Haunted (48 page)

Nuttiness is putting it nicely, David thought as he watched Theo eeling around Romero like a cat trying to con its owner into giving it a saucer of milk. When David had found out that Theo was a channeler--he'd been told an hour ago, only because he'd walked into the room as she was talking to Jerry Romero--all he wanted to do was say he was ill and get out of this evening's festivities.

It wasn't that he considered all channelers to be charlatans. He'd encountered two--both of whom preferred the old-fashioned term, "medium," primarily because they didn't want to be associated with the New Age movement--to whom he grudgingly gave some credence. Their groups were closed, and no amount of money could buy you in--attendance was by invitation only. Evidently, he passed the mediums' musters, because he'd been invited to both and, whatever it was these groups were hooking into--David suspected that it was Jung's Cosmic Consciousness with an anthropomorphic twist--it did nothing more than observe and suggest. Also, unlike Theo's "Spiros of Atlantis" and most of the other "channeled beings," neither of these requested that members of the group carry out specific tasks or worship them. They'd also made comments about his personal life that were so succinct and so secret that no one could possibly have known and that told him that if it wasn't the collective unconsciousness these mediums had hooked into, they were at least very telepathic and selfless individuals.

Not like Theo, who had told Romero about her alleged talents in order to get herself a little fame and glory on television. Whatever she gets in Body House, she deserves, he thought unkindly. On second thought, he hoped that the house remained quiet and she got absolutely zilch.

Romero was now busy planning shots with his camera people, and Theo Pelinore, unaccustomed to being ignored, stood nearby, her lower lip protruding in a way that David knew to be sulky, though it could also masquerade as a show of voluptuousness. Feeling David's gaze, she glanced at him, then quickly looked away when he failed to smile at her.

At least she wouldn't be hanging on his arm all evening, showing off her catch like a fisherman with a two-hundred pound marlin--obviously, she'd found herself a bigger fish. I've been thrown back. David smiled with amusement. The glance a moment ago was only the second time she'd looked at him this evening. Instead, she'd trained her attention--as well as her frank, sexual gaze, wet lips, and amazing cleavage--completely on the richer and more famous Romero.

I should have listened to Amber. He'd known that all along, but his hormones had taken off with his common sense. Amber had also known all along, and just a little while ago, as she was leaving to dress at Kelly's, she couldn't resist giving him one I-told-you-so smirk. At least it had held a modicum of pity. She'd kissed his cheek and told him things would look up soon, then she was out the door. Now, as Romero's crew began to file out of the house, he watched Theo flirt and he knew Amber was right: things were looking up already.

"We're all set," Romero told David as the sound man left the house. "Okay if we follow you down into, town?"

"No problem," David said. He waited for Romero to exit, Theo clutching his arm and looking at him like he was a piece of tenderloin. He followed, pausing to lock the door. Tonight at midnight, the Beings of Light Channeling Circle would be back, along with the film crew, and he wished he could do something about that. Oh well.

He adjusted his jacket and captain's hat--he'd taken them to a tailor and now they fit perfectly, but the itchiness of the wool wherever it touched his skin was driving him crazy. As he walked down the steps and got into the passenger side of Theo's Volvo, he wished he'd thought to wear long johns beneath the trousers.

They rode in uncomfortable silence, David's resentment and anger growing with each passing moment; but Theo was too busy watching Romero's van in the rear view mirror to pick up on his body language. Finally, ready to explode, he cleared his throat. "Remember that night when we ended up screwing in the ballroom?"

Surprised by his blunt words, she glanced at him. "Yes?"

"I assume you were only pretending to be possessed?" He'd chosen his words not for any truth they might hold, but for their cruelty and, though their harshness startled even him, they felt so good that he pressed on. "Isn't it true that you were aware of what you were doing the entire time?''

"Why, David," she purred, "how can you ask such a question?" If he'd riled her at all, she'd hidden it perfectly. "You saw her. She manifested as a dark cloud. Poor Christabel," she added with a sigh.

Poor Christabel, my ass. His need to explode dissipating back into distaste, he wasn't even tempted to voice his thoughts. Instead, he shrugged and they rode in silence until they arrived at the Moose Lodge's parking lot.

"Here we are," Theo said. She got out of the car, carefully lifting her full satin skirts to keep them from brushing the ground. Smiling, she turned, and bending to peer at him, asked, "Don't you think Jerry Romero is a darling man? I wonder... Do you know if he's married?"

David's worry about ending their sexual relationship while remaining on civil terms--a necessity in such a small town had lessened slightly when Jerry Romero had appeared on the scene, but he'd assumed that she'd be back, ready to crawl into his bed and shred his flesh as soon as Romero left town. Her words now made him realize that either she was pathologically self-absorbed, or she'd already written him off.

Getting out of the car and adjusting his sailing cap, he realized that for the first time, getting dumped wasn't devastating: it was a relief.

The Cox Residence: 6:28P.M.

Melanie Lord, her red hair flying and her brain fried from driving around in circles in the absolute sticks, pulled the rental car to a screeching halt in front of the ranch house on the outskirts of Red Cay. She couldn't see a house number, but it was the only one that matched Amber's description: it had yellow paint and gingerbread trim. "This has to be the place."

Though there'd been nothing wrong with the map she'd picked up at the rental agency in Santa Barbara, Melanie had repeatedly gotten lost once she'd reached Red Cay because there was an amazing lack of street signs, and Amber had laughed when she'd asked for landmarks. "There's a cow on the corner of Mollejas and Las Cabezas."

California was a foreign land with foreign names and, if that wasn't bad enough, her plane had arrived an hour and a half late, adding to her frayed nerves. Then the car people had made her wait another twenty minutes while they prepared her vehicle. But, she told herself as she turned off the ignition, those mundane irritations had at least kept her from going nuts thinking about what might happen when she surprised David with her presence in a public place.

"Melanie!"

Startled, she looked up and saw Amber flying down the front walk. An instant later, she was yanking the car door open and dragging her from the car.

"I was afraid you chickened out!" Amber cried as she threw her arms around her.

"The plane was late, then I got lost," Melanie explained, returning the hug. "I'm sorry!"

Amber stepped back and surveyed her. "You're a mess."

"Thanks a lot." Melanie tried vainly to pat her windblown hair into place.

"Don't bother with that," Amber said as she touched her own hair, which was piled in waves on top of her head and held fast with old-fashioned pearl-encrusted combs. "It's really late and we have to get you ready!"

Within three minutes, Melanie found herself standing in the middle of Kelly Cox's room, dry-cleaner's bags in her hands, as the two girls slipped into their dresses. Amber wore a revealing black gown from early in the century and her friend, a completely sweet little airhead, wore a red dress from the same era.

"Cool, huh?" Kelly asked, as Amber grabbed another drycleaner's bag from the back of a chair and pulled it from the gown it protected.

Melanie nodded, raising her arms to let the girls slip a drop-dead-beautiful green dress over her head. She felt like a half-baked Cinderella. "Amber, has your dad seen that dress you're wearing?"

"No. It's a surprise." Amber blushed lightly and both girls giggled.

The gown made her look twenty-five years old. "He's in for a lot of surprises tonight," Melanie said darkly.

"I'm going to phone Jason and Rick," Kelly announced suddenly, "and tell them to get their tails over here now."

She left, shutting the door firmly behind her. "I knew she'd leave," Amber said blithely. "Let's do your hair. I wish it was longer," she added, brandishing a curling iron.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Melanie asked.

"Uh huh."

"What about this Theo woman? She's his date?"

"Daddy's only going with her because he said he would," Amber said through a mouthful of bobby pins. "He found out I was right."

"Still, she is his date. I shouldn't intrude in public."

"Don't sweat it. All she did while I was at the house this afternoon was flirt with Jerry Romero, right in front of Daddy. It was so embarrassing. She's got her tits trussed up like you wouldn't believe and she kept shoving them in Romero's face. Poor Daddy, he was humiliated. Believe me, he'll be overjoyed to see you."

"I hope you're right."

Kelly came back in. "They're on their way. Wow, Melanie, you look incredible." She walked to her dresser and brought over a tray of make-up.

Ordinarily, Melanie hated to be fussed with, but tonight it was a relief.

"There," Amber said, holding up an ostrich feather. "We'll just stick this in your hair and you'll be all set."

Five minutes later, Kelly finished making her up, and only pouted slightly when Melanie declined to have her modest cleavage highlighted with blush. The teen stepped back and examined her. "God," she whispered, "you look just like her."

"Like who?"

"You really do," Amber chimed in. "Oh, you'll look just perfect with Daddy."

Melanie rose and walked toward the full-length mirror on the back of the door. "Okay," she said impatiently. "Spill it. Who do I look like?"

"Lizzie Baudey," Amber said

Melanie barely recognized herself. Her hair had been swept up in soft curls and tiny tendrils coiled down her neck. The feather wasn't garish, as she'd feared, but perfect, and the gown was beyond perfection. The emerald color matched her eyes and set off her red hair and pale complexion faultlessly.

The gown's straight, off-the-shoulder bodice was made for her petite bustline and the skirt flowed sensuously down over her hips, caressing her legs and making the same soft swooshing sound as a satin and chiffon party dress she'd especially loved as a child. A bare flash of calf showed when she moved and, after Amber clipped small green bows to them, her soft black ballet-style pumps complimented the rest of the ensemble.

"Wait'll you see the painting," Kelly said. "You'll freak."

"Painting?"

"In Body House, there's a portrait of Lizzie hanging in the parlor. She's wearing your dress." Amber snickered.. "Or you're wearing hers. Here, put these on." Amber handed her a pair of delicate marcasite-and-pearl drop earrings.

"Girls," called Kelly's mother. "Your dates are here."

Melanie heard herself giggling along with the teenagers and, for the first time, she was glad she'd come. If nothing else went right, at least she got to enjoy feeling like a kid again.

Red Cay Beach: 6:50P.M.

"Come on, Billy, we have to get to the Lodge. The party started an hour ago!"

Billy Galiano, dressed in a pirate costume from last Halloween, looked up from the tide pool. "Just a sec, Mom! I'm coming."

There was something in a plastic bag floating down there among the sea urchins and he intended to see what it was, even if it killed him. He climbed farther down into the rocky recesses and fished the bag from the water. "Gotcha!"

"Billy!"

"Coming!" He had to hurry because he was completely hidden by the rocks now and Mom would send Dad after him if he didn't reappear quickly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move on the rocks across from him. Crab! Delighted, he looked up, then caught his breath as he saw a mean-looking man with big black whiskers staring at him from his perch on the rocks across the tide pool. He couldn't have been there the whole time, could he? The man smiled, and he was so scary that Billy almost threw the bag at him.

"Billy! Now!"

The sound of his father's voice ended Billy's paralysis. He scrambled up the rocks and ran like crazy.

His mom and dad, dressed as Pilgrims, stood waiting for him. Dad checked his watch as Billy appeared. "Get in the car, sport," he said. "Pronto."

Billy ran ahead of his parents, wanting to see what was in the bag before they caught up, but they were walking fast too, so he couldn't. They were always afraid of him finding bad things on the shore, like hypodermic needles and stuff, and they would probably make him throw away the bag, sight unseen, if they caught him with it. They'd been extra weird about all sorts of things ever since his best friend Matty Farmer fell out of the lighthouse last May. Thinking of Matty suddenly made him feel very sad.