As Jenny drove the red SUV down the highway Jake, seated in the back seat with Alex and Diana, glanced up. As he did, he caught sight of Cranes' face reflected in the rear-view mirror, seeing his eyes closed and his head moving in time with the music booming from the vehicle's speakers.
"Check it out!" he said, with a chuckle. "Looks like Crane's channeling his inner metalhead!"
Cranes' eyes snapped open, and he said, "I beg your pardon, Master Wells? If you would elucidate a bit more clearly precisely what it is that you're accusing me of, perhaps I might be able to offer a proper defense!"
The three women burst out laughing, and Diana reached forward to pat his shoulder. "Simmer down there, tiger!" she said. "He was just saying that you seem to be enjoying the music."
Apparently satisfied with the explanation, he relaxed, and said, "I must admit that I do not find it unpleasant, when the fellow isn't screaming like one possessed."
"Crane not so much a screamo fan. Good to know," Alex muttered under her breath to Jake.
"The lyrical content of some of the songs is rather insightful, and they are all quite skilled on their chosen instruments," he continued. " Miss Molly was correct, I am rather impressed with the violinist."
Tapping on the laptop she held, Alex pulled something up on the screen, and turned it so that Crane could see. "Here's a publicity picture of the band, so this is what you'd see if you ever went to a concert," she informed him.
Crane turned his head and saw a picture of five men wearing leather clothing, with black paint, in various designs, smeared on their faces.
"Gracious! I've seen Indian war parties wear less cosmetic enhancement into battle!" he said.
"I hate to break it to you, man, but there are some bands that make this look understated," Jake informed him.
"I shudder to imagine, Master Wells."
They drove for a few more miles, with only the music breaking the silence. Then Crane glanced across the seat at Jenny, and said, "If you wouldn't object, Miss Jenny, I would like to ask a question."
"Well, I guess I won't know until I hear it, will I? So ask away," she responded.
"Yesterday, when you spoke to Master Scanlon, you said that you were 'returning a favor' to his sister. I was simply curious as to what that might be," he said. "If it isn't something of a personal nature, of course, I don't wish to pry into a private matter."
She was silent for several moments, seeming to gather her thoughts, and Crane turned the music down as she did so. Finally, she exhaled, and said, "When I was working for Corbin, there were times that I couldn't do an assignment on my own, so there were a few other people we'd call in for help, from time to time. Most of them didn't know Corbin, or anything about him, just that there was an 'interested party'. Todd actually did know him slightly, and they were pretty much on the same page concerning how these items should be handled, so he was usually the first choice."
"On one particular occasion, a guy Corbin knew had inherited some property from a relative, which included an old warehouse full of junk. The guy knew that some of the stuff was 'a little hinky', as he put it, but he had no clue what to do with it, so he left it to us to deal with. There was one item in particular that Corbin was especially concerned about, because he knew that other people had been looking for it, too, so we made it a group effort. It was me, Todd, Nick Hawley, and a guy named Benny Gutierrez, who was Todd's best friend since grade school."
"Now, this is where it gets a bit complicated," she continued, never taking her eyes off of the road as she spoke. "Todd's apartment was being worked on for some reason, I don't remember why, so he was crashing at his parents house. Faith was about fifteen, or maybe sixteen, at the time, and she was pestering Todd to let her go along on one of his 'trips'. She'd apparently heard bits of some of his conversations, but not enough to really understand what we were really doing. Of course, he didn't feel like he could explain it to her, so he just kept saying no, she was too young, and stuff like that."
Diana, sensing the direction Jenny was going with the topic, nodded, and said, "And of course , when you say that to a teenager..."
"That makes them that much more determined to do whatever you don't want them to do," Alex finished. "Been there, done that."
"Exactly!" Jenny replied. "We went to the house to pick him up, and she snuck out and stashed herself in the back of the truck. Nobody knew she was there until Hawley opened it up when we got to the warehouse."
"Would I be correct if I ventured a guess that this revelation did not receive an enthusiastic reception?" Crane inquired.
"You most certainly would!" Jenny chuckled. "You wouldn't have been able to call us a bunch of happy campers at that moment, but we didn't have time to take her back home. Todd was going to make her stay in the truck, but Benny pointed out that she wasn't likely to pay attention to that, either. It was too dangerous to risk letting her roam around on her own, so we took her with."
"We got inside, and everything seemed fine, at least until we got to the upper level. Unfortunately, what nobody knew was that a few of the original owners employees knew about the item we were there for, and had brought in a spirit board to try to summon the, umm, 'occupant' of the item. And, in fact, they had just succeeded when we got there."
"One of the guys booked down the stairs, and Hawley went after him, since we didn't know if he had it or not. Then another guy jumped Benny with a piece of pipe, and Todd shoved Faith into a utility closet and went to help him. They were struggling, and all three of them broke through the catwalk railing, and fell about fifty or sixty feet onto a concrete floor. Unfortunately, I couldn't go help them, because that was when the demon came after me."
"Corbin had given me a scroll, with an incantation to use in case it got free, so I pulled it out, but I dropped it when the thing tackled me. Now, Todd and Benny were in who knew what shape downstairs, and Hawley was gone, so I thought I was probably dead. But then, all of a sudden, I felt something cold, and it let go of me."
"So I looked up, and saw Faith, standing there with a fire extinguisher in her hands. Apparently, there was a whole rack of them in that utility closet, so she just kept emptying them at the thing, and bought me enough time to grab the scroll and read it, to send it back."
"So that's how your friend lost his leg, right?" Jake inquired. "What about the other guy?"
"Both Benny and the guy that jumped him were dead when we got downstairs. Hawley got back about then, and he got things straightened up while I called Corbin, and Faith looked after Todd. Their dad is a doctor, and he made them both learn first aid, so I guess it was a good thing she came along, after all."
"What precisely do you mean by 'straightening up', Miss Jenny?" Crane asked.
"Well, with two people dead, there was no way to keep from having the police involved, so Hawley grabbed the stuff we came for, and when I called Corbin, he kind of guided the investigation in the direction we'd planned for if there was a problem."
"Which was ...?" Diana prompted.
"That we were ghost-chasers, and interrupted a robbery while we were hunting for our 'spooks'." Jenny continued.
"Not too far from the truth, actually," Alex noted.
"No, but far enough to keep us all from getting locked up."
"So now I see the answer to my original question," Crane stated. "This obstinate, yet resourceful, young lady quite possibly saved your life, and you wish to repay the perceived debt. Highly commendable."
"Something like that, yeah," Jenny acknowledged. "She definitely had more guts than common sense, but it seems like she's wised up a bit since then."
"Looks like were almost there, folks!" Jake interjected, raising his hand and pointing to a sign informing them that they had just crossed into Tuttlesburg, Virginia, population 2143.
Continuing on for a couple more miles, Jenny made a turn at another sign, which read, "PRIVATE ROAD -- NOT A THRUWAY". Driving for just over a mile, they rounded a curve and saw an enormous stone-and-glass structure just ahead.
"Wow!" Jake said.
"Whaddya expect, the guy that owns this place is disgustingly rich," Alex informed him. "According to what I found when I researched this place, he's worth somewhere in the neighborhood of six-point-two billion dollars."
"Well, when she said they had plenty of room, she wasn't kidding!" Jenny said, as she pulled into the driveway.
As everyone emerged from the vehicle and began to remove their bags, the front door opened, and as several people walked out onto the porch, a voice called out, "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?"