‘Better lock the door,’ Luther tells Odelia as they step out onto the porch.
She obliges without protest and quickly turns to scan the park across the way, looking for Sam Jordan’s spirit.
When she’d glanced out the upstairs window, she’d been surprised to see him among the others. Then again, she supposed it would be a logical spot for his energy to linger, right there in Valley View’s shadow. It’s just that she doesn’t often see apparitions of the recently departed.
Under ideal circumstances, she’d have attempted to channel his energy and see if she could get him to expand on his message for Bella, but that would have to wait. Her priority is to let Bella know that there’s something duplicitous about the woman staying under her roof.
Odelia had been in such a hurry to get dressed that she’d failed to note that unlike the other regulars who haunt the park, Sam hadn’t been oblivious to the downpour. No, he’d been walking under an umbrella, and wearing a raincoat and looking at a cell phone. When she looked out the window again to confirm it, he’d vanished.
There’s no sign of him now, either, as she and Luther hurry next door to Valley View beneath Luther’s umbrella. Nor is there any sign of Marty in the black SUV.
‘If he was Grant’s driver, then Grant must have left,’ she tells Luther, relieved.
But when they walk into the guesthouse, Grant is in the entrance hall, talking on his cell phone.
Pandora Feeney is there, too, pawing through the garments hanging on the coat tree by the door.
‘Luther! Splendid! I’m in need of a brolly, and here you are with your massive one.’
He blinks and looks at Odelia.
She shrugs and echoes, ‘Brolly?’
‘Yes, you see, this simply won’t do.’ She waves a bright yellow, child-sized umbrella imprinted with ninja zombies. ‘I’ll just borrow yours, Luther, if it isn’t a bother.’
‘Of course it’s a bother!’ Odelia snaps. ‘It’s pouring out.’
‘Well, yes, that’s rather the very point, isn’t it?’ Pandora returns with a beatific smile.
‘Yes, I will,’ Grant is saying into his phone. ‘I’ll have it sent to you right away but start drawing up the contract.’
Pandora plucks the wet umbrella from Luther’s hands. ‘I promise I shall return it posthaste. I’m going across to Cotswold Corner to make a few calls.’
Grant hangs up the phone. ‘Hi, Odelia, Luther. Sorry about that. It was my attorney.’
‘Yes it was! Cheers, then! Ta!’ Pandora sails out the door.
Odelia turns to Luther, frowning. ‘Well, that was bizarre.’
‘Hey, what can I say? I’m a sucker for any woman who notices my massive brolly.’
Grant snickers.
Even Odelia can’t help but grin. ‘What I mean is, when I ran into Pandora on my way to Calla’s this morning, she was a hot mess. I wonder why her mood turned around so quickly.’
‘Maybe it’s the weather. She probably prefers the rain because it reminds her of London.’
‘I don’t think—’
Odelia pauses, hearing a door bang open upstairs. Bella appears, looking utterly distraught.
‘Bella! What’s wrong?’
She looks around and then down the stairs, spotting Odelia and the others. ‘My necklace! It’s gone!’
‘Necklace?’ Grant frowns. ‘What necklace?’
‘Your tourmaline?’ asks Luther who, like Odelia, is well aware that Bella Jordan wouldn’t react this way over any old necklace.
‘Yes.’ She hurries down the stairs. ‘I opened my jewelry box, and it was gone.’
‘Maybe you just misplaced it,’ Odelia suggests.
‘No, that’s the only place it would be, if I’m not wearing it.’
‘When was the last time you had it on?’
‘At Millicent’s wedding.’
‘Ah, then it’s probably tucked away in your bag, or maybe you left it in Chicago.’
‘No, Luther. I unpacked and put it away. I saw it in my jewelry box yest … wait.’ She frowns. ‘I did put it on with my blue dress yesterday morning. But only for a minute, because I realized … I realized, uh …’
Odelia to the rescue: ‘You realized it was much too hot for jewelry.’
Bella flashes her a grateful smile. ‘Exactly.’
Odelia had seen Bella in that blue dress, wearing makeup, with her hair styled, and suspected it was because Drew Bailey was still hanging around.
‘Well, you must have put it down somewhere when you took it off,’ Grant says.
‘I didn’t. I just turned the Rose Room upside down. It isn’t there.’ She turns to Luther, holding up her phone. ‘And there’s something else—’
A shrill scream erupts somewhere upstairs, and a woman’s voice yells, ‘Heeelp!’
‘Eve!’ Grant rushes up the steps, taking them three at a time, with Luther right on his heels.
Bella looks at Odelia. ‘That’s his girlfriend. She’s … a lot. I’m sure it’s nothing major.’
‘How about you, Bella? Are you all right?’
‘I’m …’ Her voice breaks, and she shakes her head.
‘Your necklace. I know.’
‘Not just that. It’s everything. Sam—’
‘Sam! Yes. I just saw him.’
‘When?’
‘About ten minutes ago. I was in my room.’
‘And he came to you again? Did he have a message?’
‘No, not like before. This was different. I saw him outside, in the rain.’ She turns and points out the window at the park across the way. ‘He was over there. But I turned away, and when I looked again, he was gone.’
‘That’s it? He was just … there?’
‘Yes. Walking. He had an umbrella and a cell phone.’
Bella gasps. ‘He … he had a cell phone?’
‘And an umbrella, which I thought was unusual because—’
‘Bella?’ Luther calls down the stairs. ‘Can you come up here, please?’
‘What’s going on?’
‘Rainstorm, old house, leaky roof. Does that answer your question?’
‘Oh, no!’
‘Things could be worse,’ Odelia reminds Bella.
‘You’re right. A lot worse, considering what goes on around here. Odelia, the boys are watching TV. Can you—’
‘I’ll make sure they’re OK. In fact, why don’t I take them back to my house for a while and give you a break? You have a lot to do here.’
‘That would be … I don’t even know how to thank you.’
‘No need.’ She lowers her voice. ‘Luther and I have some concerns about one of your guests. Make sure he tells you.’
As Bella hurries up the stairs, Odelia heads for the back parlor.
Candace sticks her head out of the breakfast room. ‘Odelia? What’s going on? We heard—’
‘Everything’s fine,’ Odelia assures her, along with Tommy and the other guests who are there, looking concerned.
‘No, dear, we’re not talking about our dream now,’ one of the St Clair sisters tells the other. ‘Hester was saying that somebody screamed.’
‘My goodness, what happened to Hester?’
‘Nothing happened to me, Ruby. I’m right here. You see? I’m perfectly fine.’
‘Then why are you screaming and carrying on?’
Odelia heaves an inward sigh.
‘Who did scream?’ Tommy asks her.
‘It’s probably just the television. No worries. I’ll go turn it down. Go on back to your breakfast.’
‘Thanks, but we were just getting ready to go.’
‘We’ll see you there, right?’ Candace asks.
‘Where?’
‘At our ghost-hunting equipment presentation.’
She’d all but forgotten. Their conversation last night seems so long ago.
‘I’m not sure I’m going to make it. Bella asked me to keep an eye on the boys – her son and his friend.’
‘Bring them! It’s totally G-rated,’ Candace says. ‘Kids are always fascinated with the equipment. We can even have them come up on stage and help with the demonstration. Just make sure you come early to get a seat down in the front. It’s going to be crowded.’
‘Yes, we’re all going,’ Ruby says with a smile.
‘Where are we going, dear?’ her sister asks.
‘We’re going … where are we going again, Hester?’
Odelia continues onto the back parlor, where she finds Max and Jiffy curled up on the couch with Spidey between them. They’re so engrossed in their favorite ninja zombie program that they don’t seem to notice Odelia until she picks up the remote and pauses the TV.
‘Hey!’
‘No!’
‘It’s just me, boys.’
‘Oh, hi, Odelia,’ Max says.
‘Hi, Odelia,’ Jiffy parrots. ‘By the way, we were watching ninja zombies, and you froze them.’
‘I thought you two might want to join me for something fun?’
‘I would!’ Max shouts.
‘Me, too, I guess.’
‘Everything OK with you today, Jiffy?’
He replies with a lackluster, ‘Yep.’
‘Except for your phone and your play …’ Max winces as Jiffy elbows him. ‘Sorry. Everything’s OK with Jiffy today, Odelia.’
Hmm. Thoughtful, she asks, ‘You haven’t seen your mom’s tourmaline necklace, have you, Max?’
‘Her what necklace?’
‘That special blue necklace she likes to wear.’
‘Oh! She wore it at my grandma’s wedding.’
‘Right. I thought maybe you’d seen it around the house.’
‘Nope.’
‘Jiffy? Have you seen it?’
‘Nope, it’s not around my house, either.’
‘Well, she can’t find it, so let’s keep an eye out for it, shall we?’
‘We shall, but that’s not the fun thing, is it?’ Max asks.
‘It is not. We have a few minutes before we have to go, so I’ll let you two finish your program.’ She presses Play, and the show resumes.
As she leaves the room, she hears Max whisper, ‘What if Kevin Beamer stole my mom’s necklace, too?’
That stops Odelia in her tracks.
Kevin … Beamer.
‘Why would he steal that?’ Jiffy asks.
‘Because Odelia said it’s blue, so maybe it’s worth a lot of money like that other one.’
‘I told you, he’s not the one who stole that.’
Wide-eyed, Odelia sneaks back toward the doorway, eavesdropping.
‘Anyway, he doesn’t steal stuff,’ Jiffy goes on. ‘He just makes people give him their stuff.’
‘Oh, right.’
Odelia shakes her head. Kevin Buh … something.
Buh … Beamer. Not Bacon.
It happens all the time—with many spirits eager to get the medium’s attention, one message can easily get muddled with another. When someone as seasoned as Odelia is focused – say, doing a reading for a client – she’s adept at sorting things out. But Sam had woken her from a sound sleep, and, well, he’s certainly not a pro at this.
‘But isn’t that the same thing as stealing?’ Max is asking Jiffy. ‘I mean, you didn’t want to give him your Playbox and all that other stuff.’
Jiffy’s response makes Odelia’s blood run cold.
‘I had to, because if I didn’t, he was going to tell the police I stole the fancy necklace from the Slaytons.’
‘Yeah, but that was his idea.’
‘Yeah, but I did it.’
‘Because you had to because he made you!’
A pause.
‘Not really,’ Jiffy admits in a voice Odelia has seldom heard him use. ‘I had to because … I just had to, that’s all.’
‘Because Kevin Beamer’s got video and he’s going to give it to the police if you don’t do what he says, right?’
‘Well, yeah.’
‘This stinks,’ Max says, and then, ‘Wait, I know! You need to get a lullaby!’
‘You mean an alibi. I don’t have one.’
‘You can say you were with me.’
‘It was the middle of the night, Max. Everyone would know I wasn’t with you.’ Jiffy sounds glum. ‘I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Let’s just watch Ninja Zombie Battle until we go do Odelia’s fun thing.’
Needing a cup of coffee and a place to sit and ponder everything, Odelia is glad to find the breakfast room deserted. The others must already be on their way to the auditorium. That’s fine. She can be a few minutes late with the boys, she decides, as she waits for her coffee to drip from the Keurig.
She has to figure out what to do about Jiffy and—
‘Bells?’ Misty’s voice calls. ‘Bells! Where are you?’
Odelia leaves the coffee and hurries to the front hall.
Misty is there, her braided, beaded head soaked from the short walk over.
Lieutenant Grange is also there, wearing a trench coat and propping an umbrella against the wall. Odelia wonders whether he’d offered it to Misty. Then she wonders whether he’s here to handcuff Jiffy and take him away.
Which is illogical, of course. You don’t arrest a seven-year-old boy. You …
Well, whatever you do, she’s certain it’s pretty horrible.
‘Oh, hi, Odelia. What are you doing here?’ Misty asks.
‘I was just heading out to the auditorium with the boys,’ she says quickly, and shouts, ‘Boys! Let’s go!’
‘Where are you going?’
Why, she wonders, does Grange always sound as if he’s interrogating a criminal when he asks a question?
‘To the auditorium, if that’s OK with you?’
‘Fine with me,’ he says.
‘I meant, if it’s OK with you, Misty. I know you’ – she indicates Grange – ‘don’t need to talk to him, or anything.’
Misty shrugs. ‘It’s fine with me.’
‘Good, and we’re late, so … Boys!’
Grange winces. ‘I’m here to talk to Bella Jordan. Where is she?’
‘Upstairs. I’m sure she’ll be right down. Why don’t you wait in the breakfast room? There’s coffee and breakfast and … Boys!’ she calls again, eager to get them out of here before they – or she – slips up in front of Grange about Jiffy’s role in the robbery at the Slayton house.