Haunter 1: The Shadow of the Haunter

14. Bait for Celebs

"I've got it! The pendant and the name were all I needed!"

I rubbed my eyes, trying in vain to lift my head from the pillow. Amy sounded awfully awake for my muddled brain.

"You found the ritual?"

"Did I wake you up? Oh, my, sorry, Fran!"

"It's okay. Can I call you back in ten?"

"Sure, sure."

It was eight-thirty on a gray cold morning. I kicked myself out of bed, crawled into my winter sweatpants and a baggy turtleneck sweater that fell down to my knees, tied my hair up in a ponytail and felt ready to go back to bed. Instead, I dragged my feet all the way down to the kitchen.

Susan and Mike wouldn't come until nine, so I had a little while to make my breakfast in the quiet stillness of the house. Before cooking, I went to the east parlor. The cat ball flashed right away.

"Morning, Ann, Lizzie. Amy seems to have good news and I'm about to call her, but Mike and Susan are coming any minute now. I'm wondering where we can get together away from them, so you guys can take part in the conversation. The guesthouse?"

"Study," said the phone app.

The last thing I felt like doing was making at least two trips to the third floor, in order to take my breakfast and all my devices up to the study, but they were right: it was a good place to stay away from Susan's earshot. I cooked watching the news, with the hope that the anchors' nonstop chattering would help me wake fully up. It sort of worked. Sort of.

For the first time ever, I was glad to see the Collins arrive ten minutes earlier. They agreed to stay on the first floor until I came back down from the study and I started carrying everything upstairs. I hated every minute of it, but once I settled in one of the loveseats with a woolen blanket covering my legs, a steamy mug, and breakfast laid on the coffee table, I felt perfectly comfy.

The Blotters didn't need my devices to talk with Amy, but I set the tablets on the other loveseats, in case they wanted to use them.

Amy picked up right away. She was beaming as usual, and her news left me speechless: she'd actually found the ritual, and also a way to break the spell Price's witch had cast to chain Kujo. She felt confident she could perform the counterspell with a little help.

"Meaning we don't need to call on the TV cavalry?" I asked, trying to hide that I felt a little disappointed.

"I can perform the counter-spell, but I can't work miracles, Fran."

"Oh."

"Tell Amy about your last call with Price, Fran," said Edward.

"You talked with him again?" asked Amy.

"Well, he gave me the name of the witch, right?"

She narrowed her eyes for a moment and then giggled, nodding.

"Not polite, talking to her like that about me," I grumbled.

"I'm sorry," said Lizzie. If it'd been her, I could make an educated guess about what she'd told Amy.

"Tell me about the call, Fran," she asked softly.

So I did, and what I still thought was a good idea to lure him to do what we needed of him, now that we were positive we did need him. It was pretty simple. I would ask him to help us in exchange for authorization to document the whole cleansing process and Kujo's release. With only one condition: that he came alone, not with his whole circus.

"D'you think it can work?" I asked.

"Absolutely. If we sell it the right way, he's gonna fall for it without hesitation." She raised her eyebrows. "The only problem is his parasites. He needs to be clean before even setting foot in the Manor, and ridding him of those nasty things will take at least three cleansings."