Demon Song

concentrate on my driving. I was glad of the ocean breeze coming through the open windows; it helped me calm down. “Let’s find somewhere to get some food before I start chomping on necks.”

19

There were three cars parked at the guesthouse, but no people were visible. As I pulled in, I spotted Inez slowly climbing the stairs back to the main house.

Oh, shit. She’d let them in. Great. They were probably pawing through my stuff right now.

Nah. They wouldn’t do that. Would they?

At least the house was still standing and the walls weren’t melting … yet. That was a plus. I wasn’t as emotional anymore, either. Apparently aggression isn’t the only thing that happens when I get hungry. The people at the Italian restaurant had probably never seen a weepy vampire before. Interestingly, spaghetti with marinara sauce isn’t half-bad in a blender. Definitely on the keeper list.

But my emotions weren’t in perfect order, because my stomach did flip-flops when I saw two men watching me arrive from my own living-room window. So when I parked the SUV next to a rental Mustang that was as red as a certain Ferrari but not as fast, it wasn’t much of a struggle to answer the cell phone when it rang. Dawna let out a clucking noise and leaned next to my ear to whisper as she was getting out, “Chicken.”

I shooed her away. Adriana had an amused look that said she agreed with Dawna. Just what I needed—two amoral compasses. I pressed the green button as both doors shut and they walked toward the house. “Celia Graves.”

“Afternoon, Ms. Graves. It’s Mick Murphy.”

It wasn’t Monday. “I’m sorry, Mr. Murphy, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to those people yet. Didn’t we say we’d talk tomorrow?”

“We did. Yes, ma’am. But something interesting came up and I thought you’d want to know about it.”

Okay, that got me curious. I got out of the car and started to walk toward the stairs … not to climb them to the door but to stand under them where there was shade. It was December, but I was suddenly dying in the car. It hadn’t really hit me until the breeze stopped moving and I started sweating. But out in the open air a cool wind took away the heat and the sounds of gulls and of waves crashing against the rocks calmed me. “Tell me about it.” And please take a long time doing it.

“Well, I got a call today from an older gentleman named Nathan Fulbright. His family has been in the county for generations, but I’d never really talked to him before. Called me right out of the blue and offered to sell me his ranch. The interesting part is he’s asking the exact amount of money Ms. Cooper is leaving me.”

Really. I let my sneakers sink into the soft sand and rested my tail against one of the stair treads while I thought. “Did the amount you’re getting appear in the local papers or make the rumor mills?”

“No, ma’am. That’s why I thought it was significant. Gave me a shiver right up my spine. Most of the people around town think I’m getting a million or so. Mind you, that’s still a lot of money down here.”

It was just about anywhere except Hollywood. “Is that a normal price for land down there?”

The choking laugh that burst from him was the answer without him even saying the words. “No. Nowhere close. It’s nice land and there’s always been a rumor he’s got a little diamond mine there, but other than that, it’s just ordinary ground. Not even very good grazing. Might be good for crops once all the undergrowth is gone. It’s about two sections—so a little over twelve hundred acres. But land’s only about three thousand an acre hereabouts.”

“Diamond mine? There are diamonds in Arkansas?”

“Yes’m, in a few places. A couple of the mines are real steady producers. A lot of them are industrial-grade veins, but there are a few that are jewelry quality. I talked to my boss, the judge, and he thinks the reason Nathan’s offering the land to me is to keep his two moneygrubbing sons away from it. That I do understand. His sons are real no-accounts. Nobody likes or trusts them and their names have passed by my desk in the court more than once.”

Sort of like Vicki’s situation but in reverse. “I guess the big question is, are you interested?”

He let out a deep breath. “I haven’t had much of a chance to think about it, to be honest. I just barely got off the phone with him and we immediately thought to call you to find out your thoughts. I mean, it’s nice land— overlooks the river and parts are real pretty. But for that price there’d better be something really special about it. I just don’t know what that might be. And I don’t think he’d tell me if I asked ’lessen we were under contract.”

“And by then, it’s a little late to be disappointed.”

His voice said he’d already thought out the problems: “Yes, ma’am. He even offered to carry a loan if our bequest wasn’t enough. So I guess that sort of puts the skids on our plans to cancel the bequest … at least until we know what this is about. Molly agrees with me that it’s too coincidental to ignore. I told him I’d call him back next week, after I’d talked with the attorneys and my family. I didn’t mention telling you, but you’re sort of part of the attorneys, in my mind.”

“I appreciate you calling. Let me see what I can find out and why don’t you do the same there. Don’t tell anyone about it, but do some discreet work to find out his background.”

He chuckled. “Molly has already started her quilting circle finding things out. By morning, we’ll know everything there is to know about his family. I’ll let you know what we find out, but it might not be until Tuesday. He asked if he could come over and talk with us tomorrow. He’d like to meet Molly and the girls, but he made it clear it had to be in the daylight. The only way to do that is to have him over at the diner at noontime. We all meet there and eat together every day.”

This was all happening really fast, but that’s the way it is with visions sometime. Hit just the right trigger and the whole thing unreels. Movement caught my eye and I looked toward the vehicles to see a dust devil forming. The wind picked up sand and spun it. The sand sparkled in the afternoon sun. Or was it not the sand that was sparkling? “Mr. Murphy, I think Vicki’s here. Let me talk to her about it and see what she thinks.”

He let out a light laugh. “Please call me Mick. My dad’s Mr. Murphy. I find it funny you say you think Miss Vicki’s there like she’s walking up the road. You seem to handle ghosts pretty well. Sure you’re not a channeler, too?”

I asked that of myself for a long time. But it’s only select ghosts. “Thankfully no. But they do seem to like me.”

He chuckled again and said his good-byes while I stared at the sparkling whirlwind that was bouncing off the car roofs. I walked out into the warm sun and felt an immediate sting in spots on my nose that said I’d sweated too much and some of the sunscreen had rubbed off. I addressed the circle of dust: “So, did you hear? What do you think?”

Of course there wasn’t any way for her to respond in writing—no windows. But once again I was wrong, because she shot up into the sky and my eyes followed. Words appeared on my picture window in frosted letters two feet high. Yes! Find out … urgent!

Urgent? Why was it now urgent rather than a mildly frustrating curiosity on her part? But she seemed really agitated. So much so that the people in the house came to the window to stare at the hovering tornado of sand. “It’s okay. I’ll be talking to him again on Tuesday.”

She wrote again, right over the tops of the other words. That was really unlike her. It took me a second to make them out: No! Go there. Hurry.

Go there? To Arkansas? “Sweetie, land sales take months to complete even if they signed the deal today. We’ve got a pretty big crisis right here to deal with first.”

Once again, letters appeared over the top of the others without her waiting for the sun to warm the previous words away: Same crisis … I know it!

Oh, crap. Was there a second rift opening in Arkansas? Why now, and why there? Or was it more simple than that? I needed to talk to people who would know, and fortunately, they happened to be just upstairs. “You’re too upset, Vick. You need to relax and regroup. I’ll talk to the others and then we’ll talk again. Okay?”