I wanted to ask if it was Abby but I bit my lip and waited for him.
“It’s her…”he said.
“It is?” My heart quickened its pace. Thinking it and knowing it was like the difference between being scared and being absolutely horrified.
“I’m picking up on some of her thoughts,” he said, eyes stil closed. “But they are al over the place.”
“Thoughts?”
“When she died,” he said slowly and with patience.
Right. I kept my mouth shut and did a once over of the room again. It was too bad, in a gruesome way, that the slippers weren’t there anymore because he might have been able to get a reading off of them. I know he said he picked up on their last thoughts, but surely he could do more than that. Then again, what could I do? I was hovering by my desk, watching my room with eagle eyes for something I couldn’t see myself.
“She’s angry,” he said. “But it’s stronger than hate. It’s evil.”
“Evil?” I repeated. I felt suddenly cold al over and wished I was wearing more layers.
Maximus opened his eyes. They looked at me, through me, like I wasn’t there.
“She’s gone,” he said softly. Then he relaxed a little, his shoulders and arms dropping.
“Are you OK?” I asked him. I took a step forward.
He nodded and winced, as if he was in pain. His eyes were watering.
“Is it painful when you do that?”
“That one was,” he said, his voice straining.
“What can I do?” I joined him at his side and took his hand in mine.
He rubbed his forehead with his free hand, then shook out his shoulders and arms and legs.
“Bah. It’l pass.”
“So you know for sure it was Abby?”
“I thought so,” he said, then sat down on my bed and put his head between his hands, combing them through his thick, glossy orange hair. “But then, it didn’t make sense. If it’s her, she died and went to someplace where she should have never come back.”
I wiggled my fingers nervously. “Where is that?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice muffled. “I don’t know if I want to know.”
I sat down beside him. “I don’t either. But I think we might have to if we’re going to solve this. No trying, remember?
Just doing.”
He slowly raised his head and eyed me. He was paler than usual and a thin sheen of sweat had broken out along his wide forehead. “I’m going to have to poke around the rest of the house, if that’s OK.”
“Of course.”
“I feel like…maybe it’s not just Abby.”
My eyes felt like they were going to pop out. “I have more than one ghost?”
He sighed and straightened up. “I don’t know. It felt like it.
This felt…special.”
Oh, fucking brilliant, I thought. I have a special ghost.
He got up and reached down for me, scooping me to my feet by the elbows.
“Is there anywhere else where there’s been activity?” he asked.
I thought about the obvious places like the study and the kitchen. Then I remembered.
“Ada’s room,” I said. “That’s where she thought I was cal ing her.”
“I hope she won’t mind,” he said with a smal smile. “I reckon you don’t want to piss that lady off. And I have a feeling she doesn’t like me too much.”
“No, you don’t want to piss Ada off,” I replied, and we left the room and went down the hal . I could hear my parents downstairs talking to each other and the drone of yet another inane TV program.
I knocked at her door. She had her Do Not Disturb sign hanging from the knob but it was always like that.
I heard a mumbling and grumbling from behind the door.
She opened it, not at al surprised to see us.
“Wel ?” she asked impetuously.
“Can we come in? Please?”
She sighed like this was the greatest inconvenience of al time then stomped over to her bed, flinging herself down butt first and crossing her arms. She eyed us like we were about to rob the place. What happened to the chipper girl I met this morning?
“We just, uh…” I looked at Maximus for help. He looked uneasy around Ada and I didn’t blame him. Being in a ful -
fledged teenager’s room didn’t help either.
“You want to do a reading,” Ada fil ed in for him. She balked at our surprised looks. “Whatever. You told me he was like some weird ghost whisperer.”
“I did not cal him weird.” Real y, I hadn’t.
“That’s al right, darling,” he said to me. Ada looked like she was going to barf at his southern-style sentiment.
“You’re right. I do want to get a feel for things. Do you mind?”
She sighed, then shook her head no. I closed the door behind us and joined Ada on the bed beside her.
“Would it kil you to be nice to him?” I whispered harshly in her ear.
“Ladies, please, silence,” he said. He stuck out his arms and closed his eyes, like he was expecting to be rained down with riches.
Ada and I sat side-by-side and watched him. It felt nice, actual y, to have Ada in on the ghostly stuff. I didn’t know if she felt the same way, though.
After a few minutes ticked by, according to her bedside clock, Maximus opened his eyes.
“It wasn’t as strong in here. But it was here at some point.”
He looked at Ada. “You seen anything strange? Felt any cold spots?”
She shook her head adamantly to both of those.
“Heard any talking, maybe whispers?”