Page 26 of The Fighter
“It’s okay, I’m sure Jonah and Raven won’t mind helping.”
“All right.” Khan scratched his shoulder. “Magni, one of these days we should have this room cleaned out. It’s like a hoarder lived here or something.”
“Yeah, one of these days.” Magni picked up a few pictures he had found in one of the boxes. It was of him, Khan, and Dina “You think Mom would like this?”
“I don’t think so. Mom doesn’t like to be reminded.”
“Then I’ll keep it for me.”
Khan patted his younger brother on the shoulder. “You do that.”
“And you, Khan? Anything you want to keep?” Magni looked around. “Maybe something that reminds you of Dina.”
“I haven’t forgotten her in the thirty-three years that she’s been dead. I don’t need some object to remember her by now.”
“I know, but these are her things.”
With a sigh, Khan bent down and picked a small statue of a bear. “I’ll take this one. It’s glued together from the time she threw it at me and it hit the wall.”
We heard the two men continue talking as they walked through the large storage room to the exit. “Remember what a temper Dina had? But how could she not, I mean being in our family and all.”
“What did you do to make her so mad that she threw things at you?”
“I can’t remember. I just know our dad glued the bear back together.” Their voices became low as they left the room.
“Hey, Raven.” Mila was packing a box and smiling at me. “Let’s carry this stuff upstairs. I assume that you want to read through the diaries?”
“Yes, of course. I’m all giddy inside with the prospect of doing some real detective work.”
“This was so exciting. We should do it again.” Jonah looked around. “I’ll bet there’s a lot of interesting things down here.”
“Yes, and now that we know you’re willing to sacrifice yourself if something jumps at us, we’ll need to bring you every time.”
I picked up the box with Dina’s diaries and some of the other questionable things that Mila had stuffed in there and I began walking. “Nothing is going to jump out at us down here, unless you count a rat or a ghost.”
“There’s no rats.”
“But there’s ghosts. You told me so yourself, Mila.” I laughed. “And ghosts don’t eat people, so Jonah isn’t going to be very helpful, is he?”
“Ghosts are just residual energy, they’re not going to hurt us.” Mila sounded like she was trying to convince herself.
Jonah frowned and balanced another box. “Who told you that?”
“Laura did.”
“Do people here believe in ghosts?”
“Of course. There’s more to the world than we can see.”
“I know, but surely ghosts aren’t real.”
Mila stuck her tongue out a little in concentration when she balanced the box she was holding on her thigh while trying to turn off the light. “Then how do you explain that we found one little picture among the thousands of things in here? Do you think it was a coincidence or could it be Dina’s spirit who was leading us to that hidden room?”
“I don’t know, Mila, I’m not a superstitious person.”
The two of them chatted about it while I put down my box and closed the door. I didn’t know if ghosts were real, but I sure hoped that the girl who had once lived in this manor had written some clue in her diary that would lead me to her possible murderer.
CHAPTER 8
