Defending the Dead (Relatively Dead Mysteries Book 3) (6 page)

Ellie looked down at her feet. “Mom and Dad were fighting. I couldn’t hear all of what they said, but they were loud. And I think it was about you. Did my dad come to see you?”

“Yes, he did, and we talked. Is that what the fight was about?”

“I think so. Anyway, Mom wasn’t happy about it. She said if she had her way, nobody in the family would ever see you or Ned. But that’s not fair, is it?”

Abby was torn. She didn’t want to go against Leslie, but she thought Leslie was acting out of fear and anger, and that she wasn’t thinking of her daughter’s best interests. But what did Ellie mean, exactly. “What’s not fair, Ellie?”

“Mom doesn’t see them. You do. She doesn’t understand.”

Okay, that was it—exactly what Abby had been afraid of. How to explain it to a smart child who could see more things than most people? But she was a child. “You’re right. But it’s up to us to make her understand.”

“This isn’t going to go away, is it.” It wasn’t a question.

“I can’t be sure, but I don’t think so. You can pretend it’s not there if you want—that’s up to you. But I think it would be better for everyone if you don’t hide anything from your mother. She loves you very much, and she wants what’s best for you. She just doesn’t know what that is yet. And this scares her.”

“I guess,” Ellie said reluctantly, watching her mother approach. In a quiet voice, she told Abby, “I’m kind of scared too.”

5

Nowhere to hide. Abby stood up and waited for Leslie to come nearer. To her credit, Leslie went straight to Ellie and folded her in her arms. “Never, ever do that again, Ellie. You can’t just go off when you feel like it. How the . . . heck did you pull this off?”

Ellie refused to look at her. “I took a school bus—I know the one that comes here, from that time I went home with Sandy, remember?”

“Yes, but we arranged that ahead of time. Why’d they even let you on the bus today?”

Ellie shrugged. “It was a new bus driver, I guess. Nobody asked. I just got on.”

Leslie rolled her eyes. “Your day care could have called the police when you didn’t show up, and they would have been right to do it. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, Mom, I get it.” Ellie did the classic kid maneuver, kicking the grass along the pavement with one toe while avoiding her mother’s eyes.

Leslie straightened up, keeping one hand on Ellie’s shoulder. “Abby. Did you know anything about this?”

Abby faced her squarely. “Not until Ellie called me, which was right before I called you. I came straight out here after that.”

“Does Ned know what’s going on?”

“No. I haven’t had time to call him. How did Ellie manage to leave the school? Or did she get to day care and leave from there?”

“There was a lapse in communication,” Leslie said stiffly. “Which will not happen again.”

“Is this the first time Ellie has done anything like this?” Abby was not about to let herself feel guilty: she hadn’t done anything to encourage Ellie. In fact, she’d stuck to her agreement with Leslie and hadn’t had any contact with anyone in the family, period. Except when George had appeared unannounced, but she couldn’t see him telling Ellie to play hooky.

Leslie didn’t answer immediately, staring at Abby’s face, her expression giving nothing away. “Did she tell you why she came to you?” Leslie finally said.

“She said you wouldn’t let her see me or talk to me.”

Leslie kept Ellie pulled close to her side. “That’s true. I hadn’t realized she felt so strongly about it. I was hoping she’d forget about you.”

“Mom, I’m right here!” Ellie protested, wiggling out of Leslie’s grasp. “I asked you nicely if I could see Abby and you kept making up excuses, but you wouldn’t tell me why.”

Leslie glanced down at her daughter. “Ellie, sometimes grown-ups do things that don’t make sense to children, but I have my own reasons, and you have to respect that.”

“Leslie—” Abby began.

Leslie held up a hand. “No. We can’t talk about this here. And not with Ellie.”

“Mom!” Ellie protested. “You don’t get it! I need Abby. She can tell me what’s happening to me, and there isn’t anybody else I can ask!”

“Talk to me, then,” Leslie said.

“But you don’t have it!”

“Have what, love?”

“You can’t seen those people.”

Leslie’s eye flickered toward Abby’s. “And you do.”

Abby nodded. “Look, Leslie—can we move this inside?”

“I need to get home,” Leslie said, her voice dull.

“I know you don’t want to talk about this, Leslie. You made that clear before. You can see how well that worked. It’s not going to get better unless we all sit down together and work this out.” Leslie’s expression was bleak, and Abby felt sorry for her, but she wasn’t about to back down.

Leslie’s shoulders slumped. “All right. You live over there, right?”

So Leslie had never seen Ned’s house? “Yes. This side of the cemetery.”

“Figures. Let’s go, then, so we can get this over with.”

Wordlessly Abby turned and led the way across the green toward the house. If Leslie thought this would be sorted out in one quick conversation, she was mistaken: this ability was something that was inside Ellie and it wasn’t going to go away. Maybe it could be suppressed, but that might damage the girl in the long run. Ellie should know what her choices were—but she was so young! Abby knew she didn’t have all the answers, but they had to start somewhere.

Two minutes later they climbed the rickety front steps of the house and crossed the deep porch to the front door. Abby unlocked it, then stepped back to let Leslie and Ellie pass. Then she followed them, shutting the door behind her.

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” Leslie said, her tone sarcastic as she took in the broad hall and the parlor to one side.

Abby refused to take offense: she knew only too well how it looked. “It’s a work in progress.”

Ellie had gone on ahead to the second parlor. “Look, Mom! There’s a window seat!”

“That’s nice, sweetie,” Leslie said absently, watching Abby.

“Why don’t we go back to the kitchen?” Abby said. “That’s where we spend most of our time, anyway.”

“Whatever. Ellie? Can you give us a few minutes alone?”

“Sure. I’ve got a book to read, and I’ll just sit here in the window seat. It’s cool.”

“That’s great. We’ll be in the kitchen.”

Ellie was already pulling a book out of her backpack, so Abby led the way to the kitchen. “You want tea? Coffee?”

“You pretending this is a social event? Sure, tea would be fine.”

Abby started a kettle boiling, then turned to Leslie. “You don’t have to be snide. Look, I never asked for this. When I started working for you, I had no idea what it was or what it meant. I certainly never thought about finding other people who shared it—I ran into Ned by accident, as you know. It never occurred to me that children might possess this, and I didn’t know anything about Ned’s connection to Ellie. But as soon as I met her, I knew there was something there.”

“And you tried to recruit her to your coven?” Leslie’s eyes were cold.

“Damn it, Leslie, this is not a joke! I am not a witch. I have no desire to do harm to anyone, or to convert anyone. I happen to possess an ability that most other people don’t. Some people are color-blind. What if there were people on the other end of the spectrum who could see colors that most people can’t? How do you even begin to explain what a color looks like? Well, that’s what this is like.”

Leslie stared at her for a moment, then looked away. Abby busied herself with making tea, to give Leslie time to process what Abby had said. She was
not
going to keep apologizing.

The tea was steeping in its pot when Leslie finally said, “Oh, God,” and scrubbed her hands through her short hair. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t personal for you. You didn’t mean to walk into my life and blow it to pieces.”

Abby carried the pot to the table, added cups and sugar and milk, then sat down across from Leslie. “Why do you describe it like that?”

“Because I thought I had it all together. I love George, I love my kids, I love my job. My house isn’t as cool as yours, but it works for us. Everything was going so well—I should have known it couldn’t last.”

“But you can’t claim it’s ruined, just because you’ve found out your child, or maybe both children, have this extra ability. Leslie, if I may be blunt, I think you’re over-reacting.”

“Gee, thanks. That helps.”

“I don’t mean to put you down, but I don’t see why you treat this as a disaster. Ellie’s a smart kid. All she needs is some help to manage this thing.”

“Help that I’m not equipped to give her! Is this thing something you can teach me?”

“I don’t think so, but I’m still new at it. I think it’s either there or it isn’t. If you have it, you can open yourself to it, but I don’t think you can learn it, especially as an adult.”

“This comes from Ned.”

“Yes. I think so. Which means there’s probably something genetic about it.”

“So now what? We all move into a cozy commune and invite the ghosts to join us?”

Leslie was not taking this well, Abby thought. She was angry and scared, and she was lashing out. That wouldn’t help Ellie. She had to keep focused on the child. “No, that’s ridiculous. Leslie, you’re still making fun of this. It is real. I don’t think it’s harmful. I don’t claim to know how to handle it—I’m kind of making it up as I go. I’m learning all the time. But you aren’t helping the situation.”

Leslie shut her eyes for a long moment. “You’re right. And we keep having the same argument and it’s getting us nowhere. What do you propose we do about it?”

“I hadn’t thought about it, until Ellie turned up here. Clearly, ignoring it isn’t working. Listen, what’s going on with your summer plans?”

Leslie’s eyebrows went up. “I’m working, as usual. The kids are in camp or with a summer nanny I hire each year. Why?”

“Maybe I could spend a day with Ellie now and then, and we could explore this together? I don’t want to shut you out of it, but I can see that it would be hard for you to fit it in.”

Leslie gave Abby an almost-smile. “I’ve spent the last couple of months demonizing you—like you did something evil to my child. I know rationally that’s not true, but it’s been hard for me. Now you want me to turn her over to you regularly so you can spend more time with her. I’ll have to think about that.”

“It was just a suggestion. You do have other options, you know. If it would make you feel better, you could take her to a therapist, reassure yourself that this isn’t just a bid for attention on Ellie’s part.” Abby knew better, since she and Ellie had seen the same ghost at the same time, but if it would help Leslie come to terms with what was happening, it could be a good move, if she could find a sympathetic therapist. If that was possible in this case. Was there such a thing as a psychic therapist?

“I’ve thought about that. I’m not sure Ellie would speak freely with a stranger, no matter how nice that person was. I’ve thought about seeing a shrink myself, but I can’t see myself trying to explain that I was stressed out because my seven-year-old daughter is seeing ghosts. They’d lock me up, or medicate me.”

“Hey, Mom, you about done?” Ellie came skipping into the room.

“Almost, sweetie. Did you finish your book?” Leslie asked.

“Yeah. It was easy. You going to let me visit Abby?”

Leslie glanced briefly at Abby. “I think so. We’ll have to talk about it, with your father. But I promise we’ll work something out. Deal?”

“Deal!” Ellie said eagerly. “Are we going home now?”

“Yes, we are,” her mother told her. “I have to start dinner. Abby, we’ll talk, I promise. And thanks for watching out for Ellie.”

“Happy to do it, Leslie.”

Abby led them back to the front door. As they were leaving, Ellie grabbed Abby around the waist and gave her a hug. Abby hugged her back. That muted electric buzz was still there. Leslie didn’t feel it, when she and her child hugged?

Ellie released her as quickly as she had grabbed her. “Let’s go, Mom—I’m hungry!”

“Bye, you two.” Abby watched them as they went down the steps and turned toward the green, where Leslie had left her car.

Once they were out of sight, Abby wandered back to the kitchen and cleaned up. She felt oddly pleased, and proud of Ellie for having jump-started the process, even though what she’d done—running off on her own and catching a bus—had been reckless. She must really have been desperate. Once she had gotten over her initial panic, Leslie was beginning to come around. She acknowledged that she needed help with Ellie. She was still reluctant to appeal to Abby, but what other choices did she have? It might take a little time, but surely they could work something out. And the idea she’d proposed, about spending time with Ellie over the summer, might have been spur-of-the-moment but it made sense. They could all learn something from that interaction.

Ned came up behind her while she was still lost in thought. “Hey,” he said, kissing her neck. “You seem a million miles away.”

She turned and returned his kiss. “Ellie showed up out of the blue today.”

He stiffened. “What? How?”

“She left school when the day ended and got on a school bus she knew went to Lexington. She has a cell phone, so she called me when she got here because she didn’t know where this house was—she was sitting over on the green.”

“Good God! That poor kid—what was she thinking? What did you do?”

“I called Leslie immediately, of course. She was understandably upset, but she came over, and we talked. I think things are getting better. Since Ellie seems so determined, I proposed that she and I could spend time together over the summer, when school is out. Maybe one day a week, or every other week.”

“Leslie went along with that?” Ned said, looking for wineglasses.

“Surprisingly, yes. I think she knows she’s in over her head. She’s still balking at letting me help, but I’m pretty sure she’ll come around. Ned, are we ever going to look for more people with this ability?”

“How? Go to Wiccan gatherings? Put an ad in alternative papers? You’d spend a lot of time weeding out the whack-jobs.”