Second Glance Part 8

Then, he'd been driving past the Pike property and was stopped by two girls riding their bikes. There was a lady wandering around Montgomery Road, they had said, looking lost. Last year, an elderly woman with Alzheimer's had driven off in her car and had been found dead of hypothermia two days later in a supermarket parking lot-for that reason alone, Eli had backtracked to the spot the kids had indicated. But whoever they had seen was gone by then, and Eli was more than twenty minutes late.

He sat down across from Jimmy Madigan and Knott Quinn. They lolled in their chairs in their metalhead T-shirts, torn jeans, black boots. High school dropouts, they were kids who floated on the fringe of society. For them to have willingly walked into a police station, they must have had quite a scare. "So you boys say you saw something on the Pike property?"

"Yeah," Jimmy said. "Three nights ago. We went for a dare, you know, because of what people say is going on there. And that's when we saw the thing."

"The thing?"

Jimmy looked at his friend. "We both saw it. It was, like, taller than both of us together. And it had these fangs . . ."

"Teeth," Knott agreed. "All jaggedy, like a hunting knife."

"And did this creature speak to you?"

The boys glanced at each other. "See, that's the weird thing. It looked like it was gonna kill us, you know, but when it opened that mouth it cried like a baby."

"Cried? Like, tears?"

Knott shook his head. "No, it wailed. Waa, waa. Waa, waa."

"And then it just disappeared," Jimmy added. "Like smoke."

"Smoke," Eli repeated. "Smoke. Interesting."

"Dude, I know you think we're making this up, but we're not. Knott and I both both saw it. I mean, that's gotta count for something." saw it. I mean, that's gotta count for something."

"Oh, I believe you saw it. Speaking of seeing things, you guys ever see these?" Eli pulled a small Ziploc bag filled with shriveled mushrooms from his breast pocket.

Knott's face went white. "Um, truffles?"

"Yeah, truffles," Eli said. "Is that what you're growing at home, Knott? Because that's not what one of Jimmy's customers told me."

"What the f.u.c.k, man? I don't know what you're talking about," Jimmy said.

"Great." Eli slid two pieces of paper onto the table. "Then you won't mind when we search your rooms. Because when we find nothing, I won't be able to charge you with possession with intent to distribute." He leaned forward, arms folded. "Maybe there is a ghost at the Pike property, and maybe there isn't. But getting high before you go looking just might stack the odds."

Tonight, Ross had brought equipment-not only the video camera but also one that took digital stills, as well as a thermal scanner-all ordered over the Internet on Shelby's credit card, a fact he hadn't yet broken to his sister. Ethan would have gotten a kick out of the gadgets, but he was home-Shelby's permissiveness apparently had reached its limit. It was shortly after eleven, about a half-hour before the ghost had appeared to Ethan last time. Ross hunkered down to wait. What he wanted, pure and simple, was to be as fortunate as his nephew had been.

He had set up his tools in a clearing behind the house, one that afforded him a good view of the backyard. Rod van Vleet had succeeded in razing half the house. That meant a spirit would move elsewhere-and there were nineteen acres of land to cover. The fact that Ross happened to start at the same spot where he'd met Lia Beaumont nights ago was, he told himself, just a coincidence.

For a while Ross listened to cricket sonatas and the courting of frogs. There were stars at his neck, tiny bites, and the moon pressed into the small of his back. He had no idea what time it was when he heard footsteps near the house. He glanced at his thermal scanner, but the temperature hadn't dropped enough to warrant the arrival of a spirit. Yet a moment later, as a figure stepped into his line of vision, his heart began to race.

The security guard from the quarry was not wearing his uniform, but Ross recognized him immediately; there just were not that many centegenarian Native Americans wandering around Comtosook. He was holding what seemed to be a white rose. "You?" Az said, frowning.

Ross shrugged. "I tend to go where the spirit takes me."

The Indian snorted. "So this time it took you right to working for those leeches."

"I'm in business for myself," Ross corrected. "They aren't paying me a dime."

The old man seemed to find this admirable, although he continued to scowl. "You're looking for ghosts again?"

"Yes."

"What would you do if you came across one?"

"A ghost? I don't know. I've never found one."

"You think these developers have a plan?"

Ross pictured van Vleet. "I imagine they'll want me to try to get rid of it."

Az's mouth tightened. "Yeah, round them all up and stick them on the Rez. You move them far enough, it's easy to believe they never existed here at all. Squatters' rights, they don't mean a d.a.m.n, do they?"

Ross didn't answer. He didn't know if the old man was expecting one, and he was afraid that whatever he said, it would be the wrong response. "You live around here?" he asked, changing the subject.

Az pointed to a campsite, barely visible across the road. "I come here, sometimes, at night. Senior citizens don't sleep much," he said dryly. "Why waste time doing something I'm going to be doing forever, soon enough?" Az started to move away, then turned back at the edge of the clearing. "If you find a ghost, you know, you won't get rid of it. No matter what Rod van Vleet wants."

Ross lifted a shoulder. "That's a pretty big if if."

"Not really. You've been surrounded by ghosts your whole life. You just don't know that's what you're seeing," Az said. "Adio, Mr. Wakeman."

He disappeared around the front of the house as the wind picked up. Ross shrugged into his jacket. He swallowed repeatedly, but could not get the taste of disappointment off his tongue. He told himself it was because Az had come, when Ross was hoping for a ghost. That it had nothing to do with the fact that Az had come, when Ross was hoping for Lia.

"I've had it!" the nurse cried, dropping the tray of pills. "I do not have to take this kind of treatment from a patient!"

Spencer Pike watched from his wheelchair, his hands folded in his lap. When he needed to, he could play the doddering fool well. He stared at a soap opera on the television set, feigning interest, as the supervisor approached.

She was a large woman with hair dyed the color of apricots. In his mind, Spencer called her Nurse Ratchet. "Is there a problem, Millicent?"

"Yes, there's a problem," the younger nurse fumed. "Mr. Pike's verbal abuse."

Ratchet sighed. "What did he say this time?"

Millicent's lower lip trembled. "He said . . . he said I'm an idiot."

"If I might interrupt, that's not what I said." Spencer turned to Ratchet. "I told her she came from a family of imbeciles. Not idiots. There is a difference, however subtle."

"You see?" Millicent huffed.

"I only asked if she was related to the Cartwrights of Swanton. It's a known fact that nearly half of that family tree grew up in state homes for the feebleminded." He did not say what he had so politely refrained from telling even Millicent Cartwright-that given the number of times she'd mistaken him for one of the other rest-home patrons, she seemed genetically wired to follow in the footsteps of her kin.

Millicent shrugged out of the cotton vest she wore as an employee of the nursing home. "I quit," she announced, and she walked out of the rec room, the heels of her white clogs crushing a rainbow of pills in her wake.

"Mr. Pike," Ratchet said, "that was uncalled for."

Spencer shrugged. People never wanted to face up to their own flaws. He ought to know.

In Dr. Calloway's office, Meredith felt like a giant-too big for the tiny chairs and table, too oversized to fit in the gingerbread playhouse with the wooden slide, too awkward to fit small stubs of crayons between her fingers to color. Lucy, though, fit perfectly. Across the room and out of earshot, she lay facedown on an enormous stuffed frog, dressing one of Barbie's anorexic friends.

"An isolated visual hallucination is rare," the psychiatrist said. "More often, psychotic symptoms present as auditory hallucinations, or agitated behavior." Dr. Calloway glanced at Lucy, quietly playing. "Have you seen any abrupt changes in her att.i.tude?"

"No."

"Violence? Acting out?" Meredith shook her head. "What about changes in her eating or sleeping patterns?"

Lucy hardly ever ate-skinny as she was, Meredith used to joke that her daughter photosynthesized instead-and as for sleeping, well, she hadn't gone straight through a night in ages. "Sleeping's a problem," she admitted. "Lucy's imagination runs away with her. She usually leaves the light on, and she gets herself so worked up about what's in her closet or under her bed that the only reason she even gets to sleep at all is because she pa.s.ses out from sheer exhaustion."

"It's possible that Lucy's suffering from the same anxieties any eight-year-old might have at bedtime." Dr. Calloway said. "And then again, it's possible that she is is seeing something in her closet and under her bed." seeing something in her closet and under her bed."

Meredith swallowed hard. Her child couldn't be psychotic, couldn't be. Not Lucy, who would rather hop than walk; who read picture books to her stuffed animals; who had just mastered all the words to "Miss Mary Mack." There was a truth in the back of Meredith's head, as sharp and blue as a flame: You didn't want her, once, and this is your punishment. You didn't want her, once, and this is your punishment.

"What do I do?" she asked.

"Just remember that eight is the age of Santa Claus and imaginary friends and make-believe. Children Lucy's age are just beginning to separate fantasy from reality-and there's a very good chance that whatever she's envisioning is part of that process."

"But if it keeps up?"

"Then I'd recommend starting Lucy on a low dose of Risperdal, to see if it makes a difference. Let's just wait and see."

"Okay." Meredith watched Lucy begin to braid the doll's hair. "Okay."

Ross wasn't hungry, so he didn't quite understand why he'd come to the town diner-an establishment that had been around as long as Comtosook, pa.s.sing like a plague through a chain of overweight, crochety owners who all believed that grease was a gourmet seasoning. Not that this seemed to affect business: when Ross arrived, every table and counter stool was taken. Settling against a mirrored wall to wait, he pulled out his pack of cigarettes. "Sorry," the waitress said, turning the moment he flicked on his lighter. "We're smoke-free."

It seemed ridiculous that an establishment whose menu catered to early heart attacks would be so hypocritical, but Ross just tucked his Merits back into his jacket. "I'll be around back," he told the waitress. "Can you save me a table?"

"That depends." She smiled. "Will you save me a cigarette?"

Now, five minutes later, he leaned against the Dumpster behind the diner and lit up, letting the smoke curl down his throat like a question mark. He crossed his eyes a little and watched the tip glow.

He should have brought a jacket-it was easily ten degrees colder back here. Temperature fluctuations like this were becoming customary in town, and its residents seemed to have turned a corner-instead of fearing these anomalies, they unpacked their winter boots and mittens, and left them beside their beach towels and suntan lotion, because either one might be called for. The best thing about New Englanders, Ross thought, was that when they finished complaining they swallowed fate like a dose of medicine-unpleasant in taste, but ultimately, something you'd get through all the same and be better for it. Ross pressed his shoulders against the dark metal wall of the Dumpster, stealing the heat it had trapped. Head bent, he tossed the rest of the cigarette away.

"You didn't even finish that."

He turned around. "Lia."

Ross would have known she was behind him even if she hadn't spoken; the scent of flowers was in the air. She ground out the b.u.t.t with her loafer, her fingers fluttering at her sides. She was wearing her polka-dotted dress again, this time with a beaded cardigan, as if she were embarra.s.sed to be seen in the same clothing and wanted to freshen it up.

"I've been looking for you," Lia said.

Her words didn't match her stance; she looked ready to bolt. There was something about her-something helpless, boxed-in, that seemed familiar to Ross. "I've been looking for you, too." As he said it, he realized how much this was true. He had been searching for Lia in the reflection of store windows, in the cars that pulled up beside him at traffic lights, in line at the drugstore.

"Did you find your ghost yet?"

"Not my my ghost," Ross clarified. " ghost," Ross clarified. "A ghost." He got to his feet, smiling. "Why were you looking for me?" ghost." He got to his feet, smiling. "Why were you looking for me?"

Lia spoke in a rush. "Because . . . I didn't get to tell you the other night . . . but I look for ghosts, too."

"You do?" This was such an unprecedented, enthusiastic response that it took Ross by surprise. Most people who believed in paranormal phenomena admitted it grudgingly.

"I'm an amateur, I suppose, compared to what you do."

"Have you found anything?" Ross asked.

She shook her head. "Has anyone anyone?"

"Sure. I mean, beyond spirit photography and mediums, there's been research from Princeton and the University of Edinburgh. Even the CIA did valid studies on ESP and telepathy."

"The CIA CIA?"

"Exactly," Ross said. "The government government even concluded that people can get information without using the five senses." even concluded that people can get information without using the five senses."

"That isn't proof of life after death."

"No, but it suggests consciousness is more than something physical. Maybe seeing a ghost is just a different form of clairvoyance. Maybe ghosts aren't even really dead, but alive somewhere in the past, and . . ." Ross's voice trailed off. "Sorry. It's just that . . . most people think what I do is crazy."

"I get that a lot too." Lia smiled a little. "And don't apologize. I've never met a scientist who doesn't get all excited about his work."

A scientist scientist. Had Ross ever been called that? It set off fireworks of feeling inside him-pride, astonishment, fascination. Certain that anything he did was going to ruin this moment, he reached for a cigarette as a delay tactic, and offered one to Lia. Her hand rose like a hummingbird, then darted behind her back. It had hovered long enough, however, for Ross to notice the thin gold band she was wearing.

And there went his world, crashing down again.

"He won't know," Ross said, meeting her gaze.

Lia stared at him. Then she took a cigarette from the pack and let Ross light it for her. She smoked like she was swallowing a secret-this was a treasure to be h.o.a.rded. Her eyes drifted shut; her chin rose to expose the line of her neck.

In that moment it did not matter that she was someone else's wife; that she was still looking over her shoulder; that whatever few minutes Ross had with her would only be borrowed. This might well have been the beginning of a mistake, and even that could not prevent Ross from letting her leave just yet. "Let me buy you a cup of coffee," he said.

She shook her head. "I can't-"

"No one will find out."

"Everyone comes to this diner. If he knows I was with you . . ."

"So what? Then you'll tell him the truth. We're two friends, talking about ghosts."

Wrong answer. Lia paled visibly, and Ross saw right through to her fragility again. "I don't have friends," she said quietly.

No friends. And you're not allowed to have a cup of coffee, and you have to sneak out in the dead of night. Ross could not even conjure a mental image of this tyrant who dominated Lia so completely. In today's world, what husband would do such a thing? What woman would think so little of herself to let it happen? "What if I cover your head with a paper bag and tell everyone you've got leprosy?"

She fought a smile. "I can't drink coffee through a paper bag."

"I'll ask for a straw." Lia was weakening, he could see it in the sway of her knees. "One cup," Ross pleaded.

"All right," she agreed. "One cup." She took a long drag of her cigarette, her throat contracting as her eyes pinned him. "Have we met?"

"Two nights ago."

"I meant before that."