Ghost Of A Chance Part 26

She toyed with the amulet bag for a moment, then shoved me aside and sauntered over to the couch. "You all think you're so clever; you figure it out."

"Oh, it's not as difficult as you think," I said, slowly walking around the couch to face her. "We know you want this house."

"Eh?" Dad looked confused.

"Why else would you spin such a song and dance about wanting to buy it from me?"

"You're not going to sell, are you?" Tony asked, leaping to his nearly invisible feet.

I waved him and Jules back into their seats. "The house isn't mine to sell; it's Adam's, but even if it wasn't, I wouldn't sell. It's sanctuary...but you knew that long before you got here, didn't you, Savannah?"

"Of course she did," Adam answered for her. He strode into the middle of the room. "Every member of the mortal family who lived here knew what the house was. And you're part of that family, aren't you?"

Her eyes all but spat fire. She leaped to her feet and accosted him, shoving her face into his. "I'm part of the family from whom you stole this house, yes.

And I intend to have it back! Don't think I don't know what you did; you tricked my great-grandfather into handing the house over to you. You drove him insane in order to get your hands on the house, but I'm not as weak as he is, and I intend to get back what's mine!"

"Oh, really?" I c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at her. "If you're so determined, why has it taken you so long to confront Adam? Could that be because you know you don't have a foot to stand on legally?"

She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. "I have every legal right to this house, and I will be pet.i.tioning the Akashic League to recognize my true ownership."

"She's bluffing," my father said. "Take it from one who knows how to bluff. Karma's right: if she had any true claim on the house, she would have acted on it long ago,"

"You people don't know anything," she snarled, and stomped back to the couch.

"I wonder," Adam mused, stroking his chin. "It's true that she can't get the house from me by conventional means. But does she want it badly enough to commit murder for it?"

Her head snapped around to glare at him.

"You mean that she might have killed Spider to force the League to give the house to her?" I shook my head. "I don't see that the one would ensure the other."

"She might have a case for claiming the house if I was charged with the murder," he said in the same slow, thoughtful voice.

"But you didn't kill him," Dad said. "And there's no reason to think you did."

"No, but she might have thought that if I was discredited enough, it might be easier to pet.i.tion for ownership of the house. The League takes sanctuaries very seriously; they wouldn't want one in the control of someone who demonstrates blatant irresponsibility."

Pixie lifted her chin from on her hand, where it had rested. "Weak."

I nodded. "I agree; it's weak."

"True, but it does give her a motive, which we were missing. However, I think we can clear her from the possible charge of murder."

"I'm grateful for such kindness," she said in a snarky tone.

Adam ignored it. "She wasn't alone long enough to have killed Spider.

There was only a very small window of opportunity for the murderer to get downstairs and do the job. Nita, how long was it from the time you heard Spider and Meredith enter the bas.e.m.e.nt, to the sounds of a struggle?"

I'd almost forgotten that Amanita was in the room, so silent and still was she. She hadn't moved from her perch on the footstool in the corner, and somehow, without appearing to slouch, gave the impression that she was curled up in a defensive posture. She jumped slightly when Adam turned to address her. "Oh, me? How long? About half a minute. Maybe less. Not very long at all. I heard the men talking, and then the sounds of breathing and grunting, and then nothing."

"As I thought." Adam turned back to us. "There wasn't time for anyone mortal to get downstairs that quickly. Which basically eliminates everyone who isn't a polter."

I leaned heavily against the nearest chair. "You're saying a polter killed Spider?" I looked from him to my father to Pixie. I shook my head. "I don't believe it. None of you had a reason to want him dead."

"Oh, I wouldn't have minded bashing his brains in," my father piped up cheerfully. "But as it happens, I didn't. I knew Karma would never forgive me if I did."

"We're going to have a very long talk later," I told him with a stern look.

"I didn't kill him, either, although I kinda wanted to after he hit on me,"

Pixie announced.

"He what?" Dad spun around to look at her.

"He hit on me." She gave a little shrug and tried hard to be insouciant, but failed. "It's not a big deal. Nothing for you to go all eyes bugging out like you are."

"My eyes do not bug out," Dad protested. "And you don't realize the seriousness of what you're saying."

She tipped her head to one side. "I'm not stupid, you know. I know more than you think. But it wasn't a big deal. Karma was there."

All eyes turned to me.

"Is that true?" Adam asked, his face unreadable.

"Not exactly," I said, my gaze dropping. "I was sick in the bathroom a couple of times. The first time I came out. Spider was standing next to Pixie, but she shoved him aside and ran off. I didn't see him hit on her...although I had no doubt that was in his mind."

Adam's voice was rich with anger. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

I lifted my eyes to his. "I honestly didn't think it was important. I could see that Pixie wasn't harmed, or even overly upset."

"Yeah," she said with complacency. "Guys. .h.i.t on me all the time. It's no big deal."

"Regardless, you should have told me," Adam said, his stare continuing to bore into mine.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't want to involve Pixie in it any more than she was.

If it makes you feel any better, I've been angsting about it all morning."

His jaw tightened. "It doesn't. Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

I shook my head, feeling about as low as a snake's belly b.u.t.ton.

"Well, I have something to say!" my father said, his voice loud. "His killer should be given a medal for bravery! Spider deserved to die! He was having s.e.x with minors!"

"He what?" Adam asked, looking more than a little startled.

"He was molesting children," Dad said, waving toward me. "Karma said earlier he bragged as much to her."

I nodded wearily as Adam turned his gaze on me. "He admitted upstairs that he was having physical relationships with teenage polters."

Adam frowned, mouthing silently, "Bethany?"

I nodded again, my eyes flickering to Pixie.

"He wasn't the only one," Savannah murmured, smiling acidly at her husband.

Adam looked between the two of them. "Are you saying your husband s.e.xually abused children, as well?"

"Not human children, no. Like Spider, Meredith had a taste for polters."

I held my father back as he tried to leap forward.

"Are you willing to swear to that in court?" Adam asked, his voice flinty.

She brushed an invisible speck of dirt off her skirt. "I suppose so. His peccadilloes can have no bearing on my situation."

"So we've got two child molesters!" Dad said, glaring at Meredith as he shrugged off my restraining hand. "I hope they hang him. But...wait. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that eliminate everyone? If Pixie didn't do it, and I certainly didn't do it, and Adam didn't do it ... that's all the polters present."

"Who says Adam didn't do it?" Savannah demanded.

"I say I didn't," he answered, glowering at her.

"That's fine and well, but just where were you while he was being killed?"

she asked.

"I went upstairs to check on Nita and the boys."

Her smile was one of profound smugness. "But they weren't there. They said themselves that they were in the kitchen, eavesdropping."

"It wasn't so much eavesdropping as overhearing.... Sorry. Lock and key."

Tony's voice subsided into silence.

"And you just said that your girlfriend was in the bas.e.m.e.nt, with the two men. What was to stop her from having killed Spider? She wouldn't have needed polter quickness to get to him, since she was right there."

Amanita gasped. "I didn't!" she said, her voice breathy with fear.

"So you say, but what proof do we have that you didn't? For that matter, what proof do we have that Adam didn't polter his way downstairs and do it?

For all we know, you two might have been in it together."

"But . , . we weren't! I didn't!" Amanita looked truly frightened. For a moment I considered her as a possible suspect, but dismissed the idea.

"Stop scaring Nita," Adam said, moving over to put a supportive hand on her shoulder. "She couldn't have killed Spider, for the simple fact that she's a unicorn-and they can't harm mortals."

She nodded vehemently. "I can't! Not even if I wanted to!"

"Oh, that's an old wives' tale," Savannah said, dismissing it with an airy wave of her hands.

Adam's eyebrows pulled together. "No more so than the one that says all Guardians are tainted by the dark power they supposedly repress."

"Ooh, nice one, Adam," my father said, licking his finger and drawing a tally mark in the air. "That's one for our team."

"Very well, I'm willing to concede the unicorn, but that still leaves you,"

Savannah said.

Adam dropped his hand from Amanita's shoulder. "No, it doesn't. I didn't murder Spider."

Savannah crossed her legs and arched one delicately shaped eyebrow. "You had a reason to want him dead, the ability to get to him in time without anyone seeing you, the strength to kill him, and you refuse to say where you were during that oh-so-important few minutes when Spider was killed. That says 'guilty' to me."

"I don't care what it says to you; I'm not guilty."

Dad looked troubled...The two spirits looked equally troubled, their heads together as they whispered. Pixie watched everything with bright eyes.

I said slowly, "I have to admit, Adam, it doesn't look too good. What exactly were you doing during the time Spider was being killed?"

"Blast it all to h.e.l.l and back again!" His jaw worked a couple of times, indicating the amount of control he was commanding. "I couldn't have killed him because I wasn't in the d.a.m.ned house, all right?"

Of all the excuses I was expecting him to make, this wasn't one. Judging by the exclamations of surprise and astonishment from the others, they were just as taken aback.

"I thought the house was sealed," Pixie said.

"I thought so, too." I looked questioningly at Adam.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, scowling something fierce. "The house is sealed. I ... er ... called in a few favors and had a friend summon me out of the house to the League offices. The same friend shoved me back through a rift."

"What's a rift?" Pixie leaned forward to ask in a whisper.

"Sort of a rip in the fabric of reality. Kind of like a portal to wherever you're going."

"Cool. Can we make those?"

"No."

"You left the house? You said no one could leave the house!" Savannah said, her voice rising on the last few words.

"No one can...without expert help." Adam was still scowling, but embarra.s.sment tinged his dark expression.

"Spill," I said, propping myself up on the arm of the couch.

"I wanted to see if it was possible to get the League involved in the matter of the house. Once I sealed it, I knew Spider couldn't go anywhere, so I called a mage friend and had him summon me to the League office. I explained the situation, and they promised to send a mediator just as soon as the seal was lifted." He glanced at his watch. "Which should be in less than an hour now."

"Why didn't you just tell us that's where you'd gone?" I asked.

His gaze slid toward Savannah. "I figured if you all knew there was a way to leave, you'd be after me to get you out of here, and I wanted Spider to stay put until the mediator arrived."