A Ghost of a Chance (21 page)

“
We’ll call if we need you,” Lester muttered nervously. She flipped a loose strand of brown hair behind her shoulders and glared with a note of irritation at Lester. “No, I’ll be on a break,” adding with emphasis, “having a cigarette.” She took the little pad out her pocket and ripped what Jack assumed was the bill off and flicked it onto the table. “That’s your ticket.”

And then she turned on her heel heading with drama towards a back booth. Did everyone in Hallie’s books have an attitude?

“
The service here is deplorable. I can’t imagine why Mr. Delacroix insisted on meeting here.”

“
Maybe he likes the scenery.” Jack took a big bite of his cheeseburger. It was a little greasy but not bad. And the milkshake was top notch, actually froze his tongue. He had to take his hat off to Sal, if he ever made an appearance.

A definitive chill swept through the untidy little restaurant. Disturbingly, Jack felt it sweep up his spine. Just like Samory to ruin the best meal he’d had in, well, a very long time.

A blackness seemed to gather outside the glass doors, and then they parted as Samory sort of silently whooshed in.

His dark eyes immediately fixed on Jack as he was lifting a French fry to his mouth.

“
Is that Mr. Delacroix?” Lester uttered with trepidation.

“
Yep,” Jack muttered.

Samory moved toward them, his face reflecting at the least irritation. “Did you really think you could escape from me here, Brennan?”

“
Not really. I was hungry.”

“
We hadn’t finished our conversation.”

Jack noticed that the already pale Lester seemed a shade lighter. “Careful Samory, you’ll intimidate the bit players.”

His eyes then focused on Jack’s squirmish companion. He smiled and bared his disturbingly white teeth. “You must be Mr. Canon. We had an appointment.”

Lester looked as though he were ready to bolt out the door. “Yes, you’re late.”

“
Forgive me, I was unavoidably detained.” He delivered this smoothly and enigmatically, like a good vampire.

Jack picked up his burger and took another big bite. Not even in the face of these enormously extenuating circumstances did he want a bit of it to go to waste. “Too bad you can’t enjoy this Samory. Sal makes a great burger.”

“
Enough of this Brennan. It is time for you to leave.”

“
Can’t do that Samory. I haven’t even paid Madeline over there.” Jack noticed the puff of smoke emanating from the booth at the back of the restaurant.

At the mention of her name, Samory’s eyes swept back in her direction with what Jack could only interpret as hesitation. “Maybe you and Lester should conduct your business while I finish up.”

Lester stood up looking at his watch. “It’s really getting late. I have to get going.”

“
Now Samory, how will that effect things if Lester here just gets up and leaves? Won’t that make a page turner?”

His dark eyes narrowed, “I’ll deal with you later Brennan.”

“
I look forward to it.” Damn, it felt good to be in the driver’s seat with this clown.

Samory concentrated what Jack surmised was his

vampiric, hypnotic power on Lester and simply uttered the word, “Come.”

Lester’s eyes widened again and his mouth hung opened as he followed Samory outside. He really should feel sorry for the guy, but he certainly made it difficult. The pressure had returned again to his chest coupled with the overwhelming fatigue.

He could only assume it had something to do with Samory. He knew it was time to find a way out of here, but how? His eyes focused on the trails of smoke coming from the booth in the back corner. In this whole crazy scenario she was the one element that intrigued him. Somehow he found her out of sync. Although why that was exactly, he couldn’t put his finger on.

He quietly headed to the back of the restaurant and stood beside the booth where the waitress was languorously having her cigarette. She didn’t look up at his approach, just stretched out a long almost bony arm and flicked the ashes in a beaten-up metal ashtray before her. This was a hard woman, one who’d been around. Not guileless like Hallie and not self-absorbed like Monica, but one who’d been toughened by life. So what was she doing in Hallie’s story?

“
I wanted to give my compliments for the burger,” he commented with caution.

“
Sal will be delighted,” but she didn’t look up just took a long draft of her shortening cigarette. “Would you like to join me Jack?”

The back of his neck tingled with a scratchy prickling. He didn’t remember giving her his name. “How did you know my name?”

She turned to him with green eyes wide and filled with shadows, “Word gets around. Have a seat.” He slid into the booth across from her, feeling oddly like he’d just stumbled onto a nest of snakes. “Want a cigarette Jack?”

She indicated the pack on the table in front of her. Though he did desperately want one taking it from her seemed oddly unwise. “No thanks.”

“
Suit yourself.” She smiled vaguely, eying him with coolness. “Kind of bold of you to come here, considering what could happen.”

He wasn’t exactly sure what they were talking about, but it felt distantly like a threat. “I felt it was warranted.”

“
Maybe,” she clicked her unkept nails on the table. “Maybe not. But I can see you’re tenacious.”

To him it seemed like a strange word to come out of the mouth of this particular character. “Yes, when it’s important I am.”

She smiled, “When it’s important, we all are.” She finished her cigarette and snuffed it out. “I think we could be friends Jack. Why don’t you get out of here before Samory comes back.”

A chill swept through him and then an elusive sense of familiarity, “Are you?” He uttered, not exactly knowing what he wanted to ask.

“
Better get going Jack. Before it’s too late.”

He got up, almost not of his own volition. And then there was a tremendous push behind him, thrusting him through the double doors of the kitchen.

He landed, none too softly, crashing onto the hard, aging linoleum of Hallie’s kitchen. Thankfully, though painfully, he’d been ejected from that reality. As he pulled himself up shakily, memories began to tumble back somewhat brokenly. He stood there for a moment in the middle of Hallie’s kitchen breathing deeply.

It was there. Something had changed. He knew something now. For an instant everything around him seemed to stop as all the pieces melded together before his eyes – the rage, the cold, the jaded and bitter eyes. How stupid he’d been, of course.

He’d had her right there and let her slip through his fingers. He closed his eyes and the vision of Madeline’s cold face rose up in his mind. There she was but now the large green eyes were filled unmistakably with hate. He’d found Sebastian Winters, of that he was convinced. He was a she and would not be able to hide from him anymore.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Hallie sat up in her bed, awakened suddenly from a restless sleep. She was anxious; something felt very wrong. The digital clock glowed back three a.m. from the nightstand. Her eyes nervously swept the darkened room. Nothing was there, but that too wasn’t right. It felt as though something were. “Jack,” she whispered loudly into the semi-darkness, hopeful for a response but not really expecting one. For moments nothing greeted her but stillness. And then the shadows shifted for an instant, and there was movement, movement from the darkness.

She clutched the covers tightly in her hands. Maybe this was that in between state that he’d found her in earlier in the evening. But it didn’t feel the same. Then, she felt peaceful. Now she was nervous, apprehensive. Jack had never had that effect on her before.

Again as her eyes became more accustomed to the limited light, it seemed as though she could almost make out a form in the corner of the room. But it was indefinite.

Maybe it was her anxious imagination. Her heart was picking up its beat, now clearly with fear. Shakily, she spoke out, “Jack, if it’s you come out. You’re scaring me.”

And then, after what seemed like an endless stretch of time, there was another flicker of movement. She waited, barely breathing it seemed. Slowly, the form stepped partially into the light so that she could make out a face. She gasped instinctively, shocked at the stark vision before her.

It was a woman, but unlike any she’d ever encountered. The apparition stood about her height or a little smaller. Her face was beyond pale, almost as white as the sheet on her bed. And she seemed so unbearably thin, drawn looking. Hallie was paralyzed; she felt as though she were breathing in gulps of fear. She couldn’t be real. The only thing remotely alive about her was her eyes. Staring quietly back, they were enormous, a strange, almost unnatural, shade of green. A decrepit-looking nightgown of some sort hung on her. It was a faded blue, tattered looking and loosely fit as though it were several sizes too large.

No, this couldn’t be real. It must be a nightmare.

“
Who are you?” Hallie managed to barely get out.

The voice that answered was calm and disturbingly empty of emotion. “Don’t be afraid Hallie.”

Again she asked, her voice trembling with controlled panic, “Who are you?”

And then the woman smiled with almost a grimace that stretched across the width of her face but left her eyes untouched by any animation. “Can’t you guess?”

Hallie shook her head, looking around the room for her dog, but even he was gone. She was completely alone.

“
It’s all right. I’m a friend of Jack’s. I’ve come to take you to him.”

“
Jack? He sent you.” A slight flicker of hope cracked through the veil of anxiety. “Why didn’t he come himself?”

“
He wanted to. But he was tied up with other things. He’s trying to work it out so you can be together.”

She was shivering beneath the thin sheet covering her. It felt drafty, so cold in the room. “Is that possible?” She whispered.

The woman shrugged her sharp, bony shoulders. “I’ve found in my experience that many things are possible, many many things.” As she moved closer, Hallie felt a familiar chill traverse her spine. She knew she’d never seen this woman before, but it felt as though there was something she should remember about her.

“
Do I know you?”

Something flickered in the green eyes, but Hallie couldn’t read her face at all. It was almost like a mask. She didn’t let herself think about it too much, but it was logical that to be a friend of Jack’s you must be some kind of ghost. “No, you don’t know me Hallie, but I’ve watched you. I’m very proud of the work you’ve done.”

“
Proud? What do you mean?”

“
Your writing has been good for women, all kinds of women who feel,” and there was a detectable hesitation, “weak.”

She was shivering again. It was so cold. She struggled to control it. “I don’t really understand.”

“
No, you’ve come away from that feeling haven’t you? You’ve moved so far away.”

She was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. Even beyond her intensely disturbing appearance, there was something extremely wrong about this person. “I just want you to tell me where Jack is.”

Now her eyes seemed to narrow. “So now your telling me what to do, are you?”

“
No,” she was too vulnerable here; she couldn’t afford to enrage her, whatever she was. “No, I’m just worried about Jack.”

“
Yes, how we wrap our lives around men and forget everything we’ve accomplished. Isn’t that always the way?”

“
Please, just tell me where he is.”

“
I’ll do better than that,” and then she reached out an almost emaciated looking hand toward her. “I’ll take you to him.”

An instinctual revulsion gripped Hallie. “I don’t know you. I can’t just go with you.”

“
But Jack needs you. He’s hurt.”

Panic and suspicion set in simultaneously. “He’s hurt. How can he. . .”

“
There are many things about living on this side that you don’t understand. He’s given everything to help you, but now he needs your help,” and then she paused. “Are you going to let him down Hallie?”

She was breathing deeply. It was almost painful just now. What was wrong with her? Jack, what was going on? It was foolish but how could she take a chance? “All right, I’ll go.”