A Haunted Disappearance Read online

  A Haunted Disappearance

  A Lin Coffin Cozy Mystery

  Book 2

  J.A. Whiting

  Copyright 2015 J.A. Whiting

  Cover copyright 2015 Signifer Book Design

  Formatting by Signifer Book Design

  Proofreading by Donna Rich

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, or incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to locales, actual events, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from J. A. Whiting.

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  For the loved ones who watch over us

  Chapter 1

  Carolin Coffin sat at a small round table with Mallory listening to her cousin Viv’s band play their version of a country-pop song that had people in the audience of the Nantucket pub singing and clapping along. Viv’s golden brown hair shimmered under the stage lights as she held the microphone and danced about as she sang. Carolin didn’t know how Viv had so much stamina. Her cousin carried a few extra pounds on her five- foot-five-inch frame and never exercised, but she had just put on a two-hour show full of energy and high spirits that drew the audience along with every note.

  The song ended and Carolin and Mallory finished their glasses of wine just as Viv’s voice spoke through the amplifiers. “For our last song of the night, I’d like to call my cousin, Lin, up here to join me.” Viv waved to Lin with a big grin.

  The blood drained out of Lin’s head and she felt the room start to spin. She shook her head vigorously with a frown painted on her face. She and Viv had been singing together on Viv’s deck some evenings after dinner, but she was absolutely sure she was not ready to perform in front of people. Drops of sweat trickled down Lin’s back. She made eye contact with Viv and mouthed “No.”

  The crowd applauded encouragement and Mallory smiled and nodded. “Go ahead, Lin. It’ll be great.”

  Lin’s heart sank. She was sure it would not be great. What she really wanted to do was to sneak out of the place on her hands and knees, but decided that trying to escape would make her look more of a fool than singing with Viv.

  A tall guy with droopy eyes caused from imbibing a few drinks too many got up and moved to Lin’s side, took her hands, and gently tugged her to her feet.

  Lin sighed. Her feet felt like blocks of cement as she started for the stage thinking of all the ways she could kill her cousin after the show. One of the guys in the band hurried over with a second microphone and hooked it onto a stand. Lin’s knees were shaking so badly she hoped that her legs might give out and she could avoid the performance by collapsing and being hauled away in an ambulance.

  As Viv held her guitar and swung the strap over her head, she leaned close to Lin, who was shooting daggers out of her eyes at her cousin, and said, “Just like when we’re on the deck.”

  Viv started to play the song that she and Lin had been practicing together and her band followed her lead. The song was a fast pop song that was popular on the radio, but the girls had slowed it down and turned into a sweet, soulful tune that pulled at the heart strings. Viv began to sing and Lin came in on the chorus. The cousins voices blended and harmonized together so beautifully that after three verses were sung and the last note was played, the crowd was on its feet whooping and hollering and clapping so loudly that Lin’s ears buzzed. She turned to Viv with a sheepish smile, her cheeks flaming red. Viv bear-hugged her reluctant cousin and whispered in her ear. “After getting a reception like this, I won’t be able to drag you off the stage.” The two held hands and took a bow, Lin’s long brown hair falling forward over her face.

  Before breaking down the equipment and packing it up for the night, the band members, Lin, and Mallory stood near the bar and had a drink together. They chattered about the gig, the audience, Lin’s performance, and town happenings. Lin caught a glimpse of her necklace sparkling in the mirror behind the bar and her hand went up to her neck. She clasped the gold pendant between her forefinger and thumb. The necklace was once owned by one her ancestors and it was found in Viv’s storage shed hidden there centuries ago by Sebastian Coffin, an early settler of Nantucket.

  The pendant was gold and in its center was a white-gold horseshoe which tilted slightly to one side. The same design could be seen built into the bricks on the chimneys of several old houses on the island and was intended to ward off witches and evil spells. Sebastian Coffin had the design constructed into his own chimney, but not to keep witches away … he used the symbol to draw people who had been accused of witchcraft to his home where he and his wife provided them a safe place to stay and helped them integrate into island life.

  Other things had been found in Viv’s storage shed along with the necklace, art work done by a Renaissance painter and printmaker, gold coins, and maps thought to have belonged to a famous pirate whose loot had never been found and was estimated to be worth in the billions in today’s dollars. Viv had turned the items over to an appraiser and had contacted a museum in Boston with the intention of donating the things so that the public could enjoy them. She had no desire to keep the things that had been given as gifts to Sebastian Coffin and his wife, Emily, for providing safe haven to the persecuted individuals. Viv had said that Sebastian and Emily Coffin didn’t want to profit from the misfortune of others, and neither did she. Viv gave Emily Coffin’s horseshoe necklace to Lin because her cousin and Emily shared a similar characteristic. Lin and Emily could both see ghosts.

  When Viv announced the late hour and her need to get to bed since she had an early morning the next day opening her book store and café, everyone agreed it was time to head home. Dave, one of the band members, went to get the equipment van and the others broke down the stage items and started carrying things outside to the sidewalk to load into the vehicle as soon as Dave had retrieved it from the small parking lot down the road.

  The stars were shining in a clear, early July night sky. Despite how late it was, tourists still strolled along the brick sidewalks of Nantucket town under old-fashioned streetlights leaving restaurants after eating dinner, heading to pubs for a drink, window shopping, and walking down to the docks to view the boats and yachts moored there.

  Lin hauled an amplifier out the door of the pub and when she stepped onto the brick walkway, the toe of her shoe caught on an uneven brick and she turned her ankle causing her to lose her balance. She waved her free arm in the air trying to maintain an upright stance, but her body’s twisting motion along with the weight of the heavy piece of equipment caused her to tumble onto her butt and hit the sidewalk hard. Although the amplifier was undamaged, Lin couldn’t say the same for her rear end. She leaned forward onto her knees and pushed herself up just as someone’s hand slipped under her arm and gave her a boost to her feet.

  Lin gave a pained smile to the person who helped her up as she rubbed her tailbone. “These brick sidewalks sure are hard.”

  “It’s easy to trip on the bricks.” A tall young man of about twenty with bright blue eyes smiled at Lin.

  A pretty girl with long, dark brown hair and about the same age as the boy righted the amplifier. “The cobblestone streets are even worse. I’m always tripping over them.” She smiled at Lin showing perfect rows of white teeth. “Maybe we’re just klutzes.”

  Lin chuckled. “That’s probably the reason.”

  Dave pulled up to the curb, jumped out, and opened the rear doors of th
e van. The young man carried the amplifier over to the vehicle and helped Dave load it into the back.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?” The girl looked at Lin with concern.

  “Oh, I’m fine.” Lin nodded. “But I’m sure I won’t be able to sit down tomorrow.” She and the girl shared a laugh. Lin liked the young woman’s easy-going, friendly personality.

  Just then Viv lumbered through the door of the pub carrying two guitar cases. Lin hurried to help her, but Viv waved her off. “Could you grab the other case? It’s just inside the door.” She nodded her head towards the pub entrance and then shuffled to the van, her arms hanging straight down by her sides clutching the large cases. “Maybe someday we’ll be famous and we can hire people to lug our equipment around.”

  Lin smiled and started to walk back inside to grab the case that housed the microphones and electrical cords. Reaching for the door handle, a jolt of something shot through Lin’s blood, a sensation of foreboding or anxiety, a feeling that something was wrong. She turned back to see the two young people helping Viv with the guitar cases. Lin shrugged and tried to shake off the odd sensation.

  When she came back out, she carried the metal container to the van and handed it off to Dave. She glanced around for the young couple to thank them again for helping her when she fell, but she couldn’t see them anywhere.

  Viv hurried back inside the pub and came back out carrying her guitar case. “I’m ready to head home.” She yawned and handed a backpack to her cousin. Lin slung it over her shoulder and couldn’t keep a yawn of her own from slipping from her mouth. In the pleasant night air, the two headed up the road to Main Street and to their houses on the outskirts of town.

  Chapter 2

  Lin packed her lunch into her bag and added a cold pack before pressing on the Velcro to close it. She stepped out on the deck and called for her dog. Nicky bounded out from behind the trees at the rear of the property and rushed up the steps of the deck where he danced around wagging his stub of a tail. The little brown mixed-breed was a rescue animal and his cheerful, playful personality always made Lin grin.

  “Come on, Nick. We need to get to work.” Lin had recently moved back to Nantucket island, the place of her birth, and was running a gardening business where she mowed lawns, trimmed, and took care of her clients’ flower gardens, window boxes, and pots of blooms. Lin had been a computer programmer in Cambridge, MA before moving and she still did part-time work for the company remotely. The two jobs provided enough to pay her bills and save a little each month. When the winter came and her gardening business slowed to a halt, Lin hoped to be able to pick up more programming hours.

  As she and the dog walked to her old truck, she hummed the song that she and Viv had sung on stage last evening. She shook her head thinking about being pulled up in front of the crowd and even though it had turned out well, her heart pounded just recalling her terror of being in front of an audience. Sitting down in the driver’s seat, her butt ached from having fallen on the brick sidewalk last night and she shifted her weight trying to find a more comfortable position. She started her truck, backed out, and headed off to her first client of the day who had recently contracted with Lin for her gardening services.

  The morning air held the promise of a hot day and Lin hoped she could get her appointments finished before the late afternoon heat took hold. She turned the radio on and sang along enjoying the breeze streaming in through her open window. Nicky had his front paws on the armrest of the door and his nose pushed up to the three-inch window opening, sniffing the smells on the air.

  After a ten-minute drive, Lin parked at the curb and hauled her equipment bag from the truck’s bed. She and Nicky went to the front door and she rang the bell. Lin liked to alert the homeowners when she arrived to work so she wouldn’t startle them when they saw someone moving about their yard and gardens. No one answered the bell, so Lin and her dog followed the walkway to the back of the house where small garden plots and pots on the deck were bursting with flowers and greenery.

  When she’d started her job over a month ago, Lin returned home each night with sore and achy muscles, but now she was feeling stronger and better able to handle the outdoor work. She pulled a small bucket from the shed at the rear of the yard and began to deadhead the flowers. Lin hummed as she worked and the dog ran about the property with his nose to the ground. She had trained him never to dig or mess up the clients’ yards and he never ran off the property where Lin was working.

  She knelt and worked her way along the bed, pulling out weeds and plucking off faded blossoms. Lin had plans later in the day to meet Libby Hartnett for coffee at Viv’s bookstore. Libby was a distant relative of Lin’s on her mother’s side of the Witchard family. Many of the Witchard women had paranormal powers and Libby had been meeting with Lin for the past few weeks to share family history with her. Libby couldn’t see ghosts like Lin could, but she had the ability to transfer thoughts and images to someone just by holding their hand. Lin had grown up off-island and had never known anyone with powers until she’d arrived on Nantucket in early June and met Libby.

  Lin stood and stretched her back and went to the side of the house where she unrolled the hose. The hot sun beat down on her shoulders as she worked from one end of the patio to the other watering the flower pots. She’d left her work bag on the deck near the sliding glass doors and needed a trowel, so she climbed the few steps and walked across the deck to the canvas bag.

  She reached inside and removed the tool, and when she straightened, she could see a person inside the house reflected in the glass of the door. The figure looked just like the girl who had helped her last night. Thinking what a funny coincidence it was that the girl lived in the house of her newest client, she smiled and raised her hand to wave. Lin squinted and realized that the glass wasn’t reflecting the image of the girl from inside the house. The girl was standing behind her.

  In a split second, Lin noticed that the young woman’s face looked oddly blank except for her eyes which seemed heavy and sad, such a contrast from the lively, friendly girl she’d met last night. As she was about to turn to greet the young woman, a cold breeze fluttered over Lin’s skin causing her to shiver.

  Nicky ran over and whined.

  Lin stopped in mid-turn, sucked in a breath, and closed her eyes for a moment, afraid of what she was about to see. Her heart pounded like a sledgehammer. She turned slowly around and a gasp slipped from her throat.

  The girl stood several yards from Lin, her physical form almost translucent. Her body seemed to waver in the sunlight. The girl’s long hair was mussed. Purple bruises showed on her neck. A bit of frothy pink spittle dribbled from the corner of her mouth. Someone else might take a quick look at the girl and think she’d had too much to drink or was slightly ill or had bit her tongue causing the saliva mixed with blood to leak onto her lip, but Lin knew differently. Lin knew the girl was dead.

  Chapter 3

  Confusion shot through Lin’s brain as she stared slack-jawed at the girl. Her first instinct was to rush to the girl and wrap her in her arms, but all the ghosts she’d met previously would shrink from physical interaction and, anyway, Lin assumed that there really wasn’t much there to grasp on to. Nicky whined as Lin took a shaky step forward.

  In a soft voice, she asked the girl, “What’s happened?” As soon as the words were spoken, she realized how foolish they sounded.

  The girl seemed to choke and her hand flew up to her throat. She leaned slightly forward, her chest rising and falling in quick succession as if she might heave. In a moment, she straightened and looked at Lin with such mournful eyes that Lin’s heart lurched from an intense spasm of grief.

  Lin took another step. “What can I….?”

  The ghost’s eyes shut momentarily and when she opened them they were filled with tears. Her image seemed to spark in places and then the form slowly began to fade.

  “No.” Lin reached out her hand. “Don’t go.”

  The girl’s body shimmer
ed and disappeared.

  Tears overflowed from Lin’s eyes and she sank to the ground. Nicky crept over and Lin grasped him into her arms and rocked.

  After several minutes, the dog gave Lin a lick on the cheek and she ran her hand over the animal’s soft fur. “What happened to her, Nick? What happened?” Lin sucked in deep breaths and tried to collect herself. “Come on, boy.” She stood, grabbed her tools and work bag and then she and the dog jogged to her truck. She loaded the things in the back and took her phone out of the bag. She tapped the screen to pull up the local news. When the stories of the day loaded, she flicked her finger over the screen scanning for an article or report about a young woman’s murder. Nothing.

  Lin jumped into the truck and pulled away from the curb with a screech, turning the vehicle towards town and Viv’s bookstore. The truck bumped over the cobblestone streets and she spotted a parking space.

  She and Nicky hurried into the bookstore and went directly to the back of the place where the café was located. Customers sat at the tables and on the comfortable sofas chatting and enjoying their early morning drinks and bakery items. Viv stood behind the café counter preparing an iced coffee when she noticed her cousin coming down the aisle. The look on Lin’s face almost caused Viv to drop the glass she was holding. Her brow furrowed and she narrowed her eyes. She mouthed, “What’s wrong?”

  Libby Hartnett was sitting on a sofa with her usual morning chat group of two retired men and a woman. Sensing that something was wrong, Libby stared at Lin as she stepped around some of the customers waiting at the counter to place their orders.

  Lin made eye contact with Viv and lowered her voice. “I need to talk to you.”

  Viv nodded and bustled about finishing the drinks she was making. As Lin turned away to locate a table at the edge of the café area, she saw Libby’s eyes drilling into hers. Lin shrugged a shoulder and her lower lip started to quiver. She blinked hard to keep tears from falling.