Page 28 of Ghostlighted
As I hurried into the kitchen, I glanced down at my hand. I didn’t want to leave Oren’s ring where Gil could get to it, but— “Gil!” I shoved the ring deep in my front pocket just in time to grab Gil up before he could dash past me and out the open mudroom door.
“You’ve caused enough trouble without me having to chase you through the neighborhood. Stay here with Avi.” I set Gil in the butler’s pantry and closed its swinging door. I met Avi’s gaze. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Avi nodded. “Hurry.”
I stepped onto the porch and closed the door behind me. The westering sun had dipped below the stand of fir trees in Patrice’s yard and cast their long shadows across my lawn. The shadows pointed directly to Ricky, kneeling next to an ominously still figure that lay in the dirt we’d turned… was it only yesterday?
I raced down the steps and across my lawn and dropped down next to him. Sofia was lying on her side, one arm extended toward a tomato plant and the other limp against her stomach. Ricky held his phone in one hand as he gently laid the fingers of his other hand against her neck.
“Is she breathing?” I asked.
“Yes, but her pulse is racing.”
“An SVT episode?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He thumbed his phone and handed it to me. “Put this on speaker, please?”
I did as he asked, laid the phone on my palm, and raised it near his face.
“9-1-1. What is your emergency?”
“My aunt has collapsed. We need an ambulance.” Ricky gave them Sofia’s address. “We’re in the backyard. In her garden. She’s breathing, but has an extremely rapid pulse.”
“Help is on the way. Please stay on the line with me until they arrive. Is there anything the responders should know?”
“Yes. She has chronic SVT, but she’s on beta blockers to control the condition.”
“Any other medications?”
“Yes. Simvastatin, a calcium supplement, and a multivitamin.”
“If you could have those available for the EMTs, that would be helpful.”
Ricky looked up at me. “I hate to ask, but?—”
“Just tell me where to look.”
“Upstairs medicine chest. The bottles will be there along with the pill minder for the week. Bring it all?”
“You got it.”
I set Ricky’s phone on the ground next to him and ran up the slope to Sofia’s porch. The back door was closed but not locked, so I hurried inside. I raced up the stairs to a wide landing. The sinking sun shone through a window at the end of a short hallway to my right, in the direction of my house, laying a swath of orange-yellow along the floor like a second carpet. The window to my left was already twilight-dark, shadows gathering in the corners beneath it.
A door immediately ahead of me led to a bathroom, but when I checked the medicine chest, it held only hand lotion, a bottle of witch hazel, and an unopened box of toothpaste.
Holding my hand up to shade my eyes, I found two doors at either side of the hall. One led to a spacious, airy room thatdidn’t look like Sofia’s style in the least, all leather and navy and brass. I didn’t bother checking the ensuite, because this was clearly Liam’s space, lovingly maintained despite him never showing up.
A smaller room across the hall was done up in vibrant reds and yellows I associated with Sofia, but it didn’t have her signature honeysuckle scent, nor did it have an attached bath.
With the sun at my back, I followed my shadow across the landing again and hit pay dirt, although I had to blink for a few seconds as my vision adjusted to the dimness. In terms of size and floor plan, the room was Liam’s man-suite in reverse, but the embroidered coverlet on the bed matched the throw pillows in Sofia’s living room, and the rocking chair next to the window was the twin of the one on the back porch.
A half-open door next to the carved headboard revealed a glimpse of gleaming white porcelain.Aha!Target acquired. Movement caught my eye as I hurried across the room, making me stumble for a moment. However, it was only my reflection in the mirror over the long oak bureau. Framed pictures marched along the bureau’s top, clearly of the same person as he grew from sullen black-haired little boy to smirking blond man.
“Liam, I presume.” As I flipped on the bathroom light, I wondered briefly what had prompted Liam to start dying his hair.
Sofia’s pill minder, a long pink plastic box, sat on the pristine white tiles of the vanity. Two of the compartments were already empty, their tops flipped up. The others held two white tablets, a pink oval pill, plus a small gel capsule and a gummy.
“Okay, so I need four pill bottles.” When I opened the medicine chest, I took half a heartbeat to admire how orderly the shelves were. I’d been in my house for less than a month and my toiletries had already staged a rave inside the cabinet.
