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All around me, the house was silent. The only sounds were the rustle of leaves coming in through the open windows, and the trill of a bird from time to time. Maybe my ears were deceiving me, but it sure seemed as though the demons had decided to take the morning off.
I headed toward the stairs, then set my jaw and made myself ascend the first step, and then the next. The whole time, I maintained a death grip on the banister. If something intended to come along and send me plunging down the stairs just as it had done to Brant Thoreau, it was going to have to pry my fingers loose first.
However, as I paused on the landing, I once again got the sense that there was nothing here. With the stink receding, the place felt like an ordinary house. All right, an ordinary perfectly restored four-thousand-square-foot Victorian mansion, but still.
I stood there quietly, letting myself absorb the home’s energies. Nothing sent up any alarms. Nothing gave me that odd tickly/creepy sensation I usually got when I entered a house haunted by spirits who should have moved on to the next world.
Just what the heck was going on here?
With one hand, I reached out and touched the vibrantly patterned wallpaper that lined the stairwell. It was cool and smooth under my fingertips. I almost expected one of those terrible thumps to rock the plaster I touched, but everything stayed quiet.
Maybe the demons really had moved on, now that they knew they’d succeeded in driving my mother and Tom out of the house.
Problem was, I could call the two of them right now and tell them their house was fine, and I doubted that would change anything. They’d already been lured back to this place once by a false illusion of peace and quiet, and they wouldn’t fall for that again.
Which meant…which meant I probably had to get used to the idea of them selling the place. Honestly, since they’d only owned it for a week, it wasn’t as though I could claim I was attached to the house. I suppose it was more that I’d come to like the idea of my mother and Tom sharing just a little of my life by staying here a few weeks out of the year.
Well, it wouldn’t kill me to visit them in California, even if I didn’t go back during the holidays. At least I didn’t have to worry about Lucien Dumond coming after me if I set foot in the greater Los Angeles area.
I released a breath, and descended the stairs. Maybe I should have gone up to the second floor to snoop around, but I had a feeling doing so would only have been an additional waste of time and energy.
Still, I wasn’t quite ready to let things go. I needed to do a little more digging…and I knew exactly who could help me unearth the information I was looking for.
11
Dinner for Two
But when I went in search of Josie at her office, I found it closed, with a note on the door that she was off in Phoenix for the day. What she was doing there, I had no idea, but clearly my questions would have to wait until the following morning.
So, I was only about twenty minutes late opening the shop. I’d already planned to close early in order to get home in enough time to start preparing dinner, but since it was early in the week, I wasn’t expecting a lot of shoppers. On the drive back downtown, I’d also toyed with the idea of calling Calvin and canceling, but I realized doing that wouldn’t serve any real purpose. I still had all the ingredients for the lasagna that needed to get used up, and delaying our dinner would only make them that much less fresh.
Instead, I texted him and said, Looks like it’s just you and me for dinner tonight. Will explain when I see you.
He responded with, Sorry to hear that…but looking forward to dinner for two.
So was I.
The afternoon was a little busier than I expected, because a small tour bus that was traveling from Payson to Mesa stopped downtown and disgorged its passengers, giving them an hour to roam before they got back on the road. I racked up a decent number of sales and definitely felt cheerier than I had that morning.
At four I closed up and headed upstairs to the apartment. I’d already warned Archie that Calvin and I would be having a romantic dinner for two, and so the cat seemed grouchier than ever.
“I don’t see why you can’t go out to eat like normal people do,” he remarked as I slid the sheets of lasagna noodles into a big saucepan to boil.
“I like to cook,” I said, refusing to let him get to me. “I think cooking for people shows you care for them. Tell you what,” I added so he wouldn’t be able to get a word in edgewise, “when I turn you back into a man, I’ll make you your favorite dish. Just tell me what you’d like.”
“Beef Wellington,” he replied promptly, and I lifted an eyebrow at him.
“Is that really your favorite, or do you just want me to make it because it’s difficult?”
His ears twitched in annoyance. “It’s my favorite, and I haven’t had it for more than sixty years. The puff pastry…the gravy…the tender roast beef….” He trailed off there, golden eyes half closing in what I assumed was an ecstatic memory of the experience.
“Then Beef Wellington it is,” I said.
“It’s a deal.” Archie stopped there before going on, “Make sure I can get out onto the balcony tonight. I don’t want to be anywhere around should matters get too amorous.”
“Not a problem,” I told him. After all, I didn’t want an audience if the evening turned hot and heavy once we were done with dinner. I supposed I should be glad that at least Archie was willing to meet me halfway, and wasn’t putting his furry foot down and demanding absolutely no displays of affection between Calvin and me besides a goodnight peck on the cheek.
Apparently satisfied with our arrangement, the cat headed off to get a late afternoon nap on the floor by the living room window, and I kept working away. Soon enough, it was time to actually assemble the lasagna, and at six o’clock, I popped it in the oven. I took advantage of the lull to go into the bedroom and change into something a little more appropriate for a romantic dinner for two, which in this case was a draped tank top and one of my sequined skirts from India. Other than the lasagna, I was making a tossed garden salad and some garlic bread, but both of those could wait until closer to dinnertime.
