There was no answer.
She hung up and looked at the number on her caller ID. It was listed as Private.
Thinking little of it, she shoved her phone back into her pocket.
“Ah, another one!” Bartholomew said. He was sitting behind the desk in Cutter’s office, reading from In Defense from Dark Magick. He seemed to have the art of turning pages down quite well, but he looked at her. “Sorry, I’m not talented enough to unfold the paper. It’s parchment thin.”
“Thanks, I’ve got it,” she said.
Katie had been going through the bookshelves one by one, picking up, dusting off and returning books and objects, and making sure that nothing was hidden behind any of the books. She walked over as Kelsey took the little parchment from Bartholomew and carefully opened it. She read aloud.
“Kelsey was always my little wonder child. She was fascinated with history. Her friends’ parents sometimes thought I must be very odd, even scary, because of the objects I collected. But Kelsey knew and understood peoples and cultures, and as we often discussed, there are so many paths to God. Kelsey knew that the true path to God only came through great sacrifice. She knew this even as a child.”
“What a fascinating fellow. I’m so sorry that I did not know him,” Bartholomew said.
“But what does it mean?” Katie asked.
“It means that he was the rare fellow who respected all beliefs, no matter his own. Glorious, really. What a fine man,” Bartholomew said.
Kelsey shook her head. “Keep looking for more notes. If that’s the last, he was trying to tell me something—I just have to figure out what it is. Oh! I forgot. Liam wants us to meet him at O’Hara’s,” she said. “Jaden got a copy of the book that was missing from the library.”
“Intriguing. Let’s go,” Katie said.
Kelsey picked up the book in front of Bartholomew. “I’m not leaving this anywhere,” she said.
“Good idea,” Katie said, nodding sagely. “Give me a minute just to finish this shelf—then I’ll know where I am when we start up again.”
“Okay. I want to run upstairs and just wash my face quickly, too, if that’s all right,” Kelsey said. “Dust in my eyes. I’ll be right back down.”
She headed out of the study and across the living room, but paused there. She took a good look around. There were still boxes and crates to be gone through, but she had the strange feeling that whoever had gotten into the house when Cutter died had already gone through them. After his death, Liam had caught kids in the house, and then Gary White and Chris Vargas.
But who else might have gotten in before the locks were changed?
And why was she too afraid to leave her own door unlocked at night?
She did a circle as she stood there, noting the mummy. The large outer sarcophagus stood with the head end against the wall to the right of the fireplace; the open inner coffin was braced against it, and the mummy, still completely wrapped, lay within the inner coffin. To the other side of the fireplace was the voodoo altar. She kept turning. The giant gargoyle looked at her benignly. Gargoyles kept away evil spirits, she reminded herself. She liked the gargoyle. She’d called it Harry when she’d been a kid.
The animal heads looked down mournfully from the wall. The medieval suit of armor, standing near the staircase, stared blankly at her.
As she stood there, her cell phone started ringing again. Absently, she pulled it out and answered it, thinking it must be Liam to tell her something he had forgotten.
“Hello?”
Once again, she heard the breathing.
Impatiently, she hung up and started for the stairs.
In her room, she washed her face, felt a lot fresher and started back down again. As she did so, the phone started to ring.
She glanced at it. The caller ID once again said Private Number.
Irritated, she answered it. “What?”
She expected the breathing.
She didn’t get breathing.
A man’s voice, a whisper, spoke to her.
“I’m watching you. I’m watching your every move,” the voice said.
She felt as if the hair rose on her flesh, as if she were frozen in place. The voice sounded detached, and it sounded close. It was rough and husky, and menacing. It seemed to creep right into her body.
She fought the fear.
“Good for you, buddy,” she said and hung up.
She met Katie and Bartholomew in the living room.
“What’s wrong?” Katie asked her.
“Nothing—obscene phone call,” Kelsey said.
“Probably a prank, but let Liam know,” Katie advised her. “I hate that!”
She nodded, and they headed out. She carefully punched in the code for the alarm. As they walked down the porch steps, she suddenly paused.
“What?” Katie asked.
“I want to run around back to the docks for a minute. See if Captain Morgan is there. He may not understand, but I want to thank him. For Avery! Avery is convinced that the dolphin saved him,” Kelsey said.