Shadow of a Life (28 page)

“
Have you told Sophia about
your idea?”

“
Not yet. I didn’t start
thinking about it until after she left for Haiti.”

“
What do you think the
business might be? Oh wait—never mind. I bet you think there’s
something in the trunk.” He smiled.

“
Yep.”

“
Okay. It’s been an hour.
Can we call Camille now?”

“
Go for it.”

CHAPTER 19

I
called Camille and tried to explain everything to her, but by
that point the events of the previous evening were such a blur that
I felt like I was making up a story. She was shocked that the
Goodwins had come to my house and told me she was relieved she’d
gone home early. Nice. I hoped I never needed her in an emergency
because I was sure she’d be the first one to turn around and run
away.

Peter and I instructed her to meet us
at a nearby fast food joint as soon as possible. We thought about
meeting at Grandma’s Bakery and Café, but concluded that we should
avoid the places we’d been seen with Sophia for the time
being.

“
I swear you have a curse,
Jamie,” Camille said when we were all seated in a booth eating a
late breakfast or early lunch, however you wanted to look at it. It
had been hours since Peter and I had eaten our oatmeal and we were
starving. Apparently anxiety made me burn calories faster. Who
knew?

“
Why do I have a
curse?”

“
I don’t know
why.
All I know is that
there are an awful lot of ghosts following you lately.”

“
Come on—you like most of
the ghosts. If Sophia wasn’t in the picture, you’d have a secret
crush on Nick. Admit it,” I teased.

“
Jamie
, take that back.” Camille blushed and pretended to be mad. I
grinned. It was usually
her
making
me
blush.

Peter and I told Camille about the
mystery trunk that was supposedly in the back of a closet somewhere
in my dad’s den. She was excited to open it with us once we told
her she wouldn’t have to go into the attic again. I couldn’t
guarantee there weren’t spiders in the back of Dad’s den,
though.

“
I think we need to have a
plan in case Jeremiah and Elsa come back,” Peter said seriously.
“If they didn’t take the bait and head to Boston to look for
Sophia, you can bet the first place they’ll go is back to Jamie’s.”
He turned to me. “They’ll assume you lied and have something to
hide. I doubt they’ll be very happy.”

“
Probably not, but I don’t
think they’d want to expose themselves as ghosts, so would they
really do anything to me?”

“
I don’t know. If they find
out that you were lying for Sophia, they might guess that she also
told you who and what she really is.”

“
Can we do anything to
ghosts that will affect them?” Camille asked.

“
I’m not sure. When I first
met Sophia, she told me that she could hurt me, but I
couldn’t really hurt her. I don’t know if she
meant there was absolutely, positively nothing I could do to her,
or if she just doesn’t feel pain the same way as living humans
do.”

“
I think the most important
thing we need to do as soon as Sophia and Nick get here is to find
out how to protect ourselves against their kind,” Camille
suggested. Peter and I agreed.

We spent the rest of the morning
wandering around Marion. We browsed through some of the quaint
specialty stores aimed at tourists that we didn’t usually
frequent—including some I’d never been in—and then made a stop at
the grocery store for snacks and a few things for dinner. Once
Sophia and Nick arrived, we’d probably hole up in my house for a
while, not wanting to be seen in public.

It was just after one when Sophia
finally called to let us know they’d just gotten on the I-195
coming from Boston. That meant they were about five miles from town
and I was ecstatic. I would feel a whole lot safer having someone
who could see through walls by my side. Peter, Camille, and I
immediately headed to my house and reached my driveway at the same
time Sophia’s little white car pulled up to the curb. I was
surprised at the lump that grew in my throat and the joy I felt
from seeing her and Nick again. The whole soul saver thing really
messed with my emotions. I didn’t want to seem like a baby so I
didn’t rush to her side like I wanted to.

“
Hey, everyone. We’re back.”
Sophia beamed as she stepped out of the passenger door of her car
and Nick emerged from the driver’s side.

“
How was your trip?” It was
kind of a dumb question. They’d gone there in hopes of finding
answers to some really old questions and they hadn’t succeeded. It
wasn’t exactly a pleasure trip. Of course, it
had
been over a hundred years since
they’d seen each other . . .

“
Well, it was definitely a
culture shock. I’ve traveled quite a bit in my years on earth, but
that was my first time in Haiti. It’s a poor country and it was sad
to see the poverty there.”

“
Did you see the
Mary Celeste
?” Camille
asked, getting to the point.

“
Yes . . . and no. We hired
a man to take us out to the site by boat, and we did a little scuba
diving, but with the guide there we couldn’t do any exploring
invisibly. There’s only so much you can do in your human form. We
did see some pieces of wreckage that were supposedly from the
boat.”

“
How did you feel?” I
asked.

“
Just fine. I didn’t feel
any connection to it whatsoever. I expected to feel more passion
than I did, knowing how much a part of my past the ship was, but I
felt nothing.”

“
The water was beautiful,
though. We
were
in
the Caribbean after all,” Nick joked.

“
That’s true.” Sophia smiled
as she gazed into his eyes. I guessed they’d done a lot of catching
up while they were there.

There was a lull in the conversation
for a second while we all watched the recently reunited lovebirds.
I suggested we go inside instead of standing in the middle of my
front yard.

“
Umm . . . do you think you
could check the house out for us first, though?” I
asked.

“
That’s probably a good
idea. We’ll be right back.”

I sensed that Sophia was about to
vanish and I quickly jumped in. “Wait. Go around back. You can slip
in there and any neighbors who happen to be looking out their
windows won’t see you disappear.”

“
Oh wow. I can’t believe I
almost did that. I’ve lived as a human for a long time, but these
last few days I haven’t had to be so careful. Oops.”

We let ourselves through the gate and
through the side yard to the back patio. Peter, Camille, and I sat
on the patio stairs while we waited for the two ghosts to complete
their inspection. Nick opened the glass patio door about ten
minutes later.

“
You guys can come in. We
checked all the rooms and closets and didn’t see anything. I think
we’re okay,” he said.

We trailed after Nick as we followed
him to the dining room and sat down. I pulled the letters and photo
of the Goodwins out of my bag and tucked them closely to my
chest.

I took a deep breath. “Sophia, I’ve
been thinking—a lot, and I don’t think your unfinished business has
anything to do with the Mary Celeste. I think it has something to
do with the Goodwins.”

Sophia and Nick didn’t look
surprised like I’d expected them to. They exchanged glances and
then Nick cleared his throat. “We’ve already come to that same
conclusion. We think our extrication is somehow related to each
other
and
to the
Goodwins . . . and, as bad as it may sound, we think we’re here
until we get some sort of revenge on them.”

“
Revenge?
” I couldn’t picture either
of them exacting revenge on someone.
“Huh .
. . Okay. If we’re all on the same page maybe we can move forward,
but first you need to know something. I don’t know how to tell the
two of you this, but I’m afraid it was my family that had you both
killed.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Nick was perplexed.

I unfolded my arms and began to read
the letters. When I finished, I explained that they were from my
ancestors and had been in my attic the whole time.

“
I’m so sorry for what they
did to you,” I blurted out.

“
Jamie, don’t you dare think
for one moment that because you are distantly related to these evil
people that we would be upset. This is a
good
thing. Maybe we can find answers
because of it. In fact, I’m sure this is why you’re our soul saver.
You have a connection to our unfinished business,” Sophia
insisted.

“
We found this, too,” I said
as I produced the picture of Sophia and the Goodwins that I’d kept
tucked in my lap.

“
Oh my goodness, look at
this. I was so young.” Sophia gingerly touched the picture and
traced the outline of her face. “I remember when we had this done.
Jeremiah wanted a family photo for some con he was currently
working. I can’t recall the details of the whole con, but I do
remember seeing Jeremiah pickpocket the photographer and it
embarrassed me. Elsa had given me one of her old dresses to wear
for the picture, but at that time she was starting to plump up and
it didn’t fit me very well.” She lifted the picture up and looked
at it more closely. “That old thing is pinned on everywhere. I was
so scared I was going to get jabbed with a needle that day.” She
laughed and then sighed. “I think it might be the only photo we had
taken together. I can’t believe you found this.”

Nick reached over and picked up the
photo. “That’s exactly how I remember the Goodwins looking when I
first met all of you. You look a little young, though,
Sophia.”

“
There’s more,” I said.
“Remember in the letter I just read that an unopened trunk was
mentioned?”

“
Yes,” Sophia and Nick spoke
together.

“
I think it might be in my
dad’s closet.” I motioned toward the closed door of the
den.

Sophia’s mouth dropped open. “Are you
serious?”

“
Dad said he put an old
trunk that belonged to my mom’s family in there when we moved into
the house. He’s never opened it so he doesn’t know what’s in there.
I don’t think my mom has ever opened it either.”

“
What are we waiting for?
Let’s get that thing out of the closet.” Nick jumped up.

Peter, Camille, and I stayed in our
chairs.

“
First, we need to know how
to protect ourselves,” Peter said.

“
What?” Nick’s confused look
returned.

“
What if we meet up with the
Goodwins again and this time they aren’t so friendly?”

Nick sat back down slowly. “What do
you want to know?”

“
Sophia, you once told me
that you could hurt me, but I couldn’t hurt you. Is that true in
all circumstances?” I asked.

“
Usually, but I guess there
are exceptions. When a ghost is in its human form, it can feel
pain, but in a muted way. For instance, if you were to shoot me I
would feel it, but it wouldn’t be like the extreme pain
you
would feel because it
would heal so quickly. If you were to gun me down with a machine
gun, it would hurt a lot worse because it would be continuous jolts
of pain until you stopped.”

I cringed. “A machine gun? Where am I
supposed to get one of those?”

“
Jamie, I’m not saying
that’s what you have to do. I was just using it as an example.
Something that would kill or seriously injure you is just a
momentary pain for a ghost. It just stalls them for a little bit.
But remember, that’s only if they’re in their human form. If we’re
in our ghost form, nothing hurts. It’s like we’re just made of air
or something.”

“
Okay. I guess that makes
sense. So as long as we attack the Goodwins in their human form we
should be okay?” Peter asked.

Nick cleared his throat and
crossed his arms over his chest. “Not necessarily. If they were
under attack, they’d just vanish into their ghost form and
then
you’re
the
one in trouble because you won’t know where they are. Besides, how
and why do you plan on attacking them, Peter?”

“
I don’t know. I hadn’t
thought that far ahead. I just think those of us who are still
living are getting kind of tired of not knowing what to
expect.”

Sophia frowned. “I’m sorry I dragged
all of you into this giant mess.”

I jumped in. “Don’t get us wrong.
We’re happy to help and it’s been an adventurous couple of weeks,
but we just need to know what to expect.”

“
Well, if we’re going to get
revenge on the Goodwins we have to get them where it hurts. Sophia,
what would you say matters most to them?” Nick asked.

“
Money—hands down,” she
answered without any hesitation.