Raye sat on the bench where he’d put her, staring into the distance. A few times Bobby could have sworn he heard her speaking, but when he glanced in that direction, she was alone.
Johnson arrived shortly thereafter with Christiansen in tow. It wasn’t every day they found the bones of a child buried on a playground. Or at least Bobby hoped they didn’t. The two stood at the edge of the hole, staring at what lay on the bottom.
“Any missing kids in the area?” Bobby asked.
Johnson didn’t even look up. “No.”
Bobby eyed the forest. “You’ve gotta lose a few in there.”
“We might lose ’em, but eventually we find ’em again.”
“Ever hear the name Stafford?”
The chief’s head lifted. “My granddaughter used to talk about Stafford.”
“Yet you don’t have a missing persons report on him?”
“You think that’s Stafford?” Johnson pointed at the skull. “Not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Because Stafford is an invisible friend.”
Bobby laughed.
The chief didn’t. “Who told you about him?”
Bobby didn’t answer. Had finding the bones of a child caused Raye’s mind to go slightly awry so she’d applied the name of the classroom’s imaginary playmate to the skeleton? Sadly, he liked that explanation better than any of the alternatives.
“My niece talked about him too,” Christiansen said. “A lot of the kindergarten kids see Stafford.” At Bobby’s quick glance the doctor shrugged. “I figured it was a harmless delusion. Or maybe…” He frowned into the hole again.
“Maybe what?”
“A ghost.” Bobby snorted, and the doctor lifted his eyebrows. “‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio.’”
“Huh?”
“Shakespeare. Hamlet. Which, considering the skull, is apropos.”
“Raye found this?” Johnson asked.
“She was burying something for a treasure hunt.”
Johnson grunted. He didn’t sound any more convinced than Bobby was.
“She thinks this was Stafford?” The chief pointed at the bones, and Bobby nodded. “Maybe you should call the FBI guy and see if they have any missing Staffords on their list.”
“Really?”
“There’ve been more times than not when Raye knew things she shouldn’t. And she was right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bobby asked.
“It means you should call the FBI guy,” Chief Johnson said, and walked away.
*
“Why’d you do that?” Stafford materialized next to me on the bench.
“It’s time.”
“I’ll be good.” A tear ran down his cheek. I felt like a wicked witch.
“You can’t stay forever.”
Although … I had found his bones, and the kid was still talking to me. Maybe there was more that needed to be discovered.
“What happened to you, Stafford?”
Bobby was on the phone. Suddenly his gaze met mine, and I folded my lips together lest he see me talking to myself. Again.
“You’ll see.”
Stafford’s voice was faint and, now, so was he. As Bobby kept talking, the little boy sitting next to me disappeared. The breeze ruffled my hair. I swore it whispered good-bye.
Bobby ended his call and strode toward me. Before he could question me again, I questioned him. “Who was he?”
That phone call had revealed the truth or Stafford wouldn’t be gone. Unless the kid was screwing with me.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
Bobby sat down. “James Stafford junior. J.J. to his friends.”
“Where was he from?”
“Chicago.”
“What else?”
“The mother thought the father had taken him. But the guy turned up in St. Paul without the boy. They could never prove he’d run off with the kid, let alone that he’d…” Bobby waved in the direction of the grave.
“They will now.”
“They will,” he agreed.
Silence fell between us. I didn’t know what to say.
“You didn’t just find him by accident,” Bobby said.
“No.”
“You want to tell me how?”
“No,” I repeated. “But I will.”
He waited. I couldn’t find the words to start.
“Raye…” he began.
“I see dead people,” I blurted.
That probably wasn’t the best way.
“Did you see the father bury him? Did one of the children find a bone?”
“You’re not listening to me. Stafford’s been a thorn in my side since the day I started teaching.”
“Stafford’s dead.”
“But not gone. He broke the windows today.”
“You expect me to believe the child in that hole, who’s been dead for five years, who’s in pieces in a grave, broke the windows.”
“You wanted to know how I knew, that’s how.”
“The chief said his granddaughter talked about Stafford.”
“Some of the kids can see him too.”
“Kids are suggestible. If their teacher tells them they have an invisible friend who causes mischief, they believe her.”
“Ask them.”
“This is crazy.”
“You mean I’m crazy.” I’d thought that often enough. I knew others thought it too. Why it hurt that Bobby did, I wasn’t sure. He’d told me he didn’t believe in ghosts.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. How do you think I knew about the locker at that hotel?”
He blinked. “What?”