One-Eyed Jack (32 page)

Right now, though, he was less
connected to the everyday world than anyone I had seen since high
school – since Mrs. Reinholt died.

Maybe that power was what
had triggered the dreams. Maybe my theory was wrong, and dreams
didn’t always mean that the person I dreamed about was going to
change my life. Maybe sometimes it just meant I was going to meet
someone with really,
really
strong... whatever it was. It’s not an aura, in
the usual sense, and most of the people who had it didn’t consider
themselves gifted or psychic; it’s just an otherness.

But Jack had more of it
now than I’d ever seen in anyone other than Mrs. Reinholt. He’d
always had it strongly, but not
this
strongly. I didn’t know whether
the increase was some side-effect of Andrew’s death, or because
he’d broken contact with Jenny, or because he was so very angry,
but it was unmistakable.

I didn’t know what it
meant, either. Mrs. Reinholt had been a witch; was Jack growing up
to be a warlock? Was he going to do something supernatural,
something magical? Was
that
why I was there?

And what
kind
of magic? Right now
he seemed more inclined toward black magic than toward bluebirds
and fairy dust.

“
Bitch,” he said again,
staring at his fingers. Then he looked up at me. “If you figure out
a way to kill her, I hope you use it.”

“
We’ll see,” I
said.

Then I sat there stupidly, trying to
think what else to ask him. Other than Jenny, we didn’t have much
of anything in common.

“
Can you see the other
night creatures?” I blurted. “Or just Jenny?”

He grimaced. “I see others sometimes –
at least, I guess I still do. After I started talking to Jenny I
stopped paying attention to the others. You see them?”

“
All the time.”

“
In the daytime,
too?”

“
No,” I corrected myself.
“I meant, I see lots of them every night, but I only see them at
night.”

He nodded. “Same here, I
guess.”

“
Does anyone else in your
family see them?”

“
Katie could see Jenny, at
least a little, but that’s all.”

“
Any idea why? Why you, I
mean?”

He shook his head. “I wondered about
that. I don’t know.”

“
You’re sure your parents
can’t see them? I mean, you don’t seem to get along with them real
well; any chance they were keeping that secret?”

“
No.” He drew the single
syllable out into a derisive little melody. “My parents don’t see
anything they don’t want to see. Jenny stood on our front lawn
once, right in front of them, and they never noticed.”

I looked at him, trying to think what
else I could ask him. This kid was the wild card that might change
everything – or might mean nothing; I didn’t really know how my
dreams worked. Just because the half-dozen previous cycles of
dreaming had all been about people who turned my life into
something new, that didn’t mean this round was.

That
look
he had, though, worried
me.
Was
he going
to be a warlock? Was he going to curse me, or take away my dreams
and visions? Was he going to cure Mel, maybe, so that we could
stand to spend more time together?

Somehow, I didn’t think we could be
that lucky. For all I knew, his appearance meant that he was going
to explode. It couldn’t hurt to ask, though.

At least, I hoped it
couldn’t.

“
Jack,” I said, “have you
ever tried to work magic?”

He looked up from his hands and met my
two eyes with his one. “You mean other than feeding my friends to
that lying bitch?”

“
Other than
that.”

He shook his head. “Not really. I
wouldn’t know how.”

So it was still a mystery. Maybe I
could do a little fishing, and see what came up.

“
Was there anything you
wanted to ask me?” I said.

He considered that for a moment, then
shook his head. “Not unless you know how to kill a
ghost.”

“
Is
that
all
you care about?”

His head jerked up, and
his anger poured from him in waves. “Right now, it is,” he said,
almost shouting. “She
tricked
me! She betrayed me! You said she was a monster,
and you were completely right, and she tried to make
me
into a monster, too.
I want her
dead
.”

“
I don’t think she’s
really alive in the first place, not the way we are,” I
said.

“
Then I
want her
destroyed
! Do you know how to do
that?”

“
No, I don’t.”

“
Then what good are you?”
He folded his arms and turned away.

I suppose I could have stayed and
tried to coax him into opening up some more, but really, why
bother? And his fury was wearing; it frightened me a little. Not in
the visceral, unreasoning way Mel’s curse did, but in a more
cerebral fashion – I couldn’t guess what he might do, what he might
be capable of. I stood up.

“
Thanks for talking to
me,” I said.

“
Thanks for trying to warn
me,” he said, then added bitterly, “Not that it did any
good.”

“
You were under her
spell,” I said.

“
I was stupid,” he
muttered.

“
You wanted to
help.”

“
I
was
stupid
.”

I sighed. “Maybe you were. We all are
sometimes. Good luck, Jack. Take care of yourself.”

“
If you find a way to hurt
her, will you tell me?”

That caught me off-guard, though it
shouldn’t have.

I could have just said that I would,
but Jack had been lied to enough – he deserved an honest answer,
and I wasn’t sure what I would do. Letting him avenge himself might
be satisfying, but would it be justice? Would it harm Jack, as well
as Jenny?

“
I don’t know,” I said.
“It depends. We’ll see.”

“
Okay.”

And that was that. I left the room and
told the social worker I was done.

Chapter Twenty-Two

For the rest of that afternoon I
didn’t do anything important. I talked to Ben Skees, and drove
around Lexington a little, and learned my way around the hospital.
I looked in on Lisette Babcock, who was doing just fine, all things
considered. She had leukemia – it’s the most common childhood
cancer – but unlike Andrew McPhee, she was responding well to
treatment and was expected to make a full recovery.

I guessed that Jenny hadn’t realized
that. Jack had done his research in choosing Andrew; Jenny appeared
to have targeted Lisette as simply the nearest sick kid staying
overnight.

With that information I tried to guess
who might be next on Jenny’s list. It would have been easier if the
staff had been allowed to talk to me, but they took patient
confidentiality seriously. Lisette was chattier, but didn’t know
very much.

Still, I came up with the names and
room numbers of four kids I thought looked like
possibilities.

Then I got myself dinner at a downtown
bar – the first one I looked at was full of U.K. frat rats, but the
second I found was quieter, and turned out to serve pretty good
food.

I walked around a bit after I ate,
then headed back to the hospital. I’d just reached the door when my
phone started playing “Money for Nothing.” Mel was up and ready to
go.

It was a nice evening; I decided to
wait for her on the sidewalk on Limestone. I watched the college
students walking past, and while I was waiting I called Ben Skees,
who said he’d join us.

The three of us were going
ghost-hunting.

I wondered whether it would work.
Could Mel really use the curse to drive Jenny away for
good?

Could I
find
Jenny, so we’d have
a chance to test it?

There was also the detail
that walking the Queen of Despair through a cancer ward was
probably not going to do wonders for the hospital’s survival rate.
Mel knew the effects she had in theory, she had had plenty of
opportunity to observe them, but she had never actually
felt
what it was like to
have her around, and I worried that she might underestimate the
damage her presence would do.

But the damage Jenny would do was
pretty serious, too. If Mel could drive her away, that was worth a
little risk.

I’d been standing there perhaps ten
minutes when Mel’s BMW cruised past; she saw me and waved before
heading into the garage.

By the time she emerged to meet me Ben
Skees had arrived, as well; he didn’t bother with the garage, but
parked on a service road, in a space labeled “Emergency Vehicles
Only.” We shook hands, and then turned as Mel walked up.

She was wearing jeans and a peasant
blouse, about as innocuous an outfit as possible, but it didn’t
help – she still looked like oncoming doom. Behind her the skies
seemed to darken, and the street scene turned into a nightmare
landscape of concrete, brick, and steel.

How a beautiful young woman who stood
maybe five foot three and meant no one any harm could be so
threatening was inexplicable, but undeniable.

“
Oh, my God,” Detective
Skees said at the sight of her.

She heard him, of course; she’s always
had good ears, and once the sun had set the traffic had diminished
to practically nothing. She smiled – a smile that would have been
harmless, probably even cheerful and appealing, in a photo, but
that was a vicious, sardonic thing in person, not because she
intended it to be, but because everything about her conjured up
terror and despair. “If I were on duty,” she said gaily, “I’d say
something about your God being no help to you here.”

Skees went white. He didn’t
reply.

She gave him a glance, then turned to
me. “Hello, Greg. No hug this time, I promise.”

“
Hello, Mel.” I managed a
wretched imitation of an answering smile.

“
I take it this is the
famous Detective Skees?” She pointed.

“
Yes.”

“
He seems to be at a loss
for words. That’s one of the more common reactions to meeting me. I
prefer it to the ones who babble hysterically, let alone the
screamers, but it does make conversation difficult.”

Skees started to say something, but
couldn’t get the words out.

On some level I knew she was teasing
him, being playful, at least partly, but neither he nor I could
respond in kind in her oppressive presence. “He probably didn’t
realize how powerful the effect would be in person,” I said. It was
a struggle for me to say even that much, but I couldn’t let the
curse win.

“
He did pretty well on the
phone,” Mel said approvingly. “Good for you, Detective.” She smiled
at him.

I was fairly sure that it was meant
kindly, but I also knew it looked as if she was about to tear his
throat out with her teeth.

Skees managed a strangled
cough.

“
So, Greg,” she said,
turning back to me. “Have you found this ghost you want me to
exorcize?”

I shook my head. “Not yet,” I said.
“But it’s been hanging around this hospital, and it preys on sick
children. I’ve got four likely victims to check on.” The thought of
Jenny roused enough anger, countering the fear, that my voice was
steady.

Mel’s smile vanished. “You want to
bring me near children?”

She didn’t put any special emphasis or
anger in her words, but she didn’t need to. I blinked and stepped
back.

“
I don’t know any other
way to get you near Jenny,” I said.

“
I’m not sure this is a
good idea after all.” She cast a look at Skees that I hope never to
experience directly. “But I’m here, so I guess we might as well
give it a shot. How do you want to work it?”

Brakes squealed; Mel ignored it, but
Skees and I both threw quick glances at the terrified driver. In my
present state of mind I was half-certain that the car in question
was about to jump the curb and run us down, and half-convinced that
would be a good thing.

“
You might as well come in
with us,” Skees said hoarsely, startling Mel and me. “You’re just
as dangerous out here.”

Mel grimaced. “Words of wisdom,” she
said. “Have I told you, Greg, that the local police in Sandy Spring
tell me there hasn’t been a single accident on the road approaching
my house since I moved in, but they average about one a week
heading away? Seems as if some people are in a big hurry to get off
Doctor Bird Road.”

“
I’m sorry to hear it,” I
said.