For as strong as her magic was, Alessia wasn’t a medium like Monty or Haley, since she could see and hear ghosts but not summon them. She could, however, use magic to help send them on.
“Erik, what’s up?” Alessa greeted him.
“First off, thanks for introducing me to Haley. She’s terrific, just helped me out on a haunted item,” Erik said. “I’m sure we’ll do a lot of business together—you know how Ben and I keep finding haunted stuff.” Erik had been thinking for a while that, for as often as solving the complicated history of the antiques that came into Trinkets, having a connection to another medium would come in handy, so he was happy to have found Haley.
“Not to mention dead mobsters,” Alessia snarked, recalling some of their recent incidents.
“That, too,” Erik replied with a sigh.
“Haley’s pretty new in town, and she’s the whole enchilada,” Alessia replied. “She can also do séances, dispel troublesome ghosts, and, as you now know, remove haunts from objects.”
“I’m curious. What brought her to Cape May?” Erik asked.
“She’s a historian, and she’s working on a grant-funded project for the library and the Historical Society,” Alessia replied. “The project entails having her interview ghosts about local history to capture what they know before they fade. Of course, it will be in a special collection with limited access because that kind of thing isn’t common knowledge, but I’m really interested to see what she comes up with.”
“Where did the funding come from?” Erik was equally fascinated by the project concept.
“The Fox Institute in Upstate New York,” Alessia said. “It’s a scholarly organization dedicated to the paranormal. Very legit.”
“I’m sure we’ll need her help quite a bit. Although the backstory for the ghosts might involve some unsavory information,” Erik warned. “I hope that won’t bother her.”
Although Erik and Ben had retired from active law enforcement, cold cases kept finding them, and many of those involved the Mafia.
“I don’t think it will,” Alessia said with a laugh. “She’s been an off-the-books consultant to several police departments when they hit a brick wall on investigations. They can’t fess up to having someone talk to ghosts to get information, but when a lead from a confidential informant breaks a case, they don’t have to.”
“Interesting. Most cops I’ve met are skeptics, if not outright hostile to spooky stuff.” Erik couldn’t help thinking about Cape May’s own Chief Cole Hendricks, who definitely mistrusted anything he deemed to be “woo-woo.”
“I’m glad Haley was able to help you. But I doubt that’s why you called,” Alessia said.
Erik filled her in on the relics from theSS Mohawkand Lila’s ghost, as well as their theory that misguided magic might have trapped the spirit with the wreck. “If it quits storming tomorrow, would you be able to stop in and see if you can sense any magicinvolved? If there’s a spell gone wrong, maybe it can be broken to send her on.”
“Let me check my schedule. You might want to include Haley as well.” She paused for a moment. “Nine a.m. work? Meet you at Trinkets?”
“That works great, and I’ll call Haley next,” Erik told her. “I’ll have coffee ready. Thank you so much.” He felt relieved to have a plan and called Haley before getting a fresh cup of coffee and joining Ben.
“I found more about Lila online,” Ben took a seat across from Erik at the table. “Her family offered a reward for information and reported her missing to the police. I think they were afraid she’d been kidnapped. A few years later, there was an obituary notice that said ‘missing, presumed dead.’ I don’t think they ever realized she was on theMohawk.”
“I’m guessing her parents either opposed the marriage or the man she loved, and Lila took matters into her own hands,” Erik said. “It’s too bad she didn’t get her happy ending.”
Erik’s phone rang, and he saw that it was Susan. “Hi Susan, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just a little damp. I wanted to remind you to look at the event checklist email for Awesome Autumn, which should be in your inbox. They’ll probably want you to do a couple of programs about antiques, and for Ben to talk about architecture and old houses like last year.”
Erik glanced at Ben, who had heard what she said and nodded.
“That should be fine, but we’ll look at it first thing tomorrow,” Erik promised. “We had fun last year, and the event brought in a lot of new visitors, all for a good cause.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll see you tomorrow if we don’t float away before then,” Susan added before ending the call.
Rapping at the door jerked both men to attention. “Who would be out in this weather?” Ben asked as Erik rose to look out the window by the door.
Although they were technically closed, Erik had turned on the lights so the man on the front step could be forgiven his mistake. He shifted from one foot to the other as he stood beneath an umbrella, holding a large square picture box.
“I’ve got your back.” Ben moved to stand beside the desk, where Erik kept a gun. All their run-ins with the Mob made it prudent to take precautions.
Erik’s intuition told him to meet with the stranger. He opened the door and motioned for the man to come inside. It wasn’t raining quite as hard anymore, but the man still looked soggy. Whatever he wanted was urgent enough to send him outside in the storm.
“Thanks.” The man stomped his feet, peeled off his soaked rain jacket, and hung it on the doorknob. He was a bedraggled middle-aged man with thinning hair and a lean build, suggesting that he had been a runner in his younger years.
