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“I cannot believe this!” Sophia snatched up her purse, staring down at the table like it was a maggot she’d spotted on the ground.
I scrambled up to hit the lights and blinked back tears at the sudden brightness. “Ms. Erepto, please just wait a second. I’m sure there’s something I can do to get her back again.”
I just was a bit bamboozled about what that something might be. I’d been a ghost for a century, and had a pretty good handle on what being a ghost meant. Being a medium was still pretty new to me, though. I wondered if Sophia would let me step out of the room to call Bailey and ask her for advice.
I mean, I didn’t know that a spirit could blow you off like that. She hadn’t even struggled, just simply scooted out of the room like it was nothing. The ‘Enchanted Spirit Oil’was meant to keep random ghosts from showing up at the summoning like gate crashers at a party. But I’d never heard of anything used to keep spirits trapped in a place with you. I had no idea how Magda had just shrugged off my summons like she had.
And I hadn’t even gotten a chance to ask her about the idol.
Well, darn it.
Sophia Erepto pulled herself up to her full height and stared down her nose at me. I felt frozen on the spot, and I started to worry about that whole ‘turning people to stone’ thing again real quick.
“I was led to believe that Spook Society was a reputable business,” she said with icy fury. “And instead, I get inept fumbling. Now, not only do I not know where my family’s idol is, but you just lost the one person who could have told me!”
I shut down the summoning in a hurry, pinching out the candle. That wasn’t a door I wanted to leave open. “Ma’am, please wait. Just a second.”
But she didn’t listen and started for the door, as I did possibly the dumbest thing in my second life, and darted in front of her.
“Ms. Erepto, if you could just—”
“Move.” She hissed the word at me, her voice taking on a chilling tone. “I am going to give Blaise Howard a piece of my mind about the shamble of a business he’s running.”
“Oh, geez, please don’t do that.” Mr. Howard already didn’t like me. If he found out I was upsetting clients and losing ghosts, unofficial parole or not, he was going to toss me out on my rear end. “I will get your grandmother back, I promise. I’ll find your idol, too, just give me a little more time.”
“What does that mean—a little more time?”
I shrugged. “Just a couple days. You’ll see.”
She stared at me for a long minute. A bead of sweat rolled down the back of my neck, and oh geez, just when I was mentally packing my bag, saying good bye to my gorgeous office, and wondering what other job an ex-ghost gal could even do, Sophia gave a little sniff.
“Fine.” Her tone was clipped. “You have three days, Miss Rowe. I want my family’s idol by then and my grandmother’s ghost. Or there will be consequences.”
I shuffled out of her way, and stood there, shaken, while the angry clack of her heels on the wooden floors faded away. And then I put my face in my hands and resisted the urge to shriek.
What had I just gotten myself into? How was I going to track down an item when I didn’t even know what it looked like? I should have asked for a picture or something, but oh no, I’d been too jittered about her talking to my boss to think straight. And who knew whether I’d be able to find Magda?
I think I might be in a pickle,I muttered into my hands.
We’ll find the idol,Cain said in that gruff way he had when he was trying to be comforting, but clueless about how to actually do it.I’ve tracked down more than a few things in my day.
His words actually made me feel better. Cain had been a copper, after all. Finding stuff was part of the job, wasn’t it? The Pinkertons used to, all the time. At least I had someone on my side to help me.
Ice crawled through my veins like a hard frost at the thought. Cain was only with me because Taliyah had hired me to channel him so she could get things at Haven Hollow sorted out. So, if I lost my job… would I lose Cain, too?
I was just getting used to having the big galoot around! He was surly, and gruff, and a real bear about emotional stuff like his family, but… if he were gone.
I’d miss him.
Well, heck. I guessed I’d better find that idol.
Unfortunately though, my best lead on the whole caper had just skedaddled out through my wall and off into Haven Hollow somewhere. And if there was one thing Cain didn’t have any experience with, it was tracking down a ghost. But if I wanted to find the idol, and I did, then I needed to have a little chit-chat with the last person to have had it in their possession.
So, if I were Magda Erepto, where would I go?
Too bad I didn’t know anything about her life.
Now, for me, it would have been easy. When I was still dead, I craved people. The hustle and bustle. Cutting a rug and drinking the giggle water. I’d gone from being an actress, a rising star, one big part away from making it, and then—boom!—I was dead.
