Page 54 of Ghost Town Boogie

The Seawolf Beach Music Festival was in full swing, which meant Hart’s Vinyl Depot was packed. Colt manned the checkout while Benny and Helen helped customers find what they were looking for. Anna sold and served coffee.

Now and then she caught his eye and smiled. The sex was great, waking up next to her was the best, but now and then all he needed was a shared look like this one.

How long would it last? How long before the ghosts that were always with them freaked her out and sent her packing? She didn’t see the ghosts, but she knew they were there. He was ready to ask her to marry him but wanted to give her time to be sure of this, to be able to say yes with no reservations.

There had been too much going on in the past few weeks to focus on anything but one day to the next. Jack’s body, and Crystal’s, had been discovered in the wooded plot of land behind The Magnolia. Their disposal had been thoughtless, and careless. Both victims had skin under their fingernails. Jack and Crystal had fought their killers, father and son, and had taken proof to their graves. Walter Wakefield insisted that his son had acted alone, but Sawyer was talking and he painted a different story.

Once Nina Miller knew what had happened to her son, that he hadn’t run away and stayed gone, Jack’s ghost disappeared. Moved on, took the next steps… whatever spirits did when they were released from this plane of existence and moved to the next.

It had been hard on Nina, knowing her son was never coming home, knowing that he had suffered in his final hours. She’d shed a lot of tears. At the same time, the answers soothed her soul. He hadn’t abandoned his family. He hadn’t abandoned her.

She’d stayed in town a bit longer than she’d planned, but Nina was now settled in with her sister in Florida. According to Sally, Nina was already being courted by a neighbor.

Anna had handed the Cayman account number, and the list of people whose money had been taken, over to a lawyer in Mobile. His instructions were to take the money and refund as much as possible to Jack’s victims. If there was anything left, and the lawyer said it was legal to keep it, the money should go to Nina. Jack would’ve wanted that.

Anna hadn’t told her mother that she suspected her father might’ve known all along Jack was dead. What was the point? There was no proof and honestly no reason, unless Donnie Miller had realized how dangerous Jack’s con man lifestyle was and had simply feared the worst. If that was the case he’d lived his final years in his own kind of hell, as sad as Nina’s self-imposed exile.

All that done… what would come next? Mystery and excitement had brought them together. How would they handle mundane days and conversations about the weather?

Maude was unusually quiet as Colt checked out a young couple who were in town for the festival, but when they moved away she said, “You’re very lucky. Don’t let it pass you by.”

“Lucky how?”

The elderly ghost sighed. “You’ve found love twice in your lifetime. Some never know it even once.”

“Talking about yourself?”

“Heavens no, I was in love three times, and was well loved in return. Though…” Her expression changed, darkened, but only for a second or two. She continued. “Poor Nicole, she craved love but never truly found it. Such a shame.”

Colt glanced around the crowded room. “Nicole’s not here, is she?” Hiding, peeking around a corner, staying in a world where she didn’t belong.

“No. Once the man who killed her was caught, she was able to let what was left of this life go.”

Not before ripping her blouse off and tossing it at him a few more times…

The ghost continued, “Trust me, life is short. Don’t let love pass you by. I knew the moment Anna walked into the depot that she was right for you.”

He let that declaration slide. “You were loved; you didn’t die violently. Why are you still here?”

Maude flickered. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s my pearl earrings, or the casserole dish, or… Oh, a customer’s coming, I should skedaddle.”

As if customers had ever scared her off before.

It was near closing time when Colt sent Helen and Benny home. The crowds were dying down because the next round of concerts was about to begin. He and Anna could handle the place for the rest of the day, and besides, Helen’s feet hurt, and Benny wanted to see the first band up tonight, a local bunch he talked about incessantly. They were both happy to be released.

Helen had apologized a dozen times for her part in the break-in. Sawyer had stopped by her house that afternoon, not long before Emily had been attacked, trying to sell his landscaping services. It wasn’t until the following morning that she’d discovered her clearly-labeled key to the depot was missing from the bowl by the kitchen door. She’d been so upset she’d mentioned several times that she should just quit. Colt had talked her out of that foolishness. He needed her. She needed to be needed, as everyone did.

Maude, who continued to hide, was right. To fall in love twice in a lifetime, to have the gift of being truly connected to another person, was a gift he couldn’t turn his back on. Loving Anna didn’t mean he hadn’t loved Lizzie.

“I’ll walk you home,” he said after he locked the door and turned the closed sign around.

“Thank you, sir,” Anna said. “You never know what scalawags might be lying in wait on the stairs.” She left the coffee station, walked to him, and gave him an easy kiss.

“Scalawags?” he asked as he draped his arm over her shoulder and walked toward those stairs.

“Ne’er do wells, if you prefer.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d been talking to Maude.”