AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t need that kind of publicity, either,” Theta said. She smiled at Memphis, but he looked away, as if he hadn’t seen her at all, and Theta called on her acting skills to make it seem as if she weren’t broken inside.
The phone rang and Mabel pressed the receiver to her ear with one hand as she scribbled notes with the other. “And where did you say you saw these ghosts? At your mother-in-law’s house? You think she’s possessed by an evil spirit? Uh-huh.”
Mabel looked to Evie with a help expression. Evie grabbed the phone and put on her brightest radio voice, all elocution-shaped vowels. “An evil spirit in your mother-in-law, you say? Well, I’m afraid there’s only one cure for it, sir. Yes, you’ll need to spend all of your time with her. Yes, every blessed minute. Constant watching. Ask her to dinner and to be a fourth for your bridge party. That’s what these ‘evil spirits’ demand. Do whatever she asks of you. You don’t want to be cursed for life, do you?” Evie held the receiver out. “Huh. He hung up, the chump.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Alma said from the piano where she had been sitting with David, singing along softly to a new tune he was working on. “How many real calls have you gotten today?”
“Five,” Evie said.
“Mm-mm-mm. And were any of ’em on the level?” Alma asked.
“Not yet. But we will get them!”
“You know, not all the newspapers are so enthusiastic about your ghost-hunting activities,” David said, scribbling lyrics on staff paper. “They want to know why Luther Clayton died—and why he was last seen with you when it happened.”
Evie sobered. “All the more reason to hunt down ghosts and get the answers we need.”
“Any clues from last night’s dream walk?” Sam asked.
Henry shook his head. “We couldn’t find Conor anywhere.”
“Isaiah? Any visions?”
“Sorry,” Isaiah said glumly.
“Memphis, Ling, have you found anything at the libraries?” Evie asked.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to go,” Ling admitted. “My parents need me in the restaurant.”
“I managed an hour yesterday.” From his knapsack, Memphis pulled out
three library books and opened the topmost to a drawing. “There are some slave and native accounts that mention the man in the hat. One from a diary at Jamestown, and another in Salem just before the witch trials. I found a few sightings dating from the American Revolution and the Civil War and Reconstruction,” Memphis said, opening the other books to the pages he’d bookmarked with slips of paper. “Seems he’s drawn to the energy of unrest, like Dr. Fitzgerald said. And he has many names: The King of Crows. The leader of the dead. The man in the stovepipe hat. The beguiler. He who returns. The bargain master.”
“Why so many names?” Theta asked, hoping Memphis would direct the answer to her. But he didn’t look at her once.
“I think it’s to confuse people. Some of those Diviners talked about him like he’s a god. Others say he likes sowing confusion and chaos, that he likes playing games.”
“Which is why we’re not gonna trust him blindly,” Sam said.
“We have to trust him a little if we’re going to find this Eye,” Ling said.
“The only other curious thing I found was a mention of the man in the hat keeping a messenger, some poor caged spirit who can go back and forth between his world and ours.”
“Like Western Union?” Alma asked.
“Telegram from the dead,” Henry mused. “Gee, I really hope it’s a singing telegram.”
“Why does he need a messenger?” Alma asked.
“Don’t have the answer to that yet,” Memphis answered.
“How come we haven’t ever heard any of this before?” Henry asked. “None of this is in our history books.”
“Maybe the historians weren’t looking in the right places,” Memphis said. At Henry’s quizzical expression, Memphis added, “I mean, who cares what a bunch of Diviners have to say?”
The phone rang again. “Good morning, Diviners Investigations,” Mabel said, her pencil ready.
“I am famished!” Alma announced. “I know a swell joint not far from here. Anybody else hungry?” She looked at Ling.
