Gary rolled his eyes. “If you’re so miserable here, go to the light!” He watched Lucy step away from the counter, but she didn’t appear to be going much farther than that. “Look, Lucy, what do I have to do to get you to cross over?”
“Don’t worry, it’s all taken care of.” And with that, the ghost vanished.
Gary had no idea what she meant. He was beyond tired of that particular ghost, even though he understood her concern for her son. He just wished she’d move on and let the three-dimensional people take care of Eddie. Just then the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Eddie called from the living room.
Gary stepped out of the kitchen in time to see Eddie mute the TV before bounding to the door. “Eddie, that’s not a good idea till we know who it is,” Gary told him. But it was too late, because Eddie had already flung the door wide open.
“Oh, it’s just you,” Eddie said. He went back to the sofa, turned the TV volume back up, and resumed watching the football game.
“Never mind our rude houseguest,” Gary said with a scowl at Eddie. He opened the door wide to admit Sean, Annabeth, and Caryn. “Can I take your coats?” The three of them slid out of their overcoats. “Eddie? Here. Take these upstairs.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” Eddie shot back.
Gary felt like his head was going to explode. This kid was driving him crazy, and for some reason his mother wouldn’t contact the authorities or even Clyde Seville. She just kept making excuses.
“Here, I’ve got this,” Annabeth said with a dirty look shot Eddie’s way. She gathered up their coats and headed for the stairs. “I’ll just toss them on Brenda’s bed.”
Brenda and Annabeth came back down the stairs together. Brenda walked into the living room, smiling happily as she encircled Sean and Annabeth with warm hugs, and then embraced Caryn. “Welcome. I’m so glad you were able to join us.”
Caryn pulled back a little. “Um, well, thanks…”
“Watching the game here,” Eddie growled. He turned up the volume and made a big show of craning his neck around the four of them standing in front of the TV.
“Come on into the kitchen,” Brenda said, waving them along.
Gary reached out for Caryn’s hand, but stopped himself when he realized what he’d almost done. All he knew was that he’d enjoyed her company yesterday and today Caryn looked really pretty, with her black leggings topped with an oversized black and white sweater, and knee-high boots. Her shoulder-length hair was held away from her face by a small headband, and she was even wearing diamond stud earrings. Gary had never seen Caryn look like anything but a professional journalist, and he found this casual look of hers quite appealing. But Caryn seemed nervous. Her eyes kept scanning the room, covering every corner of the living room and then the dining room as they were passing through it.
Gary took her arm and gently pulled her aside as the others went into the kitchen. “You okay?”
Caryn smiled up at him, a smile Gary thought looked forced. “Sure, yeah, just wondering if…” She glanced around the room again.
“You’re wondering if Lucy is here,” Gary finished for her. Caryn nodded. “Well, she was, but after complimenting Brenda on her baking skills, she vanished. With any luck, she finally crossed over.”
Caryn shook her head. “No, she didn’t. I don’t know that for a fact, of course, but I don’t think her business here is finished yet.”
“Gary, Caryn, what kind of pie do you want?” Brenda asked.
Gary could hear silverware clanking as it came out of the kitchen drawer. He put his hand on the small of Caryn’s back and ushered her into the kitchen.
Her eyes widened at the sight of Brenda’s pies. “Smells delicious. Is that pumpkin?”
“I’m pumpkinned out,” Annabeth said, “after serving up hundreds of slices at the Morris Sutton event. I’ll take apple.”
“Not me,” Caryn said. “I want some pumpkin pie.” She waved the aromas toward her and inhaled deeply. “Ahh, heaven.”
“I want all three, but an especially big slice of pecan,” Sean said as he grabbed a plate. “Shall we?”
Brenda started cutting pie slices in each of the three pastries. “Eddie?” Brenda called. “What kind of pie do you want?”
“Whatever,” Eddie answered back, but then the doorbell rang again and he called out, “I’ll get it!”
“Eddie!” Brenda shouted. She dropped the knife in the sink, and hurried out with Gary and Caryn on her heels. But it was too late. In the open doorway were Police Detective Albers and Clyde Seville.
“Uh-oh,” Eddie said.
****
I was thinking something a lot stronger than uh-oh when I saw who was standing on Brenda’s porch. Gary looked surprised, Brenda seemed thunderstruck, but poor Eddie’s face reflected pure terror. I didn’t blame him. That stepfather of his was one scary dude.
Clyde Seville pushed his way into the condo ahead of the police detective and grabbed Eddie’s arm. Eddie’s shoulders slumped and his eyes dropped to the ground. “Boy, where ya been?” Clyde gave his surroundings a quick once-over. “You been hiding out here all this time?”
“How did you find me?” Eddie wiggled but was unable to free himself from Clyde’s grip.
Clyde got in the boy’s face and growled, “That neighborhood watch lady recognized you, and then she saw you,” he said with a sneer at Brenda, “and jotted down your license plate.”
Detective Albers addressed Brenda as he stepped across the threshold. “Ms. Cravens takes her duties very seriously. Not much that goes on in that neighborhood escapes her notice.”
Brenda groaned in misery as she staggered back from the door.
Clyde released Eddie after a disapproving look from Detective Albers and a scowl from Gary, who could be kind of intimidating at six foot five. Eddie rubbed his arm and quickly scurried over to Brenda. She put a protective arm around his shoulder and pulled him back out of Clyde’s reach.
“You barge into my home, manhandle this child―” Brenda was trying to sound indignant, but I could tell she was almost as scared as Eddie.
“Ma’am,” the detective said, “there are laws in this state against harboring runaways.”
“And I can sue your ass off,” Clyde mumbled.
Gary stepped in front of Clyde and stared him down. “Don’t you dare speak to my mother like that.”
Detective Albers raised his voice. “All right, enough. Ms. Riddell, I’m returning this boy to his legal guardian. And I’d advise you to contact an attorney.”
“On it. Calling Dad right now.” Annabeth whipped out her phone, and pushed a number on speed dial.
I glanced around the room, hoping to see Uncle Omar, but he was nowhere in sight. Probably off having his own turkey dinner, if spirits actually did that sort of thing. Still, knowing how close I’d gotten to this situation, and knowing I’m not psychic about my own life, I was beginning to wonder if maybe I’d invented the whole scenario I’d been replaying in my head. Maybe it was wishful thinking, not psychic insight. Maybe…
But then a car pulled into Brenda’s driveway. I peered out the window and saw Ned Harrington’s silver Jaguar. Perfect timing. Yes, his presence was needed, but more importantly, I quickly regained confidence in my predictions.
“Hello?” Ned knocked on the open door and stuck his head into the living room.
“You can hang up,” I told Annabeth. “Seems we’ve got an attorney.”
“Ned? What are you doing here?” Brenda’s face flushed, her eyes sparkling with tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. She brushed them away impatiently.
If Brenda was surprised, Gary’s expression was…well, it was a cross between anger and relief. He glanced at me, maybe hoping for a clue which I wasn’t about to divulge, and then turned to Ned. “Good question. What are you doing here?”
“Well, it was suggested…” Ned glanced at me and thankfully didn’t finish that thought. He gazed round the room, nodded to
the police detective, and saw Eddie cowering next to Brenda. “I see the runaway has been located.”
“We found the kid,” Sean said, “Annabeth, Caryn, Gary, and me, on that ghost hunt a couple of weeks ago. He was hiding out at the old Pelson house, pretending to haunt the place.”
“Is that true?” Detective Albers asked Eddie.
Eddie lifted his chin in an attempt to appear brave. “Yeah. What of it?”
“He’s only been staying here a few days,” Brenda said. She may have fibbed a little, since it was longer than that, but none of us were going to correct her.
“And Eddie’s obviously much safer here than with him.” Gary glared at Clyde.
“Ms. Riddell,” the police detective said before turning to Ned, “and Mr. Harrington, this boy’s stepfather has been worried about him, wants him back, and I’m legally required to return him.” He stepped over to Eddie and got down to his level. “Unless you have something you’d like to tell us. Like why you ran away in the first place.”
Eddie just stared at the floor, tears flooding down his cheeks.
Sean jumped in. “My dad’s a pediatrician and he checked the kid out. Found bruises.”
“Probably got those crawling around that old house,” Clyde harrumphed.
Eddie opened his mouth to speak, closed his mouth and swallowed hard. I could see he was shaking. Just as I was about to speak up and tell everyone what I knew, Gary’s back stiffened. He ran his fingers through his hair, rubbed the back of his neck, and stared off into the corner of the room.
“Gary,” I said, hoping I was right, “is she here?”
Gary nodded and put up his hand to quiet me and everyone else.
“What the hell is going on here?” Clyde demanded as he watched Gary’s unusual behavior. “All’s I want is my boy, and I want him now!”
“His mother is here,” Gary said.
“His mother is dead,” the detective said.
“What kind of scam are you trying to pull?” Clyde demanded, his voice getting louder. “Doing some kind of parlor trick by pretending to talk to my dead wife?”
Ah, the parlor trick accusation. Seems like every time someone was skeptical about what people like Gary and me could do, they’d claim it was all smoke and mirrors.
Annabeth turned on Clyde, hands on hips. “Gary can talk to ghosts. If he says Lucy is here, she is.” Annabeth was a great friend to have on your side, and furthermore, you didn’t ever mess with her belief in the paranormal. Clyde had just crossed both lines.
Ned was staring open-mouthed at Gary, finally seeing for himself what I’d already told him about his son, while Gary was obviously listening to Lucy. Detective Albers seemed frustrated, and Clyde clearly wasn’t buying any of it.
I stepped closer to Gary and whispered, “What’s Lucy saying?”
Gary slowly turned around to face all of us. His gaze drifted from Brenda, to Ned, to Eddie, and then back to me. “You knew, didn’t you?”
I nodded. “I knew. But it’s not my story to tell.”
“If this is some kind of prank, or hoax—” Clyde growled as he lunged for Eddie, who ducked his grasp and shrank back.
“No, it’s not,” Gary said. He sank down onto the sofa and ran his fingers through his hair.
I felt for him, because this had to be a huge shock, and under similar circumstances I might also be speechless. Oddly enough, Ned was also running his fingers through his hair in frustration. Like father, like son.
“What did Lucy tell you?” Brenda asked. She sat down on the sofa next to Gary and patted his knee. “Maybe we can clear this up right now, without courts or lawsuits.”
“Aw come on, folks, no one’s gonna believe some college kid’s been talking to a dead woman,” Clyde said. “Come on, Officer, I wanna take Eddie and get outta this nut house.”
“Just hear him out,” I said. I silently asked for Uncle Omar’s intervention, and surprise, surprise, Clyde stumbled a little like someone had smacked the side of his head, and then caught himself on the edge of the sofa. I ducked my head and snickered.
“Ned,” Gary said, turning to face his father, “she says you knew her. Lucy Carson.”
“Lucy Seville,” Clyde said, rubbing his head for no apparent reason.
Ned furrowed his brow and was quiet for a long time. Yesterday when I mentioned her name to him it hadn’t rung any bells, but I never said her last name. “Lucy Carson. Yes, I do remember her. She was a paralegal in my dad’s law firm, and I was fresh out of law school, doing an internship with Judge Sizemore.”
“Hey, I’ve known the judge since I was a kid!” Annabeth said. She turned to Detective Albers. “He’s part of my dad’s law firm, Walton, Harrington, Harrington, and Sizemore.”
“Well, that’s how I met Lucy,” Ned said. “We had a couple of dates, a few laughs…” He shrugged. “Then she suddenly quit the firm and moved back East to be with her family. Never heard from her again.”
Gary nodded at his unseen visitor and said, “But while she was in New Jersey, she gave birth to Eddie. Edward Harrington Carson, named after you, Edward Harrington, Jr.” He crossed his arms and gave Ned a stony glare. “The Great Impregnator.”
Ned’s eyes widened as he glanced at Eddie. His other son. “You’re…Lucy and I…”
“Yeah, it looks that way, Pops,” Eddie said. He turned to Gary with a grin and offered up a fist-bump. “The Great Impregnator. Good one!”
Gary returned the fist-bump before continuing. “Then about five years ago, Lucy moved back to Indiana, got a new job in Belford, and met this jerk,” Gary said, glaring at Clyde, “at the gym. She says he was her personal trainer. She confided in him the whole story about Eddie, and shortly after that, Clyde proposed. It wasn’t till later that Lucy realized Clyde was hatching a plot to extort money from the Harringtons.”
“Liar!” Clyde shouted.
Gary stood up and got in Clyde’s face. “Am I? And who put all those bruises on Lucy when she threatened to expose you? She showed them to me. And then there’s the little matter of her brake failure. She thinks you had something to do with that, too.”
Clyde didn’t back down. “You can’t prove a thing!”
“I’m afraid he’s right,” Detective Albers said. “Her car was totaled. Mr. Seville took possession of it after we were through with our investigation. I’m sure it’s long since been sold for parts.”
Clyde folded his arms in silent triumph, a sneer creeping across his face. I sighed. Even though I knew, and Gary just heard, that Clyde had possibly tampered with Lucy’s brakes, there would never be a way to prove it.
Eddie stifled a sob. Brenda pulled him in, and in fast-forward style I could see the whole scenario flashing across my mind. Clyde hitting Lucy, Clyde smacking Eddie when he tried to intervene, and then Lucy running out of the house while a tearful Eddie ran to hide in his bedroom. I closed my eyes to try to block out the visions. I hoped I’d never see anything like that again.
Gary turned to Eddie. “Lucy says she started to come back for you, but now she’s glad she didn’t.”
Ned turned to Clyde and measured his words. “Well, Mr. Seville, it seems I am this young man’s biological father, a fact that can be easily proven.” Ned whipped out his phone and pushed a button. “Happy Thanksgiving, Arthur.” He paused to silently mouth to the detective, Judge Sizemore. “I have a favor to ask. I need a court order, emergency temporary child custody. The child’s name is Edward Carson, and the temporary guardian is, uh, Brenda Riddell.”
Detective Albers tapped his toe impatiently as he turned to Brenda. “I guess it’s good to have friends in high places.”
“Got it. Thanks, Arthur. See you next week.” Ned handed his phone to the detective with the electronic emergency court order on the screen. “And now, Mr. Seville, I’ll thank you to leave my family alone.”
Clyde didn’t bother looking at the court order. He turned on his heel and stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.
; “Dude. You’re a big brother.” Sean gave Gary an exaggerated wink. “Hope you have better luck with yours than I’ve had with mine.”
Gary rolled his eyes, but for the first time he was looking at his newly-discovered sibling with curiosity instead of contempt. I even saw a resemblance between Eddie and Gary, especially around their eyes. I walked over to stand next to Annabeth, who was hand-in-hand with Sean. The three of us could barely contain our excitement.
“Folks, I’m truly sorry about this,” Detective Albers said. “I never did fully trust that man, but I had no idea…” He shook his head. “For now, Eddie Carson is safe with Ms. Riddell.” He turned to Ned. “Mr. Harrington, I suggest a DNA test as soon as it can be arranged. I’ll be in contact next week.”
When the detective was gone, Brenda released Eddie and crossed the room to where Ned was standing all alone. She reached out and gently touched his arm. “Ned, just now, you said something about your family.”
Ned took both of Brenda’s hands in his. “You and Gary, and now Eddie. In my mind we’re a family, and we’ve been apart way too long.”
Gary stepped over to his mother’s side. “Well, Dad,” he said, “there’s the little problem of your abandonment of Mom and me, no child support, nothing. That’s unforgiveable in my book.”
“Gary,” Brenda said, “your father tried to reach out. It was mostly my pride that kept the two of you apart.”
“And I did get you that full ride scholarship at Hamilton Liberal Arts,” Ned told him.
My jaw dropped about the same time Gary’s did. Now that was one detail my psychic sense hadn’t provided me with. “Wow!” was all I could think to say.
“Son,” Ned said before checking himself. “Gary, I knew what a talented actor you were, and I just wanted to make up for my lack of financial and emotional support for the past eighteen years.”
Gary lifted an eyebrow. “And how would you know anything about my acting?”
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