Part 34 (1/2)
Stop shaking. Stop sobbing. Stop throwing back my head. Stop gesturing wildly with my arms and legs.
I screamed into a pillow, but nothing could m.u.f.fle my agony.
After the fit, I felt as if I'd run a marathon, only to have an eighteen-wheeler flatten me at the finish line.
My neck hurt, my eyes burned, and my head throbbed.
I could barely move to answer my cell phone when it rang, and my lips ached when I mumbled, ”What?”
”I've been trying reach you all day,” Ca.s.sandra Antonopolus said, sounding aggravated. ”I keep getting a busy signal when I call the office, and I've left several messages. Don't you return calls?”
”I've been a little preoccupied.”
”I've discovered something disturbing at the Fielder mansion.”
”Likewise, but you go first.”
”I have grave concerns.”
”That's a good one,” I said sarcastically.
”I'm dead serious, Kris.”
I smiled sardonically. ”Another one.”
”We might have inadvertently stirred up something the other night.”
The catch in Ca.s.s's voice finally penetrated my fractured psyche. ”Pardon me?”
”I went in last night with six other investigators. The consensus is that the house is active, too active.”
”What are you talking about?” I said irritably.
”I told them nothing about the history of the house, and we explored all the rooms, not including the bas.e.m.e.nt. We used a grid system for our equipment, and the investigators were drawn to the room you shared with Flax.”
”The one where the Dobermans died, where Constance lived and where we saw a ghost?” I said in a singsong voice, sounding to my ear drunk.
”Yes,” Ca.s.s said carefully. ”I had each team member fill out forms during the investigation and an hour after it was completed. They weren't allowed to share impressions while we were in the house, to prevent contagion. Yet the comments on their reports were eerily similar. They used different language, but essentially described the same feeling.”
”Which was?” I said uneasily.
”Turbulence. Unrest. Violence. Unresolved conflict. Malice. Disorderly attachments.”
I blew out air. ”What do we do now?”
”Nothing, for the moment. I want to gather a team, people I respect from across the country. We'll do the s.p.a.ce-clearing as soon as I can coordinate it.”
I straightened up. ”Can the building be saved?”
”I don't honestly know, Kris. But something has to be done, or it can't be demolished safely.”
”What will I tell Roberta?”
”Do you want me to call her?”
”That would help, because I already ruined her day when Flax and I found a body in the bas.e.m.e.nt this morning.”
”Constance?”
”How did you know?”
”A feeling.”
”Could these readings have been caused by Constance's ghost?”
”Possibly,” Ca.s.s said hesitantly. ”But the spirits seem more malicious. They've tilted somehow. I've seen it happen, when they'll gather in cl.u.s.ters, almost a pack-dog mentality.”
”Roberta Franklin is not going to like this,” I said glumly.
”This goes beyond a real-estate transaction,” Ca.s.s said fiercely. ”You're lucky nothing happened to you and Flax this morning. You need to stay away from the mansion until I can get this resolved. Don't let anyone go inside.”
The air grew still. ”What are you saying?”
”Something bad is going to happen in that house.”
Something bad happened in my house when Destiny arrived home from work at midnight.
I told her everything.
I'd never seen her as livid or discouraged, and with every sentence I spoke, another bit of life drained from her. In the span of an hour, I saw her enter and exit the traditional stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining and depression. Over and over, she circled through them, in no particular order, sometimes in the span of a breath.
I had yet to witness acceptance.
Destiny looked at me desperately. ”Is it worth it? Why don't I get a regular job in a bank or a grocery store?”
”You can't do that. This is your life's work.”
”I get so tired of fighting these battles by myself. When will it end?”
”What do you mean?”
”Do you think I'll ever complete the job, that the Center and lesbian activism won't be needed?”
I answered in a pessimistic monotone, ”No. Not in our lifetime.”