Once in her car Sadie debated what to do next. She could go back to her mom’s place and try to connect with her dad, or she could call Zack and see if she could convince him to either come back home or go into rehab. Neither of the choices appealed to her.
She started up her car, turned on the radio, and pulled out of the apartment parking lot. When Jann Arden began singing “Unloved,” she let the tears start.
Sadie felt like she was in her own limbo hell.
Her dad was not quite dead, and in her heart Zack was not quite gone.
14
Sadie was almost back in her own neck of the woods when she took a call from her sister.
“Mom and Aunt Lynn are over here tonight,” Dawn told her. “Mom wants to distract herself by beating Lynn in cribbage, and Aunt Lynn’s plan is to return the favor by whomping me in a game next.”
“Sounds like fun,” Sadie said.
“Yeah, we’re a regular party central.” She paused. “You sound like you’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”
“Everything.” She sniffed.
“Look, Dylan is already in bed, and Mom and Aunt Lynn are more than capable of babysitting a sleeping child. How about I meet you somewhere?”
“I don’t know. . . . I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it.”
“Well, we could do something to take your mind off your troubles.”
“What about John? Do you really think it’s okay to leave your hubby alone with Mom and Aunt Lynn?”
“John’s out at an evening seminar, and he won’t be back for another couple hours.”
“Do you want to meet for coffee?”
“I’d rather talk to Dad.”
Sadie was silent.
“Oh, c’mon,” Dawn whined. “Let’s try again. It’s not fair that you’re keeping him all to yourself.”
“Fine.” Sadie relented. “I’ll meet you at Mom’s place. I can be there in fifteen.”
“I’m on my way.”
It wasn’t too long a drive and traffic was light. Sadie didn’t hold high hopes that Dawn would have the meeting she hoped for with Dad, but when she let herself inside her family home, Dad was in the living room. Well, at least a third of him was there. His legs and feet only. He appeared to be sitting in his favorite chair.
“Hey,” Sadie said by way of a greeting. “How ya doing?”
“What kind of question is that? I’m dead but not dead. How the hell do you think I’m doing?”
“You don’t have to get pissy with me. It’s not my fault.”
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” her father griped. “I wish I knew what I could do to help this thing along.”
“For starters, you could try giving me a face to talk to. You’re only visible from the knees down.”
“Christ. I can’t even do this right.”
“Dawn’s on her way over. She wants to have a heart-to-heart. Just the three of us.”
“Oh, great. Just great. Now I have to be all wise and profound,” he grumped. “Did you give her the message about all my advice for Dylan?”
“You mean all that crap about finding the right woman and making sure he oiled his ball glove?”
“Yeah. And it’s not just crap. It’s important stuff. My last words, so to speak. Have some respect.”
“Sorry, Dad.” Sadie hesitated and then lied, “Yeah, I told her. It made her all weepy, so maybe don’t bring it up again when she’s here.”
Deep down Sadie knew she was worried that those final words, the advice to Dylan, may be the real reason Dad was left behind. In case that was true, she had intentionally kept his remarks to herself and hadn’t relayed them to Dawn. For now.
“What’s wrong?” Dad asked.
“What makes you think something’s wrong?”
“You’re chewing on your bottom lip and you always do that when you’re worried about something. Or feeling guilty about something,” he added.
“My life’s in the toilet. You’re dead. My boyfriend’s drinking and popping pills, and he moved out. I’m even turning into a slacker on the job.” Sadie rested her head against the back of the sofa and shut her eyes. “Do you have any advice about how to turn this thing around?” When there was no response, she glanced his way. “Dad?”
He was gone.
Suddenly headlights illuminated the living room. Dawn had just pulled into the driveway. She hustled into the house all happy and energized.
“Is he here? Can we talk to him?” Dawn kicked off her shoes as she closed the door behind her and rushed into the living room.
Sadie looked over at her father’s chair, where he wasn’t, and then she lied for the second time in just a few minutes. “He says he’s glad to see you.”
Dawn gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Blinking back tears, she walked into the living room and perched on the coffee table.
“Can I talk to him? Will he hear me?” she asked, her voice filled with emotion.
“Sure,” Sadie said, feeling miserable at perpetuating the lie. “He’s in his usual spot.” She nodded toward the chair.
Dawn cleared her throat. “Dad, I just want you to know that I miss you terribly and I’ll make sure Dylan knows what a great man you were.” Her voice broke a little but she pushed ahead. “And I know I wasn’t the perfect daughter. There was that time you caught me sneaking out my bedroom window when I was seventeen and I said I hated you when you grounded me, and I’ve never forgotten that. I didn’t mean it. I don’t hate you. I could never hate you.” She was crying openly now. “And then when I was eighteen, you thought Brian had smashed the taillight of your new car and really it was me but I was too chicken to tell you, so I let you get all pissed off at Brian and that was wrong. I’m so sorry.” Tears were coursing down her face, and her words were coming out in hitched breaths. “And I—I know I could’ve come around more after Brian died, and I’m so sorry I didn’t but I just couldn’t stand to see you so sad and—”
“Stop it,” Sadie said, brushing away her own tears.
“What?” Dawn sniffed. “Am I doing this wrong? Should I be waiting for him to talk?”
Sadie blew out a slow breath. “He just wants you to know that he loves you very much and none of that stuff matters. He says you were a wonderful daughter and you’re a fantastic mother.”
“Really?” Dawn sniffed again. “He said that?”
“Yes.” Sadie paused as if she was listening but really she was just thinking of what else to say. “He also says that he wants you to focus on the good times and not to have any guilt about what happened in the past because only the future is important. You should know that he’s in a good place now but he’s still keeping watch over you, and he’ll always be with you and he’ll also be around for Dylan.” Dawn kept looking at Sadie expectantly so she finished, “That’s it. He’s gone.”
At that Dawn rushed over and embraced Sadie, clutching her in a hug so tight and filled with emotion that it brought Sadie’s own tears tumbling down her face. After a good cry, they opened a bottle of wine and each had a glass.
Dawn thanked Sadie over and over for the opportunity to have the final talk with their dad.
“Mom really needs to get her act together and realize what a blessing it is for you to have this talent. She could actually say final words to Dad and—”
Sadie couldn’t stand it anymore, and to distract from her own lie, Sadie blurted out about Zack and Paula and Vicodin mixed with a vodka chaser.
“That bitch!” Dawn exclaimed, her anger directed toward Paula. “Paula’s deliberately using Zack’s addiction to get him back.”
“I guess it does look that way,” Sadie said. She frowned into her half-empty wineglass, and she began to wonder how long Paula had really been back in the picture. Was it right around when the pills showed up months ago?
“She’s a sick puppy. She needs a good bitch slap. I can’t believe Zack’s fallen for her bullshit.” Dawn shook her head slowly from side to side.
“How are you going to get him back?” Dawn asked, and then corrected, “Do you even want him back?”
Sadie opened her mouth to shout, Yes! but what came out was a weak, “I don’t know.”
She put down her wineglass and rolled her shoulders. “Even if he comes back, and I don’t know if he will, how do I know it won’t happen again?”
“If he’s taking the Vicodin because of his ankle, then once his ankle feels better he’ll be okay, right?”
Sadie smiled wanly at her sister’s naïveté. “He’s washing the pills down with booze, and he’s been doing it for the last couple months now. I must’ve been an idiot not to see it earlier but it makes sense now. He’s been acting . . . different. When I think back I realize that’s the reason why I didn’t jump up and say yes when he asked me to marry him. I knew something wasn’t right but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.”
“You can get him to stop.”
“I can’t get him to do anything,” Sadie said. “He’s chasing the buzz. It’s got its hooks into him. Just like Paula.” Sadie got to her feet and stretched. She didn’t want to talk about it anymore and was saved by the strident ring of Dawn’s cell phone.
“John got home early from his seminar and he wants me to come rescue him from Mom and Aunt Lynn,” Dawn said after hanging up. “Coming?”
“I’ll pass,” Sadie said. “I’m thinking of going home and having a bubble bath and then going to bed early.”
They locked up their mom’s house and parted company. Sadie answered her cell phone when it rang. She didn’t recognize the incoming number on the display but she did know the chipper voice on the other end of the line.
“Maeva tells me we’ve got a case of a big bad bully ghost to blow up,” giggled Louise.
Ah, geez. Well, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“Not that I don’t appreciate your offer to help, but I should warn you there’s a chance you could get hurt. This guy . . . well, he’s ornery with a capital O and he hurt Zack.”
“Then a show of force is the only way,” Louise insisted. “We’ll go in with an entire troop armed with holy water, smudging supplies, and some of the most powerful spells known for expelling evil.”
“Spells?”
“Didn’t Maeva mention I’ve joined a local Seattle coven?”
“As in witches?”
“Yes.”
Oh, brother. Petrovich was going to have a cow.
Detective Petrovich did not, in fact, give birth to any kind of bovine when he showed up at the Wickses’ house two hours later to let in Sadie and three, um, friends with varying credentials. But his face was pinched shut of all emotion except distrust.
“We’re just going to try to see what we can do,” Sadie assured him. It was dark now, and she stood with him, hiding in the shadow of the large industrial garbage bin in the driveway. The others waited in Sadie’s car.
“If anyone catches wind of this, I’m up shit creek without a paddle,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, but if you don’t nip this thing in the bud, people are going to start to talk, right? I mean, you’ve got investigators complaining of having objects tossed at them while they’re working in a supposedly haunted house. How long do you think it’ll take before the media catches wind and the vultures start circling for the story of the year?” She put her hands up, pretending to punctuate a headline. “Seattle PD scared off by ghosts!”
“I know. I know.” Petrovich glanced over at the group in Sadie’s car and sighed. “But . . . c’mon,” he pleaded.
Sadie followed his gaze to Louise, the redhead in a multicolored patchwork dress. Then there were two cue-ball head-shaven people, one a man and the other a woman, who sported so many tattoos and piercings it was difficult to tell where the ink and metal ended and their own skin began.
“Are they as nutty as they look?” he asked.
“Probably,” Sadie admitted. “But supposedly they do know what they’re doing when it comes to this stuff.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Go back to your apartment and rent a romantic DVD to watch with Jenny. Make popcorn and forget all about us.”
“As appealing as that sounds, I can’t leave you and your posse alone in the house all night.” He pointed to the front door. “You’ve got an hour,” he told her. “No more.” He nodded toward Sadie’s car. “And those clowns remain in your car until I’m long gone. I don’t want to talk to them. Hell, I don’t want to even see them.” He closed his eyes until he turned to face Sadie again. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re not even here.”
“Got it.” Sadie put a hand up to signal Louise and the others to wait. Then she followed Petrovich back down the driveway.
“They won’t bite you,” Sadie said with a smirk, and nudged Petrovich’s shoulder with a finger.
“I’m not so sure about that.”
He strolled away, giving Sadie’s Honda a wide berth. Once he’d driven off down the street, Sadie waved the trio over.
The two baldies who’d arrived at Sadie’s house with Louise were named Rosemary and Rick Thingvold. Louise said she thought of them as a husband-and-wife Wiccan revolution. Sadie preferred to think of them as Thing One and Thing Two.
“Before we enter the house, I think it’s important that we agree that we are here as open-minded entities. Not to judge or be judged,” said Rosemary Thingvold, aka Thing One.
“I agree,” said Rick, aka Thing Two.
“What exactly does that mean?” asked Sadie.
“It means that we’re going to try to solve whatever is going on inside the house by using peaceful means,” Louise said, excitement radiating from her every pore. “And that we’ll respect that each of us has specific talents that may work together or apart, but our goal here is—” She placed her hands together prayerlike, closed her eyes, and nodded her head. “Our goal is peace.”
“Um. Sure.” Sadie said to Things One and Two, “You do know that he hasn’t been exactly peaceful so far.”
“We’re aware that the spirit inside is angry and has issues,” said Thing Two.
“We’re prepared to do whatever it takes to try to work things through peacefully,” said Thing One. She held up a small brown satchel. “That’s why I’ve brought brownies.”
“Brownies?” Sadie raised her eyebrows at Things One and Two and then at Louise. “I don’t think Detective Petrovich would appreciate if we left traces of pot at a crime scene. As a matter of fact, I think he’d just as soon throw you in jail for even suggesting it.”
“There’s no marijuana in my brownies,” Thing One said haughtily. “Maybe some chamomile leaves for relaxation but, I assure you, no illicit drugs whatsoever.”
“Besides,” Thing Two spoke up. “They’re not for us. They’re for the specter inside.”
“Oh,” Sadie replied, frowning. “You know, in all my years of being in contact with spirits, I’ve never once seen one eat.”
“Really?” Louise seemed surprised.
“Maybe because they’re, um, dead,” Sadie added. Sheesh!
“Did you ever offer them a bite to eat?” Thing Two asked.
“Well, no,” Sadie admitted. “Probably it escaped my mind to offer them food on account of them being dead and all.” Sadie pressed her fingers to her temples, where a headache was bubbling up. “How about we just go on inside?”
Everyone was in agreement on that, so they entered the Wickses’ house, and Sadie prepared for the worst. Some additional progress had been made with the box removal. The officers had cleared a significant amount of debris away from the first level of the living room area, allowing them clear access to the doorways and halls. It probably had been necessary to make sure they had a speedy escape route for when Mr. Ugly got extra ugly.
“Before we go in search of the demented ass who’s guarding the upper bedrooms, I should know what your plan is,” Sadie said. “Besides offering him brownies and hoping you can convince him we come in peace.”
“Well, I’m going to do a smu
dging to help purify the area,” Louise said.
“And you’re not going to burn down the house or anything, right?”
“Of course not!”
“Okay, just checking ’cause I know this whole smudging thing involves burning herbs and whatnot, and I don’t want to have a repeat of what happened last year when—”
“It won’t happen again. Besides, that so was not my fault,” Louise said indignantly.
“Right.” Sadie turned to Things One and Two and raised her eyebrows.
“And we’re going to start by making a circle of protection,” Thing Two said.
“And it wouldn’t hurt for us all to recite the Wiccan Rede together,” added Thing One.
“You may have to walk me through that one,” Sadie said as politely as she could.
“The short version will be best,” Louise said.
The three began to recite their little ditty while standing in the front foyer.
“Bide the Wiccan Law ye must, in perfect love, in perfect trust. Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: And ye harm none, do as ye will. And ever mind the Rule of Three: What ye send out, comes back to thee. Follow this with mind and heart, and merry ye meet, and merry ye part.”
They recited the rhyme together, and like some awful pep rally, they ended with whoops and enthusiastic high fives.
Sadie just stood back until it was time to move on.
“Great. Let’s get this thing going,” Sadie said.
“Let’s move closer to the stairs to cast our circle of protection,” suggested Louise.
“We’ll let Rick walk the circle while we prepare the altar,” Thing One said.
“Altar?” Sadie asked, but was ignored.
It turned out that Rick walked around in a very large circle that encompassed most of the main floor while Louise, Thing One, and Sadie stood in the center of the room and emptied the bags of stuff. There were candles, matches, and a weird rodlike stick that Thing One called athame, which, apparently, was another name for wand.
“She could turn you into a toad just like that,” Louise said, snapping her fingers and giggling when Sadie jumped. “I’m kidding of course.”
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