The Ghost of Kathleen Murphy Page 15

  “Oh, I was so praying you would stay. You love him don’t you?”

  “Yes, I think I do love Jacob, but it’s not all about him. I feel at home here, at peace with myself and comfortable. It’s hard to explain, but I do love it here, and I love Ireland, and you, April.”

  “Oh Cassie, I love you too. You are my sister in every way that counts. Does Jacob know you are thinking of staying in Ireland?”

  “Not yet. I think I’ll wait until all this is over and things calm down a little before making plans.”

  “This is the most exciting summer ever.” April hugged her hard. “You are my best friend as well as my sister.”

  “Oh, April, that is the best compliment ever.” Cassie hugged her back.

  April patted Shamus on the head. “Come on Shamus, let’s go get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow.”

  “Goodnight you two, see you at breakfast.”

  Cassie was too wired to sleep so she wrote for two hours and finally got into bed well past midnight. She slept without dreams and woke to the sound of her alarm clock. She ran to the shower eager to start this day and to finally get her hands on Maeve’s journal.

  When she got to the dining room April was already there. Cassie saw Bernadette in the corner talking with a visiting Sister from the old monastery. They looked at Cassie and stopped talking when she came into the room. She ignored them and gave April a wave before she went to the beverage table for tea.

  April was flushed and fidgeting with her napkin when Cassie sat down at the table. “I checked the schedule, and I was right, they are all leaving right after morning class,” she whispered.

  “Great, I will call Jacob before I start the class.”

  The arrival of three of the writing students from class forced an end to their topic of conversation.

  As soon as she could break away Cassie ran back to her room and called Jacob. They decided on an arrival time to make sure everyone was either gone or occupied when Jacob arrived with a trunk full of digging equipment.

  After class, they all made their way back to the dining room for tea and biscuits before departing. Emily gave a small presentation about their itinerary and Cassie and April managed to escape to set up the classroom for the next day. Then they went their separate ways; April to feed Shamus and take him out before they all started leaving, and Cassie to her room to change her clothes. She looked at her watch to make sure she had time to go the archives and review what they needed to do the next day and to check her email while there. She ran down the hall and hurried down the stairs. She refused to think about any lurking ghosts as she went.

  Satisfied they had time to finish their project in the archives, Cassie went into the office to check her emails. The first was from her cousin, and there were a few from friends back in the U.S., and then three from Jed. The final one told her he was arriving in Dublin on the nineteenth.

  “Oh noooo.” She read it again and then went back and read the other two earlier Emails he had sent. Why was he coming here? She made it plain in her earlier reply she didn’t want to see him. She gave him no encouragement at all. The nineteenth was tomorrow! She emailed him back to say she didn’t want to see him. She hit send and hoped he read it before he left. This was all she needed right now, a Jed complication. How did he know where she was? Why is he coming here anyway? Oh, this was just too annoying and so like him. She needed to warn Jacob. She ran back to her room to change shoes.

  She heard a light tapping on her door. “Cassie, it’s me.”

  After updating April about her Emails from Jed, they decided they were too nervous to stay in their rooms so they went down to the main entrance to watch for the last cars to leave. They also wanted to see Jacob the second he arrived. They walked through the garden, and Cassie was sure April was hoping, the same as she was, for Kathleen’s spirit to make an appearance, but it was not to be.

  They timed it well. Jacob arrived about ten minutes after the group left for their trip into Dublin. Jacob pulled his car around to the side as far as he could so it was hidden by the larger bushes. It was more difficult to see anything if someone passed by the road or walked up to the main doors. He gave a final look around and opened the trunk. He pulled out two shovels of different sizes and a pair of work gloves. He held up both shovels. “I came prepared.”

  He waved to them as they walked toward the car to help him unload. “No time like the present, ladies, let’s go dig in the dirt.” He closed the trunk of the car and handed one shovel to Cassie and slung the other over his shoulder.

  They followed the path down to the cemetery, and for once no one made conversation at all. April pointed to Sister Lambert’s headstone. Jacob dropped his shovel and sat down on the ground. He felt around the stone trying to gauge how deep it was set in.

  “If Lydia managed to bury the journal under the stone it can’t be too deep. She would have gone in from the side. She wouldn’t have been able to lift the stone, even with a shovel. It’s too heavy. She must have gone in on the side of it, here, and put it there, on one side or the other.” He placed the shovel on one side of the marble slab which had settled in over the years to lie nearly flat to the ground. He gave the shovel a hard push with his foot. The dirt was fairly soft due to the recent and frequent rain, and he lifted a shovel full of dirt out and set it carefully to the right of the stone. He got back down on his knees and felt around one side of the stone with his hands. “Nothing here, I’ll try the other side.”

  This time he was lucky. The shovel felt a bit of resistance on the first try, and the second shovel full uncovered a burlap sack. “This has got to be it.” Jacob pulled the bag out and shook off the dirt.

  Cassie reached for April’s hand at some point without knowing it and now she felt April squeezing her fingers.

  Jacob brushed more of the dirt off the covered burlap wrapping and pulled out a leather journal. “Lydia put it into a plastic bag with a seal so it’s still in good condition. He handed the journal to Cassie and repaired the evidence of the digging.

  Cassie clutched the journal to her chest. She didn’t want to open it yet. It was something all of them needed to do together.

  They waited patiently and in silence while Jacob gathered his shovels and gloves and picked up the old burlap bag. They followed him back to the car without a word. Now they took a final look around to make sure no one was watching, and then went back into the building through the old wing door near Cassie’s room. Her hand shook a little as she fumbled with the key but she finally got the door open. They went up the stairs without a word and conscious of every shadow along the way.

  Now inside Cassie’s room she motioned toward her work table. “You two sit at the table and I will make tea. Here, take the journal.”

  Jacob reached for it and then handed it to April. “You can do the honors when we are ready.”

  April rubbed her hands across the front of the journal’s dark brown leather covering. “Poor Maeve.”

  Cassie served the tea and sat down with them. “Well then, April, let’s open it and you can read it for us.”

  “Oh, I’m not sure I want to know what she wrote. It must be terrible.”

  “You can stop if you read something disturbing. It’s just us here, so just read as far as you like, and I’ll take over, or Jacob will.”

  As April read, they were all transported back to that time, that terrible time. The fear, the anger, all the things the priest and Edward had said and done to her was all there in Maeve’s own hand. It made it so much harder to hear than reading Lydia’s summary of things. But April continued on as if she were Maeve’s voice having her chance to speak. Maeve’s life and her truth could finally be known, and her baby sister, Kathleen, had made it happen. Cassie felt chills up and down her body.

  Cassie thought of all the girls who suffered and felt her heart was breaking. Jacob reached for her hand, and Cassie knew then at that moment, the journal, these people, here and dead, changed her life forever. And she
also knew she had never been more herself. She felt truly alive. All of her past life seemed to fall away. All the drama she endured with Jed seemed so trivial now in the face of this discovery, and the hard and tragic lives of these two girls.

  April got to the last section. Up until then there was not much in the journal they hadn’t known or figured out, thanks to Lydia’s journal and their own investigation in the archives. But something was coming next; it was what they needed to know.

  Maeve had written: The devil sent for me again last night. He is getting bolder now and I think Father Dunn watches. I noticed the closet door is always ajar across the room and I heard a sound coming from there. He is still afraid to do too much to my body but he touches himself while he watches me turn around and around in my nightgown. He likes to watch me brush my hair. I know he will soon become bolder. I can see the fire in his eyes, and I must figure out a way to escape and take Kathleen with me. I have a plan. It is blackmail but it will give me money to get away. I can’t go without Kathleen, so I will need to tell her something, but I am not sure how much I should tell her. If only the Sisters believed me. I don’t want the other girls here to have to suffer what I have suffered, and I know when I leave he will replace me with the youngest girl here. Knowing it is the only reason I still go to his room. I have thought about trying to kill him in his sleep. A horrible sin, I know, but he is the devil so it doesn’t count as a sin I tell myself. Tomorrow night is the night. If he sends for me again I will take him a copy of my letter to the Bishop and to the editor of the paper in Dublin. I will demand he give me money to help me escape with Kathleen in return for my silence. He will have to agree. It is my only hope. Once we are safe, I will send the letters anyway, to save the other girls here.

  That was the final entry.

  They sat in silence for a long time. After what seemed like a long time, Jacob stood, and Cassie could see the pain on his face and in his eyes. “How could a man of God…?”

  Cassie stood now too, and made another pot of tea. “I know. It is the worst kind of betrayal, but we are still not positive about how much the priest did or knew. Will this be enough to get the authorities to open an investigation?”

  Jacob returned to his chair. “Yes, it might be. The journal is dated and we can show she disappeared maybe two days after this entry, right?”

  Cassie went back to the table to look at her notes. “I think it’s right. Well, it was three days later when the story ran in the paper, so it all fits.”

  “So what do we do now?” April clutched the journal to her chest.

  “I will take the journal to my attorney friend, along with Lydia’s journal, and see what he advises. For now, let’s keep the ghost stories just between us.”

  Cassie gave him a hug. “Thank you, Jacob. It’s a huge relief to have your help with this. Of course, we don’t want to give anyone an excuse to consider this less than serious; and a ghost story, though a true one, might not be wise to share.”

  “You’re right, those girls deserve justice. Lydia’s deserves it too, and those responsible need to be held accountable, dead or alive,” Jacob said.

  “April has decided to stand with us no matter the cost to her.”

  April hugged the journal to her chest again. “I don’t want to stay here if anyone knew about this and didn’t come forward. And if these new owners are aware of the history then I don’t want to work for them.”

  “Ladies, I’ll leave you now before the hoards return. I will try to come for lunch tomorrow to update you if I can. I’m going to call David now and fill him in. Nothing like having a good attorney as a friend.”

  April gave the journal to Jacob. “I’ll leave you two to say goodbye and I’ll go take Shamus out. By the way, Jacob, do you need a great dog? I don’t think the owners here will want to keep him as a favor to me when all this comes out.”

  “Sure, why not? I’m kind of lonely in my house.” He gave Cassie a big smile.

  April gave him a hug. “Brilliant, I’ll take Shamus to your car.”

  Jacob laughed. “How I did I get mixed up with you two?”

  “You’re just one lucky Irishman.” Cassie put her hand in his.

  “Kiss me, you bossy American ghost hunter.”

  Cassie was happy to oblige.

  They managed to get Shamus in the car without too much trouble. He seemed to approve of Jacob. They watched them drive away and then went back to Cassie’s room to regroup.

  Cassie cleared away her notes while April went to raid the kitchen for snacks. Cassie heard her cell phone pulse as it vibrated across the table, and she reached for it without thinking. Jed. And then she realized she had not mentioned his arrival to Jacob.

  Chapter 14

  Cassie felt her stomach form those familiar knots as she gripped the phone and tried to reason with Jed. He was in Dublin at the airport and planned to come directly to her. She still wasn’t certain how he found out where she was, and she was still in shock he had come all this way to talk to her. She assumed he put her out of his mind before she got on the plane to go to Ireland. After some negotiation, he agreed to meet her for lunch the following day in Rosehaven village at the Tea Room. She hung up the phone with a defeated sigh. Now, she must remember to tell Jacob.

  Cassie and April delayed going into the dining room for dinner as long as they could. They discussed Jed’s call, and they kept watch for Jacob in case he showed up for dinner with news. As the minutes ticked on, they gave up on Jacob and went in to the dining room as the last bell sounded. April pushed at her food and Cassie kept looking back at the door until meal time was over and they could make their escape.

  “Oh April, class tomorrow, and I’ve not even thought about it. At least I have my lesson plan done and can fall back on lecture.”

  “You’ll be fine once you get started. You always get into your subject once you get up there in front of them.”

  “Hum, hope you’re right.” Cassie looked at her watch.

  April looked at hers as well. “Why hasn’t Jacob called, I wonder?”

  “Maybe he doesn’t have anything to tell us just yet. I’m sure he will call me tonight. Let’s go get the classroom ready for tomorrow. I’m too nervous to go back to my room.”

  “What did Jacob say about Jed?”

  “Well, the thing is—I haven’t told him yet, but I will, I will, today, as soon as he calls.”

  “What do you think he will say?”

  “What can he say? Jed was part of my life before I met Jacob, and a part I now have to deal with, like it or not. It wasn’t my idea for Jed to come here. No one is more surprised than I am about all of this.”

  April stopped in mid-stride. “Did you say you were meeting him in the village tomorrow?”

  “Yes, at the Tea Room.”

  “Cassie! That is two doors down from Jacob’s bookstore.”

  “Oh, I totally forgot. I was so desperate to find a place to see him so he wouldn’t come here. The Tea Room was the only place I could think of to meet him.”

  “This is like watching two cars crash in slow motion.”

  “April, please, don’t be dramatic. I will explain things to Jacob, send Jed on his way, and that will be that. Then we can get back to our plan.”

  Cassie could see April try to hide her amusement. “Why are you smiling?”

  “I seem to recall Jacob has a bit of a temper. Why not drive over and tell him about all this in person? Why don’t you drive over to see him tonight?”

  “A good idea, April, but he seems to be missing, and I have no idea where he is. I’ll try his cell again if he doesn’t call soon. I just hate to bother him if he is with David.”

  Jacob’s silence made Cassie wonder if he had changed his mind about pursuing things with the attorney and was avoiding her. This pushed thoughts of Jed from her mind. She tried to keep busy with her final lesson plans, but it was difficult. She looked at her notes for her book and sighed. If Jacob didn’t support her efforts she knew
it would drive a wedge between them capable of ending their relationship. She was determined to see this through, get justice for the girls, and write her book. This was her new mantra. It was time for the truth and if Jacob couldn’t agree, maybe he was not the man she thought him to be. By eight she had drifted into a state of anxiety about Jacob and what she would say to Jed the next day. She tried Jacob’s cell twice and it went to his voice mail. She tried the bookstore and they told her he had not been in all day. It was hard not to think the worst. At ten she closed her computer and took a long bath before she went to bed. She knew she needed sleep to get through the next day.

  After a restless night, Cassie woke up tired and on edge minutes before the alarm sounded. In spite of eight hours of sleep she went to her final class in a depressed and anxious mood. After class she checked out a car, gave April an update on things, and drove into the village. She had an hour before she was supposed to meet Jed so she stopped at Jacob’s bookstore hoping to catch him in. They told her he wouldn’t be in until late afternoon. She looked at her watch. She didn’t have enough time to drive out to his house. And what if she did and found him there—what would she say? He was making some kind of statement by not returning her calls. But what and why? She browsed the bookstore until it was time to meet Jed. She walked the half-block down the street toward the Tea Room wondering yet again why Jed had come to Ireland to find her. It didn’t make sense. Though he was prone to large and dramatic gestures, his trip to Ireland without her invitation was a big gesture, even for Jed.

  She saw him before he saw her. He was leaning against his rental car parked in front of the Tea Room. He was one of those men who looked good in any kind of clothes. His long legs and athletic body looked at home on the tennis court or in a tuxedo. He used his looks to his advantage, and was well aware of his appeal. He was on his phone now, as always, but when he saw her he smiled and put his phone away. “Cassie, at last. You look great; this country agrees with you.” He put his arms around her and tried to kiss her but she turned her cheek.