Part 16 (1/2)

”And was anyone in the bas.e.m.e.nt when you went to hide there?”

”No, it was empty then. But a little later, there were voices, so I hid even farther behind the furnace.”

Kaaaarma. The wind seemed to speak my name, another chill wisping past my back.

”What were they...Are you all right?”

I looked up as Adam interrupted himself. ”Yes, sorry. I'm just tired, and there's some sort of draft that's. .h.i.tting me the wrong way.”

He frowned for a second before turning back to Amanita. ”What were the men saying, do you remember?”

She repeated the conversation she'd told us about earlier.

”Kaaarmaaaa.” The skin on my arms and back crawled at the voice. I wasn't imagining it.

”Oh, G.o.ddess! It's Spider!” Savannah cried.

”Karma, darling wife-”

I jumped up at the voice, too vague to be identifiable, but eerie enough to cause me to knock my coffee over. There were a horrible burning smell and a bright blue flash, then the house was thrown into darkness.

”Dear G.o.ddess, he's come!” Savannah shrieked, her voice high and frightened.

Ma.s.s pandemonium followed. Amanita squeaked, a rush of air pa.s.sing me indicating she was running for a hiding spot. Dad and Pixie both shouted as Adam pushed the table back slightly. Meredith demanded to know what was going on. Adam's spirits were calling for each other from the dining room and the kitchen. The imps, which had been sleeping at my feet, woke up and started eek ing in a confused manner.

”Everyone stay put!” Adam bellowed over the cacophony of confusion.

”It's probably just the fuses.”

”It's my fault,” I said loudly, feeling my way along the walls to follow Adam. ”I knocked my coffee over onto a frayed lamp cord. It's nothing to get excited about.”

The imps clung to my feet as I shuffled toward the hallway.

”Watch where you're going,” Meredith snapped as I inadvertently b.u.mped into him.

”Sorry. I'm just going to help Adam with the fuse box.”

I felt my way blindly down the hall, then froze when someone whizzed past me. There were only three people in the house who had the combination of excellent night vision and speed needed to zip around in the darkness, and one of them had already gone ahead. ”Dad?” I whispered. ”Pixie?”

There was no answer. I cursed the fact that I didn't inherit the polter ability to see in the dark. My cursing became more p.r.o.nounced as my s.h.i.+ns took a beating running into various pieces of furniture. I finally gave up and limped painfully back toward the living room. A whisper of air that pa.s.sed me indicated that someone had beaten me back. The lights came on just as I entered the room, its occupants providing a tableau of startled faces.

Pixie and my father were both seated at the table. ”What were you just up to?” I asked Dad in Poltern.

His eyebrows rose. ”What do you mean, what was I up to? I'm just sitting here.”

”Uh-huh.” I turned to Pixie. She had her iPod fired up again, her head nodding in time to the music. One of them had taken a quick trip out of the room, but I had no idea which. I shrugged it off, telling myself I was making too much of nothing.

”It was the fuse, nothing more,” Adam said as he entered the room. ”The wiring needs badly to be updated. It's on my list of things to do this summer.

Nita? You can come out now. We're almost done.”

”I've lost contact with Spider,” Savannah said, her voice reflecting the frustrated expression on her face. She sat back down at her seat, frowning at the table. ”I'm not sure I can get him again.”

”I think that someone here doesn't want Spider to talk,” Meredith said.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at Adam.

Amanita shot Meredith a nasty look as she walked over to us.

”You're not going to start that again, I hope,” I said, too tired to temper my words.

”You're sitting there so high-and-mighty, like you're above it all,” he snapped back at me. ”You're just protecting your boyfriend there. Everyone knows how much Adam wanted to get his house back. He threatened to sue the bank, for G.o.d's sake! And Spider told me that Adam made all sorts of wild threats to him on the phone. So it's no use, you trying to cover it up; we all know who the real murderer is here.”

”Yes, and his name is Meredith Bane,” my father said, sallying. I smiled at him.

”You freaks all band together, don't you?” Meredith answered. ”I wouldn't be surprised if you were the one who killed Spider. He's hated you long enough; I'm sure the feeling was mutual.”

”Please, Meredith, this isn't doing any good,” Savannah said with a hand to her head.

”You stay out of it. This is between me and the freak cop over there.” He pointed at Adam. ”He's trying to railroad me into a murder charge, but it won't work. I have no reason for wanting Spider dead! He was my partner!”

”Don't partners often make legal arrangements so any business a.s.sets are given directly to the surviving partner in case of death?” I asked. ”One that guaranteed if he died, you'd get it all ... and vice versa?”

The sneer on Meredith's face was not a pleasant thing to behold. ”You'd like that, wouldn't you? Sorry, Karma, Spider owned his a.s.sets outright. We didn't have any sort of a survivor clause in our agreement.” He paused for a moment, a speculative look in his eye. ”Something I'm willing to bet you knew.

Which gives you, Miss High and Mighty, the perfect motive for killing your husband.”

I frowned at him. ”What on earth are you talking about?”

”You're sooo innocent, aren't you? You pretended you didn't know anything about the Fun House, but I'm not buying that innocent act. Spider was more excited about the brothel than anything else we'd worked on. He must have told you how much money we were going to make on it, and you decided you wanted it all for yourself, didn't you?”

”Brothel?” Savannah gasped, half rising from her chair.

”Oh, sit down,” her husband snarled. ”Like you give a d.a.m.n where I get the money you're always demanding for your crackpot hobbies.”

She threw a startled look at him, an outraged ”Crackpot! Oh!” quickly following.

”Are you saying that this Fun House place you mentioned is a brothel?” I asked, unwilling to believe Spider would have anything to do with a project like that, but knowing it was entirely too possible.

”Don't act like you don't know what it was. Spider told you.”

So that was why this house meant so much to Spider, why he wanted so badly for it to be cleaned, and why it was important enough to agree to not fight a divorce. ”No, wait, that doesn't make sense,” I said, shaking my head at the confused thoughts chasing themselves around and around. ”Why this place?

What's so special about Adam's house? I believe your statement that Spider was excited about a brothel-he had no morals that I knew of, so it doesn't surprise me that he'd happily take on the role of pimp-but it doesn't explain why he wanted this house so bad.”

”Oh, for G.o.d's sake, are you so stupid you think this innocent act is fooling anyone?” Meredith said, a disgusted look on his face.