The Accused and the Damned: Book Three, the Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 3) (13 page)

She crossed one leg over the other, faced him diagonally.

Eddie said, “Now what did Alice ask you to do for her?”

“It took two visits to get her to open up. At first she didn’t reveal what was bothering her. When she finally told me, she asked how she could get rid of the spirit.”

Eddie’s ears perked up at that. Removing a spirit from a location was difficult, and it often backfired. When a ghost realized it was unwelcome, it could become agitated and dangerous. It didn’t turn ghosts into killers, but it could explain a lot.

“And you told her how to do it.”

The Madam nodded. “I counseled against it, but she just wanted it out of her house. She was very—”

“Religious. And she couldn’t square the existence of the ghost with her beliefs. Cognitive dissonance. Better to get rid of the ghost like it never existed than have to reevaluate her lifelong faith.”

Eddie knew the faithful weren’t necessarily better-behaved than the non-religious. And religion didn’t necessarily change behavior—usually a person’s faith drove it underground. Alice, not getting satisfactory answers from her pastor, had decided to seek the advice of a soothsayer discreetly.

Ms. Magloin watched him for a long second. “Like I said, I advised against it.”

“So what did you tell her to do to get rid of it?”

“It’s a slow, careful process. You don’t want to enrage the spirit so you take baby steps. At first, you simply explain the situation to them as nicely as possible: they are dead, this is your home now, they have to move on to the Light. Usually that works.”

Eddie couldn’t help himself. “Usually? You’ve got good metrics on that?”

She gave him a cross look. “If that doesn’t work, you try more … aggressive methods. Burn sage, call in God or the archangels …”

“But Alice had already called on God, probably his archangels too. That wasn’t getting her anywhere.”

“Right. So I also recommended a spiritual detox.”

Eddie let a silence grow. He decided to see how forthcoming the Madam was being with him.

“Do you know who Ciara is?”

The Madam frowned. “She never mentioned anybody by that name.”

“C-I-A-R-A. It’s a weird spelling.”

Ms. Magloin tilted her head to the side. Looked like she was thinking about it. “No, I’m sorry.”

Eddie smiled. “Lady, you’re not telling me the truth.”

Her cheeks reddened. “How dare you.”

“She didn’t go to the library and she didn’t search for CIARA on her computer. That means someone like you told her what it was.”

The Madam grew thoughtful. “Interesting. She was so worried about anyone finding her out I’m surprised she wrote it down somewhere.”

Eddie hid his surprise at her correct guess. “Clear, invoke, ask, receive, apply. The five steps for channeling a spirit.”

“Yes.”

And that confirmed Eddie’s suspicions that had been fermenting since he’d spoken to Anson Ketcher. According to her husband, Alice had exhibited odd behavior during the ghost’s most recent visits, all of which sounded like she’d either been trying to channel the ghost or had been possessed herself.

Eddie shook his head. “So let me get this straight. First you tell her how to get rid of the spirit.”

“Against my advice.”

“Then you tell her how to channel what is probably an angry spirit?”

The Madam’s eyes burned holes in him. “I told her it wasn’t a good idea. But she was insistent. If I didn’t tell her, she would have just gone elsewhere, maybe to some quack. Or worse, she would have looked for information online. I figured it was better if I shared my expertise.”

Eddie folded his arms. “For a price, of course.”

“I didn’t charge her for the last two sessions. I felt for the woman.”

Eddie was taken aback. She sounded sincere, but of course she was an actress. It could have been a lie.

He decided to be generous. “I believe you. What’s the difference between channeling and being possessed?”

“The first is consensual. The second is more like psychological rape.”

“Is it the same type of connection?”

She shook her head no. “With channeling, there is a give-and-take. The channeler and the spirit share control of the body, though the channeler should be able to sever the connection at will. With possession, the spirit is in control.”

Eddie chewed on that a moment. “But channeling didn’t work for her, did it?”

Ms. Magloin’s eyes slid away from him. He felt the wall going up between them. The only thing to do was wait and see if he needed to reference the police and the lawyers again.

“No, it didn’t. And we had an argument during one session about it. She stormed out of here early that day.”

Check. That must have been the same day Anson had invited Giles over.

“So what did you tell her?”

She looked up. “Channeling is a one-way street, but that’s not to say it’s the only road available in the spirit world.”

“Translation.”

“We all take it for granted that ghosts are capable of possessing us. But possession can work both ways.”

“You’re saying a person can … possess a ghost?”

“It’s happened.”

Eddie leaned forward. “You instructed Alice Ketcher to possess the spirit?”

“I didn’t tell her to do anything. I just gave her her options.”

“Come off it. You showed her the secret door to a room she didn’t know existed. She was at her wit’s end. Of course she was going to open it. But what good would possessing the spirit be? Like you said, possession is a form of rape for Christ’s sake.”

“Yes, but this possession would have been done in self-defense. Remember, the spirit was wreaking havoc in Alice’s life. If Alice tried this, it was done as a last resort.”

“But why?”

“To understand. Whatever the spirit was trying to communicate, it wasn’t getting through. By possessing her, Alice could know her completely. Maybe it would have given them both some peace. Maybe Alice could have helped her. Or maybe Alice could have pushed the ghost into the Light.”

“Or maybe it killed Alice.”

“Ghosts don’t kill people, Mr. McCloskey. You know that.”

Eddie went on. “Did she talk about her husband?”

“Yes. I told her to leave him.”

Shit.

“Why?”

“They were like you and Moira. She was his soulmate, but he wasn’t hers.”

“After your little chat, did she make any plans to divorce him?”

“She told me she spoke to an attorney and was making arrangements.”

Eddie filed that away. “Okay, now give me a crash course in channeling.”

Eddie drove to the nursing home again. It took him thirty minutes and he relished the silence of the car ride. Armed with this information from the psychic, he was considering breaking all of the protocols his brother had taught him when he returned to the Ketcher house that night. Giles Tyson would be proud.

He planned to channel the ghost. Then see what happened. Things couldn’t get any worse for Anson. And no call from Stan yet, either, about how to test the writing on the wall.

For now he wanted to talk to Lee Oliver, previous owner of the house, about the man’s dead wife.

The same nurse was working the front office. The man was in different-colored scrubs and wore a bored expression. He and Eddie hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot yesterday. He’d be lucky to get in.

The nurse said, “You’re back.”

“Mr. Oliver having a better day today?”

“Why’d you want to talk to him again?”

Eddie caught the suspicion in the man’s voice. “I’m going to level with you. I’m here because a man has been charged with murdering his wife in Mr. Oliver’s old home. There’s a very good chance that Mr. Oliver’s wife still … maintains a presence in that home if you catch my drift.”

“I know who you are.” The man looked left and right to make sure nobody else was around then stood and put his head in the window and lowered his voice. “I’m a ghost-hunter too. Just an amateur, though.”

Eddie was surprised, but he quickly offered his hand. He’d take any help he could get. “Always good to meet a fellow hunter.”

The nurse pumped Eddie’s hand. “I’m Steve. I was bored and googled your name yesterday and found out what you’re doing. I read your blog from start to finish yesterday.”

Eddie felt embarrassed. “That probably took all of five minutes.”

Steve smiled. “No, no it was good. I loved all the info on the Pennsylvania job. Very cool stuff. How long have you been doing this?”

Eddie smiled. “Long time, but I’ve been on my own for less than a year.”

“Very cool, very cool. Working in a place like this, you know.” Steve looked around. “I’ve experienced a lot.”

All of it debunkable, probably. “I’ll bet you have.”

Steve smiled. “Mr. Oliver isn’t always with it but I’ll go talk to him. Wait here a minute.”

Steve disappeared and Eddie paced the waiting area. The nurse returned a few minutes later and opened the security door for Eddie. “I’ll take you back.”

Eddie followed Steve down a long hallway and ignored the impulse to look through every open door they passed. He heard somebody yelling profanities in one room. A wheelchair-bound octogenarian burst out of the next room and nearly clotheslined Eddie. A pleasant-looking old woman with thick glasses watched him approach and smiled and God blessed him.

Eventually they reached a wide auditorium filled with folding tables. The residents were spread out in the room, sitting one or two to a table. Steve took him to the far corner of the room where a tall, gangly man slouched in a wheelchair that looked too small for him. An oxygen tank sat next to him.

“Mr. Oliver, you should have your mask on,” Steve said half-heartedly. Eddie could tell this was a long-fought battle between the nursing staff and Mr. Oliver.

“Damned thing’s uncomfortable as all get-out,” Oliver said without malice.

“Mr. Oliver, this is the man I told you about, Eddie McCloskey. He had some questions about your house.”

Oliver offered a liver-spotted, skeletal hand. Eddie shook it and found it cold. “Thanks for your time, Mr. Oliver.”

“Don’t stand on ceremony, Mr. McCloskey. I could croak any minute and then wouldn’t be able to answer your questions. Have a seat and fire away.”

Eddie chuckled and sat. The nurse left them alone. “I’m very sorry about your wife, sir.”

“Mary was a great woman. Put up with me all those years. I even cheated on her once. Kissed Janey Albright, one of the typists, at the Christmas party in sixty-seven. Mary knew what I’d done before I got the words out. She said, I love you, but don’t ever do it again or I’ll kill you.”

Oliver broke into a coughing fit that lasted fifteen seconds. Eddie didn’t know what to do with himself. After the old man came up for air, he said, “C-O-P-D. Never even smoked a day in my life, you believe that? My lawyer thinks some chemical at the foundry did this to me but it’s impossible to prove. I don’t know what good a settlement would do me anyway. It’s not like I can go to Disney World. If I see any money, I’m going to be irresponsible for the first time in my life and blow it all on hookers and coke.”

Eddie loved the old man’s droll sense of humor. “What about your children?”

“My boys are both gone already. Car wreck killed the first. Industrial accident took the second. There’s nobody left but me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. That’s how it is. The earth keeps turning. No use in trying to make sense of the senseless. We’re here for a short while, there’s no meaning but the meaning we make for ourselves. I doubt anybody’s upstairs watching over us. So what do you want to ask me?”

“Your wife, Mary. I’m told she passed away in the home?”

“Yes.”

“Was she very ill? Or was it sudden?”

Oliver laughed. “I have a sneaking suspicion that all death is sudden to the dying. She was very ill. Early onset Alzheimer’s. The docs tell me I have it now too. So if you come back tomorrow, I might think you’re my dead son.”

“I hope I don’t have to bother you again, Mr. Oliver.” Eddie leaned forward. “How did she pass? Was it painful?”

Oliver broke into another coughing fit so violent that Eddie feared the man was going to pass out. But none of the nurses in the room were concerned enough to come to the table.

Oliver’s coughing petered out. “That probably sounded bad to you, but it was par for the course.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Other than donating a lung?”

Eddie smiled.

Oliver brought his oxygen mask up and took a couple deep breaths before he spoke again. “Mary was pretty far along. The last few months of her life were horrible. Most of the time she was just checked out, but every now and then she’d have a moment of clarity where she’d realize what was happening to her. In one of those bright moments, she asked me to kill her.”

The old man broke off. His eyes watered up.

Eddie said nothing.

Oliver’s voice was thick with emotion when he spoke again. “I never owned up, but the cops must have suspected. Chief Towson’s a good man, never gave me trouble over it. I helped Mary on her way.”

Eddie tried to keep his eyes from bulging.

“I don’t regret doing it because it’s what she wanted. I couldn’t stand seeing her checked out, and she couldn’t stand being lucid so nobody was happy. But still it’s hard. I hope you’re never in a position to have to make that decision, mister. It weighs heavy on me some days.”

“I’m very sorry.”

Tears in his glassy eyes, Oliver smiled. “It is what it is.”

“How long did you stay in the house after she passed?”

“About a year.”             

“Did you ever see her again, after she passed?”

Oliver made a face. “What? You mean like a ghost?”

Eddie nodded.

“There were times I felt like she was there. It was comforting. But I never saw her. And I think most people feel like that when they’ve lost a loved one. Everybody tells me she’s in heaven, dear old Mary, just waiting for me. I hope the fairy tale is true, and I hope the Admissions Committee sees fit to let me in.”

Eddie laughed. “Was Mary trained in the martial arts?”

“You mean like all that Jackie Lee, Bruce Chan stuff?” Oliver had a good laugh at that. “No.”

“Self-defense?”

“My Mary was too nice to hurt a house fly, kid.”

“No temper at all?”

“I can count how many times she gave me the third-degree on one hand and I’d still be able to play pinball.”

Eddie thought for a moment, not wanting to forget anything. He had Oliver lucid. Tomorrow or the next day might be a different story for the old man.

Then he remembered one last thing. “Was she right-handed, Mary?”

Oliver hesitated. “Not naturally. But they trained her to be in school. You know, sign of the devil and all that.”