Linda Welch - A conspiracy of Demons (7 page)

I spun and
saw the
shadowy figure of the
newspaper deliver
y
boy
as he pedaled
away from the house
, swinging his arm as he aimed another newspaper at another front door.

I swept the loose coffee off the counter and
in
the filter with my hand, then filled the carafe with tap water.

“Who’s that?” Jack asked.

“Huh?” I twisted. Jack and Mel stood at the kitchen’s big west windows.

“A woman outside,” from Mel. “She’s looking in here.”

Mel and Jack recognized my neighbors, so the woman was likely a jogger or walker from another street. I poured the water
in
the reservoir and hit the brew button.

“She’s dead!” Mel exclaimed.

I braced my hands on the counter.
No! Please, no!
Not another one. “Are you sure?” I didn’t check; I didn’t want to.

“Positive
,” from Jack.

“What
is
she wearing?” Mel added. “It looks like a negligee three sizes too small. And the color! Yuck.”

Absorbing this information took me a couple of seconds, then my lower jaw dropped too far to enable speech.

No, it couldn’t be.

“Now she’s waving at us,” Jack said.

Every foul word I knew and a few I invented on the spot climbed up my throat.
Realizing
who stood outside
, I joined Jack and Mel at the window
.

She peered at the house
from beneath the street lamp
, a short woman in her late forties with frizzy auburn hair, square jaw and plump pink lips.
I couldn’t see her eyes but knew they were gray-green.
She was what I ca
ll overly endowed, and the skin
tight, silky burgundy negligee several sizes too small left
absolutely
nothing to the imagination.

She saw
me. Carrie’s arms went skyward and
her hands flapped spastically. Her mouth opened and closed.

“She’s excited
. I wonder why?” Jack
looked my way
and saw my expression. “Tiff, you look peculiar.”

“Agh!”

My yell made him cringe away.

“What
is
going on?” from Mel.

Instead of replying, I went through the kitchen to the hall and stood at the front door,
and hesitated
. What in hell’s name should I do?

Carrie, the shade I met in England, could move by attaching herself to a living person’s aura. She tagged along with me and Royal, but I had
no
t believed her
claim
to have t
ravel
ed all over the world.

I believed her now.

I fumbled at the doorknob and managed to open the door a crack.
Cool early—
morning air seeped inside; the thermostat kicked in and the heater
fired up
.

“Oi! You in there! Where did she go? Tiff! I know you’re there, madam. I saw you.”

I had
to talk to her. I pushed the door open wider and went out on the porch.

“Hellooo!” Carrie yodeled.

“What are you doing here?”

She dipped her chin and regarded me from beneath her brows. “That’s a nice welcome I must say. I came for a holiday, of course. You remember when you left the Hart and Garter and I said I wished I could go with you? Silly me. The minute you drove aw
ay, I thought, I can go with her.
But
too late!
Anyway, I
started thinking about
America and what fun a holiday
here would be.
I couldn’t come and not pop in to say hello, could I.”

Great.
“How in the world did you find me?”

She flapped one hand. “Easy. I lingered in the office. I had to wait until
Greg
look
ed
at the res
ervation list on his computer a
nd
since you reserved the room, there you were. Name, address and telephone number
“
I tagged along with
a businessman who
went
to Salt Lake City by way of Heathrow. I
meant to find someone coming in this direction
, but some Mormon missionaries
at the airport
were going
to
town
and
t
hey were
such
lovely
lads
, so happy to be home
, I decided to go along with them.
There are
lot
s
of them, aren’t there. And their families and friends see them off and welcome them back, it’s so sweet. Banners and flowers, and everyone has camcorders and cameras and
mobile
phone
s taking pictures. Anyway, I saw
so much
in Salt Lake
City
, I had to drag myself away. I
went back to the airport
and found some more missionaries going to Ogden.
We rode the train to the station in Ogden and then I took
another
to Clarion.”

She paused as if to take breath, then continued. “Getting up here took days. You are a bit out of the way, aren’t you, but I did enjoy riding a bicycle again.”

“You
know
her,
” Mel accused from behind me.

Yes, unfortunately.
“We met in England.”

“Of course I didn’t do any pedaling,” Carrie continued obliviously. “But I had a grandstand seat behind the little lad.”

Jack said, “She’s like Lindy Marchant, she can move.”

Mel’s whispering voice sounded strained. “But she’s talking about Heathrow airport, and Salt Lake City
, not a few blocks
.”

“Are you going to leave me out here all day then?”

I should. But I coul
dn’t see her out there
, and worse, hear her, and remain sane.

“How long will you be here? It’s not that I’m unhappy to see you
,
but I’m pretty busy with work and what I do can’t be put off till another day.”

“Don’t worry, it’s a flying visit, in and out in a flash. As I said, to say hello and I wanted to see where you lived.” She gestured expansively. “America is so big, so much to see, I have to get as much as I can in before Old Blighty calls me home.”

I stomped down the step
and along the path until
four feet separated us
.

She immediately stepped
in
my space. “It’s
so
nice to see you, dear. The place wasn’t the same after you left.”

I whipped around. “Come on, then.” Nothing I said could prepar
e her for Jack and Mel, and vice
versa, so I may as well get it over with.

I went back in the house with Carrie on my heels and waited for all hell to break loose.

Mel and Jack were back at the window, but facing the kitchen and our unexpected, uninvited guest.

Carrie stopped dead and looked my roommates up and down. “
Oh, I saw you in here but I thought you were alive.” She tur
ned on me.
“
You didn’t tell me you have insubstan
tial friends here.”

“What’s she doing here?
You met her in England?
” Mel jabbered. “You didn’t mention her. Everything you said about England, and
nothing
about another shade who can
travel
.”

Guilty as charged, and I woul
d pay the price.

“Insubstantial? What do you mean, insubstantial?” Jack grated out.

“How dare you bring her in here!” from Mel.

“Get rid of her.” Jack took a menacing step
, his hands slashed the air
. “Get her
out
of here.”

I couldn’t think of anything which would
defuse
the situation, so I headed for the coffeemaker
and tantalizing aroma of fresh—
brewed nectar.

Arms flailing all over the place, Jack zipped in front of me. “Are you listening? I said get rid of her!”

“I’m terribly sorry, Tiff,” Carrie said. “I didn’t mean to cause an uproar.”

I got a mug from the top cabinet and filled it. “Don’t apologize, Carrie. You’re not the one who’s forgotten their manners.”

I added a dollop of vanilla-flavored creamer, put my spine to the counter and frowned at Jack and Mel. “Carrie is our guest. Behave yourselves.”

Mel put
fists
to hips and spat, “She’s not a guest, she’s an intruder.”

“And you have a
nerve
bringing her in here,” Jack said.

“Excuse me!” Carrie whispered loudly.

“Keep out of it,” Jack snapped.

Carrie stood nose to nose with Jack and I had
no
t seen her move. Her little shoulders came forward, her chin jutted, her hands balled at her sides.

Uh oh.

Her finger came up to Jack’s face. “That is
enough!
By golly, you’re lucky we aren’t alive because you’d be bent over the table while I applied a belt to your bottom. That’s what happened to rude, nasty little boys
in my younger days
.”

Jack squared his shoulders. “Who do you think you - ”

“How da
re you talk to Tiff like that! How does she put
up with you if you’re always this obnoxious
?
”

“She can’t - ”

“Can’t do anything? What has that to do with it? Death doesn’t give you permission to be a brat. Or were you like this when you were alive?”

Jack backed up a step.

“Grow up.
You’ll behave like a gentleman
or I’ll want to know the reason why!”

Jack wound his fingers together.

“Now apologize,” Carrie demanded.

Jack opened his mouth, closed it, looked at Mel, then capitulated. “I’m sorry.”

“Not to me, to Tiff!” Carrie poked a finger in my direction.

Jack’s voice
emerged as
a
very
low whisper. “I’m sorry, Tiff.”

Carrie’s chin jerked at
Mel. “And you, madam. You’re as bad. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Sorry,” Mel said
, although she didn’t sound so. Apparently
Carrie didn’t cow her
as easily as Jack
.

I
couldn’t find my voice. T
hey backed down and apologized
.
They ha
d never apologized to me before.

Carrie parodied taking in a deep breath. “All right, we’ll start again, shall we? I’m Carrie Wood. I’m pleased to meet you.”

“Jack Trewellyn, likewise,” Jack mumbled.

“Melissa Trent, yeah,” from Mel.

Mac chose
now
to push through the pet door. He stopped inside the kitchen and the hair along his back bristled as his ears went back.

“And who’s this?” Carrie said. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

“
He’s
MacKlutzy, but I call him Mac.”

“Ooh, I love dogs!” she
gushed
. “And of course he’s a boy, I can see that, so muscular.”

She headed for Mac.

“This should be interesting,” Jack said with a smirk in his voice.

Carrie went down on her knees and patted them with the flats of her hands. “Aren’t you a handsome little chap. What a sweetheart! What a beautiful boy.”

Mel snorted.

Mac sat on his rump. His ears perked as he looked at Carrie, or perhaps in her direction. I’m not
sure whether
he sees shades or hears them, or
only
senses something.

“If I could, I’d pick you up for a cuddle,” Carrie continued. “I’d give you a lovely scratch behind the ears, and all along your back. And then a tummy-rub. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Macky-Poos.”

Jack mouthed,
Macky-P
oos?

Mac came back up on his stubby legs and wagged his tail. His tongue lolled.

“I don’t believe it,” Jack said.

“Neither do I,” I murmured.

“Believe what?” Carrie asked over her shoulder.

“He’s the nastiest, mos
t disagreeable animal ever born,
” Mel ex
plained
.

“Perhaps to you, but I love dogs and they
sense
it. I expect you don’t like him and he
senses
that too.”

Mel folded her arms.
“I like dogs, just not him.”

Carrie rose up and came ba
ck to us with
Mac chugging along at her heels.

“They’re like an open book to me,” she said to me as she nodded in my roommates’ direction. “They’re so possessive of you, they
even
begrudge any attention you pay to your dog. Animals are sensitive to emotions, you know.”

F
labbergasted
, I gaped with my mouth open
. Carrie had my roommates pegged in less than ten minutes, and she certainly took them down a notch or two.

The sun peaked over the mountaintops, sending beams through the glass in the kitchen door. I could stand here all day and try to mediate, or carry on with my routine and let them sort themselves out.

I headed for the hall. “I’m for the shower.”

“Aren’t you going to show me
your home
first?” Carrie asked.

“There isn’t much to see,” Mel offered.

“She’s right.” I reached the staircase and paused with a foot on the bottom step. “Go where you want, Carrie, except my bedroom and the bathroom when I’m in there.”

She stood at my heels. “Which is your bedroom?”

“Facing the top of the stairs.”

“And mine is next to it,” Jack announced. “Stay out.”

“And mine,” from Mel.

Carrie faced them. “You have your own bedrooms? I thought I’d stay until tomorrow - where am I supposed to sleep?”

“Sleep?” I rolled my eyes. “You don’t sleep, neither do they.”

“Then why do they have bedrooms?” she persisted.

Why did
they have bedrooms? They didn’t, not as in rooms where they slept
. They laid claim to the two spares, and I let them because the rooms were not used. I
refused
to get
in
a fight with them or Carrie over it. I went on up the stairs.

“What a fine way to treat a guest,” Carrie said
, obviously addressing Jack and Mel
. “It seems you’re not the only one in nee
d of a lesson in good manners.”

Jack mumbled something I couldn’t hear.

“Go on, say it,” Carrie
said.

“Say what?” Jack asked.

“You love my accent.”

I backed down three steps and looked through the doorway into the kitchen. Carrie stood over Jack and Mel as they sat side by side at the kitchen table.

“I don’t,” Mel said.

“Neither do I,” from Jack.

“You’d say it if we were alive,” Carrie went on. “Maureen from the corner shop, she went to America, and she couldn’t open her mouth without someone saying they loved her accent.
Funny thing about accents, I’ve
heard them from all over and. . . .
”

I went up, in the bathroom and firmly shut the door.

Still in my robe, I came downstairs an hour later to grab another cup of coffee before it got too old. Carrie, Jack and Mel were at the kitchen table, Carrie chatting up a storm.

“Can you move everywhere
you want
?” Jack asked.

“Apparently,” Car
rie replied brightly. “Though if
you mean inside buildings, some I can, other places I have to hitch a ride from room to room.”

Tryin
g to block out Carrie’s chatter,
I tapped a fingernail on my mug. Where
should
I go from here? “Maybe down
to the PD and harass Mike?
” I wondered aloud.

“PD? What’s that?” Carrie chirped. “Who’s Mike?”

“
Clarion Police Department,” Mel
chimed in.

“Homicide Division,” I clarified.

“Mike Warren is the captain,” Mel told Carrie.

“Ooh, an American police station? This should be interesting!”

I gave her a look. “You are not coming. Stay here with Jack and Mel, get to know one another.”

Carrie chuckled. “Have you forgotten already? How are you going to stop me?”

I
couldn’t have
her tagging along as she did in England
, not to Clarion PD and waffle on while I tried to talk to Mike
. “Please stay here.”

“And miss the fun?”

“What were you saying to Jack about being a brat? How are you any different? I can’t stop you coming, Carrie, but I can stop liking you, and I will if you interfere with my job.”

I didn’t wait for a response and
went
upst
airs to dress. When I came down
wearing black
Levis
, a
green
long-sleeved T-shirt and white sneakers,
I had
changed my mind.
Storming down to the PD would only irk Mike, and while I didn’t give a shit about his feelings
at
this moment
, annoying him would not coax his cooperation.

Carrie, Jack and Mel sat on the floor in front of the television, but they
did not listen
to it.

“
And along came Her Majesty,
”
Carrie
said.
“I thought, should I latch on to her? The idea seemed sacrilegious. Then I thought, why not? She’ll not know. But by then she was
almost
past me and I got one of the corgis instead. It went wild.” She looked over at Mac where he
lay in a pool of sunshine
. “Nasty
little
beas
t
ie
, not a
gentleman like my
Macky-Poos
.”

“Good grief,” Mel said dri
ly.

“Mrs. Dunstan down the street had a corgi,” Carrie continued.
“I was a nipper at the time, and everyone knew. . . .”

I tuned her out. I knew from experience Carrie’s tales rambled all over the place. Apparently, Jack and Mel found her enthralling.
Personally, I thought many of her
stories
should be taken with a grain of salt.

I
thought
Carrie’s arrival would bring o
n tantrums. She could do what my roommates could not, move wherever she wished. And Carrie had told me of the way in which other shades shunned her when they discovered their limitations
did not bind her
. But Jack and Mel
appeared to be thrilled. Maybe this would work out after all.

A
s I walked to the refrigerator for a diet cola
, a voice emitting from the television grabbed my attention.

I spun and marched over there, yelling, “Hush!”

The three comrades fell silent.

“. . .
whose body
was found on the site for the new HaliMart in Provo.
Our source inside
Motel 6
confirms that
Miss Summers
paid for a room
on the evening of October 11
th but checked out four hours later.
Officers from
West Wendover
Police Department
found her car
in the
m
otel
parking lot
. Further investigation discovered Miss Summers
leased a green, 2010 Nissan Altima from a local dealership to continue he
r journey
.”