“I’m not exaggerating. That man is so hot for you he can hardly restrain himself.”
“He’s a gentleman.”
“In broad daylight.”
Rainbow swatted her sister with her damp towel. “Cut it out, Dawn.”
“Why? It’s obvious you’d like him to grab you. I just thought you should know the feeling’s mutual.”
“So?” Rainbow kept her gaze fastened on the sandy path that passed for a sidewalk here as they walked between beachfront cottages that looked as if they’d been transplanted from some small fishing town in New England. “It’s just a sexual attraction, Dawn. It’s meaningless.”
“A great many meaningful relationships have started with sexual attraction.”
“Well, this is one relationship that can never be meaningful.”
“Because of your psychic abilities, you mean?”
Rainbow gave a brief nod, wishing her sister would drop this subject. The mere thought of Jake was beginning to make her irritable.
“Well, just because Walter was a toad doesn’t mean this guy is,” Dawn said sensibly. “You can’t be a nun for the rest of your life.”
“Why not? I like my life just fine.”
“Ah, but fine is a long way from great, and I have a feeling Jake could make your life great.”
“Not if he thinks I’m a fraud and a swindler.”
“He’s backed off of that.”
“Yeah, right. Maybe his hormones are getting in the way of his brain.”
Dawn started to laugh, but when Rainbow shot her a nasty look, she turned it quickly into a cough. “Everything has to start somewhere, Rainy.”
“But hormones wear off. And then we’d be right back to where we started, him with his scientific superiority, and me just a swindler and a fraud.”
“So have a fling.”
Rainbow stopped walking and gaped at her sister. “You’re kidding!”
Dawn shrugged. “Hey, if a man ever looked at me the way Jake Carpenter was looking at you, I’d jump in with both feet. Opportunities like him don’t come knocking every day, even for beautiful women like you.”
Rainbow felt a surge of sympathy for her sister. As far as she knew, Dawn had never had a romantic relationship. Men seemed to look right through her, which really wasn’t fair, because although she was chunky and dressed mannishly, she had one of the nicest personalities and sweetest temperaments of anybody walking the earth. She deserved to be loved more than most people. “Dawn—”
Dawn silenced her with a wave of her hand. “Don’t say it, Rainy. I got over it a long time ago, and I’m content. I just hate to see you miss an opportunity because you’re afraid.”
“But I have every reason to be afraid!”
“So does a skydiver, but he doesn’t want to miss the experience. You’ve built a shell around yourself, Rainy. You need to break out of it.”
“Setting myself up for another emotional catastrophe is hardly likely to accomplish that.”
Dawn sighed and started trudging toward the cot-rage again. “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe.”
But Rainbow was more disturbed than she wanted to admit. Dawn was now the second person—Gene was the first—who’d suggested she was afraid and hiding in a shell. She didn’t think of herself that way at all. No, she saw herself as having gained some wisdom so that she was now sensibly cautious.
And it was sensible to be cautious. Only a fool would step into the path of a moving car, and she put men in the category of dangerous vehicles which could run her down if she wasn’t careful.
On the other hand, whispered that nagging little voice in her brain that always put in its two cents at precisely the wrong time, even though cars are dangerous, you get into one and drive it all the time.
But it’s not the same, she argued back. Not the same at all. Getting into one and stepping in front of one were not the same thing. When she got into one, she was in the driver’s seat.
And with Jake, she could never be the driver. She sensed that with an instinct so deep it defied logic. With Jake she would be on a roller coaster ride blindfolded, with no idea where the track might suddenly vanish and fling her into the air without even a parachute to break her fall. No sensible person would do such a thing.
The engineers arrived punctually at one. Most of the Towers residents were out on the patio to greet them, as were Rainbow and her family. Mary Todd drove up in her golf cart just a few seconds after the engineers, with her beau, Ted Wannamaker, in tow. Ted, a distinguished-looking man of about seventy, had the resigned look of a someone going to the gallows.
“Ted doesn’t believe in ghosts,” Mary announced to Jake. “You should get along well with him, Jake. The two of you think alike.”
Jake and Ted exchanged looks, not quite sure how to interpret this remark.
“The things I do,” Ted said finally, “to convince Mary I really am devoted. Apparently now it’s a ghost hunt.”
“The place is haunted,” Mary said with a sharp rap of her cane on the pavement. She turned to Jake. “I hear you have furniture on your ceiling.”
Jake gave up and shrugged. “It was there the last time I looked.”
“Bolted?” Ted asked with genuine interest. “Why did you put it there?”
“I didn’t put it there. And no, it’s not bolted. I don’t know what’s holding it up there.”
“Well, something must be holding it there,” Ted said reasonably.
Jake felt a surge of frustration but bit back an annoyed response.
“Of course something is holding it up there,” Mary said sharply. “Something supernatural.”
“Oh, really,” said Ted disbelievingly.
Jake shrugged off his irritation. Why should he be irritated at Ted Wannamaker, who was simply making the same assumptions he had made himself? “You’re welcome to come take a look at it,” he said. “Nearly everyone else in the world has had a go at it.”
Ted nodded. “I think I will, if you don’t mind. Mary’s absolutely convinced that something here will convince me that ghosts really do exist. She’s made me promise to try to keep an open mind.”
Mary snorted. “Your mind has been closed for at least forty years.”
“On this subject, perhaps.” Ted gave her an affectionate smile.
Just then Gene joined the group. Mary at once took advantage of the presence of another distinguished-looking man near her age, and looped her arm through Gene’s. She introduced Gene and Ted, then said with a coy bat of her eyelashes, “Gene is a movie actor.”
Gene looked down at her with an amused smile. “They need ladies in Hollywood who are as beautiful as you, Mary.”
Mary gave an almost girlish laugh, while Ted’s pleasant smile faded to a frown. “Flattery will get you anything, Gene.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Lifting her hand from his forearm, Gene kissed it.
Rainbow, watching, wanted to growl in disgust. Nellie Blair, sitting only a few feet away, looked dismayed. Seeing her expression, Rainbow decided that enough was enough.
Marching over, she took Gene’s other arm. “Uncle Gene, could I have a word with you, please?”
He looked down at her. “In a minute, Rainy.”
“No. Right now.”
He arched a brow, looking faintly amused. Then he turned, excusing himself to Mary, Ted, and Jake.
“That was rude, Rainy,” he said, when they had moved a distance from the others.
“So was what you were doing! Did you see Nellie’s face? She looked as if her heart were breaking. Now, if you want to play ladies’ man, I suggest you go back to California to do it. While you’re here, kindly remember that this is a small town and I have to live in it, and confine your tomcatting to women who are experienced enough to handle it!”
“Tomcatting!” Gene pressed a hand to his heart. “I’m wounded.”
“Bull,” Rainbow said bluntly.
“Besides, it wasn’t my fault. I just wanted to meet Ted. It w
as Mary who turned it into something else, and I was just playing along. She wants to make Ted jealous, you know.”
“I don’t care who started it! You’ve been dating Nellie, and she deserves a certain amount of respect from you!”
“Well, of course!” Gene hesitated a moment, looking past his niece to where Nellie sat, her face pointedly turned the other way. “All right, all right. I didn’t mean for this to happen, though, so don’t blame me just because I was being gallant.”
“Being gallant means considering the feelings of the woman to whom you’ve been paying special attention for the last few days!”
Gene sighed and gave her a faint smile. “You’re right, of course, my dear. But it was just so tempting to play the game with Mary.”
“Well, you’ve done considerably more damage than making Ted Wannamaker jealous. Besides, he’s known Mary his entire life and has probably seen her play this game a million times.”
“That doesn’t mean the game doesn’t still work.” Gene patted her hand, then walked over to sit beside Nellie. Rainbow watched him speak to Nellie, and after a few moments, the woman’s head lifted and she began to smile again.
Of course, Rainbow reminded herself, she may have just made a big mistake by sending Gene back to Nellie. If he decided to ride off into the sunset in his usual style, Nellie might only wind up being hurt worse than if the relationship broke off right now.
The three engineers, who had been standing in a huddled knot beside their van, began to unload their equipment. Jake strode over to help them, as did a number of his neighbors.
They were an interesting crowd, Rainbow thought, as she watched from a distance. Two of the men had hair below their shoulders, and looked as if they might have escaped from a commune back e sixties. They wore cutoffs and Tshirts that Gene probably would have been proud of.
One shirt said, “Engineers do it carefully.” The other said, “Long live slide rules.” That in spite of the fact that the fellow had at least two calculators hanging from his belt.
The third man looked like a stereotypical nerd. Tall and thin with thick glasses, he wore rumpled Khaki slacks and a white shirt that was buttoned to the throat. In his breast pocket was a plastic protector full of pens and mechanical pencils.
The nerd seemed to be in charge of the group. He supervised the removal of the equipment to the lobby, then stood with a clipboard, checking off items as they were set down.
“Okay,” he said finally, his voice reedy. “Everything’s here.” He turned to Jake. “You say the events have been happening throughout the building?”
Jake nodded. “I have to point out, though, that the elevators are still working.” “Hmm.”
“Cool,” said one of the long-haired guys.
“And,” Jake continued, “I haven’t been able to find any signs of settling around the foundation. No cracks or anything.”
“Hmm,” said the nerd again. “But it was a sudden shift?”
“Well, I don’t know that it was a shift,” Jake said. “I mean, I can’t say for sure the building moved. But everything started flying around at about the same time.”
Those who had crowded into the lobby with them bobbed their heads in unison, looking like a flock of strange tropical birds.
“Did it feel as if anything were moving?” the nerd asked.
“Only the stuff that was flying in the air,” one resident called out. Again everyone nodded. “Hmm. Is anybody’s door sticking?” All the heads shook. “Hmm.”
Rainbow, along with Roxy and Dawn, stood nearby and listened to the exchange. Turning her head slightly, she found Jake looking straight at her. Why had she never realized just how warm blue eyes could be? Her heart skipped a little beat.
“This may take a while,” the nerd said. “If things were flying around, I’d expect there to be some obvious structural damage. At the very least, doors should be sticking or refusing to close.”
“Maybe the whole building’s falling into a sinkhole,” Abe Levinson said.
“That wouldn’t explain the furniture on Jake’s ceiling,” Bill Dunlop argued.
Jake wondered if he should just give guided tours of his living room. Maybe he could charge a dollar a pop until he had enough to buy himself a new recliner.
The hippie with the slide rule T-shirt looked at Jake. “There’s furniture on your ceiling?”
Jake swallowed a sigh and nodded.
“Like, too totally cool, dude!” The other hippie nodded.
“You wouldn’t think so if you had to live with it.” No, man,” the guy said, “you gotta think of the possibilities!”
The nerd cleared his throat. “That’s what we’re here to check out,” he said, with a frown to Slide Rule.
“Aw, man,” said Slide Rule, “you know no building settling is going to put furniture on the ceiling.”
“Exactly!” said Roxy, swimming forward, her turban slipping to one side and her royal purple caftan billowing around her. “That’s what I’ve been saying”
The nerd frowned at her. “Excuse me, madam, but we’re here to check out the building. If there’s furniture on the ceiling, there has to be a good, logical reason for it, and we’ll find it.”
“Hah!” said Roxy, folding her arms.
“I’m with her, man.”
Nerd shook his head. “Just do your job, Evans. Just do your job. The furniture is probably bolted or affixed with some kind of adhesive.”
“It isn’t affixed with anything,” Roxy said. “It moves.”
Rainbow felt amusement curve her lips as she listened to the discussion. Roxy never gave ground when she believed she was right. Rainbow, on the other hand, was usually inclined to let things lie, and let people believe what they chose—unless, of course, they called her a fraud.
The doors of the lobby opened to admit Colonel Albemarle, decked out in his customary khakis and pith helmet, and carrying both his swagger stick and a Dustbuster. Behind him came his squad of five men, all of them armed with Dustbusters.
“We saw the gathering outside,” he announced, touching his swagger stick to the brim of his helmet. “Thought you might be having another run-in with the ghosts.”
The nerd frankly gaped, but Slide Rule grinned with evident appreciation.
“Let me guess,” said Slide Rule. “The vacuums are for the ghosts.”
“Yes, of course,” said Albemarle. “Who might you be?”
“Ah,” said Albemarle. “Well, you won’t find anything. Fields here sucked up the bounders last time we were here.” He turned to Jake. “Unless the rascals have returned?”
Jake didn’t quite know how to answer that. He seriously doubted that the ghosts had been vacuumed away—assuming there were any ghosts. After all, the furniture was still moving itself to his ceiling.
“They’re still here, Colonel,” said Pat Webster. “They’re moving the furniture in Jake’s apartment.”
Thank you very much! Jake thought. Yes, he really needed a band of old men armed with Dustbusters running around in his apartment trying to vacuum up the ghosts.
“They are?” said Trixie Martins. “They are, really? Maybe that’s what I heard banging all night. Maybe it wasn’t Harvey Little at all.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Harvey, who’d been trying to remain inconspicuous behind a fern. “There aren’t any ghosts in my apartment!”
“Then you were banging on the walls all night!”
“I was not!”
“Were too!”
“Was not!”
“Please!” Jake shouted, holding up his hands. “Let’s not turn this into a playground fight. These men are here to see if the building’s settling, and I suggest we let them get on with it. As for the banging on the walls, maybe it was the water pipes.”
The nerd shook his head. “I don’t think so. That has a very distincti
ve sound, you know. One wouldn’t mistake it for somebody banging on the walls.”
“Well, I wasn’t banging on anything!” Harvey de-dared, pushing a fern frond away from his face. ‘She was the one who was banging all night!”
Trixie gasped. “I did no such thing! But rest assured, next time you decide to throw things around, I’m calling the police!”
He glared at her. “So am I!”
“But don’t you see?” Roxy said, clasping her hands ecstatically, “it’s a common poltergeist phenomenon!”
“What do chickens have to do with it?” demanded a man in a red shirt.
“Chickens?” Roxy looked confused. “I didn’t say anything about chickens!”
“You were talking about poultry!”
“No, no, no! Poltergeists. A particularly mischievous and noisy type of ghost!”
Rainbow spoke. “But there are no adolescents in the building, Mother.”
“Hah. You could fool me.”
Slide Rule looked at Roxy. “Hey, I get it. These poltergeists only happen when there’s a teenager in me house, right?”
Roxy beamed at him. “Right. Usually, that is. There have been reports of them appearing otherwise, though.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Not really, mother. There is always an unusually high level of unreleased sexual tension involved, and that usually means adolescents.”
“Sexual tension?” said a man in a black polo shirt. “Are you suggesting that this building is hill of sexually frustrated people? I don’t think I like that!”
“Oh, good heavens, no,” said Roxy. “All you need is one person to generate the phenomenon. Besides, it’s doubtful a poltergeist is really a ghost. It’s more of a telekinetic phenomenon.”
“A what?”
“Telekinesis,” Roxy said. “You know, a person is moving things around or making noises through paranormal abilities. Not a ghost at all.”
A number of people were beginning to look at each other uneasily, and Rainbow decided this could get unpleasant if neighbors started suspecting one another of being the cause of this problem.
“No, mother, this is not a poltergeist,” she said firmly. “We already know that. We’ve already sensed the presence of Lucy and Joe.”
The room suddenly grew quiet as every eye fixed on her.