“Doc, you don’t need to go.”
“I know I don’t need to. I want to.”
As much as I would like to have him there … “I think it’s a bad idea.”
“I don’t,” Harvey piped up. “Take yer stallion instead of me. I’ll stay home and watch the kids.”
“No, you need to be there with me.”
“So do I,” Doc insisted.
I shook my head. “No, Doc. It’s too dangerous.”
“Violet, things are different now than they were the last time I went in that house. Prudence has Zelda to channel for her. She doesn’t need me.”
“Yeah, but what if she likes your channel better than Zelda’s? I can’t handle you looking at me through the whites of your eyes.” I glanced in Harvey’s direction, pulling a frown. “It might put a damper on other areas of our life.”
“She’s talkin’ about sex,” Harvey said.
“Thank you, Harvey. I’m sure Doc understood what I meant.”
“Then just shoot straight. I don’t know why you women like to play coy when it comes to Cupid’s cramps. All it does is tie us fellas into double knots.”
I focused back on Doc, who hadn’t moved from his wide-legged stance. “I don’t think I can handle her voice coming from your mouth. Not if you and I are sharing a bed.”
Harvey guffawed. “But you’re okay with me lookin’ like a droolin’ ghoul?”
“I’m not okay with it, but …”
“I’m going, Violet,” Doc cut in, his voice offering no room for rebuttals. “I need to know about this mirror if I’m going to help you catch the lidérc.” I started to object and he grabbed my wrist, pulling me closer. “We are a team, remember? You said so last night in this very room.”
I stared up at him. “But Prudence is different.”
“Trust me, Killer. I’ll be okay around your coworker.”
“Fine. But I cannot give you a pinch-free guarantee if you’re there with her and me.”
He laughed and let me go.
“If Doc goes, then I get to stay home, right?” Harvey asked.
“No, you big chicken.” I scowled, grabbing my coffee from the counter. It reminded me of Prudence—bitter. I poured in more cream. A lot more. “You’re still coming with us.”
“What do ya need me for?”
“Because Prudence requested your presence.”
“Hogwash.”
I shook my head. “When I spoke to Zelda about coming up there, she asked Prudence if it was okay while I was listening. Prudence agreed, but clarified that I needed to bring you along.”
“Why would she want me there?”
“Sounds to me like she’s soft on you,” Doc joked.
“That ain’t funny.” Harvey scowled at him and then me. “I don’t trust that kooky spook. She’s going to set me on her knee and make me talk for her again, just like that time in Sparky’s back seat.”
Oh boy, was that ever a spine-tingling moment. Better Harvey be her ventriloquist doll than Doc, though. I wasn’t sure I could kiss Doc for a while if Prudence used him as a puppet today.
“I don’t think she’ll do that to you,” I said to Harvey.
“How do you know?”
“Because I made Prudence tell me why she wants you there.”
Harvey’s brows scrunched up. “Well? Are you gonna suck on every single bean before you spill ’em or what?”
“She said that she’d been thinking about my lidérc dilemma, and my chances of catching the Hungarian devil could depend partly on you.”
Chapter Eighteen
We ate breakfast with the kids before hitting the road for Prudence’s place. Natalie had shown up midway through breakfast, grabbed a plate, and joined us. She’d agreed to hang out with the kids until we returned since Aunt Zoe was busy working in her glass shop. When I’d given her a hug before heading out the door, she’d threatened to fill the kids with chocolate and jelly beans if I didn’t rush back after we were finished and fill her in on what happened with Prudence and the mirror.
Outside on the front porch, I gave Doc the keys to my Honda, letting him drive while Harvey sat in the passenger seat. I settled into the back seat, carefully laying the mirror on the seat beside me. Aunt Zoe hadn’t been a fan of my idea, but her curiosity outweighed her hesitation, so she’d helped me wrap the mirror in newspaper and sent me on my way with several words of warning and a kiss on the forehead.
Doc, Harvey, and I rode up to Lead in silence. I didn’t know what the two in the front were pondering, but I was busy worrying my thumbnail about what might happen inside that beautiful old house now that Doc was with me.
My last visit there with Doc in tow had not gone well. Prudence and Doc had switched places, him reliving her death and the moments prior to it while she turned my boyfriend into her ventriloquist doll. He’d struggled to return, trying to break free of her hold, but she’d been so strong, keeping him under until she was done giving me her message about wanting me to bring her Zelda. I’d shied away from Doc for a while after that visit, nervous about him switching back into wooden puppet mode with the whites of his eyes showing.
Now, here we were going back again. With Doc sharing my bed, I worried about waking up in the middle of the night to find him staring down at me with those creepy white eyes, yelling at me in Prudence’s voice.
I shivered at the thought alone, rubbing my arms.
“You cold back there?” Doc asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
“A little,” I lied, looking out the windshield to avoid his eagle eyes. He was too good at reading my thoughts for me to hold his gaze.
Harvey shifted in his seat, scratching at his beard. His shoulder twitched, and then he shifted again and cleared his throat.
“You okay, Harvey?” I asked, picking up the tension rolling off of him in waves.
“No, I’m not okay.” He grunted loud and clear, sounding like his nephew. “Why would I be okay?
