Cat and the Rock Star

Chapter 2

The next day, Demas went to the studio to rehearse for a HBO appearance at the end of the week, but not before instructing Cat on a few points of home management. "Marta and her assistant will be cleaning your room and making your bed around eleven, so you might want to set up somewhere else during that time."

"Really not necessary," Cat said, frowning. "I can take care of my own room."

Demas shook his head. "Around here, everyone does what they're best at, Cat. I make music, Marta keeps the house running, Gino guards, and you vamoose ghosts. Okay?"

Cat nodded.

"Another thing. Penny's our cook, and she'll be here soon and make you anything you like, any time. Just tell her what you want." Demas lifted one eyebrow. "We good?"

"Good," Cat said gruffly.

A large, eight-cylinder engine purred outside. "That's Gino," Demas said. "Gotta run."

Cat walked the property and studied the security system, but everything seemed in order. She tested a few windows, including all the windows in Demas's room, and found that opening them triggered the system. Then why hadn't last night's open window set off the alarm?

Out of answers for the moment on the stalking front, she set up her laptop in the dining room and began to research "ghost removal" on the internet. A line of French doors looked out on sculpted grounds and a large pool with high and low diving boards and a white-shuttered cabana. As she worked, a steady stream of maintenance professionals trooped through the back acreage: gardeners, pool cleaner, a contractor who began to paint the cabana's shutters yellow. It was like a weekday at one of Tanya's high-end hotels.

Cat navigated to the WikiHow web page, always a good place to start, and she wasn't disappointed. An article entitled, "How to Get a Ghost out of Your House" was illuminating, particularly Step 3, which recommended you start by getting yourself a psychiatric evaluation. This might have been reasonable as far as Demas was concerned – everyone knew musicians were more loosely tethered to reality than everyone else – but Cat knew she'd never get him to do it.

WikiHow's information mirrored the rest of the internet. Essentially, there appeared to be three schools of thought. Those who were religious felt you needed an exorcist. Although WikiHow said the victim should be Christian, since you were asking Satan and his minions to leave, there were also a lot of other exorcists available from many different faiths. This approach seemed a bit of a last resort, particularly since it might result in bad publicity for Demas.

Then there were the do-it-yourselvers who burned incense or sage or stuff like that and maybe said prayers to clear out bad energy. Demas would probably consider this second approach insufficient, considering the fact Bobby was able to inflict pain and suffering on mortal human beings and was out to kill him.

Lastly, there was the school of thought that believed ghosts were unsettled spirits who needed assistance finding peace so they could move on to wherever it was they were meant to go. This approach felt the most hopeful. WikiHow suggested politely asking a ghost to leave; Demas would just laugh at that. But many other ghost "experts" described these spirits as traumatized and trying to find resolution. What if the way the band, led by Demas, had terminated Bobby had deeply hurt him? The fact he'd committed suicide soon after suggested this might be true. Cat didn't want to get too psychological, but perhaps if Demas gave Bobby a sufficient apology, Demas himself might find relief from any guilt he might have, thereby causing his belief in Bobby's ghost to disappear. Then they could just focus on the stalker.