Part 17 (1/2)
”Tragic,” Rosemary said.
”Yes. Horrible.” Gayla sounded bored and not exactly horrified. ”Can you fix it or not?”
”The house has issues,” Rosemary said.
”Understatement of the year,” Sadie murmured, but something Gayla said was niggling at her subconscious.
”We'll do what we can.” Maeva looked at her watch. ”I need to get back to my baby.” She got up and shook Gayla's hand. ”Thanks for seeing us. We'll try and fix things.”
”I hope so.” Gayla walked them to the door, saying, ”I hired your company because the workers at the house said they heard strange sounds and things were being moved around the house. I thought, what's the harm? We'll get some psychics in here, get rid of the ghost or whatever it is, and the superst.i.tious handymen will go back to work and all would be right with that house and my world. I remembered the talk you gave about helping spirits move on.” She turned from Maeva and pinned Rosemary with a hard stare. ”Unfortunately, you haven't exactly lived up to your end of the bargain, have you? As a matter of fact, you've made things a hundred times worse.”
Sadie straightened and regarded Gayla coolly.
”Rosemary has already admitted that she shouldn't have posted the video, but the video doesn't change what happened. If anything, it should reinforce to you the difficulty Rosemary and Maeva have had with your house. It's obvious they've tried to-”
”It's obvious to you,” Gayla replied icily. ”To anyone else it might just appear that the house I planned to renovate and sell for quick profit was turned into a sideshow circus to benefit Madam Maeva's.”
Maeva looked like she wanted to slap Gayla into next week but she merely stated in a calm voice, ”We'll be going. Thanks for the tea.”
Then Maeva and Rosemary headed into the hall walking in the direction of the elevators. Sadie took longer to tie her shoes.
”You mentioned you might've heard about Iris working as a hooker from a neighbor, is that correct?”
Gayla rolled her eyes. ”What possible difference could that make?”
”I was wondering if any of the neighbors ever heard of anything happening in the house? Did they hear banging around or strange sounds?”
”I don't see how that would matter.” Gayla made a shooing motion with her hands. ”Your friends are holding the elevator for you.”
Once in the elevator Sadie turned to her Maeva. ”Thanks for the tea?” she repeated in disbelief. ”I thought you were going to give her a beating and, instead, you thanked her?”
”I've dealt with skeptics and cruelty my entire life and I gave up having fistfights about it when I was a child. If I beat the c.r.a.p out of everyone that dissed me or my business, I'd be in jail by now,” Maeva explained.
”And she's right to be angry,” Rosemary added. ”She hired us to do a job and we haven't done it.”
”Has she paid you?” Sadie asked. ”She had a stack of unpaid bills in her purse.”
”We never collect on a job until it's completed,” Maeva said. ”And you shouldn't go through another woman's purse.” She s.h.i.+fted her weight uncomfortably. ”Besides, my b.o.o.bs are leaking. If I don't get home to feed Osbert I'm liable to explode.”
The elevator door opened and they stepped off.
”Do you think I should pull the video?” Rosemary sounded concerned and she rubbed her s.h.i.+ny scalp distractedly.
They walked through the lobby to the street as they talked.
”What's done is done,” Maeva said. ”I don't see how you can change it.”
”How about you just put up some kind of disclaimer at the beginning of the video?” Sadie suggested.
”And say what? Lie? Tell viewers that what they're about to see isn't real?” Maeva shook her head. ”We were all there. We saw what happened. I'm not about to start denying it and look like a fraud. I'm not throwing Madam Maeva's under the bus because of this. If we don't get paid by her highness”-Maeva pointed up, indicating Gayla's floor-”then we'll just have to take the loss.”
Although Sadie understood her friend's point, from her perspective the video sucked donkey a.s.s in a big way.
They walked up the street together until they reached Sadie's car.
”This Marlene ghost showed up in the closet to keep me from the demon and also at the Pacifica to warn me about this killer,” Sadie began. ”Does that mean that whatever is in that house is connected to the guy murdering prost.i.tutes? If Iris Prior was having s.e.x for money, she could be connected to this guy killing hookers in the hotel too.”
Rosemary frowned and shook her head.
”Sadie, for all I know the demon is the serial killer.”
”Is that possible?” Sadie's eyes were huge. ”I mean, I've dealt with some evil spirits before . . . you know that . . . but nothing that wasn't contained. If this thing is out there, luring young women to hotels, and then stabbing them to death . . .” Sadie threw up her hands.
”You're scaring her for nothing,” Maeva told Rosemary. ”It's highly doubtful some demon is rampant out there stabbing prost.i.tutes at hotels. But there is obviously a connection between Halladay Street and this Marlene ghost. Since Marlene is warning you about the guy murdering working girls and she's appeared at Halladay Street and also at the Pacifica, then somehow all of it is related.” She looked determined. ”We've gotta stop that demon first.”
Maeva walked toward her car, leaving Sadie and Rosemary at Sadie's car.
”Gayla didn't exactly roll out the welcome mat to bring us back to Halladay Street,” Sadie said. ”We can't waltz in there and perform another seance.”
”We went about it all wrong. We had a seance to make connection to spirits needing our help. We thought it was going to be a typical dealing with the dearly-departed-haunted-house kind of thing,” Rosemary said.
”Right,” Sadie agreed. ”But it wasn't.”
Not that there was anything typical about helping spirits move on and contacting the great beyond.
”The more I think about Della Prior opening a portal in that house because she didn't know what the h.e.l.l she was doing, the more I think that closet is definitely the focal point,” Rosemary said. ”It was opened to the other side. It needs to be sealed again. I don't want Maeva to come. Her powers are weak and her mind is in mommy mode. You and I should go with Rick and Louise and maybe we can ask a priest or something.”
”Whoa, don't go crazy about this,” Sadie said. ”I have no desire to go back in that house.”
Rosemary looked Sadie in the eye with an angry stare. ”We have no choice. Don't you get it? That thing isn't going anywhere and it's only going to get stronger if left alone. It's our job. It's your duty.”
”Really?” Sadie couldn't keep the whine out of her voice. ”I do trauma clean. I just fell into the whole idea of sending spirits over to the next dimension. I sure as h.e.l.l never signed on to deal with satanic demons.”
”It chose you.”
”You mean this calling of helping ghosts? I was chosen to do that?”
”Well, sure, but I'm talking specifically about the dark presence at Halladay Street. It called you. By name. This is your war.”
Chapter 13.
Rosemary told Sadie, ”It's your battle but the rest of us are here to support you in whatever you need.”
”Um, thanks.” The entire topic made her sick. ”Do you think if we seal that portal thingamajig this will all be over?”
”Probably. We need to bring all forces of good together.”