Ghost Memories Part 4

"Lights."

"Lights? They're everywhere, and trust me, I can remember when they weren't," Bartholomew told her.

"No! There are lights on in the entry at the old Beckett museum. My My museum." museum."

"You don't officially own it until Sat.u.r.day, or so you said."

"Right, I have a meeting at the bank on Sat.u.r.day-Liam is going to come and help me-and I sign the final papers, but..."

There shouldn't have been anyone in the museum. Craig Beckett had pa.s.sed away at eighty-eight almost a year ago, a dear man, one who might have lived forever. His health had been excellent. But his life had existed around a true love affair. When Leandra, his wife of sixty-plus years had pa.s.sed away, he had never quite recovered. He hadn't taken a pistol to his head or an overdose of prescription medication, he had simply lost his love for life. Liam Beckett, a friend of Katie's since she had come back-they hadn't been friends before, since Liam had graduated high school before she had started-had been the a.s.sumed executor of the estate, and he'd planned to tear the museum down rather than invest in repairing it. The place hadn't been open in years; Katie had loved it as a child, and she had long dreamed of reopening it. She had talked Liam into agreeing. David Beckett, Liam's cousin and co-executor of the estate, hadn't actually corresponded about the matter yet. He'd been working in Africa, Asia, Australia or somewhere far away for the past few years, and Liam was convinced that David wouldn't care one way or another what happened to the place. It was unlikely he would remain in the Keys if he actually returned at all. Since David had left, almost ten years ago, he had never wanted to come home.

His former fiancee, the great love of his life at the time, even though she had left him, had been murdered. Strangled. She was left there, in the family museum, posed in position as the legendary Elena Milagro de Hoyos.

He'd been under suspicion. He'd had an alibi-his grandparents. That alibi had made some people suspicious. After all, what would his grandparents say? But he hadn't run; he had waited through the beginning of the investigation, he had stayed in town until the case had gone cold and then he had left, never to return.

Katie knew that some people thought that he should have been further investigated. She remembered him, but just vaguely. He'd been a big high-school sports star down here. Sean, her brother, had also loved sports. He was older and knew David Beckett better.

Curious, Katie crossed the street. It was quiet; streetlamps illuminated the road itself, but here on Simonton the revelry taking place still on Duval was muted and seemed far away. She stared up at the building that housed the Beckett family museum.

Originally, she knew, it hadn't been chosen for any historical reason. The house was built in the late eighteen-fifties by Perry Shane. Shane had deserted it to fight for the Federals back in his native New Jersey. For years afterward, the house had just been one of many old places that needed work. The Beckett family had purchased it in the twenties because it had been cheap, a seventy-year-old fixer-upper. Now it was one of the grand dames of the street, mid-Victorian, boasting wraparound porches on both the first and second floors, and around the attic garret, a widow's walk. Kate didn't think anyone had ever really been able to see the water and incoming s.h.i.+ps from the walk, but it had been a fas.h.i.+onable addition to the house at the time it had been built.

Once, it had offered six bedrooms on the second floor and two in the attic. Downstairs had been the parlor, library, dining room, office and pantry. The kitchen had been out back about twenty feet away. There was also a carriage house. Now, when you entered through the front door, the gate and turnstiles were positioned there. The tour began on the second floor and wound around through the rooms, brought visitors down the servants' stairway to the first floor and then around once again, back to the front.

"What are you doing?" Bartholomew demanded, following her.

"I want to know why there's a light on," Katie said.

"Because someone is in there. And you don't own it yet. It could be someone dangerous."

"It could be frat boys on a lark, and I'm getting them out of there before they do damage to the place. Craig Beckett might have closed it down a few years ago, but it still has all of the exhibits in place," Katie said.

"What if it's not a frat boy?" Bartholomew protested.

"Katie, don't go in there."

"You're with me. I'll be fine."

"Katie! Awake and see the sunrise, la.s.s! Me-ghost. I love to remember the days when I was strong and tough and could defend a girl with certainty and vigor. If you get into real trouble because the place is being pilfered or plundered by a criminal-"

"Bartholomew, what thief turns on the lights?" Katie demanded.

Bartholomew groaned. "A drunk one? Katie-!"

Bartholomew groaned. Katie had jumped the low white-picket gate that surrounded the place.

"Katie!"

"What?"

"Murder, murder most foul!" Bartholomew cried.

He'd always been fond of quoting and paraphrasing Shakespeare.

"Murderers do not turn the lights on!" she tossed over her shoulder in return.

"How do you know?" he demanded She ignored him and walked up the limestone path that led to broad steps to the porch and the door.

She felt him close behind her.

Was she crazy? No! This was about to be her place, and she could speed-dial the police in two seconds. She wasn't going in with lights blazing; she would see what was going on by lurking in the darkness. She knew the place.

At the door she paused. She reached for the k.n.o.b and as she did so, the door opened, creaking a bit, as if it had been pushed by a sudden wind.

"I did not do that!" Bartholomew whispered.

She shook her head impatiently and stepped in.

The once beautiful hardwood floors did need work, she noticed. Workmen had been in and out through the years, and their boots had done some damage. The gate area still boasted an old-fas.h.i.+oned cash register, but the mahogany desk, where an attendant sold tickets, was beautiful. It had been bought from an auctioneer and had once been the captain's desk in an old sailing s.h.i.+p. The swivel chair behind it was equally old, handsome and still comfortable. Katie was familiar with everything; she had walked through with Liam Beckett just a few days earlier.

The light that she had seen from the street had come from the entry. It was the muted light of the foyer's chandelier, and it cast a gentle glow over the place.

Katie opened her mouth, about to call out, but she didn't. She chose not to twist the turnstile-the noise here would be like an explosion. She sat atop the old mahogany desk and swung her legs around, then stepped to the other side.

Looking up was eerie. Figures of Papa Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline, were posed coming down the stairway. They had always been a big hit at the museum, with eighty percent of those going through the place having their pictures taken with the pair.

"Don't you dare go up those stairs," Bartholomew commanded sternly.

Katie almost smiled, grinning at him. "Bartholomew, you're scared. A ghost can't be scared. My G.o.d, Bartholomew. You were a pirate."

"Privateer. My boat was authorized by the government," Bartholomew corrected irritably. "And don't be ridiculous, I'm not frightened. Yes, wait, I am frightened for you, foolish girl. What is the matter with you? I know your family taught you better. Innocent young ladies do not wander into dark alleys."

"This isn't a dark alley."

"No, it's worse. You can get trapped in here."

"I'm not going upstairs," she a.s.sured him.

She walked to the side, realizing that she was going in the wrong historical order. She wasn't going up the stairs; she just wanted to see what was going on.

"Katie," Bartholomew warned, following her.

She turned and stared at him. "What? I'm going to be scared silly? I'm going to see ghosts?"

"Ghosts will seldom hurt you. Living people, bad people, criminals, rapists, murderers and thieves-they will hurt you," Bartholomew said sternly.

"Just one more minute... We'll check out the downstairs, and I'll call the cops. Or Liam. Liam is a cop. All right? I just don't want to cry wolf."

"What?"

"I don't want to create an alarm when there's no need. Maybe Liam was here earlier and left the light on."

"And the door open?" Bartholomew said doubtfully.

Katie shrugged.

She walked to the left, where the tour began once visitors reached the first floor. The first room offered one of Key West's most dramatic tales-the doll story. As a little boy, Robert Eugene Otto had been given a very creepy doll, supposedly cursed by an angry family servant who knew something about voodoo. Robert Eugene Otto became obsessed with the doll, even naming it Robert, after himself. Robert the Doll moved about the house and played pranks. In later years he drove the real Robert's wife quite crazy.

From the somewhat psychotic, the history in the museum became sad and grimly real with a memorial to the sailors who had died aboard the battles.h.i.+p Maine Maine when it had exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898. The museum's exhibit showed sailors working on the s.h.i.+p. From there, curtains segued into an area where dancers moved about at the Silver Slipper. World War I came and went. Prohibition arrived, and bootleg alcohol made its way in an easy flow from Havana to Key West. when it had exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898. The museum's exhibit showed sailors working on the s.h.i.+p. From there, curtains segued into an area where dancers moved about at the Silver Slipper. World War I came and went. Prohibition arrived, and bootleg alcohol made its way in an easy flow from Havana to Key West.

A pathway through the pantry in back led around to the other side of the house. It was dark, with little light from the glow in the foyer seeping through. Papa Hemingway made another appearance as 1931 rolled in and Pauline's uncle bought them the house on Whitehead Street as a wedding present.

Katie knew what she was coming up to-the exhibit on Count von Cosel and Elena de Hoyos. Just a small piece of the museum, really, in a curtained sector through an archway. It had always been a popular exhibit. Until, of course, the re-created figure of poor Elena had been replaced by the strangled body of a young Conch woman. The beginning of the end.

People liked the bizarre, the romance and even the tragedy of history, but with this event fear had suddenly come too close. It was one thing to be eccentric in the Keys.

Real violence was not welcome.

There was more, she thought, so much more, to the museum. It was sad, really, that the story got so much attention.

There was fun history. Sloppy Joe moving his entire bar across the street in the middle of the night, angry over a hike in his rent. Tennessee Williams, working away at La Concha Hotel, penning the words of his play A Streetcar Named Desire. A Streetcar Named Desire. Another war, soldiers and sailors, the roadblocks that caused Key West to secede and become, if only for hours, the Conch Republic. Another war, soldiers and sailors, the roadblocks that caused Key West to secede and become, if only for hours, the Conch Republic.

The rest of history paled beside the story of von Cosel and Elena. So it had always been.

Morbid curiosity. Had he really slept with the corpse? Ooh, Lord, disgusting! How?

Katie knew the story, of course. She'd heard it all her life. She'd retold it at college a dozen times, with friends denying the truth of it until they looked it up on the Internet. It was tragic, it was sad, it was sick, but it always drew people.

As it had tonight. She put her hand out to draw back the curtain leading to the exhibit.

"Don't, Katie, don't!" Bartholomew whispered.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

She was suddenly terrified that she would draw back the curtain-and stumble upon a corpse herself.

And yet...

She had to draw back the curtain.

She did so, and screamed.