“I did it!”
“That you did, Baby. I’m proud of you.”
Ollie couldn’t help but beam at that, before realizing what his success meant, and as he pointed, he blurted, “To the diner!”
“Happy to see you boys in so often, but if you come in any more than this, I may need to reserve a table for you,” Sammy teased as she sat their food down with a wink before walking away.
The diner was rather busy at the moment, so she didn’t really have time to talk. Given how busy it was, Ollie hadn’t spotted their ghost yet.
He snagged a fry and dipped it in his cheese sauce, before popping it into his mouth.
“Think our ghost will show up soon?” Noble asked, before taking a bite of his burger.
Ollie sighed. “I hope so… It would suck if she decided to stay hidden when we finally have the mirror.”
The man hummed in response and took another bite.
They were quiet as they ate, but then Noble’s gaze seemed to drift off, and after a moment, he softly rasped, “Behind you, by the jukebox.”
Ollie briefly glanced back and spotted the ghost of Irene Genson right where Noble had said she was.
He barely held back the excited squeal he wanted to let out as he quickly pulled the mirror from the chest pocket of his overalls. Though, he supposed he shouldn’t be that excited to possibly see something gruesome. Was it disrespectful to be excited about learning how someone died? That was something to think about later…
Well, it wasn’t like he was happy she died. He was just happy to see the mirror he’d worked so hard on in action. Like, he’d risked various injuries by fire, and lost multiple baby hairs just to make it, so he could be happy about it, right?!
Swallowing hard, he held the mirror up, as if he was looking at himself, before tilting it until the jukebox was in view. At first, nothing out of the ordinary showed, and disappointment was starting to take hold when an odd rippling slid across the surface of the mirror.
“It worked!” Ollie whisper-yelled as Irene appeared, his eyes widening as he fully took her in.
She was facing the jukebox, her back to him, but that served them well, as that was where the mark was. Stark blood-red spots were splattered and speckled on the back of her uniform, marring her usual black and white existence. All of it appeared to have come from the brutal wound at the back of her head, where Irene’s skull was clearly caved in. It reminded him, startlingly, of the wound that had killed the serial killer, William.
Ollie held the mirror further away from himself when Noble leaned over the table so he could see, before pocketing it when the man quickly sat back with a frown on his face.
“I’m guessing you couldn’t see it?”
“No. But then, I’m not a witch. I imagine I won’t be able to use any of the tools you make. And I’d guess that while the mirror takes most of the effort out of actually seeing the mark, it likely still requires some sort of passive magic to use it. Magic I do not have.”
Ollie pursed his lips. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“What did you see?”
“Her head is bashed in at the back. Like, her skull is fully caved in. Think…William.”
“So, unless Irene was in a major accident, she was probably murdered. Now the question is…does how she died mean she doesn’t know who did it?”
Ollie wrinkled his nose. “Only one way to find out. And since I’ve been able to talk to two of the four ghosts I’ve met so far, and can clearly talk to Pumpkin, even if she can only meow back, let me pretend to go to the restroom and see if I can whisper to her on the way.”
“Why not just pretend to mess with the jukebox?”
He blinked and then giggled. “Oh, it doesn’t actually work. Or rather, it’s not…one you can select from. It plays from the radio and has a digital display controlled through an app I believe, despite how it looks. So it would be weird for me to do that.
“They used to have an old one that you could select songs on, but it broke about five years ago. And Georgie was having such a pain trying to find replacement parts that he just replaced it, and this one was likely cheaper than finding an old-fashioned one.”
“Ah, I see.”
Noble watchedOllie cross the diner, slowing briefly as he passed the ghost and the jukebox on the way to the restrooms. He wasn’t surprised when Irene straightened up as Ollie did, before turning his way, and almost hesitantly, ‘walked’ over. If you could call it walking when her feet weren’t actually touching the ground.
Noble covertly looked up at her when she reached the table, in a way that wouldn’t seem odd to anyone who happened to look over. “Hi.”
