Chapter 1
Lin Coffin had been sitting at the deck table with her boyfriend, Jeff, for over two hours talking under a jet black sky dotted with sparkling stars. The flickering candle in a glass jar on the center of the table had almost burned down to a stub when the chill night air caused the two young people to shiver and decide to move into Lin’s living room.
The conversation that the two had been having was a serious one and Lin’s stomach had felt like a clenched fist for the entire first hour of their talk. What she had to tell her boyfriend was so unusual that she braced herself for rejection. She had only told two other people her secret, one a young girl she’d thought was her friend who ended up blabbing the news to their entire elementary school causing Lin a terrible year of teasing and bullying. The other person was her cousin, Viv, who took the news with awe and interest and accepted it as a fascinating facet of who her cousin was.
Lin wondered which way Jeff would lean after hearing about his girlfriend’s special “skill.” Since before she could talk, Lin Coffin could see ghosts.
“Let’s go inside.” Jeff stood up and reached for Lin’s hand.
Lin wiped her clammy hand on her jeans before placing it in Jeff’s. “My hands have been sweating the entire time we’ve been talking.”
Jeff smiled and wrapped Lin in his arms. “I wouldn’t be much of a boyfriend if I couldn’t accept your, ah … ability.” Jeff had listened intently to Lin’s experiences and he sprinkled her telling with an occasional thoughtful question.
He led her from the deck to the small sofa in the living room of her Nantucket cottage where they continued their chat sitting close together, side by side. It would have been a romantic setting except that Lin’s little brown dog, Nicky, had wedged himself between them.
“Gee, Nick,” Jeff said to the friendly creature as he placed his arm over Lin’s shoulders. “Who needs a chaperone with you around?”
The dog wagged his tail and licked Jeff’s cheek.
After another hour of talk and questions, Jeff sat pensively for several minutes.
“Do you have more things you’d like to ask?” Lin squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. You can ask me anything you want.”
“It’s not that.” Jeff had a puzzled or confused expression on his face that Lin couldn’t read.
“You know that job I’ve been working on recently? I’m doing finish work at the old mansion that my buddy, Kurt’s, construction company has been renovating.”
Lin nodded and looked at Jeff with interest.
“The woman who owns the house, the other day she told me something while I was working. I blew it off at the time. Now, I don’t know.”
“What was it that she said?” Lin wondered if her revelation about ghosts had something to do with Jeff’s comments.
“It was odd.” Jeff smiled, but then when he looked at Lin, his smile faded. “She didn’t say too much, but now that I think of it, my reaction probably squashed her interest in telling me more.”
Lin cocked her head waiting for her boyfriend to reveal what the woman told him.
Jeff ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. “I was dumb. I kind of chuckled when she talked about what she’d seen. I shouldn’t have done that. I feel really bad about it now.”
“Jeff.” Lin was getting impatient. She gave him a playful poke in the side. “What are you going on about? Tell me what she said.”
Jeff hugged Lin’s shoulders. “Sorry. The whole thing is running through my head now because of what we’ve been discussing. The woman who owns the house I was working on, her name’s Mrs. Perkins, she came in to see the changes and updates that are being made to the place. She’s been staying in a house that’s three doors up from the one we’re working on. She owns both places. Mrs. Perkins is staying in the other house while the construction’s going on. The house is right near the Founders Inn and Restaurant.”
While listening to Jeff, Lin ran her hand over Nicky’s soft brown fur.
“So while I was working, she struck up a conversation with me. She asked about my experience, if I was born on-island, do I work on a lot of old houses, things like that. We were having a pleasant chat although I have to admit that I was a little distracted from the discussion because I was focusing so keenly on making the proper cuts and fittings.”
“What bothers you about what she said to you?”
“She told me about something that happened in the neighborhood and then she asked me if I believed in ghosts. She asked in a joking sort of way.”
“What did you say?”
“I chuckled and told her that many people claim that lots of houses on the island are haunted.”
Lin winced at the word.
“Did I say something wrong?” Jeff asked when he saw Lin’s reaction.
“No, not really. I’ve just never liked the word ‘haunted.’ It probably stems from being teased as a kid.”
“What should I use instead?”
Lin smiled at Jeff and her heart warmed at his thoughtfulness in wanting to use the vocabulary that she preferred when talking about spirits. “Use whatever suits the situation. It’s okay.”
“So, Mrs. Perkins asked me if I’d ever seen a ghost.” Jeff sighed. “I told her no, but you know what? I think I did see one once when I was really little.”
Lin nearly jumped out of her skin. “What? You did?” The excitement in her voice caused Nicky to lift his head and woof. “It’s okay, Nick.” Lin looked at Jeff. “You saw a ghost?”
“Well, it was only the one time. I never saw anything like it again. My sister, Dana, and I were playing in her room. It was probably midnight and we were supposed to be asleep. I was little, maybe three or four years old. I felt chilly and looked up to see a man dressed in old-fashioned clothes sitting in the rocker by the door. He was just watching us play. He gave me a kind smile. Dana looked up and waved at him.”
“Dana could see him, too?” Lin stared at her boyfriend. Never in a million years would she have thought that Jeff and his sister had an experience with ghosts.
Jeff nodded. “We went back to playing. When I looked up again, the man was gone. Neither of us felt threatened or frightened. We thought nothing of it. It seemed fine to have the man there. We mentioned it the next morning at breakfast. Our mom stared at us. I remember it distinctly, the expression on her face. She wasn’t pleased. I almost felt like we had done something wrong. My mom told us that there’s no such thing as ghosts and she turned away.” Jeff gave a shrug. “I never saw a spirit or a ghost or anything like that ever again. I haven’t even brought it up with Dana since that day. Odd, huh?”
Lin shook her head. “I’ve read that lots of little kids can see ghosts, but the reaction from whoever they tell is often negative so they stop seeing them.”
“You didn’t stop though.” Jeff’s facial expression was pensive as he tried to understand why Lin continued to see spirits even though she had been bullied about it as a kid at school.
“I guess my ability is stronger than most people’s. After being teased at school, I didn’t want to see spirits ever again and they left me alone for twenty years. It’s when I came back to Nantucket that they started making appearances again.” Lin sighed. Sometimes she wished the ghosts would just leave her alone, but then she’d feel guilty for thinking that way because sometimes they needed her help … and Lin was determined to use her skill to make things better.
“Why do you think they started to show themselves again?” Jeff asked.
“Maybe because they think I can handle it now that I’m older?” Lin rubbed her finger over her heirloom horseshoe necklace that once belonged to an ancestor who could also see spirits.
“That could be.” Jeff gave a shrug of his shoulder. “Funny, I hadn’t thought of seeing that ghost-man for ages.” He smiled at Lin. “I guess if you live on the island, you will most likely encounter a spirit at some time or another.” Nantucket had a reputation as a place with many ghosts and apparitions.
Lin took Jeff’s hand. “When Mrs. Perkins talked to you, did she mention actually seeing a ghost?”
“She didn’t come out and say it, but I think that’s what she was hinting at. Maybe I’m wrong and I’m misinterpreting the whole thing.” Jeff frowned. “Now I feel really bad for being so glib about it with her.” He pushed himself straighter on the sofa. “Mrs. Perkins told me about a strange experience she had a couple of days ago. She said that the other night she woke up from a sound sleep and heard noises outside her window. She got up and looked out. There was a group of men moving heavy cartons out of the back door of the restaurant at the Founders Inn that’s near her house. Mrs. Perkins could see the men from the second floor bedroom window.” Jeff looked at Lin. “Mrs. Perkins told me that there was something about the way those men looked. She said they just didn’t look right.”
“How did she mean?”
“I thought she meant they looked drunk. Now, I think she might have meant something else.”
“What happened then? Did the workers go away?”
“Mrs. Perkins said the noise went on for two hours with the men shouting and laughing and dragging heavy containers over the dirt of the back lot. She was so annoyed that she called the police.”
Lin wanted to ask a million questions, but she resisted.
“Just before the police arrived, the men hid in a gulley next to the restaurant’s rear lot. Mrs. Perkins said the police got out, swiped their flashlights over the lot, and then got back in their cruiser and drove away.”
“Was that the end of it?”
“No. She said the men came back and started the whole thing up again. Mrs. Perkins watched them until dawn. This is the part that got me thinking. She said that she felt transfixed by the goings-on. She thought about calling the police again, but she couldn’t bother to move away from the window.”
“Huh. Did the men just drive off then when morning came?” Lin asked.
“Mrs. Perkins wasn’t sure. She had fallen asleep. She said she woke up mid-morning on the floor next to the window.”
Lin blinked. “How very odd.”
“While she was telling me this, one of the other workers called Mrs. Perkins into another room. As she walked away, she muttered again that those men just didn’t look right. It kind of gave me a chill.”
Lin gave a nod and took in a deep breath. I bet those men didn’t look right because they’re dead.
Chapter 2
Lin and Viv sat hunched forward at a table in the back of the bookstore café. Viv had taken a few minutes from the morning rush to hear what had gone on when Lin talked to Jeff the previous night. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe you told him.” Viv’s blue eyes were like saucers. “Once you decided to tell Jeff about your, um … skill, I thought you’d worry over it for weeks before you actually talked to him about it.”
“It was a spur of the moment decision. I was tired of hiding it from him. It just seemed like the right time to do it.” Lin was dressed in jean shorts, a tank top, and work boots. She’d stopped into Viv’s bookstore before heading off to her landscaping jobs to tell her cousin in person that she’d revealed to Jeff her ability to see the ghosts. “I was a nervous wreck. Just thinking about it now makes me start to sweat. When I started to tell him, I felt dizzy, almost like I was about to faint, but I couldn’t stop once I started the conversation.”
“Well, right.” Viv nodded. “You can’t start a discussion by saying ‘Oh, by the way, I can see ghosts’ and then change your mind about talking about it.” Viv leaned forward. “Wow, I can’t believe how well he took it. It’s a relief, isn’t it?”
“It sure is.” Lin fiddled with the ends of her long, brown ponytail. “Jeff mentioned that there are lots of reports of ghosts on the island and more people than we suspect have probably come across a spirit at least once in their life. He’s right, I bet.”
Viv pouted, feeling left out. “I haven’t seen one. Ever. And I’ve lived on-island almost my whole life. And I have Coffin and Witchard ancestors, too.” Both cousins were descended from some of Nantucket’s early founders, and some of those ancestors had special “skills.”
“Give it time.” Lin smiled. “You’re bound to run into a ghost eventually.”
Nicky sat with Viv’s gray cat, Queenie, in an upholstered chair off to the side. He looked over at Viv and gave a happy little yip.
“Nicky agrees.” Lin glanced around the café. “Do you have a few more minutes? I want to tell you something that Jeff told me last night.”
Viv turned her head and raised her index finger to indicate to her employee, Mallory, that she’d be back to work the beverage counter in a few minutes. “Make it fast or Mallory will have my head.”
Lin told her cousin about the men who Mrs. Perkins recently saw working all night long at the back of the inn-restaurant, how the police came by but didn’t stay long, and how the woman felt transfixed by the late-night activity. “And,” Lin narrowed her eyes. “Mrs. Perkins mentioned several times that the men just didn’t look right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? They didn’t look right?” Viv took a quick look over to the customers queuing in front of the counter and then turned back to her cousin.
When Lin paused for several moments, Viv’s eyebrows shot up. “What are you thinking?”
“I think those men are dead.”
Viv sucked in a fast breath. She still wasn’t used to ghosts and spirits and apparitions invading her life via her cousin. “Oh, no. Really? There must be another explanation.” She eyed Lin. “Don’t you think?”
Lin gave a slight shrug of one shoulder.
Viv swallowed. “Well, maybe they’ll go away. It doesn’t involve you. You’re not the one who saw them.”
Lin leveled her eyes at her cousin. She knew full well that something involving those men was going to demand her attention. She could feel it.
“Oh, no.” Viv nervously pushed a lock of hair from her eyes. “What’s this going to be about? Let’s talk about it later. I need to get back to work.” Standing up, she hugged Lin. “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it. At least Jeff knows now.” Heading over to take her place at the beverage counter, Viv looked back. “And he didn’t break off with you over it either.”
Lin smiled at her cousin and as she popped the last bite of her chocolate croissant into her mouth, she sensed someone approaching her table. She turned to see Jeff’s friend, Kurt, walking towards her carrying a take-out coffee cup. “Hey, Lin.”
Lin was still chewing her pastry and could only smile and nod.
“Have you talked to Jeff this morning?” Kurt owned a construction and renovation business and Jeff was often hired to help out on the different projects. “I asked him to talk to you about doing a bit of landscaping at the house we’re renovating. It’s a small yard. It’s just the front and side of the house that needs attention. It wouldn’t take you long. Have any interest?”
“Sure.” A wave of nervous energy flooded through Lin’s body. “You need it done pretty soon?”
Kurt gave a nod. “We’ll be finishing up the renovation pretty soon. You have time to squeeze it in over the next couple of weeks?”
“I think so. I could come by and see what you want done, and then we can talk about the timeline.”
“Great, thanks.” Kurt gave Lin the address. “It’s right in town. Come by anytime. I’m working at the house most of the day.” The man started away. “It’s right next to the Founders Inn and Restaurant.”
Lin’s heart pounded with apprehension.
* * *
All day while she worked mowing lawns, pulling weeds, and planting flowers, Lin thought about the upcoming landscaping job at the house in town right near the Founders Inn and Restaurant. It was the same house that Jeff had been doing renovation work on and where he had met Mrs. Perkins and heard her tale of men toiling late at night in the small lot behind the restaurant.
Pulling her truck to the curb in front of island historian, Anton Wilson’s antique Cape-style house, Lin hoped he might be at home so she could talk to him about the history of the section of town where Mrs. Perkins’s houses were located.
Lin hauled her mower and gardening bag from the truck’s bed and she and Nicky walked around the house to the backyard. The dog shot ahead of her hoping to find Anton sitting on the deck.
“Carolin.” Anton looked up. He held a book in one hand and was leaning to the side in his chair so that he could reach down and scratch the dog’s ears with his other hand. “Is it gardening day?” Anton was absent-minded and could never remember when Lin was scheduled to work in his yard.
Lin smiled. “Yes, it’s gardening day.” Pushing the mower to the side of the yard and setting down her bag of tools, she stepped up onto the deck and sat down across the table from Anton. The man offered her a cold drink and after some general chit-chit, Lin brought up what was on her mind.
“Why are you wondering about that part of town?” Anton questioned.
Lin told the historian about Mrs. Perkins and what she’d claimed to see going on behind the restaurant the other night. “I’ve been asked to landscape the front and side yards of the house.” She looked pointedly at Anton. “It’s a coincidence, isn’t it?”
Anton looked over the top of his glasses at Lin. “Interesting.” The short, wiry man stood up abruptly and headed for the door to the house. “I’ll be right back.”
Anton knew everything about the island and, more importantly, he also knew that Lin was able to see ghosts. After several minutes had passed, he returned to the deck carrying several books. “The Founders Inn and Restaurant, you say? I haven’t been there for nearly a year. It’s a very small place. Lovely décor and atmosphere. Excellent food and service.”
Lin smiled and waited as Anton flipped through one of the books.
“Could you bring up a map of that area on your phone?” Anton had his nose stuck in the book. “I need to see it in detail.”
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