“Mr. Harrison. Um, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for these fine people, who are all helping me stay alive!”
“Now that really is a pleasure and privilege,” he said. “In the field...well, my talent is finding people.”
Marnie swallowed suddenly. She realized he wasn’t alone. A slim boy of about Adam Harrison’s height stood by him.
Boy, almost a man. Shaggy hair, nice eyes. He had to be about eighteen.
Then she realized he wasn’t really here.
He was just really good at appearing to be solid.
Marnie couldn’t help but stare. “My son, Josh,” Adam said. “He’s the only...only person who has passed on out of this earthly sphere whom I’m able to see.” He glanced affectionately at Josh. “He is truly amazing—I don’t think I have it, the gift or ability. But Josh...he can make me see him.”
Marnie was proud of herself. She didn’t even blink.
“Hello, Josh. A pleasure to meet you,” she said.
“Miss Davante, my pleasure,” the teenager said politely.
“Anyway, my other talent is money. Good investments. That has allowed me to help people threatened or in trouble through the years. I know how to make money. And that’s why I’m here.”
“Money?” Marnie said, very surprised.
He smiled at that. “I’m not much good in the way of keeping people alive—though I have learned to shoot, and I’m not so bad at it, if I do say so myself.”
“I’ve fired blanks from a prop gun a few times. And I actually took archery—there were evil birds in an episode of Dark Harbor. They could only be brought down with arrows tipped in magic berry juice,” Marnie said, grinning.
“Archery is a talent.”
“Must have been so cool doing a lot of things you did on that show!” Josh said.
“Yeah, it was,” Marnie said. She realized it had been. The show had been a positive thing in her life, and a deranged human being had tried to take it all away.
The show had been good to her, and through Josh, she could see that more clearly and appreciate it.
“I’ve had some training in fencing and a few classes in martial arts.” She laughed. “Nothing extensive—enough to get through the different scenes before our very talented stunt workers slipped in.”
“Never hurts,” Adam said. “Knowledge, even when we’re not sure we want to know, is seldom a bad thing.”
“Adam, can I get you a cup of tea or anything?” Angela asked.
“I don’t think I’ve ever turned down a cup of tea.”
“Dad really does love tea,” Josh said. “I have to admit, it’s one of the things that I do miss.”
“Oh! We don’t have to have tea,” Marnie said.
“Please—I love the very smell of it,” Josh assured her.
The women headed into the kitchen. As she reached into a cabinet for tea bags, Marnie looked over at Angela.
“He seems like an incredibly nice man. He runs...everything?”
“Yeah. The trick with Adam is that when he encounters anyone who doesn’t agree with him, he always has a friend above that person in the pecking order. He is nice—he’s also as strong as steel inside. Don’t let him fool you,” she added with a whisper and a smile. “He can be as hard as proverbial nails.”
“He lost his son when Josh was so young. It must have been excruciating.”
“I met him later, when he first formed the Krewe. But yes, it was agony for him. However, he managed to turn his loss around. So many people have been helped.”
“Me included,” Marnie said.
“Well, he has something up his sleeve,” Angela warned.
As they sat with their tea, Adam spoke up. “As I was saying. I realize that your case is ongoing, but I have infinite faith in the agents you have out here. You can’t have better people helping you.”
“I know,” Marnie said.
“So, anyway...I own a theater.”
He waited.
“You’re lucky,” Marnie said.
“I am. In many ways.”
And in many, he had not been so lucky, she thought, and she wanted to kick herself for the words.
“I’m an idiot,” she murmured.
She felt something on her hand. Josh was by her, grinning.
“It’s okay,” he said.
Adam continued, “My theater is in Washington. I have some incredible people working there, but they deal with adult theater. You would love them—three young women, like yourself, all involved with agents. Not that that is a prerequisite! What I’m saying is that if you want to leave Hollywood, and you really want a children’s theater, I have one for you.”
For a moment, Marnie just stared at him. Then she frowned. Hollywood had definitely made her careful.
And skeptical.
“It’s a bribe,” Adam said flatly.
“He’s been chasing Bryan for a while,” Josh explained.
“I value his military background as well as his abilities. But I don’t want Bryan unless he wants to be in the Krewe. Because we are a different kind of unit, being with us isn’t just a day job. It becomes a way of life. And our lives wind up twined together.”
“I...I don’t even know what to say,” Marnie told him. “I can’t speak for Bryan.”
“No. They are decisions you have to make separately—and together.”
She flushed slightly, glancing over at Josh. “Actually, we’ve never really talked about...”
“About the future? Yes, a future usually does depend on survival,” Adam said sagely.
Marnie sat silently, letting it all sink in for a moment.
“I have a meeting,” Adam said, rising. “I don’t need an answer now. I was just throwing it out to you.” He shrugged. “I heard that your children’s theater is a big dream for you. I obviously can’t offer you any kind of a big movie role,” he said. “So...”
“He could somehow—if that is what you really wanted,” Angela said, interrupting in a soft whisper.
Marnie looked at Angela and laughed. “You knew Adam was coming, and you knew why he was coming to see me?”
“I knew about half an hour ago—when Jackson called to tell me. You were sleeping.”
“Yes, then I was awake and—Oh!” Marnie said, turning to Angela. “I forgot to tell you. Jeremy Highsmith swears that he didn’t take any kind of pills. That—”
“He was having an affair with Cara. News travels fast in the Krewe.”
“We try to keep communication going at all times,” Adam said.
“Naturally,” Marnie said.
“Jeremy is a weak ghost... Cara is trying to help him. I never knew that they were a duo. But...they are together now. Jeremy believes he was poisoned through the salmon mousse at lunch yesterday.”
“And no one else had the mousse?” Adam asked.
“I didn’t try it—you know me. I never really eat when we’re working,” Angela said. “Jackson doesn’t like mousse, and Bryan doesn’t like salmon. As to the others...I don’t know.”
“I’m sure they’re on it,” Adam said, starting to head to the front door. “You have my offer. There is no pressure. But know that if you’re willing to come East, the opportunity is there. By the way, it’s a gorgeous historic theater. We’ve been working on it a few years now. It’s alive and well and thriving. All it needs is a children’s program.”
He smiled. “I have been a fan. A true pleasure, Miss Davante.”
“Bye, Adam,” Angela said.
“I’m out here until this one is wrapped up,” he said.
“Excellent,” Angela said.
Marnie hugged him impulsively. “Thank you. And I will let you know. Assuming that I survive.”
Josh could actually open a door; he did so for his father.
When Adam was out, Josh looked back at Marnie before she closed the door, and he said, “I am really—really, really, really—a huge fan. And, Miss Davante, you will survive.”
*
Jeremy Highsmith lay split open, his Y incision making him look like something unreal—something created just for Horror-palooza.
If he were to come back as a ghost himself, Bryan thought, he would definitely never attend his own autopsy.
Thank goodness Jeremy had decided to reach out to Marnie instead of trying to visit his own body at the morgue.