He frowns at me. “So you do know how to garden?”
Honestly, I’m just making shit up. I shrug. “So, what is this about, if not about figs?”
He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose before adjusting his glasses. “Okay. You have to promise me you won’t tell Ada or Perry about this.”
Oh no. I’m being sworn to secrecy. That’s not the easiest thing around my wife.
I swallow. “You know, I’m not the best with secrets.”
“Then you’ll have to try, alright?” He says sternly.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ve been having…visions.”
“Visions? Like…of the Virgin Mary?”
“No,” he says sharply. “You know I’m not a priest, right? Anyway.”
“Right, right. The visions.”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I keep seeing Ingrid.”
My heart goes still. Perry’s mother.
“That’s not a crazy thing,” I try to reassure him. “That’s normal.”
“It’s not normal,” he says, a wild spark in his eyes. He’s shaking his head. “She keeps telling me the same thing over and over again. Like she’s stuck on repeat. I see her before I go to bed at night. I see her in the morning. Sometimes I see her in the middle of the road. Sometimes the mirror. It should be comforting Dex, but it’s not.”
The chills are back, cascading down my spine. Above us, in the misty sky, a flock of birds flies past, chattering and moving as one until they disappear.
I swallow thickly, the cold in the air seeping to my bones. “What, uh, what does she keep saying?”
He stares at nothing for a moment, and even though I’m trying not to pick up on anything, I know he’s waging a war with himself. That he thinks he’s crazy.
“You’re not crazy,” I quickly tell him. “Let’s just settle that right now. And these aren’t just tricks of your mind either. You know by now, you’ve seen enough.”
He grimaces, then nods sharply in agreement. “You’re right. It’s not my mind. But I have to pretend it is, don’t you see? Or I really will lose it. I can’t afford that. I’m all my daughters have left.”
“What is Ingrid saying?” I ask again.
“She keeps saying…don’t let her.”
“Don’t let her what?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know. I’ve asked. I ask and I ask and that’s all she says. She pleads. Don’t let her, don’t let her.”
More chills, the rawness in my father-in-law’s voice.
“And you don’t know who she’s talking about…Perry or Ada?”
He shakes his head. “No,” he says quietly, staring at the ground. Then he glances up at me. “That’s why I told you, Dex. Because I know, no matter who she’s talking about, you’ll be there to protect her. Protect the both of them when you can.”
“I think Jay can look out for Ada,” I tell him. I hate to stick up for him, but I at least believe he protects her and cares for her.
“Nah,” he says dismissively. “I don’t like him.”
“Neither do I, but…your daughter has been dating him for a year.”
“She says they aren’t dating,” he says. “If you can believe it.”
I smile. “Not as tricky as she thinks.” I pause, my stomach starting to feel unsettled. “Do you have any idea at all what your wife would have meant?”
“I really don’t.”
“And you think it’s her?”
Not, like a demon, I finish in my head.
“I don’t know what I think, Dex.”
“And you don’t want to tell them?”
“I don’t want to worry them. Talking about their mother…it’s hard. I know neither of them are okay yet. I know I’m not. I’m not sure when I will be either. I just…I want to keep them safe and in the dark, for as long as I can, until I can figure out what’s going on. But in the meantime…just look out for them, Dex. Look out for Perry. I’ll watch Ada as closely as I can, but only you can protect Perry.” He rubs his lips together, making a face. “I know you have so far.”
“Was that so hard to say?” I ask, half-joking.
He puts his hand on my shoulder. “You love her. I know you do. Just keep loving her, please.”
Good lord. His words are breaking my heart.
“I love her more each morning than I did when I went to sleep.”
“Good,” he says after a moment. “And hopefully this is just me worrying for nothing. I have been stressed lately, drinking a little too much. Perhaps it’s a wake-up call to stop the booze. Maybe the hallucinations will go away.”
But I know that’s not the case.
It takes a lot to get a man like Daniel Palomino to admit he’s seeing ghosts.
Unfortunately, whatever message Ingrid is passing on is an important one.
Too bad we don’t know what it means.
Chapter 5
“So he doesn’t trust Jay?” Perry asks.
We’ve been driving for about an hour, and she’s been grilling me non-stop on the whole exchange with her father. Naturally, I had to cover the truth with a lie, one that she’d believe.
“No, he doesn’t,” I tell her for the millionth time. Not a lie either.
“No wonder he seemed so bothered by them coming to Seattle for the night. Wait, you didn’t tell him anything about the haunted house, did you?”
I give her a loaded glance. “Come on.”
“Okay, just checking.”
After Daniel dumped that secret on me, which I really want to chalk up to him just having too much to drink and hallucinating, the rest of us got going. Perry and I in our car, Jay and Ada smushed together in her Mini Cooper, which she just raced past us on the I-5 only moments ago.
Of course, Ingrid’s words are bouncing around in my head now.
Don’t let her. Don’t let her.
Who? What?
If it’s Perry, what isn’t she supposed to do?
Buy the overpriced Slayer vinyl she’s been eying on Ebay?
Or, like, go into this haunted house tonight?
Or is it something much deeper than that?
And if it’s Ada, same questions apply.
There’s just not enough to go on, and it’s not like I can stop Perry from doing anything in the first place.
You just need to
