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Was he trying to keep me away from his family, since the San Ramon tribe appeared to be very strict about its members getting involved with outsiders? The thought had crossed my mind more than once, but because Calvin and I hadn’t been together all that long, I didn’t want to get on his case about the situation. If things continued this way, maybe we’d have to have “the talk,” although I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
At any rate, I had always thought I’d end up meeting his family long before he met mine, just because I’d never harbored even the faintest notion that my mother and Tom might want to live in Globe, if only for a few weeks out of the year. She’d never said word one about coming to visit me, even though I’d mentioned several times that I’d love to have her come if her schedule allowed. This lack hadn’t really bothered me too much, since it had crossed my mind that even if she might have wanted to see the shop, she was waiting for a more opportune time of year. Everyone assured me that Globe was absolutely beautiful in the fall, and that seemed like a better time for a visit than late summer, even if the mythical monsoon storms had actually returned with a vengeance this year, filling up everyone’s rain gauges and pretty much abolishing the word “drought” from the locals’ vocabularies.
“Oh, I know your friend must be busy,” my mother said. “It’s so funny — I honestly never thought you were the type to get involved with someone in law enforcement.”
On the surface, I suppose Calvin’s and my relationship might have seemed a little odd, because a police chief hooking up with someone who ran a woo-woo New Age shop wasn’t the sort of thing that happened every day. But, considering I was a witch and he was a shifter, it was actually a logical match in a lot of ways.
And even if it wasn’t logical, I believed we’d be together regardless. I knew I couldn’t deny the chemistry we shared.
“Calvin’s not your typical cop,” I replied, and left it at that.
“Of course,” she said quickly. “There’s never been anything typical about you, Selena.” Before I could attempt a response to that comment, she added, “Well, I need to run. Tom and I have a lot we need to get done before we head out on Saturday. We’re driving, so we probably won’t be there until late afternoon.”
“That sounds good,” I told her. “There’s a fun little Mexican place here in town where we can all go to dinner.”
“It’s a date. See you Saturday!”
She ended the call then, and I pulled my iPhone away from my ear and set it down on the coffee table. Her call had come in while I’d run upstairs to my apartment to grab a quick lunch, and now I didn’t have much time before the one o’clock return I’d set on my little “be back at” sign in the shop window made a liar out of me.
I’d have to eat lunch, and then head down and put in my afternoon shift in the store. After that, though…after that, Josie Woodrow and I were going to have a little talk.
“Well, of course I couldn’t tell you anything,” Josie said, making one of her trademark extravagant hand gestures. She sat behind the desk in her crowded pink-walled office, which was where I’d buttonholed her after closing Once in a Blue Moon a little early so I could catch her before she left work for the day. “I promised your mother that I would keep it a secret.”
I crossed my arms. I’d taken a seat in the visitor’s chair that faced her desk, but I’d perched on the edge rather than relaxing against the seat back. “No offense, Josie, but you’re not exactly known for being able to keep secrets.”
That remark made her shoot me a wounded look. “Of course I can…if it’s important enough. Anyway, your mother was quite emphatic about wanting the house to be a surprise, so I put in an extra effort. Luckily, it was a very short escrow, since they were paying cash. I know it would’ve been difficult to keep the purchase from you if the transaction had stretched out for months.”
I didn’t know why I was surprised by that revelation. Tom McGill was a smart businessman, and I doubted he would want to go in debt over something that might turn out to be a boondoggle. If he and my mother ended up deciding that the house didn’t suit them, he might not make a profit on its resale, but I had a feeling he’d at least be able to break even.
“And you told her about the ghosts?” I pressed, even though my mother had already come to Josie’s defense on that topic.
“I certainly did,” Josie replied, sounding wounded. She must have been to the salon recently, because her fiery hair blazed even more brightly than usual, making her pale blue eyes really pop. “I would never allow anyone to walk into that sort of situation blind…so to speak. She said she didn’t believe in ghosts.” That remark was accompanied by a small lift of an eyebrow, as if she was trying to figure out how the mother of a psychic could be so down to earth.
“She doesn’t,” I said. “My mother isn’t much for the woo-woo stuff. Problem is, if the ghosts are there, they’re going to do their thing no matter what she thinks.”
“Oh, they’re there,” Josie said. Her brow creased slightly as she added, “Although, from all accounts, they’re completely harmless. The previous owners said they moved small items around from time to time, and every once in a while there might be a random knock on the wall or a cold spot that came and went, but none of it interfered with their quality of life.”
All of that did sound fairly innocuous, even if having your keys or your phone transported to another room might be annoying when you reached out for them and they weren’t there. However….
“If the ghosts are so harmless, why did the former owners put the place up for sale?”
Josie shrugged. “It’s a big place, and their children were grown and moved out. They’re downsizing to a condo in Scottsdale.”
Of course they were. Sometimes it felt as if the greater Phoenix metro area was a giant vortex, sucking everyone into it. Globe actually had slightly negative population growth, since a lot of the younger generation left to go to college and then never came back. Retirees liked to settle here because housing was inexpensive, but I supposed if you were sitting on a big, paid-for Victorian mansion, then the cost of living — even in Scottsdale — really shouldn’t be an issue.
A thought occurred to me. Maybe my mother would view it as barging in where I hadn’t been invited, but I considered it doing my due diligence. She didn’t believe in ghosts. Fine. I did, and I wanted to know what my mother and her husband were walking into.
Besides, it was barely five, and Calvin wasn’t expecting me at his place until seven, since he didn’t get off shift until six-thirty. Plenty of time to go do an inspection.
“Okay,” I told Josie. “I want to go see the house.”
“Now?” she asked, looking startled.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ve never been there. I want to get a sense of its vibes. You still have a key, don’t you?”
“Of course,” she replied. “I’m going to meet your mother and her husband there on Saturday to give them the keys and the remotes for the garage.”
For some reason, I hadn’t even thought about the place having a garage. It sounded like an utterly prosaic feature for a haunted Victorian mansion, and yet I knew that Tom would never have bought the house if it didn’t have a space for his vehicles. He collected vintage sports cars, and he’d never leave one of his babies out in the sun and the weather.
