“The window,” Chris told Derek, pointing. “Get her out on the roof.”
Chris climbed out onto the top of the front porch cover and turned to help get Marsha through the window. Once they were outside, Marsha suddenly gasped and started coughing. Behind them, inside the bedroom, all the flying objects suddenly fell to the floor with a clatter, and the door opened.
Chris blew out a breath of relief as Marsha continued to draw air in. “It’s okay,” she said, kneeling beside Marsha and patting her back. “B b reathe.”
“She needs an ambulance,” Derek said. “We should at least drive her to the emergency room and get these bruises checked out. She might have serious damage to her esophagus.”
Marsha shook her head. “No,” she gasped. “No hospital.” And then she started to sob.
Joe leaned out the window. “Whatever that thing was seems to be gone. Or it’s behavin’ itself for now, at any rate.”
“Let’s get you back inside,” said Chris. “It should be safe now.”
“No!” Marsha scooted away from the window. “Not back in there!”
“Do you have a ladder?” asked Derek.
“Yeah. It’s around back. There’s a little lean-to against the house.”
“Wait here with her. I’ll go get it. You can both climb down and come in through the front door.” He leaned down to make eye contact with Marsha. “Is that okay?”
She nodded. With another look at Chris, he climbed in through the window.
As soon as he was gone, Marsha’s face crumpled. She buried her face in her hands. Chris knelt beside her, patting her silently on the back, not sure what else to do. After it became clear that Marsha needed some tissue, and lots of it, Chris started to duck back inside. But Marsha gripped her arm and pulled her back. “Don’t leave me!”
“I’m going to get you a tissue.”
“Don’t go in there. It’s not safe.”
“I’ll be all right. Derek made it okay, see?”
Marsha shook her head. “I don’t need a tissue. It’s fine.” She wiped her nose on her pajama sleeve.
“Okay.” Chris rearranged herself until she was sitting next to Marsha. “I’m not going anywhere, see?”
With a weak smile, Marsha said, “Thanks.” Then, after a long pause, she asked, “Why is this happening to me?”
“I don’t know. But we’re not going to stop until we find answers. I promise.”
“Do you have any theories?”
Chris sighed. “Well, we’re pretty sure it’s a poltergeist.”
Marsha looked at her in alarm. “Like the thing in that movie that trapped the little girl in the TV?”
“That was only a movie. I’m pretty sure that’s never actually happened.”
“Only pretty sure?”
“Well, these things aren’t exactly predictable, as you’ve seen.”
“But what is it?”
“A poltergeist is a mischievous spirit that can impact the material world more than your average ghost.”
“Spirit. Are we talking, like, a demon?”
“I honestly don’t know. That’s one theory. Another is that poltergeists are the spirits of infants and small children who never developed a capacity for reason. Since we know that human ghosts like my sister can channel emotional energy into becoming solid enough to touch and move objects, it makes sense that an infant ghost driven purely by emotion could be this volatile…”
She trailed off as she noticed the pained look on Marsha’s face. It was hard to tell in the soft glow of the street lights, but it seemed like she had grown even paler than before. “I’m sorry. You don’t need to hear all of this right now.”
Marsha merely nodded. They sat together in silence until the top of a ladder clattered against the edge of the roof. The sound made Marsha jump. “Come on down, ladies,” Derek called up.
“Why don’t you go first?” Chris suggested. “I’ve got your back.”
Marsha nodded and crawled over to the ladder. Once she climbed down, Chris followed. “Why don’t we go back inside?” she asked once her feet were on the ground. “We’ll go in the living room. Derek and I will both stay with you. Since we’re all up, maybe we can hash out some ideas and figure out what’s going on.”
Again, Marsha nodded and allowed herself to be guided inside. In the living room, she tucked herself into a corner of the sofa. When Derek brought her a drink from the kitchen that was quite a bit more potent than wine, she accepted it with a murmur of thanks, but otherwise, she barely spoke a word.
“Can we talk for a minute?” Derek asked.
Chris tore her gaze away from Marsha. “Sure, what is it?”
He glanced at Marsha, then jerked his head toward the hall. “Out here.” Without waiting for an answer, he headed out of the room, clearly expecting her to follow.
Chris watched him go, torn between following him and staying with Marsha. “Go,” said Marsha. “It’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
She offered Chris a weak smile and held up her drink. “Sure. I’ve got all the courage I need right here.”
“We’ll be right out here. This should only take a minute.” Marsha nodded, and Chris went out into the hall, where Derek was pacing back and forth. “What is it?”
“What on earth happened tonight?”
“I don’t know. Everything was fine when we went to bed. Then I woke up and that thing was choking her.”
He took hold of her face with both hands and turned her cheek toward him. “And how did you get this?”
Chris raised a hand to her cheek and felt a tender bruise along her cheekbone. In all the frenzy, she’d forgotten about getting knocked down. Now that he’d drawn her attention to it, it began to throb. “It knocked me away when I tried to help her.”
Releasing her, Derek closed his eyes and swore. “You’re lucky that was all it did. What if that thing had decided to choke you instead of her?”
“Then I guess I’d be the one huddled on the couch with a glass of Jameson’s.”
“Don’t joke about this.”
“I’m not. But I’m not the one that thing is fixated on.”
“So? You don’t know how this thing thinks. You don’t know whether it might decide to target you.” He rubbed his face and shook his head. “I told you it was a bad idea to—” He seemed to check himself and glanced into the living room at Marsha. Then he jerked his head toward the kitchen and headed down the hall. Chris followed. Once they reached the kitchen, with his voice lowered, he said, “It was a bad idea to bring her here.”
“Then what should I have done?”
“I don’t know!” He started to pace. “Man. This thing… You told me these things could get dangerous, but I don’t think I realized how dangerous.”
Chris’s heart sank. She let out a knowing laugh as she folded her arms. “Well, it took you longer than most, but I guess I always figured you’d get there eventually.”
“Don’t.” Derek held up a finger to stop her. “Don’t you dare. You think I’m afraid for myself? You’re the one who could’ve been killed tonight. And yeah, that terrifies me. So sorry if that makes me a bad boyfriend.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“Yeah, you did.”
“I’m sorry.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t want apologies. I want you safe.” With his hands on his waist, he looked around the kitchen as if he might find answers there. Finally, he looked at her. “Maybe you should think about calling it quits.”
“What? I can’t abandon Marsha.”
“No, I don’t mean that. Of course you can’t. But do you have to put yourself so deep in harm’s way to help her?”
“Do you see another way?”
“No, but maybe that’s because we haven’t looked hard enough.”
Chris leveled her gaze at him. “I’ve told you from the beginning. This is what I do. You can’t expect me to walk away.”
“I can’t do that!”
“Why not?” he asked again. “When will you be able to, Chris? What happens when we have a family?” At her shock, he closed his eyes. “If. If we have a family. Someday.”
“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. If we come to it. But you’re not my husband and you don’t get to make these decisions. And you wouldn’t even if you were!” She turned to go, but he hurried over and grabbed her arm.
“Chris, wait. You know that’s not—”
“I need to get back to Marsha. She shouldn’t be alone.” She pulled away from him and went back to the living room. Marsha wasn’t there. “Marsha?” she called.
Derek came in behind her. “Where’d she go?”
“I don’t know.”
Ron and Joe appeared. “We searched the house from top to bottom,” said Ron. “We couldn’t find anything. Of course, if this thing is invisible to us, then we don’t really know what to look for.”
“Did you see Marsha?”
“I saw her headin’ back up to your room,” said Joe.
“I’d better go check on her. You guys wait here.” Chris started for the stairs. She was only up a couple of steps when she heard a car door slam outside. She retreated and hurried to the front door in time to see a yellow cab pulling away from the curb, her stomach sinking as it went. She swore and ran up the stairs. When she reached her bedroom, she flung the door open.
Marsha was gone. So was her bag and her stuff.
Ron popped into the room and looked around, then looked at Chris. “Where did she go?”
“I don’t know. But for her sake, we’d better find out fast.”
Chapter Thirteen
They split up to cover more ground. Derek went to check Marsha’s parents’ place. Joe stuck with Marsha, tracking her whereabouts, but until she got where she was going, he wouldn’t be able to report back with anything helpful. Rather than waiting, Chris decided to head to the grandmother’s estate. Ron went with her.
“Do you really think she’d go back there?” Ron asked Chris as she navigated through the early morning traffic on the expressway.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure where else she’d go, other than back to her parent’s place.”
“Well if she does, I hope the white lady’s in a silent mood tonight. Marsha’s in no state to withstand an emotional onslaught like that.”
“I know. Which is why I’m hoping we can beat her there.” Chris moved into the passing lane and sped up as if to give proof to her words.
“I don’t get why she’d take off. I mean, I know she’s scared, but what makes her think she’s safer on her own than with us?”
Chris thought back to her fight with Derek and gripped the wheel harder. Maybe this had nothing to do with that. But if Marsha had heard them… “Maybe she doesn’t want to put the rest of us in danger. I don’t know, though. There was something else…” Chris fell silent as she thought over their time on the roof.
“What?” Ron asked after too much silence passed.
“While we were on the roof, waiting for the ladder, I started telling her about poltergeists.”
“Did you really think that was the best time and place for that conversation?”
Chris shot her a look. “She asked. Anyway, I mentioned the theory about infant spirits, and that seemed to really upset her.”
“It’s a pretty upsetting theory.”
“Yeah, but this wasn’t the ‘Wow, that’s really messed up’ kind of upset. It was more like… I don’t know. Like it was personal, somehow.”
“Well, she did lose her baby niece. Maybe she was thinking about how awful it would be if that happened to that little girl.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Chris realized she was tailgating the hatchback in front of her. “It’s called the passing lane, you idiot! Pass someone or move back over!” She checked the lane to her right to make sure it was clear before moving over to go around the slower car.
“Okay, maybe you don’t need to be in quite such a hurry to get there.”
“What do you care? It’s not like your life is in danger.”
“No, but I’d prefer to see you get there in one piece. Are you sure this thing with Marsha is all that’s bothering you?”
Chris took a deep breath. She considered being evasive but knew it was no use. Her sister could read her like a book. She glanced over at Ron. “Derek and I had a fight.”
“When?”
“Tonight. Right before Marsha took off.”
“What about?”
“About Marsha. Or about my involvement in this.” She shook her head. “He’s freaked out and worried about my safety.”
“Well, that’s understandable.”
“Yeah, but he wants me to quit.”
“Quit helping Marsha?”
“No, not that. But once this is over, he wants me to quit. Or retire, as he put it.” When Ron didn’t respond, Chris glanced over at her. “What? You don’t think he’s right, do you?”
“I think he has a point. Just because you have this ability doesn’t mean you have an obligation to get yourself killed over it.”
“I have no intention of getting myself killed.”
“Of course you don’t. But you’ve been coming a little too close lately.”
“Tonight wasn’t that bad. Marsha’s the one who was almost killed.”
“Yeah, but what about when you were helping Jimmy? You got shot, Chris.”
“In the leg.”
“By a guy who wanted to murder you both and stuff your bodies down a well.”
Chris blew out a huff of breath. “Derek wasn’t all insisting I quit when that happened.”
“Maybe because that guy was alive. But tonight drove home for him how dangerous the unliving can be. You can’t blame the guy for being freaked out.”
Chris ground her teeth. She hated when Ron was right. “You know, he brought up the M-word yesterday.”
“M…oving in together?”
Chris shot her a look. “That’s three words. But yes, he mentioned that, too. Only to tell me he’s not going to ask because he doesn’t think I’m the living-together type.”
“There’s a type?”
“Apparently so, and apparently I’m not it.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“I don’t know. But he wanted me to know that he’s thinking about whether he’s the marrying type.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“Is that a good thing?”
Chris blew out a breath and shook her head. “I don’t know. If he has this idea that I’m going to deny this huge part of my life so I can make him a good little wife—”
“Oh, come on, give the guy some credit. You know this is about your safety, not turning you into a Stepford bride.”
Grudgingly, Chris nodded.
“And you love him. That much is obvious.”
“Yeah. I do.” She glanced over and saw that Ron was grinning. “What?”
“What do you mean, what? Chrissy! You’re going to get married!”
“What? No! Stop. He didn’t propose. He said he’s thinking. And then we had a huge fight. Remember?”
Ron dismissed her objection with a flick of the wrist. “Fights happen. You’ll both get over it. He wouldn’t have told you he was thinking about it if he didn’t already know the answer. He was feeling you out.”
Chris considered this and realized it had a certain logic to it. “You think?”
“Uh, yeah. I do. So what did you say?”
She cringed as she remembered her response. “I told him I’m happy with the way things are.”
Ron’s smile dimmed a little. “Oh.”
“Which, I am. I mean, maybe Derek’s right about me not being happy with living toget
her. But that doesn’t mean I’m in a rush to get married. When I get married I want it to be forever, you know?”
“Yeah. I know.”
“So why the rush? We’ve only been together six months.”
“I guess that is a little fast. But is that the only reason you’ve got cold feet?”
“I wouldn’t say they’re cold. I wouldn’t even call them lukewarm.”
“Chris.”
“I want to be sure he’s sure, you know? And if he’s not okay with what I do…” Her heart sank at the thought. She swallowed down a lump in her throat.
“He’s freaked out. Tonight was crazy and kind of terrifying. He needs time to process it.”
“Yeah, and what happens if he processes it and decides he can’t handle it? Is he really prepared for an entire lifetime of this sort of thing? What happens when it gets old?”
“Brrr.”
“What?”
“That’s what I heard your feet say.”
Chris sighed. “The truth is, last night, when Marsha was showing me wedding dresses? I couldn’t stop fantasizing about how I would look in them.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean anything. I did that for every wedding dress I ever saw in my entire life. No actual groom required.”
“Yeah, but I haven’t. It’s not the sort of thing I ever thought about. Until now.” She gripped the wheel tightly and let out a growl of frustration. “It’s this whole wedding thing. It’s making me crazy and I’m only the maid of honor!”
“Relax. You’ll do fine.”
Christine detected a note of sadness in her voice. “You don’t sound so sure.”
“It’s only that I’m sad I can’t be the maid of honor in your wedding.”
“Who says?”
“Chris, be serious.”
“I am. Maybe it won’t be traditional, but we can make it work. If I get married. Someday.”
“Yeah. We’ll see.”
Before Chris could elaborate on exactly how they might pull off such a thing, Joe appeared in the back seat. “Marsha’s at the mansion, and so is the white lady. You’d better get there fast. I don’t know what I can do but I’m gonna head back and keep an eye on the situation. Oh, and if you have earplugs? You’d do best to wear ‘em.” With that, he vanished.
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