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“I told you. I need your help. ”
“That doesn’t answer my question about the coffee. What do you want in it?”
“Just black, thanks. ”
“Of course. A fed from Texas. Black coffee. ” She handed him the cup, asking, “What do you need from me?”
“Information about the people you work with. ”
“Everyone fills out an extensive form in order to work at the house, and then has to pass an oral exam. Guides have to know what they’re doing. Believe it or not, the place gets a lot of applications. When the board hires, they want people who not only have a good grasp of history, but really love it. So they ask personal questions, as well. ”
“I’m aware of all that. What I want to hear is more about what you’ve seen. What you, personally, have observed. ”
She paused, eyes narrowing. “You think one of my coworkers had something to do with this?”
“I don’t think Julian Mitchell went crazy, trashed his workplace, then sat down and killed himself on a bayonet—no. ”
Allison shook her head. “I’ve been through it and through it, with you and with the cops. I don’t know what else I could possibly tell you. ”
“Start with your day,” he told her. “Tell me about it again. ”
She sighed. “It was pretty much like any other day,” she said.
He took a sip of his coffee, smiling. “I was looking for a little more detail than that. Were any of the tours unusual? Did anything stand out to you?”
“Yes, I found the body of a friend in the study,” she said curtly.
Before he could respond, his cell phone rang. He excused himself and answered it, frowning as he listened.
Allison felt a chill; she knew it had something to do with whatever was being said.
A moment later he hung up. “You took a family with two boys, Todd and Jimmy, on your last tour. ”
She nodded. “Yes, why?”
“Their father’s in the hospital. He woke up in the middle of the night, screamed and fell into a coma. One of the kids was so hysterical when they reached the hospital that someone on staff called the police. ”
“What? Why? That’s terrible, but—”
“The boy, Todd, wants to talk to you. He said that you’d understand. According to Todd, a ghost did follow them home. ”
3
The hospital was cold. Outside, the late-summer heat was beginning to wane and the day was still beautiful, but inside the hospital, Allison shivered against the chill that seeped into her bones.
She didn’t want to be there; she wanted to run away. But Todd wanted to see her because for some reason he believed she could help.
And she wanted to help.
The two boys were seated in an otherwise empty waiting area. Todd’s mother was in with his father, and an attractive woman of about forty was sitting with the boys. Seeing Allison, Todd leaped to his feet and came running over to her. She was startled when he threw his arms around her but she comforted the boy, embracing him and stroking his hair.
“He followed us home! He followed us home. That awful man followed us home. The beast—Beast Bradley. He killed your friend and he made my father sick!” Todd said, his words muffled.
Allison looked helplessly at the woman in the room and then at Tyler Montague.
“Todd,” she said gently. “Ghosts can’t do that. Really. They’re just…inventions, something we make up in our own minds. Your father—” She paused, praying this wasn’t a lie. “Your father’s going to be fine. You’re in an exceptionally good hospital and the doctors will find out what’s wrong with him. ”
The woman who was with the boys had risen and come toward her, a hand extended. “You must be Allison Leigh. I’m Rose Litton, Todd and Jimmy’s aunt. I’m sorry you’ve been asked down here. I know you’re dealing with your own loss. But Todd was nearly hysterical and insisted that he see you. ”
“It’s all right. It’s quite all right,” Allison assured her. But it wasn’t. She didn’t know how to make this better for Todd.
She could only be glad that—as far as she knew—the ransacking of the attic’s office space had not been divulged to the media.
“What do the doctors say?” Tyler was asking.
“So far they can’t identify the physiological cause,” Rose Litton said. “Not yet, at any rate, but they’re doing a lot of tests. Early this morning, while he was still in bed at the hotel, Artie jerked up, screamed—and fell into a coma. It was as if he saw something in his sleep…or in his dreams. They believe he might have ingested some kind of hallucinogenic, which made him see something that terrified him, although they can’t tell what it is or how this might have happened. They just don’t know. ”
Allison touched Todd’s chin to get him to look up at her. “The doctors here are the best. They’ll find out what’s wrong with your father,” she promised again.
“Who are you?” Rose Litton asked, frowning at Tyler. “Forgive me—that’s rude. I just knew the nurse had called the police station, asking about a way for Todd to see Ms. Leigh. ”
“Not rude at all,” Tyler said, reaching into his jacket and producing his credentials.
“Special Agent?” Rose Litton read, her voice worried.
“I’m here to discover what went on at the house,” he told her. “Please, don’t be alarmed. We don’t suspect any kind of true toxin. Allison would be ill, too, if there had been, and so could a hundred-plus other people who were in the house yesterday. I’m not a doctor, but I do know there are many reasons for a coma, and the doctors here will get to the root of it. ” He hunkered down. “Did you see what happened? Perhaps, earlier, your father knocked his head? Was he agitated, stressed out about anything?”
Todd shook his head. Jimmy stood and came over to join them. “No, my dad doesn’t get stressed,” Jimmy said. “He’s a good guy. He yells sometimes, but not much. We had fun after we left the house. We went to a tavern for supper and Dad was okay when we went to bed. ”
Todd nodded vigorously. “Yeah, he was fine. He let us watch TV for a while in the hotel. Then we fell asleep and woke up because Dad screamed. He just screamed in the middle of the night. We were scared ’cause Dad never screams and suddenly he did. ” He looked proud for a minute. “My dad is really brave. It had to be something awful, a monster like Beast Bradley, to make my dad scream like that. ”
“Thank you,” Tyler said gravely. He stood again. “You know, sometimes we have monsters in our minds, in our imaginations. I’ll go speak with one of the docs,” he said. “In the meantime, you shouldn’t worry. ” He smiled at Rose and set his hand on Todd’s head. “Excuse me. I’ll be back. ”
He left them, and Allison felt more awkward than ever.
She tried to smile at Rose. “It’s great that you could be here. ”
“I’m only over in Hershey,” Rose said. “Not far at all. And I’m glad to be with the boys. ” Her expression was pained, her eyes on Allison. Her silence seemed to say a lot.
I don’t know what’s the matter with Todd. He’s convinced it’s something from the Tarleton-Dandridge House. I hope you can reassure him….
The realization that this might have been a bad time to bother Allison seemed to come back to her.
“I really am so sorry!” Rose said. “You lost someone last night. Tragically. It’s…it’s all over the news. And they’re making it sound—” she glanced at the boys “—like a…well, paranormal event. ”
Allison nodded. “Of course. People love ghost stories. ”
“There is a ghost,” Todd insisted.
Jimmy gasped. “We saw that a tour guide died at the house. It was on the TV news when we got back. My parents were worried. They hoped it wasn’t you!” he told Allison. “Dad turned the news off. He says we’ll get to know enough about the real world when we’re older. ” He frowned. “I’m sorry. I mean, I’m gl
ad it wasn’t you, but I’m sorry about your friend. ”
Todd took her hand and squeezed it. They were sorry, but Julian was an abstraction to them, a news story, while their father was lying here in a no-man’s-land. “Yeah, we’re really sorry,” he said.
“Thank you. I’m the one who found him, and it was heartbreaking for me. I’m going to miss him very much. But, Todd, like I was telling you, bad things just happen sometimes, even to good people. Listen, you have to trust the doctors here, and you can’t get upset about the house or believe you have a ghost with you. Okay?”
He looked at her stubbornly. “The ghost likes you. You can talk to him. You can get him to leave my dad alone. ”
As Allison struggled for speech, Rose Litton shrugged apologetically.
“All of us, every one of us, will do whatever we can for your dad, okay, Todd?” Allison finally said.
Todd whispered a solemn “Thank you. ”
A moment later, Tyler returned. He offered Todd an encouraging smile. “They’ll keep at it, young man. Meanwhile, you stay calm and help your mom and little brother. ”
Todd nodded. He studied Tyler, and then apparently decided to trust him.
“I will. I’m going to help my mom and my family,” Todd said. “Please, help her, though,” he said, glancing over at Allison. “The ghost likes her. ”
Rose moved closer to Allison. “I am so sorry,” she said again. “He was just crying and going crazy, and the idea that you might talk to him was the only thing that worked. ”
“We’ll do everything we can from our end, Todd,” Tyler said.
Allison noticed that the boy seemed to respond to him. He nodded. “I can reach you if I need to, right?”
“We’ll be here,” Tyler promised firmly. “I’ll even give you my personal cell number. You can call me anytime. ”