Chapter 6
“Hey,” Rose said to Gregory the morning after the limo accident on the bridge, “did you call Sascha to check on her?”
“I did. She had nightmares about the accident.” Gregory hated that she’d had to go through it and was dealing with the repercussions. “Raymond’s back is feeling better, but I want him to take off for a few more days until his back is no longer bothering him.”
“Good. But not about Sascha’s nightmares. I still can’t believe she thought I was ditching Marvin for some other guy. Are you ready to have breakfast?”
He wanted the pancakes Sascha was going to make for Prescott and Kat, though he knew Prescott had a chef who prepared their meals too. But the novelty of Sascha making them was what made them especially appealing to him.
“Yeah, on breakfast. Sascha’s meeting with Lucy this morning,” Gregory said. “I overheard Kat call out that Lucy had arrived to speak with her.”
“She’s probably concerned that Sascha was in the accident and wanted to personally check on her,” Rose said.
Rose and Gregory went into the dining room and sat down while they were served eggs Benedict with béarnaise sauce on English muffins.
“So what have you discovered about the family?” Rose asked, repeating her question from last night.
Gregory put a cloth napkin on his lap and took a sip of his coffee. “Nothing we didn’t already know. Lucy has a website that states she’s a self-professed ghost hunter and healer. Sascha is a fortune teller, and she’s going to be at a fair this weekend.”
“Are you going to see her?” Rose started eating her eggs.
“No, why?”
“No reason.”
But he knew his sister better than that. She believed he was fixated on Sascha. Which he wasn’t. Well, maybe a little bit.
“Don’t you wish you could be a fly on the wall, listening in on what Lucy, Katrina, and Sascha have to say?” Rose drank some of her orange juice.
“Yeah. I do. Maybe if I got lucky, I would learn everything there is to know about them.”
“You ought to go to the fair and see if you can overhear anything. Katrina is supposed to be there with Sascha. Maybe they’ll say something that will interest you.”
“Why don’t you go?” he asked.
“I have a date with Marvin. And I’m not the one who is dying to know more about the cousins.”
Gregory never attended fairs. Though neither did Prescott, and then there he was, getting caught up with Katrina even though he’d been dating Stephanie at the time.
“Just don’t let Stephanie know if you go to the fair. She had a fit about Prescott meeting Katrina there.”
Gregory smiled. “I ought to take her with me.”
“She wouldn’t go, I can tell you right now. It would probably be like déjà vu. But if you do go, pay for another reading. See if Sascha can tell you more about Fenton.”
He chuckled. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“Okay, then I’ll take Marvin with me, and you’ll go too, and we’ll see what she has to say.”
Now that was an idea.
“Okay, tell Marvin we’re going to the fair.”
Rose smiled. “He’ll be surprised.”
“Especially if Katrina or Sascha says that your true love is a guy named Fenton.”
“Okay, so what did you want to see me about?” Sascha asked Lucy. She was glad to be wearing a bright blue boho skirt and a long-sleeved, vibrant patchwork, blousy shirt, which made her feel more like her normal self.
Lucy sat down in the living room with her and Kat. Lucy was wearing one of her ’ 60s-style dresses with a belt at the waist and a full skirt. She was always purchasing vintage clothing from the ’50s and ’60s to wear.
Kat was wearing jeans and a sweater, looking casual and relaxed.
“Okay, so yeah, I’ll say first that I learned Damon came by to see you at the party last night. But that’s not what this is about.”
Sascha was surprised that Lucy was interested in discussing something else.
“I…well, I want to work at the fair with you this weekend.”
Both Katrina and Sascha raised their brows.
“I…thought it would be good advertising for my business. I could have a booth next to yours. You would be the main show, Sascha the Sensation, of course. But I could put up my sign: Ghostly Intervention. And then I would offer visits with departed family or friends.”
“You would have to get hold of the fair coordinator for booths. You might not be able to do it at this late date,” Sascha explained. “We don’t have anyone else who does what you do, so it’s possible. Everybody’s booths are juried for that reason. You’ll have to pay a fee also.”
“Prescott will help get your booth set up if they go for it,” Kat said. “You still have your cover and table for a booth, right?”
“Yep.”
Lucy hadn’t done one of those at the fair for several years. Sascha was surprised she wanted to now.
“Okay, so here’s the card for the coordinator,” Sascha said, handing it to Lucy. “No hard feelings about Damon?”
Lucy let out her breath. “He can’t have you. I’ll be stuck with him unless I can convince Mom and Dad to change their minds. At least I convinced them that I would marry him after Kat’s babies came. And…” Lucy frowned. “And being married to him is only for five years.”
Which was a long time.
“But maybe I can get them to whittle down the time. In any event, I don’t plan to live with him, just so you know. I’m sure he’ll be happy with the arrangement too.”
Sascha thought that could work. At least they wouldn’t kill each other, but she knew they couldn’t have an extramarital affair, even if they weren’t living together.
Lucy didn't hesitate to call the fair's concession coordinator. Sascha suspected she had an ulterior motive.
"Yes, hi, I'm Lucy Brighten, and I know it's late to do this, but my cousins Sascha the Sensation and Katrina are set up there every year with their fortunetelling booth.
I would love to set up a booth next to them and give fairgoers a chance to speak to their dearly departed friends and family.
I have a shop in town, but I'll have someone else manning it for the weekend. "
She looked at the coffee table and tapped her high-heeled shoe on the floor. “Departed Intervention." She gave the coordinator her website address.
There was a lengthy pause. "No, well, just once, but I did it at a different fairground, and it was very successful. No. I won't be competing with my cousins. Yes. I spoke with them. Here, you can talk to Sascha." Lucy handed her phone to Sascha.
"This is Sascha."
"Are you all right with your cousin, Lucy, setting up a booth next to yours?"
Sascha glanced at Lucy. She nodded and motioned to Sascha to vouch for her.
"Yes. She has a lovely setup for it, and Prescott will help her set up the table and tent."
"All right. Let me talk to her. She needs to pay for the space."
Sascha handed Lucy's phone back to her, and she paid for the space. "Thanks so much." Then they ended the call.
"Why have you never done more than one ghostly performance at a fair?" Sascha asked, wondering if Lucy’s booth wasn't as popular as Sascha’s fortune telling was. It certainly would take more time to contact ghosts, she figured. At least when she did seances, it did.
"I was hot, and it was buggy," Lucy said.
Both Kat and Sascha frowned at her, sure that wasn’t the only reason.
"All right, already. The one and only time I did it was a disaster. One man nearly had a heart attack when his dead business partner accused him of murdering him to take over the business. A woman fainted when she heard from her dead husband, and another ran off screaming when her daughter spoke to her about things only the mother would know. Of course, several said I was a charlatan, even though I knew things I shouldn’t have about them.
That's par for the course. But I was hot and plagued with bugs too.”
"We'll have fans going to take care of both problems," Kat said.
But terrifying fairgoers with their ghostly encounters was another story. Sascha thought that having Lucy set up next to them could be a catastrophe, given her previous experience.
"Thanks, ladies. I'll see you on Saturday, bright and early to set up."
"Don't sleep in," Sascha warned. Not that she thought Lucy would, but she had vouched for her.
When Lucy left the house, Kat and Sascha watched her drive around the circular drive and leave through the gated entry.
"So what's the real reason Lucy wants to do this at the last minute?" Kat asked.
"Damon." Sascha suspected he would show up at her booth during his lunch break. Since he was in charge of the restaurant, he could do whatever he wanted.
"Damon," Kat agreed.
The day that Gregory and Rose planned to attend the fair with their dates, Stephanie and Marvin, Gregory made it known to Stephanie that he wasn't dating her.
"I can't believe that you want to go to the fair, as Prescott did. It's dirty, hot, buggy, and not our kind of place at all."
"I can ask someone else." He actually had, and four other women had turned him down. They had turned up their noses at the idea of going to the fair. He'd never been to one. How bad could it be?
"No. I'll go, but no fortune telling," Stephanie said.
No woman he wasn't even dating would tell him what he would or would not do. He planned to see Sascha no matter what.
They arrived at the fairground at lunchtime, and he guided them to the food stands. "Nachos? Or tacos? Or giant turkey legs? There are lots of choices."
"I'll eat after the fair," Stephanie said. “I’m certainly not eating here.”
Gregory wondered if Stephanie had eaten at the fair with Prescott that one time.
Rose got the tacos. Marvin and Gregory bought the turkey legs, and they all asked for lemonade.
A rodeo was underway, and people crowded around game booths to win prizes. A dunking tank was set up. That looked like fun.
They sat down at a picnic table, and Gregory looked at the map they'd gotten when they entered the fairgrounds and located Sascha's booth, but there was another one next to hers that appeared to be a ghost-summoning booth.
"Does anybody need to speak to the dead?" Gregory asked.
Stephanie choked on her lemonade. Her eyes watering, she said, "Sascha's doing seances now?"