Chapter 28
Exhausted by recent events and lack of sleep, Cora wished she could call it a day and go home to nap. She, Cisco and Frannie sat around the table in the historical society loft, finishing fast-food sandwiches while Cora told Frannie about the meeting with Meg.
"Great-Angel's not enough to stress about, now we got to find a killer too. Well, no point wasting any more time trying to figure out is Angel in your head-we got us a bon-a-fide ghost." Frannie put the last bite of sandwich in her mouth, and followed it with a slug of bottled water. "But tell me again, why all the hush-hush? Shouldn't Angel be happy knowing we're digging into her murder? Isn't that what she wants?"
"I keep thinking about Father McGrath. We don't know who or what sets her off." Frannie blinked and nodded. Cora went on, "I think I'm the only person she trusts-she could even be suspicious of Cisco."
"What'd she look like?" Frannie asked, as she put food wrappers and napkins in a bag and crumpled it.
Cora looked out into the sanctuary as she pictured Meg, watching her walk from the woods. "She was pretty. Neat. Dressed in clothes from the period. I thought she looked dazed, not quite present, you know? But with flashes of awareness."
"She's not telling you enough. These short answers and messages on your computer, it's not enough. She needs to explain better. She needs a blog," Frannie said.
Her comment broke the tension and got them laughing.
"Whole thing don't make much sense," Frannie went on. "This Angel or Meg, whoever, she's one confused ghost, you ask me. Course she don't make sense because spirits don't always make sense, that's a regular thing with spirits. Who knows ghost rules-I sure don't. Every one of those supernatural websites says different things-too much room for interpretation."
"Yeah, well, we have to try," Cora said. "Too bad I couldn't give Father McGrath's books to you, Frannie. I'm afraid Angel might go nuts if she sees me touch them."
"I looked at them," Cisco said hesitantly, avoiding Cora's eyes.
"You did?" Cora exclaimed, lifting her eyebrows and turning to him. Of all people, Cisco was the last person she'd expect to investigate spirits. But he had a sharp instinct for honing in on practical information, and considering his reluctance, she was interested in his take on the books.
"I have to admit I found some interesting stuff-along with a lot of garbage-sorry." He picked up the remains of their lunch and got up to put it in a waste basket, stopping by Frannie's chair and addressing her. "Have you been able to understand how Angel can communicate, what her so-called powers are, and where she 'is' so to speak? Don't we need to know that if we're trying to manage her?"
He had the women's attention. "Think about it." He waved an arm in the air. "She's gone from messing with little things, like paper clips, to flinging around file cabinets, she materializes as an apparition, then backs off. We think she's bound to our house, but Cora saw her at the cemetery." He sat back down, continuing to wave his hands for emphasis as he talked. "There's no consistency-shouldn't we try to explain that?" He held both hands, palms upward.
Frannie rubbed both hands on the table and wiggled in her chair, anxious to give an opinion. "What I think, we should decide if Angel has attached herself to a person, namely Cora, or a place."
"She must be attached to Cora, because she followed her from house to house and to her workplace. I saw that myself," Cisco reasoned, giving Cora a glance to see if she noticed his admission.
"But she doesn't seem to know what we do here, yet she does know what happens in your house." Frannie put her elbows on the table and pointed a finger in the air. "We know that because she only reacts to things she could find out at your house, but not to things we talk about other places. Like she didn't react to the diary until Cora brought it into the house. Now we know she's at Saint James too. We would expect that, since she died there-violently, which is important to spirits."
"To make it more confusing, the books say spirits can be in more than one place at the same time," Cisco added.
That stopped them short. Cora put her chin in her hand and stared across the room, Frannie scratched her head, and Cisco drummed his fingers on the table.
"What about when she took revenge on people for Cora? They weren't at the house or the cemetery," Cisco said.
"No, but maybe she didn't go herself. Maybe she sent that old wolf out," Frannie speculated. "Maybe wolf powers are different from Angel powers. Wolves go all over, live outside-could be that wolf goes places Angel can't."
Cora said nothing, making aimless scribbles on a sheet of paper in front of her.
"What I read...spirits need energy from some source to do anything. They feed on someone's energy, or send it back to affect their feelings, emotions...even actions. They can even do it remotely, entering their minds...." He gestured, expressing with his hands energy in and out, pointing at his head.
Excited, Frannie interrupted, "Wait! I got an idea-Angel could punish people if she sent negative energy to make them harm themselves or do things that led to disaster. It didn't have to involve the wolf. Angel wouldn't even have to be there to make it happen. That's what I think." She leaned back in her chair with a smug smile.
"The theory is-" Cisco said, nodding, "a spirit has to attract energy to act or materialize, but there's probably not enough to do it fully. The energy source is affected too, so lights blink and mechanical things malfunction when a spirit is around."
"Like computers," Frannie added. "She has energy in your house, and can see and hear there, and do things poltergeists do. That's why she played with your batteries and threw the clock on the floor, for the energy. She uses mechanical and electrical things there, but outside she's limited-she needs more energy from somewhere, or sends She-wolf."
"Or her energy relates to mine...." Cora said, gazing into space. "Which may explain how I know stuff about Angel, with no reason I should know."
Cisco searched Cora's face. "You have more figured out, don't you?"
She met his gaze. "A lot of it, I think," she said softly, hands motionless on the table.
Cisco picked up a pen and tapped it on the table, and Frannie leaned back with her arms crossed, waiting for Cora to explain.
"I think Angel is attached to me. That's how we began, and she followed me from home to home, and to work. She thinks I'm her daughter, and always has, but I don't know why."
She put her hand out to stop an interruption she saw coming from Cisco. "She's also attached to places, not a single place. Our house, which is why she got stronger when we moved to Lemont-she wasn't this strong in our other homes. And she's attached to Saint James, the strongest energy source...which is why she can manifest there, especially if I'm there too."
"So it's not either-or, it's both," said Cisco, nodding. He began flipping restlessly through a stack of papers on the table without looking at them.
"Yes. So she followed me each time we moved, but not until she built up enough energy-it could have taken years. She followed me to work, but once there at first she only had enough energy to do little things, like closing drawers. She affected my life by sending out positive energy, to give me what I thought was a charmed life, to make accomplishments come easy. But it all took time." She stopped talking and took a sip of the soft drink in front of her.
Cisco said, "I bet she didn't have enough energy at the cemetery to materialize and communicate at the same time...that's why she faded in and out. And maybe why her communications are so cryptic too."
Cora took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I think Angel and I share energy-pass it back and forth. We depend on each other-sometimes she supports me, other times I get it from her." She blinked a few times, gazing toward a stained glass window at the end of the room.
"She's doing what a mother would do, trying to give her daughter a good life. Like when Mom needed me to take care of her, and didn't want anyone but me to do it, now Angel needs me, and she's terrified and in a hurry. What I don't know is what changed-what brought this all to a head." She looked over at Frannie. "Didn't you say once that spirits don't have a sense of time? I don't understand this urgency part."
"Listen to me a minute," said Frannie. "I bet this is because she's got too much energy now. You, and the locations, a lot of time building up energy, a lot of emotion and drama, they all come together. They make her real strong." She shook a finger at Cora. "But you got to remember ghosts are confused. All this here sudden strength combined with confusion and terror you're talking about, that's your Angel, and it's made her unstable and vicious too."
"Terror," said Cisco, clearly intrigued by the word. "What's she terrified of?"
Cora chewed on a thumbnail thoughtfully. "I have an idea. The last thing she said to me in the cemetery was 'Over forty years to find you, Darlin'. Can't leave now.' Maybe it relates to that."
Cisco's face turned pale and for once his hands were still. "What are you saying, Hon? Who's leaving-you or her? Do you think she knows something's about to happen?"
"I think she's realized I'm getting old." Cora's voice broke and Cisco covered her hand with his. She wiped tears away and explained. "Angel watched me take care of my mother until Mom died. I don't know who she thought my mother was, maybe an adoptive parent, but she had to know I loved Mom, and hurt along with me. It could have made her realize I'm going to die someday, and she'll be left between worlds, a spirit with no more Darlin'. What will she do then?"
"What did she do during the forty years it took to find you? Go back to doing that?" Cisco suggested.
"She won't want to look for another baby-she thinks she's found hers-me. She doesn't want to accept her baby died, nor will she want to accept it when I die."
Cora met their eyes. "Her motivation, her attachment to earthly life, it falls apart without me. She's scared."
They sat thinking. "If we tell her what she wants to know, it could help her move on, put her at peace," Cora reasoned.
Cisco shook his head. "How do we do that?"
"By solving her murder. She asked me to find out who killed her, remember?" Cora closed her eyes, put her forehead in her hands, and added, "If I can get her to accept the circumstances of her death and that of her husband and baby, and convince her I'm only a substitute, maybe she'll leave the spirit world."
"You think she wants you to find out about the murders now because you're the only one who would care enough to want to do that, before you get too old?" asked Frannie. "Not that I think you're getting old or anything, but who knows what Angel thinks," she added quickly.
"You'd think she'd have a little sympathy for her Darlin' if she thinks I'm getting so old, and not add to my troubles," Cora said with a smirk.
"Well, what do you think?" Cisco asked, looking at them for indications of their opinion.
"I think it's all guesswork, that's what I think!" said Frannie. "What've we got except guesswork, though? Who's got experience with this kind of thing? But it's educated guesswork, considering how hard we've all been working."
Cisco shrugged. "We can try, I suppose. We don't have any other ideas. We should do something." He threw his hands into the air. "Okay, where do we start? Cora? Ideas? You know her best."
"We need a strict safety plan."
"A safety plan. Right," said Frannie. She looked at Cora and blinked. "What safety plan?"
"I still don't believe you're not in danger too," Cisco said.
"But I'm sure. I've met her, remember?" She squared her shoulders and held his eyes. "What I mean is, we can't expect Angel to be logical, and she doesn't trust anyone but me. She won't necessarily believe what I tell her either, like a child with a hand in the cookie jar, but she won't hurt me."
Cora paused a moment to gather her thoughts. "She's not only illogical, she's paranoid. We can't let her get suspicious-so we have to let her know some things, but not stuff that would make her mad."
"Assuming she'll follow you if she has enough energy, she'll follow us here sooner or later. We should think about how we're going to handle that," Cisco said.
"Makes sense. If she's getting stronger, and has a sense of urgency, that could happen soon," Frannie said.
"We'll change it up," Cisco agreed, nodding.
"So let's see if we can figure out who murdered Meg. Here's some stuff to look at...." Cora described the materials she had assembled, showed them the old newspapers, and explained how she listed people and events Packey may have been involved with, hoping to come across clues to who killed him or why.
She read the news articles about the murders aloud. One had an interview with Father Fitzpatrick, in which he described finding the bodies and a wolf lying with them. At first the wolf watched as if guarding the bodies, but then it attacked and he shot and killed it.
"That's the priest Angel confused with Father McGrath. It seems she didn't trust him for some reason." Cora made a note as she said this.
There were no pictures of Meg or Packey, but there was a photo of Father Fitzpatrick and another of the location the bodies were found. The pictures were of poor quality. Cora made two copies of the articles, one to take home, and one for Frannie. The copies would provide ready reference and show Angel Cora was working on a solution. They agreed the articles contained no useful clues.
"I'll finish with the papers-maybe something will click. If not, at least that part will be done," Cora said, and let out a long slow breath. "I'm too tired to do anything else today-I wouldn't be productive...I really don't want to lug all this home...." She swept her hand over the table, pointing out the documents covering it. "I'll have to come back tomorrow and finish."
"Why're you spending so much time with these old papers again?" Frannie asked, frowning. "Why're you so convinced you'll find a motive or a killer in there? Maybe this whole thing's some personal reason nobody ever knew about."
"Two reasons," Cora said, holding up two fingers. "Meg's diary said everyone loved Packey. So why would someone kill him, unless he got in the middle of something important? That could have been in the paper."
"Assuming the killer was after Packey-maybe he was looking for Meg," Cisco suggested.
"I thought of that," Cora admitted, considering. "But don't we still need a motive?"
"Great-motive for some guy a hundred years ago, on top of a motive for Angel acting up. I guess you're making sense, though," Frannie admitted. "What's that second reason now?"
Cora worked her mouth and averted her gaze as she shrugged. "I can't think of anywhere else to look," she admitted.
Frannie and Cisco exchanged a glance. "Works for me," Frannie said, and shrugged too.
"Got to start somewhere," Cisco agreed, nodding and gesturing.
"We probably shouldn't waste any more time reading about spirits, now that Cisco helped with that part," said Frannie. Her eyes sparkled and she was rapidly tapping her foot, clearly excited. "I love solving this old cold case. How about if I track down what they wrote in the Chicago Tribune? That rich Chicago paper-with all their people-could be they have information the local papers don't-experts, interviews, better pictures. I can see what's online and check the library databases. I can find where the archives are and go there. Paper like that must have archives somewhere."
"That's a great idea, Frannie," Cora said.
"What can I do?" asked Cisco.
Cora laughed. "I need you to take care of everything else, so I can spend all my time on this. Isn't that enough?"
"No, it's not enough. I want to do something," he persisted.
Cora thought about it. "You got along with that policeman, Officer Rogers, better than I did. Why don't you tell him you're helping me look into this story for the historical society? Ask him how they'd investigate now, versus what they might have done in 1898. Ask him what he would do if he was trying to solve these murders."
"I love it!" said Frannie. "The three of us should've been detectives for real." She wiggled in her chair and drummed her heels on the floor.
"Uh...maybe there are four detectives," Cora said, looking at the ceiling.
"What do you mean?" Cisco asked.
"Angel," Cora said haltingly, not looking at them directly, as the thoughts occurred to her. "Why do I feel so positive about my ideas that deal with her? Sixth sense? Coincidence? Where are the thoughts coming from? Are they mine or hers? If we're sharing energy, maybe she's in my head, too?"
They started gathering belongings, preparing to leave, silent as they considered Cora's suggestion.
"Wait a minute though, before we go. I got another question," said Frannie, setting her purse back on the table. "You got anything up here that can tell who owned your house way back when? You say Angel's attached to your house some kind of way. Maybe we can clear that up. Why don't you look into that tomorrow too?"
"Actually, yes-we can do it now-it's not hard." Cora started moving around the loft as she rambled on. "That's a good idea, Frannie-I meant to do it, but there's so much going on...it's not the house of course, as we know it was built in 1995-but who owned the land and lived on it back in the 1890s? Let's see...."
Cora moved to an old wooden cabinet with wide flat drawers about two inches tall, and opened them one after another. "Okay now, yes-here's the one I want...." She pulled out a map and spread it on the library table. "This is the Sag area in 1900. We need to find where our house is from landmarks, note the section, etc. It would help if we had our survey, but we'll figure it out...Archer should be on this map-yes, here's the intersection. Now measure out where our house is...here's the section number...where's our house in reference to the borders of that section...." Cora looked up. "Isn't it interesting? These sections were laid out by surveyors before settlers came to the area." Cisco and Frannie exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes. Cora's enthusiasm for historic details escaped them.
"Okay, here we are-where our house is," She pointed to a spot and jotted down some numbers. "Now, we look it up." She walked to a shelf, searched, withdrew a book. "Here's the census data from 1890-it will show names, addresses, and family members. Here, you start looking in this," she said, handing the book to Cisco. She walked across the room and took down another book. "This one has property records for the period. We should find listings in both of these."
The room was quiet as Cisco and Cora turned pages carefully in the fragile books. Frannie leaned over one shoulder, then another. Cora and Cisco both found what they were looking for at the same moment, and their eyes met.
"John and Mary Chauncey," said Cora.
"Living with two daughters, Mavourneen and Sally," said Cisco.
---
When Cora got home, she wanted to rest before dinner, and not think about Angel, Meg, or old murders. She went to wash her hands, grimy after handling the old documents. At the sink, she heard the unmistakable chime that announced Windows was opening. Strange-she had shut the computer down before she left the house that morning, and Cisco hadn't come in yet, out picking up debris that had blown into the yard. She walked into the room, and saw the logon screen displayed. As she watched, although she touched nothing, the password box filled, and the desktop screen appeared. The cursor moved to the task bar and launched Word. A new document opened to reveal a message in large bold font:
What was Packey doing with those books, Darlin'?