If Catfish Had Nine Lives(101)

            “Excellent. Good to not see you again, Jerome.”

            Jerome laughed, the anxiousness I’d heard in his tone now mellowed, most likely because we’d done what he said and were quickly on our way. “I like him, Betts.”

            “He likes you,” I said.

            “I like him, too, especially if he shows us Astin Reagal’s remains.”

            Jerome laughed again. “He drives a hard bargain.”





Chapter 25




            “I’ve at least figured out the general vicinity of where the remains were located,” Jerome said. “I don’t understand why it became such an obsession for me, Isabelle, but it did. More important than you, than the memories I’ve had of Elsa, I’ve felt the undeniable need to find this man’s bones. I’ve been looking since I left the campsite last night. I’m sorry you thought I’d left to go—well, left to wherever I go when I’m not in Broken Rope.”

            “You were MIA last night when another ghost showed up. Astin Reagal himself. I think he and the other ghosts did leave.”

            Jerome huffed an ironic laugh. “That figures. I can’t stop looking for his remains and he showed up when I wasn’t there.”

            “I doubt he could have helped much. He wasn’t there long and his memory was still pretty weak.”

            “I couldn’t have abandoned my search even if I’d wanted to. I was compelled to be where I was.”

            I nodded and looked in the rearview mirror. Jerome’s attention was focused outside the car, off to the left.

            “Where should we look, Jerome?” I said.

            “Out there.” Jerome pointed toward the east, the left. “Out toward my old farm.”

            Before now, I’d never considered visiting the site of Jerome’s old farm. I’d never even asked about it. I didn’t know what might be left of it, but initial appearances told me that nothing was left.

            “It’s been unused for a while, right?” I asked.

            “I think since I farmed it, but I can’t be sure.”

            “No farm, Jake. Just land,” I said.

            “I thought as much,” he said as he leaned forward and looked out toward the wide open space that was somewhat woodsy with trees, but mostly just covered in tall grasses.

            “Should we go look?” I said.

            “Yes, but first I need to tell you something. A story of sorts,” Jerome said.

            I conveyed the comment to Jake and told him I’d share the story as soon as Jerome finished.

            Jerome began. “You said not long ago that the rules for ‘your’ ghosts keep changing. I think this is another one of those changes.”

            “Uh-oh.”

            “It’s not too bad. Really. It’s just something new and different, and frankly, not about you at all.”

            “Okay.”

            “Strange things always happen, right? I mean, life is full of surprises, and even mysteries.”

            “That’s true. So is death, apparently.”

            “Apparently. Something happened to me, Isabelle, something when I was alive. I only remembered it right before I came to find you this morning. I think it’s what put me in such a hurry. I suppose the incident shouldn’t be too much of a surprise considering the state I’m currently in, but I have a distinct memory that I was haunted when I was alive.”