Page 55 of Ghost Walk
Jamie squinted at him. “What the bloody hell…?”
“You spend too much time reading those dumb paranormal sites.” Emmett opinioned, trying to sound braver than he looked. “We need to check out the pathways and make sure it wasn’t some vandal or a lost kid or something.” …But he didn’t venture any deeper into the labyrinth.
Neither did Morris, who was equal parts excited and scared. “It wasn’t a frigging kid, Emmett!” He whispered fiercely. “I think it was reallyher. Anabel Maxwell has come to haunt the spot where she died. Shit like this happens all the time! Itoldyou she was real!”
Jamie smiled in delight and ducked back through the hedgerows, returning to the spot where he’d left Grace. Phasing through solid matter was one of the small perks of being incorporeal. It only took him a moment to cheat his way through several hundred feet of maze. “Well, good news and bad news.” He told her calmly. “Bad news: Two of your fellow tour guides are poking about in here.”
She paled. “Oh no! How am I supposed to find anyblood evidence if I’m locked in a jail cell for trespassing?”
“Which brings us to the good news… They think you’re a ghost.”
Grace blinked. “Come again?”
“They think you’re Anabel, haunting the scene of the crime.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She rolled her eyes like the very idea was ludicrous. “Because of the stupid dress? Half the people in Harrisonburg wear costumes! I swear, it’s like this town goes out of its way to hire idiots.”
Jamie arched a brow at her derision. “Ghosts are such a farfetched notion, then?”
“Oh shut up.”
He chuckled. The whole situation had perked him up immensely. “I wouldn’t worry much about the boys. They seem a bit terrified of you, lass.”
“Wonderful. If they get too close, I’ll just yell ‘boo!’” She hissed. “For real, what are we going to do?”
“I find that belittling someone’s tour-guiding techniques is the best way for a ghost to be noticed.”
Grace made a face. “I’m glad you’re finding this so funny.”
“Aye, I really am.”
She deliberately turned on her heel and headed away from him, down another twisty row of vegetation. “Just keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t find me. I’m going this way.” She consulted the map again. “At least, IthinkI am.”
“Following that blasted thing, the only place you’re going is ‘round and ‘round and ‘round in circles.”
“We’renotgoing ‘round and ‘round and ‘round in circles. It justseemsthat way, because everything is all green and leafy.”
“And because we’ve made a loop.” He said dryly. “We’re standing in the same spot we were ten minutes ago.”
She looked around with a perplexed frown. “Are you sure?”
“Very.”
Grace kept walking, just to spite him. “Well, the mapsays that we need to take this path, so I’m…” She broke off mid-word, realizing that Ned’s useless instructions had led them right into a dead end.
Jamie snorted in amusement. “At this rate, youwillwind up a ghost in here. The teenage tour guides will find your poor skeleton, miles from the entrance and still clutching that so-called ‘map’ in your wee bony hand.”
“You can stop talking now.” Grace backtracked, a frustrated expression on her face. “Go check to see where they are. I don’t want to be arrested today.”
Jamie blew her a kiss and headed off to spy on the other guides again. As funny as the whole thing was, he wasslightlyconcerned about the boys being alone in the maze with Grace. They seemed harmless enough, but, after yesterday, he was anxious about the intentions of other men. He was useless in a fight and there were only so many times a menstrual cramp spell would work. It would be better for everyone if they just went away.
When he rejoined the two of them, they were approximately three feet farther down one of the pathways, still bickering about the best course of action.
“We should call Anita down here to deal with it.” Morris was arguing. “That fascist bitch is head of the tour guides. Fuck knows, she tells us enough thatshe’sthe boss.Sheshould be the one to deal with emergencies, right?”
Apparently, he was no fan of Grace’s employer either. That raised Jamie’s opinion of the boy. He wasn’t forgetting how unkind Anita had been to Grace when she was wounded. The girl really did need a new job. And Anita needed a good ass-kicking.
“And let her get all the credit?” Emmett shot back, fiddling with the camera app on his phone. “What if this is a real ghost, huh? If we could get a picture of it, do you know how many hits we would get? We’d be internetroyalty! You just want to hand that kind of fame over to Ms. Beauregard-Smythe?” He scoffed at the very idea. “What the hell would she evendowith it?”
