Rose checked the others and saw they all were matching the cadence of her breath. She gave Kerry a quick hug, then patted her back and reached for her brandy, taking a healthy swallow. "I'm as scared as everybody else but what'll make me feel better is to focus on facts. Noreen, I think we can avoid overlapping our perceptions and conclusions, don't you?"
Noreen's wise old eyes surveyed the group. "We're all observant and I agree—we've been through too much for pens and notepads. We can do it."
"Who wants to go first?" quavered Aura Lee.
Elizabeth shook her head. "Somebody else."
Neal set his glass on the coffee table. "You have to promise not to commit me, okay?"
Rose smiled wryly. "I think we'll all ask for that deal."
"The rain was coming down like—" Neal looked up. "Well, you know what it was like. Andrea and I were already drenched and we could hardly hear each other for the thunder. We were heading for cover when I saw something on those big sandstone rocks." He leaned forward for his glass. "A little more?"
Kerry slid the bottle toward him and he poured a generous measure. "All hell was breaking loose, but I could see a dark shape moving along beside us... on the rock."
"There were two," Andrea whispered.
Neal looked at her. "Seriously?" At her nod, he took a swallow of brandy. "I thought it was a shadow, but when I looked around for something casting it, there wasn't anything."
"You were wet, there was water in your eyes," Noreen pointed out. "You couldn't be expected to see much even if there was something there."
"Except I saw the shape." Neal took another swallow and shuddered. "It kept pace with us. When we got to the end of those vertical rocks, it—God—it pulled itself off the stone. And stood there."
"Madre de dios." Dolores pulled the blanket tightly about her ears.
Noreen cleared her throat. "What did the shape look like then? Was it three-dimensional?"
Neal shook his head. "I guess, like a cloud, or a dust-devil, you know? The rain gave it a silvery outline."
"It took on a shape," Andrea added in a shaky voice. "It went from flat to thicker, like smoke, and then it started—it started growing arms."
"Jesus." Kerry shrank into the chair back, her hands clutching her shoulders.
Rose patted her shoulder with a trembling hand. "Could you recognize the figure?"
Neal shot her a look. "I wasn't making comparisons right about then."
"How about you?" Rose asked Andrea. "Any clues to give us some direction?"
Andrea deliberated. "It made me think of Kelvin," she said finally.
"Why?"
She frowned. "I'm not sure. An impression of dark clothes? It reminded me of his dark suit coat in the sketches."
Aura Lee leaned forward. "I don't understand. You've been helping Kelvin, translating him. Why would he want to hurt you or Neal?" She looked at the others for support.
"Help him or not, it looked like that shape pushed Neal," Elizabeth pointed out. "Now I know there's all kinds of questions you got to ask. If this thing was a ghost, could it have any control over its—what d'you call it—shape, shade, whatever?"
"Ectoplasm," muttered Noreen. "Equally, could it manage its feelings? Remember, Andrea's sketches are of a young man in danger. We don't know what happened to him, if it is indeed Kelvin. If he was caught up in violence, then one could postulate that he died in extreme agitation."
"And was remembered in the rocks," Kerry murmured. She looked at them. "In Jessamine's diary, what he said after she and Kelvin made love up there. Their happiness was so great they would be remembered in the rocks."
A small, muffled sob came from Dolores's blanketed form. She tugged its folds apart, showing her woebegone face. "What if he's been there ever since, waiting for something? Waiting for Jessamine."
Rose's eyes widened. "What if he confused Andrea with Jessamine, and took Neal for a rival?"
Strudel jumped off the sofa and barked once, sharply. She trotted out the door and into the kitchen.
"Maybe we scared her." Elizabeth's smile was sickly.
"We're scaring me." Rose rubbed her head distractedly. "I don't know how we're ever going to sort this out. We can speculate 'til we're ghosts ourselves, but we don't really know anything. And I, for one, am not going back up the mountain to ask anybody questions."
Noreen let out a long breath. "I'm with you there. But I have another question." Her gaze went to Neal and Andrea. "Who was the second shape?"
"If one was Jessamine—I mean—if they somehow reunited after Jessamine died, why would they be messing with Neal and Andrea?" Elizabeth scooted closer to the fire. "Wouldn't they be happy together?"
Strudel dragged a sopping coat into the room.
"Strudel!" Rose hurried to her and knelt to pick up her jacket. She looked down at the little dog in puzzlement. "Why in the world would she want this?"
The dachshund barked again, jumping up to catch the bottom edge of the jacket in her mouth. Growling, she pulled it out of Rose's grasp and, tightening her hold, shook the coat as if it were prey. Several items rattled onto the wood floor near the fireplace.
"What the hell?" Kerry knelt to pick up the bits dislodged from the jacket pockets. "A stone, a stick. Yuck, old tissue. More pebbles." Kerry opened her hand, pouring everything into the lazy Susan at the center of the coffee table.
Strudel barked again and leapt onto the low table. She stuck her snout into the bowl and pulled out something small. Jumping down, she carried it to the sofa and resumed her place beside Neal. There she started licking her prize.
"What's that?" Rose tried to get what looked like a small rock, but the dog growled and pulled it to her. "No, Strudel. Leave it. Leave it." She scrabbled for the pebble, finally getting it away.
"What is it?" Kerry asked.
"I don't know." Rose picked at it with one fingernail, and dirt flaked off.
"Is that green?" Noreen bent closer. "Rose, didn't you get this up on the trail?"
"Strudel kept digging." Rose rubbed her finger over the rock. "I grabbed it because she wouldn't leave it alone." She scratched away more dirt with her nail, and a larger piece broke off, leaving a rough circular shape. When she scuffed the surface again, a triangular section unfolded and remained upright as several more fragments fell away.
Kerry breathed in sharply, leaning to look at it more closely. "A gnomon. It's a sundial. Could it be—"
"It's got to be Kelvin's watch fob," Elizabeth whispered. "Where did you find it?"
"On the trail to the Amphitheater." Noreen's eyes snapped with excitement. "At the base of the scree, where that walkway goes across."
Dolores crossed herself, lips moving.
"Can you think finding that was a coincidence?" Aura Lee almost vibrated with intensity. "We were led, step by step, up that mountain."
Elizabeth's face lit up. "The scarf! Kerry said she saw it on a branch. Didn't you, girl? Tell them."
Kerry shook her head. "I'm still not sure about that."
"Oh, come on!" Elizabeth turned away from her. "We were scramblin' up that mountain, and Neal had us going one way. All of sudden Kerry, here, stopped dead in her tracks and chased after him, telling him we had to go up to the Amphitheater." She glared at Kerry. "And if we hadn't, I don't want to know what would've happened."
"All right! It was the scarf in Jessamine's box." Kerry closed her eyes. "I saw it, there all of a sudden on a branch, and the tree was at the trailhead. I didn't stop to think about it. What if I'd been wrong?" she demanded of Elizabeth. "Did you ever think of that?"
"Woulda, coulda, shoulda." Neal started to cough. When he was able to stop, he reached for Kerry's hand. "Whatever it was that made you do it, I'm grateful it went down that way, okay?"
"Wait." Dolores leaned toward Kerry. "Did you look in the box? Jessamine's box," she added when Kerry frowned at her. "Is the scarf there now?"
"Holy shit." Kerry bolted out of the room. Returning a few minutes later, she
carried the faded candy box. "Let's take a look." She pulled open the lid and let out a sigh as she saw the black net material banded in blue.
Aura Lee frowned as Kerry reached for it. "But what could you have seen—"
"Oh." Kerry's eyes widened with shock. "My God." She let the scarf fall to the coffee table.
"What is it?" Dolores demanded. "You're scaring the hell out of me." Her fingertips touched the scarf and every drop of color drained out of her cheeks. "Dios!"
Noreen snatched it up. "It's wet."
Rose brushed a finger along the blue sateen edging the black net. The moisture against her skin was unmistakable. She looked up from the scarf into Noreen's face. Instead of fear, she saw excitement, and felt a bit of her own. "This is incredible."
Noreen grinned. "To say the least." She turned to Neal. "All right, you said you saw this form take shape, and you, Andrea, saw arms. Was there anything else you noticed? Was it only the dark clothing that made you think of Kelvin?"
Andrea frowned, trying to remember. "It was so wild up there, the wind and rain, the lightning—wait." She made herself think about the slowly moving form that had taken shape before her eyes. Blacks and grays, that impression of a coat, but hadn't there been something lighter, something that glimmered? "A ring! It was right where his hand would have been, at the end of the arm thingies." She looked to Neal. "Did you see it? Silver, it could have been, it reflected the lightning."
Neal was shaking his head. "I don't remember, just the shape, and trying to get you out of its reach." He reached clumsily for his glass. "That's what scared me the most."
Kerry held her head between her hands. Like the rest of them, she was sagging with fatigue. "What kind of a ring? Jeweled? Engraved?" A short, hard laugh broke from her throat. "I'm asking about a ghost's jewelry."
"Wait a minute." Noreen pushed herself off the chair and trotted toward the library. "I need to find that picture." When she returned, it was with the stack of papers and photos they'd compiled in their research. "It was right here." After a few moments of riffling, she held up the picture Andrea had found in her studio.
Jessamine looked at them with haunted eyes as Stanley Thornton smiled, his hand on her shoulder, the snarling lion-head on his finger.
Andrea leaned forward to take the photo from her. "I don't recall the lion. Maybe." Her gaze lifted to Noreen. "You know how crazy that storm was. And I was so scared... what I saw could've been wearing a jeweled tiara for all I know."
"But why would Stanley be up there?" Rose frowned over Andrea's shoulder at the print. "Jessamine I can understand, and Kelvin, too. Why Stanley?"
"Unless," Elizabeth said, "he had something to do with whatever happened to Kelvin." She slipped the photo from Andrea's hand. "Look at those eyes. He's real happy, and it doesn't take a genius to see why." She glanced up at them. "He got the girl."
With a loud crack, the lights went out.
"Now what?" In the glow from the fireplace, Rose stepped over Elizabeth, still on the floor by the hearth, and went to the switch plate beside the door. She flipped the switch up and down and surveyed the group as the three lamps went on. "We're all still alive. That's something."
"You're getting paranoid, Rose," Kerry said in a shaky voice.
"No kidding. I'm also working my way to a heart attack thanks to all the melodrama around here."
From her place on the sofa, Strudel whined, backing up into the blanket Andrea had tucked around her. "Hey, baby, what's the matter?" The dog's eyes were fixed on a spot hear the drapes over the windows across the room. The frantic moan grew louder and Andrea tried to pick her up, but Strudel growled, showing her teeth.
Aura Lee let out a whimper.
"What?" Dolores said in alarm. "What's going on?"
Aura Lee lifted a shaky hand, pointing to the window. What looked like mist was pulsating, pulling slowly together, thickening.
"Jesus." Neal grabbed Andrea's hand, yanking her closer to him. "Let's get out of here."
"Is that—is that—what is that?" Elizabeth struggled to free herself from the blanket.
Noreen eased off the chair and backed toward the door. "Rose, get away from that wall."
"Wait." Rose's command halted all of them. "Wait a minute. Let's see if we can c-com-communicate—" her voice shook pitifully. The color drained from her face.
Kerry took a step toward her and stopped short, pressing against an invisible force. She strained against it and moved forward enough to grab Rose by the hand, and then Noreen, tugging both out of the room. Behind her Neal dragged Andrea and Elizabeth. Kerry had just turned to go back when Aura Lee and Dolores fell through the doorway into the kitchen. A humming sound was growing louder, straining against their ears.
Neal growled, "Get out of the house."
Together, leaning on one another, they stumbled through the kitchen to the back door and down the steps to the yard.
"Oh, my God, oh my God, that was a ghost, wasn't it?" Dolores babbled, still clutching Noreen's arm. "It was so cold, and something was forming in there, I saw it."
"Strudel." Wild-eyed, Andrea forced her way among them. "I didn't bring her out, I forgot her. Where is she?"
Neal was already on the steps. As he took hold of the doorknob, the windows went dark. An unearthly howl split the rising hum, and he jerked the door open. Strudel ran out as if chased by demons, and made a beeline for Rose. When she bent down, the little dog jumped into her arms. The others surrounded them, arms around each other as the house lights flashed on and off.
Chapter 25
"We can't stay here forever." Kerry frowned at Rose and Noreen. They'd trooped en masse to Dolores's place, and it was from her living room they'd watched the lightshow. Now the house looked normal, warm light shining from every window they could see.
"I'm in no rush to go back there," Elizabeth said firmly. "There's a whole lot to be said for havin' daylight when we do."
"We might find out more about the spirits who are active," Aura Lee began half-heartedly.
"As anxious as I am to learn the source of these amazing events," Noreen said drily, "I think waiting for the sun to rise is a good idea." She consulted Rose with a look, and at her nod went on. "When you consider the manifestation began after Elizabeth's comment about Stanley Thornton's marrying Jessamine, I'd speculate he's our ghost."
Neal nodded, his chin brushing against Andrea's hair. They'd ended up on the leather sofa, and leaned against it in a fog of fatigue. "It's not a bad guess, if you believe the ring Andrea saw belonged to Thornton."
Kerry ranged around the living room restlessly. "If Stanley had something to do with Kelvin's death, then it makes sense—I guess—that he wouldn't rest in peace. And if Kelvin was a victim of something Stanley did, then he wouldn't either."
Elizabeth yawned. "It would explain those two shadows we saw up on the mountain: one Stanley, the other Kelvin. You got the sundial fob to show Kelvin is probably buried under those rocks, and you got Stanley as maybe the one who put him there. Two ghosts, both mad at each other."
Rose sighed. "What about the scarf? Who put it out as a signal flag?"
"Had to be Jessamine," Andrea murmured, eyes closed. "And then she was trying to help Kelvin."
"Help him what?" Elizabeth asked.
"Keep Stanley from killing Neal." Andrea opened her eyes. "Remember, one of those shadows was trying to push Neal over the edge of the trail."
"Or so it seemed. It makes a rough kind of sense." Rose rubbed her face with both hands. "What's worrying me is what do we do now? A spirit was materializing in the living room and God knows what other supernatural things are happening. You, Andrea, have been channeling—for lack of a better word—Kelvin for the five or six days you've been here." Her gaze went to Neal. "We saw something—maybe a ghost—attack you, and there's no guarantee it won't happen again. I'm wondering how long this sideshow will keep playing."
"I guess daylight would be better," Kerry conceded. She glanced at Dolores. "Is it
okay if we all spend the night here? I'd offer my place, too, but I've gotta say, I'm not anxious to split us up, you know?"
"I'll drink to that." Elizabeth pushed herself off her chair. "I vote we call this shindig a slumber party and stay together until the sun comes up. My girls have made me watch too many scary movies to even think about doing anything else."
"Thanks, jita," Dolores said, "now I feel really safe. At least one of you has to sleep in my room, hear?"
"I will." Aura Lee stood up and maneuvered her way between the chair and the coffee table. "The sooner the better."
"Works for me," Rose said. She was no more eager to leave the warm room than anyone else. Beside her Strudel began to scratch at a cushion to make a nest. "Let's get as comfortable as we can."
They hunted up blankets and pillows, and by the time they were settled, Andrea was beyond sleepy. She and Neal stretched out next to each other on the couch. She snuggled into his warmth, grateful for the strength of his arms. "I'm so glad you're here," she murmured, mindful of the women nearby.
"Me, too." Neal's voice rumbled in his chest where her ear rested. "You can protect me if the boogeyman shows up."
Andrea jabbed him with her elbow and his arms tightened around her. She listened to the quiet sounds in the room and her breathing slowed. Soon she drifted into sleep.
No one was awake to notice the cold air snaking into the room from under the front door.
* * *
Neal opened his eyes. He yawned, shifting his weight on the sofa. He was alone. "Andrea?" When she didn't answer, he pushed himself up, throwing off the blanket.
"Neal?" Noreen was in the big chair beside the fireplace. "What's wrong?"
"Andrea's not here. Did you see her get up?"
Noreen switched on the lamp, setting off a groan from the floor near the window, where Kerry had camped. "No. Maybe she's in the bathroom."
"Yeah." Neal glanced around the room. Elizabeth was on the floor near Kerry, and Rose was just sitting up on the rug across from the couch. Aura Lee came through the door to the hallway and he asked her if she'd seen Andrea.
She shook her head. "No. I just got up to use the bathroom. The kitchen, maybe?"
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