Possession (18 page)

“There are.”

“Do any of them say something like this . . . ?” he asked.

“So far, no, but I haven’t read or listened to them all.” I changed tack slightly, since this conversation seemed destined only for frustration. “Can you tell me what happened to Jordan?” I didn’t want to rely on the vendor’s version of events alone.

“There was some work going on around the market—something about the tunnel or monitoring the tunnel. . . . Anyhow, whatever they were doing caused some temporary structures to collapse. He was hit on the top of the head by a falling awning pole. His doctor said something about cranial sutures . . . the place where the skull grows together when you’re a kid. He said the intersection is weaker than the rest of the skull and that’s right where Jordy got hit. He had some kind of swelling or clot pushing on his brain and they had to operate to remove it. But he—the surgeon—said that after they removed the clot the damage was like a bad concussion and Jordan should be fine. But he didn’t get better. I mean, his head healed up and they say everything’s fine, but he won’t wake up.”

“And where did this happen?”

“At the market—at Pike Place Market. Jody’s a musician and he performs there.”

“Did he fall onto a hard surface or down some distance?” I asked, to be sure it really was the same accident that had been described to me before.

“He landed in some dirt the workmen had dug up. It got in his mouth and nose, but the doctor said it didn’t contribute to the damage—it might have made the impact softer, actually. But he still got the clot and was unconscious.” He gazed at Delamar a moment before adding, “I haven’t seen him looking back at me since that morning. I was on my way to work and he was still in bed, smiling at me . . . and that’s the last time. . . .” He squeezed his eyes closed, forcing tears to roll off his lower lashes and creep down his cheeks. His breath was ragged and he didn’t say anything more until it eased back to normal. “I’m sorry. I get maudlin. . . .”

“It’s OK,” I said. The conversation stalled on the awkward moment.

After a bit Westman sniffed and sat up straighter. “What else did you want to know?” he asked, making an effort to act normal and do something.

“Did he have another job as well? I know performing can be rough financially.”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “No. I supported us a lot of the time. I’m a programmer. The money’s good but that’s another reason I’m worried—I’ve taken a lot of time off or been working from home, and his health insurance doesn’t really cover this. I do. I don’t know how much longer I can make this stretch. . . .” His eyes widened in alarm. “You’re sure you’re not from the insurance company? You’re not going to cut us off—!”

I turned my palms out in a calming gesture. “No, no. I’m not working for the insurance company. I work for the sister of one of the other patients who’s exhibiting similar behavior.”

Westman sagged in his chair. “I can’t take a lot more. I live in a state of fear every minute. ‘What if they find out?’ ‘What if they drop us?’ ‘What if he gets worse . . . ?’”

“I don’t know if it will be a consolation, but at least you aren’t alone in this and I’m going to get to the bottom of it, I promise.”

He grabbed my hands. “Don’t promise. I couldn’t stand it if it fell through. Please. Just . . . do your best.”

“I will. Would you keep on photographing the messages for me? Maybe writing them out again if they’re hard to read? If they’re not all the same, it will help to have that information.”

He nodded. “I’ll get as many as I can. I’m not here all the time, but I’ll see if I can get anyone to help me record them. How can I get them to you?”

I pulled a business card out of my pocket and handed it to him. “You can e-mail them to me, or call and I’ll come to you—whichever is easiest for you.”

“E-mail. Definitely. When I’m not with Jordy, I’m at the computer.”

That didn’t surprise me in the least. I offered a reassuring smile and my thanks before taking my leave. It was growing late and I had a few more things to manage.

I was sure now that each of the patients had been injured at sites associated with the tunnel project, though I still didn’t understand what the defining link was. Mindy and John from the market had both commented on the rise in strange occurrences and the appearance of Lois “Mae West” Brown’s ghost seemed to be part of that same phenomenon. Tunneling, by its nature, disturbs the ground it passes through and this particular bit of ground was full of artifacts of the dead as well as the usual dirt and bugs. Was it any wonder if there was an upwelling of ghosts, just as there’d been a rise in rat and insect infestations? Or if those ghosts were confused and creating havoc? I wasn’t sure what they wanted to say, but I was reasonably certain they were trying to say
something
. I wished I had more of Sterling’s writing and understood more about Goss’s paintings. I wished I knew if Goss’s accident had involved dirt from the tunnel just as Sterling’s and Delamar’s had. I doubted I’d change my evaluation once I had any of that information, but it might help me figure out what would make these spirits lie back down.

TWELVE

_I
had agreed to have dinner with Phoebe Mason a few weeks earlier and I knew she’d never forgive me if I missed it—not even if I was working on a case she’d sent to me. I took the ferret home first—disappointed that Quinton wasn’t there—and then drove up to the Wedgwood-area restaurant the Mason family owns. I couldn’t remember ever having a meal with Phoebe in her own home, since it was easier to eat at the restaurant, which was always lively with the comings and goings of her large family.

Quinton was sitting in the back at the family table with Phoebe’s father when I came in and I had to admit I was a little surprised. With my boyfriend’s current preoccupation, I’d half expected him to blow this date off in spite of his reassurances. On the other hand, Phoebe would have been as unhappy with him for missing it as with me, so it had probably been no more an option in his mind than it had been in mine. No one risks the wrath of Phoebe lightly—she’s short and curvy and would rather make a joke than an enemy, but woe betide you if you piss her off. But Quinton’s presence still warmed me and sent a tingle of happiness through my whole body. I suspect I was smiling like a fool.

I threaded my way through the busy dining room and slid into a seat next to Quinton. “Hi, there, you,” I said to him, pressing a quick kiss on his ear. “Hi, Poppy,” I added, smiling at Mr. Mason.

“Hey’m, Harper,” Poppy said, raising his glass of warm water in a tiny salute. “Been a while.”

“Yes, it has,” I agreed as Quinton returned the kiss on my cheek.

“What you been doing with yourself?” Poppy asked, his Jamaican accent still thick and musical even after decades in the United States. He never seemed to change, though I’d known him and his family for years—he was still the slim, bent, weathered old black man I’d first met, his bald head shining in the light and the ever-present glass of tepid water in his knobby hand. Still making sly comments, directing the lives of his children and grandchildren with gentle verbal nudges and the occasional good-natured barb. It would be hard to dislike Poppy. He was one of the few people I’d ever seen whose aura remained steady and bright at all times, shining a cool pale blue and sparkling with white lights as if the very air around him was effervescent.

“Oh, just working,” I replied. “You know me.”

Poppy nodded. “I do.” He looked at Quinton and nudged him. “You making her leave them bad things alone, now?”

Quinton shook his head. “I couldn’t if I tried.”

“Where’s Phoebe?” I asked, breaking up the conversation about my work habits before it could get properly started.

“She back in the house, putting babies to bed. They do love a story from their Auntie Phee.”

Phoebe’s oldest brother, Hugh, shared the house behind the restaurant with his parents and it seemed there was always one relative or another dropping by with kids in tow who had to be watched over and tucked into bed by someone who wasn’t busy in the kitchen or the dining room. Since Phoebe was the oldest, the only daughter, and unmarried, she was often stuck with visiting-baby duty, though I don’t think she minded. For a woman who swore she was never, ever getting hitched, she had an unlikely affection for children, as well as a huge mental store of tales to tell them at bedtime. I suspected Phoebe of reading every children’s book that came into Old Possum’s before she put it out on the shelves to be sold.

A few more members of the Mason clan whisked by, set down more glasses of water, or dropped in to sit at the table while we waited for Phoebe, each one offering a smile, a story, or a greeting to Poppy and us. One of the cousins sat down long enough to tell Poppy a joke that got the old man roaring with laughter—he’s past seventy, but hardly shows it and doesn’t find his age relevant except as a wellspring of wisdom and funny stories.

Poppy wiped tears of hilarity from the corners of his eyes without ever putting down his water and shooed the cousin on his way with a grin. “Go tell that to Momma,” he suggested, eyes atwinkle with mischief.

“No way, Poppy,” the cousin replied, jumping up in fake alarm. “Auntie Miranda’d smack me silly and tell me to wash out my mouth. And then supper would taste so bad! ’Sides, I gotta fix the espresso machine.”

Poppy sighed as the cousin escaped to chores rather than risk the disapproval of his aunt over a dirty joke. “I swear, boys ain’t got the heart they used to do. Time was I’d have gone told Miranda that story myself.”

“Yeah, Poppy, but she’s married to you—she’d just flick you with that towel of hers and tell you to get out of her kitchen. Ty would end up wearing curried goat,” Quinton said.

Phoebe finally bustled in, waving at us before she ducked into the kitchen for plates of food and was chased back out by her mother wielding the snapping towel. Phoebe and her father laughed as she settled down with us at last.

“Hey, girl, you made it! And the handsome man, too,” Phoebe noted, nodding at Quinton. In spite of the friendly atmosphere, there was still a tinge of reserve in her tone to me and her aura was slightly redder than usual. I had a bad habit of leaving Phoebe in the lurch or worse—I’d almost gotten her shot once and she hadn’t quite forgiven me.

“Hey, Phoebe,” I replied, having to turn my head to keep her in my normal sight since she’d chosen to sit on my left, where I was still constantly trying to see through the Grey.

“What you been up to?”

“Work.”

“Not the kind that includes nasty men with guns this time?”

“No.”

“Or ghosts that kill people?”

“So far no killing people, but a few ghosts, yes.”

“What you into this time?” Phoebe said with a sigh.

“Some accidents around Pike Place Market.”

“Oh, now that’s an interesting place for ghosts. You know Chief Seattle’s daughter haunts the place. She used to live there until they built the market and knocked her little shack down.”

“Chief Sealth?” I asked, double-checking that I knew who she was talking about. “He had a daughter?”

“Sealth, Seattle—he’s the man,” Phoebe replied flapping her hands at me. “Yeah. He had a daughter. I can’t remember her native name, but they called her Princess Angeline. She was a very old lady by the time they built the market. There’s a famous photo of her somewhere. . . . I probably got one in a book in the store. You seen a little old Indian lady ghost? Maybe it’s her.”

I shook my head. “No little old Indian ladies yet. Though I did see a little old lady named Lois Brown.”

Phoebe shook her head. “I don’t think I know of her.”

“I guess people called her Mae West. She used to live in one of the apartments around the market. The place seems to be pretty lively where the ghosts are concerned.”

Phoebe snorted. “There’s all sorts of stories about that place. You talked to Mercedes yet?”

“Who is she? Another ghost?”

“No! She runs the ghost tour. She wrote about some of the spirits that haunt the market.”

“I haven’t met her yet,” I conceded. I wasn’t quite sure if Phoebe was making fun of me or offering real information. We’d never quite resolved the question of whether I saw ghosts for real or was just dangerously crazy, even though she’d apparently spoken well of me to Lily Goss. I supposed this dinner was Phoebe’s way of offering me a chance to finally put that question to bed for her, one way or another. She wanted to believe me—there was plenty of evidence in my favor—but it’s a hard thing to swallow.

Quinton and Poppy just watched us chatter. Quinton ate quickly, seeming anxious to get back to whatever nefarious schemes he was executing to cause his father grief. Poppy just drank his tepid water and nodded as if nothing came as a surprise to him—and I was pretty sure it didn’t.

“I think I have a copy of Mercedes’s book at the store. I’ll get it for you,” Phoebe offered. “If you’re talking to ghosts down that way, you should know who they are. Some people get upset when they aren’t treated with respect.” She gave me a significant look I couldn’t miss even through the Grey, raising her eyebrows.

I put down my fork and turned toward her so I could see her better—that is to say without her being half silver mist and tangled light. “Phoebe, I’m sorry. I know I said it before, but I mean it now and I meant it then. I seem to attract bad things and I shouldn’t have put you in the middle of any of them. You’re my friend. I . . . I don’t want any harm to come to you or your family or your friends. Or even the cats. The five million cats.”

It wasn’t really five million cats, but it was at least half a dozen—like Simba—who lived in or around the bookshop, wandering overhead on their own feline expressways and dropping down onto the shelves to file themselves under N for “nuisance” or F for “foot.” Old Possum’s was famous for them.

“Why don’t you like my cats? They like you just fine and I never said a bad thing about that stinky stretch-rat of yours.”

I laughed at her description. Chaos does have a distinctive odor, I admit. But so do six cats. “I prefer to think of her as the carpet shark.”