Page 57 of Upside Down Magic

Jimcrossed his arms. “Thisis where they found the man.Allegedly.Whoknows where it happened.”

Icrouched and touched the bottom plank with my fingers.Intruth,Ididn’t want to go anywhere near it, butIneeded to find out if magic had been used here recently. “Isit true they didn’t find the body until after the servant died and he was still bleeding?”Iawoke a sliver of magic whileIwaited forJim’sresponse.

“Yep,” he said. “Allgooey and gross.”

“Whatabout the other rooms?”Ianasked from behind us. “Didsomething happen in them?”

Jimturned to answer him, andIused the distraction to cast my spell.

Detect.

Magictingled on my fingertips as it spread onto the wood, but nothing bounced back.Whilemagic dissipated fast, any spell powerful enough to reverse a paranormal’s magic would’ve left a long-lasting impression.Ifany such spell had been done here, it must’ve happened days ago at least.

“Thankyou,”Isaid, standing. “Thiswas most informative.”

Jimfrowned. “That’sit?You’renot going to take pictures or anything?”

“Iassumed the owner wouldn’t want pictures to appear on the internet.”Ihad assumed no such thing, butJimdid have a point—for someone who had made him come to open the house for us,Iwas showing too little interest.

“Nah,”Jimsaid. “Theylove that stuff.Bringsin more people for the personal tours and the haunted house stuff.Theyget a cut, you know.”

“Makessense.”Dutifully,Itook several pictures with my phone, including one withIan“for size” and one with me, victory fingers included, for my personal collection.Whoknows, maybe one dayI’dgo on anOlmeda’smost disturbing murders tour and make an album out of it.

Theidea had a special kind of macabre charm to it, soIasked if we could go upstairs where the wife had supposedly been buried in the walls soIcould take another photo.

“Dothe owners give private tours then?”Iasked.

“Yeah, sometimes.”

“Doyou know if they’ve come around recently?”

“HowwouldIknow?Theydo that stuff themselves.”

Iwondered how to ask them without sounding suspicious.Aftermulling a few optionsIrealized that nope, there was no way to ask that kind of question without sounding weird, soIchanged tracks. “Arethere any more legends about the house?Iread the servant was part of some sort of coven.”

Jimmight not be part of the paranormal community, but he was a local legends expert.Hemight’ve known some details others had dismissed as unimportant.

“That’sthe story,” he said as he led us back to the front door. “Yougoing to look into them too?”

“It’snot a bad idea.Doyou know about them?”

“Notmuch, but the museum has a bunch of stuff about it.”

“Whichmuseum?”Notthe contemporary arts one, surely.Thenit hit me. “TheModernCabinetofCuriosities?”

“That’sthe one.Theysometimes loan me stuff to make things more realistic.”

Consideringjust about everything in theCabinetwas a fake, that’d be a first. “I’vebeen there andIdidn’t see anything.”

“Oh, you gotta get into the secret room.”

Vickyhad told me about this before her justified demise, but whenI’dtried to get inside, the woman at the ticket booth had looked at me likeIhad two heads and one was puking pea soup. “Itried but it didn’t work.Maybethey don’t do that anymore.”

“Surethey do.It’seven on their website.Justtell the ticket person that you’ve come to pray.”

Thechances of them having anything useful was about nil, but it was worth checking out. “Thanks,Jim.I’lltry.”

Heall but shoved us out of the house, then locked back up. “Wedone here, right?”

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