The Last to See Me (The Last Ghost #1) - M Dressler Page 0,7
them. It’s something the living don’t know: how lost and childish they can seem.
Ellen fits the key into the deep brass. “It all happened inside.”
“The Danes told me you were present during the event.”
“Well, not exactly. I was outside, right here. Texting. Giving them some privacy to discuss things. But I was here, yes, at the house with them, all the time. That’s the law.”
“Ellen, I need to know if you’ll be frightened coming inside with me.”
She shakes her head, certain. “I know this might sound strange, but I don’t get frightened by incidents that don’t happen to me personally. I know that sounds—selfish. I don’t mean it to. But I’ve been in the house alone so often, so …” She glances back at him, beckoning him inside with her head. “Getting it ready for sale, to show, there was never any sign of—anyway, it totally surprised me because Benito’s already been through some good, solid cleanings, really thorough ones. I just wasn’t expecting anything to happen. Or else my broker would never have listed this property as having a clean title.”
“But you do understand the supposedly clean title accounts for the Danes’ … reaction.”
“They must have still been pretty angry when you spoke with them?”
“You could say that.”
“Once I was able to get to them—I mean, after I heard them screaming in the hall—they looked just terrible. Especially poor Mrs. Dane. I thought it was all over for me, honestly. I thought I’d lost my job. Mrs. Dane wanted out but Mr. Dane started shouting that he was going to buy the place lock, stock, and barrel, and flush it, and I should get the contract out. And here we are.”
She stands back. He walks around the foyer slowly, like someone who has plenty of time. It’s not the normal way, with his kind. Usually, hunters strut in, put their noses in the air, and get out their horrors, their weapons.
At the turn of the millennium, when the hunts began, I was as scared as any ghost could be. But fear, in the end, does a body no good. If you let yourself be afraid of what can kill you, it weakens you. So you can’t let yourself be afraid. You have to believe there is something in you that was made to meet the fear. Something that was given to you at birth, your right as a human being. So many of the poor ones I’ve seen who got sent back down into the ground, it was all because they thought so little of their right, of their own light. I’ve watched the mirrors empty because the ghosts hiding inside them were so afraid. Worst of all have been the cries of the ghosts of little children, who like to cling and hover longingly around candles—birthday candles especially. And then they shriek and are, themselves, blown out.
“So nothing about being inside this house frightens you.”
“Not unless you tell me it should, Mr. Pratt. I’ve been in and out three times since the Danes left and nothing’s happened. I’m not saying I don’t believe them, but …”
“You don’t. This is a beautiful entry. The height of it.”
“That’s the original chandelier. The whole house is just a jewel. The last owner took wonderful care of everything.”
“Alice Marie Lambry?”
“Yes. Let me turn on a few lights. It’s getting overcast.”
The brightness makes it easier for me to move around, too. Thank you, helpful Ellen.
She stashes her satchel next to the stairway’s carved newel post and straightens in her suit. “So, what I can tell you is Alice Lambry died—let’s see, a few months ago now. She died in one of the bedrooms, upstairs.”
“So I’ve been given to understand. And also, to be clear, she never reported any trouble with the house.”
“No, not that the constable knows of. I wanted to do my own research, so I checked with him. But he said no member of the Lambry family has ever reported any trouble here.”
“The Lambrys were always a wealthy family, I assume. People of means.” He gestures with his heavy arm all around, at the paneling, at the art, at the angels in the corners. He looks as wrong as a bull in a china cabinet.
“Obviously.” Ellen nods. “If they’d had any trouble, they could have paid whatever they needed to get it put down, especially around the time the whole village was being cleaned.”
“Except that now it seems the whole village wasn’t cleaned.”
“Unless you think it’s possible the Danes could have