The Cats that Walked the Haunted Beach Read online

  “Voyeurs,” Katherine noted.

  “Her real name was Alice Gray.”

  “If her name was Alice, why do people call her Diana?”

  “The fishermen named her. They said she was like the ancient goddess Diana.”

  “So, when did Diana become a ghost, I mean, spirit?”

  Colleen read in silence, then said, “She was highly educated, came from a wealthy family in Chicago, and decided she wanted a private life on the Indiana dunes rather than the hustle and bustle of the city. She died in 1925 of kidney failure.”

  “How does dying from natural causes make her a spirit?” Katherine asked skeptically. “Did she drown? Was she murdered? Did something traumatic happen that caused her to haunt the living?”

  Colleen didn’t answer and kept reading. “Oh, this is sad,” she continued. “Before she died in her husband’s arms, she wished to be cremated and her ashes thrown along the sand dunes she loved. Instead, she was buried in a cemetery in Gary, Indiana.”

  “So, Alice didn’t like the way her burial wishes were carried out? Makes no sense.”

  “Actually, it does make sense. Alice is tied to the location of her death, which was in her hut on the beach.”

  “Okay, we can do the ghost tour.”

  “Darn, they only do tours in the summer.”

  Katherine said, looking for road signs, “Did we pass our exit? I’ve been so into your Diana story, I haven’t been paying attention to the signs.”

  Colleen looked out her window and said eagerly, “There it is. Exit in a half mile.”

  “Which lane though?” Katherine asked.

  “Can I turn on the GPS lady now?”

  “Yes.”

  Colleen turned the device on, and the GPS lady droned, “Turn left at State Road 49.”

  “Oh, darn. I’m in the wrong lane.”

  “Get over! Get over!”

  “Too late. I’ll turn around and go back.”

  Scout and Abra began shrieking in their cat carrier.

  “Calm down, my treasures,” Katherine cooed. She turned around in a restaurant parking lot and headed back.

  “Recalculating,” the GPS lady droned.

  Katherine took the exit and merged into traffic.

  “Okay, we’re on 49, now what?” Colleen asked.

  Katherine didn’t answer. “I . . . forget.”

  “I thought you wrote it down.”

  “I never said that.”

  “No problem. I plugged in the address before we left Erie.” Colleen checked the GPS screen. “We’re about eight miles from Seagull, and thirteen miles from the cabins.”

  “What was the address again?”

  “1313 Beaches Lane. That address cracks me up,” Colleen said. “It reminds me of that old TV show — The Munsters.”

  “But, wasn’t their address 1313 Mockingbird Lane?”

  “1313,” Colleen giggled.

  Katherine drove several more miles, then worried, “I wonder if the GPS is wrong. The website said the cabins were right outside of Seagull. We’re coming up on Seagull now. Five more miles to the cabins doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Let’s just do what the GPS lady wants.”

  Katherine drove through the town. She spotted a McDonald’s on the right. She slowed down, then drove past it.

  Colleen asked, “What are you doing? I thought we were picking up food.”

  “I changed my mind. I’d much rather get the cats situated and then come back. Is that okay?”

  “I suppose, but I’m starving to death. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”

  Katherine drove out of the town limits. “I thought Erie was small. This town wins the prize.”

  The Siamese din had reached an ear-splitting crescendo.

  Colleen put her hands over her ears.

  “Girls, be quiet,” Katherine said, annoyed.

  “Turn right at Beaches Lane,” the GPS lady said.

  Katherine tapped the brakes and slowed down. She turned into a single lane, sand-covered road that had a number of small branches strewn across it.

  Colleen looked out her window, “This road doesn’t look like it’s been travelled since the dinosaurs roamed the planet.”

  Katherine swerved to avoid hitting a large pothole.

  Scout and Abra hissed.

  “Katz, tell me again why we brought them?” Colleen complained.

  “They’ll settle down once we get to the cabin.”

  “I don’t see any signs of life here.”

  “Did you enter the right address?”

  “Yes,” Colleen said defensively. “Mum texted it to me.”

  Katherine rounded a bend and jammed on the brakes. A large tree had fallen and blocked the road.

  The cats stopped shrieking and became very quiet.

  Looming twenty yards from the road was a two-story, mansard-roofed Victorian house. The house was in various stages of decrepitude. Windows were broken out and some of them were boarded-up. The place hadn’t seen a coat of paint since the 1890s. A rusted pickup truck graced the overgrown yard.

  “Oh, my,” Katherine said. “What a dump!”

  “I can’t breathe,” Colleen said, laughing. She fanned her face. “Mum is so daft. She gave us the wrong address.”

  “I’d say. Chalk one up for Mum. Now help me navigate back to where we came from.”

  “Ma-waugh,” Scout agreed.

  Colleen noted, “There’s no place to turn around.”

  “I know. I’ll have to back up.” Katherine put the Outback in reverse and cautiously backed down the lane. She stopped before she backed onto the highway. “Look your way. Any one coming?”

  “No, go for it.”

  She carefully entered the highway, then headed back to Seagull. She glanced over at Colleen, who was busy punching in a message on her cell phone.

  Colleen sent the text, then in a few seconds she got an answer. She laughed. “Mum says the address is 1315 Beach Road.”

  “Okay, I know where it is. I saw the sign just outside of town.”

  In a few minutes, Katherine was driving down a paved, heavily wooded, tree-lined road. “I wonder why it’s named Beach Road, when all I see are trees.”

  “Over there,” Colleen said, pointing. “That looks like a sand dune.”

  “With trees on it? I guess I expected a dune to look like something from the Sahara Desert.”

  “Yeah, and I thought the road would front the lake.”

  Katherine slowed the SUV down. “I see a sliver of blue. That must be the lake.”

  Colleen admired, “I could live here.”

  “Not sure what the winter is like,” Katherine said.

  A few miles further they spotted a sign to the cabins.

  Colleen laughed, “Seagull Cabins. Too funny. Everything around here is named Seagull.”

  The cabins were tucked between two high dunes, and barely could be seen from the road.

  Katherine slowed down to a crawl.

  “There’s a lane. Turn. Turn.”

  Katherine drove onto a lane that was partially covered with sand. When she reached the rise, she could see a service road that ran behind the cabins.

  “Which one is it?” Colleen asked.

  “The first one is the manager’s, the second one has a car parked in back of it. Mum used a limo service. That can’t be it,” Katherine thought out loud. “Hey, there’s Mum.”

  Mum was sitting outside the third cabin, on a folding lawn chair. She was drinking from a tall, fifties-style aluminum tumbler.

  Katherine pulled in and parked.

  “I can’t see the lake,” Colleen complained.

  “You probably can from the front of the cabin.”

  Colleen jumped out of the SUV and ran to her mother.

  “Aw, sweet girl. I’ve missed you,” Mum said.

  Mum hugged Colleen, then turned to Katherine, who had just gotten out of the car, “Katz, get over here. Group hug,” she said happily in her Irish br
ogue. “I’m so glad to see me girls again.”

  “Mum, how was your flight?” Colleen asked.

  “The turbulence was dreadful. I thought I’d died in me bed.”

  Katherine laughed. “I’m going to run in and check out the room the cats will be in.” She darted into the cabin.

  Mum said sheepishly to Colleen. “There’s a bit of a problem. I thought the cabin had three bedrooms.”

  “And?” Colleen asked tartly.

  “There’s only two. You’re going to have to share a—”

  Colleen interrupted, “Room with Katz and her cats. Oh, no, no.”

  “Just go inside and look,” Mum said. “Off you go.”

  Katherine glanced into the first bedroom. Mum’s suitcase was on the bed, along with several plastic bags from a store in Gary called Bigmart.

  “That’s not it,” she said, moving to the second bedroom. Entering the room, she was taken aback by how small it was. “Geez, this is like a walk-in closet.”

  A rustic-looking bunk bed was positioned against the wall. There was a three-drawer dresser and mirror. The window was the kind that cranked open, but didn’t have a handle. A pair of pliers rested on the windowsill. Katherine assumed that was how one turned the crank.

  Colleen walked in. “Oh, this is awful.”

  “Shhh, Mum will hear you,” Katherine said. “We don’t want to hurt her feelings.”

  “Well, it is awful. Besides, she’s outside watching the cats until we come back.”

  “Good plan,” Katherine said, then added, “I’ve never slept on a bunk bed.”

  “I get the top.”

  Katherine thought, why does she want to sleep in here when she has her own room, but asked instead, “And, why do you get the top, carrot top?”

  “Because I’ve never slept on the top of a bunk bed before.”

  “Like you’ve slept on a bunk bed before.”

  “But I have,” Colleen insisted. “I have brothers. When we were young, Mum lived in a two-bedroom apartment. In one of the bedrooms there were two bunk beds. That’s where my brothers slept. I shared the second bedroom with Mum. The room was too small to fit two beds, so Mum bought another bunk bed. She slept on the top bunk and I slept on the bottom one.”

  “How do you remember that far back? I can’t remember anything.”

  “I’m a genius.”

  Katherine cracked up. “Okay, you can have the top and I’ll have the bottom. I’m not sure why you want to sleep in my room when you have your own.”

  “That’s the bad news.”

  “What?”

  “There isn’t a third bedroom.”

  “No, way!”

  “Mum just told me.”

  “Okay, then the cats will have to stay in here with us.”

  “In here with us,” Colleen disapproved. “Why don’t you put them in the bathroom?”

  “And, have them shriek all night? Not a good idea. Look, you’ll be on the top bunk. They won’t bother you up there.”

  “How do you know? They’re like little monkeys. They’ll be climbing all over me when I’m trying to sleep.”

  “I won’t let them do that, besides they’ll be sleeping with me. Here quick. Help me cat-proof.” Katherine got down on her hands and knees and peered under the bed. She saw a small, white object and picked it up. “This won’t do. It’s a Tylenol.”

  “Isn’t that poisonous to cats?”

  “Yep. Let me see if there are any more where that came from. Let’s comb the rug.”

  After several minutes, and a short sneezing fit by Colleen, the two decided the room was fit for the cats. They walked outside to bring them in.

  Chapter Six

  Thursday Evening

  Katherine and Colleen each poured into an Adirondack chair on the cabin’s screened-in porch. The Siamese were instantly drawn to the warm, cozy blankets that mum brought to the girls. Katherine held Scout on her lap; Colleen held Abra. The porch heater was on full-force, and with the overhead ceiling fan blowing the warm air down, the porch was tolerable.

  Colleen said, “Abra, can you move a bit? My legs are asleep.”

  “Raw,” the Siamese protested.

  “Darling, lass, I just want to check my phone.”

  “Are you expecting a text from Deputy Dreamboat?” Katherine asked nosily.

  “No, not this time. I told Daryl not to text me here unless it was an emergency. Besides he’s working the night shift, so I never bother him.”

  “When did he start working the night shift?”

  “He’s covering for another deputy whose wife just had a baby.”

  “Cool.”

  “I’m checking the weather app. I want to find out the temperature.”

  “I can tell you that info. It’s nippy.”

  Colleen looked up from her cell phone. “It’s forty degrees.”

  “But I’m banking the wind chill off the lake makes it feel colder.”

  Mum walked onto the porch carrying a boxed wine. She set it down on a crudely-made side table.

  “What’s that?” Colleen asked.

  Mum answered, “Oh, it’s just one of those box wines. You know, the cheap kind. It doesn’t have as much alcohol as the bottled kind.”

  Katherine moved her feet off the ottoman and wondered when the argument would begin. Mum had been off alcohol for several years.

  Colleen’s face turned red. “Mum, what are you thinking? That boxed wine has just as much alcohol as bottled wine.”

  Mum laughed. “So, me daughter is a wine expert now.” Mum engaged the tap and poured two glasses. “Here, Katz,” she said, handing Katherine a glass.

  “Thanks, Mum,” Katherine said, then looked at Colleen to see when her friend would blow up.

  Colleen did a side glance to Katherine. She shook her head. “I don’t think I want any,” she said.

  Mum poured her a goblet anyway. “It’s a retreat. Let’s be merry and not so gloomy. You’re finally getting married to that lad who looks like he stepped off the red carpet.”

  Katherine smiled. “What’s that mean?”

  “Oh, before the Academy Awards ceremony, the movie stars walk on a red carpet. All the men are so handsome. Here take it,” Mum said placing the goblet in Colleen’s hand.

  Colleen took a sip, “Eh gads, Mum. This is so sweet.”

  “I know. The sugar helps counteract the effects of the alcohol.”

  Katherine mouthed the words to Colleen, That’s ridiculous.

  Mum found a nearby chair and sat down. She carried an aluminum tumbler in her hand.

  Colleen asked Mum, suspiciously, “What are you drinking?”

  “A bit of apple juice,” Mum defended. “I’d offer you some, but I drank the entire jug today.”

  “Wine? Apple juice? How did you get that stuff? You don’t have a car?”

  “Oh, I paid the limo service driver extra if I could run into a market and buy a few things.”

  Katherine said, “That was thoughtful. Thanks, Mum.”

  “He drove into this parking lot in front of this huge store. I swear it took me an hour just to walk through it.”

  “I saw the Bigmart bags on your bed,” Katherine said.

  “I bought the basics: bread, milk, tea, and eggs. Plus, a few other sundries.”

  Colleen, relieved that Mum was drinking apple juice, said, “I love the sound the waves make on the beach.”

  Katherine answered, “I could listen to this all night. If it wasn’t so cold, I’d crank my window open a crevice, so I can let the sound lullaby me to sleep.”

  “Ma-waugh,” Scout agreed.

  “Well, there’s only one problem with that scenario,” Colleen countered.

  “What?”

  “Didn’t you notice? None of the windows have screens on them.”

  Katherine’s eyes grew big. “Glad you told me. I can see me getting up in the middle of the night, half-asleep and cranking the window—”

  Colleen chuckled. “And
the two terror twins would be sure to get out.”

  “They’re not terror twins,” Katherine defended.

  Colleen tipped her head back and belted out a loud laugh. “Really? You could have fooled me.”

  Mum added, “I would call them precocious.”

  “Yes, Mum, you’re right. Scout and Abra are very curious . . . I mean very, very curious,” Katherine said.

  Colleen reached down and petted Abra. “Is this true?”

  “Raw,” the Siamese answered, blinking an eye kiss.

  Mum began. “It feels so great to be here . . . to be out of the noise of the big city . . . just the three of us for a long weekend. Soon you’ll be married Colleen, and the next time we’re together like this, Daryl will be here, too.”

  Colleen laughed. “Don’t worry about that, Mum. Daryl gives me my space. There’ll be more times like this.”

  The Siamese startled. Scout swiveled her ears in the direction of the beach. Abra stood up, stretched, and jumped down. The Siamese padded over to the side of the porch facing the water. They began wildly sniffing the air. Scout began digging.

  Katherine launched off her chair. “What are you two doing?” Then she realized they were digging at a small hole in the screen, she yelled, “Get away from there.”

  Scout arched her back; Abra arched hers. “Mir-waugh . . . waugh . . . waugh.”

  Colleen got up and joined Katherine. “What’s wrong? What are they looking at?”

  Scout’s fur bristled on her back. “Waugh,” she cried urgently.

  Katherine peered out through the screen at total blackness. “I can’t see anything beyond the porch light, and that’s not very far.”

  Mum took the distraction as her opportunity to help herself to the boxed wine. She crept over to the table and filled her tumbler to the top.

  Someone ran past the cabin, pounding the sand with their feet. A woman yelled a bloodcurdling scream.

  The Siamese screeched like banshees.

  “The Saints preserve us, who is that?” Mum asked.

  “Shhh,” Katherine shushed her. “Listen.”

  The heavy footsteps continued. The woman screamed again, but her words were finally recognizable. “Come back to me.”

  Katherine and Colleen stood in total shock, both afraid of moving an inch for fear of what would happen next.