Don't Open That Door - GoM 1

Echoes - 9

Alex frowned. "Could it be that the table and the music box are connected somehow?"

"Beats me, but guess we better find out."

Back home, Alex left Claire cooking a late dinner while she made some calls.

"Kat's pretty sure her mother bought the music box at Clarisse's," she said when they sat down to eat. "Clarisse promised to check it out and call me back."

Clarisse called when they were finishing dinner, and Alex talked with her while she went to her room to grab her laptop. Claire cleaned the table and made tea for them. She brought her own laptop to the table too and sat opposite Alex, ignoring her murderous glare when she played Paramore's new album.

Alex disconnected and accepted the mug Claire handed her. "Clarisse bought both things with a large batch from a Seattle dealer." She opened her email and showed Claire some pictures. "She too takes pictures of what she buys before restoring things. This are the table and the music box as she got them."

Claire studied the photographs, zooming in on them. "She did a fine job with the music box. It was a total wreck. But no marks resembling letters. And the table— Look, Al! No letters either!"

Alex put her phone on the table, with the pictures she'd taken at Pete's workshop. "Yet there they are. The letters were already scratched this morning. At least two pairs of them."

"N-L and M-B," muttered Claire. "And R-S appeared this afternoon."

Alex's eyes widened to meet Claire's. "Neil Logan and Melissa Banks! And Rod Smith this afternoon!"

"Oh, boy! You mean—?"

"Shoot me, but the letters match the initials of the persons we think the cobolt attacked because of Felicity. And the times add up too."

"Oh, boy."

"Okay, kiddo, here's the plan. You track the dealer. We need to know the name of the original owners of these two objects. I'm gonna search for a way to get rid of this damn creature before Felicity throws a tantrum and someone else gets hurt."

"Wait. You said it's a ghost. Don't we need to burn the bones?"

"It's a cobolt ghost, Claire. Different things, different methods."

"Hope that means we can do it from here."

"Didn't you like road-tripping?"

"On vacations, Al. Not digging graves."

"You lazy thing."

The Paramore album played from beginning to end and gave way to Evanescence, tea flowing like a river while the Corbans did their research.

"Got it," said Claire at last. "What about you?"

"I've got at least three ways to fight it. What d'you have?"

"The dealer had the objects for sale on his website, and he's not into regular updating, so they're still there, with a link to a smaller dealer in Tacoma. Looks like both the table and the music box have been around for a couple of years. I was able to track them back to a closing sale in Longmont, Colorado."

"Anything on the original owners?"

"They were sold by one Margaret Seagan. I looked her up, but nothing about her stands out."

"So?"

"Her late brother, Horace Seagan, did. Margaret sold this batch of things a week after he died in prison."

"In prison? What had he done?"

"Gotten himself a life sentence for killing his wife and failing to kill their two-year-old baby girl, who survived her father's stab and ended up living with Aunt Margaret."

Alex nodded slowly, listening to Claire as she read the police chronicle the girl had on screen.

"D'you think our ghost is peachy Mr. Seagan?" Claire asked.

"Don't think so. An abusive murder wouldn't stand for an abused child." Alex tapped on the photograph of the Seagan family. "The wife makes more sense. Maybe Charlotte Seagan's ghost was attached to the music box and the table, and Neil's abuses triggered it, to try to protect Felicity like she sure protected her daughter when she was still alive."

"So what now, Al?"

"There's a way to put the ghost down, using the objects it's attached to. The catch is that we're gonna need to part Felicity from the music box for a couple of hours, to work on it and the table at the same time."

"Meaning we need to get the table from Pete's."

"No need. His workshop is a good place to do it, and he won't ask silly questions."

Alex's phone buzzing cut Claire's next question off. They glanced at the wall clock. Who could be calling after midnight? Alex picked up and moved the phone away from her ear. Claire could hear a noise like trees crushed down by a storm coming out of it. And through that noise, a voice called Alex out. .

"Father Jason?" she asked, alarmed.

"Alex, it's Felicity! She—!"

The noise overcame the priest's voice and the call was interrupted.