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  Nate and I were totally confused. Echo, however, was not one to let an opportunity pass by.

  "I can do it!" he said. "I can take over the tour for you!"

  Madison gave him a long appraising glance up and down, and then her nose wrinkled like she smelled something gross. "No. Not you."

  Echo's face fell.

  Lottie stepped forward like she couldn't believe Madison was being so mean. "No! No, it's not you Echo—"

  "I mean, it's a little bit because of you," Madison stated for the record as she smoothed her black satin pirate mini-skirt over her pink tulle petticoat.

  "NOT helping!" Lottie fired back.

  "—Tango is missing," Trevor spat out. He turned to Stan and Fred, his voice carrying the hint of an accusation. "We couldn't reach you."

  "Right," said Stan, confused. He pointed to the ground where he was standing. "We were here. Not by the phones." He leaned forward, hooking his thumbs in his belt. "You can't expect people to just be at your beck and call twenty-four hours a day, Trevor."

  Lottie could see that Trevor was about to say something he might regret, so she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and stepped forward. "We can't find Tango anywhere and were wondering if you might have arrested Tango... for something."

  Stan suddenly perked up, honing in on her with curiosity. "Now, why would you think he had done something that might be deserving of an arrest?"

  Trevor blew up with frustration. "Who knows?!" His hands began waving. "Maybe because you always arrest everyone for something they didn't do and there's no telling what you're going to lock a person up for." He motioned to our tour guide. "Oh, look! Echo is free! Must not have done anything!"

  Stan and Fred began to glower, Trevor's anger hitting a little too close to home.

  "Now, don't go making me lock YOU up for assaulting an officer of the LAW!" Stan threatened.

  "I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!" Trevor shouted back.

  "Can we all just take a moment!" Nate commanded. Everyone shut up. Though his voice had cut through the bickering, the tension remained. "There is a person missing and we need to find him." He motioned to Trevor. "Just to confirm, Tango is missing?"

  Trevor took a long, deep breath. "Yes."

  "When is the last time you saw him?"

  Madison raised her hand and then flipped up her rhinestone eye patch. "He was here on the island. He came over this morning and we went through the haunted forest to make sure everything was great. But then he didn't show up for his tour. And I, for one, am very disappointed by his unprofessionalism."

  Echo gripped his jacket collar. "I'm professional! I could do your tour for you! I can take over for him!"

  But no one was paying any attention to him.

  My brow furrowed. "He stopped by the hardware store just yesterday to pick up some clothesline," I added.

  "I have no idea where he could have gone," Trevor said. He almost wiped his mouth with both hands, but then remembered he'd smear his fake blood. "I checked with the clinic," Trevor continued. "No one has seen him." He motioned in the direction of Seaside's woodlands. "Maybe he tripped and fell out there, but it is too dark to see."

  Nate reached out and gripped his arms bracingly. "We'll find him." He pointed down the hill. "Let's hop into my truck. Maybe he's at the Halloween Festival. We can organize a search party."

  "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" said Stan, stopping everyone. "I will have you know I took an online course in search-and-rescue and this is not how you handle a search-and-rescue." He paused, making sure everyone was listening. "We need to wait 24 hours just to make sure he's really missing—"

  "We might not have 24-hours, Stan, if he's bleeding out in the woods," Trevor pointed out, his desperation building.

  "What if he just overslept from his afternoon nap or something?" Stan fired back. He looked around. "Where was he even staying?"

  "The Grand Hotel," Trevor replied. "But he's not picking up his phone and no one has seen him."

  "Well, maybe he just lost his phone," Stan pointed out.

  "The PHONE is ATTACHED to the WALL of the HOTEL!" Trevor snapped, his voice rising with every word. But that seemed to be the straw that broke the anger's back, because he almost seemed to collapse in on himself. "I knew I shouldn't have done these tours. Everyone's always talking about what my uncle did. But if Tango gets hurt under my watch... I know what they'll say about me... and I'm running for city council... it's like what happened at home all over again..."

  I rolled my eyes. Just when I thought Trevor was about to turn a corner in his development as a human being, it all came back to him and his dreams of elected power.

  But Lottie was still under his spell, it seemed. She once again placed her hand on Trevor's shoulder to calm him down. "How about we all go over to the Grand Hotel and see if he's there?" she suggested.

  He nodded, gratefully. But it was that little bit of acknowledgement that sent Madison into a spin. She marched forward, her pirate skirt flipping as she shoved Lottie's hand out of the way, replacing it with her own. "Yeah. There, there, Trevor. I, your girlfriend, will take you over there." She glared at Lottie, just daring her to challenge her ownership of this territory.

  Lottie was having none of this contest though. She turned back to Nate and me, and the look on her face said it all. Madison was cray-cray.

  "Well! Let's all head over!" said Stan, waving his hand. "And if he's not there and you all insist in going out into the woods at night, THEN we can see if maybe they have some bellhops who need something to do or something."

  Fred hung back and shook his head. "I'd really rather not go into the woods at night."

  But as we walked down the hill, I heard a sound. I spun. It was coming from the hardware shop. It was that chainsaw we heard before, but it was still going. It seemed weird that Ralph would keep the sound effect on all night. That's a good way to get your neighbors mad at you. It made me wonder if he forgot or if maybe something had happened to him that he couldn't get to the sound system. As we got closer, though, I saw a flickering shadow through the frosted glass.

  And it wasn't Ralph's silhouette.

  "Hang on," I said, pointing at the hardware store. My throat became dry. "I think I know where to find Tango."

  Stan and Fred suddenly flew into action like they were in a high powered takedown of a drug cartel. They unhooked their pepper sprays and batons from their belts and flanked the door.

  I noticed they didn't open the door, however.

  I still had the key from when they had arrested Ralph. I walked up and tried the door handle. It seemed locked, so I opened it up and stepped inside.

  There was Tango, standing on a ladder, power saw in hand. He had been about to cut through the beam above him, which is a pretty idiot move. There was terror in his eyes, like he had been caught with his pants down.

  Madison pushed in front of us. "What is your damage?!" she exclaimed. "You missed your ENTIRE tour."

  After all of this, I couldn't believe that was what she decided to come down hard on him about.

  He was shocked. "What are you doing here?"

  Nate folded his arms. "We heard the sound of the power saw."

  Guiltily, Tango turned it off, like that was going to somehow make it better.

  "Put down the power saw! Who do you work for!" Fred barked as he stepped forward. He then stopped himself. "I mean, other than Trevor. We know about that. But, like, who ELSE?"

  Tango slowly climbed down the ladder, his cast clopping on each rung, and stepped off. His square jaw clenched. He had been caught and I could see him decide the jig was up. "The developer wanted this place it at a cut rate, and then smelled the opportunity to scoop up the cannery, too, if he played a little dirty." He held up the power saw. "He was paying more than these dumb ghost tours I've been doing, trying to scrape together enough tips to get by." He threw the power saw down on the counter.

  We glared at Madison, accusingly. She backed up. "I assure you that I had absolutely no idea what was
going on. I merely told a buyer that there was a property or two and if he came in at the right price, he might be able to get it. I meant that as get into a bidding war NOT try to kill people."

  "He wanted to make sure none of the buildings passed their inspection," Tango stated motioning to the hardware store. I could see that he had cut through several of the wooden steps. I hated to think what would have happened if Ralph had tried to climb them. "And then he was planning on coming in with a lowball all-cash offer."

  Lottie was taking notes frantically. "This is great," she whispered to me, shaking her head like it was the story of the century.

  Things still didn't add up. "But you hurt your own leg!" I stated. "Is that worth it?"

  "It wasn't supposed to be that dramatic," Tango replied. "But I have catlike reflexes and they reached for that shelf. And someone put something heavy on that shelf."

  "It could have killed Ralph," I pointed out. "He's an old guy!"

  "Again, I did it right before the séance so no one was supposed to have been up there except for me. It wasn't supposed to get out of hand like this," Tango tried to tell me.

  Nate motioned toward the power tool Tango had just been trying to use to cut through a load-bearing beam. "And that?"

  Tango hung his head. To his credit, he looked legitimately upset about it. "The developer started putting pressure on me. Telling me if I didn't do everything he told me to do, he would go to the police and point the finger at me. I had to do it in order to stay out of jail."

  "Too bad you didn't bring this to our attention," Stan stated, walking forward with his handcuffs. "We could have helped you, kid. But instead, an innocent man has been rotting in our jail cell while a criminal was free to construct more crime."

  Fred bent his head toward Stan. "That was good. Us finding him in a hardware store and 'constructing crime' and stuff."

  Stan flushed with pride. "Thanks. I just like... thought of it... I should use it in the report for my promotion."

  "You should!"

  Echo cut through their conversation and gave Tango an angry little wave. "Hey."

  Tango flushed pink and mumbled. "I'm glad you got out... and stuff..."

  "Did you unscrew the catwalk that fell in the cannery?" Echo accused.

  Tango nodded, guiltily.

  "And poison me?"

  Tango sighed. "I popped it into your food from Trevor's."

  I faced Echo. Now it was my turn to get a little miffed. "Wait, you ate Trevor's food but came to Bitter Beans to throw up?"

  "It was take out," Echo informed me. "Tango had brought it over as a peace offering." He glared at his competitor. "I should have known then that something was wrong. You're never that nice to me."

  Tango stepped forward. "Echo. You were my best friend, man. And then you betrayed me. This never would have happened if you hadn't made me feel so... useless. Like you could just throw me out like an old copy of PC Magazine. We spoke to ghosts together. And then that girl came along and told us we were nothing. And you believed her." He whispered, his mouth screwing up with sadness. "We were never nothing. And it never should have been like this."

  "TELL IT TO THE JUDGE!" Echo shouted. "Because I have already judged you GUILTY."

  Perhaps not the most eloquent statement, but I respected Echo for seeing that, indeed, this guy wasn't worthy of his friendship.

  "You're going down the river for a looong time, sonny," said Stan, slapping the cuffs on Tango.

  "Because the prison is down the river," Fred explained. "But we have bus transport."

  We watched them leave, filled with relief to finally have figured out what had gone on.

  "Wow," I said, absolutely flabbergasted at the evening.

  "That was a lot," Nate added.

  Madison shoved her hand into Trevor's hand. "I'm so glad you were worried he might be dead. Because if it wasn't for you, he would have continued his life of crime. And that's something we can absolutely sell to the voters to get you on the city council."

  And Trevor's face brightened with the thought.

  I, however, was feeling done. "Well, folks, how about we all get out so that I can lock up. Probably still some time to head over to the Halloween festival for some thrills and chills."

  All together, everyone said, "Naaaaah..."

  But as we were walking out, Echo stopped me. "Soooo... Paige. Do you think your grandmother would allow me to hold séances in the upstairs room?"

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  It was the day after Halloween and I was taking the decorations down at Bitter Beans. It was a little sad, but I knew it was time to make room for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. And frankly? After everything that happened recently, I was ready to move on.

  The door tinkled. Nate, Johnny, and Echo walked into the shop. Echo cleared his throat sheepishly and then walked over to the bookcases to browse, finally picking up a book with the history of Seaside, and placed it on the counter.

  "Go on..." Johnny said, nudging him in the side. "Fear is a paper thin wall that must be walked through to see it isn't real."

  Nate's eyebrows lifted, impressed by Johnny's sage advice, and nodded his agreement.

  Echo seemed to steel his courage for some reason. He cast his eyes up at the ceiling. "I just wanted to say thank you for being there for me as Tango was trying to sabotage my business. I was really sick and you took care of me."

  Johnny slapped him on the back. "There you go, Echo! Was that so hard? Gratitude is the answer, man—"

  But before he could continue, the bell tinkled again. Oliver, the kid who had been dressed up as a professor for Halloween, came in struggling as he tried to drag something behind him.

  "Oliver!" Granny exclaimed, puzzled. "Are you here to pick up the basket your mommy won?"

  Nate jogged over to give him a hand. It was a wooden Red Flyer wagon with a big box on it. "What's all this?" Nate asked, peering inside as he returned the handle to the wagon to Oliver.

  "Is the museum open yet?" Oliver held up his ticket.

  "Oh, no," Granny explained with a kind smile. "Not for awhile."

  His face fell. "Yeah. I thought so. The door is locked again."

  I looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

  "Well, I have all this stuff," he said, putting his hand proudly on the box. "It's historical stuff. I have been collecting it. I was in Ralph's hardware store when you first went there to buy it."

  "You were the one who knocked over the paint pans!" I exclaimed.

  He nodded. "Nobody goes up there. It has a ladder on the outside and it's like my own tree house. Except it’s a building. And you said you wanted to start a museum, and I wanted to leave this for you for the historical museum, but the door is always locked. So, I went upstairs and left everything inside for you."

  "Wait. YOU'RE the one who has been leaving all the stuff?" I confirmed. I swiveled to Echo. "So, it wasn't a ghost."

  Echo's face went bright red with embarrassment. "Probably channeling an old soul or something..." he mumbled defensively.

  But Oliver was excited "I love history!" He opened the box and pulled out a tin truck, well-loved with flaking paint. "My family keeps putting all this stuff in the donations box. So, I thought I would give it as a donation."

  "DUDE! We thought you were a ghost!" Johnny exclaimed.

  Oliver looked at him seriously and like he was very disappointed in Johnny. "Ghosts aren't real."

  "Right you are, little dude. Right you are," Johnny said, ruffling his hair.

  Granny leaned down. "Well, I know we would love this stuff for the historical museum," she told him. "But instead of dropping it off at the building, you make sure to bring it to me, okay?" She went behind the counter and grabbed a Halloween sticker. "And here is your reward for being our very first conservator. Now, why don't you come with me and I'll show you some of the wonderful things we've already collected," Granny said, taking his hand.

  She and Oliver left the shop, leaving the door open
for the fall breeze to blow through. It made me realize that for all of the need for forward growth, there were still some people very interested in finding out how we got here.

  Nate reached out and took my hand, smiling at me. "What a neat little guy."

  Echo muttered defensively, more to himself than anyone else, "I always knew it wasn't a ghost."

  Johnny slapped him on the back, bracingly. "It made for a great story though, didn't it?" he said. "And that's the most important thing of all. Happy memories and good times. Even if ghosts aren't real."

  We all stood there for a moment together, staring at the empty shop, thinking about everything that had happened over the past couple weeks.

  I couldn't help it. There was one question we hadn't answered. "Okay, but if there are no ghosts, how did Echo's ghost box say 'Run to me' right before the catwalk collapsed?"

  I could see Johnny's head noodling it through and his jaw dropped. He turned to Echo and grabbed his arm. His eyes were huge with wonder. "Ghosts are reeeeal..."

  Just then, the front door slammed shut.

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  Books by Agatha Ball

  Paige Comber Mysteries

  The Secret of Seaside

  Murder's a Beach

  Mystery Comes in Waves

  The Cove Conundrum

  Haunting at High Tide

  Grey Skyes Adventures

  Skye's the Limit

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  Copyright 2020 Kate Danley

  Cover by Damonza

  All characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Respect author's copyright. Don't be a dumb pirate like Madison.