McCann's Manor (53 page)

"Thank you,” she said hesitantly. “I will consider it one of my finest possessions and I'll treasure it all my days,” she said.

"Aye, I know you will, lass. I want to thank you all for helping me. I should not have believed it possible I could be restored to my old vigor in such a simple and beautiful way. Why, I had almost forgotten the power I once knew,” he said.

"Aye, and with the return of your strength, Moira will have
lost
a considerable amount of power,” Benjamin pointed out. “We should make our move before she realizes what has happened and she has a chance to recharge her own strength."

"I am ready,” Tarrh said. “She and Sean will be in her chambers, for that is where she houses all the tools of her craft. I will take charge of Moira. Benjamin, you see to Sean. Melody, you, Liz and Kim take care of rendering the beasts harmless. Here, ‘tis a simple sleeping potion that will put them out until we have the chance to get Moira and Sean where we want them to be. When the fiends start toward you, blow it into their faces and they will fall immediately into a deep sleep; do take care not to inhale any yourselves."

Melody took the vial of sleeping potion from Tarrh, showed Kim and Liz how to blow it at the dogs and then poured a bit of the powder into each of their hands. “We are ready, Tarrh,” she said.

"Very well, then. Let us be off and finish this piece of business. I will take care of getting us to the place and time when the accident occurred, but we will all be as invisible spectators to the event; that way, I can finally see what actually happened that fateful day and Moira will behold for herself what part her beloved had in the death of her father and how he deceived her all this time. ‘Tis high time the truth be known,” he said. “Let us go now."

Joel pulled his black Jeep Cherokee into the drive at McCann's Manor just as Mark was heading back to his gold Mercedes. Mark walked out and greeted Joel as he exited his vehicle. “Hello there,” Mark said. “No one seems to be at home."

"Yes, I know,” Joel answered. “They asked me to feed the animals for them if they didn't get back."

"Something wrong?” Mark asked.

"I hope not—er—I mean, no, nothing's wrong. They left rather unexpectedly and they weren't sure when they would be returning,” Joel explained, an uncomfortable chill creeping down his spine. He hadn't before this very moment considered how he would feel entering the house alone with everyone gone.

Mark cocked his head, raised his brow, waited for an explanation. When he saw none seemed to be forthcoming, he cleared his throat, shifted his weight and peered suspiciously at Joel. “All right, ‘fess up, Joel. What is it? Surely you aren't afraid to go into the house?"

Joel looked at the ground, rubbed the back of his neck, shrugged. What to say? “And why not? You don't mean to tell me
you
would relish the opportunity to be alone in that house, do you?"

"Me? Certainly not!” Mark said flatly. “But you—I would expect
you
to be past that kind of fear and superstition, that's all."

"Why is that? Because I'm a priest?” Joel asked.

"Well, yeah. You aren't supposed to believe in ghosts,” Mark said.

"What makes you say that? I have
seen
ghosts, Mark Adams,” Joel said abruptly. “And if you think ghosts are only
fear and superstition
, why would
you
think twice about venturing into the house?"

"I—well, no need to get testy, Joel,” Mark said. “I just didn't think—never mind what I thought or didn't think. It was a poor choice of words. Sorry."

Joel took a deep breath, shook his head. “No, I apologize, Mark,” he said. “It didn't hit me until I got here that I was, shall we say,
loath
to go into the house alone."

"I can't blame you for being reluctant, that's for sure. I certainly wouldn't want to do it and I
haven't
ever seen a ghost,” Mark said.

"Well,” Joel said slowly, “I'm willing to forgive you,
if
you will accompany me in to tend to the animals."

Mark eyed Joel for a moment. “You're serious, aren't you?"

"I'm quite serious, I assure you. What do you say?"

Mark frowned, thought over the proposition. “You won't forgive me unless I go with you? But you're a
priest
!” he protested.

Joel laughed lightly. “Jesus will forgive you either way,
Dr. Adams
, but just because I'm a priest doesn't mean
I
have to,” he said pointedly.

"Surely you're jesting,” Mark said.

"Only a very little, I assure you. This will be the last time I agree to take care of someone's animals unless they want to leave them at my house. Come on, you'll feel better about yourself for having saved me from my
fear and superstition
,” he teased.

Mark shook his head. “I don't know—” he said.

"You know you'd never forgive yourself if anything happened to me in there and you had just left me here—all alone—to face the spirits in that house ...
alone
,” Joel said, “What would the community think of such a man?"

"What? For being sensible? They would probably think
you
had taken leave of your senses and that I was the only sane one on the property for
not
going in!” he teased.

Joel watched the sun getting ready to set, sighed heavily. “It will be dark soon. I can't stand here arguing over the virtues of your not letting me go in there, all
alone
,” Joel said. “If you won't go, I had better get on in there.” He slammed the door of the Jeep and headed up the walk.

"Hey, wait up. I didn't say no. I only said I wasn't threatened by what the community would think of me if I let you go
alone
. I have a lot of friends here, you know,” Mark baited.

Joel stopped, looked at Mark darkly a moment, continued his trek toward the house with Mark close behind him. “You didn't say what
you
were doing here,” he prodded.

"That's true, I didn't,” Mark countered.

Joel continued around the house to the back door, found the key under the stone to the right of the door, unlocked the door and peered cautiously inside before inching into the room. “So...” he said as he advanced farther into the house, “what
are
you doing here?"

"Well, I sort of got spooked at the Halloween party and left rather abruptly; I stopped by to apologize,” Mark said.

"What spooked you?
Fear and superstition
?” Joel asked as he closed the door and headed for the kitchen.

Mark scratched his chin, shot a glance at the ceiling. “Yeah, in a manner of speaking, I guess it was exactly that,” he confessed. “Sondra asked Kim and Liz about ghosts and well, after a couple of stories, I started feeling quite uneasy. When John said he was calling Sam Reynolds to fly the caterers out, I jumped at the opportunity to desert the party as well. When he saw how uncomfortable I was, he said he and Sondra were also leaving. Then in the light of day, I started thinking that was really rotten of all of us. I tried to call, but there was no answer and John didn't answer his phone either, so I headed out this way as soon as I had some spare time and the roads had drained enough."

"Oh, John and Sondra left for Florida first thing yesterday morning,” Joel said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"What? John left town? Why?” Mark asked.

Joel shrugged. “Time to think?"

"Think about what?"

"Listen,” Joel commanded in a hushed whisper.

"Huh? Listen to what? I don't hear anything,” Mark whispered back.

"Exactly my point. Doesn't that seem odd to you? The cat and dog have been here alone for two days and they aren't here to greet us and ask for food or attention or anything?” Joel pointed out.

"Hmm—now you mention it, I suppose it is a little strange. Where are they, anyway?"

Joel hurriedly read the note Liz had left on the counter, placed food and fresh water in the bowls, per Liz's instructions. Still no animals came. He called, but Spooky and Ghost remained eerily absent. “Where, indeed?” he mused. “I suppose we had better try to find them."

"They are probably just upstairs or something, or in their runs,” Mark offered hopefully.

"Maybe, but we passed Ghost's run on our way in and he wasn't in it,” Joel said. “I would feel better if we knew their whereabouts for certain. They ate all their food since Liz and Kim left yesterday morning and they aren't here close enough to start nibbling on the new supply. That doesn't feel right to me."

"Well, we're not their mistresses, so maybe they're just waiting for us to leave before coming to chow down,” Mark suggested.

"I could believe that about Spooky maybe, but not Ghost. He is very gregarious and I
know
he would be here to greet us. Besides, he thinks too much of his stomach not to come if he hears fresh food being put into the bowl,” Joel said. “Come on, we need to find them."

Mark sighed heavily, but allowed himself to be led through the house behind Joel, who was turning on lights as he sped to the second floor where the first screened-in cat porch was. He opened the door that led onto the balcony and was met by an angry white Peke and a disgruntled black cat. Ghost growled at the two men as he ran into the house and sniffed his way out of the room. Spooky made a wide berth around the two, but followed hot on Ghost's trail.

"Well, we found them, I guess. What was
that
all about?” Mark asked.

Joel leaned down to inspect the pet door, found it latched and unhooked it before closing the door. The knot in his stomach was growing tighter as he locked the outside door and returned to examine the latch on the small pet door. “That's strange,” he said.

"Why? They accidentally got locked out on the porch. What is so strange about that?” Mark asked.

"No, Mark, this was no accident,” Joel said. “This latch is hard to move and it slides side-to-side, not up-and-down. There is
no way
it could have flipped into position by itself when they went out."

"So?"

"So someone had to deliberately lock it when the animals were outside,” he explained.

"Maybe Kim and Liz forgot to
unlock
it before they left,” Mark suggested.

"They would never have done that, Mark, because they don't
lock
the pet doors. Anyway, they dote on these animals too much to have just forgotten to let them in. Besides, all the food in the kitchen was gone, which means the animals must have been loose in the house most of the time the girls have been gone,” Joel said.

"If you're trying to unnerve me, you're doing a darn good job of it,” Mark said. “Hey, where are you going?"

"To see where
they
are going,” Joel said.

Mark scratched his head a minute before following Joel back down the stairs to see where the dog and cat were leading them. Downstairs, Ghost went from room to room, sniffing and growling, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. Spooky, hissing, followed the Peke into each room, his tail bushed out twice its normal size. At last, Ghost sprawled in the middle of the living room floor, panting from his brisk search, satisfied no one out of the ordinary was in his house. Spooky, tail still resembling a pincushion more than an appendage, wasn't thoroughly convinced, but he jumped onto the sofa and continued to keep vigil over the room, voicing a low, throaty growl.

Joel observed the two for a moment before heading out of the room. “Someone
was
here, I'm certain of that. We need to check all the doors and windows and make sure everything is undisturbed,” he told Mark.

"Won't that take a lot longer than if we split up?"

Joel stared at him, a blank expression on his face. “Mark, I don't mean to unsettle you further, but there are things you don't know about this house. I would hate for you to accidentally find anything you didn't want to find and weren't prepared for,” he said at last.

Mark eyed him suspiciously. “Joel, my friend, you had better come clean right here and now, or I'm out of here. I mean it. Where are Kim and Liz? Why are you so antsy here in this house? What's going on?"

"I promised not to tell anyone,” Joel protested.

"Fine, don't tell me anything. See you at mass,” Mark said as he headed for the front door.

"Wait—please,” Joel said.

Mark stopped, turned to face Joel and waited.

Joel looked like a child caught in a lie, his shoulders slouched, hands in his pockets, staring at the floor.

Mark waited a long moment, then headed again for the door.

"All right; here's the story, but you probably aren't going to like it any more than you like
not
hearing it,” he said. “I'll tell you about it on our way around to inspect everything. I don't truly believe anyone has broken in, though that is the alternative I would
prefer
to believe. I think it was someone—or some
thing
—who was already here,” he said.

"There's
no one
here,” Mark said.

"You are wrong; there are a lot of spirits here,” he began. “Liz, Kim, John and I have been working on translating some very old manuscripts for several weeks. Between the manuscripts and what psychic impressions the girls have received, we managed to learn a bizarre tale of magic and curses. Kim and Liz have gone into the past with Benjamin McCann himself to a house almost exactly like this one, built by McCann's ancestor in Scotland more than three hundred years ago. They're trying to undo the beginnings of the curse that still holds this house and all the people who come here in its grasp even today."

"Oh, well, why didn't you say so to begin with?” Mark asked sarcastically. “That explains
everything
."

"Look, you forced me to tell you this story. At least have the courtesy to listen to it, will you?” Joel chided.

Mark shrugged. “I'm sorry, it's just hard for me to believe these sorts of things really do exist. Please continue."

"There is a portal here—a door through time and space. Somehow it connects to other portals, one of which is in Scotland, at Peaitarrh McCann's manor there. Liz has the theory—well, more than a theory, actually, but she believes all the hauntings and mishaps that have happened here began with the Scottish antecedent of Benjamin McCann and the witch he wed,” Joel began as he led the way through all the rooms on the first floor, checking windows and doors as he went.