“What happened?”
“Just come get me! At once.” Click.
Rainbow looked at Jake. “Something happened. I’m almost afraid to imagine what. I need to go get her.”
“I’ll drive.”
She reached for her purse, but before she made a step toward the door, the phone rang again. She snatched at the receiver, hoping against hope that something else dreadful hadn’t happened.
“Rainbow? This is Pat Webster. You have to come up here right away! Terrible things are happening.”
“I may take a few minutes, Mrs. Webster. I need to rescue my mother and sister.”
“All right, but please hurry! The ghosts are going nuts.”
Eighteen
“So tell me,” Jake said, as they drove over to Mary Todd’s house, “do the tarot cards tell you what to do?”
Rainbow looked at him. Hadn’t they already discussed this? She wasn’t sure, but she understood why he needed reassurance. “No … the cards aren’t magic. They don’t have any power at all. And frankly, I’d say the same about horoscopes and any other method of divination.”
“Really? So what are they?”
“Guides. A means of focusing. Divination tools are really just a way to tap into your own subconscious—or your own psychic intuition. They don’t have any power of their own.”
“So you wouldn’t read a horoscope or the cards and let them control you?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Absolutely not. But I do let my intuition guide me, especially when it’s clear.”
He nodded and let the subject drop. Two minutes later they pulled up in front of Mary Todd’s house, a large clapboard structure with the grandeur of another era. Roxy and Dawn were waiting on the veranda and came down the walk to them before they had even pulled to a complete stop.
“Him!” Roxy said disapprovingly, when she saw Jake.
“Mother,” Rainbow said warningly. “What happened?”
“Oh, Mustafa decided to have a little fun. Would you believe those people wanted to test me? To see if I was a fraud? Well, you can be absolutely certain they’ll never question it again!”
Rainbow and Jake exchanged looks. “Maybe I’d better check on Mary,” Rainbow said.
He nodded. “Wave from the door if you need me.”
“You’re not going in there!” Roxy protested. “Rainbow…”
Rainbow ignored her mother and walked up the seashell-paved sidewalk to the house. When she knocked on the door, no one answered, so finally she opened it and stepped in. “Mary?” she called. “It’s Rainbow.”
“In the library,” Mary called back.
Rainbow walked down the hall and into the second doorway on the right. Mary Todd and four gentlemen were sitting in a circle facing the chair that must have recently been vacated by Roxy.
“Are you all right?” Rainbow asked. She didn’t like the looks on the gentlemen’s faces. They all looked pale and on the edge of shock.
But Mary Todd cackled her dry laugh. “I’m sorry I offended your mother, gal, but by George, that was some show!”
“It was a demon,” Arthur Archer said, his voice strained.
Rainbow took offense. “My mother doesn’t deal with demons, Reverend. Ever. Her guides are simply souls who have passed on.”
The look he gave her was hollow.
Mary cracked another laugh. “Don’t mind him, gal! He’s just learning that he doesn’t know as almighty much as he thought. Now, me, I think I’m going to enjoy being a ghost!”
Rainbow shuddered at the mere idea.
Hadley Philpott pried the pipestem from between his teeth and cleared his throat. “It’s fascinating! Absolutely fascinating! The ramifications—well, I’ll need some time to explore them thoroughly, but the intersection of two separate universes … the manifestation of powers that boggle the mind…” He trailed off, resuming his contemplation.
“They’ll be all right,” Mary told Rainbow. “Don’t worry about ‘em. Never hurts anybody to have their preconceptions smashed. They may be old dogs, but they can still learn new tricks, or I wouldn’t hang around with them. Just give them some time to get over the shock.”
Rainbow nodded, still feeling uneasy. “My mother—”
Mary interrupted without apology. “Tell her I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make her so angry. I just wanted to know what she could do. Where’s the harm in that?”
“I think she thinks you thought she was a fraud.”
Mary shook her head emphatically. “Never crossed my mind, gal. I know she believes in what she does. But that doesn’t mean she can do it, if you follow me.”
“Maybe.” Rainbow felt a stirring of anger on her mother’s behalf.
“I just wanted to make sure she can deliver, before those people at the Towers get a whole lot of poppycock fed to ‘em.” Her dark eyes grew hard. “Now you don’t have to like that, and you can call me an old busybody if you want—and I certainly am! But I’m not going to apologize for looking out for my friends. Never have, never will.”
Rainbow’s face felt frozen, but she nodded.
“Anyway, if you can forgive Carpenter for what he said, you can forgive me for giving your mother a simple test.” She suddenly grinned. “A test which she passed with flying colors, by the by.” She cackled. “Hee-hee! It was worth it just to see the look on Arthur’s face when the stuff started flying through the air!”
Rainbow turned to leave, but Mary pushed herself out of her chair and hobbled over to her without using her cane.
“Child.” Mary reached out and touched her arm. “Really, I’m sorry I upset your mother. And to be quite frank, I expected her to wow us. I never would have done this if I had thought there was any real chance she’d be humiliated.”
Rainbow felt her face softening, and nodded. “I’ll talk to her, Mary.”
Roxy and Dawn were already in the backseat of Jake’s car. Rainbow climbed in the front. “Mary apologized, Mother.”
“It’s too late for that. I am not some sideshow freak to be trotted out for the entertainment of her friends.”
“But that’s how you make your living, Mother! Not everyone who comes to see you believes in what you do. Some of them just come for entertainment. I see it every day in my business.”
“Really?” said Jake.
“Really. I see people all the time who think it might be a fun and interesting way to spend a half-hour.”
Roxy sighed. “All right. All right. But I’d have felt a whole lot better about if she’d just been honest with me.”
“Well, I can understand that. But in point of fact, Mary Todd has a Machiavellian streak. She seems to enjoy manipulating people.”
“I don’t like being manipulated.”
“No one does, Mother. I hear Mustafa put on quite a show.”
All of a sudden, Roxy laughed. “Apparently so.”
Dawn spoke. “He had things flying all over that room. It was really something. I think he was having a fit of pique.”
Jake pulled up in front of Rainbow’s house and braked.
“I’m going to leave you here,” Rainbow told her mother. “Pat Webster wants me to come over to the Towers. She said something is going on.”
“Then I’ll go with you,” Roxy decided.
Rainbow stifled a sigh.
“Mother,” said Dawn, “she’d really rather do it herself.”
“All right, all right,” Roxy said irritably, pushing the car door open and climbing out. “I know when I’m not wanted!”
As Roxy stormed up the walkway to the door, Dawn leaned forward. “Don’t mind her,” she said to Jake and Rainbow. “Her only problem is that she wasn’t treated with her usual deference. She’ll survive.” Then she climbed out and shut the door.
“Whew!” said Jake.
“She can be a handful,” Rainbow agreed. “Although I have to admit I think Mary handled the matter poorly. But she did apologize, and Mary’s as lovable as she is difficult.”
Over at the Towers, they found many of the residents milling around in the lobby.
“Things were flying again,” Abe Levinson said, as soon as he saw them. “Stuff was jumping out of cupboards and closets. Colonel Albemarle and his friends are checking the place out.” He gave a grimace that might have been an embarrassed smile. “I don’t put much faith in their Dustbusters.”
The corners of Jake’s mouth quivered as if he were suppressing a laugh. “They don’t seem to have worked well so far.”
“Anyway, there was apparently some heavy banging from your apartment, so you might want to check it out.”
Take nodded and looked at Rainbow. “What do you suggest?”
“I think we should hold a seance as soon as possible. I’ll talk to my mother about it.”
“Can’t you do it?”
Rainbow shook her head. “That’s her line. She’ll do a far better job than I could.” ‘Tomorrow night?”
“I don’t see why not, but let me call her just to be sure.”
She headed for the pay phone, but he stopped her. Come up to my place and use the phone. We can check out the banging and you’ll have more privacy for your call. Easier to hear.”
She nodded.
Jake looked at Abe. “Would you mind finding some volunteers to make up and print handbills for distribution? I’ll know exactly when the seance will be scheduled when I come back down in a few minutes, but in the meantime, we’d better look into getting notices out quickly.”
Abe nodded. “Somehow I think we’ll have more volunteers than we can use. People are getting sick of this.”
Rainbow and Jake rode up together in the elevator. When they reached his door, they stood listening for a minute, trying to hear the banging Abe had told them about. The unit was silent, though. In fact, the whole building was silent.
“Whatever it was,” Jake said, “it’s over.”
Rainbow nodded. “I guess so, but…” She hesitated.
“What?”
“Well… I’m getting a very strong sense of presence from your apartment.”
Jake looked down at her, his blue eyes unreadable. “Joe?” he asked finally.
She nodded slowly, still uncertain of how he would react to mention of his uncle.
He smiled faintly. “Well, maybe he’s putting the furniture back.”
“I have to say, you’re getting better about this.”
At that he released a short, humorless chuckle. “What choice do I have? Denying what’s going on here will only make me a bigger fool.”
He shoved the key into his lock and threw the door open. The unit was dark now, and quiet. Reaching in, he flipped the light switch.
“My God,” he said.
Rainbow stood on tiptoe, trying to see over his shoulder. “What? What?”
He stepped aside and pointed. All the furniture was back on the floor in its usual position, as if it had never been moved at all.
“Wow!” Rainbow said quietly, and stepped into the apartment. She could feel Joe’s presence strongly and sensed that he was there in the room with them, watching.
Jake spoke, his voice hushed. “Is he still here?” Rainbow nodded.
Jake came further into the living room and turned in a slow circle, looking around almost as if he expected to see his uncle somewhere. “Close the door, please,” he said to Rainbow. “I don’t want anyone to … disturb us right now.”
She complied and moved further into the room herself.
“Can he hear us?” Jake asked. “Yes. I’m sure of it.”
“So,” he said. “Joe? What is it you want? Can you tell me?”
Rainbow held her breath, half expecting a voice to boom out of the ether. Nothing happened.
Jake looked at her. “If he can move my furniture, and materialize for you, why can’t he just talk to me?”
“I don’t know.” And she honestly didn’t. That was another one of the questions she had long tried to answer.
“Well, that settles it,” Jake said decisively. “We’re definitely going to have a seance, and if your mother doesn’t want to hold it for the entire building, she can hold it here, for me. And I’ll gladly pay her fee.”
Rainbow looked at him, feeling something inside herself shift irrevocably. Her heart started to ache, and she had the worst urge to reach out and hug him.
Jake scanned the apartment again, as if seeking answers to the mystery, and suddenly drew a sharp breath.
Rainbow looked at him in concern and saw that he had turned nearly white. He sat with a sudden thump on the sofa.
“Jake? Jake, what’s wrong?”
He pointed toward the writing desk near the wall. Rainbow looked, but didn’t see a thing.
“Jake? What’s going on?”
“I saw him,” he said in a husky rush. “I saw him.”
“Who? Who did you see?”
“Joe…” His voice trailed off and he looked at her. “Didn’t you see him? He was right there, as clear as day!”
Rainbow shook her head and sat beside him. “No, I’m afraid not. But I’ve never seen a ghost. Well, except for the other night in the restaurant. So I guess that’s not one of my talents.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t see him. He looked as real as you do.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t. But I believe you.”
And suddenly he smiled. “I believe you.”
Jake said slowly, “But how come I couldn’t see him before? I’ve kind of felt something or someone was here when I was alone, but I never saw him. Why now?”
Rainbow thought about it. “Maybe … maybe it’s because you’ve started to believe. Maybe some door has opened in your mind and Joe can come through to you now, whereas he couldn’t when you refused to believe it was possible.”
He nodded slowly, accepting her assessment. “It makes sense to me.” Suddenly, he turned and hugged her. “Thanks, Rainy. Thanks for helping me to see.”
Her throat tightened again and she hugged him back, throwing out the last of her reservations about Jake. He was a good, wonderful man. But they had business to take care of, and with difficulty she pulled back and touched his cheek gently.
“I’ll, urn, call my mother now,” she said.
Roxy was still in a snit. “I couldn’t possibly do a seance tomorrow,” she told her daughter. “After what I’ve been through this evening—no, there is no way I could be in the proper frame of mind.”
“Mother—”
Roxy ignored her. “And Mustafa is in a terrible mood, too. He had a temper tantrum, you know. There is no telling what he might do if I call on him before he’s had a chance to cool down.”
“What about Red Feather?”
Roxy sniffed. “Red Feather has always been difficult and obnoxious! And unpredictable besides. Mustafa at least makes a sincere effort to help— when he’s in a good mood.”
Rainbow sighed. “Mother, things have been happening. The furniture is down off Jake’s ceiling, for one. We came into his unit and it was all back where it belonged.”
Roxy fell silent for a moment. “Really?”
“Really. And the other residents say things have been flying out of cupboards and closets. I get the feeling the ghosts are getting impatient to make a statement.”
“Who cares what the ghosts want?” Roxy demanded. “What about me? You act as if it’s easy to go into a trance and channel for a bunch of difficult spirits who have the personality and temperament of a bunch of prima donnas.”
“I didn’t say it was easy…”
“No one understands,” Roxy said in distressed tones. “Even my own daughter. It is exhausting. Fatiguing. It leaves me feeling wrung out and near the edge of collapse. I couldn’t possibly have my energy up by
tomorrow.”
“Jake says you can hold the seance in his place, if you don’t want to hold it for the entire building.”
Roxy hesitated. “No,” she said finally. “No. Not tomorrow. The day after tomorrow. That’s as soon as I can possibly manage it.”
Jake whispered, “Tell her I’ll pay her.” Rainbow covered the mouthpiece. “Money won’t change her mind,” she whispered back. “Then try stroking her ego.”
“Mother,” Rainbow said into the mouthpiece, “the situation is getting really desperate. These people need help, and you’re the only one who can help them.”
“That may be,” Roxy agreed with a heavy sigh.
“There’s no question about it, Mother. What if these people get so desperate they turn to someone who doesn’t have your skills and ability?”
“Then they’re fools,” Roxy said firmly. “It’ll be on their heads, and they’ll get exactly what they deserve. No, it will have to be the day after tomorrow. First thing in the morning. Say, nine.”
“But, Mother… Jake is willing to pay you.”
Roxy gasped. “Rainbow! As if I can be bought! I’m ashamed of you. No, absolutely not. The day after tomorrow at nine is my final word, and if you insult me again, I won’t do it at all.”
Roxy hung up with a loud bang, leaving Rainbow to listen to an empty line.
“So what is it?” Jake asked, when she hung up.
“Day after tomorrow at nine in the morning. That’s final. She was insulted when I said you’d pay her.”
Jake winced. “Uh-oh. I didn’t mean to offend her.”
“Well, it was worth a try. She’s just in a very offendable mood tonight.”
He sighed and leaned back against the couch. “I guess I need to get downstairs and see about getting notices out.”
But Rainbow’s thoughts were traveling along a different path. “Where exactly did you see Joe standing?”
“Right over there, in front of the little writing desk. You know, that’s a real antique. It belonged to my great-grandmother.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“I’ve been thinking about getting it refinished. It’s worn down to bare wood in a couple of places.”
“That might be a good idea. Jake? What if Joe was trying to get you to look in the desk?”