The Last to See Me (The Last Ghost #1) - M Dressler Page 0,18

A plant cage has tumbled, and crumpled leaves litter the ground. She tramps over the earth in her good business shoes and turns this way and that, calling for Kittums, Kittums, and only turns back, sighing again, when she hears the sound of the phone she’s left near the door.

What a ghostly thing it is, a telephone, that with only a sound it can make the living jump. So amazed we all were, as children, when the first line in the village was strung and went, of course, straight to the Lambrys’ post—the Lambrys always the first in line to get anything new and exciting. We stood hushed outside the iron gate that kept us from their garden, and strained to hear the telephone bell ring. Now my hearing stretches so far I don’t need to be near Ellen and can linger in the woods and trail my skirt through the leaves.

“Philip.”

“Calling to thank you again for all your help today.”

“No, thank you. I hope I helped. Especially since I don’t have much background in—what you do.”

“It’s not something they spend much time on in real estate classes?”

“A little. Not much.”

I can hear a soft tapping sound. Pratt touching at something.

“I’ve been going over a few details here, Ellen. The Lambrys have always been very orderly about their estates and their money. Alice’s will, for example”—I hear more tapping—“is very specific and directed the house to be sold to the highest bidder and the proceeds disbursed to her relations. So that would seem to argue against a dead Lambry being angry at the sale of her property and—”

“—taking it out on the Danes?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, can’t ghosts change their minds?”

“They don’t have minds to change. Their desires are fixed at death, like compasses. Also, I went ahead and checked on any deaths in the house.”

“I was going to do that for you. I thought you said, ‘patience.’”

A fine piece of silence on the other end. I come a little closer to Ellen.

“I just didn’t want to overwhelm you with chores, right off the bat. Luckily, your public records people here are wonderfully cooperative. What I’m seeing here”—more taps and clicks—“is comfort and peace. Lambrys who lived to ripe old ages and died in their beds with their affairs in good order. Which, again, argues against any upset about wills and inheritances.”

“I guess I didn’t know ghosts could be so touchy about money.”

“I stopped counting, a while back, how many of my cases were about who took Aunt Imelda’s pearls.” I hear him laugh and take a drink of something and the clatter of silverware against china.

“Are you having dinner?”

“I am. You?”

“Just out looking for my cat.”

“No luck?”

“She gets into all sorts of places when she’s feeling sketchy. It’s all right.”

“I do have one new request for you, Ellen. Can you get me a list of all the currently empty or abandoned buildings, properties, and structures in the village?”

“I can—but there won’t be many. Space is at such a premium here. There’s not even much that’s for rent or sale. We’re just too small a market.”

“Do your best. And another question: are the Lambry heirs likely to come up from San Francisco anytime soon?”

“I don’t think they’re even planning on coming at all. Like I told you—they don’t want anything to do with the bother of all this. I think they just want the money in their hands and to be done with the last bit of Lambry property. In the village, I mean. Apart from—from the graves.”

“You sound a little tired over there.”

“I am. I feel worn down.”

“Take a shower. You’ll feel better. Get the dirt and dust of the dead off of you. I should have told you. It sticks to you. Deadness. It weighs.”

Another part of what they all say, another lie they tell about us. But no, it isn’t the dead that stick and soil. It’s only the dust of the past that weighs and dirties, and the grime of the hunt itself. It’s not me. I’m not dirt.

Stay calm now, Emma.

“You could have told me that sooner. Creepy as it is.”

“Clean up and rest and have a good evening. And I’ll see you tomorrow. And thanks for arranging the handyman.”

“I’ll call and make sure he’ll be there in the morning. I have another appointment but I’ll try to be there with you both as soon as I can.”

“Excellent. Good night then.”

The light’s fading fast. And Ellen, inside the house, is pulling off her jacket and blouse and going