“If you want to go home, Mae, I’ll be happy to take you,” Matt said. He rose so quickly he could have knocked the table over. It was his house.
He couldn’t wait to leave it.
Mae said a few quick goodbyes, and Matt led her out to his car. She was silent as he started up the engine, then she said, “Mother Mary!” Matt knew that she stared at him. “That was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Yeah, she’s good,” Matt said. Good! What was he saying, admitting? Good. There were many ways to be good.
He realized that he was furious with himself, but he was furious with himself because of Darcy. And it couldn’t be real.
“She can really contact the dead!” Mae said with awe.
Matt found himself barking back at her. “No—I mean that she’s good as an actress. A damned good actress. That was her major before she came up with all those other degrees, you know.”
“Oh, Matt!” Mae said with dismay. “You can’t believe that.”
“I do,” he said stubbornly.
“Granted, I haven’t gotten to know her anywhere nearly as well as you—”
“Right, you can bet on that,” Matt said, a double edge of irony in his voice.
“But we both know she’s not the kind of flimflam artist who would go around…giving people false hope, or making a mint on a pretense.”
Matt stared at Mae. “You can’t really believe that someone can just talk to the dead at will, can you?”
“I sure believe what I saw tonight.”
“What did you see?” Matt said angrily. “You saw Darcy speaking, answering questions that Adam asked her, screaming like a banshee, and that was about it. Did she come up with any answers? Did she give us a name? A reason why this woman would be screaming and asking for help?”
“Delilah jumped up,” Mae reminded him. “She broke the circle, the communication.”
Matt sniffed audibly. “Darcy has been here some time now. And she hasn’t the least idea of what is going on in the house.”
“Yes, but she found the skull in the woods,” Mae reminded him. “And she went through the floorboards in the library,” she added frowning.
“God knows, she probably spilled cola all over the floor herself.”
“Matt!” Mae protested.
“Okay, so that was coincidence,” Matt said.
Mae shook her head. “Oh, come on, Matt. I know what you think. You believe that maybe even Penny is making things happen, because she’s so into the concept of the house of being haunted. Or maybe someone else, for God knows what reason. You thought that if you had Adam Harrison out, he’d find some immediate proof that everything that has happened was bogus. Well, that’s just not true. And I always thought you were so smart. That you listened better than anyone I knew, which made you such a great sheriff. You could handle the really bad guys, and keep young pranksters from going down the wrong path. Well, now you’re just being stubborn and stupid. And you know why? You’re afraid. You’re afraid to let go of any preconceived notion you have. You’ve believed something forever, so it must be true.”
Matt stared at her. He’d never heard Mae so fierce.
“Every word I’m saying is true. And I can tell you what other people won’t because I knew your folks, and I’m way too old to flirt with you, or any of that rot. I’m just an old barmaid with a good eye and a good ear, but I care about you a lot, and I hate to see you act like an idiot!”
He almost laughed, Mae was so determined to speak her mind.
“Mae, please.”
“Hey, no! Matt, please. What, are you letting your past slip into some of this? Darcy has red hair. Besides that, she isn’t a thing like Lavinia, yet you automatically distrust her. Your ex-wife could stab someone in the back and smile while doing it. Darcy isn’t a thing like that.”
“Hey! May I remind you, when Lavinia first came to Stoneyville, everyone thought she was the most beautiful, sweetest thing to ever walk the earth.”
“We thought that for all of about two seconds. We were horrified by the time you two married. But hell, none of us had a right to say anything.”
“Thanks for the lecture, Mae,” he said dryly.
“How is Lavinia these days?” Mae asked, smoothing her hair back. “Clint told me she used to call you constantly, even after the divorce. That she was jealous as all hell, even when she went back to her old social whirl.”
“She must be happy, because I haven’t heard from her in quite some time,” Matt said.
“She must have found herself a new young stud somewhere,” Mae said.
“I hope,” Matt said absently. Lavinia was the last thing on his mind at the moment.
“Right, I know you mean that. But what you haven’t gotten down right is the fact that Darcy Tremayne isn’t anything like her.”
“Thank you, Mae.”
“Ass!” Mae muttered.
“Mae, look, I’m damned sorry, but I do think this is all bull. Hey—maybe it’s even bull in her own mind. Hell, that’s not a maybe. Because you’re right. I’m uptight, all right. And maybe that’s why I’ve been such an ass, and I’m sorry. Darcy…is very different. Beautiful, and a wonderful person. She means to be decent. She believes all this herself. But she has dreams, wakes, and thinks they’re real. She wants to conjure up a spirit, and so she does. Excuse me. It’s just a little too creepy and ridiculous for me.”
They’d reached Mae’s house. She slammed out of the passenger door and came around to peer into the driver’s window, despite the fact that he had just started to back out.
“Anyone could see the way it is between you two, Matt. Fire and ice. She makes you mad as hell, and hot as hell. Just like Lavinia. So, if you’re really going to be such a pigheaded jerk, keep your pants zipped, huh?”
“Mae—” he began angrily.
She quickly retreated from the window. “Thanks for the ride, Matt. Good night.”
She turned to walk up the path to her house. He swore, slammed his hands against the steering wheel, and backed out the driveway.
Darcy was always vaguely aware of what had gone on, even though she didn’t know the particulars. The way everyone was behaving, she was certain that, if nothing else, there had been one hell of a show.
She had apparently done Carter a favor though, or so it seemed. Delilah Dey—whose eyes remained huge with fear and unease every time they fell upon Darcy—was clinging to him.
Actually, they made a cute couple, Darcy thought wryly.
Cute couple, yeah, but the way that Delilah stared at her was surely as unnerving as anything she might have done during the seance.
Drinks had been served all around. David Jenner seemed the most blasé, while Clint appeared to be sympathetic as he looked at her, Elizabeth Holmes in awe, Penny concerned. Carter? Hard to tell, he was so busy being supportive to the lovely Delilah Dey. Jason Johnstone was reflective as he watched her, and appeared to be entirely open-minded. Unnerved perhaps, but not to the point of staring at her as if she were an alien.
Not as Matt had done.
Matt, gone now, naturally. Sure, he needed to give Mae a ride home.
“Have you always been like that?” Delilah asked her.
“Like…?” Darcy said, arching a brow. She knew what Delilah meant. She just wanted clarification.
“Well,” Delilah said, hesitating.
Creepy? Is that what you mean? Darcy didn’t say it out loud.
“Able to…really get to dead people?” Delilah said.
“No,” she said. “I had a friend once. He taught me,” she said simply.
“Okay, okay,” Clint said. “Darcy gave us all a start. We’ve all been so freaked out that we haven’t stopped to wonder just what it meant.” He was looking at Darcy expectantly.
She shook her head. “I’m going to have to see the tape, Clint.”
“So you, like, black out, when that happens?” Jason asked her.
“Not really. But I don’t have
a clear vision of what happened.”
“You really had a different voice,” Delilah told her.
“A very frightened voice,” Carter said.
“The point is, what was the voice so frightened of?” Penny said.
“Right. How can someone dead be so terrified?” Delilah asked.
Darcy shrugged and answered slowly, carefully. “Hauntings are usually caused by a spirit’s inability to get past certain moments in life. Maybe they haven’t accepted the fact that they’re dead.”
“Say this is Arabella,” Penny chimed in, excited, “and she was murdered. Maybe she thinks that she can get help, and it won’t happen.”
“There’s probably a line,” Liz put in excitedly. “A delicate, fragile line, between life and death. But those who died violently or in painful circumstances can’t quite find the line. So they’re in limbo. And still afraid, perhaps, of the things that frightened them in life.”
“That may be the answer,” Darcy told her.
“We have to find out what that poor creature is afraid of!” Liz said.
“I agree,” Penny said, swallowing down the last of her scotch. “Adam should have let us start over. Maybe we could try right now.”
Darcy shook her head. “She won’t come back now.”
“How do you know that?” Carter asked.
“Fine lines,” Darcy told him. “She’s retreated.”
“Is she watching us?” Clint asked.
Darcy hesitated. “I don’t…feel…anything right now. Whatever ghosts reside here, they’ve all stepped back.”
Delilah turned to Carter. “I have my own car, but I think I’m afraid to drive home alone.” She looked abashed at Darcy. “It’s so dark around here. These roads at night are creepy on their own, and I’m going to think there’s a ghost at my shoulder all the way home.”
“Delilah, it will be my pleasure to drive home with you in your car,” Carter told her.
“I can pick you up,” Clint told him.
“I’ll just take a cab,” Carter told him.
“I don’t mind coming to get you,” Clint said.
Carter stared at him, smiling over clenched teeth as he tried to make a point. “No, Clint, thanks. It’s all right. I’ll just grab a cab.”
“Oh. Oh!” Clint said, quickly lowering his head to hide a smile.
Liz yawned. “I’m exhausted. But so excited! Darcy, what you do is so incredible. Can you teach me?”
I don’t do parlor tricks! Darcy thought. What I have can be a curse as much as a gift, and painful as well as rewarding!
“I’m not sure I know how, Liz. It’s a matter of keeping your mind open, I believe. I’m sure you’ll get there,” she said aloud. It was a lie. But there really was no truth to tell that could be understood. She rose. “Excuse me, I think I’ll go up with Adam and take a look at the tapes.”
She made a hasty retreat up the stairs.
Adam was in his guest room, the Longstreet Room. When she tapped on the door, he bid her to enter absently. He was deeply engrossed in the tape when she went in.
Darcy watched it with him. She listened to the voice, and the fear in it.
“What do you think?” she asked him.
“I think it’s strange, as we’ve all noticed, that a ghost can be so afraid.”
“Think it can be Arabella?” Darcy asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to do the research that you’ve done,” he said.
“I’ll show you everything that I dug into tomorrow,” Darcy assured him.
Adam sat back, looking at her. “Matt is still convinced that there’s a living human creating most of his problems.”
“I don’t know,” Darcy said. “I heard noises one night and I have to admit, I was convinced myself that there was certainly someone living and breathing making them. But Matt was there, and he walked around the balcony, and found nothing.”
“Someone could have slipped back in the house, right?”
“Sure. But that doesn’t account for the dreams, visions, and other phenomena.”
Adam grinned. “I know that, and you know that, but Matt is a skeptic. Still, it’s an interesting situation. Why would someone pretend to be a ghost?”
“I thought that maybe Penny wanted a ghost so badly that she was helping to create one,” Darcy said. “Or maybe one of the guys was just having fun at Matt’s expense.”
“Tell me more about those two—Clint and Carter.”
“Clint is a cousin from the wrong side of the blankets, as they say. Carter is a friend. Heavily into real estate, I believe.”
“And Clint? What does he do?”
“Hang around, mostly. Penny is often despairing of him,” Darcy said.
“What does he survive on?” Adam asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe Matt’s goodwill,” Darcy said.
Adam nodded. “I’d like to spend tomorrow doing research. Get some things settled in my own mind. After that…maybe hypnotism?”
Darcy was not fond of being hypnotized. But it often worked.
“We’ll never do anything you don’t want to do,” Adam said as she hesitated.
“Oh, I know. I guess, sometimes, still…” she sighed. “Adam, am I really such a freak? That’s how people react to me, you know.”
He smiled. “Elizabeth Holmes is green with envy.”
“Yes, but I saw the looks in everyone’s eyes tonight.”
“You saw the look in Matt’s eyes,” Adam corrected softly.
She waved a hand in the air. “It’s just the look…I get it from far more people than Matt.”
Adam sat back. “I think he’s falling in love with you. What do you say?”
“I say that he’s entirely repulsed.”
“I say that he’s afraid,” Adam told her.
“Matt Stone? You know, his name fits. He’s chiseled. He’s like coming up against a rock. Hard. And unchanging.”
Adam laughed. “Even the hardest stone can be eroded. And maybe you’ve shaken him to the core, which always make a man or woman don a facade as quickly as possible. He’s a decent man. Give him a chance.”
“A chance for what?”
“A change of thought. That’s difficult to come by, you know.”
Darcy fell silent. Difficult. Impossible. If a ghost walked by in pure daylight, oozing ectoplasm, Matt would think he was seeing sunspots.
“By the way—he’s worried about you. He doesn’t think you should be here.
“I’m fine.”
“He says you woke up terrified last night.”
She frowned. “I just can’t get a handle on this. I’m more frustrated than terrified, Adam, really. I see this event unfolding. I’ve taken on the persona of the man coming to the house, and that of the woman inside, waiting. I know that she’s frightened, and I know that he has deadly intentions. When I have it, the dream goes a little further each time. Then…I lose it. I know that I’m seeing the past, but something in the dream bothers me every time. There’s something that I should see, but just don’t.”
“That means that there is an end out there. We are getting somewhere, Darcy. You’re seeing the event. We know that there is an entity, trying to tell us something. She’s been reaching out, but she’s still terrified herself. Poor thing. It’s the depths of the fear she was feeling when she died. We have to make certain that we know who she is—you believe it’s this Arabella. So, we’re getting close, very close.”
Darcy smiled. “Adam, I actually believe that this place is swarming with ghosts.”
“Probably. But the rest of them seem to be happy ghosts. Just watching over the place. Arabella, or whoever she is, has the greatest power. And that’s because she’s so desperate to say something to us all. We’ll get to it. By the way, I’ve asked David Jenner to set up a few of the cameras and some tape equipment in your room. Is that all right?”
“Of course,” she said. She’s seen Matt’s face that night. He wouldn’t be coming back
to visit her in the darkness of the night.
“I’m right here, not a stone’s throw away. Call me if you need me. Call if you think you may need me.”
“I know, Adam.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Are you all right, Darcy? I haven’t seen you this shaken since…since the beginning.”
“I’m fine,” she assured him.
She wasn’t. She was hurt. But then she’d known better than to fall for Matt Stone, to become emotionally involved. The truth of it was that she wasn’t normal, and there just weren’t many men out there willing to deal with her circumstances.
Adam was still staring at her. He knew her too well. “Adam, I’m fine,” she said firmly.
“Maybe Matt Stone is right.”
“About what?”
“That’s it’s dangerous for you to be here.”
“Adam—”
“What about the library?”
“Adam, this I know—a ghost did not follow me into the library. I was alone when I stood on those boards. What happened was a coincidence.”
“Still—”
“Adam, I’m close. I know I’m close. There’s some little thing there that I’m not seeing, and once I know what it is, the situation will be solved. I’m certain. Good night, and please don’t worry about me.”
He nodded. Even as she left the room, he was rewinding the tape to study it once again.
Darcy walked to the Lee Room. It seemed very quiet. She didn’t feel that the eyes watched her. Then she wondered if maybe the ghost was simply exhausted. Maybe the seance was as hard on their entity as it was on those living souls who had been involved.
“Let me help you!” she said aloud. “You don’t need to hurt me or anyone. You have to get the courage together to let us know what happened.”
There was no response.
Darcy locked the balcony doors. There would be no one slipping through them to see her tonight.
Weary, she got ready for bed, and crawled in.
The emptiness around her seemed absurdly loud.
Matt arrived back at Melody House, but for several long minutes, he remained in the car, staring at the house. Brick, mortar, and stone. It was a house, nothing more.