Steele (10 page)

Steele nodded. He wasn’t sure that he wanted another tale today, a lie or not, but was pretty sure that he would need this information sometime. And if his grandmother had any part in this, he really wanted to know.

“Your grandmother was friends with everyone. Even those who weren’t in her own social clique. As I said, at one time, before your father and I stepped in, your grandmother was harboring unwedded woman with children on the way. Shameless. Had we not gone in and had her declared incapable of caring for herself, there is no telling what she might have gotten into.” His mother leaned back in her chair and smiled at him. “There were so many of them that it was hard to keep track. And she’d find them jobs too. Stupid bitch had no idea how others were talking about her. But when the city decided to give her an honor for her work, I had to put my foot down. There was no way we’d live it down if it got out beyond our little town.”

“But she wasn’t, was she? She was as sane as…well, as sane as me.” His mother nodded, then laughed. “So Aster and I were not your children, but those of one of the women that grandmother helped. And you had to take us in. Why was that? For punishment of something else?”

“Oh, more than that. You’re your father’s children, but not of my body, thank God. Even back then, before this other mess that we were accused of, your father needed more than I could give him, bless his heart. And he went to the home to get a little action on the side. Why not? It wasn’t as if these women weren’t spreading it for anyone who came around with a dick. This woman—I don’t remember her name—she was more than willing to give it to him. And when she ended up knocked up, your grandmother talked us…blackmailed us…into taking the two of you.”

“Bethany Cartwright. Her name, it was Bethany Cartwright. And she’d been pregnant before her husband was killed in an accident. And had lost the baby due to stress. Her father had thought that helping with the new babies with your grandmother would do her good. It had for a time, until your husband showed up.” Steele looked at Kari when she said the name. There was no way…. Steele looked at his…well, he supposed he shouldn’t have to think of her as Mother any longer.

“Is she dead, Eloise?” She winced at the sound of her name. “Our birth mother, is she dead?”

“How the hell should I know what he did with her? He said that he’d taken care of her. So far as I know, he did just that. We didn’t need her kind coming around and blackmailing us; or worse yet, telling the world that he raped her. We all knew it wouldn’t be true, but you know how people like a good tale. I do know that she never bothered us again.” Steele felt sick to his stomach. They’d killed her. He knew it as surely as he was sitting there. “And when your grandmother found out, she blackmailed us into raising you as our own. Fucking brats messed up everything for us.”

Steele stood up. He had to get out of there or kill her. When Kari stood too, he thought they were finished. But she looked at his mother and smiled. Steele hoped to God she never looked at him that way.

“Aster said to tell you that you’ll die soon. And by her hand.” Eloise pulled back as far as the chain would let her. “You’ll never see beyond these walls, and she and the others will make sure of it. I’m also supposed to tell you that the hauntings before are nothing compared to what you’ll get from them now.”

Eloise was still screaming at them when the guard, who had not said a word the entire time, ushered them out. Even as they walked down the hall, Steele knew that he’d never make it away from there, and detoured into the men’s room when he saw it. Leaning against the locked stall door, he closed his eyes and stood there. His belly was going to empty soon and he wanted to do it privately.

“You had to know.” He stilled when the voice on the other side spoke to him. “I didn’t know until later, but you had to know. There are things…Grandmother said that you would need the information soon, and Mother….Eloise wouldn’t be around much longer to tell you.”

Steele opened the door and stood there staring at his sister. She looked like she did on the day that they’d fought, beautiful and full of life. When she smiled at him, Steele felt tears fall from his eyes as she stood there in front of him.

“Are you still a brat?” Her laughter, so strong and full of life, made him smile. “I’ve missed you so much. Every day I miss you more. I’m so sorry I told you to leave me alone. I regret that as much as I miss you.”

“And I you. But I told you then that our spat never entered my mind beyond our house. I was free for the day. And I simply stepped out onto the street and died. Nothing at all to do with you.” She moved toward him and touched her hand over his heart. The touch wasn’t there, but he did feel the warmth of it. “You love her very much, don’t you?”

“I do.” She nodded and moved back. When she sat on the counter, he came out of the stall to sit on the plastic chair that was near the outer wall. “She’s a great deal like you in the stubborn department. And just as annoying at times.”

“I know, I’ve talked to her a great deal over the last few weeks. She invited me to the bash too. Did you have to marry her in the courthouse?” Steele told her that was what she had wanted. “I know, but I wanted a big wedding for her. She’s wonderful.”

“She is.” He leaned back and smiled. “Aster, you’re not going to kill her, are you? Eloise, you’re not going to kill her for revenge, are you?”

“Nah. She’ll do that on her own. But I’ll be there cheering her on.” She hopped off the counter and stood in front of him. “You’ll have to tell her who Billy is. Kari will need to know.”

“I think she’s figured it out.” Aster nodded. “Did he know that we were his grandchildren before he died?”

“No. The rape happened after he died. He was gone before our birth mother had us. But he knows now. I have so enjoyed getting to know him and Grandmother. Grandmother had known him for years, and when his daughter had lost her child a few months before, it was thought that she’d come to stay with her for a while. She loved it there by all accounts, and was thinking of going to school to become a nurse. Grandmother said she thrived and was coming out of her depression when Father raped her.” Steele nodded as Aster continued. “Her father might have raised us had he been alive, Grandmother told me. But his daughter was told a lie…that we, or you, were born dead. She had no idea that she’d had twins, and left the hospital to disappear just after we were born. We have, Grandfather and I, been trying to find her, but he cannot leave the cemetery. We believe her to be dead. At the hands of Father and…Eloise.”

Steele was going to make it his life’s work to find out where she was and bring her home to them. “Is she around? Grandmother? Is she about so that I can talk to her?” Aster nodded, but told him she wouldn’t leave the cemetery either. “Mitch talks to her a great deal. I only found this out a few days ago. He never said anything.”

“He does. I don’t speak to him much, but he and Grandmother have been friends for a long while. Since he moved into the house with you and the others. You’ll have to go there to see her. Our grandfather too. For some reason they can’t go far.” Steele nodded and stood up. “I’m going to go now, but I’ll be around if you need me.”

“I will always need you.” She smiled at him, and he wanted to hold her just once more. “I never meant for you to get hurt when I sent you away.”

“I know that, silly. And I never hurt. Surprised, but no pain. And I was happy up until the very end. You should think of that instead of me being upset. Because I really wasn’t. How many times did we tiff before? It wasn’t like you shoved me in front of that semi. I simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She put her hand on his chest again. “Would you do me a favor?”

“Anything.” She laughed, and he smiled. “Okay, nearly anything. But if you tell me I have to go and talk to that woman again, I’ll never forgive you.”

“Nah, you’re done with her. No, I was going to ask you to name your little girl Aster. I would love that.” He nodded and said that it would be his pleasure. “Good. I’ve already asked Kari, who I love by the way, and she said it would be completely up to you, but she’d work to convince you.”

“I love you, Aster mine.” She nodded and started to fade away. He called her back before she was gone. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Anything.” He smiled and told her about the other women in the cell with Kari. “You want me to find out who they were?”

“If you can. If not, it’s okay too. But I figure you have some connections.” Aster nodded and told him she had a few. “Come to see me often, all right?”

She told him she would and left him there. As he walked to the sink to wash his hands, he looked down at the single blue aster laying there. He picked it up and put it to his nose. He’d forgotten that she wore this as her favorite perfume for most of her short life. He decided right then and there to plant a field of them in her honor. She’d tell him he was silly and then laugh at him. It was just what he wanted, to hear her laugh again and again.

Chapter 9

Billy paced the small area he’d been confined to. He was nervous and a little afraid. When Aster told him that Steele was coming to see him, he’d nearly told her to cancel the meeting, but hadn’t, and now here he was, a dead man scared to death. Connie cleared her throat and he looked at her.

“He’s going to hate me, he is.” Connie laughed and shook her head. “You do know that I left them to suffer all those years while I lay here wallowing in misery? I should have provided for them better.”

“You know that there was no way you could have done anything from the grave. I told you that at least a thousand times.” He nodded, but it didn’t sit well with him that they had nothing. Well, now that he’d been able to contact someone to help him, things might change. He hoped they might. “You did right by them.”

“I only hope that it works. And why the hell is it taking so blasted long for someone to tell me why it’s taking so long?” Connie grinned at him and he flushed. “I’m a mite on edge.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” He wanted to smack her. He never would, but the urge was there. In his generation, men did not hit women. They loved them with all their might. “He’s coming.” Billy turned to look at the man as he approached them.

He’d grown into a fine man. Billy watched him stride to the little area where he’d been for so many years, and smiled at the sight he made. Steele was a great deal like his name, but there was a bit of his mother in him as well. It was the eyes that held his attention. They were his daughter’s eyes, right down to the flecks of gold in the sky blue.

“Son.” Steele nodded and sat on the ground. Billy wanted to hug him to him, hold his only living relative in his arms once more, and he knew that he’d be able to rest in peace. But he couldn’t, so he sat down across from him. “I’ve done some things for you and that wife of yours.”

“I was contacted this morning.” Billy was surprised by that and must have looked it. “I’m sorry, I thought someone would have told you. But you didn’t have to do that. We’ve enough money as it is. But Kari is excited to go and see the house in Paris. She’s never been.”

“Good. Good. I’ve been waiting, but there’s been no news along the dead line.” It was a joke for most of the dead that came to see him. “I had no way of fixing this before I died. Had I known about you…well, that’s not really an issue, as you weren’t even born as yet.”

“I appreciate it all the same. It’s wonderful of you. And I will put it to good use.” Billy nodded and started to tell him that he needed to give it to him. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to use some of the money to build a home for abused adults. Not just women, though there are a great many of them, but for all people who are suffering at the hands of others. Kari and I would like to call it the Bethany Aster House.”

Billy felt his heart for the first time since it had given out on him years ago. “I’d like that. Very much so. And so would my daughter. If we could find where she’s buried, I’d ask you to—”

“She’s not dead.” He looked at the young man sharply. “I’ve connections too, and they have never heard of her. Not ever. I’ve been looking since I saw Eloise. She’s not been seen as a ghost anywhere.”

“Where is she?” Steele said that he didn’t know. “I thought that they’d killed her as they had the others.”

“Not that I can find. She did give birth at the hospital in town, and was seen twice more there before she disappeared. But as far as we can tell, as there were not any cameras like there are now, she left on her own. Where she went after that, I have no idea, but I’m looking.”

“You’re thinking that opening this house with her name will bring her around?” Steele nodded. “Good thinking. It might help her to know that those monsters are no longer here too. She didn’t deserve this, none of it.”

“No. None of them did. Neither did Aster, nor I. But there are some things you can help me with. Well, Kari and I with. She has it in her head to have you be her helpmate, like I have.”

Billy felt honored until he remembered that he couldn’t leave there. “I can’t leave.” Steele nodded. “I can’t. I’ve tried before and all I came up with was pain, and ended up here.”

“Kari said she summoned you. She felt really badly about that, but she knows how to do it now.” Billy nodded, not really liking where this was going. “She’s going to try it again, if you don’t mind.”

“It’ll hurt me.” Steele stood up and pulled out his phone. “All right, but if this doesn’t work, I don’t want her to be disappointed when she has to come out here and visit me. She’s a fine girl, that one is. Reminds me of your mother somewhat.”

He spoke in the little gadget, and Billy felt the pull. He closed his eyes against what he knew was going to be a great deal of pain and opened them when someone laughed. He looked at Kari, who was sitting on the deck surrounding the big house. And he was right there with her.

“You should have more faith in me than that.” He nodded and moved to the table and chairs, completely forgetting that he couldn’t sit on them. “Are you willing to be my helper?”

“I am, my lady.” He eyed the chair and then her. “You think it’s possible as well? I’ve not had a proper sit down in a coon’s age.”

“Then I would say do it.” He moved to the little thing and wondered if it would hold his weight. In his later years, he’d put on a great deal of it and was ashamed to say that he’d let it kill him off. Instead of watching things as his lovely missus had always told him when she was alive, he’d let himself go. “I’m thinking you’ll have better luck sitting down if you actually do it.”

His hand touched the chair, and he looked at her. Pulling it out, he moved cautiously to it and was surprised and thrilled that he was able to do it. Billy smiled at her.

“I’m supposed to tell you that as long and you and I are together, you can touch things. Small things, but you can do it. Also, we will be able to speak even when you’re not close to me. You’ll be able to move about as well. As much as you like.” He nodded, almost too giddy to take it all in. “I’m so glad it worked for us.”

“I am as well. Did you know that I’d be able to sit in this chair?” She shook her head at him. “I’m going to believe you. I would have hated to have you laugh at me when I fell on my bottom, considerable as it is. So, my dear lady, how will I serve you?”

“Be my friend.” He stared at her for several seconds. Billy had thought she’d have a list of things for him to do. There would have been no stopping him from doing them either, but to simply be her friend was almost overwhelming in how it made him feel.

“I’m already your friend.” She nodded and looked out over the field. Billy turned and looked at the man coming toward them. Steele, his grandson.

“He said that because I died out there that day, I can see you all now.” Billy looked at her. “I can too. A lot of ghosts. Steele said that he calls them clients. But he thinks he should change that now. I’m going to think of something to call them as well. So that others, people who don’t believe in us, won’t have us committed.”

“You’re going to help him then?” Kari nodded. “That will be good for the lot of you. Those other boys, some of them need a break. That young man Drew, I think that man needs to find him something else besides talking to us. And Nick…Nick is sad.”

“I believe they all need a break. Including Ray. Did you know that he talks with his wife?” Billy nodded. He talked with his own as well some days. “We’re going to make arrangements to have all of them live here on a permanent basis. Most of them—Nick, Landon, Hugh, and Mitch—all live elsewhere but are alone despite having a lot of people in their buildings, and only come here when they are going to help someone. Drew and Landon also work together when they aren’t here. They are burning themselves out by working a great deal.”

“You’re going to help them.” She told him with his help. “How do you expect me to help you with other humans? I’m only able to when you summon me, right?”

“No. I think you’ll be able to help us all a great deal, and not just with the dead who need us. The men who are working with Steele can only do so much.” The big man kissed Kari on the mouth and Billy had to smile. He just loved seeing them both happy.

“Carlton told me that once you’re brought from the grave, so to speak, you can be free to move where you want. The bond between you and your summoner can be broken by the living if you mess up. You aren’t planning to mess up are you, Grandda?”

He nearly missed it in his eagerness to tell them that he’d be as good as gold. Billy looked at the two of them and wondered, after all these years, if his daughter would love them as much as he did. He was nearly sure that she would…positive really.

“Grandda, huh? I like the sound of that, I do. And no, I won’t mess up. I’ll do whatever it takes to help you as much as you helped me.” He looked at Kari. “You will use me as more than just a friend, I hope.”

“Some. But I really do need you to be there for me. I never had a parent, much less a grandparent. You’ll be able to come and go as you please. Oh, and we have brought Connie with us as well. She’ll be staying here with all of us.” Billy nodded. He loved that old bird too. She’d kept him sane these last years.

“What is our first job?” Kari looked at Steele, then at him. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“I think you will.” Kari stood up and moved into the house. Billy looked at Steele when he cleared his throat.

“There are others out there that we can help.” Billy nodded. “Not the ones that want revenge, but people who genuinely need help. We want you to guide them to us. It’ll be up to you completely who we help and who we can’t. Grandmother will help you, of course, but she said that you had a way of reading people better than anyone she knew. She has agreed to do as you need her to so long as you’re not too bossy.”

“I’m rarely never bossy.” Steele laughed and he did as well. Billy thought working with these two was going to be a good deal of fun. And if he was really lucky, he’d get to see some great grandchildren in the deal. He decided that the sooner he got started, the sooner he could help a few people himself.

~~~

“It’s been five weeks.” Steele held Kari when she came to him. He knew she was frustrated, they all were, but she was taking it the hardest. “Where the hell is she?”

“I don’t know, love, but we’re looking.” Steele looked at the three men who hovered around the room with them. “Grandda and the others are looking as hard as they can. I’ve even had Donny and Carlton looking.”

“She’s out there. I just know it.” Steele turned her around so that she could see the men as well. Grandda was as frustrated as Kari was, but in a different way. He wanted to find his daughter, that was true, but he hated not being able to help Kari. The man loved her like she was his own child. All of them did. Carlton had said that he’d die again for her. Donny told him just last week that he wished he was still living so he could ask her out. It was hard for him to get upset with the kid. He was only twelve.

Carlton had been an old man when he’d passed away. He’d been found alone and dead in his home some weeks after he’d been dead for a while. The man had had no one to care for him, and when Steele had seen him, he’d been so grateful to have someone to talk to that he’d never been able to get him to leave.

Then they’d found Donny. A drive-by shooting had taken the kid out. Not that Donny hadn’t been as bad as the man who had shot him, but he hadn’t had a lot of parental guidance in his life. His father was unknown to the boy and his mother, or what Donny now called the Oven, had shown Donny how to deal drugs when he’d been no more than seven. He’d never seen the inside of a school, so could not write or read. He had a great deal of common sense, street sense, but he was still a kid and would remain one for the rest of his days as a ghost. But like Carlton and Grandda, he was in love with Steele’s wife.

“I gots me some dirt on somebodies.” Kari put her fists on her hips when Donny spoke. “I have a lead on a person.”

She’d been correcting him every time he said something incorrectly, which by Steele’s estimation was every time he opened his mouth. When he nodded at her and grinned, Kari asked him what he had.

“I watched this here…I was viewing this show one time where this here…this person changed their handle…name. It was something that this chick…this woman was afraid of. I can’t remember the name of the damned thing…darn thing, but there was this guy chasing her to beat the shit out of…chasing her for some reason.” She nodded at Donny, and Steele had to cover his mouth. The kid was going to take forever to tell them this if he was always being careful with what he was saying. “I heard tell of this broad…woman…nice lady that has the last name of Náire. Carlton told me it was Irish for…. What was it again, Carlton my man?”

“Shame. It’s the Irish word for shame. I do believe the young woman is hiding too. When young Donny here took me to see her, she had the most amazing aura around her, and it was all fear.” Steele had explained to Kari that, like the men in the house, some of the ghosts had different things they could do. Carlton could read a person’s aura. Donny? Well, they were still working on that one.

“And she looks like that picture in the hall.” Donny moved to the hall and they all followed. “Spitting image of her. I mean, all the way down to her eyes. They have them flecks of gold in them just like this here Mr. Steele has.”

“This here is not necessary to that sentence. And where is she and when did you find her?” Donny looked at Grandda, who looked slightly embarrassed. Kari asked him what was going on.