Phantoms Read online

  “I remember him,” Benji said. “The movies are definitely a link, but how can you be sure—”

  “The red sweater he was wearing. It stayed the same, even after he became a phantom. We told Laurel he was glowing, so his boo-tube should be chilling in the storage unit—yet somehow he ended up at the Landmark Inn.”

  “Could he have died there?” Benji asked. “Maybe his ghost somehow returned to its original haunt when it was frozen? It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but . . .”

  “I wondered the same thing, so I did a little research last night. Barry DeWitt died at his home in Massachusetts while watching some movie called The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It was in his obituary. The only person who ever died at the Landmark Inn was Wendy Jenkins in 1972.”

  “The maid,” Benji said.

  “We’ll get back to her,” Cordelia said. “She was, in a way, the reason we ended up there to begin with. But more importantly, there’s no good reason why Mr. DeWitt should have been haunting the Landmark. Which leaves only one possible conclusion.”

  Cordelia stared into her cappuccino, not wanting to say the words out loud. Perhaps working for Shady Rest wasn’t as satisfying as sending ghosts into their Brights, but it was something. She didn’t want it to end.

  “Laurel and Kyle moved Mr. DeWitt from Shady Rest to the Landmark Inn,” she finally said. “On purpose.”

  There it was. Agnes and Benji gave reluctant nods. They didn’t want it to be true, but there was no use pretending otherwise. The trio sat in silence, pondering the implications. A bell dinged as some kids from Shadow School entered the ice cream shop. Cordelia didn’t know their names, but she had seen them around. They looked as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

  “I just thought of something,” Benji said. “Cordelia—do you remember that clanging noise yesterday, the one that made Mr. DeWitt turn around?”

  “It nearly gave me a heart attack! What was that, anyway?”

  “I accidentally kicked something across the floor. I thought it was one of those metal water bottles, but now I’m not so sure. It was really heavy. It actually left a bruise on my big toe. Now I’m wondering if it might have been a boo-tube. Laurel and Kyle could have just hidden it in the conference room. By the time it thawed out and Mr. DeWitt broke free, they would have been long gone. Then when they got the call asking for help, they could have pretended they had no idea what was going on.”

  “And the Landmark would pay them to remove the phantom they left in the first place.” Cordelia grimaced in disgust. “What a rotten thing to do. Like an exterminator sneaking a rat into a house, then charging the owner to get rid of it. They could have at least left a nice ghost so no one would get hurt.”

  “That wouldn’t do the trick,” Benji said. “It might just sit in the corner and watch the world go by. But a phantom—that’s big and dramatic. Even people without the Sight notice those. They’d pay anything to get rid of it.”

  “It’s not just Mr. DeWitt,” Agnes said. “I did a lot of research last night too. Esmae died three hundred miles away from the house we found her in. There was no reason for her to be there. She was probably a resident of Shady Rest at some point, just like Mr. DeWitt.”

  “Until Laurel and Kyle moved her,” Benji said.

  “They must have planted all the phantoms we helped capture,” Agnes said. “The only thing I can’t figure out is the archimancy factor. Not all houses are hauntable. How do they know which ones to pick?”

  “I know the answer to that,” Cordelia said. “When we first started at Shady Rest, I overheard Laurel talking to one of the office people.” She struggled to remember his name. “Salesman type, strong cologne?”

  “Carl,” Agnes said with distaste.

  Cordelia nodded. “He was showing her the Landmark Inn on a tablet and talking about how excited he was that a maid had died there and was haunting the place. That’s the ghost Benji and I saw on the way out—Wendy. Which is how Laurel knew the Landmark was hauntable. It was already haunted. My guess is Carl’s job is tracking down properties like that.”

  “Do you think the entire staff knows?” Benji asked.

  “Probably,” Agnes said. “Remember that one day when Laurel said she had a meeting about potential sites? I bet you they were planning which houses to put phantoms in.”

  “The bigger, the better,” Benji added. “Rich people can pay more.”

  “Duh,” Cordelia said, feeling stupid. The size of the houses, and the wealth of the families who owned them, should have alerted her that something was amiss. It seemed painfully obvious now. The whole complicated mystery was like a jigsaw puzzle. The more pieces they snapped into place, the easier it became to find where others belonged.

  Benji laughed. “Sorry. I know planting phantoms inside someone’s house is evil and all—but you have to admit, it’s also kind of brilliant. I wonder how much she charges to—”

  The girls stared at him.

  Benji cleared his throat. “That’s not important.”

  “There’re still a lot of things I don’t understand,” Cordelia said. “Like how are they sneaking the boo-tubes inside these places? The Landmark’s easy enough, but you can’t just walk inside someone’s house. And how do these owners know how to contact Shady Rest?”

  Agnes and Benji didn’t have any answers. Cordelia looked down at her empty cup and considered getting another cappuccino. Maybe with caffeine this time.

  “There’s still a lot to figure out,” Benji said. “But I think we can safely say that if Laurel and Kyle keep leaving their phantom bombs all over the place, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets killed. We have to stop them.”

  “How, though?” Agnes asked. “We can’t go to the police. They’ll never believe us.”

  “We need Dr. Roqueni,” Benji said. “She’ll know what to—”

  “We can’t tell her!” Agnes exclaimed, suddenly near tears. “It’s too risky!”

  Cordelia put her arm around Agnes’s shoulders. “What’s going on?”

  “When I was trying to dig up information on Shady Rest last night, I found this video about Leland Knox. It answered a big question I had from the start.” She dug her phone out of her pocket. “I’ll show you. But I’m warning you now—it’s going to hurt.”

  Cordelia, unsure how anything involving Shady Rest could elicit such an emotional reaction, was suddenly afraid. She watched the screen. It was a news story about “local philanthropist Leland Knox.” After the anchorwoman gave the setup, there were a few interviews with people dressed in black standing just outside an impressive cathedral. They all seemed genuinely distraught that Leland Knox was dead.

  When the clip ended, Cordelia and Benji stared at Agnes in confusion.

  “What am I missing?” Cordelia asked.

  “These interviews were shot the day of Mr. Knox’s funeral. Let me find the right spot . . . now look carefully.”

  The screen had been paused. Cordelia didn’t notice anything unusual about the woman being interviewed, so she looked past her, where several mourners were exiting the church. One man was in the process of putting on his fedora.

  It was Darius Shadow.

  “Oh man,” Benji said. “Oh, Mr. Shadow. Not you . . .”

  “So he’s at the funeral,” Cordelia said with a defensive shrug. “What does that prove? Mr. Shadow and Mr. Knox knew each other? Weird coincidence, sure, but it kind of makes sense. They’re both old and they both love ghosts. Their paths must have crossed at some point. It doesn’t mean they were best friends or anything.”

  Except Cordelia remembered now. The previous summer, Mr. Shadow had been really sad for a solid week or two. When Cordelia asked what was wrong, he had told her that his “very dear friend” had died. She recalled the phrase exactly because she had found it so touching.

  “You’re right, Cord,” Benji said. “They’re both obsessed with ghosts. That’s probably how they became friends in the first place. Which means Mr. Knox de
finitely would have told Mr. Shadow about Shady Rest.”

  “So what if he did?” asked Cordelia. “Mr. Knox didn’t know what his granddaughter was doing. That means Mr. Shadow didn’t either.”

  “I want to believe that,” Agnes said. “But if we accept that Mr. Shadow might be involved in all this—”

  “No!” Cordelia exclaimed.

  “—a lot of pieces start to click together. I always said it was really weird that Laurel and Kyle suddenly showed up at Gideon’s Ark. But let’s say Mr. Shadow told them that you and Benji had the Sight? All of a sudden it makes sense. They knew you were going to be there, so they left Gideon’s boo-tube. That gave them a chance to come to the rescue so we could see what good people they were. Mr. Shadow knew that would win us over.”

  “He could have just introduced us.”

  “Not without revealing his involvement. Also, Dr. Roqueni’s trip was his idea, remember? What if that was to get her out of the way? She was bound to get involved if she was here. And if something went wrong—as it has—she wouldn’t be able to help us. We’d be on our own.”

  Cordelia refused to believe it. Mr. Shadow had sent Dr. Roqueni on her long-delayed European vacation as an act of redemption. This new version of events, which cast him as a villain with no desire to make amends with his niece, couldn’t be right. It was too heartbreaking.

  “Sorry, but I don’t buy it,” Benji said. Cordelia smiled with relief, glad it wasn’t just her. “This is Mr. Shadow we’re talking about. He’s our friend. He wouldn’t just betray us like this.”

  “I know,” Agnes said. “But we’ve only known him a year. Dr. Roqueni has known him her entire life, and think about how much she’s struggled to trust him. What if she was right and we were wrong? We have to at least consider the possibility. Right?”

  “I guess,” Cordelia mumbled. Although her heart told her otherwise, the evidence was hard to ignore.

  “So you see why we can’t ask Dr. Roqueni for help. She’s in Rome right now with Mr. Shadow. If we tell her we’re in trouble and she rushes home—Mr. Shadow is going to know something’s up and warn Laurel that we know the truth.”

  Benji sighed. “Fine. I still don’t think it’s true, but I’m all for being cautious. We’ll tell Dr. Roqueni when she gets home—when Mr. Shadow isn’t around. But what do we do until then?”

  “Nothing,” Cordelia said. “If we stopped going to Shady Rest every Saturday, that would look really suspicious. Besides, what if Laurel sets another phantom loose? Who’s going to stop it from hurting anyone?”

  “So just play stupid and act like nothing’s different?” Benji said. “I can do that.”

  “That’s not all,” Cordelia said. “I think we should find Victor. Laurel said he quit because he was scared of the phantoms, but that’s always seemed a little iffy to me. This guy has the Sight—the real kind, like Benji. I don’t see him getting scared so easily. I bet he found out what was really going on and wanted no part of it. He might be able to help us.”

  “I love that idea,” Agnes said, sipping the soupy remains of her ice cream. She seemed a little happier now that she had shared her burden with her friends. “How do we find him, though? We don’t even know his last name.”

  “Leave that to me,” Cordelia said.

  As soon as she got home, Cordelia made a cup of milk tea, opened her Chromebook, and got to work. She loved tracking down information online—and she was good at it too. Her secret was faith. No matter how little Cordelia had to go on, she always believed that the information she needed was out there, waiting to be found. All it took was persistence—which she had in spades—and a little luck.

  “Okay, Victor,” Cordelia said, wiggling her fingers. “Let’s see where you’re at.”

  A last name would have been extremely helpful, but Cordelia also looked forward to the challenge of finding an address or phone number without one. She started out with the keywords “Victor” and “New Hampshire,” which gave her far too many results, then threw “Shady Rest” into the mix. That wasn’t any help. Since the company had never demonstrated an online presence in the past, Cordelia wasn’t surprised.

  This, however, was a clue in itself.

  Victor never could have found Shady Rest on his own, she thought. Which means they must have found him instead.

  If Laurel had been looking for someone with the Sight, how would she have done it? Cordelia tried various combinations of “ghost,” “ghost hunter,” “psychic,” “ghost expert,” and “can see ghosts.” In every instance, there were too many search results. After some thought, Cordelia realized that Laurel would have needed someone local, so she included “New Hampshire” and some nearby states. This reduced the number of results but didn’t give her any useful information. She tried the same keywords but added “Victor” this time. For a moment, Cordelia thought she had something—a Vic Hayder of Massachusetts, whose cheaply made website promised a “glimpse into the ghostly void”—but she knew within moments that his proposed skills were just a hoax.

  She decided to try a different approach.

  When Victor had been hired, Leland Knox had still been alive. If he was anything like Cordelia’s grandparents, he might not have been a huge fan of the internet. Instead, he’d have wanted to meet any potential employees in person. Only by looking them in the eye could he gauge whether they were the real deal and not a charlatan like Vic Hayder of Massachusetts.

  But where could you meet someone with the Sight?

  “Conventions!” Cordelia exclaimed.

  She typed “Leland Knox paranormal convention” into the search bar. The first result was the lead she’d been looking for: New Hampshire Spirit Expo. It had been held in a Ramada Inn in Concord nearly three years ago, which fit the time frame for when Victor had begun working for Shady Rest. Mr. Knox himself had run a workshop entitled “Seeing Ghosts Is a Blessing, Not a Curse!” There was no list of students or photos of the workshop on the webpage, so Cordelia jumped to the convention’s Facebook account and scrolled down . . . and down . . . and down . . . until she finally saw Mr. Knox. Just like all the other photos she had seen of him, he was wearing a bow tie and smiling like someone at total peace with the world. There was a small group of adults listening to his talk, but the photographer had been standing behind them, and she couldn’t see their faces.

  She glanced at the comments on the photo.

  Ghostmama42: Enjoyed the talk. Nice man. Offered to “test” people who said they can really see the spirits but I think that part’s a scam.

  VicPrice: Not a scam.

  Ghostmama42: For real? Did he test you?

  VicPrice: ☺

  “Hey, Victor Price!” Cordelia said, grinning with satisfaction. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  Now that she had a last name to work with, it was only a matter of time before she found his contact information. She started with his Facebook page. Victor was sitting on a boulder in his profile pic, making her think that it had been taken on some sort of hike. He was in his thirties with round glasses and long brown hair tied in a ponytail. His account was restricted to friends only, so Cordelia couldn’t access any additional photos, but it did reveal his place of residence as Brattleboro, Vermont. Cordelia reopened her search engine, combined this new information with Victor’s first and last name, and pressed Enter.

  The first search result was a newspaper article. She read the headline and her entire body went cold.

  15

  Cordelia and Benji Follow a Dot

  He’s missing?” Benji asked.

  His voice rose above the din of Monday-morning chatter as students made their way to class. Cordelia expected heads to turn in their direction, but no one seemed to care. They were too busy catching up with their own weekend gossip, which revolved more around scandalous texts and “totally unfair” homework assignments than potential crimes. Cordelia chuckled to herself. In comparison to what was going on at Shady Rest, life at her haunted school seem
ed almost normal.

  “His mother reported him missing two months ago,” Cordelia said, “though I get the impression the police aren’t too concerned. This isn’t the first time Victor has vanished. He once went to Argentina for three weeks on some sort of ‘meditation hike’ without telling anyone.”

  “I guess after he quit Shady Rest he could have just gone and started somewhere new,” Benji said. “But it seems weird he wouldn’t tell his mom.”

  “Maybe they didn’t get along,” Agnes said.

  “She cared enough to call the police,” Cordelia said. “Listen, I’ll say what we’re all thinking. Laurel and Kyle killed Victor and hid the body.”

  “I wasn’t thinking that!” Benji exclaimed. He turned to Agnes. “Were you thinking that?”

  “A little. We have to at least consider it. Victor quit Shady Rest and then vanished. Laurel must have been pretty mad that he refused to help her. It totally messed up her plans.”

  “So she killed him?” Benji asked in disbelief.

  “Maybe he threatened to go to the police.”

  “So? No one would believe him. I agree that Laurel is doing some bad stuff, but there’s a big difference between planting phantoms and cold-blooded murder.”

  “Why didn’t Laurel tell us that Victor was missing, then?” Cordelia asked.

  “Why would she know?” Benji asked. “He quit working for her. It would have been weird if she kept track of him afterward.”

  “True,” Cordelia said, more confused than ever. When she had first read about Victor’s disappearance, she had been certain there was some sort of foul play involved. Now she wasn’t so sure. Victor was a grown man, and—as far as she could tell—a bit of a free spirit. He might have just wandered off.

  “We need to get some adults involved,” Agnes said. “Ghosts are one thing. But this is scary in a whole different way. I don’t like it.”