Haunting Danielle 27 The Ghost and the Mountain Man Bobbi Holmes (best pdf ebook reader for android .TXT) 📖

“Can I ask who you are?” Danielle inquired. “Your name?”

“Darcy Browning,” the ghost said with a grin. “I can’t believe you can actually see and hear me!”

“Nice to meet you, Darcy. You said Josephine was here, not just her grave. Her ghost?” Danielle asked.

“Oh, she’s been here forever,” Darcy explained. “I can’t imagine why you’re looking for her.”

“Can you tell us where we might find her, please?” Danielle asked.

Darcy pointed in the same direction the groundskeeper had pointed earlier, the same direction Walt and Danielle had been walking before they saw Darcy. “You’ll find her over there, under some big trees, next to her grave. Unless she’s in one of her snits and doesn’t want to talk to anyone, then I’m not sure where she goes. When not pouting, she stays by her grave most of the time, waiting for someone to visit. Of course, no one ever does. But if you are planning to visit her, I imagine you’ll make her day.”

“Thank you,” Walt and Danielle chorused.

“She’s so annoying and has been here forever. Long before I ever arrived.”

“Do you know why she’s here?” Danielle asked.

“Of course I do. She won’t stop blabbering about it. That’s why I avoid her side of the cemetery,” Darcy said. “She’s being punished.”

“Punished?” Danielle asked, remembering Angela.

Darcy nodded vigorously. “She doesn’t feel it’s fair, of course, since her husband shoved her down the stairs, and it was all his fault, or so she claims.”

Danielle frowned. “What was his fault?”

“That whole thing with his first wife.”

Walt and Danielle exchanged quick glances before Danielle asked, “What about his first wife?”

“She claims she knew nothing about it. But she lied for him, told everyone he had been in Astoria that day. She was just happy to get rid of the wife so they could get married. Of course, once married, I guess he decided it wasn’t such a bargain. Frankly, had I been married to Josephine, I would probably have shoved her down some stairs too. Maybe she’s right, and he didn’t mean to kill her. They were in an argument, I guess they did that a lot, when it got a little heated, and he gave her a shove to shut her up.”

“Her husband killed her?” Walt asked.

“According to her, he didn’t mean to do it because he cried like a baby when he realized she was dead. I thought, I bet he cried like a baby because he figured he wasn’t going to get away with bumping off wife number two like he had his first wife,” Darcy said.

“He murdered his first wife?” Danielle asked.

Darcy frowned at Danielle. “Didn’t I just say that?”

“What do you know about the first wife’s murder?” Walt asked.

Darcy shrugged. “Nothing, really.”

“Do you know what happened to Josephine’s husband?” Walt asked.

“No clue. According to Josephine, she hasn’t seen him since she followed her body back to the morgue and then ended up here. Which makes me think he missed her funeral. But you’ll have to ask her about that.”

“Um, can I ask… why are you here? You obviously know you’re dead,” Danielle said.

Darcy laughed. “Of course I’m dead. You’d have to be dead to hang out at a cemetery as much as I do.”

“Don’t you want to move on?” Walt asked.

“Not especially. And it’s not because I’m being punished like Josephine, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Then why?” Walt asked.

“It’s because of that cheapskate husband of mine. He certainly didn’t seem like a cheapskate before I married him, with all his money and how he loved to spend it on me. But once we walked down the aisle, he goes tighter than Fort Knox. But then he had to up and die just as I was just getting ready to move on. My death came as a surprise; that’s why I stuck around so long, getting used to the idea. I never saw that truck coming.”

“A truck hit you?” Danielle asked.

“And in a crosswalk too!” Darcy shook her head in disgust.

“Well, you look pretty good for being hit by a truck,” Danielle noted.

“I didn’t always,” Darcy said. The next moment her vision morphed into a bloodier version of her former self, this one of her body after being hit by a truck. It remained that way for just a few moments before changing back. “It took me a while to figure out how to put myself back together again.”

“You said your husband showed up. Is he here now?” Danielle asked, glancing around.

“No way! If he were, I certainly wouldn’t be. But the moment he saw me at his funeral, he gets all sentimental and assumes I stuck around for him. I told him to go first, and when he did, I stayed.”

“You didn’t want to spend eternity with your husband?” Walt asked.

Darcy turned her attention to Walt, looking him up and down. “Maybe if he had looked like you. But I didn’t marry someone old enough to be my grandpa because I wanted to spend eternity with him. He was supposed to go first, not me.”

“If you don’t want to spend eternity with your husband, you don’t have to,” Danielle said.

Hand on hip, Darcy glared at Danielle. “You know that for sure?”

“Well… no… but…” Danielle stammered.

“Not this ghost. I’m giving him time to forget about me before I move on. I figure a century or two should do it.” The next moment Darcy vanished.

Danielle looked at Walt and said, “She was charming. And I think she liked you.”

“What she said about Josephine lying for Teddy has me wondering,” Walt began.

“Was Teddy being unfaithful with Josephine while Maddie was still alive, or did Josephine have a thing for her boss, which was why she lied for him, and then she ended up with the object of her affection?” Danielle suggested.

“Which didn’t turn out for her. But yes, that was what I was wondering,” Walt said.

“Let’s go find Josephine and see what she says.”

Together Walt and Danielle walked toward the trees Darcy had