Between a Wolf and a Hard Place Page 10

  Chapter 6

  Early the next morning, Ellie and her sisters were ready to head over to the inn for the séance when CJ called Laurel. Even though Ellie had heard her sister talking to him last night in her bedroom, Laurel wouldn’t go home to be with him. But this morning, Laurel had agreed he could drop by at nine with freshly baked cinnamon rolls from Silva’s tea shop.

  “Did you hear a wolf howling last night?” Ellie asked Meghan.

  “No one’s supposed to be howling within the town limits, if the wolf was howling that close,” Meghan said.

  “Right. But the howl sure sounded like it was coming from the inn.”

  Meghan groaned. “Great. It’s one thing to have a piano playing on and off, but if Matilda begins howling…” Meghan frowned. “Was it Matilda or Chrissy?”

  “Chrissy never howled before. You know the owners had to be strict about anyone who worked in the hotel howling or showing themselves in wolf form. They would have been fired. So it must be ingrained. I figured it had to be Matilda, if I hadn’t just dreamed it.”

  Meghan sighed. “Well, that would be just great. First she’s playing the piano, and now one of them is howling. If you didn’t just dream it.”

  “What if they start making an appearance as wolves? Or they begin to howl in chorus?” She and her sisters had to resolve this before it got any worse.

  “Then we really do have to take care of this sooner rather than later.”

  Ellie waited for Laurel to finish speaking to CJ, wondering if she would tell her mate why he had to postpone their meeting. It was six now, and the sisters were going to begin their séance as soon as they had everything set up. Ellie thought Laurel might even ask him to join them, but she didn’t. They said all the loving things that newly mated couples say to each other, but Laurel must not have trusted CJ to join them with an open mind.

  When they arrived at the inn, Ellie told Laurel about what she’d heard last night, but again saying it might have been a dream.

  Laurel didn’t say anything right away as they all began to set up candles in the center of the table, then turned up the heat so they’d be comfortable if the spirits chilled the air a lot and turned off their cell phones to avoid interruptions.

  “Maybe you dreamed it,” Laurel finally said.

  “I sure hope so.”

  Meghan echoed their sentiments.

  Conducting a séance could take a long time, so they always got as comfortable as they could. No holding hands. That wasn’t necessary, and it could be distracting. No music. They had to keep their minds open and their senses on the highest alert. Ellie hoped they wouldn’t call on a slew of ghosts at the same time and create more problems. That’s why they didn’t do séances very often.

  “Ready?” Laurel asked.

  “Go ahead,” Meghan said.

  Ellie nodded.

  Laurel took a deep breath and exhaled. “Dear Matilda, we would love to speak with you. These are my sisters, Ellie and Meghan. I’m mated to your grandnephew, CJ. Ellie told us you were upset when she mentioned that our father died of pneumonia. Can you tell us what happened?”

  The four candles flickered, the room grew colder, but no entities revealed themselves.

  “Ellie wants to thank you for teaching her a lesson on the piano. It was her very first, which made it really special for her. She loved it.”

  Even though Laurel was always the medium in a séance, Ellie wanted to be the one speaking to Matilda, not having Laurel speak for her. She bit her tongue, mindful that the sisters had to be unified if this was to work. Otherwise, they could risk causing negative energy and negative forces to appear.

  She had to give Laurel a chance to connect with the ghost. But she wasn’t feeling anything, except that the dining room was colder. They probably should have done this in the lobby, near the piano.

  Then Ellie saw Chrissy pacing back and forth behind Meghan, her arms folded across her waist. “She’s annoying. Make her go away.” Chrissy was looking directly at Ellie, her blond hair coiled on top of her head, a long black dress sweeping past her ankles, her white pinafore nearly as long, and her buttoned leather boots polished. She was swinging her white cap around by the ties, but when she saw Ellie frowning, she quickly tied it back on.

  Ellie glanced at Laurel to see if she would agree to have her speak with Chrissy. But Laurel wasn’t looking at her, just across the table in another direction. Ellie raised her brows at Laurel, trying to get her attention, but she only caught Meghan’s eye. She raised both her brows and mouthed the word what?

  Laurel must have caught their interaction, because she cleared her throat and said, “Do you wish to speak with Ellie?”

  Her brow furrowed, Chrissy looked annoyed.

  Before Chrissy left in a huff, Ellie said, “Chrissy”—to make everyone aware that she wasn’t seeing Matilda—“make who go away?”

  “This is my home. She doesn’t belong here. Make her go away.” Then Chrissy vanished.

  “Chrissy…?” Ellie felt the ghost’s exasperation. She knew how she’d feel if someone was suddenly in her space when she’d had the run of the place for years. Ellie could imagine that Matilda, being older, would think Chrissy would have to live by her rules.

  When Chrissy refused to return, Ellie said, “Matilda, will you talk to us? To me? Thank you for showing me how much fun it could be to play the piano. I might not ever be really great at it, but I’m eager to continue taking lessons.”

  Laurel frowned at Ellie.

  Oops. That’s why Laurel was the medium. Ellie hoped she hadn’t given Matilda the idea she wanted her to continue giving her lessons. Not that she didn’t love it, but that wouldn’t help their guests when they all arrived.

  They sat for a long time in silence, maybe a half hour. Ghosts didn’t have time schedules, but Ellie knew that eventually CJ would come by to bring the cinnamon rolls and get a kiss and hug from Laurel.

  Ellie turned to Laurel. “Maybe we should move this to the lobby, closer to the piano.”

  “Did you see Chrissy?” Laurel asked Meghan.

  “Nope. I got nothing.”

  “Okay, so she’s unhappy that Matilda is here now, invading her space,” Laurel said. “And that’s completely understandable. She’s tolerating us, maybe because we’ve made the inn beautiful again. So what’s going on with Matilda?”

  Ellie shook her head. “Chrissy just said Matilda doesn’t belong here, and she wants her to go away.”

  “Why is she speaking to you? And only you? As if you’re the only one to help her?” Laurel asked curiously. Matilda hadn’t appeared before any of the sisters other than Ellie, and now Chrissy was interacting only with Ellie.

  “Maybe she thinks I’m the one who brought Matilda here.”

  “You didn’t. The movers brought the piano. CJ and his brothers were involved because it had been their family’s piano.”

  “But Matilda didn’t appear to me until I was kissing Brett. So maybe Chrissy thinks my actions had something to do with Matilda making her presence known.”

  “Okay, that makes sense.” Laurel glanced at the clock. “If you are all willing to try it again, let’s do what Ellie suggests and move this closer to the piano.”

  They took their places there, Ellie sitting on the bench before the piano, with Laurel and Meghan a few feet away on high wingback chairs in the lobby.

  “Do you want to start this here?” Laurel asked.

  “Sure. Maybe I can reach her.” Since Ellie had never served as a medium before, she copied what Laurel had said. Nobody responded. Not Matilda. Not Chrissy. Ellie let out her breath. “You seemed upset when I mentioned our father having pneumonia. Do you feel someone neglected you when you were so ill?”

  Dead silence.

  Ellie wanted to ask Matilda if she had been howling, but then she’d want to tell the ghost sh
e couldn’t keep doing that—and she figured Matilda wouldn’t appreciate it.

  They stayed there until it was getting close to time for CJ to arrive. Then Laurel said, “Come on. Let’s go.”

  “I’m going to sit here a while longer,” Ellie said.

  “Good luck,” Meghan said.

  Laurel nodded. “We’ll keep a cinnamon roll warm for you.”

  And then they left.

  Ellie tried again. “Do you believe you didn’t die of pneumonia?”

  The music sheet sitting on the stand flew off the piano and landed on the floor.

  * * *

  Trying to get his mind off the way Ellie had looked in her wild tiger pajamas last night when he made love to her in his dreams, Brett hurried to finish another story for the newspaper so he could have lunch with CJ. They’d hired a woman to start a lonely hearts column, which, since they had more bachelor males than females in Silver Town, was filled with lonely heart letters from guys. She’d also started a recipe column. Brett hoped to try some of the recipes so he could cook something really great for Ellie that he didn’t have to cook outside on the grill. A couple of teens were writing a column about the fun things to do in Silver Town and the surrounding communities for kids of all ages. One of the suggestions had been to run as wolves on the new ski trails before the owners had enough snowfall to open the ski resort. He’d like to do that with Ellie.

  For now, he could hardly concentrate on anything but what he was going to be doing with Ellie tonight. He sure hoped she loved playing the piano, and that they could find other pastimes to share. He’d already picked up carving tools and blocks of wood to use in creating their first projects and a book on macramé, in case they wanted to try it too.

  Brett glanced out at the gray sky, which showed the threat of a winter storm coming in. Tomorrow was Halloween, and he hoped the snow wouldn’t stop everyone from enjoying the parties and trick-or-treating. Even he had decorated his office with a jack-o’-lantern candy dish filled with treats, and a black cat and raven oversaw the office.

  He pulled out the file he’d created concerning Great-Aunt Matilda. He’d gotten a copy of the coroner’s report and the medical records Doc Oliver had for his great-aunt. She’d died so long ago that they didn’t have forensic tests like today. She’d been sick, gotten pneumonia, and died. No bruising or other trauma that would indicate she’d had a struggle with anyone. That was all the medical report said.

  Next, Brett called Stanton Wernicke to ask if he knew how to exorcise a ghost. Brett wasn’t about to say it had anything to do with Stanton’s MacTire cousins. If Brett learned that the brothers couldn’t really get rid of ghosts, that would be the end of that notion. But maybe Stanton could tell Brett how to do it. He felt it was his responsibility because Matilda was his great-aunt and he’d offered the piano to the sisters in the first place.

  “Hey, Stanton, this is Brett Silver.” Though he was sure the ghost-buster TV personality would have caller ID. “I’m Darien Silver’s cousin.”

  “Yeah,” Stanton said. “And your brother CJ married my cousin Laurel.”

  “Correct.”

  “Great. So…what can I do for you?” Stanton sounded a little distrustful, probably because of the trouble the Wernickes had had with Darien and the pack. When they first came to town, the brothers shouldn’t have tried to claim the MacTire sisters’ inn was theirs.

  Even though the brothers had mended their ways, the pack was still a bit wary of their intentions. But if the Wernickes could help the ladies, Brett wanted to solicit their aid.

  “Can you really help ghosts find the way to their final resting place?”

  “Yeah, but if we do, we want to include the story on TV. That’s what pays the bills.”

  “How do you send them away?” Brett knew the ladies wouldn’t go along with a televised show in their inn, and he didn’t want his family included in a ghost show either. He was certain his brothers would agree. He still thought this was a lot of hocus-pocus, sleight of hand, television magic. Not anything that was real.

  “Let’s first discuss where this malevolent being is located.”

  “I can’t say. I want to know for certain if you can send a ghost on its way if it’s causing people trouble. If not, I’ll have to look elsewhere.”

  A long pause followed. Stanton was probably trying to figure out where the ghost was so he could still use it for his show.

  “This…doesn’t have to do with my cousins, does it?” Stanton sounded serious, yet there was a hint of excitement in his voice.

  “No.” As far as Brett was concerned, it didn’t. He was the one looking into soliciting the Wernicke brothers’ help. He wanted the best for his great-aunt, for her to find peace in this world—and the next, if she truly was stuck in this world. In no way did he want to upset Ellie and her sisters.

  “We always have to conduct our research first. So we can’t do gigs where we don’t know the situation better than that. If the ghost is happy where it is, we really don’t want to force it to leave. People need to realize that some spirits have found their home and don’t want to be anywhere else. People need to learn to coexist.”

  “Okay, I agree.” If Brett could wrap his mind around the idea that ghosts even exist. “Can you do it as quietly as possible? Just have one of you show up to do the job?”

  “We all know each other’s jobs in case one is sick or otherwise incapacitated and can’t make it, but we usually work as a team to achieve better and quicker results. If this needs to be done in secret, I suppose I could handle it.”

  That’s more like what Brett was thinking of. “I guess you don’t just do a job for free.” He would pay them a set amount if they could do it. But no TV show. He still had to find a way to get them into the inn without creating a big deal over it.

  “For a couple of hours, five thousand dollars. Our work is fully guaranteed. If it doesn’t work, we keep coming back until it’s finished. No extra charge.”

  “For just one of you? That’s way over my budget.” Though if Brett solicited his brothers, they could each pay something for the Wernicke brothers’ services. But he wasn’t certain Eric or Sarandon would go along with the idea. Maybe not even CJ.

  “Okay, well, if you change your mind, get ahold of me. You have my number. Have a great ghost-free day.” Stanton hung up on him.

  Brett shoved his phone in his pocket and got ready to pick up Ellie. If he was going to pay anyone that kind of money, he wanted to know for certain that Stanton truly could do what he said he could. The only way Brett could guarantee that was if he had someone else verify the ghost was really gone. That meant one of the sisters would have to do it, since he didn’t know anyone else who could see them. Unless CJ could and he was in denial.

  Brett didn’t entirely trust the Wernicke brothers. He could see that working with Stanton could be a disaster. He called CJ on the way to Ellie’s house. “Hey, are you speaking to Laurel yet?”

  “Of course. I took her home, spent some quality time with her, had cinnamon rolls and coffee, and returned her to the inn to work.”

  “So she’s no longer mad at you?”

  “We still need to talk. But no. So what did you learn about Matilda?”

  “Records say she died of pneumonia. Fluid in the lungs. No really great forensics back then though. But when I looked into other possible causes for fluid in the lungs, I found drowning and severe pulmonary edema. Even today, not one pathognomonic autopsy finding can definitively prove drowning in a victim. Since she’d had a cold beforehand, was elderly, and found dead in bed with no signs of any trauma to the body, the doctor concluded she’d died of pneumonia in her sleep. In other news, I talked to Stanton Wernicke about the ghost situation.”

  “Do you want to stir up a hornet’s nest with Ellie and her sisters?”

  “I didn’t tell him the ghost was at the inn.
I wanted to know if they could really exorcise a ghost.”

  “And he said they can, right? But where’s the proof?”

  “That would be the problem—verifying they were successful without asking the sisters. He charges five thousand for a job if he’s not able to use it on their TV show.”

  “That’s highway robbery!”

  “Right. I was thinking if all of us pitched in—you, me, Eric, and Sarandon—it wouldn’t be quite so much.”

  “I can tell you right now that our brothers won’t go for it.”

  “Okay, so the other problem is that we’d want to know if they’d handled the job successfully. Unless you can see ghosts or sense them or something, we’d have to ask Ellie or one of her sisters. Whoever can see them.”

  “Which gets us back to them learning we’re doing this with their cousins in the first place. And I say no.”

  “We’ve got to do something.”

  “You exorcise the ghost then.”

  How could Brett do that when he couldn’t even see or sense spirits? “Okay, I’ll research it and see what I can learn.” He would do anything he could to try to help out.

  CJ laughed. “Good luck with that.” He didn’t sound the least bit serious.

  “Okay, so if I try to do this on my own, can you tell if a ghost is still there?”

  “You’d have to ask Ellie, and I don’t think you want to go there. By the way, how are things with you and Ellie? Is she dating anyone else yet?”

  “Nah, she hasn’t had time and I don’t think she’s interested.”

  “Lucky for you, Brett. Talk to you later. Got to go on patrol.”

  “All right.” Brett loved to research things. Even if he didn’t exactly believe in all this, he could look into it. What if he found an easy solution? Attempting to exorcise the ghost would be less of a trial than sneaking Stanton into the inn. More than likely, an exorcism wouldn’t cost him much, if anything. Hell, maybe he could just talk to his great-aunt and see if that worked. The problem was that he didn’t really believe she was still here. If she were, why hadn’t she let him know all these years?