The Ghost Who Loved Diamonds (16 page)

Danielle woke up the
next morning to the sound of Lily vomiting in the bathroom down the hall.
Groggy, she sat up and was surprised to find not just Walt sitting on the side
of her bed looking at her, but Cheryl.

“Lily is sick,” they
said in unison.

“What’s wrong?”
Danielle rubbed her eyes and stumbled out of bed.

“I think she has the
flu,” Cheryl said. “The sound is grossing me out; you really need to do
something about it.”

 “You should wash down
her face with a damp cloth.” Walt suggested. “The poor thing looks miserable.”

“Oh, you’re so sweet,”
Cheryl cooed, flashing Walt a smile.

Danielle rolled her
eyes and silently made her way from the bedroom to the bathroom down the hall.
She found Lily sitting on the floor in front of the toilet.

“Oh, poor Lily,”
Danielle said, turning on the bathroom light.

Lily flushed the toilet
and then looked up at Danielle through red rimmed eyes. She remained seated on
the floor leaning over the toilet bowl. Danielle grabbed a clean washcloth from
the bathroom cupboard. After running it under cold water and wringing it out, she
handed it to Lily.

“Thanks.” Lily took the
cloth and wiped down her face. “I think I have the flu.”

Danielle noticed Lily
already had a glass of water by her side. “When did you get sick?”

“I woke up about an
hour ago with a killer headache. Started throwing up about twenty minutes ago.
Sorry I woke you.”

“No problem. Can I get
you anything?”

“No. But I won’t be
able to go down to the beach with you today, and show you where those beach
huts are.”

“That’s okay, you take
care of yourself. You can give me directions, I’ll find it.”

“You can’t go alone. I
mean, what if you do find…well, you know…Cheryl.”

“That’s sort of the
point, isn’t it?” Danielle leaned back against the bathroom counter and looked
down at Lily.

“Yeah but if you find
her, what are you going to do?”

“I guess I’ll call the
police.”

“How are you going to
explain how you happen to find her?”

“I suppose I’ll call in
an anonymous tip.”

“They can trace those
things. And if she died of unnatural causes, which I imagine was the case, you
certainly don’t want them to think you had anything to do with it.”

“I’ll figure out
something. Maybe I can get Ian and Sadie to go with me. I’ll tell him I want to
walk the beach from Adam’s bungalow to the beach in front of his house. On the
theory she tried to walk here. I know the authorities supposedly did that
already, but if she is at that hut, they obviously didn’t do a terrific job.”

“I’m afraid Ian is
going to Astoria today for another interview with Emma. He’s taking Sadie with
him. I imagine he left already.”

“Well, I’ll just have
to go there alone.”

“I’ll go with you,”
Cheryl said from the doorway.

Danielle turned to face
her cousin. “You? I don’t even know if that’s possible.”

“I don’t think she’s
bound to this house,” Walt said.

“What do you mean bound
to this house?” Cheryl looked from Walt to Danielle.

“Walt and Cheryl are
here, aren’t they?” Lily asked.

“Yes. They were in my
room when I woke up. Wanted me to come check on you.”

“Ah, that’s sweet.”
Lily looked to the doorway where she assumed they were standing.

“Yeah,” Danielle said
dryly. “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.”

“You didn’t answer my
question,” Cheryl interrupted. “What do you mean bound here?”

“Walt isn’t able to
leave the house. When he’s ready to move on to the next level—wherever that is
for him—it appears he can now do that. But while he chooses to be on this
plane, it seems he’s confined to Marlow House—inside the house not the
grounds.”

“Next plane…you mean
there is more than just this?” Cheryl asked.

“Certainly. I don’t
think this is your final destination. You sort of got derailed because of how
you died, and before you can move on, you need to resolve some issues. At least
that seemed to be the case for Walt, so I imagine that’s what’s going on with
you.”

“You really did see Grandma,
didn’t you?” Cheryl asked with a pout.

“Yes. She was the first
spirit I ever saw.”

“So she did love you
more,” Cheryl’s lower lip began to quiver.

“It has nothing to do
with who she loved more. Grandma didn’t choose me to see her. Ask yourself, did
you choose for me to see you?”

“No. You just saw me,”
Cheryl murmured thoughtfully. “Did you see mom and dad, and Sean?”

“No, Cheryl. I never
saw them. I never saw my parents or even Lucas.”

“Well, I imagine Lucas
probably wanted to avoid that meeting considering what he did,” Cheryl scoffed.

“My point is, I don’t
think I can choose—nor can the spirits choose. It just sometimes happens.”

Lily began to throw up
again. When she stopped she said, “Would you guys mind taking your conversation
elsewhere so I can puke in peace?”

“Sorry Lily,” Danielle
said, stepping from the bathroom into the hall, shutting the door behind her.

“So does this mean
there is a heaven?” Cheryl asked excitedly. “Will I see Mom, Dad, Grandma and
Sean again?”

“I don’t know if there
is a heaven exactly. I believe there is something more. Maybe it is heaven. I
don’t know. But I do believe you will see your love ones again on the next
plane, at least, that’s what I’ve gathered from other spirits I’ve
encountered.”

“Why are you still here
then?” Cheryl asked Walt.

“What do you mean?”
Walt asked.

“If you’re confined to
this old house when you have the option to move on to another place where you
can see friends and family, why stay here?”

“I really have no one I
care to see right now,” Walt said with a shrug.

“But what about the
other stuff?” Cheryl asked.

“Other stuff?” Walt
asked with a frown.

“Well, what if the
streets really are paved in gold?”

“Perhaps. But what do I
need with gold streets?”

“Maybe you don’t want
to go, but I do. Okay, I’m ready.” Cheryl closed her eyes and stood still for a
few moments.

“It doesn’t work that
way,” Danielle said.

“Danielle’s right,”
Walt agreed. “There is something holding you here, or you wouldn’t have
returned to this house. My guess is you’ll be able to go with Danielle to the
beach shack, but I could be wrong. You might be confined here in the same way
Angela is confined to the cemetery.”

“Who is Angela?” Cheryl
asked.

“Walt’s wife. Angela is
more under house arrest, for not being such a good person.”

“Oh crap, do you think
I’m under house arrest too?” Cheryl slumped against the wall.

“Do you think you were
a bad person?” Danielle asked with wry amusement.

“I don’t think I was
bad exactly…but I suppose I did some things my parents would not be proud of.”
Cheryl looked down at her feet.

“I think we need to
take one thing at a time. First things first. We need to find your body and
figure out what happened to you. I think when the time is right for you to move
on you will know it,” Danielle explained.

“Why are you being so
nice to me?” Cheryl asked.

“You’re my cousin,”
Danielle explained.

“Do you love me?”

“Love you?” Danielle
shifted nervously from one foot to another.

“Yes, love me. We are
family. Aren’t you supposed to love family?”

“Do you love me?” Danielle
asked.

“Certainly,” Cheryl
said absolutely.

“Then why did you make
a pass at Lucas at our rehearsal dinner and then insist he was the one who did
it?”

“Because I knew he was
all wrong for you. I was right. You know it.”

“Is that why you came
on to all my boyfriends?”

“Oh come on Dani, if
any of those boys were right for you they wouldn’t have been swayed by a little
harmless flirting from me. But that doesn’t matter now. What does matter, I
always had your best interest at heart. Because I loved you and felt
responsible for you.”

“You felt responsible
for me?” Danielle frowned.

“Certainly. You were
just so…so…well awkward. And I was…well, I was me.”

“What in the world is
that supposed to mean?” Danielle asked.

“Come on Dani, we all
knew you were jealous of me.”

“I was never jealous of
you!” Danielle was insulted.

“Don’t get upset, Dani.
I understood. That’s why I felt so responsible for you. It couldn’t have been
easy on you, having to watch me in one beauty pageant after another—while you
sat on the sidelines.”

“No, it wasn’t easy,”
Danielle said dryly.

“I think we need to
focus on what’s important now,” Walt interrupted.

“Yes, of course. Walt
is right.” Cheryl smiled sweetly at Walt.

“I suppose we can agree
on that. In this instance, Walt is correct. Let’s focus on what’s important
now,” Danielle said.

• • • •

By the time Danielle
dressed and braided her hair, Lily had taken a shower and returned to bed. When
Danielle came to check on Lily and get directions to the beach shack, she found
her sitting up in bed eating a slice of toast. A cup of hot tea sat on her
nightstand.

“You went downstairs?”
Danielle asked as she pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed.

“No, Walt brought it to
me.” Lily smiled. “At least I assume it was Walt, and not Cheryl.”

“I don’t think it was
Cheryl. She hasn’t figured out how to move things. In fact, I don’t think she
even realizes the possibility yet.”

“If she’s going with
you to look for her body, don’t you think that would come in handy if you ran
into trouble.”

“Trouble?”

“If whoever she took
that walk with murdered her and put her body into the shed, you certainly don’t
want to be alone and run into him. Having someone capable of tossing around a
croquet set might come in handy.”

“Yeah, I sorta thought
about that. But this is Cheryl we’re talking about. Do I really want her to
know how to do all that? Just imagine if she had started tossing the furniture
at us during her crying fit.”

“You have a point. But
please, be careful. Maybe you should just call in an anonymous tip for someone
to check that beach shack.”

“Didn’t you say they
trace those things?”

“Sure, but I bet
there’s a pay phone in town you can use.”

“And probably some
traffic camera ready to take my picture.”

“Now you’re just being
paranoid, Dani.”

“Maybe…” Danielle
shrugged.

“Okay, so if you do
find her body, what are you going to do about it?”

“I’ve been thinking
about it. If she is in the beach hut, then I’ll have to go back with someone
and pretend to accidentally find her. I think it would look better if I was
with someone else if I do. If this is the 24-hour bug and you’re feeling better
tomorrow, maybe we can rope Ian into taking us down along that stretch of the
beach like I suggested earlier.”

“Then just wait for
him. Don’t go today.”

“No. I don’t want to wait.
I need to know if Cheryl’s body is down there. And if it isn’t, maybe our trip
to the beach will help trip her memory.”

“Okay Dani, but please,
please be careful.”

The closest parking
spot Danielle could find was south of Adam’s beach bungalow. Since Lily
couldn’t recall where the beach huts were exactly, they decided it would be
best if they started at the bungalow and worked north.

It was a sunny morning
with temperatures in the low eighties. There seemed to be far more people along
this stretch of beach compared to Danielle’s end of town, yet it scarcely compared
to the crowds that gathered at Southern California beaches.

“Odd, I don’t feel any
sand between my toes,” Cheryl said as she looked down at her bare feet.

“I just realized, you
aren’t wearing shoes. You didn’t have any shoes on when you returned to Marlow
House.”

Cheryl looked down at
her feet again and wiggled her toes. “Hmm, you’re right.” 

“Tell me, do you
remember taking your shoes off?”

“Well,” Cheryl thought
a moment. “I took them off at Adam’s. I don’t remember putting them back on. I
certainly wouldn’t have put them on when I walked on the beach.”

“When the police found
Adam the next day at the bungalow, nothing of yours was at the house—not your
purse or shoes.”

“Oh, I took them with
me,” Cheryl said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! I remember now,”
Cheryl said excitedly. “I wasn’t about to stay at Adam’s with him passed out. I
didn’t know how to get back to Marlow House exactly, but I figured if I kept
walking north along the ocean I would eventually get to the beach in front of
Ian’s house.”

“I sort of figured that
might be the case. I mean, about you finding your way back to Marlow House by
going north on the beach.”

“People are starting to
stare,” Cheryl chuckled. “After all you are talking to yourself.”

Danielle glanced
around. It was true; a few people they had passed were still staring in her
direction. For the next few minutes Danielle and Cheryl walked in silence.
Danielle carried her purse in one hand and her shoes in the other.

“There it is!” Cheryl
said pointing to a beach house; its back porch faced the ocean.

“What?” Danielle asked.

“That’s the house Adam
brought me to. I remember now walking along this stretch of the beach. Up
here.” Cheryl pointed ahead.

“Can you remember
anything else, like who it was you ran into that night?”

“No…” Cheryl shook her
head. “But it was someone familiar…not someone I knew well but someone I met
here, I’m certain of that. Which means you probably know that person too.”

They continued to walk
farther north and the crowds diminished, until at last Danielle could
comfortably talk to Cheryl without fear someone would think she was talking to
herself.

“Look, it’s getting a
little rocky up ahead!” Danielle said. “Does any of this look familiar?”

“No, not really. But it
was nighttime.”

“You recognized the
bungalow.”

“That’s only because
Adam took me there the first day we met. We sat on the back porch for about an
hour and talked. I thought he was really nice. Too bad he had to drink so
much.”

They walked a little
ways more, until finally they went around a bend and there they were: six beach
shacks as Lily had described, each painted with a different red number, one
through six.

“There they are!”
Danielle exclaimed.

Some distance from the
huts, over a hill that faced the ocean, Danielle spied a row of rooftops, their
houses concealed by the hill. A path leading from the houses to the huts wound
around the grassy hill and midway there was a wooden bench, faded and bleached
from constant exposure to the elements.

“It looks like they
store their beach stuff here, you know like chairs and surfboards,” Danielle
said. When her cousin didn’t respond she glanced back and noticed Cheryl had
stopped walking and just stood quietly, staring at the small buildings.

“What is it? Aren’t you
coming?” Danielle asked.

“I can’t.” Cheryl stood
frozen to the spot.

“What do you mean you
can’t?”

“It feels funny. I’m
afraid,” Cheryl whispered, her voice trembling.

“If you think about it,
what can really happen to you? I mean…well you’re already dead.”

“You aren’t.”

“I’ll be okay. Doesn’t
look like anyone is around and I seriously doubt whoever you were here with is
lurking about.”

“Okay, but I’m staying
here.”

“Fine. I’ll see if I
can have a look inside, and then we can get the heck out of here. Okay?”

Cheryl nodded her head
in agreement.

The sound of ocean
breakers crashing along the beach filled Danielle’s head. There was no other
human in sight, although she assumed the houses in the distance were probably
occupied for the summer and it was possible someone could show up on the beach
at any minute. She needed to move quickly, especially if she didn’t want to be
seen. If Cheryl’s body was in the shed, it probably wouldn’t be a great idea to
be seen poking around the area.

Danielle felt less
brave than she acted. A sense of dread washed over her as she neared the
shacks.

“Okay, let’s hurry this
up,” Danielle mumbled to herself, as she approached rustic Hut Three. She set
her purse and shoes on the sand and looked around the hut, but there didn’t
seem to be any windows, just a door. The ill filling boards provided gaps and
she wondered if one might prove useful as a peep hole.

When she put her eye to
one, it was too dark inside to see anything. Then it hit her, the indescribable
scent of decaying flesh. Danielle quickly glanced behind her to Cheryl, who
stood a good distance away, her back now to her. Cheryl was no longer watching
Danielle, but gazed out to the ocean, as if she could not bear looking at the
beach shacks.

Danielle felt her own
heart beating wildly and for a brief moment she entertained the idea of just
walking away—no, running—back to Cheryl and her car to figure out some other
way to get the police to the hut. Yet, she couldn’t get herself to turn back
now.

Instead of a keyed
doorknob, a latch and padlock held the door securely shut. On closer inspection
Danielle discovered someone had already cut through the padlock, yet left it
hanging on the latch, giving the impression the building was locked.

Reluctant to grasp the
hut’s latch for fear of leaving fingerprints, she remembered what Lily had
said.
Now you’re just being paranoid
. Slipping her hand under her blouse
to use the fabric to shield her fingerprints, she gingerly opened the latch,
leaving the broken padlock hanging. She opened the hut’s door wide, letting in
the sunshine.

Lifting the collar of
her shirt upward, she used its fabric to cover her nostrils. The stench was
sickening. Nervously she peeked into the hut, but it was too dark to see inside
when standing in the bright sunlight. Stepping into the dark space she looked
around and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. Shafts of
sunlight cut through the small space, finding their way in through the gaps
between the wall boards. Looking around, she noticed a work bench with several
surfboards propped against it. There were old beach chairs, several beach
umbrellas and in the corner by the door, a stack of children’s beach
toys—buckets, shovels and a deflated beach ball.

Her eyes, adjusting to
the lighting, darted across the dimly lit space as she took another step
inside. Just as she did she glanced down and saw it—a pair of women’s bare
feet, covered in dry sand, sticking out from under a pile of partially inflated
rafts.

 Danielle let out a
little cry and fell to her knees, no longer thinking rationally as she shoved
the rafts aside and uncovered the bloated body of her cousin, who lay lifeless
on the wood floor staring blankly up to the ceiling.

“Oh Cheryl,” Danielle
murmured sadly.

Cheryl’s once golden
hair was now matted in dry blood, from what appeared to be a severe head wound.
While Danielle was no forensic expert, she guessed that someone had bashed
Cheryl over her head with something hard.

 Quickly glancing
around the shed, she didn’t see a likely weapon; at least, nothing with blood
stains. Cheryl wasn’t wearing the Missing Thorndike, which didn’t surprise
Danielle. Looking around, she spied Cheryl’s purse and shoes not far from the
body.

While she didn’t expect
to find the necklace stuffed in Cheryl’s purse, she felt compelled to look,
just in case. The necklace wasn’t there.

“God I hate leaving you
here like this,” Danielle whispered over her cousin’s broken and lifeless body.

Cheryl’s frantic
screams interrupted the somber moment. “Dani! Dani! Hurry!”

With a quick jerk
Danielle turned toward the open door but the sun was blocked by the silhouette
of what appeared to be a man standing in the doorway.

“What the hell?” the
man said, stepping into the hut.

Danielle looked up. She
could now see his face. It was Bill Smith.

“What are you doing
here?” Danielle blurted out.

“I am so sorry Dani! I
didn’t see him coming until it was too late. Hurry up run!” Frantic, Cheryl now
stood at the doorway, anxiously hopping about from foot to foot.

“Is this the man,
Cheryl?” Danielle asked in a steady voice as she kept her eyes on Bill and
slowly stood up, preparing herself for physical combat if necessary.

“Who are you talking
to?” Just as he asked the question he looked down and his gaze fell on the dead
body.

“I don’t think so. He
doesn’t look familiar. But I’m not sure,” Cheryl said in an uncertain voice.

Danielle’s eyes darted
around for a weapon. She spied a piece of pipe near the children’s beach toys.
Bill noticed her looking at the pipe. Together they lunged for it, each taking
hold of an opposite end. Cheryl let out a scream and began yelling, yet her
screams only distracted Danielle.

 Bill jerked Danielle
outside, away from the decaying body and into the sunlight. The two fell onto
the sand yet Danielle was no match for his strength. She found herself face
down in the sand, her arms jerked back forcibly, held in place by Bill’s weight
as he sat on her back. Spitting sand from her mouth she raised her head
slightly, and looked up in time to see Bill raising the pipe over her head, as
if he were preparing to bash it in.

Cheryl let out another
scream and the pipe went sailing into the distance. Surprised that she was
still alive, Danielle could feel Bill shift his body.

“What are you going to
do to me?” she asked, spitting out more sand.

“Call the police. Now
just settle down.” Bill said.

“Call the police? You
mean you aren’t going to kill me?” Danielle asked.

“Kill you? Why in the
hell would I kill you? You’re the one with the dead body lady, not me.”

“Oh thank god,”
Danielle said wearily, letting her head rest on the sand she closed her eyes
and relaxed her body.