Elizabeth sagged against the sofa back.
"This was right before the séance?" Rose asked.
Andrea nodded. "Neal followed me down the mountain. When he caught up with me, he was so angry." Andrea scrubbed at the tears on her cheeks. "I couldn't tell him what happened. Now he thinks I was afraid of him. I acted like he was going to rape me. He'll never speak to me again."
"Why didn't you say anything when you got to the house?" Rose dug for a tissue in her pocket and handed it to her.
Andrea wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "What was the point? Aura Lee was opening the door talking about the séance."
A heavy silence held the room.
Dolores leaned out of the chair and reached for the wooden box on the coffee table. "I need another cigarette."
Chapter 15
No one fainted at Dolores's coming out of the nicotine closet, much to her surprise. Rose smiled at her reaction. If I didn't know it would taste like absolute crap, she thought wistfully, I'd have a cigarette, too.
The lid clicked against the box as Dolores retrieved the pack. She was already lighting up as she reached the front door.
Elizabeth shook her head and her tiny braids tumbled over the collar of her saffron jumpsuit. "Miz Dolores can smoke the kitchen curtains for all I care, as long as I get a drink." She stood up and eased her way between coffee table and sofa. "How about it, ladies? We've got a real good excuse here. Doesn't matter what time it is," she added as Aura Lee consulted her watch. "This is purely medicinal."
"I wouldn't mind a glass of sherry, but we have work to do." Noreen observed Andrea's quick turn to stare out the window at the fountain. "Something very odd is happening here. Our cozy discussion about Andrea's psychological state doesn't solve the problem."
"You have to define a problem before you can solve it." Kerry looked at Rose for support. "Aren't there a couple of former WC associates in psychology and psychiatry in the metro area? Wouldn't be hard to get her in to see someone."
Rose stretched her arms over her head in a vain attempt to reduce the tension in her muscles. "What makes you think she needs a mental health evaluation?"
Kerry let out a short breath. "You've heard what she said. A psych exam is a slam-dunk."
"To act only upon assumption is to dive into uncharted waters: one chooses risk over measurement," pronounced Noreen. "Millicent Sanders Teegarden. Eighteen seventy-nine." She ignored the face Kerry made at her. "You've listened to her story and decided the psychological solution is the only one possible," Noreen pointed out. "Even you, Andrea. Rose and I are suggesting that there might be something else at work here."
The delight in Aura Lee's face could have lit a moonless night. "You've felt it, too, haven't you, Rose? Cottie is trying to contact us from beyond the grave."
"What I'm thinking is a little more every day," Rose said. "Self-hypnosis, for instance, or an illness involving hallucinations. Maybe an acute case of low blood sugar. I've heard of a bunch of symptoms from that. Andrea, when we saw you painting this morning, Aura Lee and I thought you were sleepwalking. Well, sleep-painting."
Andrea came away from the window. For the first time that morning she had a hopeful look on her face.
Noreen nodded in agreement. "The other day I came across the description of a phenomenon called Bonnet's Syndrome. It's a kind of illusion experienced at times by people with diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration and as a result of cataracts or corneal damage. You don't suffer from any of those things, do you, Andrea?"
"No." She sounded dazed.
Elizabeth carried in a tray of glasses, one filled with sherry for Noreen. Dolores was right behind her, trailing the scent of smoke, with a bottle of Irish Cream grasped in one hand. She'd had her cigarette in the hall beside the open front door in order not to miss anything. Handing the bottle to Elizabeth, she put away the lighter and cigarettes. "What do you mean, self-hypnosis?" Behind her, Elizabeth filled glasses.
"I've experienced it in yoga practice. Focusing on a sound, on a fixed visual point, even listening to music can lead a person into a trance state, although you're usually still conscious during such things. Just extremely relaxed." Rose paused, her mind tumbling with possibilities. "Then there's the whole issue of dreams."
"Ooh, dreams," Aura Lee murmured happily.
Moving her feet to allow Dolores to sit on the rug, Kerry took the glass offered by Elizabeth. She regarded Noreen and Rose with growing interest. "You're talking research. That's my favorite thing."
Elizabeth gave a drink to Andrea. "Okay, those are good for a start. And don't forget allergies. Sometimes people have the most amazing reactions to certain substances." She caught the arrested expression on Dolores's face. "What?"
"Substance abuse." Dolores's gaze darted to Andrea, who was lifting the glass to her lips. "Do you use drugs?"
Andrea tilted the glass toward her in a silent salute. "Alcohol upon occasion. I smoked some pot when I was in college, but I didn't like the way it made me feel."
"Did you ever drop acid?" Kerry asked. "I've heard about former dopers having flashbacks from drinking orange juice."
"Sorry. I was too scared to try it."
"But that brings up another issue." Dolores's voice lifted in excitement. "What if somebody drugged Andrea? Not us," she added. "But what if someone wanted to make Andrea believe that she's losing her mind?"
"Gaslighting her?" Kerry had begun to wind a piece of hair around one finger. "I love it as a plot device, but she just got into town and says she doesn't know anybody besides us."
When Elizabeth waggled her finger at her, Kerry grinned. "Ha, ha. I don't have time to drive anyone crazy."
"There's a straight line I'm not gonna touch. How about it, girl? You have any old lovers trying to get even for being dumped? A secret twin wanting to cheat you out of your birthright?" Elizabeth twisted an imaginary moustache.
Andrea sipped her drink thoughtfully.
Rose noticed the hole in one leg of Andrea's jeans, catching sight of a scab on her knee. Her chestnut hair was limp and the shadows under her eyes and lines around her mouth revealed her fatigue. But her eyes were coming back to life.
"I'm an only child and my parents are dead. And I don't recall the last time I had a lover."
"No wonder old Neal looks so good," Kerry cracked.
Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Honey, Andrea could be a nymphomaniac and 'old Neal' would still look fine. The man is a hunk."
Kerry chuckled along with the others. "And you a married woman!"
"Married, not dead." Elizabeth smiled comfortably. "Mmm-mmm. That man is good enough to eat and he don't need cookin', either."
Dolores giggled, one hand over her mouth, at Aura Lee's scandalized expression.
Rose noted the color rising in Andrea's cheeks. "Okay, I think we can agree nobody's drugging you. Any more thoughts?"
Aura Lee nodded. "A few. Even skipping over the supernatural we could be talking telepathic imaging or strong ESP. Boulder is just the place for this kind of thing. Oh, yes," she added at Kerry's scowl. "Almost anything can happen here. Maybe it's because the inner layers of the earth are out in the open along the Front Range, or maybe because of the effect of the mountains on the weather. You hear a lot of strange stories if you listen. On the supernatural side, of course, we've got automatic writing—I mean painting—and haunting, maybe poltergeist activity. Even possession."
Dolores stared at her, laughter stilled.
"Possession?" Kerry hooted. "Upchucking pea soup and extreme neck stretches, right?"
Aura Lee stiffened in indignation. "No, personal control taken over by some other entity. And I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head, young lady. We're brainstorming and the rules don't allow making fun of anybody's ideas."
"Sorry," Kerry said, chastened. "I didn't mean to diss you."
Aura Lee nodded. "Apology accepted."
"You mentioned drugs." Noreen tapped at her lips with one finger. "Another possi
bility might be drug interactions." She turned to Andrea. "Are you taking any prescriptions or over the counter remedies?"
Andrea shook her head. "Nothing on a regular basis. Vitamins and Midol almost every month. That's all."
"Kerry, don't jump down my throat," ventured Dolores, "but we have to at least consider the mystical along with the other options. I've known people who've had experiences." Her emphasis of the final word was slight.
Noreen's eyes sharpened. "What kind of experiences?"
"Have any of you ever seen a ghost?"
"Certainly," Aura Lee said seriously. "More than once."
"Oh, please." Kerry twisted the cap back onto the Bailey's bottle with force. "Don't go there."
Dolores's lips tightened. "My grandmother saw her father—my great-grandfather—after he died."
Kerry nodded. "People are overcome with grief and they want one more chance to see their loved-ones. Ghost sightings aren't unusual between deaths and funeral services."
"No, it wasn't like that." Dolores took a quick sip of her drink. "My great-grandfather worked in a mine in Mexico. The village was far away, so he stayed at the work site during the week. When my grandmother was ten she was helping get the younger children ready for bed one night. She tucked in her sister and went out to the cistern to get water. She saw a man standing nearby. His face was in shadow and she was afraid.
"She started to run inside, but he raised his hand and she saw the bracelet on his wrist. She had braided leather thongs together, setting in beads from an old necklace to make her father that bracelet. 'Papa!' she called, and the man smiled and nodded. She started toward him, but he motioned her to stop and she saw he was covered in blood. She ran to help him but he was gone. The next day her mother got word her husband was dead. The support beams in the mine collapsed, killing seven men. They never recovered the bodies."
"She was only ten." Kerry's voice was kind. "Wouldn't it be natural for her to imagine a final goodbye from her father?"
Dolores's smile was sad. "Sure. But to her dying day, mi abuela swore she'd seen her father after he was dead. I can't prove it, but I honor her by believing what she said was true."
Aura Lee rose off the sofa and bent to enfold Dolores in a hug.
Noreen cleared her throat. "This kind of thing is difficult to assess because, by its nature, it's subjective. I think the paranormal investigators who measure temperatures and electrical outputs are on the right track. Most of the accounts I've read have been descriptions of physical reactions accompanying sensory stimuli."
Aura Lee, having resumed her seat, nodded with enthusiasm. "That's why I've been certain Cottie is still nearby. It's not because the room goes cold or I feel a chill down my spine." A sweet smile lit her face. "I have the same sense of well-being I always felt when I walked into a room and she was there. How can you quantify something like that? So," she added, voice hardening, "you put up with the sniping of people who think you're foolish or irrational."
Kerry's eyes widened at Aura Lee's potshot. "If that's aimed at me, I guess I deserve it. But I lived with more than enough wishful thinking and irrationality when I was growing up. I learned a person's life is determined by how she defines reality. Taking things on faith without question can be dangerous."
"Where did you grow up, girl?" Elizabeth asked.
"One of California's flakiest communes." Kerry's lips twisted. "Fortunately for me, the elders were too lazy to home school us kids, so we went through the public school system. It was enough. Now," she said briskly, "about Andrea. I assume you had the requisite physical exam before you came."
Andrea nodded. "Passed with flying colors. Physically and mentally." She finished the drink and set the glass on the table. "My life is stable. My daughter and I have lived in the same house for twenty years and I've worked at the same job for the last fifteen years."
"As a forensic artist. What does that involve?" asked Kerry.
"I turn the details told to me by crime victims into fairly accurate drawings of the people who harmed them." Andrea shrugged. "Or so they said at the Tacoma Sheriff's Office. Not much to build on in the present circumstances."
"We have to start somewhere." Rose met her gaze. "As you said, you're new here and we don't know you. If we're going to have a chance to help you, we need more information."
"I know."
The conversation ebbed and the sound of twittering birds graced the lull. Then came the rumble of a diesel engine, ending the moment of calm.
Dolores got up to investigate. "It's the guy who works for Neal—what's his name?"
"Denny." Rose saw Andrea's start at the mention of Neal.
So did Noreen. "Is Neal coming today?"
Rose shook her head. "Denny's in charge today. Neal's boy is sick with the flu and he thought he might have to take him to the doctor."
"Too bad." Noreen stared at Andrea until she shifted uncomfortably. "The more I think about what Andrea's told us, the more I believe we need to look beyond the obvious and the easy."
"Like she's touched in the head?" Elizabeth rolled her glass absently between her palms. "My Auntie Olivia always said the dead are around us. She had a friend who talked to them, tried to help them to the other side. Now, a lot of people thought that woman was batshit crazy. Others paid her good money to talk to those dead people for them. All I know is that nobody ever proved it either way. So how do you plan to get to the bottom of this thing?"
"Another séance!" Aura Lee looked from face to face in eagerness. "If Cottie could be contacted, she could look into it for us."
"Oh, God." Kerry pushed herself up off the floor. "I'm willing to do what I can in the way of research. I'll look things up, and check on the Internet to see if other people have had similar experiences, but that's it. If you're serious about table-tipping again with Belinda Smythe, count me out."
"Now, Kerry, the mark of a true scholar is an open mind," Noreen said in reproof. "If we're going to help Andrea, that's what we all have to start out with."
"There's a difference between an open mind and a total lack of sense," Kerry pointed out.
Dolores laughed weakly. "Are we going to be ghost busters?"
"Not at all. We'll examine the data we have. We need to learn the identity of the man in the sketches." Noreen ticked off each task on the fingers of one hand. "We have to know if Andrea is sketching and painting an actual place. In each of the pictures, the landscape is roughly the same." She looked at each of them in turn. "What if it's a real place? What if she's the trigger for what's happened thus far? What if other associates have encountered similar things here?"
"You're getting a lot of mileage out of what-ifs" Kerry muttered.
"Maybe. But a hypothesis that Andrea's pictures have come from outside her is as valid as assuming they're evidence of mental illness. Either way, one must strive to prove one's hypothesis."
"Well, yes," Kerry allowed. "I guess we could start from either end of the problem and still get to the truth."
"The truth is out there." Elizabeth grinned at Kerry's dirty look. "Why don't you make it a competition? First to prove that Andrea is or isn't nuts gets a prize."
"And your point is?" Rose inquired.
"That everyone's all gung-ho to start researching and figuring out this and that. What do you think of all this, Andrea? Just wade right in like everyone else has."
Andrea saw through Elizabeth's flippancy to her concern. "It's okay, I'm grateful to all of you for taking what I've said seriously. The worst thing about the last few days was feeling so alone." She swallowed. "Now I don't."
"Didn't I tell you?" Aura Lee beamed at the circle of women. "It's like the Three Musketeers around here, except there are seven of us. All for one and one for all."
Andrea blew her nose. "I may be a wacko but I'm your wacko?"
"Exactly." Rose stood up. "You'll just have to put up with our help."
"Until we're all completely crazy." Kerry shook her head in resignation. "All for one.
"
Chapter 16
The afternoon sun beamed through the bedroom transoms, turning the second-story hallway into a luminous passageway. Andrea liked the idea, having passed her own way through panic to acceptance. She wasn't alone anymore. The Wisdom Court women were on her side.
Her shoes whispered on the flowered carpet runner. Aura Lee and Rose had left on errands, and she was alone. The hush in the house, edged as it was with an undercurrent of outdoor noises, was more like a mood than a suspension of sound.
She heard footfalls and glanced behind her, thinking the noise came from downstairs. When the pace of the steps quickened, she searched the hallway for their source.
Catching a tiny movement at the corner of her eye she swung round. The china knob on the door to the attic turned. Her breath caught.
The door creaked open and Neal shouldered through it carrying a large box.
Andrea exhaled in relief.
Turning at the faint sound, Neal saw her.
Embarrassment over their last encounter washed color into her cheeks.
His mouth tightened. He pulled the door shut, bracing the weight of the box against the doorframe. As he walked toward her, she saw that his gray T-shirt was smudged with thick dust and his faded jeans were grimy.
When he passed by her without speaking, remorse swept through her. She'd let him think she was scared of him. "Neal?"
He stopped, then turned back to face her.
Andrea was surprised at how tired he looked. Lines of fatigue bracketed his mouth, and his eyes were without expression. Illogical as it was, she wanted to see the friendliness that had formerly warmed them.
"What happened up at the Amphitheater wasn't your fault, Neal." She realized how impossible it was to tell him what she'd experienced. I thought I saw you mutate into someone else, but I still really like you.
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