The man dug around for a moment before pulling out two sets of what looked to blue booties that crime scene people wore.
“Oh, that was a smart thing to bring!”
Though…had Noble actually brought them…or were they already in his truck? Ollie supposed it was something the man might need as a bodyguard.
Was it? Well, if he worked with rich people, maybe they didn’t want him walking through their nice, expensive houses with shoes on. Booties would be faster than taking your shoes on and off.
Oh, maybe he should put together a crime scene kit! It would save time, and like, he could fill it with gloves and other useful stuff, so he’d never have to worry about fingerprints when possibly digging up a body again!
Not that he planned to go digging for bodies on the regular… Not that he was even getting to dig up a body this time…
He sighed as he wistfully thought,My shovel.
Noble’s brow furrowed when he thought he heard something he shouldn’t have, his instincts flaring in alarm at the same time.
“Maybe I should plant more trees out back behind my library?” Ollie mused. “Oh, maybe I can plant some fruit trees, and then use them in storytime in some way?!”
“You own a library?” Irene asked with interest.
Despite how adorable his Baby was when chattering away, he forced himself to focus on whatever he was hearing, needing to make sure he wasn’t being paranoid. As paranoia was sort of a given for witch hunters.
“Oh, yes. The Cross Heritage Private Library.”
She gasped, “You’re Verrill and Ruby Cross’ son? Wait, no—Cassity and Amelia! You’re Cassity and Amelia’s child. I met youonce! I mean, I was a ghost… And I suppose I probably saw you more than that later and just didn’t realize. But when you were a baby, you…” She frowned. “You…you looked at me. You looked right at me and reached for my hand when I—ha—tried to play with you.” She sniffled. “I thought I imagined it, but I guess I didn’t.”
“You… You knew my parents?” Ollie rasped.
His Baby’s hesitant, yet hopeful tone, killed any chance Noble had of focusing on anything other than Ollie, even after confirming what he heard was definitely someone else breathing and following them. Wrapping an arm around the witch’s waist, as they continued to walk, he tried his best to offer silent comfort as Ollie no doubt tried to get whatever answers he could.
Regardless of whether he was super focused or not, the person was far enough away that he’d still be able to do something if they got closer.
Ollie waitedfor her to answer, hoping to learn even just a little bit about them. Rowden told him stories, but they’d always felt…distant and cold, like the man was narrating only a third of what actually happened. Ollie had always felt as if he was missing something, never seeing the whole picture. And perhaps that was on purpose.
As for everyone else…it was like…when it came to his parents, or his grandparents, they drew a blank, even the people who had met and known them. It was as if no one really knew them enough to tell him what he wanted to know. Then again, he supposed he didn’t really know what he even wanted to know.
“I knew your grandparents well, but never could guess their ages. I would have sworn they were my age, but I know they couldn’t be as they’d been running the library even before I was born. Can’t help but think that Cassity must have been a late-in-life miracle for them. Though, I suppose you were also one for your parents.”
Ollie frowned at that, slightly confused, considering his parents had died at twenty-nine, the same year they had him, which wasn’t especially late in life to have a baby.
“To be honest, I knew Cassity better than Amelia. At least in life, as I only met her once before I died. Afterwards, I watched them together in the diner whenever they came in. Cassity, though, I’m pretty sure he was maybe three years older than my oldest younger brother...though he was homeschooled, as far as I know.
“To be honest, I usually ran into him in that big library of yours, when my brothers and I were wandering around. I’m sure I must have gotten his age at one point, but I can’t remember now.” She chuckled fondly. “But your father was always getting into something. All good fun rather than outright trouble, mind you. But let me tell you, if something screwy was going down in town, or at the library, he was no doubt involved in some way.”
Older than her oldest younger brother? Wait…no, Irene shouldn’t have ever met his parents. They’d been twenty-nine when they died in 1994, so they wouldn’t have even been born when she died in 1962!? How was that even possible? But what if…it was?
What if Irene really had met them while still alive? Well, if she did then, according to Irene’s timeline, Ollie’s father and mother would have been at least fifty by the time he was born, and now the late-in-life baby comment made sense. And yet, not at all, because based on the pictures he had of him with his parents, neither of them looked older than late twenties, if that.But now that he thought about it, it probably had something to do with that pesky ‘no longer aging’ thing Noble had mentioned, which he had blocked from his mind until that very moment. The thing he had stopped Red and Noble from explaining further…
Ollie supposed it wasn’t as if the way he thought they’d died had turned out to be reality, so…he supposed their ages being a lie too shouldn’t be that shocking.
He took a careful deep breath. “So…can you tell me more about what they were like? Apart? Together?”
“Cassity…he was quick to laugh, and never in a hurry to get angry about anything, unless it mattered. I will say this, despite the trouble he liked getting into, he always seemed pretty mature for his age, though nothing compared to how Amelia was.
“Amelia…I can only assume she was of similar age to Cassity, but it was like…she knew too much. I don’t know how to explain it. But it didn’t always seem like she was focused on what was going on around her, as if there was more that everyone else didn’t see, but she did. I’d say she was a serious person, yet kind and thoughtful.
“Now, to be clear, this is mostly based on my observations as a ghost, as like I said, I didn’t know her well when alive. She moved here for work, earlier in the year I died, and I only met her once… You know, thinking back to that meeting, the way she looked at me was…odd?”
“Odd, how?”
