“I came to take some measurements of the place,” Gayla said. “If I can’t get workers in here who don’t freak out because of the odd floating apparition, I thought I might as well do a few cosmetic upgrades myself.”
She laughed in a high-pitched way that made Sadie wonder if Gayla had a few martinis before coming over.
“Come. I’ll show you,” Gayla said, walking toward the living room at the front of the house.
Sadie followed and drank her coffee as she shivered against the cold. “I’ve brought some holy water,” she mentioned as they reached the living room. “Maybe we can toss some around and see if it helps.”
“Sorry, but been there, done that.” Gayla tilted her head and regarded Sadie. “You really are quite the amateur at this, aren’t you?”
“I told you right from the start that I’m a trauma cleaner,” Sadie said defensively. “I don’t know why you insisted that I help you when it isn’t exactly my forte.”
“Believe me, it wasn’t my idea,” Gayla grumbled.
“What do you mean?” Sadie finished her coffee and put the foam cup down on the fireplace mantel. “Owen didn’t seem to care one way or another; you were the one that kept insisting that I work with Madam Maeva’s and—”
Sadie was startled by movement on the stairs. The spirit of Marlene hovered there, her eyes wild and terrified. Sadie glanced away and caught Gayla looking in the same direction.
“You can see her too!” Sadie exclaimed.
Gayla didn’t reply and when Sadie looked back, Marlene was gone.
“You saw her. Don’t try and tell me you didn’t. I saw it on your face,” Sadie insisted.
“Doesn’t matter,” Gayla said casually. She walked a few steps and pointed in the direction of the big picture window that was covered by heavy, old-fashioned draperies. “I was actually thinking those new-style sheer blinds would look fantastic in here. They’re relatively easy to install. I’m sure I could do it myself and it would really brighten up this room after a fresh coat of paint.” She held up the tape measure. “Will you stand and hold it at the other end so we can get an idea of the window’s size?” When Sadie didn’t move Gayla added, “We’ll do ghost talk after. Let’s get these measurements done.”
Sadie grabbed the end of the metal measuring tape and tugged it out as she walked to the opposite end of the window. “That’s why you insisted on using psychics to help you at the house, even though Owen could care less,” Sadie continued as she held the end of the measuring tape to the opposite end of the window. “You’ve got abilities to see spirits too.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gayla said in a bored voice. “Hold the tape still.”
“You do so!” Sadie exclaimed, exasperated. “Don’t deny it. You saw Marlene standing right over there.”
“Marlene?” Gayla burst out laughing and then just as quickly looked seriously down at the measuring tape. “Seventy-one inches.” She pressed a button on the canister of the measuring tape and the metal retracted and snapped sharply out of Sadie’s fingers.
“Yes. Marlene.” Sadie looked over and saw Marlene appear again on the stairs. “There she is right now!”
Gayla nonchalantly looked in the direction Sadie pointed and shook her head with a look of disgust. “That little slut isn’t named Marlene. Her daddy told me she was a hooker too. Her name is Iris.” She smiled meanly at the ghost. “Aren’t you, dear?”
“Iris!” Sadie gasped and tried to work her mind around that realization, but suddenly she felt woozy. She stumbled toward the fireplace and clung to the mantel.
“You—you drugged me!”
The room spun and tilted in a frenzied whirl and Sadie tried to fight the darkness, but it won.
Chapter 17
When Sadie woke up the first thing she did was check to make sure she had all her fingers. The next thing she did was look for any cuts or punctures made by sharp instruments. Her hands moved slowly and awkwardly down her body as she lay on the floor. She was mightily relieved to find that, except for the parade of percussionists in her head, she was entirely intact. She wanted to get up but her muscles were held down by invisible weights. Sadie breathed in the scent of old hardwood because her face was still plastered against the floor of the house. Thoughts came rushing back. Gayla must be the killer! Sadie moaned softly and tried to will her body into a sitting position but it refused to cooperate.
“Give it some time; it’ll wear off,” Gayla said, her voice sounding tired. “Unfortunately, time is the one thing you don’t have a lot of.”
Sadie scanned the room and her foggy vision landed on Gayla, who was leaning nonchalantly against a wall on the other side of the living room.
Sadie wanted to scream so all the world could hear, but the only sound that came out of her mouth was a gurgle followed by a line of drool. Although she fought to keep focused, her eyelids were weighed down by anchors that caused them to shut again.
The next time she woke up, it was because she was being dragged upstairs. Gayla had ahold of Sadie from under her armpits and was hauling her limp form backwards and up the hard wooden staircase to the upper level of the house.
“You’re like frickin’ wet cement!” Gayla complained as she hoisted Sadie up another stair.
“S-stop!” Sadie tried to shout, but her voice as a strangled, guttural whisper.
Her lower back thudded painfully against the steps as Gayla yanked her up the final stair. Sadie knew nothing good could come of her being taken upstairs, but even when Gayla paused at the top of the steps to catch her breath, she couldn’t seem to move her hands or feet to help herself, and she realized Gayla had bound her wrists and ankles together.
Sadie could smell Gayla’s sweat as the usually composed woman took in huge gulps of air. Then, suddenly, Sadie was being dragged across the floor of the upper hallway.
It took a few minutes, but they reached the far bedroom. Gayla shoved Sadie forcefully against the wall in the corner of the room, opposite the closet.
“Stay,” Gayla muttered sharply as if she were talking to a bad puppy.
Sadie didn’t want to stay but when she tried to move she promptly slid sideways like a rag doll. She heard Gayla’s footsteps going down the stairs. Sadie squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered from her slouched position on the bedroom floor. She didn’t want to die. And she certainly didn’t want to die in a haunted house.
She realized with hopefulness that Maeva and Rosemary would be wondering where she was and would, hopefully, be looking for her. Sadie had no idea if her friends would think to look for her at Halladay Street. She was guessing not.
Gayla returned in a few minutes with a bottle of water. She hoisted Sadie back up to a sitting position and then crouched down so that they were looking each other in the eye. She thrust the water up to Sadie’s mouth and she drank eagerly, but most of it dribbled down her chin.
“I don’t want to kill you,” Gayla said.
This was probably the best news Sadie had all year.
“But, you were hired to do a job and, goddammit, you’re going to do it.”
Sadie blinked in question and formed the sounds “Wh-wh-wh . . .”
“What?” Gayla guessed. “You were hired to get rid of that stupid Iris ghost that’s keeping me poor and stopping me from selling this damned house!” Gayla shrieked. “All I want is to make a profit on this place so I can blow out of this country and faaar away from that crazy hooker killer, but nooo, you couldn’t do the one thing I asked you to do!”
Sadie was relieved that it wasn’t Gayla who was the one who killed the prostitutes. Unfortunately, that left Owen. Her heart clenched in her chest at the realization that she’d done the naked tango with a serial killer. She couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t just killed her when she was
in bed with him.
“You’ve still got one shot out of this mess, you know,” Gayla said. “Just get rid of the crazy ghost before he gets here. That’s why I gave you my special cocktail.” She tilted her head and regarded Sadie coolly. “Do you think you can do that?”
“You—you drugged me to help me get rid of ghosts?”
“It’s just a light mixture of Rohypnol and psilocybin. It’ll help expand your mind and get you in touch.” She shrugged. “Lots of mediums use it these days.”
“Lots of mediums use roofies and magic ’shrooms to see ghosts?”
“Yes! When was the last time you attended a meeting or a workshop?”
“Um. Never.” Sadie slurred her words. She was having difficulty focusing.
“You should thank me, then, because this will totally help if you have any skill whatsoever, and this is your last chance. Can you get rid of this friggin’ crazy ghost, or not?”
Sadie didn’t think so but she nodded anyway, her head bobbing limply.
“Good!” Gayla seemed immensely pleased. She got to her feet and whipped out a cell phone. Sadie recognized it immediately as her own BlackBerry. She watched as Gayla punched a few buttons on her phone. “You’ll be relieved to hear that Osbert is going to be fine, whoever the hell that is.” She laughed loudly. “And before you get your hopes up thinking your friends are on the hunt for you, I’ve texted them all to let them know that the detective brought you back in to get a more complete statement, and he decided to keep you at the precinct over night to keep you safe.”
Sadie’s hopes fell.
Gayla pocketed the phone and pulled out a long scarf.
“I moved both our cars to a parking garage a few blocks away. So now we’ve got the entire night for you to fix this mess. Provided, of course, he doesn’t come here with his favorite pruning shears and lop off your pointer finger.”
“Who—who’s ‘he’?” Sadie asked.
“An old acquaintance of yours,” Gayla said mysteriously. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”
Gayla tossed up her hands as if all this was beyond her control and Sadie felt like she was going to throw up. Before she left again, Gayla used the thin scarf to gag Sadie in case she “got any ideas about screaming for help” as the drugs wore off.
“I’ll be back in less than an hour. I just need to go and get some supplies,” Gayla explained. “I hadn’t expected to rendezvous with you tonight so I’m a little unprepared,” she added apologetically. “I’ve been dealing with spirits and haunted houses for years, but this one stumped me. Get Iris to vamoose out of here, and I’ll let you go.”
Slowly over the next hour, Sadie began to regain her strength. She could wriggle her fingers and toes, but they were still bound so she had no luck using that to her advantage. She screamed but it came out an animalistic grunt against the gag in her mouth.
The figure of the ghost formerly known as Marlene appeared briefly. Iris looked both sad and terrified. Sadie wanted to tell her that she had no reason to be scared because she was already dead. She pleaded with Iris with her eyes, trying to will her to help out in some way, but the apparition disappeared. Sadie realized that if she’d been able to grasp that the spirit who had visited her was Iris all along, she might’ve been able to stop all this. Sometimes you couldn’t tell the ghostly players without a program.
Sadie regained enough strength to wriggle her back against the wall and get herself to an awkward standing position. Joyfully she realized that even with her feet bound together, she should be able to hop out of the room, skid and slide down the stairs, and make it out the door of this crazy old house before long! Her ankles cried out in agony with the first awkward hop toward the door, but a couple pained ankles would be easier to live with than death and the lack of all her fingers, so she persisted.
She made it approximately three hops and one wriggle before she heard the front door of the house first open and then slam shut, followed by quick footsteps on the stairs. Sadie held her breath, hoping for a knight in shining armor, but it was Gayla who burst into the room. She stopped short when she saw Sadie was on her feet and had made it halfway across the room.
“We don’t have time for this nonsense,” she said matter-of-factly and pushed Sadie back to the ground. “We’ve got to get this done before he gets here, and we might not have all night after all!”
She dropped a backpack on the floor and then bent to unpack its contents.
“I wasn’t sure what might help, so I brought a little of everything. I think I’ve gathered all the banishing and reversing supplies I own.”
Sadie stared as Gayla laid out the contents of the bag. There was a braid of sweetgrass, incense, a scrying mirror, a half dozen various dried herbs, and a couple of bottles of suspicious-looking liquids, one of which was labeled WAR WATER. Basically, it looked like an odd collection of Wiccan convention leftovers.
“So this is how this is going to work,” Gayla announced. “First, I am going to untie you and take off your gag.” She pulled out a knife with a long serrated blade. “And you will behave like a good little ghost buster or I will be forced to cut you up into itty-bitty pieces.” She glared hotly at Sadie. “Nod if you understand.”
Sadie nodded so enthusiastically her head ached when she was done.
“Oh!” Gayla exclaimed. “I almost forgot my wand.”
She reached into the bottom of the backpack and produced a foot-long tapered piece of wood that was rubbed to a high gleam. Gayla tossed the wand to the middle of the other products, then walked over to Sadie. Using a swift slicing motion she cut through the twine that tied her feet and wrists and then finally untied the scarf from around Sadie’s mouth.
She pointed the tip of the knife to Sadie’s lips and said fiercely, “No funny business! If we can get rid of the haunting here, I’ll sell the place and be out of Seattle for good. I talked to the realty agent and he already has an interested party.”
“Wh-what do you want me to do?” Sadie asked, her voice coming out in a tremulous whisper.
“Whatever works, obviously!” Gayla shouted. “Banish the demons! You should be able to connect at a higher level with the drugs I gave you. When I was at that convention where I saw Maeva speak about you, another attendee told me she drinks this cocktail and it makes all the difference in her connection to spirits. You obviously need help here. Lord knows I’ve tried myself, but I’m still learning. I thought this house was going to be a cakewalk.”
She paced the room, throwing her hands up in the air. “I made a small fortune buying houses nobody else would touch because they were haunted.” She drew air quotes around the word haunted and laughed. “My investment partner is so into all this shit, so I attended a few classes on witchcraft and dealing with the paranormal and found that it’s been easier to get rid of ghosts than cockroaches.” She turned and stared solemnly at the closet in the corner of the room. “But, apparently, I met my match with this one.” She shook her head slowly. “And I lost my shirt with the housing crash. I’d make enough with this place to start a new life and get the hell out of Dodge. We have a buyer on the hook willing to pay cash, but he’s superstitious and won’t touch it until it’s cleared of ghosts.”
Gayla blew out an exasperated breath. “I’d just about given up but then I remembered your name coming up at that workshop I told you about.” She turned and smiled at Sadie. “All it took was painting your name on the wall, and Rosemary couldn’t wait to get you here. You should be flattered that your psychic friends think so highly of your ability. Personally, I find the fact that you’re reluctant to even admit that you do spiritual cleansing to be aggravating.”
“So you’re a psychic?” Sadie asked, trying to wrap her mind around what Gayla was saying. “And you work with Owen to kill prostitutes and buy houses?”
Gayla
’s jaw dropped and she looked at Sadie like she was stupid.
“You really aren’t the sharpest pencil in the box, are you?” She shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t have time to explain it, and trust me when I say you don’t want to be thinking about the hooker killings. Just deal with this house and I can be on my way.”
Sadie realized that Gayla did not say we can be on our way. She made it clear that she would be the one leaving. No doubt Sadie would be left for Owen to deal with. But maybe she could buy a little time if she did what she was asked, or at least made a good show of trying to get rid of Iris’s ghost.
“Can I just ask why, if the ghost is Iris, does she wear a housekeeper uniform that says Marlene on it?”
“Is that what you see?” Gayla frowned. “Now I’m beginning to understand why you couldn’t get rid of her. You didn’t even know the ghost you were trying to move on. That’s it, isn’t it?” she demanded. “I’ve met mediums before that needed to know the details of a spirit before they could help them. That’s you, isn’t it?”
Sadie regarded Gayla’s wild stare and flinched. “Yes,” Sadie said. Which was a lie because she didn’t need to know the spirits at all. “So you don’t see Iris in a housekeeper’s outfit?”
Gayla shook her head. “I see a vague outline of her shape. No clothing.” She looked thoughtful. “From what I’ve been told, Iris died wearing her theatre costume. She was in some play.”
“At Stone Soup?”
Gayla shrugged.
“And Lester Pacheo? How is he connected to May, Opal, and Olivia?”
Gayla looked taken aback. “Lester isn’t connected to any of this! How do you even know his name?” she demanded angrily.
Sadie began to open her mouth to say she’d cleaned up in a garage after he’d been hanged, but Gayla was ranting.
“I’ve told Lester just to lie low until all this is over so we can get a clean start. He’s waiting for me in Mexico.” She narrowed her gaze at Sadie and brandished the knife in her direction. “How did you find out that Lester’s my fiancé?”
Dead Suite Page 22
