Second To Nun (A Giulia Driscoll Mystery Book 2)

by Alice Loweecey

  “Pretty sure. He really hates waiting on customers and his cheerful smile vanishes the second they walk away. Oh, and get this: He skeeves blood. He griped every time a kid interrupted us to ask him to take out a hook from a fish they’d caught off the dock.

  “He must have really hated his last job.”

  “Or his need to suck up to Auntie Mac overrode all other considerations.”

  Creed replaced U2. Frank looked pained. “Somebody made a mix CD.”

  Giulia saved the voice memo. “You still have the touch. That was everything I needed and hardly anything I didn’t.”

  “You think the nephew’s pulling all this haunting stuff because he wants the B&B?”

  “Actually, no, because it’s way too much effort for someone who’s allergic to hard work. I’ll check up on him tomorrow with the rest, though.”

  “Tomorrow? Oh, right. Research on DI’s internet.”

  “My tablet has limits too. I need my tower.”

  Nickelback took Creed’s place.

  Frank stood. “I’m on vacation. That means I don’t have to eat Brussels sprouts, do homework, or listen to overhyped musicians.”

  They headed inside.

  “What’s next for me?” Frank said.

  “All the poking around possible. I’m going to search the library and the upstairs halls again for hidden switches. Could you take downstairs, the souvenir room, and the suit of armor?”

  “Break’s over.” Frank walked through the sunroom and down the hall to the lighthouse entrance. “Empty. I shall seize the moment.”

  Giulia went up to the third floor and started with the red-fringed light. She ran her hands over the lace panels, but felt no unusual bumps. Crouching, she slipped under the lampshade to look for extra switches or a computerized gizmo. She was disappointed that the lamp appeared exactly as it should: An ornate, old-fashioned lamp.

  Next the strip of carpet. No lumps or hidden wires. Nothing had been attached to the skinny hall table either. Maybe the attic, if Mac ran her Halloween week from a different, hidden computer. At the moment, Giulia couldn’t think of anything else powerful enough to coordinate a whole-house haunting.

  On her way down to the second floor, she felt under the banister and checked the newel post for a secret hinge. Clean. She headed into the library and went straight for the five bookshelves. A thin layer of dust coated the highest shelves and the books on them. All the lower shelves were slightly above or at Giulia’s eye level. No dust on them. She started at the bookshelf farthest from the door and tilted out each book one by one.

  Dialogue from Young Frankenstein popped into her head: “Put. Ze candle. Back.” She stifled a giggle. What would she do if one of these books triggered a secret passage? Besides follow it, that is. Call Frank? No. Explore the passage and hope it came out in front of a shocked Frank’s face. Maybe the exit would be in the suit of armor. Frank’s buzzed hair would find new ways to stand up higher if that happened.

  “Looking for a book, Giulia? How was your day?”

  Giulia did not jump. She turned to Marion with a smile. “A lot of fun. I beat Joel, Gino, and my husband in bocce ball.”

  “In all the years we’ve been staying here we’ve never tried that. Anthony?”

  Her husband joined her in the doorway. “Tried what?”

  “Bocce ball. You know, that narrow court on the opposite side of the patio from the croquet wickets. Giulia is quite skilled at it.”

  “Really? Could you give us a lesson? If we’re going ahead with our plan to buy a bed and breakfast or two, we need to learn the best entertainment to provide the guests. Perhaps tomorrow or Tuesday.”

  Giulia’s smile didn’t waver. She’d dealt with worse condescension. “I’d be happy to. Let me know at breakfast the day you want to learn the game.”

  They went into their room, forcing Giulia to be stealthy.

  She moved and replaced one shelf of books after another, but not a single creak or snap of a secret lock opening rewarded her search.

  She gave up at eight o’clock and went to find Frank.

  He was studying the suit of armor and beckoned her over. “What this needs is a mace. Raise the arm and set it at an angle to threaten visitors.”

  “You’re so romantic. Find anything suspicious?”

  “Not a hidden lever or a secret nook anywhere.”

  “I refuse to believe that a Woman in White is actually haunting this place.”

  “A sound basis on which to work.” Frank stretched his back. “It’s got to be beer o’clock by now.”

  “Long past it. Want to walk to that little Mexican place by the boat dock?”

  A crash of thunder cut her off. Wind and rain attacked the lakefront door.

  “Check that,” she said. “Pizza, delivered?”

  As they walked past the sunroom, the living room lights came on. Mac and Solana entered, accompanied by a short, middle-aged man in flowing trousers and tunic.

  “Anyone down here?” Mac called.

  Giulia and Frank walked into the room. Marion called down the stairs, “We’ll be right there.”

  Mac continued, “Does anyone know where those truant young men are? What about Roy and CeCe?”

  “We’ve only seen Marion and Anthony this evening,” Giulia said.

  Joel ran in from the kitchen hallway. “Are we late? Did we miss anything? Tonight of all nights my husband wants to eat at a fancy restaurant.”

  “There’s still time,” Mac said. “We’re getting everyone together.”

  “There is a God. Gino! Hurry up!”

  “Coming.” Gino passed Joel and ran upstairs. “Back in forty seconds.”

  “Serves him right for eating all that prime rib on a hot night.” Joel used his jacket to rub most of the rain out of his hair.

  Giulia watched Solana and Flowing Clothes. Solana walked the perimeter of the living room. He set five dining room chairs around the coffee table.

  CeCe and Roy entered through the sunroom, laughing and kissing and only a little soaked.

  “You’re my babycakes,” she said.

  “You’re my honey muffin,” he said.

  Gino came downstairs in time to hear the endearments and shared an eye roll with Joel.

  “I hear tequila talking,” Frank said.

  CeCe hiccupped. “Only a few margaritas.”

  Roy kissed her again. “Four and a half, baby. We split that last one.” He looked around at the gathering. “What’s up?”

  CeCe spotted Solana and jumped up and down. “It’s séance night, it’s séance night.”

  Solana finished her tour of the room and said to the guests, “Is anyone easily frightened?”

  “No,” Giulia said.

  “Not unless you brought a box of pet tarantulas,” Joel said.

  Anthony and Marion joined the group. “I’m a business professional,” she said. “The only thing that frightens me is a tax audit.”

  “Good.” Solana nodded at Mac, who left the room. “I have the ability to contact the spirits of those who have passed over. The lighthouse’s Woman in White is why Mac has asked us to come here each week. She wishes me to contact her, but we have yet to succeed. Is anyone here familiar with how a séance works?”

  Several headshakes. Marion said, “I have a little knowledge from movies our children begged us to take them to see.”

  Solana waved that away. “Hollywood. Please. Cedar, would you draw the drapes?” To the guests again: “This is my husband, Cedar. He is also my business manager and webmaster.”

  Mac returned, carrying a tray of pillar candles in several colors.

  Cedar directed their placement: Two near the center of the coffee table, two on the mantelpiece, and two more on a spare card table fr
om the sunroom.

  Cedar positioned an antique Ouija board and planchette in the exact center of the coffee table and set the candles on either side of it. “Solana inherited this from her mother, who inherited it from her mother. It’s the William Fuld 1917 design. Solana’s grandmother could see complete words from the spirits in the wood grain surface.”

  The thunder came nearer. Giulia glanced at Solana for a reaction to this aggrandizement.

  The businesswoman was already seated on the middle couch cushion, feet on floor, hands in lap. At least she wasn’t focused on Giulia as the Veiled Woman.

  “Cedar and I are accountants during our day jobs, but I have some small notoriety and some equally small fame in the spirit realm.” A brief smile. “I don’t have a set rate for my services but I do take payment. That fact sets the hounds on me. If anyone has ever heard of CSICOP?”

  Several headshakes.

  “They investigate the paranormal, living and transitioned. That includes people like me. I spoke at length with a kind man who did his best to prove me as much a fraud as those television preachers who pretend to heal people they’ve planted in the audience.”

  “He had these prominent veins on either side of his neck.” Cedar drew imaginary lines on his own neck. “Every time Solana passed one of his tests, the veins bulged. His cameraman was supremely bored for most of the session.”

  “He was, until I brought out the board and the debunker’s grandmother contacted me. She used the planchette to spell out three words in the Basque dialect.” She looked over at her husband.

  “Solana was concentrating with her eyes closed, so she didn’t see his reaction. I was honestly worried that the man would have a stroke in our living room. He made a strangled kind of noise and Solana opened her eyes.”

  “The poor man was staring at the planchette like it was a scorpion,” Solana said. “He repeated the words to me and asked me how I knew them. I don’t know that dialect and told him so.” She sighed. “He got the witch hunter’s look in his eyes then and I started to end the session. He put his hands on the planchette and demanded more. Before Cedar could toss both of them out into the street, the man’s grandmother took over the planchette through my hands and spelled out several more words.”

  Cedar chuckled. “He shrank in his chair like a little boy who’d just been spanked. When the grandmother’s spirit left us, I asked him to translate. He got belligerent again and insisted we were frauds preying on the vulnerable. That’s when I tossed his ass out.”

  After a pause, Giulia said, “Did you ever get a translation of the words?”

  Solana nodded. “A few months later he emailed us with a backhanded apology. He’d researched us all that time and couldn’t find irrefutable proof we were frauds. How nice of him. He also said that on the slim chance I hadn’t tried to dupe him, his grandmother had spelled out her pet nickname for him and the location of the two-hundred-dollar Christmas bonus he’d misplaced. It was in the torn pants he’d stuffed in a Goodwill bag. The bag was in his car trunk to donate that weekend.”

  Marion took out a Moleskine notebook and wrote in it at breakneck speed throughout this story. “Why do you still have day jobs?”

  Solana radiated frost again. “Do you mean, because I should be able to get the spirits of those who’ve passed over to give me winning lottery numbers?”

  Marion looked up. She didn’t blush but she cleared her throat before answering. “Well, yes. Something like that.”

  The frost changed to condescension. “Those who’ve passed over use me as a conduit when needed. They are not puppies to be trained with a rolled-up newspaper to be obedient to my will.”

  Mac reentered the room as more thunder crashed. “All set?”

  The power went out.

  “Son of a gun. I’ll check the circuit breakers.”

  Cedar pushed aside the drapes. “Power’s out all along the lake. Electricity doesn’t affect Solana’s gift. I’ll turn off all the light switches in the dining room and here so when the power returns it won’t break her concentration.” He took a step toward the dining room. “Would you like to sit in? I’ll bring another chair.”

  Mac shook her head. “No, thanks. I’ll call Penelec for a power restore time estimate. I’ll stay away from these rooms so you won’t be disturbed.”

  She retreated toward her office. Cedar herded everyone still standing to an empty seat around the coffee table.

  Rain pounded the bay window. Thunder and lightning increased.

  Giulia glanced at Frank and the same thought crossed their faces: What a Hollywood setting.

  The glow of the candlesticks flanking the Ouija board brought out the warmth of the cherry wood. Giulia chose a chair at the end of the table from which she could watch the entire room. Frank took the couch cushion next to Solana. Giulia gave him an infinitesimal nod. Cedar, to her surprise, took the seat opposite Giulia. She’d been sure that he’d sit next to his wife to work the room from her verbal or nonverbal cues. Giulia might have an open mind about psychics because of the experiences of trusted friends, but not for half a minute did she believe in someone who relied on a toy manufacturer’s gimmick.

  “The planchette has room for Solana and four others to have their fingers touching it,” Cedar said. “Those four have to sit on either side of Solana or directly opposite her. If you want to play musical chairs, now’s the moment.”

  More thunder. Giulia held up her hands palm out, as did Gino. He and CeCe negotiated and CeCe switched seats with him and took the chair next to her husband. This configuration allowed Joel, CeCe, Anthony, Frank, and Solana to touch the planchette.

  The sounds of the rain and their own breathing filled the room. Mac’s footsteps crossed from her office to the kitchen.

  A cell phone played the ESPN update, da-da-da, da-da-da. They all jumped.

  “Sorry,” Roy said. Every single person around the table except Cedar and Solana muted their phones.

  Giulia turned on her voice memo function and set her phone face down on the rug to conceal the light.

  When the rain and breathing were again the only noises in the room, Solana said in a quiet, even voice, “Those of you not touching the planchette do not need to hold hands. We’re not in a direct-to-DVD movie. I ask only that you remain quiet. For the four of you who desire to touch it with me, the rules are simple. Do not attempt to move it on your own. Do not press down on it to try to prevent it moving. If the spirit of the weeping woman chooses to send us a message, it may startle you. Please do not jerk your hands away. That may alter the message or disturb the spirit. If you must break your contact, wait until the planchette has stopped moving and slowly raise your hands.”

  The party game atmosphere crumbled at her words. Marion and Anthony glanced at each other, Marion’s business demeanor cracking. Joel squeezed Gino’s hands and Gino held on a second longer when Joel tried to release them. CeCe crossed herself.

  An imp on Giulia’s shoulder tempted her to bring up Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on her phone. She flicked the imp into the fireplace with an imaginary finger.

  Solana’s breathing slowed. Her head tipped up toward the ceiling, eyes still closed. Her hands raised and her fingertips lightly came to rest on the wide edge of the planchette. Cedar motioned to Anthony, Frank, CeCe, and Joel to find room on it as well.

  “Will you speak to us?” Solana’s voice came out sweeter, coaxing. “We are ready to listen.”

  The candles burned straight and clear.

  Gino’s eyes widened and he clamped his face into the crook of his elbow. His body shook once. Again. The arm came down to reveal watering eyes that glared at the orange pillar candle on the end table next to him.

  Pumpkin spice, he mouthed at Joel, who bit both lips but the smile still peeked through.

  “Will you speak to us?�
�� Solana said again.

  Several long seconds later, she said the words a third time.

  The planchette moved.

  Twenty-Seven

  Marion gasped. Gino’s mouth dropped open. Joel and Frank eyed each other with suspicion.

  CeCe stared them both down. Anthony started to take his hands away from the heart-shaped wood, but resettled himself instead.

  “We are listening,” Solana said, still in that soothing voice. “What do you want us to know?”

  A pause. The shoulders of the four didn’t relax.

  The planchette moved again, kept moving in tiny jerks and scrapes until it stopped at the letter S.

  “S,” Cedar said, his voice all business.

  The planchette scraped to its left.

  “O.”

  “S.”

  “A.”

  “D.”

  “So sad,” CeCe whispered. “Oh my God.”

  “Why are you sad?” Solana said.

  “A.”

  “L.”

  “O.”

  “N.”

  “E.”

  “I’m going to need a nightlight tonight,” Joel whispered.

  Cedar pointed a finger at him and shook his head. Joel nodded and focused on the board again.

  The candle flames flickered.

  Giulia’s ears caught a new sound. It faded as the planchette moved.

  “W.”

  “H.”

  “Y.”

  Marion, seated kitty-corner to Giulia, muttered, “The messages take too long. Entertainment can’t be boring.”

  Giulia put a finger to her lips. Marion returned to writing in her notebook. CeCe kept reading the message letters out loud.

  “S.”

  “E.”

  Joel put it together first. “Why are you in my house?”

  “Holy crap,” Roy said in a loud and shaky voice.

  “Shh!” from all sides.

  When the room quieted, Solana said, “When guests are in your house, you aren’t alone any longer.”