The disclaimer telling all of you that I don't own any Ghosts characters has been revealed. Spoilers for Whodunnit?
Worse Than Jazz Argument
"So Hetty's son Thomas was the one who killed Alberta all this time?" Trevor was stunned as the majority of ghosts (minus Hetty and Alberta) gathered in the living room. "And Hetty knew about it?"
"I'm afraid so," Isaac remarked. "She didn't even tell me."
"Alberta did not take news well," Thorfinn sighed.
"Alberta won't even stand in the same room as Hetty," Isaac nodded. "It's already starting friction within the group."
"I can't say I blame Alberta for being angry," Pete admitted. "Hetty's the one who insisted for over a hundred years that Alberta had a heart attack when her own son murdered her! That's a pretty deep betrayal."
"At least it wasn't Alberta's own sister," Flower spoke up. "Or her boyfriend."
"No, they did a quite different betrayal," Isaac added. "Technically more Earl than Theresa. And Earl betrayed Alberta more than once so…"
"Still Hetty and Alberta are not in a good place right now," Flower sighed.
"Those two haven't had a fight this bad since the time Hetty said Jazz was overrated," Sasappis realized. "They didn't make up for almost two months!"
"Remember when Alberta first died and became a ghost?" Isaac added.
"I do," Sasappis nodded. "Alberta made it quite clear that certain things she put up with while she was alive, wouldn't fly now that she was dead. Took a while for Hetty to get the message."
"Those two fought like Swedes and Finns for almost twenty years," Thorfinn groaned.
"To be fair a lot of their fights were very entertaining," Sasappis nodded.
"So Hetty not getting along with me when I first died…" Trevor realized.
"It wasn't just you," Sasappis nodded. "Hetty's had problems with almost every ghost who died after her. And even us when she first died."
Pete blinked. "She didn't have a problem with me."
"That's because you're such a doormat!" Alberta snapped as she walked in. "Sorry Pete but the truth hurts."
Flower picked up on it. "And you're hurting too Alberta."
"I can't believe Hetty kept this secret for almost a century!" Alberta snapped. "How could she not tell me her son murdered me?"
"To be fair I can see how difficult that topic might be to broach," Isaac winced, the memory of his own confession to Nigel still fresh in his mind. "I mean what was she supposed to say? How are you doing this lovely day? Aren't the flowers nice? Oh, by the way I watched my son murder you?"
"IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A START!" Alberta snapped. "Of course, you'd be on Hetty's side."
"I'm just saying compared to my own experiences," Isaac paused.
"As a murderer," Sasappis added.
"I can understand the predicament Hetty was in," Isaac added. "I killed Nigel and didn't tell him."
"That's different Isaac," Alberta waved. "For starters you two were literally at war for hundreds of years even after you died. The two of you would have probably killed each other anyway! And second it was an accident. What happened to me was deliberate!"
"Yes but…" Isaac paused.
Alberta went on. "And Nigel knew that someone killed him! He didn't have to second guess and doubt what happened to him for over a hundred years! Or have someone lie to his face telling him he died of a heart attack when he was deliberately murdered!"
"But Hetty didn't kill you!" Isaac protested.
"But she covered for the guy who did!" Alberta shouted.
"Who was her own son!" Isaac pointed out. "She was his mother! She had strong maternal feelings to try and help him!"
"I wouldn't know about that Isaac!" Alberta snapped. "Because I was murdered before I had a family of my own!"
"I understand how you feel Alberta," Pete spoke up. "I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone you thought was a friend."
"Pete," Alberta glared at him. "All Jerry did was mess around with your wife! He didn't kill you!"
"Unless he hired little girl to murder Pete and make it look like accident," Thorfinn added.
"I wasn't deliberately murdered!" Pete snapped. "It was an accident!"
"Not so sure about that," Sasappis paused.
"You actually think that Jerry would hire a child to kill me?" Pete shouted.
"No," Thorfinn paused. "More likely she did it on her own."
"It was an accident!" Pete shouted. "I think!"
"Okay how about what happened to me?" Trevor spoke up. "I didn't know what my so-called friends did to my body! Sass kept the secret of what happened for over twenty years! He was just trying to protect me! I forgave him for that!"
"And Hetty was protecting a murderer," Alberta snapped. "Those fools weren't responsible for your death! You died by taking a lot of alcohol and bad pills that were just lying around."
"And you took some unknown moonshine that was just lying around," Sasappis pointed out. "Just saying…"
"Yeah! Yeah! We all did stupid things to get here Sass!" Alberta snapped. "But only one of us ended up deliberately murdered! Okay two if you count Pete but still…"
"Again, it was an accident!" Pete shouted. "Pretty sure it was an accident."
"I'm just saying I know how Hetty feels to keep such a damming secret inside of you for so long," Isaac spoke up.
"But you eventually manned up to Nigel," Alberta pointed out. "And again, he knew he was shot! You didn't gaslight him for that entire time!"
"I gotta say something," Nancy spoke up behind them.
"AAHH!" Isaac gasped along with the other ghosts. "It's frightening how quiet she can be!"
"Yeah, us basement ghosts can be really sneaky when we want to be," Nancy nodded. "Anyway, I'm with my girl Alberta here. She was betrayed at a very deep and personal level. That that is just not cool."
"Thank you, Nancy!" Alberta said.
"I know where you're coming from," Nancy said. "I still haven't forgiven Stuart for giving me the cholera that killed me. And neither have the rest of us basement ghosts. We just tolerate him because we're stuck with him. Oh, and to remind him that he gave us all cholera!"
Trevor blinked. "You haven't forgiven him for over three hundred years?"
"We can hold grudges for a long time," Nancy shrugged. "Plus, it's a fun thing to do on a really dull night. We call it Rag On Stuart For Giving Us Cholera! It's a great game! For most of us."
Pete blinked. "I think I just figured out one of the reasons why the basement ghosts are still here."
"My point is," Nancy spoke up. "Stuart deliberately hid the fact he had cholera and infected everyone with it and killed us. Alberta was deliberately poisoned. Why shouldn't she stay mad at Mrs. Golden Corset for covering up her murder?"
"Because Hetty wasn't responsible for Alberta's death," Isaac told her.
"No, she was just responsible for the cover up," Nancy quipped. "Speaking of which, hey Hot Stuff can you fix your shirt for a second? Not that I'm enjoying the view…"
"Sorry," Trevor winced and he carefully rearranged his shirt to cover himself. "I hate it when that happens!"
"We don't exactly love it either," Sasappis groaned.
"I'm not excusing Hetty's behavior," Isaac tried to clarify. "Or Thomas' for that matter. I think we can all agree what he did was reprehensible."
Flower spoke up. "Yeah, he could have just told Alberta that Earl was two timing her with him. Just saying that would have broken them up real fast."
Nancy agreed. "That's a good point."
"If anything would have broken us up, it would have been that," Alberta admitted.
"But I can understand why Hetty didn't say anything," Isaac went on. "She was raised in an era where women stayed silent. They were trained not to say anything against the men in their family."
"That still doesn't excuse her keeping my murder a secret for this long!" Alberta shouted. "She had all this time to tell me the truth and she didn't! And if anyone isn't with me on this, they're against me!" Alberta stormed out.
Isaac sighed. "I had a feeling she was going to react like that."
Pete nodded. "She's really upset. Boy who would have thought solving who murdered Alberta would have caused so much tension?"
"This isn't going to end right away, is it?" Trevor sighed.
"No, it will not," Isaac winced.
"This is worse than Jazz argument," Thorfinn winced.
"You think?" Sasappis looked at him.