by Bryn Donovan
“Fine,” David said. “Tomorrow afternoon? Maybe one?”
“No, it’s got to be at night.”
“Why? Makes for a better show?”
“I don’t know why it works better,” Morty said. “I think it has something to do with the brain, maybe being more receptive to the otherworld at night, when it’s closer to sleep…but I honestly have no idea.”
“All right, night time,” Andi agreed. “Is tomorrow too soon?”
“I have plans,” David said.
Andi looked at up at him. He did?
“Let’s make it Sunday then. Halloween,” Morty noted. “Couldn’t ask for better timing.”
David folded his arms across his chest. “Right. You think we’ll feel more scared then.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Slappy, are you scared of Halloween?” Morty said with fake sympathy.
David’s hand clenched into a fist.
Andi knew he wouldn’t really take a swing at the older guy, but she took David’s hand anyway. “Is there a reason to do it on Halloween?” she asked, keeping her tone curious and polite.
Morty glanced down at Andi and David’s joined hands with a knowing expression. “It’s easier to make contact. The veil between the worlds is thin.”
David asked, “According to who, some people in Ireland a thousand years ago?”
“Not bad, Mr. Girard, not bad. But the Druids weren’t just in Ireland, and try two thousand years. And they weren’t the only ones. Ancient Slavs, ancient Egyptians, they thought the same thing. And there’s Persephone, the Greek goddess of innocence,” he went on, pointing to Andi for some reason. “Around now is when Hell opens up and drags her to the world of the dead. Lots of people sensed something about the end of October. Even before they had October.”
“So it doesn’t have to be the thirty-first, exactly,” Andi said.
“Eh, well, in the Americas it helps, definitely. You’ve got Halloween. Day of the Dead coming right up the next day. Everyone trying to make contact with ghosts, right? So not only are those gates unlocked, but you’ve got a whole lot of people pushing on them. You’d better believe it helps.”
“What a bunch of bullshit,” David said.
Andi let go of his hand. “We’re just going to give it a try.” She asked Morty, “Do we have to do it here?”
“Where you wanna do it, babe, Baskin Robbins? You got to do it here. I’m thinking we’ll try to talk to your lady friend in the tub first. Though I suspect she already knows the way out.”
Andi wished David would just tell the psychic that the spirit was his mom. It had to bother him to hear her talked about in such an impersonal way.
But then Morty made it worse by saying, “Course, that’s the way it is a lot of times with a murder victim.”
Andi’s throat closed up.
David sneered. “I thought you’d done your homework.”
“I beg your pardon? I don’t do homework. That would cut into my drinking time.” This didn’t sound like a joke.
“It was a suicide.”
“What can I tell you, my friend? It is what it is.” His voice held a tinge of regret.
David rubbed at the back of his neck. “No. It was a classic suicide. She slit her wrists in the bathtub.”
“She didn’t slit her own wrists, and you know why? She was asleep. She fell asleep and never woke up.”
David recoiled like he’d been kicked in the stomach.
Morty said, “We’ll do what we can do, Mr. Girard.”
Chapter Thirteen
“A murder,” David said after Morton Silva left.
“You don’t believe him, huh?”
“Of course it’s possible,” he surprised her by saying. He began to pace.
“There’s just no way to know yet, I guess.” Andi wrapped her arms around herself. It pained her that he had to deal with all of this darkness from his past.
“It would have been my dad,” David told her, saying what she hadn’t dared to suggest. “His temper…the way he fooled around…there’s no question. If she was murdered, it would have been by him.” His green eyes stared at nothing.
Andi knew what he was thinking. She wanted to scream, You’re nothing like him! But she didn’t even want to acknowledge the comparison out loud.
“He could get away with it. He could be very charming. Everyone liked him until they really, really got to know him.” He stopped short. “You know what? Screw this. I’m just going to sell the place as-is.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling Gloria right now.”
“David, you can’t.”
“I’ll pay you for everything,” he told her as he scrolled to the agent’s number. “I don’t care if you don’t finish.”
“That’s not the point!” She put her hand over the phone and pushed it down. “You can’t sell a house that’s haunted.”
“Actually you can. In Illinois, legally, you don’t have to disclose it.”
So he had looked into it. “I’m not just talking about the law,” she said. “David, what if you sell the place and terrible things happen to the owners? You’d never forgive yourself! You know you wouldn’t.”
“I don’t think these things are going to keep happening when I’m gone. I think I’m the cause of them. Like it’s some…family curse or something.”
“You don’t know that. That day Carlos attacked me, you weren’t there most of the time, and he was mean to me all day.”
David winced.
“You know, you always hated this place,” Andi said, deciding to talk about what troubled her. “Why didn’t you sell it as-is when you first got it?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to make some money.”
“Are you sure that’s it? Don’t you think it’s strange that your dad bought it back before he died?”
“No, I don’t, because everything he did was strange.”
“But everyone in your family hung onto this house, even though it seems like a bad place,” Andi said. “I just think it’s not going to be that easy to get away from it. Unless you really take care of what’s wrong with it.”
David shook his head. “No. If I sold this place I’d never think about it again.”
He didn’t sound very convincing. Andi suspected her fears were correct. The house had some kind of pull on him.
“You’d think about it if you heard about someone getting hurt here,” she told him. “What about what happened to Mr. Willingham? Something like that could happen again.”
“Shit.” David’s shoulders sagged. “Okay. We’ll let this Morty guy do his thing, all right?” He stuffed his phone back into his pocket. “I just don’t have very high hopes, that’s all.”
“But you have to admit, he was kind of impressive. I mean, he sensed her.”
David said nothing.
“Maybe you don’t have to admit it just yet.”
“He looked it up. He did some research on the house, that’s all.”
“You just called him today,” Andi pointed out. Then she hugged herself again. She hated arguing with him. “I’m sorry you have to deal with this awful place.”
“I’m sorry you do too.” He looked up at her, his brow furrowed. “You know, any time you want to quit, I won’t blame you.”
“I don’t leave jobs half-finished, David. It’s not the way I was raised.” She reached over and took his hand. “And I’m not going to leave you to deal with this alone, either.”
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, an automatic gesture that warmed Andi’s heart. Then he sighed. “You know what, I should get going. I need to get to the hospital before visiting hours are up.”
“To see Mr. Willingham? That’s nice of you. How is he?”
“Great, except he’s got thirty-four stitches in his leg and he’s whacked out on Percocet.”
“Yay, drugs,” Andi offered. “So, what is it you’re doing Saturday night?”
He grunted. “I told Scott I would go to his Halloween party.�
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“Scott. The guy you climbed the mountain with?”
“Yeah. He’s the one who took over that case.”
“I want to meet him sometime,” Andi said.
“You want to go with me?”
“I’ve got plans with Lissa.” She appreciated him asking, though.
“I didn’t think you would like it,” he told her. “It’s mostly lawyers and their wives. Or their husbands. They never stop talking about work, even when they’re in costume. It’s going to be, like, a bunch of vampires and sexy witches bitching about their clients.” He raised his eyebrows. “Though I will say, it’s kind of funny seeing lawyers dressed like vampires. It’s not much of a stretch.”
Andi laughed. “How can you say that when you’re a lawyer?”
“That’s how I know.”
“I don’t know if I like the sexy witches,” she teased. “Maybe I should go.”
“You can always change your mind. What are you and Lissa doing?”
“Well, she’s got plans for Halloween night, but Saturday she and I are going to stay in and watch scary movies and eat mini candy bars, like we did last year.”
“Sounds nice.”
Andi hoped Lissa still wanted to hang out with her sometimes after the wedding. It would be depressing if every time she called to do something, Lissa told her she was too busy cuddling.
“So what are you going as?” she asked him.
“Very funny.”
“You’re not wearing a costume?”
He just looked at her.
She laughed. “What if you’re the only person who doesn’t dress up?”
“That’ll be perfect.”
“I can tell you really want to go to this thing.”
“I didn’t go last year, so I felt like I should say yes.” He shrugged. “Okay, I’ve really got to get to the hospital. Are you leaving now?”
Andi shook her head. “I’ll be a few more minutes. I’ll lock up.”
David peered around the shadowed, empty room. “I don’t think you should stay here alone.”
“I won’t be long. I just need to pack up the tools I left out the other day. If someone breaks in, they could steal them.”
“All right.” He kissed her then went to the door. Before he left he turned around and said, “Hey, Andi? Be careful.”
She nodded. He closed the door.
Andi wandered to the back window to look again at the place in the yard where the chainsaw accident had happened. Last night’s heavy frost had bleached the weeds along the fence. Under the cloudy evening sky, the whole backyard looked pale and colorless, like a negative of a black-and-white photograph.
David was sure there was only one man in a black suit. Morty seemed to agree. The more she thought about it, the more absurd it seemed to think there were two similar-looking ghosts.
But if that were true, why hadn’t the man in the black suit threatened her at all? She’d gotten the same feeling from him as from David’s mother in the tub—that he wanted to tell her something.
And why had he attacked Mr. Willingham? Andi knew what she saw. The ghost had tried to kill him. But what did Mr. Willingham ever do to deserve that?
* * *
David pulled up to the new-ish faux Colonial home in the suburbs. Several cars already lined the circle drive and the cul-de-sac. Plastic skull heads on stakes lined the front walkway on either side, grinning and glowing green in the dark. They bothered him, and not just because they were tacky. Why did people think death and bones were so much fun?
“David! You came!” Scott’s wife Hiromi, a slim woman in a bumblebee costume, greeted him at the door. “What are you dressed as? The I-hate-to-party man?”
“Hey, you guessed it,” he said, coming in. “Love your costume.”
“Some guy just told me I should have dressed like a Japanese schoolgirl,” she confided in him in a lowered tone. “So gross.”
“Ugh, sorry. Point him out to me. I’ll kick his ass.”
“I wish you were still working with Scott. Some of his new coworkers seem like such jerks.”
A very tall woman with long, light brown hair glided up to them. An electric blue dress clung to her curves, and sparkly red devil horns balanced on her head. “Hey, Hiromi, who’s your friend?”
“Oh. Stephanie, this is David. He used to work with Scott. David, this is—”
“The devil in the blue dress,” the brunette purred, drawing close to him and extending her hand.
“Yeah, I got that,” David said, shaking her hand briefly.
She gave him what David was pretty sure had to be her best seductive smile. A pretty good one, as seductive smiles went, but it didn’t matter.
He turned to Hiromi to say, “I’m going to say hello to Scott.”
“I think he’s in the kitchen,” she told him.
David found his friend, in a cowboy hat, Western shirt and sheriff badge, refilling a bowl of guacamole at the counter. “Hey, you made it,” Scott said.
“Why does everyone keep saying that? I said I’d stop by.”
Scott chuckled. “Gee, I don’t know. I see you met Stephanie.” He nodded across the room to where the tall woman in blue still talked with Hiromi. “I thought you two would hit it off.”
“I’m not looking to meet anyone.”
“No no, I don’t mean seriously. Steph just likes to have a good time, like you.”
David took one of the bottles of beer from the orange metal tub on the floor and twisted off the cap. “I’m kind of seeing somebody.”
“Ah, all right.”
They both watched the devil in a blue dress sidle over to chat up a good-looking blond vampire. She obviously hadn’t been discouraged by David’s lack of interest. David guessed she would be leaving the party early, and not alone.
“So what’s the girl du jour like?” Scott asked. He licked the big spoon he’d been using to dish out the guacamole then tossed it in the sink. “Tell me all about it. When you’ve been married for a million years like me, you like to live vicariously.”
David hesitated before saying, “Yeah. It’s actually kind of serious.”
“What is? You mean, the girl?”
“Yeah.”
Scott leaned against the counter. “How serious? Like, she’s-telling-you-her-ring-size serious?”
“No. I’m just saying, I think it’s more like a long-term relationship.”
“A long-term relationship.” Scott shook his head. “Dude, for you that is pretty serious.”
“Exactly.”
Scott yelled across the room, “Hey, Hiromi!” She looked up. “David’s in a long-term relationship!”
Hiromi rearranged her features in a no freaking way expression. Half a dozen costumed guests looked over in David’s direction as well. One of them, a plump blonde dressed like a medieval queen, raised a festive orange cocktail and said, “Mazel tov!”
“Thanks,” David said to Scott. “Thanks for that.”
“I know how you like being the center of attention.”
Hiromi came up to Scott and put her arm around his waist. “Hey, cowboy. How’s it going?”
“Not too bad, busy bee.” He gave her a squeeze. “If David wasn’t here, I’d make a joke about, I don’t know, pollination or something.”
“But I’m totally offended by stuff like that,” David quipped. Seeing Scott and Hiromi get along so well made him happy. He liked anything that reminded him that a good relationship was at least possible, even if it was rare.
David left as soon as it wasn’t completely rude to do so. He had never liked crowds, and he told himself he was tired. As soon as he shut the door on the noisy warmth of the gathering, he realized he wasn’t tired at all.
He just wanted to see Andi.
In the drizzle, he jogged over to his car and got in. The road glistened like patent leather.
What the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t see her tonight. She was hanging out with her sister.
He was glad Andi’s fight with Lissa hadn’t lasted long. Although he’d been an only child, he appreciated how much her sister meant to Andi. But he would have gotten to see her more if she and Lissa hadn’t made up.
He took out his cell phone, just to call her and say hey. She might be offended if she thought it was a booty call or something.
The phone rang in his hand and he jumped. It was the ringtone he’d set up for Andi. A classic rock song, pretty typical of his taste, but now as the lyrics came into his head, he was a little surprised he’d chosen it, just after meeting her. The words to the song were pretty romantic.
He answered, “Hey, Andi.”
“Hi.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “How’s the party?”
“Eh, okay. I’m just leaving, actually.”
“Really? It’s still pretty early.”
“Yeah. So are you and Lissa in the middle of your film fest?”
“We only watched one. She just went to bed. We watched Evil Dead. It was so cheesy but it kind of scared me! Isn’t that stupid?”
“No. It sounds scary.” He started the car and pulled away from the curb as she continued.
“Yeah, so I’m kind of wide awake from that. Or from Halloween candy.” She paused. “I was thinking, maybe I would come over? But not if it’s too late for you.”
“No, definitely come over,” David said. “I’ll be home in, what, a half hour I guess.” He stepped a little harder on the gas. It was raining for real now, and he thought of how Andi told him that he drove too fast.
“Great,” Andi said as he slowed down again. “I’ll see you there in just a little bit.”
After he said good-bye, it occurred to David that he’d just been the recipient of a booty call. Funny—it didn’t offend him in the least.
* * *
Andi entered the sleek lobby of David’s building and laid eyes on him standing, hands thrust in his pockets, in front of the elevators. He glanced up and when he saw her, he didn’t even say anything. Appreciation kindled in his eyes as she walked up to him.
When she’d called, she was feeling casual and bold, but now her shyness returned. In such a short time, he’d become her lover and her most intimate friend, and yet in so many ways he was still a beautiful stranger.
