Page 6 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
The daughter’s eyes hardened. “That’s been the core of her guilt trip against me. Said she deserved the money because you cheated on her. But I knew, deep down, it was a lie.”
“Honey,” her husband said sympathetically, “you really need to go no contact with her.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m done. She’s cut off. Papa, one question for you. Everything you put into this will, was any of it meant for her? Anything at all?”
Horace shook his head grimly. “No, I don’t owe her anything.”
I conveyed his message, and she didn’t seem surprised. “Figures she’s trying to steal from me. Again. Thank you, Agent, for relaying all of this to me. I gather the impression my father’s been trying to talk to me since his passing.”
Horace sadly nodded.
“True,” I agreed. “Horace also wants you to know he’s been lingering to watch over your daughter as well. Says to use the estate money for the bills?”
“My daughter was born prematurely,” she explained in a tired voice. “She’s fine, but it was a NICU stay for three weeks. The hospital bills are insane.”
I bet they were. “The money’s to help pay off your debt. He also said not to sell the house, it’s paid off.”
She blinked, eyes lighting up. “Is it really? We’ve been struggling, trying to find a place to rent.”
“The house will be so much better,” her husband said with relief. “It’s a beautiful house. Thanks, Dad.”
Horace was back to beaming.
I kept an eye on the surrounding passengers, and more than a few had their phones out recording us. Which, honestly, I didn’t mind. The more stories like this spread, the more clout my department had, so it could only help us. I did have to move once to let a flight attendant pass, but otherwise, it was fine.
There was a bit more chitchat, the daughter taking time to say a few things to her father that she hadn’t been able to say before he passed, which I expected. There was so much emotion there, and several tears, including mine. A sympathetic crier, I always joined in on the crying whether I wanted to or not. Still, it was sweet to see how much love this family had for each other, howmuch they missed each other. It made me linger and let them have more time even though my job was technically done. I lost a good hour to playing translator for them before Horace’s energy died down and he needed to rest. I gave the couple my card in case they had to sue the mother, as I could play witness to what Horace’s wishes had been. They both thanked me—I even got a hug—before I resumed my seat.
Which, of course, was when the pilot announced a twenty-minute warning of us descending soon. Dammit, I guess I’d be reading in the car.
Brandon handed my file back to me after I buckled in. “Good thing you were on this flight, looks like.”
“Truly. And I understand why he was so anxious. My god, a mother attempting to rob her child of almost a million dollars in money and assets is just…” I shook my head, flabbergasted. Money did very ugly things to people.
“Yeah. Sickening. My family would never do that to each other.”
Sadly, members of mine absolutely would. But then, I had siblings I hadn’t spoken to in nearly two years. I shrugged this off and asked, “So did you learn much?”
“Kinda. I kept getting sucked in to the drama over there”—he inclined his head to indicate the family—“but I did get an answer to why now. Up until twenty years ago, Black Rock was a pretty gnarly place. Crime was high, violence common, and whole sections of the town were run-down. There is an active mine in the area, so there’s work, but miners are tough people and not always law abiding. Then they got a new mayor in, and she’s still mayor. She cleaned up the town, got some renovations done, and people started trickling in. Families from the new generation of miners moving in, that sort of thing. After the crime rate started dropping, they realized some of those bumps in the night weren’t caused by the living.”
Ah, yes, the age-old story. When an area grew peaceful and quiet, the ghost activity became more noticeable. It had likely always been there but had been attributed to some other source.
Brandon reached for my hand, looking at me with sympathy.
I didn’t like it. “What?”
“Remember I love you very much and will always have your back.”
“Lord deliver us, now what’s wrong?”
“So, the scope of the job isn’t just Black Rock.”
“What nonsense are you spewing?”
Brandon pulled the map back out, which had been the first page of the report. His finger traced the area, the copper of his skin muted in the dim lighting of the cabin. “See the red circle? It’s not just Black Rock, but the ghost mining town nearby, Miner’s Creek.”
I stared at the map and wanted to throw a fit right there. Sticking fingers in my ears and drumming my heels on the floor sounded a grand sight better than dealing withthat.
On the other hand, it made perfect sense why I had to tackle the mining town. All of those ghosts were likely from the many, many collapsed mines that had killed people. They were close enough to Black Rock, and along the same river, so they’d naturally travel down into the town proper. I had to mitigate the source. Otherwise I’d be coming back here in a year or less, and I wanted to do that about as much as I wanted a stick in my eye.
