“You’ve lost a patient?” He almost felt sorry for the man. He really was upset about this. “I’m sure you can call the police and have them come in and look. Or perhaps she was taken to another floor. Did you check on that?”
“No. I don’t…maybe. But I don’t think so. And the things that we saw.” He looked at him and his body shuddered. “There was a man coming at me with his head in his hand. And he was asking me to fix it back on for him. And the woman? Christ, she was carrying her arm in her hand too, but she was using it to wave at us all when she saw someone…. Just holding onto it like one would a child. She smiled at me, and I swear to God there was a huge bug lying there instead of her tongue.”
Nick could see them doing that. It was all he could do not to laugh. He would bet he knew each of the ghosts that the doctor described, and would have to thank them for helping. Old ghosts could make themselves known to the living, but it would cost them if they hadn’t been summoned previously by the living. Nick would bet it was the most fun these people had had in decades.
“I don’t think I’d tell the police that if I were you.” The doctor said he wasn’t going to. “Also, maybe…I don’t know…perhaps you can just forget about the woman too. Maybe…maybe we’ve both been…punked. Perhaps she wasn’t hurt at all. And it was a joke on us.”
“You think?” He sounded so hopeful that Nick nodded. “I think you might be right. That wound in her belly didn’t look that bad. Maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps…I think you might be right there, young man. I’m going to go and talk to my staff right now and tell them that. The nerve of some people. What if someone with a true injury came in needing me and she had us all tied up?”
By the time he left Nick, the doctor was no longer hazy about the events, but he was pissed off. The dazed and confused look on his face was gone now and he looked determined. Nick left too. As soon as he was out of the building, Carlton met him in the parking lot with Donny.
“You did a good job.” Bowing at the waist, Carlton smiled at him. “The guy with his head off and the woman…do you know them, or were they just hanging around here waiting to help you? Because I’d very much like to thank them personally.”
“I knew him in the French war. The man had been beheaded for stealing, and could never bring himself to go with his beloved. I think we gave him the courage to go on.” They both looked at Donny when he wolf whistled. “That young man should have a leash. I found him in the nurses’ lounge just a bit ago watching them put on their work uniforms. I wonder, were you that bad at twelve?”
“No. My stepfather and mother wouldn’t have allowed me to have any fun like that.” Carlton told him he was sorry to have brought it up. “No worries, my friend. You know my dad.”
“I do indeed. And you know that he is looking for you?” Nick told him that he knew and wasn’t worried. “If you need me, you know that I am here for you, young Nick. And the young woman. She is a beautiful woman, if you don’t mind my saying.”
“Thanks.” He went to the car that had been sent for him and got in the back. Knowing Steele did have a lot of nice perks. This one, riding in the back of the limo, gave him time to think and to plan.
Nick hoped that Addie was all right. This was way beyond anything he’d ever done before…for the living or the dead. And if this Joel person was as bad as Addie said he was, there was something else to consider. She might be a target for two people instead of just the one. And Ellen Wooten was bad enough.
Chapter 3
“Lady Evie, that man is here to see you again. I thought yesterday was going to be the end of Mr. Delaney.” Evie rolled her eyes at her butler. “I have tried to put him off, but he is insistent that he speak with you. He has questions about Miss Addie. I have asked him to wait out of doors for you. That did not go over well, as you can imagine.”
“I’m sure that it didn’t. Let me go to the parlor and when I’m settled, you bring him in. And please stay with me. I don’t want to kill the man and have to go to jail for it. I have no idea why he’s still trying to find my Addie after all this time. Do you? The man is a fool if you ask me.” Bentley shook his head and smiled at her. “You’re up to something. What is it?”
“You have heard that she is all right and it shows on your face. It makes you feel better, doesn’t it?” It did too. Hearing from that young man yesterday had made her do a little dance in the kitchen. Then she’d had Bentley call him back and tell him to get her out of the place she was in. There were ears everywhere in her house, and she’d not have Addie hurt because of Delaney and his misguided attempts at getting her back. “Shall I have tea for the two of you, or will he not be here that long?”