16 Chapter 16

“I’m sorry,” Ray said when the brandy had taken hold. “I’m sorry I doubted you about any of the ghosts—this one, your grandfather, the laundry room one. It’s real. It’s fucking real.”

“I’m sorry you had to suffer such an awful awakening.”

“So we’re being punished?”

“Appears so.”

“But people fuck in graveyards all the time and don’t suffer for it.”

“I guess we happened to do it on a…” I stopped because a thought had intruded. “That’s it, Ray. That’s it. Other people don’t stir up ghosts, so why did we?”

“No idea.”

“Because this grave houses an unfinished life, one unable to move on. Ghosts are spirits caught between life and the hereafter by something unresolved, something that keeps them here. Justin Cade has issues, so maybe it’s not punishment. Maybe he wants something from us.”

“You got that right. He tried to suck the life out of me.”

“I don’t think it’s that. I think he was trying to break you.”