“Positive.” I drizzled honey on the square of butter-soaked cornbread on my plate. “Have you ever come across anything like one in our family history volumes?”
“I may have read something about a Duzarx.” Aunt Zoe forked off a small bite of cornbread. “Only I believe it was called a different name in that story. I’ll have to research the creature as soon as I can take a break.”
I hated to add to her workload. “If you don’t have time for this right now, just point me in the general direction and I’ll start digging.”
“I can help,” Doc offered, rubbing my thigh under the table.
“Anything that crawls out of the Open Cut and disappears into the trees can’t be good for anyone’s long-term health, can it?” Natalie asked, fiddling with her fork.
“Well, I should smile,” Harvey said with a hard nod.
I stared across at him. “What are you smiling about?”
Cooper groaned. “Don’t ask.”
“That means Harvey agrees with me,” Natalie explained. “He picked up the phrase from a Louis L’Amour book he read on the drive down to Arizona.”
“It was Zane Grey,” Harvey corrected.
I caught Natalie casting a glance in Cooper’s direction.
So did Cooper, which made her cheeks darken.
“Anyway.” I stabbed a piece of my cornbread. “Judging from Prudence’s level of agitation, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have rainbows or sunshine coming out of its ass.”
Harvey grunted. “I’m still scratchin’ my noggin’ about Corny givin’ the ol’ gal a run for her money when she tried to crawl inside his melon. What was it she said she found rattlin’ around in there?”
I swallowed a drink of water. “A small door leading to a room full of terrors. Then she theorized that he kept something from each of the ghosts he came across, which is why they follow him around.”
“That would explain several things,” Doc said, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. His bowl and plate were empty. Apparently, my story hadn’t dampened his appetite. He must be getting used to taking my blunders in stride.
“Such as?” Cooper asked.
“For starters, Cornelius’s ability to hear the ghosts talk sometimes. Collecting these talismans establishes a deeper connection to the spirits, like a life line.”
“Or death line, in his case,” Reid said.
Doc nodded.
I stabbed another bite of cornbread. “You think there might be a lot of chatter going on as these trapped ghosts try to figure out how to get Cornelius to release them?”
“Could be.”
“Is there any chance that Cornelius is doing this on purpose?” Aunt Zoe asked. “Maybe not consciously, but on some subconscious level?”
“To what end?” Natalie asked.
“I don’t know. Violet talked about how much energy he had at the end of their visit. Maybe it’s like some kind of temporary mental high for him.”
“You mean like ghost cocaine?” Natalie threw out, and Aunt Zoe nodded.
“No,” I replied.
“You sound sure,” Reid said.
“Listen, Cornelius talked about his grandmother helping him quiet the voices, but he didn’t realize he was actually storing away any talismans from the ghosts until Prudence pointed it out.”
“Maybe he’s very good at lying,” Aunt Zoe said. When I gave her a hard look, she held up her hands. “I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.”
“Cornelius has no malicious intent when it comes to the ghosts,” I said.
“How can you know that for certain?” she pressed.
“Because I’m the only one here who’s gone into the dark with him, and when we’re in there you don’t see each other with your eyes, you see with your mind. If there was something sinister within Cornelius, I believe I would have felt it by now.” At least I was ninety-nine percent sure I would have.
I finished off my cornbread and pushed my plate away, catching Natalie aiming another sneak peek at Cooper.
Doc rested his elbows on the table. “This snaring ability also explains how I can see Cornelius so well when he goes into the dark with you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I suspect it’s the beacon that I see in the dark when I’m looking for you two. He’s drawing me in like he does with other spirits—consciously or not.”
Doc’s abilities in the paranormal realm went beyond being a mere mental medium. While he couldn’t travel the darkness by my side like Cornelius, he was able to guide us and open doors through which we needed to go, in addition to several other abilities, like switching places with ghosts to experience their final breaths.
“You’re going to have to go back and talk to Prudence some more,” Aunt Zoe said, rising to take her bowl and plate over to the sink. “You need to start working with her instead of butting heads.”
“But Parker excels at head butting,” Cooper said with a rare grin in my direction. The smartass was enjoying my black eye a little too much.
“Maybe I should head butt you in the nose again, Cooper, just to keep in practice.”
“If you say so, Rocky,” he said, still grinning as he raised his beer to his lips.
I cringed at the nickname I’d been saddled with down at the police station after giving Cooper a broken nose. “When you smile at me like that it makes me want to wallop you with my purse again.”
“What do you mean ‘again’?” Reid asked.
Before I could explain, Harvey spilled the news about our afternoon adventure in the Sugarloaf Building. He ended with me batting the darn critter out the window and us finding no traces of it below.
Aunt Zoe aimed yet another furrowed brow at me. “This isn’t good, Violet.”
I’d had a feeling she wasn’t going to like the outcome of that faux pas. “But it was just a little guy.” I’d have called him “cute” if it weren’t for his raisin-like skin, bulging eyes, and razor-sharp claws.
“Do you have any idea of the trouble that imps can reap when they are free?”
I grimaced. “Are we sure it’s not a gremlin?”
“It’s an imp, Violet.”
She would know.
“You need to find it soon.”
“Yeah, well, it will have to get in line after the
