Ghost of a Chance (24 page)

I took a seat at the end of the table,
trying unobtrusively to pull out my notebook. Adam, evidently
feeling a less authoritative air would be conducive to confidences,
also sat down, absently tidying up the mass of scribbled-on papers.
“During the course of our brief conversation with your husband, he
said you’d told him that you were going to use the machines to get
back what was rightfully yours. Would you care to explain
that?”

Her face was placid, but her fingers
tightened. Her laugh wasn’t its usual water-tinkling-in-a-brook
variety, either. “Goddess above, how am I to explain anything that
man says? I’m sorry to have to say this about someone in whom I had
placed so much trust, but I see now that Meredith is not in full
control of his faculties.”

Well, that was a new one. “Are you saying
he’s insane?” I asked.

“Not insane per se,” she answered, unlocking
her fingers to make an airy gesture of dismissal. “Not
institutionally insane, just… not very grounded in reality.”

“So, if we were to ask him to explain what
he meant by the accusation, you don’t think he could tell us
anything?” Adam’s hands lay relaxed on the table. I took a moment
to admire his self-control. I knew how hard it was for me to sit
still when I was excited; it must have been much more difficult for
him, with his almost pure polter ancestry.

“On the contrary, I’m sure he’ll have lots
to say.” Savannah looked just as relaxed as Adam, but I got the
feeling we were seeing only what she wanted us to see, as if she,
too, were enacting the strictest control over her emotions. “It’s
just that none of it will be the truth. I can assure you I have no
ulterior motive for anything I do, save the intellectual pursuit of
knowledge.”

Adam’s expression was unreadable. I wondered
if he was as suspicious of Savannah as I was. “Hmm. And the
machines Meredith mentioned you using? What would those be?”

“Machines? I told you before: I’m the most
techno-phobic person on the planet. I don’t even try to work the TV
remote. Electronics and I do
not
get along.”

I might not have the polter ability to
accurately read emotions, but I could generally recognize a lie
when I heard it, and Savannah had just told a whopper. I took a
peek over the top of my notebook. Adam met my gaze, acknowledging
my suspicion.

Almost imperceptibly, his body language
changed to that of an interrogator. “Indeed. How long have you
lived in this area?”

“In Washington, you mean? Oh… about four
years. My family is from a small town in northern California.”

Lie
, I wrote down in the
notebook.

“And what did you do before you met your
husband and became involved in the psychic group?”

“I was an insurance actuator for a national
company.”

Lie.

“You had no knowledge of the plans your
husband was participating in to turn this house into an Otherworld
brothel?”

“None whatsoever. I would have thought my
statements before made it quite clear that I’d never condone such a
heinous act.”

That, at least, was the truth. Whatever else
she might have going on, she didn’t appear to have known about the
plans for the house. Which left me to wonder exactly what Meredith
was talking about. What did she hope to regain? What had been lost?
Money? Prestige? An heirloom? And did any of that have something to
do with Adam’s house? She’d been poking around the house earlier in
the day; was there something there that she wanted?

Adam continued grilling Savannah while my
thoughts ran along grim lines. At one point I was struck with the
chilling idea that perhaps it was Adam’s spirits that she had in
her sights. I’d heard about supposed scientific groups that trapped
spirits and used them to generate income, much like Spider and
Meredith had planned, but without the sex. Could she be pretending
innocence to capture Tony and Jules?

“Why on earth do you want to know what my
maiden name is?” Savannah’s voice, tinged with exasperation,
pierced my dark musings. “What does that have to do with
anything?”

Adam shot me an inquiring glance.

“Honestly, I’m happy to answer questions so
long as they are pertinent, but I am getting the feeling that
you’re fishing for something you can use to accuse me. I have
explained repeatedly that I did not kill Spider, and I do not have
some deep, dark ulterior motive for anything.”

Ding, ding, ding!
Lie!

I made a little face at Adam. He rightly
interpreted it to mean I had nothing to add.

“I’m sorry if my questions or manner have
been offensive or overly taxing. If you could run through your
actions of last night one more time, I’d appreciate it.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes heavenward,
apparently looking for patience, recounting yet again her movements
of the night before. Adam, having heard it a couple of times,
absently shuffled through the papers before him, nodding and making
encouraging noises as Savannah spoke.

I listened with half my attention, still
puzzling over what it was she was hiding, and why. She wanted the
house; that I knew. But did that have anything to do with whatever
secret she was keeping from us? Or was it a coincidence? I had a
feeling that the answer was right before me, but I couldn’t bring
it into focus. It was a maddening sensation, the source of which
seemed to become more elusive the harder I tried to pin it
down.

“… and then I said I’d find Meredith, and we
all went down to the basement. You know what happened after
that.”

“Mmmhmm,” Adam murmured, glancing down at a
page. “Who’s Bethany?”

I shot out of my chair, snatching the paper
from him before he could so much as blink. “What?”

“Bethany. That’s the name on the paper. At
least I think it is. What’s wrong with you?”

I stared at the sheet of paper clutched in
my hands, my world narrowing to it and the name it contained. It
couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be. How could Savannah know about the
death of my little cousin? She couldn’t. Bethany’s death hadn’t
reached the mortal media, and coverage in Otherworld circles had
been kept to a minimum out of respect for my aunt and uncle. There
was no way Savannah could have heard about Bethany… unless it was
Bethany herself who had made contact.

“Karma? Is something wrong? You look as
white as snow.”

Grabbing the rest of the papers and quickly
searching them, I shook away the feeling of horror that crawled up
my arms. The random scribbled loops filled page after page, but at
the bottom of one page, the word “release” was discernable.

“You’re scaring me, Karma. Did I make
contact?”

Two faces came into focus, one worried, one
puzzled. I gave myself a mental shake and summoned up a smile I
knew was feeble at best. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,
Savannah. I was just taken by surprise.”

“Then I did make contact!” She leaned over
to look at the sheets I held. “ ‘Release.’ What did you say the
name was, Adam? Beth?”

“Bethany,” I answered, quickly scanning the
rest of the sheets. There was nothing else, just her name and the
word “release.” My throat ached with the swell of emotions brought
on by the sight of my cousin’s name scribbled on a sheet of paper.
Had she really made contact, or was this just some sort of a cruel
trick?

“Do you think it’s she who wants release?”
Savannah asked, going through the other papers. “I assume you know
who she is, Karma. Do you see anything else? Just the two
words?”

Adam’s intent gaze was on me. It took an
effort, but I put the papers back onto the table, just as if they
were nothing more exciting than sheets with scribbles on them.
“Yes, I know her. She was my cousin. She died three weeks ago.”

“Oh, my dear,” Savannah murmured, moving
over to put an arm around my shoulders. “I’m so sorry. How
traumatic for you. But you must set your mind at ease; if I
contacted her once, I can do it again. You just sit there and
handle the paper changing, and I’ll reestablish contact.”

“No!”

The shout echoed, starkly abrupt in the
sleepy, sunny dining room.

Savannah pulled her arm away from me. I took
a deep breath, pushing down all the confusion and pain that roiled
inside me. “Thank you for the offer, Savannah, but I really think
it would be best to… to not go forward with this.”

“It would be no trouble to make contact
again, I assure you.”

Adam’s eyes were rich with speculation. I
avoided looking at him, pushing myself back from the table. “I
appreciate that. I know you must both think I’m crazy, but my
cousin is much mourned. I do not think anyone in the family would
want her to be… disturbed.”

“Of course,” Savannah said with silky
reassurance.

There was a faint questioning note that I
ignored. If she was pulling a cruel joke on me, I wouldn’t give her
the pleasure of getting any further reaction. If she wasn’t… well,
the least said there was the best.

“Your cousin?” Adam asked. “What’s she doing
in my house?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. She can’t be
here; there’s no reason for her to be here. Unless…” The words
trailed off as a sobering thought struck me.

“Unless you are grieving her loss so much
that her spirit is bound to you and unable to find the peace she
seeks,” Savannah said in a voice brimming with sympathy.

“Perhaps,” was all I said.

Savannah handed me the sheets of paper.
“Well, it would seem that my spirit guide, Jebediah, was right
again. There
was
something I needed to do this morning. I
shall write up my experience here for the PMS journal—without
including names, naturally. I’ll just go take a few notes now,
while it’s all fresh in my mind.”

She bustled off, leaving me alone in the
room with Adam. For some reason, I felt a bit nervy, my hands
smoothing the paper over and over again. “I expect you’ll want to
hear about Bethany,” I said finally, disturbing the thick silence
of the room.

“I can get the facts from my watch captain,
if you’d rather not talk about it.” His tone was sympathetic but
matter-of-fact.

“There’s no need. I can tell you the details
quickly enough. My cousin’s body was found in the rubble of an
apartment complex that was being razed in order to be rebuilt. The
coroner determined that she’d been raped, and dumped there. She was
fifteen.”

Adam frowned, his fingers twiddling with a
pen. “I don’t remember hearing about a murder of a fifteen-year-old
girl. You said this was three weeks ago? I was out of the state
then on marshal business, but I should have heard about it from my
watch captain.”

I walked to the window, closing my eyes for
a moment at the sensation of sunshine bathing me in its warm
embrace. Sunny mornings always reminded me of my childhood, when
I’d wake up to a day filled with exciting possibilities. “She
wasn’t exactly murdered. The coroner said she killed herself, but I
know it was a direct result of the rape. My cousin wasn’t a tramp.
She was bright, and loving, and…” My throat closed up.

Adam moved behind me, his hand warm on my
shoulder as he offered awkward comfort.

“I know it won’t mean much, but I’ll do
everything I can to help find the person who did that to your
cousin,” Adam said.

I gave him a small smile. “Thanks. I’ll be
counting on you.”

Adam was right, I mused sourly to myself a
half hour later as I emerged from the kitchen.

“Well?” he asked, following me as I stopped
at the dining room table, now clear of paper but bearing a suede
glasses case that belonged to Savannah. I picked it up and clicked
the lid open and closed a couple of times.

“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t
you?”

“Yep. Was I right, or was I right?”

I sighed, turning to face him. “You were
right, and I was wrong. Happy now?”

He grinned.

“Smugness ill becomes you.” I made an
annoyed noise and mentally ran over the interview we’d just
conducted. “I will admit that I didn’t really think that Tony and
Jules had the motive, let alone the ability, to kill Spider, but
dammit… if they didn’t do it, and you say Meredith didn’t, who did?
We’ve talked to everyone, and only Meredith stands out, as the one
who was on the scene at the time. Other than Amanita, and I agree
with you that she’s not at all the type of person to commit a
cold-blooded murder.”

His grin faded as he pinched his lower lip
and thought. “I haven’t ruled out Meredith completely. I just don’t
see any solid evidence he did do it. He might have been physically
on the spot, but he has no real motive.”

“There’s got to be something.” I turned the
glasses case over, a faint chinking sound causing me to pop open
the lid and pour the contents out into my hand. They were the
apports Savannah had been collecting.

“If there is, Meredith isn’t likely to tell
us.” Adam looked at the stones. “What are you doing with
those?”

“Hmm? Oh, Savannah was saving them.” I
showed him the stones. “Goodness knows why. Probably a memento or
something. She must have put them in here for safekeeping. I’ll
give the case back to her as soon as we see her. What about
hypnosis?”

“For Meredith, you mean? I doubt he’d
consent to it, and even if he did, we only have slightly over two
hours before the seal dissolves. There wouldn’t be enough time to
thoroughly interview him, assuming we got him to that point. Where
did she get these?” he asked, poking a long finger through the
apports.

“She picked them up from all over. I don’t
suppose you have any truth serum or anything like that lying around
the house?”

Adam raised one eyebrow.

I sighed. “I didn’t think so. If we could
only get Meredith to spill his guts, I’m sure there would be enough
evidence to convince even you.”