Ghost Sickness

by Amber Foxx

  He washed a few small items of laundry in the sink and took them to the gazebo to hang out to dry, over her objections to having her panties and bra out there. “Breeze,” he said. “They’ll dry in an hour, no one’ll notice ’em.”

  While he was out on this errand, she called Melody, Bernadette, and Jamie’s parents, leaving messages to let them know she and Jamie had gone to a motel and probably wouldn’t be back at the ceremonies tonight. None of them answered, but she hadn’t expected them to.

  Jamie returned, dancing. “There’s a Jacuzzi in the gazebo. And a lot of clean towels.” This seemed to delight him as much as the Jacuzzi. “Come on, we can get in it and watch the fireworks.”

  “Get in it in what? We don’t have bathing suits.”

  “Our grundies. Hang ’em up with the other stuff after. Could go in the nuddy, but who knows whose arse has been in that tub?” He took her by both hands and pulled her to her feet and kissed her. “Ready?”

  She returned the kiss and hugged him. They should have been at the Apache ceremonies with friends, but instead here they were in someone else’s motel room—and he was working hard to make it nice for her, being romantic and attentive, taking care of her, rescuing their weekend as well as he could. “I’m ready.”

  The gazebo roof blocked a portion of their view of the distant fireworks display, and the low skyline of the town cut off another part, but in the pine-fringed gap, the explosions sparkled. Mae rested her head on the edge of the tub while one of the jets massaged her back and another soothed her feet. Jamie laid his arm over her shoulders and snuggled, rubbing his foot along her calf. “This all right, then?”

  “It’s strange, but yeah, it’s nice.”

  He sighed, squirming a little. “Guess you like it better than the tent.”

  “I do, but I’m sorry it got ruined. I can’t imagine anyone you know being mean enough to do that.”

  “Could picture Tana doing it drunk, but the only person I can think of who’s really mean enough is Will and he’s in the hospital. Somebody must’ve channeled him.” A sudden hah-snort-hah laugh escaped him. “Jeezus. I fucking channeled him. I stole the room.”

  “You kinda did. But you didn’t really steal it. It was more like we found it. Like finding money on the street.”

  Jamie’s free hand fidgeted with the room key on the shelf beside the hot tub. He ignored a spectacular whizzing eruption of white fireworks. “Like whoever found Placido.”

  Will had found the blue parrot. Maybe Placido, too. Had that encounter been by chance, like nabbing the room, or had there been a plan? Random bits of ideas began to click together. A plan would mean Will knew Shelli. David knew Zak. David and Shelli lived near Santa Fe, Letitia’s home. “Where does Will live when he’s not on the rodeo circuit?”

  “Dunno. Not around here.”

  “Could he live in Santa Fe?”

  “Mm. Reckon. Sort of pricey for him, though.” Jamie leaned forward into a stretch and resettled himself. “Never ran into him, either.”

  “Would you? I don’t think y’all would hang out in the same places.”

  “What—can’t see me in a cowboy bar? Drinking cheap piss and listening to country music?”

  “Not really.” Would David and Shelli run into Will? Did they go to cowboy bars? They had a baby, so they probably didn’t go out at all, and Will didn’t seem the type to shop at Whole Foods or the exotic bird store. They could have met at some Indian event, a powwow close to Santa Fe. Mae couldn’t picture Will browsing through pottery and jewelry, though, from what little she knew of him. Letitia would, however. She might shop at Whole Foods, too. Maybe she was the connection. She’d been taking pictures at the rodeo. If she liked to photograph cowboys, and he lived in Santa Fe, it was possible they’d met.

  Jamie broke in on her thoughts. “Why’d you ask about Will?”

  “I was wondering if he knew Letitia. If he modeled for her or something.”

  The fireworks show sent a starburst of red, white, and blue into the sky. Jamie watched until it faded, then said, “You can find out anything you want about Letitia. We’re sleeping on her sheets.”

  Mae’s first reaction was why didn’t I think of that? Her second was amazement that Jamie had. “Sugar, I never thought you’d—”

  “Wasn’t saying I wanted you to do it. Just came out. Shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

  “No, you should have. It was important.” When she went to sleep with questions in her mind while in contact with a source of possible answers, her dreams could be taken over by psychic journeys. It was the worst way to pick up psychic information—no control and no real sleep. “If I don’t do the journey on purpose while I’m awake, and I’m wondering about all this, I’ll probably do it by accident, like I did sleeping in your sweatshirt once.”

  “Then stop wondering about it. This wasn’t supposed to be what our weekend was about, y’know.”

  “I know. And it’s not. But Misty and Melody will ask me again. Sooner or later they’ll give me Reno’s or Zak’s things to work with. Those guys won’t talk. You hope they will, and it would be better if they did, but they won’t. They don’t have healthy relationships.”

  Jamie met Mae’s eyes. “I don’t like this, y’know.”

  “I know. But at least Letitia’s not your friend.”

  “Fuck. Get it over with, then.” Jamie slid low in the tub, scowling, then added with a hopeful, apologetic smile. “Come back and soak when you’re done?”

  “I will.”

  Parting with a kiss, she returned to the room wrapped in a towel, swapped her wet underclothes for her shorts and tank top, and looked for something of Letitia’s that he might have overlooked in his cleanliness inspection. A dropped earring, something less intimate than the sheets. Mae didn’t want to pick up images of Letitia’s sex life, especially if it involved Zak or Reno.

  She found nothing useful. The bed would have to do. She sat cross-legged on it with the covers pulled back. From her collection of crystals she chose amethyst, turquoise, and clear quartz and started to slow her breath and clear her mind.

  A green square on one of the chairs snagged her attention. The piece of Jamie’s tent. Could she use it to find out who had cut it? If the vandal had been the last person to handle it, maybe, but now she would get flooded with Jamie. Too bad. The tent itself was the only witness to what had been done to it.

  She closed her eyes and refocused on her breath, the crystals, and the energy traces from Letitia. How is she part of Zak and Reno’s secret? The woman’s energy was easy to sense, and the tunnel took Mae’s mind quickly.

  The vision that opened from it showed Reno and Letitia leaving the gate of the ceremonial grounds. Her SUV was parked nearby on the slope of the road. She put a small flat box inside it and they leaned on the vehicle.

  “Are you sure she’s coming?” Letitia asked.

  “Will said she was. She’s calling him and crying and yelling at him every twenty minutes or so, drunker every time.”

  Letitia crossed her booted ankles and looked at her watch. “We could wait all night for a drunk to show up, though. She could run off the road, pass out, change her mind ...”

  “I need to know if she understood what he told her. If she remembers it now.”

  “I can’t believe he really did that. Will, having an attack of honesty.”

  A woman’s voice, bellowing curse words, approached. Reno shook his head. “This is sad. She doesn’t usually drink. I don’t know if she ever has before.”

  Montana stumbled up the slope. Reno rushed to her and caught her. “Tana. What’s the matter?”

  “Will.” She let out a small howl. “He’s not gonna marry me.”

  “I’m sorry.” Reno stood close, his hold on her firm. “Did he say why?”

  “I ... He wanted a healer. I brought him what’s-her-name. The red-haired woman. So he could quit smoking. Like how your dad’s friend quit smoking. And now he wants to quit rodeo, too—and me,” Mo
ntana sobbed. “She fucked up. He’s quitting everything.”

  Reno eased his grip on her arm. “Everything. Is that all he said?”

  A family group approached, groaning about how hard it was to walk up the hill and how out of shape they were. Montana said, “He told me he was coming clean—”

  The out of shape family drew close. Letitia gave Reno an alarmed look, and he cut in, “And this was right after she healed him?”

  “Yes.” She gasped and sniffed. “Coming clean.”

  “So he could break off with you.”

  “He said he had someone else.” Montana’s words faded into a wail.

  More pedestrians converged from both directions. Letitia cleared her throat and gave Reno another urgent glare. He brought Montana to lean on the SUV with them, and she slid down to sit in the dirt. He sat with her, saying, “It’s Melody.”

  “Melody?” Montana’s jaw dropped and her eyes filled. “He still loves her?”

  “Maybe not until today. But you saw this red-haired lady give Melody her running medal. They’re friends. Mae is a witch, Tana, not a healer. She can put stuff in people’s heads. She made Dad’s friend quit smoking when he didn’t even want to. She put all this stuff in Will’s head for Melody. She witched him for her.”

  “Mae’s a witch?” Montana leaned on Reno’s shoulder and struggled to her feet. “She made him do that?” She swung her fist to punch an imaginary person in front of her and nearly toppled. “I’m gonna hit her.”

  “I don’t blame you. I would if I were you.” Reno stood. “It’s all her fault.”

  Montana lurched toward the gate, and Letitia sputtered a stifled laugh. “That was the most ridiculous story I ever heard.”

  “No, it wasn’t. It was bad.” Reno gazed after Montana, who was yelling and weeping as she pushed past the other people approaching the gate. “I don’t like to talk about witches. I couldn’t think of anything else, though. To keep her mind off the rest of us.”

  “It should do. And should get Mae out of here.”

  Reno shook his head. “That won’t matter, if she got anything from Will. If she even touched him she could know.”

  “Is she really that good? I’ve met some psychics in Santa Fe and they’re hardly that perceptive. They have to be trying, too.”

  “Then we have to keep her from trying.” He turned away, closed his eyes and folded his hands, bowing his head over them as if in prayer, except that he bit his nails. “I wish this was over. I just wish this was over.”

  Letitia took her phone from her bag and tapped out a message. “It will be.” She lifted and smoothed out his ponytail, running her hand down the length of it, and laid his hair on his back again. “You’re almost done.”

  Jamie opened the door and broke into Mae’s trance. Wearing a towel and dragging his clothes, he leaned on the table and then pitched onto the foot of the bed. “Sorry.” He sounded breathless. “Light-headed. Think I stayed in too long.”

  Disoriented from the psychic journey, she looked down at him as he lay wet and dripping on the heaped-up bedspread. She put her hand on his chest. “I think you did.” His heart was pounding. “Hot water makes your blood pressure drop.”

  “But it feels like it’s high. Like I’m having a heart attack. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I’m having a panic attack. Sorry. Shoot me.”

  He closed his eyes, placed his hands on his belly, and began his breathing exercises. Between rounds of breathing, he muttered an occasional “Fuck. Sorry. Shoot me,” but gradually calmed down.

  Mae stroked his forehead and gave in to an urge to touch his long eyelashes.

  Jamie opened his eyes. “What’d you find out? Is it bad?”

  Which parts did he need to know right now? Mae didn’t want to upset him while he was still getting his heart to slow down. Her anger boiled when she thought of the people walking past while Reno told Montana that the red-haired lady was a witch. That part could wait until morning, though.

  Mae smoothed Jamie’s hair, not sure what to say. Reno had cool nerves, pretending to Montana that he didn’t know what Will had told her so he could check what she remembered. And then improvising the lie about Mae. He’d regretted it, and perhaps everything he was involved in, but unlike Will, he was seeing it through. No—Will was still in it, too. He’d called Reno and warned him that he’d told Montana something.

  Jamie nudged her. “Did you see who hurt my tent?”

  “No. I saw Letitia and Reno talking. Will is part of whatever they’re into. Reno and Letitia think I might have found out when I healed him.”

  “But you didn’t. Or did you?”

  “Nothing that clears it up. I still have no idea.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Way too fucking early. Jamie could tell without opening his eyes. The light wasn’t bright yet. His phone was sounding its Mozart ringtone from the upper right-hand corner of the bed, reminding him he had to get up and deal with Montana and his van, when he wanted to stay in bed with Mae as long as possible, making up for every miserable minute they’d had this weekend.

  She rolled over, gave him a perky, wide-awake kiss and bounced out of bed to begin dressing. To his dismay, she had gone to sleep at ten o’clock the night before. Ten o’clock. Rather than subject her to his restlessness, Jamie had borrowed her car and gone back to the ceremonies until midnight to stand behind the drummers. The music and dancing had done him good, but now he groped for his phone and mumbled an incoherent syllable into it, exhausted.

  Melody’s warm contralto voice came through. “Tana’s gone to see Lonnie. I told her you’d meet her at his camper. Be nice to her. She feels like shit.”

  “Bet she does. She remember anything?”

  “Zak had to tell her she hit your van. She says the only thing she remembers is that Will dumped her.”

  He thanked Melody, wound up the call, and relayed Montana's memory status to Mae.

  “Blackouts are funny.” Mae pulled her tank top over her head. “My first husband used to have some holes in what he’d done, but he’d remember other stuff from the same night. I used to wonder if he was lying about what he forgot.”

  “Tana’s honest. She wouldn’t have made that up.”

  Mae, fully dressed already, bent down to lace up her shoes. Jamie had brought her clean clothes in from the gazebo when he’d come back from the ceremonies. He should have hidden them to get her to stay in bed naked longer. She looked literally ready to run. “You’re not vey cuddly this morning,” he said.

  She sat beside him and combed her fingers through his hair, taking out a few tangles. “I’ve got a lot to do today, and so do you. I’m gonna go home and do laundry, get all that food out of our clothes. And I need to see how Niall is doing. I want to do a little research, too. And you have to get your van to a body shop. See your insurance people. I hope they’ll take care of it on a Sunday.”

  Jamie forced himself to sit up. “And then what? What if I can’t get any of that crap done today? You’re coming back, aren’t you?”

  “I didn’t tell you this last night. Reno told Montana that I put some kind of spell on Will to make him break off with her so Melody could have him back. He said I was a witch. Would people believe it if they overheard him? He described me, talked about me giving Melody my medal after the race. And there were a lot of people walking by.”

  “Fuck.” Jamie got up and began to dress. “Yeah, that could stick. Not because it’s Reno, but the Geronimo credibility could rub off on him.”

  “Does that mean Orville or Lonnie could defend me?”

  “Nah. Doesn’t work like that. Witch talk is all ... scary. Underground. You don’t have open conversations about it.”

  “Then Reno is one self-centered, inconsiderate ass. Was he that desperate to make me leave?” Her movements brisk and forceful, Mae picked up the package of hotel coffee and tore it open. “Reckon this is better than nothing.”

  “Is it one of those pads? Little round pad?”

  Mae put i
t in the coffee maker and carried the carafe to the bathroom and filled it. “You got something against ’em?”

  “Yeah. Coffee’s dead. Ground like five hundred years ago. And Lonnie has fucking instant. I need real coffee.”

  Mae returned to the bedroom and poured the water into the coffeemaker’s reservoir. “We got worse problems than bad coffee. Thanks to Reno, this vacation is over. I’d better not come back.”

  Bloody hell. Could anything else go wrong?

  After Mae dropped him off at the campground, Jamie watched her drive away and then walked past his former campsite, the empty space where he’d been so excited setting up the tent, so hopeful for a romantic getaway with Mae and a reunion with his friends. The contrast with how things had turned out hit him hard. His parents’ tent was quiet. Envious of their peace, he fought back the urge to disturb it and unload his troubles.

  Reaching the medicine man’s camper, Jamie knocked on the door and Lonnie called to him to come in.

  The old man stood at the narrow stove, frying eggs and bacon, filling the air with what was to Jamie a sickening smell. He lingered in the doorway, looking in at the half-sized appliances and Lonnie’s stooped, skinny frame. The view made him feel like a giant. A sick, tired giant.

  Montana, sitting on the narrow, wedged-in bench at the table, jerked nervously at the sight of him, spilling weak coffee-like liquid from her mug. Her eyes were red and she was wearing a T-shirt that was obviously Melody’s, too big even for Montana’s endowments.

  “I don’t suppose you’d like some coffee?” Lonnie asked with a twinkle.

  “Nah. Might eat it out of the jar, though.”

  “You might have to. I don’t have food you’d eat.”