Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Iwoke up with a renewed sense of confidence. A hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, toast, and half a gallon of coffee later, Cosmo and I were on our way. The thunderclouds had disappeared, and the sun spread a golden glow over the town.
We had half an hour before the auction house was going to open, and I was tempted to pause and window shop all along the way, to distract me.
Cosmo had other ideas. He tugged at his leash.
I gave in and hurried up.
There was already a queue outside the auction house.
I resigned myself to having to stand in line for a bit before we were allowed in.
Except, we weren't.
When we reached the end of the queue, I saw two police officers guarding the doors, and I heard a by now familiar voice, wailing in despair: "What on earth are we going to do now?"
The brunette, Adriana's great-great niece if I remembered correctly, hissed something out of the corner of her mouth. She seemed to have the same problem that I did.
It's easy to appear crazy to the rest of the world when you are spotted holding a conversation with somebody the rest of the world doesn’t see, unless you put in earbuds to fake a phone conversation - until someone really called and you were caught out.
In my case, it was only slightly easier, because my conversation partner was a cat, and I fit the menopausal cat lady cliché.
The snag was, that not only was I actually responding in a logical manner, the information we discussed tended to be highly specific and not of the sort to be shared with the rest of the world.
That’s why we took great care not to chat in public.
"What's going on?" I asked the young woman.
“Apparently, there's been a break-in. A few objects have been stolen.”
“Valuable ones?” I asked with a sinking feeling. I feared I already knew the answer.
“Valuable for us - for me,” the young woman corrected herself.
Cosmo butted his head against my chin and meowed.
“Swell idea,” the blonde said to him. “These goons won’t get away with it, if we work together, paw in glove.” She chortled at her own wit. The corners of my mouth twitched too. Cosmo swished his tail, to let me know that he wanted us to team up.
The brunette gave her a perplexed look.
I made a quick decision. “I don't think that they’ll let us in anytime soon.” I noticed the man in the baseball cap and trench coat who’d taken care of my registration yesterday.
“Excuse me,” I said to him when I’d squeezed through the small crowd to reach him, with Cosmo in my arms. “Is today's auction going ahead at all?”
“Probably not, but I'll let anyone who has registered know as soon as the police give me an update.” His frown deepened. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It's a disgrace what’s happening, and under your watch too,” a scrawny woman in a frilly skirt said. “I want you to give me your word that my granny’s silverware is safe with you, Shawn Ormond.” She poked him with a skinny finger.
Shawn backed away. “As far as I'm aware, it’s still where it was yesterday when I locked up the premises.”
She snorted. “As far as you’re aware. Your security is a joke, if it’s working at all.” She nodded at the security camera above the door.
“I’ll ask the police if I can retrieve your lot and return it to you as soon as possible.” Obviously, Shawn had enough of her. I couldn’t blame him.
“I haven't decided yet what I want.” She stalked away, obviously satisfied for the moment.
I knew the type. She’d have found something to grumble about anyway, no matter how smoothly everything went.
“I appreciate your help,” I said to him.
He gave me a curt nod, obviously distracted by what was going on around him.
Cosmo sneezed. I’d stepped onto a sprig of rosemary that must have triggered his sensitive nose.
I returned to the ghost and her relative.
“That’s sorted. He’ll let us know if and when the auction starts.
In the meantime, my cat seems to enjoy your company.
Shall we continue our conversation? Maybe in the park?
” What a pity that Cosmo hadn’t been able to tell me why he wanted to recruit his new friends, but he had to have a reason.
“Then let’s vamoose,” the ghost said.
“How about my hotel? It's not far to walk,” the brunette suggested.
As we strolled along, I was debating with myself how much I should reveal to the young woman and to her ghost when Cosmo arched his back and hissed, something that startled me almost as much as the break-in at the auction house.
I squatted to stroke his back. He relaxed under my touch.
I lifted my gaze and gasped. Staring at me from a tree was a crow – or what I assumed had once been one.
A charcoal-colored haze swirled around the feathered body, and crimson fire blazed in otherwise empty eye-sockets.
No wonder Cosmo had almost jumped out of his fur.
“What kind of a screwy place is this?” ghost Adriana said behind my back.
Only her companion stayed calm – or she alone had the good luck not to have spotted the eerie creature.
“Let’s get a wiggle on,” the ghost said. She and her companion overtook us, or at least her companion did. Even though I now knew what, or was it who, I was dealing with, I could only see Adriana in my mind. With my eyes trained on her location, she remained invisible.
My head throbbed when we reached the Crystal Springs Fontainebleau. The ridiculous name cheered me up a little.
The brunette noticed my grin. “They have a fountain in the courtyard, one that spouts blue water.” She grinned too.
We weren’t the only ones who’d decided to leave the scene of the crime.
Leila, the tarot reader with the pixie cut, and the older one with the turban stood in the lobby, with Leila offering the other one an extra strong painkiller.
“Take two, Fay. It’s bad enough having to move out of your home while you wait for the plumber to do his job, without being in pain. ”
The patient dry-swallowed the pill and squinted. “It’s those dazzling lights. They should give out medals to anyone surviving the menopause without going insane. I swear I get one symptom after another.”
I resisted the urge to step forward and offer the poor woman a dose of my Midlife Magic tea, created especially to deal with the negative sides of The Change. She must be suffering badly, if the chandelier above her caused her a headache. It shone brightly, but not unusually so.
Her companion shuddered. “I’m not remotely there yet, but I don’t go anywhere without a pack of painkillers. I swear they invented the strobe light warnings for movies for me personally.”
When the two had pressed the button for the elevator, Cosmo and I followed our hostess up the staircase to the second floor and to an airy room with a balcony and a faux rococo theme. She introduced herself. “I’m Genie Darling.”
“Bex Merriweather, and Cosmo. Nice to meet you, Genie.”
Cosmo blinked twice at me. I interpreted that as an encouragement to go on. Obviously, he'd decided to trust those two ladies.
I smiled. “And of course you, Adriana.”
Genie gasped.
Adriana squealed. She asked with a trembling voice, "Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” I said to her, "I can hear you loud and clear." I covered my eyes. “And if I don't see you, well, then I can picture you, if that makes any sense. I have certain abilities, new abilities,” I said cautiously.
Cosmo nodded at me as if to say, "Go on."
“If that ain’t the berries! Maybe I'll soon have lots of friends.” Adriana continued to dance around the room.
Genie beamed at me. "You're the first person who has actually been able to connect with my great-great-aunt apart from animals.”
“Of course animals love me," Adriana said with a deep bow. “That’s why your Cosmo wants you guys to be our sidekicks."
"Right," I said.
“You're naturally irresistible to pets," Cosmo said, giving me his equivalent of a wink. Obviously, he did not want to be outed as a familiar straight away. I'd have to inquire later why, because he wanted me to come clean (or clean-ish). Plus, his talking should be a give-away.
"Your cat told Adriana that we should compare notes.” There was a question mark in Genie's voice.
"I think so," I said.
"Right. Because I can only hear him when we do this." Genie took her great-great aunt's hand and prevented her from continuing her dance.
"Is that how it works?" I asked. That explained why Genie had remained unfazed when Cosmo uttered his first words in her presence.
"Yes, we found that out a while ago," Genie said. "Only it's exhausting for her, so I try not to do it too much." She let go of her great-great-aunt again, and the dancing continued.
“Why don’t we start with establishing what we’re all here for?” I suggested, as the oldest in the room—I did not count Cosmo in that category because, well, he was a different sort of being, and I really had no idea how age worked for him.
“Great. Why don’t you start, Bex?” Genie asked.
“We are here because my dead aunt left a letter, that we need to find an artifact. We’re most likely looking for a book or a piece of paper. It can be small, it can be big.”
“You don’t know exactly what you’re searching for?”
“No,” I had to admit. “Only the general description.”
“So, if you’re lucky, you’re good despite the burglary.”
“I hope so, only I have the feeling that you and we are both affected.”
“You said you know what is missing,” Cosmo said to the ghost, before she had a chance to reveal what she and Genie had been after.
“We do.” Adriana ended her dance and leaned dramatically against the wall. I didn't so much as blink, when I faced her for a second and she wasn't visible. I was speedily getting used to this whole "Now You See Her, Now You Don't" thing.
“And what was it?” I asked.
“As far as I could see and hear when Shawn was talking to the policeman, it’s three items: my ebony box, the radio and gramophone cabinet, and the shabby jewelry box behind it.”
My mouth went dry. The burglar had taken the exact three items that were on my list as the possible hiding places.