Page 13 of The Vampire and the Case of the Perilous Poltergeist

The phone rang twice before he picked up. His warm voice sent all kinds of fluttering to my belly. ‘Bunny!’ he said, then a deeper, huskier, ‘I miss you.’

‘I miss you too.’ And I did. There was an ache in my stomach, a yearning I couldn’t shake. Our nascent bond didn’t like us being apart for long. Nor did I.

‘I have a surprise cooking up for you, Doe.’

My eyebrows shot up. What kind of surprise could he get to me while I was here? I considered the possibility that he might be sending me a care package since we were allowed those, but then it occurred to me that the Commander’s Weekend was fast approaching – a whole three days off. We had to stay on the island but there was no PT, no classes. A buzz of excitement hit me. If I was wrong with my deduction and all Connor was sending me were some more teabags, I’d be gutted.

‘Are you coming to see me?’ I squealed. Oops, I took a breath and tried to chill; squealing was unbecoming in a detective.

Connor’s chuckle rumbled through the tinny phone speaker and I pictured leaning against his chest as it against vibrated me. Yum. ‘I can’t fool a detective!’ he teased. ‘But there’s more to it than that, and there’s no way you’ll deduce this one so you’ll have to wait.’

Waiting was not my strong suit, though I’d got better at it during the last few weeks. ‘Hurry up and wait’ was not only a mantra in the British military but also in the Alaska State Troopers. Every morning after PT it felt like the next classwas always deliberately held up to keep us waiting; standby to standby, indeed.

Still, if Connor wanted to surprise me I would let him. I did my best to relax and tried to ignore any changes in the timbre of his voice. ‘How are Fluffy and Shadow?’ I asked.

‘They’re fine,’ he reassured me. After a pause, he addressed the question I really wanted to ask. ‘Reggie is still struggling with holding his human form so he rarely shifts – he seems happier as Fluffy. Only Gunnar seems to make him comfortable enough to take on his human skin.’ He sounded mildly amused and a little exasperated. ‘And Shadow is Shadow. He does whatever he wants and gets mad if you don’t think he’s cute while he’s doing it.’

I laughed. No matter what kind of supernatural being he truly was, Shadow was most definitely a cat. ‘Thanks for that.’ I sighed. ‘I don’t have much time. I’m still trying to dig into the poltergeist thing and I haven’t even had a chance to read your email yet.’

‘No problem, I’ll give you the highlights – though I’ll start with the disclaimer that there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Some sources say you can get rid of a poltergeist –or at least calm one down – by cleansing the area it haunts. They are thought to be negative spirits so negative energy feeds them. Whatever you do, keep that sunny personality beaming.’

I laughed; I was a lot of things but sunny wasn’t one of them. Were the incidents somehow my fault? Was I feeding the poltergeist with my negative feelings towards Thorsen? God knows, I’d had plenty of them.

Connor continued, ‘I’ve emailed you a list of things to do for the cleansing. I won’t repeat them because there’s a bunch of steps and I’d definitely screw up the order. And don’t forget that I’m getting this info from dubious websites – there no guarantee any of it will work.’

My hopes diminished a little; I’d been hoping for a step-by-step, 100% effective solution that took only five minutes and totally obliterated the poltergeist. ‘No Liv?’ I asked softly.

He hesitated. ‘She’s not playing ball. I’ll keep trying.’

Despite myself, my stomach lurched. A non-compliant Liv was a tricky Liv. I bit my tongue before I could warn him to be careful; he knew Liv better than I did, and he knew he had to tread carefully. ‘Thanks for all of this. I know you’re busy,’ I said instead.

‘It was a quick read of a few books and a web search, not an international spying investigation,’ he teased. ‘It was no bother.’

‘Even so, I’m grateful.’ I smiled. ‘I’ll show you how grateful I am at the Commander’s Weekend.’

His voice was warm when he replied, ‘I’m counting down the hours.’

So was I.

Chapter 11

I finally read Connor’s fifteen-page email; he hadn’t been kidding about conflicting information. Huffing, I stuffed my phone back in the footlocker. Sidnee was watching me, amused. ‘Connor and Bunny, sitting in a tree…’ she started singing.

‘Yeah, yeah.’ I rolled my eyes at her before sobering. ‘Sidnee, hun, it’s time to spill.’

She looked confused. ‘What?’

‘What experience do you have with poltergeists?’

She froze. ‘How did you know I have any?’ she prevaricated.

I gave her a flat stare. ‘Well, mostly from the hints you keep dropping, stuff like “it’s burned himself out.” You’re in the know, Sidnee, and I need to know too.’

She looked away. ‘I don’t like to talk about it,’ she said finally. ‘It was a very scary time in my life and I try very hard to pretend none of it happened. It’s a dark chapter in my family’s history.’

I crossed the distance between us and settled on her bed. ‘Look, I’m sorry to make you talk about it but I really do need to know.’ I told her what Connor had said and pulled up his email of conflicting instructions. ‘All this is contradictory, and I have a source with real experience right next to me.’

‘What about Father Brennan?’ she tried.

---