All Things Lost (49 page)

     “We have to follow,” she said with a surprising intensity.

     “No!” I gasped.

     Her eyes widened. “We have to!”

     “I can't!”

     “This is what we came here for.”

     “No.”

     She spun around in frustration and took the remaining steps in one graceful leap. She looked up and down the hall almost frantically, waving the flashlight back and forth.

     “She's gone,” she said in confusion.

     I realized that the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms had settled back to their normal state and I knew she really was gone, at least for now.

     I pushed myself to my feet and joined Judy in the now empty hallway just as the lights flickered and came back on.

     Judy looked closely at me. “You saw her too, right? I didn't imagine that.”

     “I saw her,” I said softly.

     “I don't understand. I thought she wanted me to follow her but then she was gone when I got down here.”

     I shrugged. “Can we go back down now?”

     “Ok, but we're far from done here.”

     “Oh, I think I'm done.”

     We went back down to where the others were waiting in the ballroom.

     “Man, you missed all the excitement,” Kane said as soon as we came into the room.

     “I rather doubt that,” I said dryly.

     “The electricity went off and we were all standing here in the dark and then we heard these footsteps,” he plowed on. “We thought it was you and we said something but they went right down the hallway and then stopped. Next thing we know we hear a door slam shut and before we can do anything the lights come back on. We're all trying to figure out what happened when you came back downstairs so we know it wasn't you.”

     “Which way were the footsteps going?” Judy asked instantly on alert, “Could you tell what door closed?” I'm sure the thought had occurred to her at the same time it did to me that the footsteps were most likely
Amalie
.

     “What happened up there?” Steve asked.

     “We saw
Amalie
again,” I said, “but then she disappeared before Judy could follow her.”

     “Where did the steps go?” Judy asked again.

     “It sounded to me like they stopped at the door to the basement but I can't be sure.”

     
“The basement?”
Judy repeated. “Show me.”

     Steve led the way to a door in the hallway that was tucked away under the staircase, Judy on his heels and the rest of us trailing behind. I knew the house had an old fashioned dirt-floored cellar under it, but I'd never been down there. From what I knew, once all the safety regulations were met not much else was done down there. Steve opened the door and flipped on his flashlight.

     “The light is at the bottom of the stairs so we'll have to use this going down.”

     “Anybody else want to wait up here?” Kane asked hopefully. When nobody answered and we all started filing down the stairs he heaved a sigh and fell in behind the last person in line, Adam. We all gathered at the bottom of the stairs as Steve reached out and pulled the chain that lit the single dim bulb hanging from the rough wooden beams above our heads.

     Except for the wires and pipes passing overhead, the basement must have looked much the way it did when the house was built. The dirt floor gave off a damp, dank smell and the brick walls were grown over with moss and mildew. A wooden bench-like counter had been built along one wall, for vegetable storage in the days before refrigerators, I guessed. There wasn't much else down here. It wasn't a suitable place for storage for much else as damp as it was. It didn't take long to see that there was nothing much to see. A collective sigh of relief went up; I hadn't even realized I'd been holding my breath.

     “I want to spend the night here,” Judy announced suddenly, making everyone jump slightly.

     
“Tonight?”
Adam asked in surprise.

     She shrugged. “Whenever is convenient. Tonight would be fine with me.”

     “I need to go home, I have a project I need to get back to,” Adam said.

     “I have, uh, homework,” Kane added quickly.

     “
It's
summer,” I pointed out and received a nasty look for my effort.

     “It's not necessary that everyone stay,” Judy said. I brightened up considerably until she went on. “Except for Killian; I may need him here.”

     
“
Arg
!”

     “Is it alright if I stay?” Micah asked.

     “I don't see why not,” Judy answered.

     “I'll be staying too,” Steve said.

     “It'll be a supernatural slumber party,” I grumbled.

     “You can do each other's hair,” Kane suggested with a giggle. He seemed in much better spirits now that he knew he was leaving soon.

     We started back up the stairs as Steve asked, “What will we be doing exactly?”

     “I want to sleep here mainly,” Judy explained.

     “Then why do you need me?” I was quick to ask.

     “I want to talk to you,” she said, “And I want you to sleep here too.
For whatever reason she seems to be rather partial to you.
You may pick up things I don't or she may show you things she won't show me.”

     “Killian and
Amalie
sitting in a tree,” Kane started to sing.

     “Aren't you leaving?” I snapped.

     He grinned.
“Hell, yeah.
And I must say I'm pretty damn happy about that.”

     “Maybe I'll just leave you here,” Adam said warningly. That shut him up.

     The storm seemed to be winding down outside so Adam and Kane decided to leave in Steve's SUV after Judy promised to take Steve home in the morning and Micah said he'd take me.

     Once they were gone, everyone stood staring at each other. I was the first to wonder how we were going to sleep; we didn't have any bedding or sleeping bags.

     “We can run to my apartment,” Micah asked. It's closer than your house and I have blankets and a couple sleeping bags.”

     “Why don't you and Steve go get them, Micah,” Judy said. It was phrased as a suggestion but the order was pretty plain, “That way Killian and I can talk.”

     Micah shrugged good-naturedly, “Sure.”

     “Ok,” Steve agreed, “But only if you promise to tell me what happened upstairs as soon as we get back.”

     
“Of course.”

     They left in Micah's car and Judy and I were all alone, well, except for
Amalie
. I turned to my living housemate.

     “What's going on?” I asked.

     “What do you mean?”

     “Why is it so important for me to be here? Why do you need to talk to me? And why is she here at all?”

     “By her I assume you mean
Amalie
?”

     “Yes.”

     “Well, let's see. To answer your first question, I need you here because you are obviously a sensitive, and from all appearances I very strong one. I need you to help me if we're going to figure out what is keeping
Amalie
on this plane. To answer you're last question, I don't know. That's what we're trying to figure out. I suspect it has something to do with the baby you heard crying.”

     “What about my other question? What do you need to talk to me about?”

     “This actually has nothing to do with our mysterious ghost.”

     “Then what does it have to do with?
You and Novak?”

     “Me and…?” She seemed surprised. “No, it doesn't have anything to do with Novak and me. Why would you even ask that? What does Shane have to do with anything?”

     I blushed. “Well, I mean, I saw you at his house the other day.”

     “Yes, I'm seeing Shane. He's a fascinating man, very good company. But why would I want to talk to you about that?”

     I blushed even harder. “I don't know.
Never mind.”

     “Does it bother you that I'm dating your boss?”

     “No!” I said quickly.

     “I mean, I know he's a little older than I am but really, what are a few years? We get along great and enjoy spending time together.”

     A few decades would be more like it, I thought, but all I said was, “I think that's great.
Really.
But if that isn't it then what do you want to talk to me about?”

     “Oh, it's about your case you're working on.”

     
“Were working on.”

     “What?”

     “I'm not working on it anymore.”

     
“But why?
It's far from over.”

     “My part is over. I did what Asher asked me to do.”

     
“Maybe, or maybe not.
Either way, I'm surprised that you would be able to just walk away from this without knowing what really happened.”

     “Let's just say some things took place that made this case be a little more than I wanted to be involved with right now.”

     “You mean Asher and the boy.”

     I was surprised that she knew about that, but then again, why should I be surprised at anything she knows these days. I nodded.

     “I don't think that's anything serious, and anyway, I real professional doesn't let his personal feelings interfere with his job. None of this is what I really wanted to talk to you about. I wanted you to know that someone you talked to in your interviews is lying to you and it has a great impact on the case.”

     “Wait a minute, someone lied to me?
Who?”

     She shrugged. “That I don't know. I just know that someone did and that you needed to know that for your own safety.”

     “What do you mean?”

     “You have to be careful. If this person starts to realize that you may know they lied, or even suspect, you could be in danger.”

     “Is this person the killer?”

     “I don't know that either.”

     “For the love of…Could you be a little
more vague
?”

     “I'm sorry, Killian. That's really all I know.”

     “How do you know?”

     
“How?”

     “Yeah, does someone-” I paused,
then
finished, “come to you?”

     
“Someone?
Like who?”

     
“Someone who is dead?”

     “No, it's not like that at all. I just…know. Sometimes it's a dream, sometimes it's just something I have a strong urge about, sometimes it's just someone that I know beyond any doubt. It's rarely detailed or exact and it isn't anything I can control. Why did you ask if someone comes to me, does this have something to do with what you said earlier when I asked you of
Amalie
was the first ghost you've seen?”

     I opened and closed my mouth a few times, then decided that if anyone would understand then Judy would. Besides, hadn't Seth told me to talk to her? I nodded.

     Her eyes widened. “Someone comes to you?”

     I nodded again.

     
“My God!
Who?”

     “Seth.”

     
“Adam's son?”

     “Yes.”

     “He comes to you? How?
In a dream?”

     “I don't know really. At first I tried to tell myself it was just a dream, or maybe my imagination, but I don't know. I really don't think it's like that. I think he actually comes and talks to me, but only when no one else is around. He says he can't come whenever I want him to, only when I need him.”

     “This is…I don't know if I've ever known anyone this has happened to. How did it start? When did it start?”

     “He just suddenly started appearing a few weeks ago and talking to me, giving me advice on my love life mostly.”

     
“On your love life?”

     
“Yeah.
He's kind of a busybody.”

     “This keeps getting more and more bizarre. Why on earth would he do that?”

     “I asked him that too. He said because…because he loves me.”

     
“A love that reaches beyond the grave.
This is just incredible. He gives you advice on your love life, huh? Does he tell you anything else?”

     “He's about as vague as you are,” I told her. “He said to be careful of
Amalie
, but he couldn't tell me why.”

     “Is that why you panicked when we were upstairs?”

     “That and it is pretty scary you know.”

     “Are you scared when Seth comes to you?”

     
“Strangely enough, no, not at all.”

     
“Maybe not so strangely.
He's probably a different sort of entity than
Amalie
.”