“I thought you might like to know there’s someone looking for you.”
I was so surprised that he hadn’t yelled at me, that it took Phin’s reaction to make me realize what he’d said.
“Here comes the cavalry,” she sighed. I followed her gaze to the marquee tent, where Mark was talking to a familiar tall redhead in a short black skirt and combat boots. Cousin Daisy had arrived.
30
the dig crew was vastly amused by my cousin.
Lucas watched with amazement as she downed two ears of corn, a pint of potato salad, and three tofu kabobs. Rather than ask where she put it all, he inquired, “How did you find us … your cousins, I mean. And the party?”
“I always know where I’m going.” She licked her fingers, and I swear, I saw Phin roll her eyes. “Also, there was a number on the pad by the phone. Some guy named Mark.”
She winked at Mark, who grinned back.
Ben had excused himself to do hostly things, but I suspected it was to cool off and make sure I hadn’t damaged his grandfather. Daisy’s arrival was better timed than she knew. Or maybe she did.
“So,” she said, digging into her third bowl of peach cobbler. “Tell me what’s been going on.”
“You mean you haven’t already Seen it all?” Phin capitalized the S with sarcasm.
Daisy smiled sweetly back at her. “You mean you haven’t already fixed it with your mad-scientist skilz?”
Mark watched with gleeful fascination. “Holidays must be so much fun at your house.”
“You have no idea.” I leaned back in my chair, because this could go on for a bit. “I worry every year someone is going to get strangled with the Tofurky.”
Ray’s Garage had left, and a DJ had taken their place. As dusk had fallen, the lights strung around the dance floor invited couples to take a spin. I watched them while Phin and the gang filled Daisy in. The scene was so happy and normal, while we sat there discussing skulls and specters.
Finally finished eating, Daisy pushed back her plate(s) and set her elbows on the table, all business. “And you’re sure it wasn’t the ghost that scattered the bones?”
Phin said, “There’s absolutely no evidence to lead to that conclusion. My philosophy is, if it’s at all possible for it to have been human action, presume it is.”
“Like Amy’s tire,” said Jennie. “And the notes on the windshields.”
Mark unfolded a piece of paper from his jeans and took out a pen from his shirt pocket. “Let’s look at what we’ve got. There’s the notes, Amy’s tire, the grave robber—those are the things we know are not supernatural. Then there’s Amy’s apparition—that can’t be human or natural, so it must be ghostly.” He looked at Phin for approval. “How’s that?”
“Good so far.”
“Let’s leave my ghost out of it for now,” I said, because the specter was different from everything else. Phin and Daisy had both caught on to that when they suggested we had more than one entity at work here. “We’ve also heard mechanical sounds in the field, and I saw the diesel truck. Nothing supernatural about those. So … there’s something weird going on in the pasture that’s not paranormal at all.”
Mark suggested, “Maybe those sounds and the truck were other ghost hunters. Ben said that sort of thing has been going on since the first remains turned up.”
Jennie looked over my shoulder and said, “Oh, hey, Ben. We were just talking about you.”
I swear, that guy needed a bell like a cat.
“So I heard.” I didn’t turn around, just let his voice drift over me, so I could filter through the nuances. It was much easier to say what his tone was not: not angry, not accusing, but not apologetic, either. “Can I join you?”
“Please do,” said Queen Daisy, and nudged out the chair beside me with her foot.
He sat, and I risked a glance at him. He was risking a glance at me. “We may mention ghosts,” I said, giving him fair warning.
“As long as you’re not mentioning them to my grandfather, I’ll deal with it.”
I started to tell him that his grandfather had come to me about the ghost, but Daisy interrupted.
“Amy.” She called me back to my theory. “You were saying? Something weird but not necessarily paranormal?”
Ben looked at me in surprise, I guess because I was capable of seeing a horse for a horse and not a unicorn. But I gave him credit. “It was something Ben said last night, about how he didn’t believe