The Ghost Maker Read online

  “He told you how he died, how Ashe killed him?”

  “Not exactly, he didn’t know he was a ghost, couldn’t remember dying. When he remembered the spider mites, he grabbed my arm, it triggered something. I felt cold all over and then suddenly I was standing in the vineyard and it was nighttime. I was in Miguel’s body, hearing his thoughts. Ashe approached us and Miguel showed him the spider mites. Ashe got mad, accused Miguel of infecting his crops with the rose bushes and then he attacked him. He hit him with a flashlight, a heavy one. I think Miguel was killed or at least knocked out. Then I woke up.”

  Tom nodded. “Ok, and this Miguel wasn’t reported missing?”

  Brandon answered. “No, his father thought he left.”

  “No body has been found?”

  “No.”

  “Ok,” Tom said again. He scanned the vineyard and the buildings. “Let’s start looking. Daphne, do you think you can find the spot where Ashe attacked Miguel?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’ll try.”

  “Is Miguel still around?” Brandon asked. “Maybe he knows.”

  Daphne shook her head, “I don’t see him anywhere. I haven’t seen him since he showed me what happened to him.”

  Daphne wandered past the rows of vines but couldn’t tell one from the other. “They all look the same. None of them looks familiar.”

  “We can ask the men to explore the rows, see if they can find anything unusual,” Tom suggested. “I hate to do that, they may trample evidence, but I can’t call anyone else in to help until we have some evidence of a crime. Other than the word of a ghost.”

  She nodded her head, she knew he was right. She wished Miguel had given her some idea of where he had been. But wait, hadn’t he? She had never made contact with a ghost before, could the connection have given her more information than simply showing her what Miguel had experienced before he died? After all, she had awoken from the vision well away from where contact had been made. “Brandon where did I end up when the connection ended?”

  Brandon took her to a row that started just past the house. “You walked this way and went down this row.”

  Daphne went down the path and glanced around, she stopped when she saw a place where some of the branches had been torn from their trellises. “Here, it looks like there might have been a struggle.”

  Tom told the other men to stay back and joined Daphne. He studied the bruised branches and then searched the ground, moving further up the row. It didn’t take him long, before he crouched down and, using a pen that he pulled out of his pocket, pushed aside some of the branches. “I see a flashlight, it looks like some blood splattered on it.” He saw other things, but he wasn’t going to tell Daphne about the gray matter. “Some blood on the ground too.” He searched a bit longer and then joined Daphne. “I see a trail, like a wheelbarrow came through here.”

  He led the way back out of the vineyard and back toward the house. He walked around to the side and up to where a couple wheelbarrows stood leaning against the wall of the house. He pulled out gloves and put them on before checking each. “Looks like more blood here. I think he moved the body with the wheelbarrow.”

  “But no idea of where he could be buried?” Brandon asked.

  Tom stood up and did looked out across the vineyard that circled the house. “He could be anywhere. I’ll call and bring in the cadaver dogs - and we’ll do a search.”

  Emilio approached addressing Tom, “I might have some information that might help.”

  Tom nodded to the man. “Yes?”

  “For the past week or so, I’ve had to chase coyotes away from the back deck. I thought maybe an animal had crawled under it to hide, but I couldn’t find a hole. I thought it was an animal because of the smell.” Emilio paled as he spoke, realizing the truth.

  “Stay here,” Brandon told Daphne as the men walked the perimeter of the deck. Daphne was a little put out that Brandon was trying to protect her, but remembering how Ashe had attacked Miguel, she wasn’t eager to see what they might find.

  They weren’t gone long. When they returned Brandon was a little green while Tom was pale, but he set his jaw as he made his way to the car to call it in.

  “You found him?” Daphne asked without any doubt that they had.

  Brandon’s color was still a bit green, but his eyes flashed. “Yes. Stuffed in there like trash.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “Tom’s calling it in. He’s getting the ME and a crime scene unit,” Brandon explained. “He’s putting out an APB for Albert Ashe. A lot of good that will do.”

  Daphne heard regret and something else in Brandon’s voice. She wanted to comfort him. “You can’t blame yourself for this. You didn’t know.”

  “I bought the property from him.”

  “You’ve been offering to buy the property from him ever since he inherited it.”

  “Which is why I should have known something was wrong.”

  “Because he finally agreed to sell?” Tom asked, joining them.

  “I knew he was struggling, knew he had made some poor decisions, including his call to delay the harvest to try and increase the harvest. When he called, wanting to sell, I gave him a ridiculously low offer. He took it without haggling. The only thing he demanded was cash up front. I told him that I couldn’t give him the whole amount in cash, I offered him a million in cash and he took.”

  “But you didn’t know why he wanted the money,” Daphne insisted.

  “I should have known something was wrong though.”

  “I assumed his harvest failed and that he finally realized that he was better off taking the money and running,” Brandon said with a sneer for the irony of his statement.

  “Brandon,” Tom said with some force, “I’m not going to arrest you for aiding and abetting a murderer. You didn’t know what he had done and why he was so desperate to leave.”

  “I feel like I should have. I didn’t pay attention to him, I was thinking only about getting this place and adding it on to ours.”

  “Ok, well while you beat yourself up for not being psychic, I’m going to talk to Daphne about what she saw.”

  Brandon gave his friend a sour look, before also turning to Daphne.

  “What do you want to know?” She asked him.

  “Everything. Tell me what you saw, what you heard, everything that lead you to the realization that Miguel was dead and Ashe killed him.”

  So Daphne told the story, from her misunderstanding of Miguel’s intentions to helping him realize he was a ghost. When she started to explain her foray into Miguel’s memory, she faltered. “I’m not really sure what happened. He grabbed my arm and then suddenly it was night time and I was sharing Miguel’s thoughts.”

  “Has that happened to you before?” Tom asked.

  “No, but I don’t make it a practice of getting too close to ghosts. The area around them tends to be cold, freezing. They suck energy out of the air, all of the warmth, so just being near them is uncomfortable enough.”

  “But Miguel grabbed you?”

  “Yes, when I was talking with Brandon and the workers, Miguel heard one of the workers mentioned that Miguel was planning on meeting with Al Ashe the evening Miguel disappeared. It triggered a memory for Miguel and he remembered the spider-mites.”

  “Do you remember who told you about the meeting?”

  “No, I’m sorry, I don’t. I barely heard what he said before Miguel triggered the connection.”

  “I can find out,” Brandon offered.

  Tom nodded. “That would be a good idea. I’m going to need all the common sense reasons for why I searched for and found Miguel’s body.”

  “So why am I telling you about what I experienced?” Daphne asked.

  “Because I need to know the truth, all of it, before I can decide what I can and cannot say in my report
.”

  Daphne sighed, which had Tom taking her hand and looking into her eyes, “You know I believe you, right?”

  Daphne nodded.

  He smiled, squeezed her hand, and let go.

  “So after Miguel dragged you into his memory, what happened?”

  “Like I said, it was nighttime, and he was waiting for someone. Ashe showed up, complaining about missing the Jets game. Miguel reminded him about the outbreak of spider-mites in a nearby vineyard and how they had planted the rose bushes as an early warning system. Ashe became enraged and made them remove the bushes.”

  “Idiot,” Brandon interjected.

  Tom nodded and Daphne continued. “Miguel was eager to show Ashe that he was right, so he showed him the spider-mites.”

  “What did Ashe do?”

  “He was livid. I didn’t know if he was angry at Miguel’s accusation or seeing that Miguel and his father were right. But then Ashe went off, accused Miguel and his father of using the rose bushes to infect the crop. He grabbed the flashlight out of Miguel’s hand and hit him with it hard. Then I blacked out and came to back in the present.”

  “Where did he hit him?”

  “On the head, left temple.”

  “Do you think that blow killed him?” Brandon asked. “Do you think that’s what threw you out of the vision?”

  Daphne shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I could have been knocked out of the vision because Miguel was dead or just knocked out. But Ashe was at least forty pounds heavier than Miguel. He could have killed him with that first blow. Or he could have just knocked him out.”

  He turned back to Brandon, “when did Ashe call you and offer the deal?”

  “Tuesday morning, early, around seven.”

  “From here?”

  Brandon shrugged, “I don’t know, he called me using his cell.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That he needed to sell now because he had to get back to New Jersey for a family emergency.” Brandon paused, “I could tell he was upset, so I assumed a death in the family or something.” He shook his head, “I knew the vineyard was a mess, so I lowballed him, I only offered five million.”

  “And he accepted it?”

  “He wanted it in cash. Said he had to get back to New Jersey immediately and needed the funds. I agreed to give him a million in cash and the rest would be put in his account by Thursday of last week.”

  “Was it?”

  “Of course. It was transferred to a bank in New Jersey. I can let my banker know to provide you with all the information.”

  Tom nodded. “Good, if he’s made any withdrawals, we might be able to track him down. The sale is still valid right?”

  Brandon shrugged. “I think so, can’t imagine why not, but I’ll call my lawyer, let him know what’s happened.”

  Tom turned back to Daphne.

  “In my report I’m going to state that you found the flashlight when you walked over and that you saw what looked like a struggle and blood. I know that isn’t the truth, but it will make more sense.”

  “It does make sense, but Emilio and the others saw me come from a different direction, and they heard me mention Miguel’s ghost.”

  “They also want to keep their jobs, so they aren’t going to say anything that makes you or the family unhappy. I’ll be careful in the questions I ask them.”

  Brandon gently rubbed Daphne’s arm to get her attention. “Daphne, why don’t you wait in the truck while I go with Tom? I also need to speak to Emilio before I leave. I wanted the men to start caring for the vines, but that’s going to have to wait now.”

  Daphne climbed into the truck and watched Tom and Brandon talking with the men. She looked around for Miguel, but didn’t see him. Many of the workers glanced her way before looking away again. She imagined they were afraid of her, afraid of what she saw. She wondered what they thought of her actions that day. To avoid their looks, she pushed the seat back as far as it would go so she could stare at the roof of the cab.

  Daphne had dozed off again, only to be awoken when Brandon climbed into the truck and started the engine.

  “How did it go?” She asked him.

  “Fine. Tom was careful with his questions and no one volunteered anything about Miguel’s ghost. He focused more on when they last saw Miguel and the relationship between him and Albert Ashe.”

  Daphne nodded. That was the basic problem here. Miguel was dead at the hands of Albert Ashe and Ashe had managed to escape.

  Chapter Three

  Reporters pressed against the truck as Brandon drove through the gate, each of them shouting out questions while their cameramen and photographers tried to capture their images. Brandon drove slowly, but purposefully through the mob until they were free. “I guess we’ll be the lead story tonight.”

  As Brandon drove them home, Daphne had questions for her brother. “What happened when I connected to Miguel’s ghost?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what did you see? What did I do?”

  “Oh.” And nothing more.

  “Brandon? Please? I’ve never connected to a ghost before. I need to know what happened.”

  “It was like watching the Exorcist without the split pea soup. That’s really the only way to describe it. At first I thought you were in a trance. You moved like you were sleepwalking. You walked away from us, ignored me completely when I asked you where you were going. It was like you didn’t even see or hear me. You went up one of the rows and we followed. After stopping in front of one of the vines, you grabbed a leaf, turned it over, and just stared at it. You held your other hand up in the air, like you were holding something. Probably the flashlight.” He shuddered.

  “What?”

  “You turned at looked at me, but I could tell you didn’t see me. It was like you were looking right through me. Freaked me out. I almost picked you up to take you to the hospital. But then you started speaking.” He paused again, glancing over to her. “It wasn’t your voice, not completely. It was deeper and it had an accent. Once you started talking, I could tell you weren’t really there with us any longer, I didn’t know where you had gone. All I could do was watch and listen. You terrified me when you fell to the ground, but then almost immediately you were awake again and back to being you and seeing me.”

  “Poor Miguel.”

  “Yeah, but he was stupid. Young and stupid.” Brandon said with real anger. “He should never have confronted Ashe by himself.”

  “You think he got we deserved?” Daphne asked softly,

  “Of course not.” Brandon heaved a sigh as he pulled through the gates of LaVaigne Vineyard. “I don’t blame him, only Ashe. No, I could see why he wanted to show him the spider-mites. There was something about Ashe that made you want to prove him wrong. He was so arrogant, so sure of himself. I have no patience for people like that. Smart people know they don’t know everything; dumb people think they know everything. Ashe was dumb, as dumb as they come. He was out of his element running a vineyard.” Brandon clenched the wheel as he took the road that led home.

  “I got that from Miguel. He was disgusted with Ashe. Disgusted by his lack of respect for Emilio.”

  “I tried to tell him that when he first arrived. Which had been a mistake. He took my comments about his lack of experience and dug in. He refused to sell because that would have been admitting that I was right and he was clueless.”

  Daphne couldn’t argue with that statement. Miguel had been foolish to confront the man alone. “I don’t understand why Miguel thought approaching Ashe on his own was a good idea. Maybe he thought Ashe would be more willing to listen if it was just one on one.”

  Brandon shook his head in disgust. “Ashe is a hot head. Obviously.” He paused before continuing, “He struck out at Miguel out of anger and then hid the body; before calling me. If only I had know
n.”

  Daphne watched the LaVaigne Chateau come into view. The sight of the regal building shining gold in the afternoon sun welcomed her. It had been her home for most of her life as it had been home to generations of LaVaigne’s. Their ancestor had left his family’s estate in France over a hundred years ago in order to carve out his own fortune in the New World. He had helped build Napa Valley into what it was today. She loved the stone and elegance of the building, too large to be called a house but not so large that it wasn’t welcoming. It offered more rooms than were needed, ready to house any and all members of the LaVaigne clan.

  Currently only her brother, her uncle and his husband called the Chateau home. Her Uncle Steven handled the business end of the winery while Brandon focused on the winemaking. Reg, who married her Uncle in the vineyards as soon as gay marriages were allowed, was a well-known artist who had a studio on the property and in San Francisco. Her parents stayed in the Chateau when they weren’t traveling, while her sister, Ariana, had her own house in San Francisco. She herself lived in Palo Alto, close to Stanford where she was studying. Everyone was at the Chateau this week, Thanksgiving was the only time of year they all made an effort to be together. Right now, she would have preferred the house to be empty.

  “What do we tell everyone?” Daphne asked Brandon as they left the garage and headed toward the house.

  “The truth, its going to be on the news in less than three hours.”

  They entered through the empty kitchen and continued on into the main part of the house. Daphne could hear voices coming from the family room, but Brandon stopped her before she reached the entryway. “You should probably change.”

  Daphne glanced down at her muddy and torn clothes. “Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting. I’ll run up, shower and change and be right back down.”

  Twenty minutes later, Daphne joined her family to find that Brandon had already told them the whole story. Ice immediately rose to envelope her daughter in a hug before pulling her to the couch where she kept a protective arm around Daphne. Reg, their uncle’s husband, sat on her other side, placing a protective hand on her thigh.