Page 131 of Castings & Curses

After confirming their location on Google Maps, he placed the call.

“Can you spell?” Priya asked the ghost.

An affirmative nod.

Priya had a new mission. Intent upon hunting down a pen or other writing instrument, she tuned out his crisp, succinct answers to the operator’s questions.

The ghost watched her with interest.

The toolbox held just what she needed. Under a jumble of screwdrivers and wrenches, she found a carpenter pencil. She wrote out the alphabet on a taped box lid. “Will you show me your name?”

Amanda Clark did just that.

Miles disconnected the call. “When the police get here you tell them about Levi.” He held up his hand when she started to protest. “Hear me out. You tell them about Levi and your other friend here.”

“Amanda. And her mother is Heather.”

He raised an eyebrow. Priya tapped the cardboard lid and he looked down, noticing the alphabet letters written there. “All right. Amanda led us here. The window was broken and we opened it. I smelled old blood. It isn’t a lie. He used cleaners down here but he hasn’t gotten rid of all of it. We were worried there might be someone trapped down here and that’s why we went in.”

“Without calling the police first? Because that’s what they’ll say we should have done.”

“We got overexcited.”

“Ghosts. Breaking and entering.”

“No. No.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Remember the window was already open. We have to keep our story straight.”

“Did we find the window like that?” She swept her hand toward the glass shards and broken wood below the shattered window.

“We tell the truth. I had a little trouble getting through.” He had the grace to look sheepish.

Frustrated, she spread her arms wide. “Miles, I don’t think you understand how the police think. They are skeptical and any talk about ghosts is going to land us in a cruiser, heading straight for the station. My mother will kill me if I’m arrested.”

“All right. I’ll call Rafi.”

“Why?!” The word came out half-strangled, and not because of her sore throat.

“We have the trophies. We have blood. We have the fake Santa.” He ticked each item off on a finger. “We need my boss. Having someone with political clout in our corner won’t hurt. Rafi will back me up. I should have called him first. He’ll probably be pissed that I didn’t, but he’ll come through for us.”

Behind him, Amanda cupped her hands into a heart shape and made smooching motions with her lips.

Priya pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine. Call Rafi.”

Miles adjusted the collar of his shredded jacket. He tilted his head from side to side, cracking the vertebra in his neck, then smoothed a hand over his tousled hair. He sucked in a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

Priya opened her mouth and then snapped it closed. Probably better not to tease him right now about working up his courage.

Finally, he made the call.

Amanda pointed to the alphabet printed out on the cardboard.

“Go ahead,” Priya said. “I’m ready.”

Amanda spelled out C-A-L-L-M-O-M.

There was no room left on the taped box, so Priya hastily wrote out numbers on its neighbor. “What’s her number?”

Priya repeated the number back to confirm she had it right. Amanda gave her a distracted affirmative nod as she turned to glare at the sinister Santa.

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