Enid took my hand. "Now, dearie. Mason was a little wild, but he meant well."
Somehow that wasn't as comforting as it could've been under other circumstances.
THERE AREN'T MANY KINDS of work that I can think of that would have been more dull, less interesting than what I was doing at that moment. I sat at a desk doing simple sorting—taking things from one big pile and separating them, assigning to other locations based on rather simple criteria. When you do it for any length of time it quickly becomes tedious, frustrating, menial and generally unpleasant. Okay, I was getting irritable and negative.
I forced myself to flip over a page and an involuntary hoot of joy popped out of me. I read carefully, then grabbed my phone.
"Clarence," I said when he answered. "I found it."
"Which it?" he asked, sounding rather amused. "In recent times we have been searching for some unknown number of unknown 'its'."
"This it is a record player. It has to be one of our objects. The description matches perfectly."
"Then we are going after it?"
"Absolutely. You call Enid and give her a heads up. See if the notion of a record player triggers anything. I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Sure thing. The game is afoot."
"You've been reading Doyle again."
"For the fourth time. The complete Sherlock Holmes."
I hung up and gathered the clipping and my notebook and left the building. I came out to find a beautiful day and promised myself I'd try to get out more often. Even when the weather wasn't so nice, it did me good to get outside.
Like now. As Clarence said, the game is afoot. We were on the hunt and as I walked I almost bounced. Once I'd been excited at the idea of being a junior reporter on some magazine. I'd been lucky to escape—my original employer had now folded and the articles I saw online didn't make me want to be a part of that.
Besides, I was part of something bigger, something that mattered.
As I stopped at a light I saw an ad on passing a bus. "Your future is in your hands," it said.
I laughed. "The fact is, the future, as we know it, may very well be in my hands," I said.
A few people stared at me the way you stare at people who act oddly on the street, but I didn't care. Not in the least. I had evidence that would lead us to recovering another of the missing objects—the cursed objects. Enid might have some idea what it did, but if she didn't we'd just have to go find out.
"Are we going to be back in the Grand Storehouse anytime soon?"
I saw Edgar beside me, looking his usual, healthy pale self. "You want to go there again?"
"It's the only place I feel like the myself I once was."
"I'm sure we will have occasion to visit."
He gave me a strange smile. "Good."
I wondered about his request. He had to have some agenda there that he wasn't telling me about. Perhaps he wanted to do something he hadn't had the strength to accomplish after fighting with Walter. I wanted to ask, but Edgar would tell me when he was ready. I hoped. "But first..."
"I remember a machine that played music," he said. "Is that a record player?"
"It is."
"This might be fun then."
I waited for a moment, hoping he'd add something. Fun? I wondered what he knew about it. I was sure the hunt would be exhilarating. I was certain of that. There would be adrenalin rushes and copious amounts of uncertainty, and who knew what else. And maybe even some fun.
"You're up for an adventure then?"
That earned me a ghostly smile. "Since I'm haunting your pen, it isn't like I have a choice."
"We are partners," I said.
"In a way."
Then he turned invisible and left me talking to myself on a city street. I sighed. I was stuck with Edgar and this wouldn’t be the last time he did that to me, I could be sure of that.
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Old School Diner Cozy Mysteries
Murder at Stake
Murder Well Done
A Side Order of Deception
Murder, Basted and Barbecued
THE CURIOSITY SHOP Cozy Mysteries
The Curious Case of the Cursed Spectacles
The Curious Case of the Cursed Dice
The Curious Case of the Cursed Dagger
The Curious Case of the Cursed Looking Glass
THE WE’RE NOT DEAD Yet Club
Fetch a Pail of Murder
Wedding Bells and Death Knells
Murder or Bust
Pinched, Pilfered and a Pitchfork
A Hot Spot of Murder
WITCHY WOMEN OF COVEN Grove Series
THE WITCHING ON THE Wall
A Witching Well of Magic
Witching the Night Away
Witching There’s Another Way
Witching Your Life Away
Witching You Wouldn’t Go
Witching for a Miracle
TEASEN & PLEASEN HAIR Salon Series
A Hair Raising Blowout
Wash, Rinse, Die
Holiday Hooligans
Color Me Dead
False Nails & Tall Tales
CAESAR’S CREEK SERIES
A FROZEN SCOOP OF MURDER (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book One)
Death by Chocolate Sundae (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Two)
Soft Serve Secrets (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Three)
Ice Cream You Scream (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Four)
Double Dip Dilemma (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Five)
Melted Memories (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Six)
Triple Dip Debacle(Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Seven)
Whipped Wedding Woes(Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Eight)
A Sprinkle of Tropical Trouble(Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Nine)
A Drizzle of Deception(Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Ten)
SWEET HOME MYSTERY Series
Creamed at the Coffee Cabana (Sweet Home Mystery Series Book One)
A Caffeinated Crunch (Sweet Home Mystery Series Book Two)
A Frothy Fiasco (Sweet Home Mystery Series Book Three)
Punked by the Pumpkin(Sweet Home Mystery Series Book Four)
Peppermint Pandemonium(Sweet Home Mystery Series Book Five)
Expresso Messo(Sweet Home Mystery Series Book Six)
A Cuppa Cruise Conundrum(Sweet Home Mystery Series Book Seven)
The Brewing Bride(Sweet Home Mystery Series Book Eight)
WHISPERING PINES MYSTERY Series
A Sinister Slice of Murder
Sanctum of Shadows (Whispering Pines Mystery Series)
Curse of the Bloodstone Arrow (Whispering Pines Mystery Series)
Fright Night at the Haunted Inn (Whispering Pines Mystery Series)
MAD RIVER MYSTERY SERIES
A Wicked Whack
A Prickly Predicament
A Malevolent Menace
The Curious Case of the Cursed Spectacles Page 19