The Loveliest Dead (37 page)

Jenna handed it to Arty, who flicked it on. As he stepped through the basement doorway, Mavis moved toward him in a sudden rush, reached out, and clutched his shoulder for a moment.
 

“Are you sure you want to go down there, Arty?” Mavis said with a slight quaver in her voice.

“Don’t worry, Momma, I’ll be fine,” he said. He smiled at Mavis over his shoulder, then followed the flashlight’s beam down the stairs a careful step at a time.
 

Jenna and Mavis stood at the doorway, peered down the stairs, and watched him. Jenna glanced at Mavis and was surprised by the tension, and even fear, on her face, in her eyes.
 

After a few seconds, the glow of the flashlight down in the basement went out. Someone said something in a gravelly voice, but the words were muffled. Arty released a throaty, trembling “Oh!”
 

Mavis’s hand flew to her mouth as she gasped and stepped forward. “Arty, are you all right?” she called in a broken voice.

Thunking footsteps hurried up the stairs and Arty emerged from the darkness, mouth open as if he were desperate for air, one hand on the rail, the other clutching his chest, eyes wide. For that moment, Jenna thought Arty Bingham looked like a frightened boy.
 

Mavis pushed Jenna aside, opened her arms to her ascending husband. “Be careful, Arty, for God’s sake, be careful!” She stepped aside and clutched Arty’s elbow as he nearly fell through the doorway.
 

Arty nudged Jenna aside and slammed the basement door closed, then turned around and leaned, his back against it. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he continued to clutch it with one hand. His face had paled.
 

“Do you need your pills?” Mavis said.

He fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a small tin. He removed a tiny white pill from it and dropped it under his tongue, then closed his eyes and tried to slow his breathing as he returned the tin to his pocket.
 

Mavis said, “Arty has a slight heart condition. The pills keep it under control.”

Finally, Arty said, “There was someone down there.”

Jenna nodded. “The fat man. Was he wearing a cowboy hat?”

“I... I only got a glimpse of a figure as it came around me from behind. He spoke, but I didn’t understand him. Then the light went out and I dropped it. And the crucifix.”
 

“Why don’t you come out in the living room and sit down,” Jenna said.

“If I try to walk, I’m going to fall,” Arty said. “My legs are shaking.”

Jenna frowned. Arty Bingham was not behaving the way she expected a professional paranormal investigator to behave. He looked pale and his eyes were still wide with fright. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost— which Jenna had assumed he and Mavis would be accustomed to by now.
 

Jenna caught a brief but significant look as it passed between Arty and Mavis, and Mavis said to him quietly, “I told you.”

“I left the flashlight down there,” he said. “Sorry about that, but I don’t think I’ll go down for it right now, if you don’t mind.” A nervous laugh escaped him. He turned to Mavis. “We should get Shannon and Willy down there with cameras.”
 

Mavis put an arm around him and said, “Let’s get you calmed down first.”

During all the commotion, Jenna failed to hear the doorbell ring.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Saturday, 5:34 P.M.

The second step up on the front porch was the closest Lily had gotten to the Kellars’s home. Walking up the path, she’d felt a constriction in her chest that only grew worse the closer she got to the house, as if a giant rubber band were wrapped tightly around her chest and back and getting tighter.
 

The moment the boy opened the front door, Lily recognized him as Miles Kellar, and she wanted more than anything to sweep him up in her arms and carry him away from that house. He squinted up at them with sleepy eyes, looking like he’d just woke up. Lily and Claudia stood behind Kimberly Gimble.
 

“Hi, Miles,” Kimberly said.

“Hi. Mom’s in the kitchen, I think.”

“Could you get her for me?”

“You don’t want to come in?”

“Um, not yet. Just tell her I’m here.”

“Okay.” Miles closed the door.

“Remember,” Lily said quietly, “get her to step outside. If I can get her to listen to me for a couple minutes—”

“I’ll do what I can,” Kimberly said. “But if this causes trouble, I’m not going to push it, okay? I mean, I haven’t known her long, but she’s’ my friend, and I don’t want to stir up any problems between her and her hus—”
 

The door opened again and Jenna smiled wearily at Kimberly, but her smile faltered when she saw Lily and Claudia. Jenna quickly glanced over her shoulder, then stepped outside and gently closed the door behind her.
 

“I don’t want to make trouble, Jenna,” Kimberly said, “but she’s been very anxious to talk with you.”

“A few minutes, that’s all I ask, Mrs. Kellar,” Lily said. “I don’t want your money, I don’t want
anything
from you. I just want to help you and your little boy, your family.”
 

“This is a bad time,” Jenna said. “I have a lot of people here, and I—”

“The Binghams,” Lily said. “Mrs. Kellar, the Binghams will
not
be able to help you, trust me. They’re not prepared to deal with your problem.”
 

“Oh?” Jenna said. “What’s my problem?”

“
Terrible
things have happened in your house, Mrs. Kellar,” Lily said. “They’ve left behind a malignant energy—call it a place memory, a ghost, a disembodied personality, whatever—and that energy is lashing out at your family. Particularly your son. It wants Mi—”
 

The door opened, and Lily stopped speaking when she saw Arthur and Mavis Bingham in the doorway. She recognized them immediately from the pictures she’d seen, but they had aged, and Arthur looked rather pale, perhaps even unwell.
 

“Who have we here?” Mavis said with a big smile. A speck of red lipstick clung to a front tooth.

Jenna said, “Mavis, this is the woman I told you about.”

“The psychic?” Mavis said.

“
Psychic
?” Arthur said with a note of alarm. “
Who’s
a psychic?”
 

Lily forced herself to smile back at Mavis. “If you don’t mind, I was having a word with Mrs. Kellar.”

“You’re the psychic?” Arthur asked.

Lily tipped her head back and looked down her nose at the little man. “As a matter of fact, I am.”

Arthur said, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?”

Lily flinched and a single, sharp laugh burst out of her. “I
beg
your pardon?”
 

“I
said
, have you accepted—”
 

“I heard you. ‘I beg your pardon’ was an expression of my utter disbelief.”

‘‘Believe it, sister,” Arthur said as he stepped out onto the porch. “If you’re a psychic who doesn’t acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God or credit the Holy Sprit for your gift, then you are Satanic.”
 

Lily tipped her head back again, cocked it to one side. “Sounds to me like you’re not taking your medication, Arthur.”

Mavis’s mouth dropped open and she gasped, and Arthur made an outraged “Bwah!” sound.

“Who are you?” Arthur said as he pointed a stiff finger at her and took another step forward. “Who do you work for? Who hired you to harass us? You’re no psychic, you’re a couple of those damned Pagans, aren’t you? Lesbian witches!”
 

Mavis put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Be careful, Arty—calm down, please. I don’t want you to get sick.”

Arty stepped back but looked like a fully flexed muscle. His fists opened and closed at his sides and he moved his feet constantly, looking almost as if he were trying to dance a softshoe on the concrete porch.
 

Lily spoke firmly when she said, “I am here to see Mrs. Kellar, and that’s all.”

Mavis said, “First, I’d like to speak with you, if you don’t mind, dear.” She clutched Lily’s upper arm and turned her around. They walked together down the steps and onto the concrete path away from the porch. Mavis spoke quietly, privately. “My husband and I are professional paranormal investigators. The Kellars asked us to deal with their problem, which we are doing.”
 

Lily felt a tingly sensation on her upper arm, just beneath Mavis’s hand, as if someone had poured cold, bubbly champagne on her bare skin. Lily stopped walking suddenly as a flood of information gushed and splashed into her mind and vivid images exploded behind her eyes. She blinked hard—once, twice, two more times—against the rapid-fire images and the swirl of emotions as they rushed together in her mind. Jerking her arm from Mavis’s hold, Lily turned to face her and saw a look of confusion and suspicion on her heavily made-up face.
 

“You’ve been doing this only to play along with your husband,” Lily whispered. She frowned, tilted her head slightly. “You’ve been doing it... to keep him sane. To keep him out of an institution. All these years. All those people you’ve ... what? Duped? Used?” Lily’s words began to come faster. “You knew those families had serious problems you couldn’t help them with— alcoholism, drug addiction, abuse. You could see those things—probably more clearly than you’ve ever seen a ghost or a demon. But you went along with Arty’s obsession until it actually started to bring you some money and fame.”
 

Mavis backed away from her and stood on the grass. She looked as if Lily had just slapped her.

“You saw something in the house,” Lily whispered, jerking her head once toward the Kellars’s house. “You
know
you can’t deal with it, and you tried to tell him that, but... but you’re doing it anyway, just to play along with Arthur, to keep him happy, because ... he really believes you
can
deal with it.”
 

Mavis spoke in a trembling, throaty whisper. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t even
think
about them, do you?” Lily said, still whispering, the words tumbling out of her mouth. “The people you prey on—people who need
real
help— you never wonder if your little dog-and-pony show messed them up even more, you don’t even—” Lily made a small breathy sound of frustration and threw up her hands. “For crying out loud, why am I wasting my time with you?” She turned and went back to Jenna, leaving Mavis standing slack-jawed on the grass. Standing at the bottom of the porch steps, she said, “I’m going to finish what I have to say to Mrs. Kellar, and we’ll let her decide what she’s going to do.”
 

Jenna said, “Look, I’m sorry, but... well, I’ve never heard of you, I know absolutely nothing about you. The Binghams at least have a reputation. I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t see why I—”
 

“You don’t have to explain yourself to her, Jenna dear,” Mavis said as she came back up the walk. She went up on the porch and stood beside her husband. “We have work to do. It will be dark soon.”
 

“Mrs. Kellar,” Lily said, “your problem is a real one. These people are not accustomed to dealing with this sort of thing, they’re not prepared for it. Something
bad
will happen. My God, I can feel it here, standing outside your door—this house is a psychic boil. You need to—”
 

“What do
you
know about what we’re used to dealing with?” Arthur said.
 

“I know plenty about you, Mr. Bingham. Even more now that I’ve had a chance to chat with your wife. You’re frauds.”

“Bwah!” Arthur said.

“If I don’t seem credible enough to you, Mrs. Kellar,” Lily said, doing her best to sound as pleasant as possible, “I can fix that, but it’ll take a little time. I’ll be back later with someone important who can vouch for me.” She turned and headed for the gate. “Come on, Claudia,” she said, but Claudia was already following along.
 

In the Beetle, Claudia started the engine. “Where to?” she asked.

Lily took a deep breath. “I’m so angry right now, I could chew nails and shit battleships. Those
people
.” She grunted, an angry sound, then said, “Just get us out of here for now. Maybe if the chief of police tells Mrs. Kellar I know what I’m talking about, she’ll listen.”
 

“Do you have any idea what you’re going to do if you actually get in the house?”

Lily sighed. “None. I won’t know till I get in there.”

A light sprinkle of rain started to fall as Claudia drove away from the house.

Jenna was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed. But she was pressed on by her desire to get all this over with as soon as possible. As tired as she was, she doubted she’d be able to sleep anyway. If she didn’t keep busy and stopped to think much, her mind reeled. Only a week ago, she’d been going about her life as if nothing could ever go wrong. Now it seemed hard to believe they’d ever had a safe or normal moment in the house.