Nearly Departed, Max Schlienger [the gingerbread man read aloud txt] 📗

The room was filled with a pensive silence, eventually broken by Elspeth taking a final drag on her cigarette. “Yes, I suppose it would,” she said. There was a touch of emotion to her voice, and a somber air about her that Dennis had not witnessed before. He waited before speaking again, measuring his thoughts.

“I think I may have figured it out,” he said finally. Both Elspeth and Bobo looked at him expectantly, and he licked his lips before pressing onward. “Let’s assume that your family was here illegally, Elspeth, and that your father’s partner was helping them out. Evy would have spent a fair amount of time around them both, which is why your father started including her in things. Or, maybe he just wanted to keep an eye on her, I don’t know.” He took a breath. “Then, there was a big argument, and Evy died in the middle of it. Maybe something kept her from getting her insulin in time. She did mention that her father and his partner were gone, so it might fit. Either way, she’s still here and waiting for them to kiss and make up.” Bobo coughed on a laugh, and Dennis silenced him with a warning glare. “After Evy died, there was one less reason for your father’s partner to stay around.”

Elspeth’s face was expressionless, but her shoulders were tense and held high. Once again, silence dominated the atmosphere, mixing almost tangibly with the thin haze from the cigarettes. Dennis stood motionless, waiting for something, anything, to break the heavy spell that hung over the room. His patience paid off, and Elspeth looked up at him with a piercing, almost pleading gaze that was entirely alien from the calm and confident expressions he had seen on the woman in the past.

“Including her in what things?” Elspeth asked softly.

Dennis felt a clammy nausea trickle through him, beginning at the base of his scalp and seeping through the rest of his body. “Well, uh, Elspeth,” he said, shifting his weight uncomfortably, “remember how you could tell from the very beginning that I was... how did you put it?”

“Paranoid?” suggested Bobo unhelpfully.

“A flimflammer,” Elspeth declared.

“Right, that.” Dennis’ breath whistled through his teeth as he inhaled. “Well, it turns out that your father and I might have shared a common profession.” He sat down across from Elspeth, trying to appear supportive and understanding. “Your father was an artist, Elspeth. A con artist. He got your sister involved in a job of some kind, and she died before it was finished.”

Dennis felt like he was in a dream, for how real the situation seemed. Elspeth’s eyes teared up, and his own started to leak sympathetically. “Oh, Evelyn,” whispered Elspeth. “She never did like me sneaking around, but I didn’t think she actually had something to hide.” She sniffed once and drained the rest of her water, then sat clutching the glass as though it might provide her with some comfort.

“Well, listen,” Dennis continued as gently as he could. “I think we can fix all of this. Do you know where we can reach your father’s old partner? Is he still alive?” If he had been superstitious, Dennis would have crossed his fingers.

“No,” replied Elspeth. “I mean, I don’t know. I never saw him again after Evy died. Even if he is alive, I wouldn’t know how to go about contacting him.”

“Damn,” Dennis muttered.

“What about a picture?” chimed Bobo. “Maybe if she saw the two of them making nice, that would be good enough.”

“It could work,” agreed Dennis, albeit skeptically. He turned back to Elspeth. “How about it? Do you have a picture of your father and his partner?”

“I might,” Elspeth sniffed. She coughed again, but whether it was from choking back tears or some other cause, Dennis couldn’t tell. “There’s an envelope somewhere filled with old photographs. I’ll go see if I can find it.” The woman’s strength seemed to return as she stood, and the pained expression left her face. “Meanwhile, Dennis, perhaps you could speak with Evy again. If this works as you think it will, we would all do well to be prepared.” She walked quickly from the room, leaving Dennis and Bobo alone.

“Seems tough on her,” commented Bobo. “Course, if it were my sister in that chair, it might be tough on me, too.” He shrugged as though casting off an inner thought. “Not that you’d ever find Zoe haunting a piece of furniture.”

“Zoe?” Dennis repeated.

“My sister.”

Dennis regarded Bobo with a thoughtful look. “I didn’t know you had a sister.” Despite the serious situation, Bobo laughed out loud.

“Master of the obvious, you are. Come on, September, you’ve known me, what, three days? Forgive me if I don’t tell you everything at once.”

“Life would sure be easier if people did,” said Dennis, looking at Elspeth’s ashtray. “Still, I guess we know enough now.”

“Time for your second date, then?”

“It might just end up being a repeat of the first one.”

“Let’s hope for a better ending, then.”

Dennis nodded gravely. If he didn’t figure this out, Evy might not get an ending at all.

Chapter Twelve

“It’s your turn to tell me a secret, Dennis.”

Keeping his frustration under control was proving to be a challenging task. The choreographed second date had been practically identical to the first, up until Evy had deviated from the script. From there, Dennis had been fighting a losing battle as the ghost led the conversation on a maddening path through stories of petty theft, amateur espionage, and clandestine trysts worthy of a bad spy novel.

“You weren’t finished telling me yours, though,” Dennis said, feigning interest. “Who was the guy you were with?”

“Now, Dennis, that would be another secret, wouldn’t it? And yours have all been terribly similar.” She batted her eyes playfully, which only irritated him. The accusation was true enough, though, since Dennis had carefully tailored his own stories in the hopes of prompting Evy to mention her father’s confidence schemes again.

“Alright, how about