“Excuse my husband,” Lyla cut in. “He can be a bit… abrasive.”
“But I’m right,” Richard replied.
“Yes,” Lyla agreed. “You don’t have to be so blunt though. The poor things are probably scared to death.”
“We were murdered,” Richard said. Lyla reached over to cover the children’s ears, as if she could protect them from their fate. They scurried away from her, curious to see and hear the exchange. “Someone poisoned our children and shot us. They brought our bodies into the woods and…”
Richard looked over at his wife, who silenced him with a glare.
“I’ll bet the wolves ate your bodies, didn’t they?” Kyle taunted.
“Kyle!” Lyla screeched, with a tone that indicated he might be telling the truth.
“What.” He shrugged. “It would be a better death than ours. I wish my body were eaten by wolves. It’s not like I’m doing anything important with it now. That’s pretty cool, and at least they were useful.”
“That’s not important right now,” Richard snapped. He turned to Ezra and Clara with a frightening level of desperation in his eyes. “We were murdered, but you’re still alive. And you’re in danger.”
“In danger?” Ezra asked.
Clara was still frozen. Though the ghosts were right in front of her, she still couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t allow herself to believe it. Ghosts didn’t exist in her world. She was convinced she was dreaming or hallucinating. There had to be another explanation. She couldn’t function until she figured out what that explanation was.
Ezra on the other hand was stunned, but he believed it. He had already acknowledged the existence of ghosts that night when he talked to his father’s spirit. He never fully believed it was a nightmare, so he could more readily accept the family of ghosts hovering in front of him now. So, as Clara’s mind freaked out, Ezra paid close attention. He listened to everything they had to say.
“Yes,” Lyla answered, her voice low but urgent. “We don’t know who killed us, but we suspect it had something to do with the bed and breakfast, so now you may be in danger too. We need your help to get justice. I want whoever destroyed my family to pay for what they did. But in helping us, you’ll also be helping yourselves.”
“But… but Billy died,” Clara said. “We can’t be in danger anymore.” Then, words left her. She was speaking to a ghost. She couldn’t be speaking to ghosts, so she refused to say another word.
“Billy?” Olivia asked as she looked up at her mother. “Did Billy do this to us?”
“He couldn’t have,” Lyla replied. Yet as she looked at her husband, something passed between them that made Ezra believe she wasn’t quite as sure about this as she tried to seem. “Billy was part of the family. He loved us and we loved him. Sure, there were some disagreements, but…”
“Disagreements?” Ezra asked. “What do you mean?”
By then, the family was flickering out of existence. The thought of Billy being behind their deaths had drained their energy even quicker.
“Find who murdered us,” Richard begged, all harshness dropped. “For your sake and for ours.”
The flames returned to the candles, the lights turned on, and Clara sank back against her chair, stunned. Ezra continued eating his dinner. He needed food in his stomach before he could even begin to deal with all this.
38
Something changed in Clara that night. Ezra had been noticing a slow change in her for a couple of weeks now since the scarier stuff started. But that night was the final switch. Clara woke up in a daze, lacking the energy she’d gained once he told her they’d be buying a bed and breakfast. That light that initially drew Ezra to her, that was fueled as they chased after their dream, had dimmed.
Clara looked defeated. She went about her day slower. The passion in her had died a little, and Ezra hated to see it. She was finally getting what she always wanted, but she wasn’t happy. All Ezra wanted was to make her happy.
Everything was getting to her though. Seeing the ghosts had given Ezra some relief. He knew now that his mental health wasn’t deteriorating. The ghosts were real, they knew what they were dealing with. Ezra could accept ghosts and danger; he just didn’t like the unknown. It all made sense to him in a weird way and he could work with that.
Clara had a bit more trouble accepting it. Her whole world had shifted, and she was tired. She regretted buying the bed and breakfast. It wasn’t exactly turning out as she envisioned. She finished her breakfast slowly, then got ready to do more renovating. She was making this house her dream Victorian dollhouse. But it was haunted. That wasn’t part of the vision.
She knew she had to tackle this murder mystery, but she wasn’t even sure where to begin. It was all so overwhelming.
Before she could get to work, Ezra came into the house with two sets of snowshoes.
“What’s this?” Clara asked.
“We’re going to fall in love with this area again,” Ezra smiled. “I don’t like seeing you so unhappy, love. We’re supposed to be creating our dream here, and you were so excited when we started on this journey. I want to see that excitement again. I want to remind you why we love this place and why we wanted to be here. I want to remind you of why it’s worth it.
“We were supposed to spend time with Brittany and Sam today anyway, so I called them up to see if they might want to change up the plans a bit. They agreed to go snowshoeing with us. They said there’s a beautiful trail right by their house that they’ll give us a tour of. You can’t go snowshoeing in the city, which proves we made the best choice in coming here.”
“No, you can’t,” Clara admitted. She laughed, but it quickly died. “But
