Skeleton Key Read online

  “Since the wreck, there have been supposed sightings of the ghosts of harness-racing horses pulling their carts,” Erika added.

  “So you think a ghost is playing with your office decorations?” Clay asked sincerely.

  “Actually, before today, there have been over a dozen break-ins here in the Depot over the last six years or so. Each time there is no evidence of a burglary. Things are simply moved. Marshall’s office furniture is always rearranged like Adrian used to keep it, drawers are opened and papers scattered, and a shovel is always found on his desk. My office always has pictures turned over and any personal items I have of Logan’s are thrown away—just like you witnessed just now…but I don’t think it’s one of the circus performers….”

  “It’s your husband!” Tanner interjected.

  “Good horse sense, that one,” Clay heard.

  “I don’t know, but maybe,” Erika replied. “Most of the time since the accident, I figured he was alive and had chosen to disappear. But as we’ve had more and more break-ins, I’m starting to think more and more that it could be him. Everyone but Marshall has entertained the idea that it’s a ghost. Even Chief Hopper thinks it’s a ghost. If we’re all willing to believe it’s a ghost, it has to be someone’s spirit…and the break-ins kind of have his signature.”

  “Well, if your husband is dead, why has his body never turned up? And if he’s the ghost, why does he keep talking about horses? He said ‘that would be a horse of a different color’ when you mentioned the elephant, and he said that Tanner has ‘good horse sense’ when he brought up your husband. And why does he put a shovel on your boss’s desk?”

  “Don’t put the cart before the horses.”

  Clay’s brain was whirring. “He said, ‘don’t put the cart before the horses.’ Most of the sayings he’s been using aren’t accurate. They’re close, but not accurate. Do you think it’s some sort of message? If it is your husband, what does his disappearance or death have to do with horses?”

  Tanner was texting again when he said, “The train killed four horses in the wreck, Dad. Remember the horses were buried near the tracks?”

  “The shovel!” Clay and Erika said simultaneously. “Could he be buried with the horses?” Clay asked. He picked up the picture and literally asked it a question. “Well? Is your body buried with the horses?”

  “I’m looking a dead horse in the mouth.”

  Clay gave a frustrated look at Erika and repeated the ghost’s answer. “Why can’t he just answer the question?”

  “Because that would be too easy.”

  Erika shrugged. “Obviously, even as a dead person he’s not very likable.”

  “Not a very nice thing to say to the only person who has any answers.”

  Then she said, “We need to talk to Luke Hopper, our police chief, about this.”

  Chapter 9

  Robbie Gomez walked into the house and was attacked by his three little girls.

  “Daddy!”

  “Daddy’s here!”

  “Hi, Daddy!”

  “Hola, Girls!” He got down on his knees and hugged his precious daughters. Stacey was in the kitchen. She was preparing the Thursday meal for the Paynes, an apricot chicken casserole. Stacy loved to cook and her entire family looked forward to delivering the new meal each week.

  After wrestling and tickling his girls for several minutes, Roberto finally escaped the grasp of the little ones and entered the kitchen with Anna, the seven-year-old, holding him around the waist and standing on his feet as he walked. He kissed Stacy as he remarked, “That looks great! I hope you made a double batch for us, or else the Paynes are gonna be missing a couple scoops. What’s for lunch? I’m starving.”

  “You’ll have to get the leftover pasta from the fridge. The girls had tacos, but since you don’t eat them, you can have leftovers.”

  “Tacos?” Robbie scrunched up his face in disgust.

  “For a Mexican, you sure aren’t big on Spanish food.”

  “How many times did Adrian Payne call me ‘Taco’ or ‘Roburrito’? I swear I’m never gonna eat Mexican food again as long as I live simply ’cause it makes me think of him.”

  “Why did he call you Roburrito, Daddy?” asked Anna.

  “He was simply a horrible man, Sweetheart. He liked to be mean.” He peeled his daughter’s arms from around his waist and told her to go play with her sisters while he ate his lunch. To his wife he said, “She’s such a beautiful girl. I’m so glad she looks like you. And she has your heart too. She loves Logan Payne like a brother.”

  “She wants to play basketball with him today, so we need to go a little early so they have some time. Do you want me to heat something up for you?”

  “No, I can do it. Thanks.” He kissed her on the cheek and opened the refrigerator.

  ***

  Clay and Tanner left Erika at the Depot so she could get some work done. She had invited them over for dinner. She explained that the Gomezes always brought plenty of food. Logan had basketball practice after school, but she wanted her son to meet her two new friends. Erika had put in a call to Chief Hopper and set up an appointment for her and the Thomases to meet with him, but the meeting wasn’t until about an hour and a half later. The two guys headed out to get something to eat and to talk. It was exactly one mile from the Depot to the restaurant, but they crossed two railroad tracks, both of which had slow moving trains. It took close to fifteen minutes to get there.

  “It must be nice knowing you have to give yourself an extra fifteen minutes to get wherever you’re going in this town,” Tanner remarked as he opened his menu in the restaurant.

  Clay shook his head in frustrated agreement, but he decided to take the high road and change the subject. No sense dwelling on things he couldn’t control. They were eating at Nick’s Hometown Bar and Grill. Tanner ordered a Southwest Burger and Clay ordered a Quesadilla Burger.

  “So tell me about basketball, Tanner.”

  “It’s goin’ pretty well,” Tanner said while taking a sip from his Coke. “DeMarco’s kind of a head case for a senior, though. I don’t know. He doesn’t take it too well when Beilein yells at him—and he yells at him a lot. Know what he yells at him most for? DeMarco’s always steppin’ on the three-point line when he shoots a three. Coach calls it the worst shot in basketball, and he claims DeMarco must have clown feet. ‘Are you a clown, DeMarco?’ he says. ‘You must be ’cause you definitely have clown feet.’ It’s hard not to laugh when he says stuff like that.”

  “What I notice about DeMarco,” Clay interjected, “is that he’s always passing the ball on the break when he should be shooting and shooting when he should be passing. His decision making isn’t so good, and in that close game against Western Michigan, it almost cost you the game.”

  “Yeah, he gets yelled at for that too…and for one-handed passes…and for not talking on defense. But he’s a baller if ever there was a baller. It’s tough workin’ against him every day in practice, that’s for sure.”

  “Well, keep workin’ hard and make the most of the chances you get. You’ve played pretty well in the chances you’ve had so far.”

  When the food arrived, Clay became serious. “In order for this police chief to help us, he’s gonna have to believe I can hear a ghost, and I’m gonna have to tell him what I can do. I was thinking that maybe we shouldn’t tell him about you. Hiding your powers may come in handy somewhere down the road.”

  “What’re you gonna do if he doesn’t believe you or he won’t help you?”

  “Um, I’d just have to make him, I guess. But I don’t wanna do that, so let’s just pray that he’ll be on our side.”

  After a little more small talk, Tanner excused himself to go to the restroom. He was washing his hands when a strange feeling came over him. He leaned forward toward the restroom mirror and looked into his own eyes. He began to feel dizzy, and then for a brief time, he lost track of his current circumstances and began to see into the future. First, he was sitting in an o
ffice with Erika, his dad, and a tall, thin, red-haired man he’d never seen before who was wearing a tie and sitting behind a desk that had a nameplate that said Chief Hopper. He was talking on the phone. “Yeah, I know, Morty, but what we’d really like is your permission to dig into the horse graveyard, so we can find out for sure.” When he hung up, he said, “Morty says no.”

  There was a spinning sensation and Tanner saw two men with shovels and one with a large pick standing near a granite memorial. He could see “Amtrak Train Wreck Memorial” and “August 7, 2003.” Though it was dark, Tanner could still clearly see that the men were wearing brown denim, suspendered overalls, navy blue denim jackets, small-billed railway caps with the Durand Depot logo, and black work boots. Time seemed to spin forward, and then he could see that two of them were down in the hole they had dug while the other knelt on the edge and shined two flashlights into the gravesite. The men were digging very carefully when one proclaimed, “This one is the head of a horse, but these bones beside it are definitely human. Someone buried a human body in this grave!”

  The spinning sensation began again and Tanner saw flashing police lights and again saw the police chief from his office vision. The human skeleton had been removed from the grave, and a man in a white lab coat was examining the remains. To the side was a short, stocky officer nervously working to set up crime-scene tape. A pot-bellied, balding man wearing a blue dress coat over a white dress shirt and loosened necktie was standing next to Clay, Tanner, Erika, and a teen-aged boy. The man was strangely sweating though it was cold enough that condensation was coming from everyone’s nose and mouth. They were standing behind the crime tape. Erika was holding the teenager around the shoulders while he was crying.

  The vision swirled again and Tanner was looking into his own eyes in the restroom mirror. He felt a little disoriented but the details from the vision were cemented into his mind. He shook his head, opened the restroom door, and stepped out, accidentally turning the opposite way of his table. There to his right were the three men he had seen digging at the gravesite. They were at the bar, each drinking a beer and watching Sports Center highlights. Because the vision made it very clear that Erika’s boss wasn’t going to cooperate with the digging up of the gravesite, Tanner decided to use mind-control to tell the three railroad workers to dig up the horse gravesite along the tracks as soon as it became dark outside. He then headed back to his seat, deciding not to tell his dad about the vision just yet. He assumed he still had circumstances to manipulate, and he didn’t want his dad to stop him.

  ***

  As Erika was leaving for her meeting at the police department, she ran into Marshall Mortonson, who was returning from the bank. “Hi, Morty. I’m heading out to a meeting with Copper at the police station. I may not be back to work before tomorrow.”

  “Is there something wrong?” Marshall asked.

  “No, not really. I think we have some information about Adrian’s disappearance. We’re talking with Copper to see what we can do about it.”

  “We?” Marshall seemed a bit concerned.

  “A friend of mine is kind of helping me. He has a theory, sort of.” Erika was trying to say as little as possible.

  “Who, Erika? What is this about? It’s been years since you’ve had any interest in finding out what happened to Adrian. Shouldn’t you just let it go? I mean, it’s been more than seven years. We can start the process to have him declared legally dead.”

  “He’s just a friend. I was hoping to maybe find some closure for Logan, to be honest. He needs to know what happened. He needs to know that his father didn’t just abandon him. Maybe knowing the truth will help him.”

  “Well, I’m all for helping him, you know that, but I don’t see how bringing up the past can do that.”

  “I’m not sure it can, Morty, but I need to try. I’ve got to get going. Have a good day.”

  Marshall went into his office, put his elbows on his desk, and put his face in his hands. He had a bad feeling about Erika’s meeting.

  ***

  Clay and Tanner were waiting in the parking lot when Erika pulled in and parked in the space beside the Thomases. They walked into the police department together. A gusty, chilly wind was blowing. Winter was making its way quickly into the Michigan town. Before they were directed into Chief Hopper’s office, Clay told Erika their plan to keep Tanner’s powers secret for the time being.

  “Come on in,” the chief said. “Hello, Erika.”

  “Hi. I’d like you to meet my friends, Clay Thomas and his son, Tanner.” Clay stepped forward first to shake his hand. “Clay, this is Luke Hopper.” Erika smiled. “I usually just call him Copper,” she teased.

  “Nice to meet you, Lou,” Clay said. “I appreciate you meeting with us.”

  “The name’s Luke, Clay.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Clay apologized. “Luke Copper. I misunderstood.”

  Erika giggled. She knew he hated to be called Copper.

  “That would be Luke Hopper, Clay—spelled kinda like the name on my nameplate. Me being a cop and all, people kind of have a hard time grasping the name.” He glared somewhat playfully at Erika. She was too cute to get mad at.

  Tanner started laughing. “So much for a good first impression, Dad. I’m Tanner, Mr. Hopper. It’s nice to meet you.” He gave the police chief a firm handshake. Without question, Luke Hopper was the man that was in Tanner’s vision.

  “Finally, a person who knows how to treat an officer of the law. Nice to meet you, Tanner. I believe I saw you playing ball on TV the other day against Western Michigan on the Big Ten Network. You had a good game. The buzzer beater you hit at the end of the first half must’ve been from about thirty. That had to feel good.”

  “Yeah, it did. Thanks. Sir, we appreciate your time. We have something important to talk to you about.”

  “All right. Pull up a chair everyone. No offense, Clay—meant or taken. Any friend of Erika’s is a friend of mine. I hope I can be of help.”

  Erika took a deep breath and started right in. “We think we know where Adrian’s body is, Luke. And we need your help to uncover it.”

  “Whoa! Hold on a minute. This is pretty much from out of left field. Slow down and explain.”

  “You know those break-ins at the Depot? Well, we’re pretty sure it’s Adrian’s ghost. And we’re pretty sure he’s buried with the horses that were killed during the train wreck.”

  Luke looked at Clay. “Didn’t I just ask her to slow down and explain? Tanner? You want to help me out here? You seemed pretty reasonable a minute ago.”

  “Mr. Hopper, we know this is going to sound unbelievable, but a ghost in the Depot spoke, and my dad heard him. We think it was Adrian Payne, and we think he was telling my dad to look where the horses are buried to find his body.”

  He looked at Clay again. “You can hear ghosts?”

  “Not before today,” Clay confessed. “But before today I could control minds, read minds, receive extra-sensory messages, and use telekinesis.”

  “And telekinesis is?

  “I can move objects with my mind.”

  Now he turned to Erika. “Where’d you find this guy?”

  “We went caving together. And we went to high school together before I moved here. Listen, Luke, it’s true, and as soon as you accept the truth that Clay has mind powers, we can get back to the purpose of our visit. We believe that Adrian’s buried alongside the railroad tracks with the horses from the train wreck.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Luke said in disbelief.

  “Luke,” Erika continued, “you and I both know that you’ve said many times that you believe the break-ins were done by a ghost. Well, now we know for sure.”

  “Yeah, I said it, but I didn’t really believe it. I mean, when there’s no explanation for something, why not make up an explanation? But to really believe it is a different thing.”

  “Listen,” Clay interjected. “Make a call to Dr. Zander Frauss. Maybe he can convince you tha
t I can do what I claim.”

  Clay gave Zander’s phone number to Luke, and the police chief finally agreed to make the call against his “better judgment.”

  “Excuse me,” Luke said. “I’ll make the call from another office.”

  As soon as he left the room, Clay voiced a concern. “We weren’t going to tell him about your powers, Tanner. How can we keep Zander from saying something?”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Tanner said as he followed the police chief out of the office.

  “What’s he doing?” Erika asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure, but there’s something going on. I sensed it at the restaurant. I trust him, Erika, so all we can do is wait and see.”

  ***

  Tanner followed Luke Hopper to a conference room where he stood outside an open door and listened. As soon as he heard Hopper introduce himself to Dr. Frauss, Tanner stepped into the room, and he sent a message to Zander through the phone. He told Zander to tell about his father only, and to leave Tanner’s talents out of the explanation. Then Tanner asked Chief Hopper where the restroom was and, for good measure, used mind-control to tell Hopper to believe Dr. Frauss. Tanner’s mind-control powers were at a completely different level than his father’s. Tanner was able to control groups if necessary, and he didn’t need eye contact like his father. He was going to have to wait to hear from Hopper to confirm his belief that he controlled Zander’s mind through the airwaves from the Durand end of the phone, but he was confident that he’d been successful. When Tanner returned to the office, he plopped down into a chair and started texting, as if nothing at all had happened.

  No one spoke for several minutes, but everyone sat up when Hopper returned to the room. “Okay, Thomas. Just for fun, let’s say that I believe you. What do you suggest I do?”