CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Gaspar, Ian, Nine, and Ghost walked down the tree-lined entrance toward the main house. They could see people enjoying breakfast in the grove, along with their newest residents. There was no sign of Matthew and Irene.

“Good morning,” said Gaspar to everyone. The ghosts turned, staring at the men. They seemed timid and scared, and who wouldn’t be? You’re dead. You’re not dead. You’re in between. No one knew.

“Good morning,” came the chorus.

“Young man, I was just wonderin’ if you were gonna be able to get me to my Vera. She must be missin’ me somethin’ fierce.”

“We’re working on it, Buck. We do have a question for you, though. Hollis Norton.” Buck rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

“Lord, what did that boy do this time? I mean, that time. Then. Back then,” he said in frustration.

“Well, sir, we’re sorry to tell you that after your death, your wife had to file for bankruptcy.”

“Bankruptcy? No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, that can’t be right. We had plenty of money in the bank. The horses alone would have been worth thousands of dollars. Even if she was strugglin’, she’d know enough to sell the horses to keep the farm. But the horses were amazin’. We were planning on sending Mauricio to the Derby.”

“Mauricio won the Derby in 1953,” said Ian, staring at his phone. “That was your horse?”

“Yes!” he said excitedly. “He won. He actually won! That would have been more than enough to keep her and the farm going, plus the ongoing interest in the other horses and our techniques for trainin’ the horses.”

“Let’s get back to Hollis. When your wife had to file for bankruptcy, he ended up buying the horse farm about a year later. He bought it from the bank.”

“I don’t understand,” whispered Buck. “If he had the money to buy the farm, why didn’t he help Vera? I was good to him. Gave him a job when others wouldn’t. He was a mess. Drinkin’, womanizin’, gamblin’, he did all the sins, all at the same time. I never judged that man.”

“That’s actually very helpful, Buck,” said Ghost. “We’re sending Bull and Whiskey to speak to his grandson, who is still the owner of the horse farm.”

“His ancestors own my farm?” asked Buck with a quiet, shaky voice. “My daddy would say there’s a fox in the hen house, and we need to shoot him.”

“Well, I’m not sure we can ask anything of Hollis Norton. He’s probably long gone by now,” said Nine.

“Maybe not,” said Buck. “He was just a kid when I hired him. He joined the Army when he was seventeen. Went AWOL ‘cause he was a scared kid. He was twenty-six, mebbe twenty-seven when I hired him. He’d be old as dirt, but he could be alive.”

“We’ll find out. I promise,” said Ian.

“What about me?” asked Lilliana. “Do I get to go – go home?”

“I can assure all of you that we’re working on trying to figure out a way to get you to where you need to be. We think that you’re here because you died under suspicious circumstances, and somehow, we’re supposed to find out who killed you.”

“Are you that good?” asked Captain Walker. “No offense, sir. But Eagle Feather has been dead, we think, more than three hundred years.”

“It’s a challenge for sure,” said Gaspar. “But this is what we do. Not to sound cocky, but we’re good at what we do. Really good. Even if we can’t find the answers we need, you’ll be welcome here. You can stay here, live here, for as long as you like.”

“Are them ghosts stuck here?” asked Dunston.

“I’m not sure,” said Gaspar. “I don’t know if they’re stuck here or if they choose to stay here with us. They’ve been very helpful to us on many occasions. They’re family to us.”

“You are the strangest group of people I’ve ever met,” said Genevieve. “Father used to say that there were spirits on this land, and they were welcome to come and go as they pleased. I never understood him. I thought he was teasing me, trying to scare me. Maybe he knew something I didn’t.”

“Maybe,” smiled Gaspar. “Just know we’re doing all we can.”

“It will be hard for me,” said Eagle Feather. The others all looked at him, knowing that he would be the most difficult case to solve.

“Yours will be the most difficult,” said Nine, “but it doesn’t mean that we won’t give it the attention you deserve. As we said, if we can’t find who took your life, we welcome you here with us.”

“I might as well,” smiled the young Native. “I’ve suddenly learned your language without any difficulty at all. You have others like me that understand me. It’s a remarkable and odd world that I’ve awakened into, but it’s an interesting world. The other ghost, Nathan, he tells me those big iron things on wheels can go very fast.” The men chuckled, nodding their heads.

“There are vehicles like those that can go more than two hundred miles per hour,” smiled Ian. “We even have machines that fly. They can travel around the world without challenge.”

“Positively remarkable,” smiled Charity. The four men laughed, nodding at the young woman. When Franklin and Martha appeared beside them, they all gave a pleasant greeting.

“Franklin and I were recalling your visit this morning, captain,” said Martha.

“Please, ma’am, just Archie.” Martha nodded.

“It was Franklin who recalled a small altercation you had on the front porch with Mr. Higginbotham. Do you recall that?” Archie frowned, deep in thought, then looked up at everyone.

“I do. I do recall that. He made disparaging remarks about the president, Franklin, and even Miss Robicheaux. In fact, his remark was quite crude about you.”

“It was indeed,” nodded Martha. “Despite my advanced age, I believe he made a comment he’d most likely made to a younger woman in his past. He was an odious man, but I was trying to be polite.”

“You were exceptionally polite,” said Archie. “I think, I think I may have even threatened him. Did I?”

“You did,” nodded Franklin, chuckling. “That man was awful scared of you.”

“But he was with another man. Two against one. Why would he be frightened of me?” asked Archie.

“Captain, you were a war hero, an expert shot, and if you hadn’t noticed, you were much larger than the average man of our era. Not my men here, of course,” smiled Martha, waving her hand around the grove, “but you were easily six-feet-two. Impressive for our time.”

The others all smiled at the young man as he looked around, seeing their admiring faces and expressions.

“Would they have killed me over my comments?” he asked.

“I’m afraid it wasn’t about your comments,” said Martha. “We think perhaps they were angry that you were defending Franklin and, of course, the president’s plan for reformation of the South. You were headed to Vicksburg to meet with other Confederate soldiers. That could have been concerning for them if they thought you could persuade them.”

“I don’t understand,” he said, looking at Martha and Franklin, confused.

“Son, you convinced all them white soldiers in New Orleans that the plan was a good one and would allow for all to be prosperous in the new South. You were exceptionally good at what you did.”

“It’s going to be hard to prove it, isn’t it?” he said to Nine.

“It will be, son. I won’t lie to you.”

Archie looked around the grove at all the people. He lifted his head as if to feel the warm summer breeze, smell the wonderful scents coming from the cafeteria. Then he looked down at his fellow lost ghosts.

“It’s alright. I think I could make this home.”