"Tragic," Rosemary said.
"Yes. Horrible." Gayla sounded bored and not exactly horrified. "Can you fix it or not?"
"The house has issues," Rosemary said.
"Understatement of the year," Sadie murmured, but something Gayla said was niggling at her subconscious.
"We"ll do what we can." Maeva looked at her watch. "I need to get back to my baby." She got up and shook Gayla"s hand. "Thanks for seeing us. We"ll try and fix things."
"I hope so." Gayla walked them to the door, saying, "I hired your company because the workers at the house said they heard strange sounds and things were being moved around the house. I thought, what"s the harm? We"ll get some psychics in here, get rid of the ghost or whatever it is, and the superst.i.tious handymen will go back to work and all would be right with that house and my world. I remembered the talk you gave about helping spirits move on." She turned from Maeva and pinned Rosemary with a hard stare. "Unfortunately, you haven"t exactly lived up to your end of the bargain, have you? As a matter of fact, you"ve made things a hundred times worse."
Sadie straightened and regarded Gayla coolly.
"Rosemary has already admitted that she shouldn"t have posted the video, but the video doesn"t change what happened. If anything, it should reinforce to you the difficulty Rosemary and Maeva have had with your house. It"s obvious they"ve tried to-"
"It"s obvious to you," Gayla replied icily. "To anyone else it might just appear that the house I planned to renovate and sell for quick profit was turned into a sideshow circus to benefit Madam Maeva"s."
Maeva looked like she wanted to slap Gayla into next week but she merely stated in a calm voice, "We"ll be going. Thanks for the tea."
Then Maeva and Rosemary headed into the hall walking in the direction of the elevators. Sadie took longer to tie her shoes.
"You mentioned you might"ve heard about Iris working as a hooker from a neighbor, is that correct?"
Gayla rolled her eyes. "What possible difference could that make?"
"I was wondering if any of the neighbors ever heard of anything happening in the house? Did they hear banging around or strange sounds?"
"I don"t see how that would matter." Gayla made a shooing motion with her hands. "Your friends are holding the elevator for you."
Once in the elevator Sadie turned to her Maeva. "Thanks for the tea?" she repeated in disbelief. "I thought you were going to give her a beating and, instead, you thanked her?"
"I"ve dealt with skeptics and cruelty my entire life and I gave up having fistfights about it when I was a child. If I beat the c.r.a.p out of everyone that dissed me or my business, I"d be in jail by now," Maeva explained.
"And she"s right to be angry," Rosemary added. "She hired us to do a job and we haven"t done it."
"Has she paid you?" Sadie asked. "She had a stack of unpaid bills in her purse."
"We never collect on a job until it"s completed," Maeva said. "And you shouldn"t go through another woman"s purse." She shifted her weight uncomfortably. "Besides, my b.o.o.bs are leaking. If I don"t get home to feed Osbert I"m liable to explode."
The elevator door opened and they stepped off.
"Do you think I should pull the video?" Rosemary sounded concerned and she rubbed her shiny scalp distractedly.
They walked through the lobby to the street as they talked.
"What"s done is done," Maeva said. "I don"t see how you can change it."
"How about you just put up some kind of disclaimer at the beginning of the video?" Sadie suggested.
"And say what? Lie? Tell viewers that what they"re about to see isn"t real?" Maeva shook her head. "We were all there. We saw what happened. I"m not about to start denying it and look like a fraud. I"m not throwing Madam Maeva"s under the bus because of this. If we don"t get paid by her highness"-Maeva pointed up, indicating Gayla"s floor-"then we"ll just have to take the loss."
Although Sadie understood her friend"s point, from her perspective the video sucked donkey a.s.s in a big way.
They walked up the street together until they reached Sadie"s car.
"This Marlene ghost showed up in the closet to keep me from the demon and also at the Pacifica to warn me about this killer," Sadie began. "Does that mean that whatever is in that house is connected to the guy murdering prost.i.tutes? If Iris Prior was having s.e.x for money, she could be connected to this guy killing hookers in the hotel too."
Rosemary frowned and shook her head.
"Sadie, for all I know the demon is the serial killer."
"Is that possible?" Sadie"s eyes were huge. "I mean, I"ve dealt with some evil spirits before . . . you know that . . . but nothing that wasn"t contained. If this thing is out there, luring young women to hotels, and then stabbing them to death . . ." Sadie threw up her hands.
"You"re scaring her for nothing," Maeva told Rosemary. "It"s highly doubtful some demon is rampant out there stabbing prost.i.tutes at hotels. But there is obviously a connection between Halladay Street and this Marlene ghost. Since Marlene is warning you about the guy murdering working girls and she"s appeared at Halladay Street and also at the Pacifica, then somehow all of it is related." She looked determined. "We"ve gotta stop that demon first."
Maeva walked toward her car, leaving Sadie and Rosemary at Sadie"s car.
"Gayla didn"t exactly roll out the welcome mat to bring us back to Halladay Street," Sadie said. "We can"t waltz in there and perform another seance."
"We went about it all wrong. We had a seance to make connection to spirits needing our help. We thought it was going to be a typical dealing with the dearly-departed-haunted-house kind of thing," Rosemary said.
"Right," Sadie agreed. "But it wasn"t."
Not that there was anything typical about helping spirits move on and contacting the great beyond.
"The more I think about Della Prior opening a portal in that house because she didn"t know what the h.e.l.l she was doing, the more I think that closet is definitely the focal point," Rosemary said. "It was opened to the other side. It needs to be sealed again. I don"t want Maeva to come. Her powers are weak and her mind is in mommy mode. You and I should go with Rick and Louise and maybe we can ask a priest or something."
"Whoa, don"t go crazy about this," Sadie said. "I have no desire to go back in that house."
Rosemary looked Sadie in the eye with an angry stare. "We have no choice. Don"t you get it? That thing isn"t going anywhere and it"s only going to get stronger if left alone. It"s our job. It"s your duty."
"Really?" Sadie couldn"t keep the whine out of her voice. "I do trauma clean. I just fell into the whole idea of sending spirits over to the next dimension. I sure as h.e.l.l never signed on to deal with satanic demons."
"It chose you."
"You mean this calling of helping ghosts? I was chosen to do that?"
"Well, sure, but I"m talking specifically about the dark presence at Halladay Street. It called you. By name. This is your war."
Chapter 13.
Rosemary told Sadie, "It"s your battle but the rest of us are here to support you in whatever you need."
"Um, thanks." The entire topic made her sick. "Do you think if we seal that portal thingamajig this will all be over?"
"Probably. We need to bring all forces of good together."
"If you"re in need of a priest, I know an ex-priest who I saw sprinkling holy water at the last murder scene. . . ." Sadie stopped herself. She didn"t want to be asking Herbert Sylvane.
"He doesn"t have to be a current practicing representative of the church," Rosemary said. She rubbed rain from the top of her bald head. "The fact that he believes that holy water has protective qualities means he"d be enough of a positive source to offer benefit to the situation."
Sadie felt herself giving in. She had a gnawing feeling that Rosemary was right and the haunting of Halladay Street had to be stopped and, like it or not, she was connected.
"You"re welcome to stay at my place if you don"t want to deal with the paparazzi."
Sadie almost accepted her offer but not because she was afraid of photographers. Their discussion about being in a fight with a depraved ent.i.ty made Sadie feel vulnerable and alone. But she had a sneaking feeling that Rosemary"s house would be filled with eye of newt and hair of bat so she politely declined.
Just as she was starting up her car, Sadie"s phone beeped and she checked her text messages. Zack had texted, Saw that video. You okay?
"Okay" was not exactly how she"d describe herself, but still she replied with Yes. I"m fine. How are you? Even though she felt like texting, I"m scared. I"m a mess. I need you.
It meant something that he was checking on her. Maybe it meant he still cared enough to not totally walk away from their relationship.
She waited a minute but received no further messages from Zack. She sent another: Please come home.
His reply was succinct: I can"t do that.
She pounded the dashboard of her car and screamed. Then she swallowed her anger and distracted her thoughts by calling Petrovich. She left him a voice mail saying she"d heard a rumor that Iris Prior from the house on Halladay Street had been a hooker and that maybe the prost.i.tute murders were somehow connected to that house.
She knew he"d hate her if this was just one more lead heading into an abyss, but she didn"t feel right keeping that information to herself.
She started up her car and pointed it in the direction of home, and it wasn"t long before she was driving slowly down her street. She hoped any photographers would be expecting a company van and wouldn"t recognize her Corolla, but she sunk down low in her seat and pulled her Mariners cap over her eyes as she drove past. There was no longer a big news van on the street, but there was a car she didn"t recognize parked in the driveway with a guy watching the house expectantly.
Sadie opted for the indirect route. First she drove to McDonald"s and grabbed a couple cheeseburgers. She ate one as she drove back to her neighborhood and found a place to park on the next street. She slid the second burger in her pocket, hiked her purse onto her shoulder, and locked up her car. Sadie shared a back fence with an elderly woman who was hard of hearing and most likely fast asleep. Unfortunately her pit bull, Rosie, was always on guard in the backyard.
Rosie wasn"t vicious, but she could sound an alarm of barks that could alert everyone for five miles. Luckily she could be bribed. Sadie opened her neighbor"s gate and Rosie galloped over, making one loud woof before Sadie whipped the burger out of her pocket and held it up as an offering.
Rosie sat and her tail beat the ground mercilessly.
"Good girl," Sadie whispered as she tore off a small chunk of the burger and offered it to the dog.
With a big, s...o...b..ry slurp Rosie inhaled the chunk of burger. As she crossed the small yard, Sadie continuously offered the happy pup inch-sized pieces of the delicious prize. By the time she reached the back fence, there was only a little bite left. With a grunt of effort, Sadie got a foothold in the chain-link fence and hoisted herself over while simultaneously tossing the last of the cheeseburger to Rosie.
Sadie landed in her own backyard with a soft thud. Breathing a sigh of relief, she dug in her pocket for her keys as crossed her yard. She stepped over the large branch that had broken her door jamb and then walked up the deck to the back door.
"You"re like a ninja gymnast," a male voice whispered.
Sadie would"ve screamed except a hand came over her mouth from behind.
"Shh. It"s just me," Owen Sorkin whispered in her ear. "I"ve been waiting for you to come home but didn"t want to face the news any more than you do."
He uncovered her mouth and Sadie punched him hard in the shoulder.
"You scared me!" she snarled.
"Sorry." He smirked as he rubbed his shoulder.
"You don"t look sorry."
"I"m almost sorry," he admitted.
"I don"t know why you"re here but quite frankly, I"ve had my quota of property investors for the evening."
"You saw Gayla? Yeah, she can be a bit of a . . ." He trailed off while he searched for the right word.
"Snotty b.i.t.c.h," Sadie offered. "As well as a shrew."
"I was going to go with perfectionist."
Sadie raised her eyebrows. "We"ll have to agree to disagree on that one." She went to her back door and stabbed the key in the lock.
"What"s your plan now? If you go inside and turn on all the lights, they"ll know somebody"s home."
"True, but I don"t have to open the door to them."
Sadie swung the door open, then looked at him.
"You never said why you"re here."
"Can I come in?"
Sadie wavered only slightly. She may have been swayed by the fact that he was looking ten grades of hot in those expensive blue jeans and T-shirt. She waved him inside.
"You"ve had a break-in?" he asked, running his thumb over her repair job on the doorjamb.
"Wind storm the other night," Sadie explained.
She flicked on the kitchen light. Within seconds there was a knock at the front door. Sadie ignored it. Hairy"s toenails clickety-clacked on the tile floor as he hopped into the kitchen to greet her. Sadie scooped up her rabbit and nuzzled close for some fur-baby loving.
Grabbing a chair at the kitchen table, she waved for Owen to do the same. The doorbell rang and a more persistent knock followed.
"So you"re just going to ignore it? They could ring your bell all night," Owen said, slipping into a wooden chair across from Sadie.
"I don"t think I"m a big enough fish." Sadie stroked Hairy from between his ears and down the length of his back. "He"ll get tired and go home. If he doesn"t, I"ll-" She stopped short, about to say she"d call Zack, but she couldn"t call him for help.
"You"ll what?" Owen prompted.
"Call the cops." Sadie put Hairy back down on the floor. "Sorry, but I"ve had a hard few days and was thinking of soaking in a bubble bath with a gla.s.s of wine and then crawling into bed."
His eyes darkened. "I could totally help you with that."