Chapter 17: STILL WATER
The lake looked different in evening light.
Logan stood at the window of his bedroom, watching the last rays of sunset paint the water gold and orange. Peaceful. Beautiful. The kind of scene that should have been calming.
All he could think about was what was underneath.
"Trevor Lefkowitz. Age 26. Died at a party in this house. His friends carried his body to the lake and dumped it. Twenty feet deep, twelve feet from the eastern shore."
The meta-knowledge sat in his head like a tumor. He knew exactly where Trevor's body was. He knew who'd put it there. He knew the whole story — how Trevor's "friends" had panicked after his cocaine-induced heart attack, how they'd decided covering up his death was easier than explaining it, how they'd weighted his body and dropped it in the lake like garbage.
"And Trevor doesn't know. He remembers the party. He remembers dying. But the rest is a blur."
The question was: what to do about it.
Dinner was pasta primavera.
Jay had finally mastered the recipe after the salt shaker incidents, and he was unreasonably proud of it. Sam ate with genuine enthusiasm. The ghosts drifted in and out, commenting on the food they couldn't taste.
Logan waited until Jay was describing his plans for expanding the B&B kitchen.
"Have you guys thought about the lake?" he asked.
Sam looked up. "The lake?"
"The property boundaries. If we own the shoreline, that could be a B&B feature. Kayaking, fishing, maybe a small dock for summer guests."
Jay's eyes lit up. "That's actually a great idea. The lake is beautiful — it would be a huge selling point."
"We'd need to check what's down there first," Sam said. "Make sure it's safe for swimming. No debris, no hidden hazards."
"We should do a cleanup," Logan agreed. "Before we start building anything."
At the far end of the table, invisible to Jay, Trevor went very still.
Logan had positioned himself to watch the ghost's reaction. Trevor's usual loose confidence had evaporated. His eyes moved to the window, to the darkening lake beyond, and something in his expression shifted.
Pete, sitting beside Trevor, noticed.
"You okay, man?"
Trevor didn't answer. He just kept staring at the water.
It was near midnight when Trevor found Logan on the porch.
The ghost moved through the wall silently, none of his usual swagger, none of the casual bravado that defined his personality. He stood at the porch railing and looked out at the lake for a long time before speaking.
"The lake," he said finally. His voice was flat. "My friends — after the party — I remember them carrying something heavy."
Logan said nothing.
"It was night. They were scared. I remember... I remember Chad saying we needed to move fast, before anyone else woke up." Trevor's hands gripped the railing, passing through the wood. "I remember being lifted. Carried. And then..."
He trailed off.
"And then nothing," he said. "Just... nothing."
The silence stretched between them. Logan could hear the soft lap of water against the shore, the wind in the trees, the distant call of a night bird.
"I think I'm down there," Trevor said. "In the lake. I think they dumped me like I was nothing."
His voice cracked on the last word.
Logan turned to look at him — really look, past the missing pants and the finance bro persona and all the defenses Trevor had built over twenty years of death. What he saw was a scared kid. A twenty-something who'd died stupid and been thrown away by people he'd called friends.
"Can you help Sam look?" Trevor asked. "I think... I need to know. If I'm down there. If they really..."
He couldn't finish the sentence.
"Yes," Logan said. "I'll help."
Trevor nodded once, sharply. Then he turned and walked back through the wall.
No swagger. No jokes. Just a dead man confronting the worst truth of his existence.
[OBSERVATION: TREVOR LEFKOWITZ — EMOTIONAL STATE CRITICAL.]
[INTERVENTION SUCCESSFUL. BODY SEARCH AUTHORIZED.]
[NOTE: HOST USED SOCIAL POSITIONING ONLY. NO ABILITIES EXPENDED. EFFICIENT.]
Logan stayed on the porch until the sky began to lighten.
He knew exactly where the body was. He knew exactly how this would play out. But knowing and doing were different things.
Tomorrow, he would suggest a lake cleanup.
Tomorrow, the discovery would begin.
Tonight, he just watched the water and thought about all the secrets it was holding.