Ghost Of A Chance Part 10

I shook my head. "I don't know. It's just...have you ever had a feeling like something important was said, but you missed it?"

"No."

"Then you're lucky. Somehow, I feel like she said something that I wanted to think about, but I was distracted, and now it's gone."

"It'll come back to you." He watched Savannah at the door for a moment.

"Will you come with me when I try to talk to your husband?"

"Sure, although I doubt it will do any good. He seldom listens to me in the best of circ.u.mstances."

He gave me a long look with his icy blue eyes.

"Spider is extremely stubborn; I'm just warning you of that."

"I intend to make him see reason."

"Well, we can but try. Pixie, what on earth are you doing?"

"It's Obsidian Angel! Deus, you have the memory of an ice cube!"

"Fine, Obsidian Angel, what are you doing with that bar of soap?"

"Drawing a circle, obviously." The look she gave me said in no uncertain terms what she thought of my IQ. "So we can summon a ghoul. I'd give anything to be able to talk to a real ghoul."

"You wouldn't get much talking done before it tried to strip the flesh off your bones," Adam said under his breath. "Stop rubbing soap on my floor."

She threw down the bar of soap with a muttered oath. "You people are n.a.z.is! First you question me; now you're telling me what to do! What's next, the rack? Hot irons? Bamboo under my fingernails?"

"That's tempting...," Adam said, giving her a gimlet eye.

She threw herself into a chair, arms crossed, her expression hostile.

"Honestly, men! And they say women take forever. Shall I go over the procedures while we wait for Meredith and Mr. Marx?" Savannah asked, coming back to the table. I stopped fidgeting and tried to put a pleasant expression on my face, but judging by the sympathetic looks my father was sending my way, I was afraid my reluctance was all too apparent.

Savannah chatted for a few moments about the seance, what she would be doing, along with our role in the proceedings.

"It sounds pretty straightforward. Does your group do many seances?" A thought struck me. I glanced at my watch.

"Only when we have a truly promising location, like this wonderful house."

"Ah. Um...what happened to your group?"

She blinked at me. "I beg your pardon?"

"Your group, the PMSers. You said they were due here at eleven, yes? It's a quarter to midnight. They must have discovered by now that they can't get into the house, and are probably worried sick about your safety."

"Oh!" She beamed a happy smile at me. "You're sweet to worry, but there's absolutely no need. I called Mac-he's the vice president-a little bit ago and told him the event was canceled."

"Ah. You must have a cell phone?"

She made a little face. "G.o.ddess, no! I am a complete technophobe. No cell phone or computer for me. I prefer to do things the old-fashioned way. I used Adam's phone to call Mac." She leaned toward me, lowering her voice. "I didn't think it was wise to tell them everything that's happened here."

"I'm sure that's for the best. Things are confusing enough." I met Adam's gaze. He raised both eyebrows, indicating he'd caught Savannah's lie. The sealing he had enacted affected the structure of the house-including the landline. A cell phone could get out, but not a phone with lines physically inside the house.

She clearly didn't know that, but her ignorance highlighted the question of why on earth she had lied about phoning someone. Evidently Adam didn't think it was a big deal. I wondered if her group could be quite as enthusiastic as she was. Perhaps no one had shown up, and she decided to cover up that fact by making it seem she'd sent them away.

Then again, maybe she had an ulterior motive for making us think she was a member of a psychic group when she wasn't. ... I shook my head at such unfounded suspicions. I'd been around my father too long and was obviously seeing mysteries where there were none.

8.

After a desultory bit of conversation dropped off entirely, Savannah tsked at her watch and frowned at the door. "Where can they be? You said they couldn't get out?"

"No. The house is sealed," Adam said. "No one will get in or out until Spider agrees to go to a mediator about the house."

"I hope you have plenty of food stocked up, because that could be a very long time," I warned.

"I'm working on it. I've got a call in to my lawyer."

"Well, just so long as this sealing is finished by morning, I'm fine with it,"

Savannah said, blithely unaware of the glances Adam and I were exchanging.

Clearly she had no concept of just what Adam had done.

"Do you want to tell her, or should I?" I asked him.

"Tell me what?" she asked, looking from me to Adam.

"This ought to be good," Pixie told my father as he returned from the bathroom. He just smiled happily at her.

Adam cleared his throat. "You'll probably do it better than me. I'm not good with explanations."

"That's a cop-out if I ever heard one," my father said.

Unable to sit next to Savannah while I worked out a way to tell her what was going on, I got out of the chair and went over to the fireplace, then fiddled with the porcelain figurines on the mantelpiece.

"What are you talking about?" Savannah asked. "What do you need to tell me? Why is Karma so nervous?"

"I'm not nervous, I'm just...oh, never mind. The sealing that Adam has conducted won't be over in a few hours," I said, moving on to the window.

"Adam is a member of a powerful group of people in the Otherworld."

"Otherworld?" She frowned.

I tidied up a collection of postcards in a bowl on the sideboard. "It's a collective name for those people who aren't mortal. There's a French term for it, too, but I can never p.r.o.nounce it. Most people call it the Otherworld. Adam is a part of that, and as such, he has powers that go beyond those of mortal people. Seals last for twelve hours."

"But I have appointments in the morning!" Savannah said hotly. "I have things to do! I can't stay here in this house for another ten or eleven hours!

Why can't this Otherworld place make Spider give back the house?"

"I'm hoping we can clear this up by mundane legal means, without involving the Otherworld any further," Adam said with a frown at me as he rearranged the things I had just tidied.

She didn't looked soothed by his words. "I don't care. I'm not going to stay here once the sun is up. My husband will have something to say about that, as well. Meredith! Meredith! Oh, where is that man...?" She jumped up and headed out the door, calling for her husband.

"We aren't going to have the seance?" Pixie asked, pouting just a little.

"Apparently we have to wait for the two men," Dad said.

"Dammit," Adam said. He got up and started after Savannah. "They'd better not be doing anything to harm the house, or there will be h.e.l.l to pay."

"I don't want to miss this," my father said, leaping up to follow Adam.

Pixie sighed, tucked away her iPod, and ran to the stairs leading to the bas.e.m.e.nt.

I grabbed the back of my father's shirt just before he reached the stairs, and whispered in his ear, "I want to have a couple of words with you."

"About what?" he asked, still not meeting my eyes. He fairly twitched at being in my grip. I released him, frowning.

"What's wrong with you? What have you been up to?"

"Why do I have to be up to anything?" he asked, straightening his shirt with exaggerated care.

"Because you're nervous as a scalded toad. You can't stand still, your eyes are shifty, and you were apporting earlier when you came into the room. What were you doing when I came downstairs?"

"You are not the police. I do not have to answer your questions," my father said, tossing his head and inching toward the top stair.

I grabbed his arm to keep him from continuing. "No, but Adam is, and he's suspicious enough from me telling him you're up to mischief."

"I have better things to do than submit to your inquisition." He yanked his arm from my grasp and hurried down the stairs to the bas.e.m.e.nt.

I was right behind him. "That's only part of what I wanted to talk to you about. Spider said something earlier that I think is important."

"Spider did?" He stopped so quickly, I ran into his back.

"Yes. Did you know he was having s.e.x with Bethany?"

The horrified expression on my father's face said it all.

I nodded. "I think the police would like to know about that."

Dad swore in Poltern, the half-knocking, half-clicking poltergeist language that was so often mistaken by mortals as spirit rapping.

"I agree one hundred percent, Dad. But ... do you think we should leave it for the mundane police? We could bring in the watch, since it involved Bethany, and you know as well as I do that the watch would take a much sterner view of the situation, since they have fewer legal issues to work through.

If we could let Adam deal with the situation, it might be quicker and easier."

"We won't have to wait for Adam or the rest of the watch. Your uncle will geld Spider," Dad whispered as we stepped into a dimly lit long L-shaped room.

"He'll have to get in line. I plan on doing a little neutering myself," I said, the need to see justice done leaving an acid taste in my mouth.

"Meredith? What on earth are you doing down here?" Ahead of us Savannah stood with hands on hips as she peered around the cluttered bas.e.m.e.nt. Two naked bulbs dangled from the ceiling, casting not very much light on the area. The bas.e.m.e.nt seemed to be filled with the detritus of the house's lifetime: a modern washer and dryer were next to the door, but beyond them I could see an old-fashioned washer and wring board, a winepress, several broken wooden chairs, wooden crates stacked to the ceiling, lawn equipment, and a.s.sorted large bulky bits of furniture.

My father nodded toward a rusty scythe that was held against the wall by a stack of boxes bearing bricks, old weight-lifting equipment, and several iron fireplace implements. "Just the thing for a neutering."

"Tempting," I whispered back to him. "I think we should tell Adam what Spider was doing with Bethany, and let the watch deal with the whole thing."

Dad shook his head. "I'm not sure it would do any good. Adam seems a bit preoccupied with his own problems. Besides which, would he see s.e.x with a minor polter as just cause to tackle a mortal? It's difficult enough for the Akashic League to punish one of them; perhaps he wouldn't want to get involved in that."

"They will take on mortals if the situation warrants their intervention, and I definitely think this does," I said quietly, my heart filled with so much anguish I wanted to sit down and sob. "Adam's going to be our only hope. We have to make him understand what happened, so he can see that justice is done."

"I don't think there will be any problem in finding people who have a score to settle with Spider," Dad replied as he trailed after me.

Ahead of us, Adam, Savannah, and Pixie paused, looking around the room. There was no one else to be seen.

"I like this bas.e.m.e.nt," Pixie said, examining a large stuffed vulture that lurched drunkenly on a metal seaman's trunk. "There are some nice things here."

"Are you sure they're down here?" Savannah asked Adam. "Maybe they slipped out the back way?"

"No one can enter or leave," Adam answered, his eyes narrowing as he pushed past a stack of boxes. "There's a door on the other side. If they broke it trying to get out ..."

"Meredith?" Savannah picked her way around miscellaneous boxes to the part of the room kitty-corner to us. "I insist that you come out from wherever you're hiding. Are you over he- Oh, dear G.o.ddess! Nooo!"

There wasn't much room to move in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Adam stopped next to a small rowboat that leaned against the wall, his large body blocking the view. I hurried up behind him, peering over his shoulder, gasping in surprise at the sight before us.

Savannah was on her knees, pulling large black bound books off the body of her husband, her sobs alternating with a chantlike prayer.

"Good lord. Is he all right?" I asked, squatting next to her when Adam moved to the other side. A huge dark bookcase lay on the floor, propped up by a small mountain of books. "Dad, use my cell phone to call an aid unit. Pixie, go upstairs. Here, Savannah, let me help you..."

It took us only a few seconds to clear off Meredith. Although the books themselves were heavy-they looked to be an ancient set of encyclopedias-he hadn't been struck with the bookcase itself.

"Is he dead?" Pixie's voice sounded strained.

I shot a frown at her over my shoulder. "This is no place for you. Go upstairs, please."

"I'm not a child! Besides, I've seen dead bodies before."

"You what? When?"

She wore her inscrutable look. "I've seen a lot of reality shows about homicides and stuff."

"Thank the G.o.ddess, he's alive," Savannah said, her voice choked as she wiped blood off her husband's face.