But the man had been her grandfather, her flesh and blood! She had spoken with him on the phone after her fathers death, and she had said that she would come out. But there had been the awful grief of losing her father, and then the flurry of work to learn to live with the fact that he was gone. And thenand then
She had meant to go down to see him. She hadnt. And thats the way it was, and now he was gone, too, and she was a horrible human being. Liam had said that they had just found him, but
He had been dead some time. He had died alone, and his body had just sat there alone in death, because he had been so alone in life.
Kelsey?
Im here.
His attorney was Joe Richter. Ill text you the phone number and address. I suppose you can come here yourself, or make whatever arrangements youd like with Joe.
Sure. Thank you. She still felt numband filled with regret. She didnt like herself very much at the moment. She roused herself, though, curious as to why it was Liam who had called her.
Umhow is it that youre calling? she asked.
Im a cop these days, he told her. And weve had a few shake-ups in the department lately, soAnyway, old times, I suppose. When his mail carrier reported that he wasnt collecting his mail, I went to the house. I found him.
A cop. Of course, Liam was a cop. Hed wanted to solve every riddle, put together the pieces of any puzzle. Once, when a school lab rat had disappeared, he had discovered that Sam Henley had stolen the creature to take home; hed pretended to find Sams fingerprint on the rat cage, and Sam had quickly squealedlike a rat.
She closed her eyes. She was thinking about Liam. And Cutter was dead.
Was it a heart attack? she asked.
There seemed to be a little beat in time before he answered.
Apparently. But his body is still with the M.E. Just procedure, he said.
But there had been something odd in his voice!
Please go ahead and call Joe, Kelsey. Let him know what youd like. Are you still drawing?
The new question took a moment to comprehend. She was surprised that he remembered how she had loved drawing.
Im a cartoonist. I have a column, and we do a little animated thing on the web, she said. I have an animator partner, and were doing fairly well. Thanks for asking.
That sounds great. Well
His voice trailed off. He was a cop. He was busy.
Thank you again, Liam. Im glad the news came from you.
Im sorry, Kelsey. Though I guess its been a while since youd seen Cutter.
We had talked, she told him. Ah, yes, there were defensive tones to her words!
Take care, he told her.
Of course, thank youyou, too.
The phone went dead in her hands. She still didnt move for several minutes.
The room darkened around her. Only the bright light above her drafting table gave illumination to her apartment.
She liked where she lived. People often thought of the L.A. area as rather a hellhole of plastic people and traffic.
But Hollywood had neighborhoods. She didnt have to travel most of the time; she worked from home. She had great theater around her, and wonderful music venues. A decent, busy life in a place where there were actually local bars and coffee shops, where she knew the owners of the small restaurants near her and where, day by day, things were pleasant, good.
She didnt need to go back. She could call Joe Richter, and he could make any arrangements that might be necessary.
No, she couldnt. She owed Cutter the decency of arranging a funeral herself.
A beep notified her that Liam Beckett had sent her the text with Joes information.
She would call him in the morning. She swiveled in her chair from the drafting board to her computer. And she keyed up the airlines, and made a reservation to reach Key West.
She was going home.
Once the reservation was made, she found herself thinking about her father. Hed been a good man. Hed loved her mother so much, and her, too. And hed even loved Cutter Merlin, she thought. But when they had moved away, she had asked him why, and he had told her, Because it isnt safe, kitten. Because it just isnt safe to be around Cutter, or that house, orall that he has done. That man will never be safe, in lifeor in death.
The call came when Liam was off duty, when he was down at OHaras having dinnerthe special for the night, fish and chips.
His cousin David was frequently there, since David was about to marry Katie, Jamie OHaras niece, and the karaoke hostess at her uncles bar. Theyd all grown up together. Liam had stayed, while David had gone, until hed returned recently. Sean, Katies brother, had also spent many of his adult years working around the world. Like David, hed gone into photography and then film.
There were others, friends of various ages, sexes, colors, shapes and sizes, who were local, and the locals came to OHaras with a standard frequency, though the place also catered to touristsin Key West, tourism was just about the only industry.
The fish was freshcaught that afternoonand delicious, but hed barely begun his meal, sympathizing with David about the problems inherent in planning a wedding when Jack Nissan called him from the station.
I just got a callsomething is going on over at the Merlin house. I know you cared about the old fellow and contacted his granddaughter. I thought that maybe you wanted to be the one to check it out, Jack told him. If not, Im sorry to have called.
Who called, and what is the something going on? Liam asked.
Mrs. Shriver. She could see the place across the water from the wharf area. She said she saw lights, and knew that wed found the old fellow dead. Should I just send someone on patrol to check it out?
No, Jack, thanks. Ill go on over, Liam told him.
What is it? David asked.
A report of lights over at the Merlin house, Liam said.
Want me to come with you? David asked.
No, its all right. Ill be back. Ill see you later.
When he headed out to his car, Liam knew that he was being followed. He paused, turning around.
Bartholomew.
Not everyone saw Bartholomew, and frankly, hed been among the last in their group to really see the pirate.
Bartholomew had died in the eighteen hundreds. First, Bartholomew had attached himself to Katie OHara. Then, somehow, he had become Sean OHaras ghost, and now, with the world quietand, Liam assumed, because the others were all living basically normal lives and were romantically involvedBartholomew had decided to haunt him.
It was quite sad, really. Hed listened to his cousin and the others talk about Bartholomew, but he might have actually believed that it was all part of a strange mass hallucination because of the danger they had been in.
But then, Bartholomew had decided that he needed to attach himself to Liam. It had been after the affair out on Haunt Island, when, his cousin David had assured him, the ghost had been instrumental in saving a number of lives.
At first, seeing a ghost was definitely disturbing. And as far as that went, hed assumed youd see some wisp of mist in the airhear the rattle of chainsor the like. But seeing Bartholomew was like seeing any would-be contemporary costumed pirate in Key West.
At first, seeing a ghost was definitely disturbing. And as far as that went, hed assumed youd see some wisp of mist in the airhear the rattle of chainsor the like. But seeing Bartholomew was like seeing any would-be contemporary costumed pirate in Key West.
The pirateor privateerhad been a good man. He could be a fine conversationalist, and had certainly helped them all in times of great distress.
It was still unnerving to be followed about by a ghost few others could see, a man in an elegant brocade frock coat, ruffled shirt and waistcoat, and tricornered hat. Since it was Key West, with Fantasy Fest and Pirates in Paradisenot to mention Hemingway Daysit shouldnt have felt that odd to be followed about by anyone in any attireor lack thereof. Though it was illegal to travel the streets nude, there were those who did try it during Fantasy Fest, when body paint was the rage.
Katie OHara, was the one who had been born with the sixth sense, gift, curse or whatever one wanted to call it that allowed people to see what others did not. Liam didnt think that the rest of them had anything that remotely resembled Katies gifts. But they had all survived events in which what wasnt at all ordinary had played a major part.
And they all knew there were forces in the world that werent visible to the naked eye.
And he should have been accustomed to Bartholomew by now.
In life, Bartholomew had surely been a dashing and charming individual. Even in death, he was quite a character: intelligent and with a keen sense of justice.
What? Liam said, spinning around.
Bartholomew stopped short. What do you mean, what? Cutter Merlin was found dead in a most unusual way, and, God knows, the place had its reputation. You just may need me.
Its going to turn out to be kids, Im willing to bet, Liam said. Teenagers who know the man died and want to break into a haunted house.
Bartholomew shrugged. Im just along for the ride, he said. I havent seen it yet. The place sounds extremely unusual, and Im fascinated.
Liam groaned. All right, lets go.
Liam supposed it was natural that peopleyoung and oldwould find the Merlin house fascinating, and that it did make a great haunted house. Once, of course, it had been a beautiful grand dame, but time had done its work, and with Cutter Merlin being old and alone, it had taken on that aura of decay long before the gentleman had passed. Then, of course, there was the truthhe had been a collector of oddities, including human remains such as mummies and shrunken heads.
It was a little more than a mile down Duval and around Front Street and then down around the little peninsula to reach the Merlin house. Liam parked in the overgrown yard. He exited the car and stared at the place, but not even the porch light he had left on after Merlins body had been removed was still shining. A burned-out bulb? Or was a prankster inside?
Thats one eerie residence, Bartholomew commented.
Liam shrugged and walked up the path to the porch. He tried the front door and found it unlocked. He knew that it had been locked and they had sealed up the entrance over the washer and dryer. Merlins attorney, Joe Richter, had the only other set of keys.
He stepped in. Somehow, the house still seemed to have an aura of death about it.
He tried the light switch by the front door, but nothing happened. He turned on his flashlight, and the parlor was illuminated.
An odd whisper emanated through the house. In his minds eye, Liam thought about the layout of the house. The front door faced south and Old Town, Key West. Cutters library or office was to the left, and behind it was a workroom. The living room stretched the rest of the way in the front, with a doorway leading into the dining room. The kitchen stretched across the back of the house and could be entered through the dining room or the living room. In the center of the living room there was a grand stairway.
The staircase where Kelseys mother had died.
He hadnt been there when it had happened; he had seen Kelsey after, at the funeral. Throughout the service, attended by most of the city, Kelsey had stood, pale and stoic, trying to be a rock for her father, and for Cutter.
Later, when the formal services had ended, they had come here.
Friends and neighbors had helped; food had been set on the buffets, and on the dining-room table, and people had talked. And one by one, their other friends had gone, and finally he had been alone with Kelsey, and they hadnt said much; he had just held her while she sobbed, until she was so tired that she needed to be brought up to bed.
He had carried her. With her fathers permission. Cutter had suggested that they just wake her; he had been loath to do so. Shes not heavy, sir, he had assured Cutter. But when he had brought her up the stairs and laid her down, she had clung to him, and he had stayed beside her in the darkness and the shadows until the exhaustion of her grief had brought sleep mercifully to her once again, and only then had he tiptoed away.
It had been the last time he had seen her.
He couldnt think about Kelsey or the past now. He wasnt the same; he was sure Kelsey wasnt the same. And the house certainly wasnt the same. It seemed like a shell, the bones of a family and happiness that had once existed.
He owed it to Kelsey, though, to keep the miscreants and thieves away until she decided what she wanted.
Two archways sat on either side of the stairway, one leading to the dining room, the other leading to an area that was a family roomin Victorian days, the family had seldom used the proper living room or parlor. The fireplace was dual; a mantel sat on the other side in Cutters office. Though it was seldom that the temperature went below forty even in the dead of winter, it could be cold in the dampness of the semitropics. He had found Cutter in the rocker by the fireplace.
He cast the light over the parlor. It sat in still and brooding silence, boxes everywhere, the heads of long-dead animals staring down at him, spiderwebs reigning supreme along with the dust.
Oh, God! Oh, God!
The sound was coming from the kitchen. Frowning, Liam walked through the parlor and quietly continued, skirting boxes and crates and statues, until he reached the kitchen.
He cast the flare of his flashlight toward the far wall even as a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air.
It startled and unnerved him; even Bartholomew gasped.
What the hell?
Oh, my God! Youre alive, youre real!
The light illuminated three peoplethree young people.
Teenagers, as he had suspected.
They looked like little Key deer caught in the head-lights, staring back at him with white faces and terrified stares.
Yes, Im alive, Liam said irritably. Who are you, and what are you doing here? Youre trespassing.
There were two boys and one girl. It was the girl who worked her jaw and gasped out, There are things in here! Things! Horrible things, shadow ghosts, they touch youthey try to kill you!
She had been hunched in terror against the wall. She had a frying pan clutched in her hands. She was dressed in capri pants and a tank top that left her stomach, and her cute little belly-button ring, visible. She was as skinny as a twig, maybe fourteen.
The boys seemed to gain courage from her. They both stood as well, and were each about an inch shorter than she was. One of them held a copper dough roller. The other was clutching a deep dish pan. Strange weaponsgained from the racks that stretched out over the brick island in the center of the room. Liam was surprised that none of them had grabbed the fire poker.