Page 106 of Hot Ghost Summer

“Austrian,” I correct with a small smile.

She turns her attention back to Theo. “And how did you two meet?”

“Through work,” he answers quickly. “Do you remember that colleague I said hated me?”

My lips purse into a thin line. I don’t like being Theo’s colleague, but then how else would he describe me? I’d meant to talk more with him last night, but one thing led to another, and conversation wasn’t what we achieved.

I want Theo to be as confident and certain in us as I am. That he isn’t is on me. He’s right to say that I hated him, and it’s clearly going to take more than words to get him to understand how sincere about us—about him—I am.

“Well,” she says, gaze flitting between us. “Looks like you fixed that problem. Told you you would.”

Theo leans back into me, closing the small space he’d opened between us, and something inside me unclenches. I’ll put this right, Baby. I’ll make it so you don’t doubt this is real.

“If I was right about that,” Jayne begins, digging deep into her apron pockets. “Then was I also right about them calling you back in?”

“Yeah, you were. They called.” Theo gives a resigned sigh. “But I don’t know if I want t’ work there anymore. It’s really dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” she asks, bringing out a handful of apple chunks to immediate interest from the bovine huddle we find ourselves at the centre of. “You’ve never said anything about it being dangerous work before.”

“It wasn’t supposed t’ be. Well, at least I didn’t think it was, but…” He accepts some apple pieces from her. “Jayne, can we talk? It’s about all this.”

A spectral cow chooses that moment to shove her nose into his palm in a futile attempt to eat the snack.

I watch Jayne watch the ghost for a moment, her brow furrowing as she glances first to Theo and then to me. “I was hoping you would; you didn’t stay long yesterday, after bringing these new additions.”

“Yeah, about the girls…” Theo’s nose wrinkles, that furrow forming under the clasp of his cap while he finds the words he needs. “They used to live ’ere, in the nineties. They’re Bowen’s Farm cows.”

Jayne doesn’t speak, but I can see from the way her cheek sucks in on one side that she’s trying to understand.

“You know how the land used t’ be bigger? How it stretched north up along the brook? Well, the job I got—for ExorSquad—it was at a building site at the far end of Bowen’s land. And one o’ the ghosts they wanted us t’ investigate, it was the cows.”

“I see…” she says. “And Brigid knew they were there, somehow? She could sense them? They say that about animals.”

Theo shakes his head. “No, it wasn’t Brigid. But it does involve her. And the vandals.”

“The vandals? Theo…” She blows out an exasperated breath. “I love you dearly, but please… can you just come out with it?”

Theo nods, then inhales—holds it for a count—then says, “The vandals stole Brigid last night, lured her up the towpath with biscuits. I followed ’em, made it so far as that same building site up on Bowen’s Plaza, where they were trying t’ get her in the back of a van.”

Jayne gasps and almost drops the apple. “Did you take them on? Alone? Do you know how dangerous that could have been? Theo, I’m so pleased you brought her home, but you are so much more important.”

I slip my hand down over his sore butt and squeeze, hoping to enforce that point. He offers me a wan smile.

“No, I know. I knew it then too, but it’s just…” He pats Brigid’s neck, and I notice a thin abraded line through the fur. Rope. “Anyway, she’s safe—as are the rest o’ the herd—but I overheard them talking t’ someone on the phone, and I know who’s behind it all.”

“The vandalism?” Jayne asks, fully invested.

Theo nods. “The developer who bought the rest o’ the land, they want the Old Dairy too. I heard Mister Stoker on the phone say he was ‘paying them handsomely,’ and—”

“Sabotage, Theo? Are you sure? That’s a really serious accusation.” Jayne’s hands fall lax when he nods emphatically.

“I have evidence…”

Jayne’s face twists into a snarl of disgust. “Land developer, you say? Why is it always the rich who get richer? We barely scrape by as is. I’m a community charity recipient, Theo. I simply can’t afford to go up against that kind of money. Especially not if they’re prepared to sink to such depths.”

He takes her hands in his, Brigid having eaten all the apple, and quietly acknowledges, “They’re dead now, though. They can’t hurt her, or this place, anymore.”

Jayne’s expression hardens. “A man like this Stoker character? That won’t stop him. He’ll find more.”