by Ann Charles
Cooper flipped me off.
“Hawke will stop at nothing to destroy my life,” I said, joking aside.
I swallowed a lump of emotion rising in my throat. Executioners didn’t cry, I reminded myself. They dusted themselves off, picked up their weapons, and ran screaming back into battle. I just needed to figure out what weapon I was going to need tonight.
“Put yourself in my boots,” I said to all three of them. “If everything you cherish was about to be stolen from you, wouldn’t you do whatever it takes, reckless or not, to stop the thief?”
* * *
Much later that evening, Cornelius answered the door to the upstairs apartment at Calamity Jane Realty wearing a short, loosely tied pink robe with not much underneath from what I could tell. I shielded my eyes from the sight of his hairy, spindly legs two seconds too late.
“Violet!” Surprise made his voice higher than usual. “Did I request a late-night protein shake?”
His black hair was wet. A minty, rosemary scent hovered in the air between us. Shaving cream, maybe? His goatee did look like the edges were more defined. I must have interrupted his shower. Thank God he’d opted for a robe when he answered the door or my third-eye chakra might have gone blind.
“Nope.” I pushed past him, stepping inside. The studio apartment was bigger than I’d imagined, with warm beige walls, original molding, hardwood floors, and pendant lighting throughout. “Wow, this is nice,” I said, admiring what I imagined was the handiwork of my old boss, Jane. Although, to give Jerry’s money-making brain credit, he might have put work into the place to spruce it up for a renter, but I’d have thought I would have heard about it over the last few months.
I walked over to a piece of luggage sitting open on the floor next to a Murphy wall-bed. Picking out a pair of black jeans stacked on top and a matching sweater, I tossed them to Cornelius. They landed at his bare feet. The tops of his toes were hairy, too.
He looked down at the clothes. “Am I going somewhere?”
“Yep.”
His gaze was narrow when he lifted it to me again. “You’re not going to bury me in a shallow grave, are you?”
I jammed my hands on my hips. “Why on earth would I do that?”
“Because you have been possessed by a malevolent spirit and are on a mad killing spree.”
Now I knew Cornelius’s worst-case scenario for tonight.
“No, I’m not going to bury you in a grave, shallow or deep.” At least not tonight. With Cornelius, one never knew what might come to be.
“Then why do I require clothing?”
“The Tall Medium is waiting for us below.” So was Harvey, who’d insisted on acting as our getaway driver on this madcap adventure as soon as he’d caught wind of it from Aunt Zoe. By “caught wind,” I meant that he’d stopped by the house on his way home from a holiday shindig at the senior center and promptly heard a lungful of hot air from Aunt Zoe about what we were planning to do at the Galena House.
“Is the Tall Medium wearing white or black tonight?
Why did that matter? Did he want to be twins?
“Brown flannel, actually. And blue jeans.” I’d run my hands over both when he arrived at Aunt Zoe’s, greeting Doc like he was covered in Braille.
“An earth color. Wise choice. Concentration and common sense will rule his actions.”
That seemed fitting for Doc.
“Are we going to a movie?” Cornelius asked, pulling on his jeans in front of me.
I turned away before I could see any other hairy spots on his body, closing my eyes to be safe. “Do you ever go to movies?”
“No.”
“Then why would we?”
“There’s always a first.”
I heard the sound of a zipper. “I have a surprise for you tonight,” I told him.
“Will I live to see tomorrow?”
I opened my eyes a crack. Good, he was dressed. “Do you want to?”
He walked past me and grabbed a pair of socks and shoes, sitting on the bed to put on both. “It’s probably for the best.”
I certainly hoped to see the sun rise again. I checked my watch, which reminded me of an accessory we might need. “Did you fix your one-horned Viking helmet?”
He pointed to the small kitchen.
I grabbed it, and then returned to the door where he joined me while slipping his coat over his shoulders.
When I reached for the doorknob, he caught my arm. “What’s going on, Violet?” His cornflower blue eyes searched mine, serious, curious, with all traces of Cornelius the Cryptic absent. “Are you in trouble?”
“Yeah, I am. Big trouble, and I need your help luring a ghost through a mirror portal in the attic of the Galena House tonight.”
Natalie and Doc had decided to aim for midnight, and then keep trying until three, which was an hour after the bars closed. Natalie and Freesia would take their time getting Hawke home, keeping him out as long as they could manage.
Cornelius walked to the small kitchen area and grabbed what looked like an old-time doctor’s bag off the counter. “We’re going to need to stop by my hotel and grab my PK amplifier.”
“What’s that?”
“It will increase the base power of your psychokinetic abilities.”
“Okay, but what will it really do?”
“Make it so one of us can see the ghost.”
“Oh, we don’t need that then.”
“Why not?”
“Because we already have a PK dealio.”
“Really? What model?”
I led the way out of his apartment. “It’s a PK-Cooper.”
“A PK-Cooper?” He locked the door behind us, following me down the stairs to the first floor.
“Yep. But I need to warn you, it’s a little fussy about tonight’s mission.”
“Are you getting a spark at all from it?”
“Oh, yeah, plenty of those.” I held the downstairs door open for him. “But don’t worry, that won’t affect his ability to see dead people.”
Cornelius stopped, frowning down at me. “Did you say ‘his’?”
* * *
Harvey parked his pickup a block down the street from the Galena House, letting it idle while we waited to hear from Natalie or Freesia that they were well out of the area. This gave Doc and me plenty of time to fill Cornelius in on the plan for tonight along with Natalie’s experiences with the old radio in the attic.
As soon as I’d received an all-clear text from Freesia, saying they were past Sturgis on their way to Rapid City with Hawke securely trapped, I pulled up Cooper’s cell phone number. He was also waiting down the street, sitting in Aunt Zoe’s pickup, keeping an eye out for cops who might have been ordered to monitor the boarding house in Hawke’s absence.
I texted Cooper, asking if we had an “all clear” to enter the Galena House.
He wrote back: Elk ear?
What about it? I typed. Was that code word for something? We hadn’t come up with a code word, had we?
What about what?
An elk ear?
What in the hell are you talking about, Parker?
You said elk ear.
LOOK AT WHAT YOU TEXTED ME!
I scrolled up my phone. Sure enough, my all clear actually read elk ear. What the hell was wrong with my phone? Was it possessed now, too?
Doh! I texted.
Give Nyce your phone!
I did as ordered, handing it to Doc who was sitting in the front of the pickup with Harvey.
No sooner had Doc taken it from me it rang.
“Hey, Coop,” Doc said into the receiver, listening while looking back at me. “For you, maybe,” he said, grinning, “but when she speaks French, I’m a goner.”
Cooper said something that elicited a chuckle from Doc, and then an “Okay.” He handed the phone back to me. “We’re all clear.”
“Ya sure ya don’t want me to tie ‘er up to the hitchin’ post in front of the place and keep an eye out for trouble? I broug
ht Bessie along to keep us company tonight.”
“I think down the street is a better post,” Doc said. “Then if you see a cop drive by, there’s time to let us know and maybe even intercept if we need more time to get out.”
Cornelius leaned closer to me. “Could we go to jail for what we are about to do?”
“It’s a definite possibility.”
“Excellent. I’m keen to speak with the ghost residing in that jail cell while you’re present. If there are handcuffs involved, secure yourself to me. I’ll swallow the key.”
Or I could just run like hell into the trees.
Harvey dropped Doc, Cornelius, and me off in front of the Galena House, rolling away before anyone drove by and caught sight of us.
Natalie had left her key ring with me, showing me the keys to the front door, her apartment, Ms. Wolff’s place, and the attic. We stepped inside the old boarding house, closing out the cold dark. I showed Doc the attic door key and sent him and Cornelius up ahead while I waited for Cooper to join us.
He showed up a minute later, slightly winded. He must have run from where he’d left Aunt Zoe’s truck on the next street up.
“Where did you learn how to spell?” he asked, closing the door behind him, wearing only his gray thermal shirt and jeans. He’d apparently left his coat in the truck. “A correspondence course through the damned mail?”
“Shut up, Cooper. It’s your fault. I think you broke my phone when you put that tracking dealio on it.” I led the way up the stairs, around the landing to the attic door. The door stood ajar. As I climbed the stairs in the narrow, chilly stairwell, I could hear Doc and Cornelius moving around above me. Cooper locked the door behind us.
The attic was a large square, the same footprint as the Galena House foundation. I’d been in it before with Freesia and Cornelius and found it to look and smell like any other attic I’d ever been in—cobwebs, dust, and stale air. Nothing had changed, except for the number of “ghosts” in the room. That’s what Freesia had called the sheet-covered furniture when she’d shown us around months ago. Someone had taken the sheets off a wrought-iron chair, the large radio Natalie had told us about, and a dresser that looked familiar for some reason.
Doc joined me in front of the dresser. “What’s wrong?” He caught my hand, linking his fingers with mine.
“This dresser is spurring a memory.”
“You’ve been up here before, right?”
“Yeah, but it was covered by a sheet then.”
“Was it in Ms. Wolff’s apartment the time we did a séance there? The day you took on the juggernaut?”
That was it! The dresser had been there in her bedroom along with a twin bed. The frame for that must be under one of the sheets. I shivered. “Yeah, it was on the other side of the mirror.”
“Do you want me to cover it back up?”
“No, it’s only furniture, and that big white bastard can’t reach me anymore.” I’d vaporized the juggernaut’s ass in the present day and I’d sealed him up somewhere in the past as well.
“Listen, Killer.” Doc turned me to face him. I could see the same uncertainties that had been lining his face in Aunt Zoe’s kitchen. “I need you to do something for me tonight.”
“Is this going to be R-rated again or should we aim for triple X this time?” I teased.
His grin made a brief appearance. “I need you to avoid touching Cooper at all times.”
I frowned over at where Cooper was inspecting the back of the old radio, checking out the plug, testing it with the coiled extension cord Natalie had apparently left for us to use.
“But he’s so scratchy and jagged. How can I resist reaching out to him and getting my skin shredded?”
Doc’s hands framed my face. “There is a chance that if you touch him, he will be pulled along with you.”
“And that would be bad because?”
“I don’t know how to get him back.”
“But you can get me back, right?
“Maybe.”
“Doc.”
“I hope so. I can usually feel your presence, sort of keep tabs on you.” He paused, frowning. “Usually.”
“That’s not real comforting. Shouldn’t this be more of a pep-rally sort of speech? You know, a ‘go get ‘em, tiger,’ sort of thing?”
“Cooper is a wild card. I don’t know if I’ll be able to locate him if he goes in and gets separated from you.”
“Okay, no touching. Got it.”
He leaned down and kissed me. It was a tender, loving kiss, and it pretty much melted my already gooey heart. When he pulled away, he touched his forehead to mine, his eyes closed. “Come back to me tonight, Killer.”
“Like I told you before,” I whispered, taking his hand and kissing his knuckles. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
“Oh, hell,” Cooper complained. “Knock off that shit, you two.”
I grinned up at Doc. “Coop’s jealous that I got some action last night.”
“I’m not jealous,” came from the other side of the room.
“According to an article I read,” Cornelius said, opening his doctor’s bag. “The scent of pumpkins increases the flow of blood to the penis in lab rats and humans.”
Cooper dropped the cord, cursing.
“Hey, that gives me an idea,” Doc said, winking at me.
“I swear, Nyce. I will shoot you.” Cooper moved his flashlight beam around the walls. “Maybe even twice.”
“You’re carrying?” I asked Cooper. I didn’t like hanging around ghosts while Cooper’s gun was loaded. Prudence had almost shot me with his gun the last time.
Chuckling, Doc dropped a kiss on my forehead. “According to Willis, Coop carries everywhere, including the shower.”
“We need to find soap that smells like gunpowder for Cooper’s Christmas stocking.”
“I think I’ll shoot both of you,” Cooper said, frowning at the wall. “Do any of you see an outlet?”
Doc left me to help him.
“Violet,” Cornelius called from where he stood next to the radio.
I joined him, shining my flashlight on the old radio. It was dark, no lights behind the glass, no music. When I twisted the knobs it stayed dark.
“What do you think?” I whispered.
“I don’t think you need to whisper,” Cooper answered, plugging the cord into an outlet behind a sheet-covered block of furniture.
Cornelius pulled a stethoscope from his bag and put it on, holding the chest piece on the fabric covering the front of the radio.
“Do you hear anything?” I asked after a few seconds. Since I doubted the radio had a heart, I wasn’t sure what he might be listening for, but I was open for discussion.
“Nothing,” he said, wrapping up the stethoscope and dropping it back in his bag. “Your friend is certain this radio was playing and she wasn’t merely dreaming?”
“Both she and Freesia witnessed it on multiple occasions.”
“Here’s the mirror,” Doc said, carrying a large ornate, gold-framed mirror over to us. He leaned it against the side of the radio. “You want the sheet off?” he asked Cornelius.
“Not yet. We need to keep the portal closed until we’re ready.” Cornelius stood, looking around the large room. “Did you check for any dolls?” he asked me.
“Dolls?” I asked. “Why would I look for dolls?”
“They can be used as containers to trap ghosts that come through the portal.”
“You mean like the doll starts talking?” I cringed at the thought.
“That is the idea, yes.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to work for me.” I shivered, zipping Aunt Zoe’s red vest up to my neck. “I’ll be too creeped out to focus on the candle flame.”
Doc squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll skip the doll.”
“We need to create a spirit-friendly environment to try to lure the ghost to us, which is far safer than going in after it,” Cornelius said, looking around the room. “If this
furniture belonged to the dead woman we are trying to contact tonight, we should uncover a few of the items and set them up within sight of the mirror.” He frowned at me. “It’s unfortunate you didn’t give me time to grab my EVP recorder. Radios have been known to be excellent conduits for channeling ghosts.”
While Doc and Cooper moved a couple of chairs closer as well as an antique end table, Cornelius extracted candles from his doctor’s bag, along with a bundle of sage. Next came a jar of something dark and gelatinous. He handed the jar to me.
“What’s this?” I asked, shining my flashlight on it. It was reddish purple in the light. I had a morbid thought. “Please tell me it’s not congealed blood.”
“Hmm. I don’t remember keeping any congealed blood in this bag.” He frowned at it. “Not after the last one broke.”
He took the jar from me, opened the lid, dipped his finger inside, and then stuck it in his mouth.
I took a step back, ready to gag if it was blood.
“Grape jelly,” he announced, capping it again.
What? “You use grape jelly to lure ghosts?”
“No, I use it as a dip for celery sticks. I stuffed it in my bag when I was moving to your building so I wouldn’t forget it.”
I smacked my forehead. I should have known.
“Where do you want the mirror positioned?” Doc asked.
Cornelius pointed at a beam coming up through the floor behind us. “Set it up so the radio is the focal point.” He handed me a lighter, pointing at a small pile of candles. “Set them up in a circle.”
“How big?”
“You need to fit inside of it.”
“Will you be with me?”
“Not this time.”
When I finished setting out the last candle, he drew a triangle on the floor with chalk inside of the circle of candles I’d set up.
“Why a triangle?” I asked.
“The triangle is a spiritual doorway or gateway.” He pocketed the chalk. “It represents the joining of earthly and spiritual realms. Light the candles.”