab everything he’d been wanting and fighting for.
And his portal was different from hers. She thought the answer was to reunite a couple of lovelorn ghosts.
But one answer wasn’t enough for the pile of questions about to come crashing down.
