“The year Geoff died, I vaguelyremember the sheriff asking after a missing tourist. But we had no reason to believe the tourist had died in Hillvale.” She sat there sadly, gathering her thoughts. “It must have been his spirit who spoke to us on Zack’s birthday a year or so later. He didn’t give his name. We were trying to contact Zack, to see if he was in a happierplace.”
Walker gritted his teeth. He handed his phoneto Sam so she could look up the genealogy he’d downloaded. She poked through it, apparently understanding his need to confirmdates.
“What did the spirit say?” Sam asked as shescrolled.
“Mostly, the stranger wanted to express love for his family, but he was too furious to be clear. And we were too afraid to listen. We were expecting Zach’s gentle presence, and this one was justtoo forceful. We could try again, Isuppose.”
“We tried that. Tullah claims he is too far out of reach to speak to us, but her spirit guide warned of evil and fire and said to tell his son to beware.” Sam sent him a guilty look. “I didn’t know she meantyou.”
Walker wanted to rage about the non-validity of spirit guides and voodoo and schizophrenic voices, but Sam and Cass were thepublic he was currently serving, not his family. He bit his tongue and played along. “It sounds like Tullah knows something. Was she here eighteen years ago?” He might not believe in spirits, but he’d learned there was a kernel of truth behind every mystery the Lucysproduced.
“No, Tullah joined us a year or more after Katrina wiped out her home. She’s the one who told Dinah the café wasavailable. Natural disasters bring out the best and worst in people, and Dinah had been having a hard time in NewOrleans.”
Walker was afraid the old woman was wearing out and starting to ramble, but all information was useful. “Who else was there backthen?”
Cass hesitated. He had no way of knowing if she was gathering memories or choosing her lies. A little of both, he suspected.“Daisy, of course. She walked through time and found us when she ran away from home. Susan McQueen was part of the commune. She was at the séance, but she doesn’t participate much in the town otherwise. Marta Josephine was probably there. She’s been with us since she leftBerkley.”
“What about Valdis?” Samasked.
“Valdis and your mother are sisters, dear. Their parents owned thecommune’s farm, and they grew up in Hillvale. But Valdis left for college, and Susannah left after Zach died. Valdis only recently returned after some tragedy she won’t tell usabout.”
“Harvey and Aaron?” Walker asked impatiently. He couldn’t imagine any of those unworldly women hitting his father over the head. Harvey, the long-haired musician, and fastidious Aaron, the antique dealer,were probably too young, but he had totry.
“Oh Harvey is a friend of Monty’s. He’s not been around long. I’m not certain what brought Aaron up, but it was long after that particular séance. He doesn’t participate in themanyway.”
“So the circle consisted of you, Daisy, Susan, and Marta?” Sam asked. She appeared to be typing notes into hisphone.
“Yes, that sounds about right.It probably would have been better if we could have had some men, if the spirit was male, but wedidn’t.”
Walker seriously doubted that four irrational women had any idea of what happened to his father. But he had only straws to grasp, so he tried to keep them sorted. “Once you knew there was a spirit floating around, did you even attempt to figure outwhy?”
“Evil has inhabited theland around the lodge for as long as we know,” Cass said as pragmatically as if she claimed the lodge had termites. “We avoid going there. All we could do was try to reach out for the spirit and lay him to rest. If Tullah couldn’t reach him, then we may have at least partiallysucceeded.”
“Valdis goes up on the mountain,” Sam pointedout.
“Valdis walks with death. She must learnto be strong. But this is why we need you, Sam. The evil must be eradicated before any more are hurt. Daisy sees disaster in the future if we don’tact.”
Cass was so insistent, that Walker would almost have listened—had she said an arsonist was on the loose or tree beetles were destroying the pines. But evil and spirits did not compute. Maybe they weremetaphors.
Before the old ladycould lay a guilt trip on Sam, Walker intervened. “You drugged Sam and sent her blindly up an unfamiliar mountain into the arms of strangers. I’m thinking she’s better off going far, far away, maybe looking for her mother to get the realstory.”
In the mirror, he read a flicker of panic on Cass’s face. Good. Mushrooms had been a damned dangeroustrick.
“He’s right, Cass,” Sam said.“It was a horrifying experience. If I have no guarantee that it won’t happen again, I can’t stay inHillvale.”
“You needed to see it with clear eyes,” Cass repeated, almost angrily. “Your mother sent you to be brainwashed by the most deadly Nulls she could imagine. You would never have opened your eyes to possibilities if I hadn’t interfered. Did you feel the earth? Could you not sensewhat was happening? Can you understand that Mariah and the others aren’tfreaks?”
Sam waited so long to reply that Walker almost missed his turn in anticipation of her answer. When it came, it wasn’t the one hewanted.
“Misguided, perhaps, but not freaks,” Sam said so quietly he almost didn’t hear her. “There’s a difference in the earth energy between one side of the vortex and theother.”
Walker had gonesilent after Sam’s admission about feeling earth energy. She didn’t blame him. She’s always been aware of good and bad energies. It helped her know where to plant. But Jade and Wolf had made it understood that this wasn’t normal. They’d said she was imagining things. So she’d quit telling anyone—untilnow.
LettingWalker work it out for himself, Sam continued adding names to his phone as she dragged them out of Cass. Casting aside her whirling emotions, she focused on the here and now, aware of a subtle connection to her great-aunt beneath what was said aloud. If she believed that link—Cass was not telling all sheknew.
Given what she already understood about the wily woman, Sam was inclined to believethis odd bond. To Cass, Walker was an outsider. In Cass’s mind, that kept him off the need-to-knowlist.
But in many ways—despite her hereditary status—Sam was also an outsider. She knew how that felt too well, and her shoulders twitched in discomfort. But in this case, maybe being an outsider was a goodthing.
