Teddy nodded his head slowly. “I think I did.”
I looked at Opie, who was still looking at something else.
Finally, I turned my attention to Cliff and Vivienne. They were speaking calmly, with no flailing arms or adamant stomps. I’d have to grab Cliff and tell him that Teddy still wasn’t putting all the pieces together correctly and he might have said something to Vivienne to set her off, but it wouldn’t hurt for him to see what he could get from her, so I didn’t rush over.
I’d practically forgotten about Gram and all the ghosts, but I remembered them again as I saw Gram trudge through the grassy patch and make her way toward me. I was on the other side of the stage, so I couldn’t see the station, but there didn’t seem to be much light coming from that direction.
“Teddy . . .” Gram began.
“I’m okay, Gram.”
“Opie, he shouldn’t be out yet. Get him home, make him rest,” she said.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Opie said as she settled her eyes on Gram’s.
“They’re gone,” Gram said when Teddy and Opie were out of earshot.
“All of them?” I said.
“Every last one of them, unless you found Jerome,” she said.
“No.”
“Astin was on the verge of remembering what happened to him and then suddenly, poof, they were all gone. The torches were gone and the electric lights came back.”
“Just like that?” I said.
“Just like that.”
“Does it usually happen that way?”
“No, but there was such a strange high energy to these current visits, Betts. I wonder if they didn’t all just use up their juice so quickly that they had to go.”
“Gone-gone?”
Gram shrugged. “I’ve never had a ghost leave so abruptly unless they were going to be gone for a while. Of course, I can’t remember such a short visit as Astin’s either, but maybe I’ve forgotten.”
Forgetfulness: the theme of the evening.
“The letter adventure will have to be completed at another time?”
“Looks that way.”
“We’ll never know what happened to Astin, or how Joe knew him? And Jerome is gone, too?”
Gram shrugged again. “I think so. Maybe they’ll be back someday.”
She patted my arm and then set out to do something other than deal with her grandchildren or the ghosts. She was probably glad to rid herself of us. At least temporarily.
I might have been content to mull over what Gram had said as I waited for Cliff to finish with Vivienne, but Jake interrupted my frustrated thoughts.
“Betts, did I just hear Teddy say something about Esther?” he asked.
I wasn’t fond of these sorts of conversations, but I supposed I owed it to Jake to tell him what I’d heard about Esther. It felt gossipy and unfair, but I didn’t see that I had much of a choice.
“Come on, Jake, let’s head back to that bench,” I said.
Chapter 23
“Yes, she claimed to have been interested in Teddy, and she said that he was just as guilty,” Cliff said.