But, of course, Teddy had plenty to spare: “A real ghost, Oscar! Arealghost. Even you can’t deny it.”
He laughed and buried his face in her sweet hair. No. Even he couldn’t deny it now.
* * *
“So there was a real ghost after all,” Iva said, preening a little as she looked at Oscar.
They were gathered at Orbra’s, of course—but after hours this time, so no one would interrupt—because the Tuesday Ladies insisted on hearing all of the details. It was three days after the shattering events at Stony Cape Lighthouse. Oscar’s Jeep had been extricated from the mud, and the power had been restored. And Teddy and Oscar had had two days of uninterrupted time to heat up the sheets, walk the beach, and otherwise enjoy being together without the specter of Marcie, the Sargent Blue book,ora ghost.
“There was a real ghostanda fake ghost,” Teddy said, settling back with a cup of something called a matcha latte that Orbra had insisted she try. It wasverygreen, but it was frothy and sweet, and though there was an underlying taste of grass, it was going down pretty well. “And that was what confused me at first. And what caused some of us to question the idea of a supernatural element.”
She looked at Oscar, who was watching her as she held court—as, for once, Maxine was actually listening. His wrist was wrapped up (according to the emergency room personnel, it was badly sprained, but not broken), and he had a mug of tea in front of him that smelled floral and sweet. When their eyes met, he had the grace to appear a little abashed. He wassoadorable.
“I told you I could sense the ghostly presence,” Iva said firmly. “I have an uncanny ability for these sorts of things.”
Maxine opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted as Declan and Leslie came through the door in a blur of activity.
“Wait, wait, don’t say anything else. I want to hear,” Leslie said. As she took a seat next to Iva, she murmured, “Did you bring it?”
“Yes,” Iva replied, glancing at Teddy. “But first let’s hear about what actually happened that night.”
“I thought you left Wicks Hollow,” said Declan, looking at Oscar with a quirked eyebrow.
“I came back,” Oscar replied.
“And just in time,” Teddy said. “Although if you hadn’t gotten stuck in the mud, I would have probably left before Misty and Rob showed up the next day, and then none of this would have happened.”
“Which is a good thing,” Oscar reminded her with a small smile. “Otherwise, Misty and Rob would still be doing what they were doing.” His smile faded, and Teddy knew he was remembering the fact that Rob wouldn’t ever be doing anything again. He had, of course, died after his fall off the top of the lighthouse. Poetic justice, maybe, but it was still an awful thing to happen, and a terrible memory to live with.
Misty, on the other hand, had survived her fall down the lighthouse stairs. She’d broken an arm and had a serious concussion, and would probably spend the rest of her life in prison. But she’d been able to fill in some of the details Teddy and Oscar hadn’t known.
“All right, back to business,” Maxine said, slamming her hand on the table. “Did you get the lantern working or not?”
“That’s jumping ahead a little,” Teddy said.
“Well, not really, as, chronologically speaking, the SOS happened before the real ghost,” Oscar reminded her.
“Oh. Right.” Teddy spread her hands and gave a little laugh. “Ha. I usuallywritethe denouements, notspeakthem—so give me a little break, everyone.”
They all laughed, and she continued. “So, even though we realized there had been some monkey business in causing us to believe there was a ghost—the nightly scream, and the greenish cloud thing—there were still a few things I couldn’t explain.
“Like,howdid Misty and Rob know Oscar and I were going to go up to the top of the lighthouse that first night? There was no way they could have known—and even if they did, they couldn’t have blocked the door to keep us up there.”
“Did you sayblockthe door? Not lock it?” Maxine demanded.
“Yes, because the door doesn’t have a lock or a latch on it. None of them up there do. Sosomehow, that door—and the others—wouldn’t open…and then suddenly it did. And then there was the all-of-a-sudden arctic chill that came and went inexplicably. How could they have done that? Plus, that chill was justcreepy.” She looked at Oscar. “That was why I wasn’t completely convinced, ever, that what we’d experienced that first nightwasn’ta ghost.”
“Those thoughts occurred to me too—as we were climbing up those steps. Plus,” Oscar said, “the greenish supposed ghost we saw the night of the break-in was different from what we’d seen the first night.”
“Exactly.” Teddy beamed at him, wishing they were sitting next to each other so she could smack a kiss on his cheek. “And once Misty confirmed that they actually had murdered Stuart Millore, and I remembered that we’d been talking about someone being pushed off the top of the lighthouse right when the door slammed shut…I was certain there had to be a real supernatural presence. It just made sense.”
“After all, thisisWicks Hollow,” Juanita said, petting Bruce Banner enthusiastically as he tried to lick up some of the crumbs on the table in front of her.
“That’s right,” Maxine said, spraying a new set of crumbs from her cinnamon scone. “It’s like that Hell Mountain on the Tiffany show. But no demons.”
“Hellmouth,” Juanita snapped. “And it’sBuffy, not Tiffany or Taffy. And it’s theHulk,not the Hunk. How many times do we have to tell you?”
Maxine flapped a gnarled hand at her friend and said, “No respect. No respect at all. Now, young man, if you don’t tell me about the lantern, I’m going to get very annoyed.”
