The ghost left easily. Despite everything that had happened in the house before, there was no drama to it, no fire and hell faces in the corners of the room. Instead, Gabriella, Madelyn, and Saskia all went into the back hallway and sat on the floor, a ring of salt around them for protection.

“Virginia,” Gabriella said. “That’s your name, right? Virginia? It’s why you were so mad that we called you Agatha, because it was like you were being forgotten again. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Madelyn added, her voice natural like they were just having a conversation. “You deserved better than this. But we found you now. It’s okay.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Gabriella could see one of the remaining wine glasses on the shelf twitch, sliding closer to the edge. She braced herself in case it flew at them, wishing she’d kept her helmet on.

“We’ll take care of your body,” Gabriella continued, trying to ignore the nearly imperceptible slide. “Saskia’s here, she’s from this town. She grew up with the story about your disappearance. People talked about you, they wondered where you were. You weren’t really forgotten, even now.”

“I wish I knew where you were from,” Saskia said, her voice more confident than Gabriella had heard yet, now that she was away from Patrick. “They’re going to try to find your family in Nova Scotia. But if they can’t, we’ll make sure you’re buried here. Even if we don’t know what happened to you, we know you’re here with us now. And at the very least, we’ll make sure the town doesn’t forget.”

The wine glass stayed where it was on the shelf, dangerously close to the edge. A single breath would shatter it. Gabriella knew she should say something, maybe start the official ritual. But she was still working on memorizing all the Latin involved and the book was sitting beside her. Even moving right now felt dangerous.

There was a breeze in the room, despite the fact the windows were closed against the cold. “You can go now,” Madelyn said, her own gaze flicking over to the book of cleansing.

She reached for it, slowly moving her hand as Gabriella watched the glass on the shelf. The wine glasses were from her parents’ wedding. She remembered the day they got married. She’d been five years old, toasting them with apple juice without understanding anything except the fact that they were happy. She knew her mother was more concerned about other things, but there would be no replacing those glasses if they shattered. And it would be another part of her father gone, even if a small, superficial one.

Taking the risk to pull the chalk from Bradley’s kit, Gabriella started drawing the necessary sigils to release Virginia’s spirit. They were listed on the page alongside the stanzas they’d need to recite. As long as Virginia was willing to move on as her remains left the property, they would really only need that. Then they could close the door behind her and cleanse any lingering energy.

Saskia looked at the sigil as Gabriella finished drawing it. It was chunky and a little messier than she’d like. But rather than say anything, Saskia began to recite the Latin stanzas in a soft, but clear voice. Madelyn caught Gabriella’s eye and nodded as she took a lighter from the kit and lit a thick white candle. The small flame flickered in the unnatural breeze and Madelyn gently cupped it until it was steady, then set it down on top of the sigil.

Saskia’s voice was high and musical, like the bells Gabriella had been so skeptical of on her first case. The words moved confidently off her tongue and despite everything happening right now, Gabriella couldn’t help but think how great Saskia could be at this work if she didn’t have Patrick in her ear. But that was a problem for when this ghost was gone, so instead of lingering on that thought, she watched the wine glass teetering on the edge of the high shelf.

Then it was over, Saskia’s voice dropping into silence as she finished the stanza. She leaned over the candle and whispered, “Go in peace, you won’t be forgotten.”

Then she blew it out. With a last breeze gliding through the room, the wine glass slid back into place. Then the wind died down, slowly leaving them in silence on the floor.

Gabriella was still for a moment, just breathing. She could feel the difference in the air, like there’d been a shift on a molecular level. They’d have to prove it with scans and vigilance for future issues. But she knew in her gut that Virginia Richelieu had moved on.

Once the breeze had wound down to nothing and they’d sat in silence for a few minutes, Madelyn made the first move. “I think that’s it,” she said, slowly getting to her feet.

“What now?” Gabriella asked.

“We do a general cleanse of the house. If Bradley hasn’t murdered Patrick yet, we wait for the coroner to get here for Virginia. They’ll handle the excavation and burial from here. That’s no longer Foundation business.”

Gabriella didn’t love that, but it made sense. “We’ve already talked to the Foundation about Patrick attacking you,” Madelyn said. “You won’t believe what it took to keep Amelia from driving up here the second I called. Well, you would. But she’s furious.”

Saskia looked like she was about to cut in, but Madelyn shook her head sharply. “I’m sure they’ll have you write up a report about what happened. Me and Elliot witnessed it, so…”

She trailed off with a shrug and Gabriella nodded. Then they all headed outside.

---

Gabriella’s mother was in the yard as they came out. She stood a little ways back from where Bradley was crouched over Patrick and didn’t see Gabriella coming out the back door.

“-you aren’t welcome on my property and so what do you do?” she was saying to Patrick from a distance that Bradley had very clearly made her take. “You come in here and you threaten my fucking daughter? You’re lucky I don’t come over there and put this shovel through your throat!”

She moved like she was going to go through with that promise and Bradley held up a hand almost lazily to stop her. He didn’t look too concerned about the danger Patrick was in, but Gabriella moved toward them.

“Mom, it’s alright!” Gabriella called over, hurrying down the small set of stairs and over the snowy ground.

“Gabby!”

They met in the middle, Gabriella’s mom rushing toward her as well. She was shaking with rage and Gabriella held her tightly, trying to comfort both of them. “It’s okay,” she said again. “I’m fine. It’s over, Mom, we found her.”

She was about to let go and show her mother the broken well cap, but she was still gripping Gabriella. “Did he hurt you?” she demanded. “Did that fuck touch you?”

“He grabbed my coat,” Gabriella admitted. “But he didn’t hurt me, I swear.”

“I’ll still kill him.”

She let go, but grabbed Gabriella’s upper arms and inspected her fiercely. Gabriella was still emotionally shaky after releasing Virginia, and it took everything in her to not burst into tears. “Her name was Virginia,” she said, looking everywhere but into her mother’s eyes. “She- we were calling her Agatha, and she thought she was forgotten. That’s why she got so violent. There’s an old well over here, look.”

She pulled her mom away from Patrick and toward the well, which Mr. Ramsey was standing over for safety. “I found her down there,” Gabriella said, her throat tight. “She fell down it, Mom, that’s why she disappeared.”

Her mother took a stunned step toward the hole in the ground. “Careful,” Mr. Ramsey warned. “Like I said on the phone, it might crumble.”

She nodded dazedly, then turned to Gabriella. “You were down there?”

Fuck. “It’s my job.”

Mom nodded again. “And you’re alright.”

It wasn’t a question.

---

They stayed at her mother’s house until it was all over. The coroner arrived along with a crew to get the remains out of the well. As they were working, a Foundation representative called on a line with Amelia at headquarters to take everybody’s statements about what had happened with Patrick. They all gave their statements individually in the privacy of the back hallway. After Gabriella had given hers, she sat down to write up the information James would need for the official report on the case. Even if it was technically Patrick’s, she had a feeling they were going to push the extra work onto James as the investigation into Patrick’s behavior went on.

As the others packed up to leave, Gabriella sat in the living room. She’d been writing in her field notebook for about five minutes, scribbling in just-legible handwriting as she tried to get everything on paper. But then someone stepped in front of her, blocking the light and throwing her off her rhythm. She looked up to see Elliot was standing there in the doorway, his hands buried in his pockets as he looked at her. “Can we talk?”

Gabriella looked at him closely. His round face was red from a mix of cold and something else. And she couldn’t quite read the look in his eyes. But she nodded, then moved over on the small loveseat so that he could join her.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a few seconds of silence. “I… it’s a lot. But I’m sorry about how I talked to you.”

“How you talked to me?” Gabriella repeated, any glimmer of hope she might have had starting to dissolve into anger. “You completely dismissed everything I do. You accused me of being a scammer, then used something I told you in confidence, something that really messed with me, to accuse my friends of being scammers.”

“I know,” he said, looking down at his hands, which were now folded in his lap. “It wasn’t right. But I was trying to protect you and your mom.”

“By accusing us of not being able to handle ourselves.”

He looked like he wanted to argue that one, but instead just swallowed tightly. “Yeah.”

“You know your dad said you do the same thing to him?”

Elliot frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, he said he’s seen ghosts his whole life.”

“He thinks he has, yeah.”

Gabriella shook her head, her hopes fully deteriorated. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“Look, I can’t just believe things I don’t believe,” Elliot snapped. “I want to try. I’m trying, Gabriella, I mean it. It’s a lot, okay? But I was hoping maybe we could…”

He trailed off, but she knew exactly what he meant. And while part of her wanted to say yes, to just jump back to where they were only a few weeks ago, she had to hesitate.

“I don’t need the person I’m with to agree with me on everything,” Gabriella said, now looking down at the pencil she was twisting as she spoke. “But I need them to respect me.”

“I do-”

She held up a hand, and Elliot stopped, though he clearly wanted to keep going. “I should have told you earlier,” she said. “That’s on me and I’m really sorry. But the second you heard the word ‘ghost’, it was like your entire opinion of me changed. You thought I could do terrible things. And I want to be with you, I miss you. But I can’t be with someone whose opinion of me could change so quickly.”

Elliot’s face was a deeper red as she stole a glance at him. She wanted to tell him she didn’t mean it, but she also knew if she went back right now, she’d regret it.

“I understand,” he said.

He reached out to take her hand and she let him, entwining her fingers with his. They stayed that way for a moment, but finally, she let go.

“I’m sorry, Elliot,” she said.

Then she walked out to the front porch, grateful to see it was completely empty.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 19