“But that is not every poltergeist situation, Alyssa. Have you never seenAmityville Horror? OrPoltergeistfor that matter?”
“Well…no…”
“You should, because you need to know what you’re dealing with. They’re not entities to mess with.”
“You’ve said that,” I say, and she cuts me off.
“They’re angry, and anger fuels rage, and rage is how a human ends up hurt. If not worse. You could end up dead…killed by the dead people.” Corinne’s hard eyes stare into mine as if she’s trying to burn her words into me.
My head falls back with a moan. “Okay. I got it.” I huff. “I will look into it as soon as possible, but right now, I think that something great just happened, and nobody seems to have noticed but me.”
“What good possibly came of that?”
“I’ve got to side with Cranky Corinne,” Lanie says, making a face. “Poltergeist does not equal great.”
I look to Nina. “It’s good, because Ian didn’t show up, which means he could be alive.”
She blinks several times, and then a smile extends from one side of her face to the other. Her brilliant white teeth shine against the dark backdrop of the room.
“Oh my god. You’re right, Ally.” The relief is instantly visible. The color comes back to her face, and the creases at the corner of her eyes have diminished.
“That is great news,” Lanie says, bouncing her head. “That I can agree with.”
“So if that’s the case, where do you go from here?” I ask Nina, not bothering to concern myself with whatever nonsense Corinne is going on about in the background. She’s been harping on the poltergeist, and while I get the urgency to move the spirit along, right now, I just want to celebrate this win with my best friend.
“I head to Providence,” she says. “I start my own investigation. If he’s alive, someone there should know how to locate him.”
“Why Providence?” Lanie asks. “If he’s no longer a TA there, isn’t it likely he’s gone?”
“That’s the place he was last known to be. I’ll start there because I don’t have any other leads,” Nina says.
I take a deep breath. “I’m coming with you,” I say. “Ava’s leaving to head back to school. I have plans with Nick for New Year’s, but any time after that, I’m good to go.”
Nina nods, looking to Lanie.
“Nins, you know that I would, but I can’t cancel all my classes on such short notice. If you think you’re gonna be there for a while, I can try to cancel the following week.”
Nina shakes her head. “No. Don’t do that. There’s no reasonfor all of us to drop everything to go on a wild-goose chase.” She sighs. “We have no idea where he is, or what he’s up to. I don’t want any of you to put your lives on hold to help me with this.”
“I have nothing else to do,” I say. “I’m coming, and that’s all there is to it.”
She smiles. “I’ll be happy to have you with me.”
“Good luck, you two,” Corinne says. “I’m with Lanie. I can’t ditch my clients.” She taps her chin. “But we can help from back here. If you stumble across anything, and you need me to read cards or perform another séance, all you have to do is call.”
“Thank you; I appreciate that,” Nina says.
“Now…about that poltergeist,” Corinne starts, scowling over at me. “Let’s look and see if there are any missing persons in the area that match your ghost.”
“I’ll grab us all another round,” Lanie says, popping up from the table and heading toward the kitchen.
“How old do you think she is?” Corinne asks, and I purse my lips.
“Early twenties, maybe.” I think about the woman and the details I paid attention to. “Based on the dress she was wearing, it looks like she had been at a party. I don’t know if the scene on the ID channel completely matches her situation, but the girl had been at a bar. So, let’s assume that she’s at minimum twenty-one, and at the oldest, I would say twenty-five.”
Corinne pulls out her laptop and starts it up. “What does she look like?”
I search my memory and recall as many details as possible.
