I scanned the map. "Aha. Here's our problem. King gets his own shelf in the Popular Authors section."
As we walked to the section, Jamie continued her story. "So this kid—he's maybe your age—has this gorgeous 1967 Mustang convertible. First thought: 'Uh-oh, call DEA.' The kid didn't look like any trust-fund brat, so where'd he get a car like that? When I ask him, he gets all nervous. Says his grandpa left it to him. And sure enough, it really is haunted. Guess who by?"
"The grandfather," I said.
"Bingo. The old guy jumped me the second I got within sensing distance, so spitting mad he could barely communicate. Seems he
did
leave the car to the kid. But on one condition. He wanted to be buried in it. No one else in the family would listen, but the kid promised to do it."
"And then he stiffed him."
Jaime laughed. "Yeah, the kid staffed the stiff. Took the car, took the money, and plopped Gramps into the cheapest casket he could buy."
"So what'd you do?"
"Told the kid the truth. Either he buried Gramps in the car or he had to live with a permanent pissed-off hitchhiker. Oh, here it is."
The King section took up two eight-foot-long shelves, and the books weren't alphabetized. As I skimmed the titles, I glanced at my watch.
"We can skip this," Jaime said. "No biggie."
"Another minute or two won't matter. Oh, I forgot to call Lucas. He can help."
"Why don't I just grab something else."
As if one cue, a book tumbled from the top shelf and landed between us. Jaime picked it up.
"
Salem's Lot.
" She shook her head. "Not one of my faves. You ever read it?"
"I started to, because I thought it was about witches. When I found out it was vampires, I stopped. Not keen on the vamps myself."
"Who is? Damned parasites." Jaime stood on tiptoes to put the book back. The moment she released it, it jolted out and fell to the floor.
"I think it's lonely," I said with a laugh. "Looks like it's gathering some dust up there."
Again, Jaime put the book back. This time, before she could let go, the book slammed into her palm hard enough to make her yelp. Then it tumbled to the floor.
"Maybe there's some kind of catch up there," I said. "Here, I'll find a new place for it."
As I bent for the book, it spun out of my reach. Jaime grabbed my arm.
"Let's go," she said.
A book flew from the shelf, hitting her side. Another book sailed from a lower shelf, then another and another, pelting Jaime. She doubled over, arms wrapped over her head.
"Leave me alone!" she said. "Damn you—"
I grabbed her arm and propelled her out from the hailstorm of books. As we moved, I looked down at the novels strewn across the aisle. They were all copies of
Salem's Lot.
The moment we were out of the Stephen King section, the books stopped flying. I speed-dialed Lucas and told him to meet us at the door.
"Ghost?" I whispered to Jaime as I hung up.
She nodded, gaze tripping from side to side, as if ready to duck.
"I think it's over," I murmured. "But we'd better scram, before someone notices the mess."
Again, Jaime only nodded. I rounded a corner, and looked down the unfamiliar aisle.
"Classics," I said. "Wrong turn. Let's back up—"
A book shot straight out from the shelf and clipped Jaime in the ear. More flew out, pummelling her from all sides. I shoved her out of the way, catching a few books myself, each striking harder than one would think possible for a slender paperback. One hit me in the knee. As I pitched forward, the book flopped to the floor.
The Iliad . . .
the same as every other book flying from the shelves.
I righted myself and kept propelling Jaime forward until we reached the front door. Lucas took one look at my expression and hurried over.
"What happened?" he whispered.
I motioned that we'd tell him outside.
***
On the way to the car, I told Lucas what had happened. Jaime stayed silent. Strangely silent, not chiming in with so much as an "uh-huh."
"Seems the bookstore had a resident ghost," I said. "I've heard of things like that happening. A necromancer is sitting in a bar, having a drink, minding his own business, and all of a sudden a spirit realizes there's a necro in the house and goes wild, trying to make contact. Like a shipwreck survivor spotting a rescue boat."
Jaime nodded, but kept her gaze straight forward, walking so fast I could barely keep up.
"It certainly does happen," Lucas said. "But I suspect that's not what we had here"—he shot a pointed look at Jaime—"is it?"
She nibbled her lower lip and kept walking. Lucas tugged my arm, indicating for me to slow down. When Jaime got about twenty feet ahead of us, she glanced over each shoulder, realized we weren't with her, then turned to wait.
For a minute we just stood there, looking at each other. Then Lucas cleared his throat.
"You have a problem," he said to Jaime. "I presume you came to us for help with that problem. But we aren't going to drag it out of you."
"You have more important things to do. I know that. But I think it . . . it might be related."
"And I assume you are going to explain what 'it' is as soon as we get back to the hotel?"
She nodded.
Undelivered Message
The hotel room door was still shutting behind us when Jaime started talking.
"I've got a haunter," she said. "And it's a strange one. I was going to tell you guys, but I know you're busy and I wasn't sure what was going on—I'm still not." She perched on the arm of the armchair, still talking. "It started Wednesday afternoon, before my Orlando show. At first I figured it was Dana, that she knew she was dead and wanted to pay me back for lying to her." Jaime twisted her rings. "I shouldn't have done that . . . not that I could have told her she was dead—it's not my place, right? But I went overboard with the reassurances. They just came out automatically, like I was doing a show."
She glanced from Lucas to me. When neither of us spoke, she continued.
"That's what I do with my shows, in case you haven't guessed. I make it up. No one wants to hear the truth. Fanny Mae wants to make contact with her dead hubby, and the guy's standing beside me screaming, 'Worried about
me
? You fucking whore, you weren't worried about me when you hopped into bed with my brother an hour after my funeral!' You think I'm going to tell her that? I tell her the same thing I tell everyone else. He misses you, but he's happy and he's in a good place. And you'd think, you'd really think, that after I've given the same damned message for the thousandth time, that people would wise up, but they don't. Tell them what they want to hear and they never complain."
She inhaled and shifted down onto the seat. "When this spook came knocking, I figured it was Dana, so I came back here to talk to her. But she was gone, and my haunter wasn't, so obviously it isn't her."
"Can't you contact it?" I said.
Jaime shook her head. "That's what's so weird. I can't make contact. Not only that, but it's behaving . . . well, it's just not following ghost-necro protocol." She looked at me. "Do you know how this works? How a spirit contacts a necro?"
"Vaguely," I said. "Most necromancers I know don't really talk about it."
"Typical. They act like it's some big trade secret. Way I figure it, my friends—the supernaturals, at least—
should
know how it works. Otherwise, they see me mumbling to myself and staring at blank walls, they're going to figure I've lost it. There are two main ways a spook says hi. If he knows the proper procedures, he can manifest, and I get sight and sound. If he doesn't know the tricks, then all I get is audio—the old voices-in-my-head. Any ghost should be able to do the latter. But this one can't."
"So it's throwing things instead?"
"It is now. Up until today, it's just been hanging around, like a mental stalker. I know it's there. I sense it all the time, as if someone is looking over my shoulder, and it's"—she lifted a hand to show her trembling fingers—"making me nervous. Then to start poltergeisting? That's just—well, I'm spooked, and I'll admit it."
"True poltergeist activity is rare, isn't it?" I said.
"Extremely rare. When I was younger, I did some ghost-buster work to pay the bills. Number one haunted-homeowner complaint? Poltergeists. I went out on dozens, if not hundreds of calls. I found exactly three real poltergeists. The rest of the time, it was clever kiddies looking for attention. I'd tell the people some cock-and-bull about the ghosts wanting to see the family spend more time together, and that usually fixed the problem. Real poltergeist activity, though, means a ghost has found a way to move things in our dimension, and that's a very special talent."
Lucas frowned. "So how does a ghost who can't even contact a necromancer manage to manipulate objects cross-dimensionally? I see the problem. Have you considered the possibility that this isn't a human-based entity at all?"
"Maybe a minor demon," I said. "Or a nature spirit."
"Could be, I guess," Jaime said. "But I'm a necro. I talk to the dead, like my title says. If it ain't dead, why's it bugging me? You guys are the spell-casters—the conjurers—so it should be trying to talk to
you.
And I'm pretty sure the message is for you, anyway. Until the bookstore, it backed off whenever you two were around."
"Because it thought you were going to convey the message," I said. "But maybe the message is to tell us to start conjuring, so it can communicate. When it realized you didn't understand, it bumped it up a level in the bookstore. So let's try some group conjuring. Among the three of us, it has to find someone it can talk to."
Jaime looked up at the ceiling. "You hear that, Casper? We're going to try making contact, so you can back off now."
After a moment of silence, I asked. "Did it stop?"
Jaime shook her head. "I think the contact problem goes both ways. I can't hear it and it can't hear me. Let me grab my kit and see if we can fix that."
As Jaime opened her suitcase, Lucas's cell phone rang.
"Yes, I'm certainly interested," he said after an exchange of greetings. "However, it may be another week or so before we can see it. Will that be a problem?" He paused. "Good. Thank you." Another pause. "No, I haven't had a chance yet and, ultimately, it is her decision, but I would very much like to see it." Pause. "Yes, I'll let you know as soon as we return to Portland."
He signed off, then pulled out his Day-Timer from his satchel and made a note as Jaime set up her implements on the floor. This time, she didn't bother asking us to leave.
"A real séance," she said as she finished. "Now all we need is sleeping bags and a pillow fight. When I was young, I was never allowed to go to sleepovers, in case the kids tried a séance. Might have given them more than they expected."
We settled onto the floor.
"I'll be casting a general summoning spell," Lucas said. "A mild one, I should say, nothing likely to conjure up anything dangerous."
"I'll do my communication spell," I said. "It's for mental communication with the living, but it might help."
"Mental communication?" Jaime said. "Witches can do that? Cool."
"Not really. It only works if the other party is expecting it and only if they're some distance away, so really, what's the point? Save a few bucks on cell phone charges? The reception is crappier than the cheapest cell provider."
We all settled in, did our thing . . . and nothing happened.
"Hey!" Jaime yelled at the ceiling. "An hour ago you were tearing apart a bookstore trying to get my attention, and now you can't be bothered to say hello? Do you know who you're talking to? The most famous necro in the U.S. of A. Not only that, but a former Coven Leader and the son of a Cabal CEO. Three powerful supernaturals, waiting with bated breath to talk to you."
Across the room, Lucas's Day-Timer fell from the table.
"I think that means it isn't impressed," I said.
The Day-Timer cover flipped open.
"I believe that's a sign," Lucas said. "Shall I . . . ?"
"Go stand by it and watch," I said. "We'll keep working."
Jaime did her invocation while I cast.
"Nothing," Lucas said before I could ask. "Perhaps—"
The pages started to flip.
"Seems we have a time delay from the ghost world," I said.
"It's turned to the first
D
page in my address book," Lucas said. "If the spirit is referring to a specific person on this page, I'm not making the connection. My supernatural contacts are coded in another section. These are all humans."