She didn’t reply.
“Ruthie, I’ve tried to help you. Your ex doesn’t want to listen to me and if we push him any harder, he’s probably going to put out a restraining order against me!”
She shrugged. “So?”
“So? So, that would kinda be a drag,” I quipped. “Yeesh, what is it with you ghosts lately? Is there some kind of disturbance in the force or something? You’ve all turned into self-centered rage-aholics!”
“This isn’t about me, it’s about my son!”
My eyes slid closed as I struggled to keep from screaming. I held up a hand. “Listen, Ruthie, I get it. And believe me, if I could help, I would. But like I said, Dr. Barnes doesn’t want to negotiate and there is nothing I can do to make him come around. It’s best if we both drop it. Okay?”
“What about your little ghost friends? Trapped in that dark basement. All alone. Scared,” she sneered.
“You’re lying.”
“Oh yeah?”
“You’ve probably been spying around town, using whatever you can to try to force my hand into doing battle with your ex-husband, since you can’t. It’s not going to work, Ruthie. Now, get out!”
Ruthie scowled at me but backed up toward the door. Apparently, she didn’t want to risk having me disperse her again. “I’ll leave, but if you want any help from me, you’d better be prepared to offer me a better deal.”
I returned her nasty glare. “Noted.”
She vanished and I exhaled long and slow. “Seriously, how do I manage to get myself tangled up in this madness?”
“I prefer to look at it as a talent, babe,” Lucas replied from the couch.
“That’s very glass-half-full of you. I think if our positions were switched, I’d be tearing my hair out.”
“Maybe if I start singing, it will scare them away. Always worked on my little brothers.”
I barked out a laugh. “Really? That bad, huh?”
He hitched a shoulder. “Apparently. The year I entered the school talent show, there were a lot of earplug jokes and dive-bombing out of the garage whenever I’d start rehearsing.”
I stifled a giggle with the back of my hand. “Well, as much as I’d love to hear it, we’re actually alone.”
Flapjack coughed.
“Minus the cat.”
Lucas glanced around. “Sounded serious. What’s going on?”
I sat cross-legged on the couch, my body facing him. “Lucas, can we talk about dinner first?”
He turned toward me and raised a hand to my cheek. “I’m not breaking up with you, Scarlet. Now, if you had stuck around, instead of making your very dramatic exit, you would have found that I was actually going to ask you what you thought about taking a few days off work to go have a little adventure. There are a lot of places I’d like to go while I’m out here and I’d really like for you to go with me.”
“Oh.”
Lucas grinned. “See? Not so scary after all.”
I covered my eyes and groaned. “Gosh, I feel like such an idiot!”
He just laughed and reached for my hands, tugging them away from my face. “You’re not. Besides, it’s kind of nice being the sane one in the relationship.”
I eyed him. “You’re not usually? That’s probably something you should have told me. What are we talking here? Full straight jacket or—”
“No!” He laughed harder and pulled me against him. The warmth surrounded me and without a second thought, I nestled into his side. “I just mean that normally I’m the one wanting to go jump off cliffs, repel down mountainsides and bridges, and camp without an RV!”
“Now, that is crazy!”
“In the past, I’ve always been with someone who tried to hold me back or put me in a cage. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly the nine-to-fiver with a mortgage and stock options.”
“Drat. I was really hoping this security gig was a ruse for a really boring accounting job.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” he teased, smiling down at me.
“I’m glad you’re not typical, or normal, or whatever the right term is. I’ve never felt like I belonged in that lane. But at the same time, I’m not just unconventional in a cool, wanderlust sort of way. I mean, five minutes ago, there was literally a ghost screaming about alimony payments and ghost traps like three feet away!”
“Ghost traps?”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s trying to convince me that she has some super-secret information because she thinks that will get me to try negotiating with Dr. Barnes again.”
“Oh.” Lucas frowned. “What does that have to do with a trap? Is that even a real thing?”
I nodded and then it hit me.
“What’s wrong?” Lucas asked as I jolted out of his arms, my spine ramrod straight.
“How would she know what a ghost trap is? She hasn’t been a ghost that long and from what I can see, she’s spent most of it making her ex’s life hell.” I pushed off the couch and paced the floor, tapping a finger against my lips. “If the vision was real, the ghost trap was real, then that means she wasn’t lying.”
I stopped and whipped around to face Flapjack. “We have to go!”
He held up a hand. “Okay, hold on now. What exactly did she say?”
I filled him in on the details as I scurried around the apartment and gathered up a makeshift ghost hunting kit. Well, more accurately, a ghost-hunter hunting kit. With each item that I shoved into my duffel bag, I added a new part of the plan that was formulating in my mind.
“Okay, so there are ghosts missing, and this guy is keeping them locked up? But how is that even possible?”
“Ghosts aren’t wholly invincible,” I told him, pausing to pull a hoodie on. When I popped my head through, I continued. “There are things that interfere with them or the plane they live on.”
“Like the iron trick?”
“Iron. Certain scents. Salt.”
“So this guy could be calling up the ghosts, like with a séance? And then keeping them trapped?”
“It’s possible.” I stopped, ice flooding into my veins. “Or, we could be dealing with some dark magic.”
“Whoa, whoa. Did you just say magic?”
I crossed my arms and stared up at him. “You’re totally on board with the ghost thing but magic being real weirds you out?”
Lucas thought about it and then nodded. “Yup, I think that about sums it up.”
I sighed. “All right. Well, then let’s just put it this way, there are ways something can be … charged. I have a small pouch that works as a temporary holding place for spirits. It’s hundreds of years old but still holds its power.”
“Gee, it would have been nice if you’d brought that up when we were dealing with Ms. Havisham over at the Lilac property!”
I shook my head. “It wouldn’t have worked on Rosie. The spirit has to be willing to enter the vessel. It’s how I got Hayward over here from England. You didn’t think I bought him a plane ticket or something, did you?”
Flapjack snorted. “I shudder to think of enduring a trans-Atlantic flight with that gas bag chattering away the entire time.”
I rubbed my temples. “I’m really sorry, but I have to go deal with this. Thanks for understanding.”
Truthfully, I wasn’t giving him room not to. Luckily, he was too much of a gentleman to point that out.
“Wait—you think I’m letting you go charging after some Voodoo ghost summoner all by yourself?” Lucas asked, folding his arms. He smirked. “Babe, you’ve gotta know me better than that by now.”
Chapter 15
Protesting, debating, and flat-out arguing got me nowhere. Lucas followed me out to my delivery van and hopped in behind the wheel as soon as I hit the button on the keypad to unlock the doors.
“Hey!” I complained as he extended a hand, silently asking for the keys. “This is my van. I’m driving.”
“Sure doesn’t look that way.” He flashed that half-cocked smile and wiggled his fingers. “Come on.
We’re burning daylight.”
“You don’t even know where we’re going!”
“Neither do you!”
I scowled, but handed over the keys and raced around to hop in the passenger seat. Flapjack was on my heels, unwilling to miss out on the adventure.
“When Gwen was telling me about Myra’s episodes, she said that Myra would wake up in weird places. An attic, then the gym at the local school. So what if this … summoner, let’s say, is calling ghosts to him and then trapping them.”
“I thought you said the ghost trap has to be mutual. The ghost has to want to be trapped.”
“That’s the kind I have, but who knows what other ghost whisperers use?”
“Have you ever met any?”
“Yeah. Most who claim to have some kind of power are straight-up full of it, but not all of them. Like, in the whole Dr.-Barnes fiasco, apparently after I couldn’t-slash-wouldn’t help him, he hired some other—”
My eyes widened as I stared out the van’s windshield. “That’s it! I know where to go!”
“Miss me?” Ruthie asked, floating through the side of the van. Without waiting for an answer, she settled in the cargo area, sitting cross-legged on the tarp I used to keep the floor protected from water spills.
“I believe you. Happy now?” I snapped, looking at her in the rearview mirror. Yes, I can see ghosts in mirrors. There is literally no escaping them. “Now, tell me what you know about the exorcist Dr. Barnes hired after I left. Was he the man from the vision you had?”
Ruthie’s face screwed up into a pinched expression. “Maybe.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
She shook her head. “He didn’t get a chance. I took one look around and screamed bloody murder.”
I twisted back and looked at Lucas. “You remember the way to Dr. Barnes’s place?”
“You kidding? I’ve been dreaming about that man cave all week.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t prod at him. All that mattered was getting there … fast.
By some mercy, it appeared that Dr. Barnes was home when we pulled into his driveway. Lights illuminated the front of the huge house, and most of the rooms inside appeared to be lit up as well. Ruthie scoffed before getting out of the van. “He runs this place like it’s some kind of museum but can’t afford to pay for my son’s preschool? Selfish bastard.”
“Ruthie,” I said, working overtime to keep my voice calm. “That’s not helping. Now, as we agreed in the car, I will help you but you have to stay under control. No lashing out. No tirades. And be reasonable. All right?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Lucas killed the engine and we all piled out, Flapjack included. He refused to be replaced as my right-hand … cat? “Scar, when you are gonna buy a place like this? We could really use some more room, you know. There are too many ghosts tripping over each other at that cardboard box you call an apartment.”
I frowned at him. “First of all, you and I both know there is no tripping. Secondly, if you think we’re ever going to live in a place this size, you might want to reconsider your daily catnip intake.”
Lucas laughed and reached for me, settling his palm on my back. “You don’t want a McMansion someday?”
“Not in the slightest.”
He pressed a quick kiss to the side of my head. “Good. Me neither.”
Startled, I looked over at him, but his attention had drifted.
Don’t read into it, Scar. You already damn near scared the poor guy off once tonight.
Though on second thought, I’d been the one running away, so maybe Lucas wasn’t as shakable as all that. Either way, it was a commitment-phobe meltdown moment for another evening. I had ghosts to find.
We walked up to the door, a silent little quartet, and Lucas rang the bell.
Dr. Barnes answered the door and I lunged into attack mode. “I heard you’re playing with a little dark magic,” I said as soon as he pulled aside the oak monstrosity.
“What are you talking about?” he demanded.
“You know, you really should have called me first. You can’t just trust anyone with this kind of task. I mean, honestly, it’s not like there’s a Yelp review system in place for exorcists.” I made a clucking sound and shook my head. “Now, Dr. Barnes, if you’ll allow me, I’d like to get to the bottom of this without causing any more damage.”
He took a step back and Lucas moved forward, taking it as a non-verbal welcome.
I followed as Dr. Barnes backtracked into an expansive living area off the foyer.
“How did you even know about that?” he asked, glancing around his living room with a suspicious eye, as though we might have planted secret spy cameras on our previous visit.
“Unlike this quack you hired, I actually know what I’m doing. Ruthie told me what you had done.”
Dr. Barnes’s face went pale as he looked to Lucas. He nodded.
I planted my fists on my hips. “Where did you find this so-called ghost hunter?”
“I found him online.” Dr. Barnes said with a resigned look.
“The joys of the modern world,” Flapjack replied. “Order takeout and exorcisms all under five minutes.”
“What a time to be alive,” I added. “Tell me everything that happened.”
Dr. Barnes considered me, trying his best to keep his stony facade intact, but it collapsed like a cheap tent. “He ruined everything! After you left, Ruthie went crazy. I couldn’t get the house warm enough, the popcorn machine went berserk again—”
“It’s my one cool party trick,” Ruthie interjected.
“I was desperate! I went online to some forums that talk about … well, this kind of stuff. There was one guy who offered to come and give a consultation. A free one, I might add.”
Flapjack snorted. “Oh good, because you know, when my spiritual livelihood is on the line, the price tag is my first consideration too. Geez.”
“You really want to complain about my fees?” I asked, baffled.
“Just fix it! All of it!” Dr. Barnes bellowed, waving a hand to get us to enter the home. “I don’t care what it costs me anymore. All I know is that since he left, things have been worse. Screams late at night, blasts of heat and then ice. I’m halfway considering putting this place on the market and getting out of town altogether. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”
I held up a hand. “There’s no reason to get hysterical, Dr. Barnes.”
Lucas snorted.
Dr. Barnes frowned but kept any barbed comments to himself as he crossed his arms.
I squared off with him. “I don’t want your money. All I want is the name and contact information of the person who was here.”
“Fine!” Dr. Barnes fished his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through it. A few moments later, he flipped it around and displayed the screen.
Dr. Padget
Peace Again Spiritual Artistry
The phone number and a PO box followed. I scowled as I typed the information into my own phone. Peace Again Spiritual Artistry? Stars above. It just sounded like a crock.
“Thank you,” I told Dr. Barnes when I finished and returned my own phone to my pocket.
“Are you going to fix it?”
I sighed. “Yes. I’ll fix it. But if you want Ruthie gone for good, I’m afraid you’re going to have to come to the table and negotiate regarding the funds she wants for her son.”
He cursed loudly and threw his hands up.
“Ruthie?” I said, turning to find the woman standing in the arched doorway of the kitchen. “Can you come down from your starting point?”
She heaved a dramatic sigh. “Well, he’ll have to go to the second best preschool, but I suppose I can live with that.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t bother pointing out the poor choice of phrasing. Instead, I threw my attention right back at Dr. Barnes. “She’s willing to negotiate.”
Negotiations quickly dissolved into a shouting match that was one-sided for Lu
cas and Dr. Barnes, while I got the full-volume, stereo experience from both Dr. and the former Mrs. Barnes.
I was about ready to call a time-out when a groan echoed through the house, followed by a rush of frosty air. My skin instantly prickled into goosebumps and I wrapped my arms tight around my torso. “What the hell was that?” I asked through chattering teeth.
“Yes. What the hell was that?” Lucas asked, frantically looking around the kitchen.
“It’s Ruthie! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! She’s a maniac. A menace!” Dr. Barnes roared.
“Dr. Barnes, that’s not—”
“Tell her she can have the full payment. I’ll have my lawyers draw up the paperwork! Just get her out of here and tell her to leave me alone!”
The problem was, Ruthie wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Somehow, the arctic blast had managed to silence the feuding exes and wash Ruthie away all in one swoop.
“I’ll let her know,” I told Dr. Barnes before reaching for Lucas’s arm. He didn’t object as I dragged him back through the house and we slipped out the front door.
“What the heck is going on, Scarlet?” Lucas demanded once we were outside. “I mean, I know this is all real, but that … that was something else, wasn’t it?”
“I—I don’t know what that was.” My limbs were still trembling. “But, I think it’s time we met this Dr. Padget.”
Chapter 16
Unfortunately, with only a PO Box and a phone number to go by, our plans were hobbled before we even got to the end of Dr. Barnes’s street. Google hadn’t heard of Dr. Padget or his Peace Again Spiritual Artistry Services either.
And in my experience, if Google didn’t even know what you were talking about, you were really up a creek.
“He has to get his mail eventually,” Lucas said, still stopped at the four-way intersection since neither of us knew where we were headed.
“So we stake out the post office 24/7?” I asked, throwing in a healthy dose of sarcasm.
Lucas frowned over at me. “No, but it seems to me that you have a posse of paranormal partners who could organize a lookout.”
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