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.”I got the desired effect—he backed off.“And you think I poisoned them so I could buy the house?” He laughed.“How’d that work out?”“I know why you couldn’t buy the house after Maxie died,” I told him, regaining some of my bravado.“But I’m not sure how angry you were before she died.Angry enough to kill her?”Adam shook his head and walked back behind his desk.If seduction wasn’t going to work, the conversation no longer appeared to hold any interest for him.“Believe what you want to believe, Alison,” he said.“A couple of people in a restaurant drink some eye drops with their dinner, and I’m supposed to be responsible because I have a financial interest in the building? That’s a very long stretch.I’m sorry if someone’s threatening you, but it’s not me.Now, please stop interrupting my day.”I dropped my head again, did my best to look defeated, and then slunk out of the office, dragging my feet behind me.I dropped a piece of paper on Bianca’s desk on my way out.And the instant I made it outside, I called Detective McElone.Forty-two“He said eye drops,” I told Detective McElone.Again.“I heard you.I understand the point.” She sat back in her chair and didn’t move.I couldn’t comprehend her lack of excitement.“You never told Adam Morris that the poison used on Terry Wright was eye drops, did you?” I asked.McElone shook her head.“You’re the only person outside the department I told, and I’m not really sure why I did that,” she said.Still not so much as a blink on her part.“Well, I didn’t tell him, so that means he knew what killed Terry, and assumed it was the same poison that killed Paul and Maxie.And it wasn’t.It was acetone in their wine that killed them.”“I know,” McElone said.“But there are so many holes in your logic that I can’t begin to tell you.”“Holes? The man slipped up! He said something that only the killer could have known!”McElone sighed.Having to deal with an amateur like me was a drain on her energy.She held up the ubiquitous finger to begin her count.“One: He said what he said, if he said it, to you, a civilian, and another suspect in the case.Two: You didn’t have a recorder on at the time, so there’s no record of what he said or didn’t say, and no proof.Three: If he said that, he’d be implicating himself in the murder of Terry Wright, not Maxine Malone or Paul Harrison, and we have no evidence at all of him being involved with Terry Wright.Four—”I couldn’t stand another finger.“Enough.I get it.Are you still looking for the appointment calendar Kerin Murphy took from Terry’s office?”“Remember that badge I asked you for last time?” The one I don’t have.“Detective, Adam Morris might very well be threatening my life.Whether or not I have a badge.”“Mr.Morris has been questioned and will be questioned again.Believe me, I don’t sit around all day and wait for you to come in with clues—we’ve been investigating.” McElone stood up in an effort to get me ready to leave.“So please, just go home, stay out of trouble, and let us do our job.Okay?”“There are times I get the feeling you don’t like me, Detective.”“Trust those feelings,” she said.“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Paul said.The strangest council of war ever convened was gathered in my barren front room.Besides Paul and me, Maxie was pouting unconvincingly in one corner, while the more extant members of the brain trust—Tony, Melissa and Mom—were arranged around the room in lawn chairs.Of course, Tony couldn’t communicate with Paul or Maxie, but between Melissa, Mom and myself, we worked it out.Jeannie had outright refused to participate in “this crap about ghosts in the house,” and was upstairs, sewing new curtains for Melissa’s bedroom.“I’m waiting for a suggestion,” I said.“We’re no closer to figuring out who’s behind all the threats, and the clock is ticking.”“What should we be doing now?” Tony asked.“I mean, shouldn’t we be concentrating on finding that Washington thing?”“I’m not talking to him,” Maxie said, and crossed her arms severely over her chest.“That’s a good idea,” I told Tony, ignoring Maxie.“Shouldn’t the first order of business now be to find the deed? It seems to me it must be outside somewhere.”“Why?” Melissa asked.“Because we didn’t find it in the house yet? Maybe it’s in the basement or something.”“Or maybe it was discarded or destroyed years ago, and nobody knows it,” Mom added.“It’s even possible that there never was a deed, so there’s no chance we’ll find it.”“Wow,” Melissa said.“You are harshin’ my mellow, Grandma.” She’d picked that one up from her friend Wendy.Let’s just say the vibe in the room wasn’t exactly buoyant.“All right.” Paul, at least, was trying.“You haven’t discovered the deed in all the renovations you’ve done, so the obvious places are clearly of no use to us.”“And you and Maxie couldn’t find it by cruising around the place,” I said, just to prove that I wasn’t the only incompetent in the room.“I don’t suppose George Washington is one of the ghosts you can contact on your Ghosternet, is he?”“His Ghoster-what?” Melissa asked.“Sometimes, I can get in touch with other.displaced spirits,” Paul explained.He looked at Maxie, who harrumphed, and I took it that while Paul could communicate with other spirits, Maxie couldn’t.Then he turned to me, and with a certain edge, said, “No, President Washington is not on my speed dial.Any other ideas?”“Do you think it could be hidden in the walls?” Tony asked.He was scared, I could tell.Which scared me.“In the walls?” I asked.“Yeah.You said it was probably hidden while this house was being built.The owners knew it would increase in value, let’s say, and didn’t want anyone to come looking for it.Could they have closed it up inside a wall somewhere?”I looked at Paul.“Wouldn’t you have seen it, flying through walls the way you do?”“I’ve told you, Alison: Dark is dark for us, too.And we can’t carry solid objects, like flashlights, through walls.”“Why would they do that, anyway?” I asked.“Then the people who hid it would never be able to retrieve the deed.”“Unless they put in a marker, or a secret door to get in,” Tony said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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