"I told you, we were thinking about coming up anyway. We never charge for…" Lucian paused himself, staring at the other two. "We never charge for investigating the strange, weird, downright frightening, or bizarre. Jade is a writer. You know the old saying—it's all grist for the mill. But maybe you'd like to explain just a bit more about what is going on?"
"I don't know, really. Maybe nothing. Maybe it's all imagined. Mostly, at the moment, no matter how bizarre this sounds… it's dreams. Both my wife and I… her cousin is a Wiccan, and we started out here listening to some wild tales about murder and mayhem in colonial New England. There's the standard concept, of course, that dreams and fear are all brought on by the power of suggestion. And since it's Halloween season here, any manner of creature in the street is acceptable, so the power of suggestion is surely strong. But still… there's a weird fog out around here all the time. A blue fog. And there are more strange things… hard to explain over the phone. And it's impossible, you see, to really trust anyone here, not that I believe in spells and things like that, but… and of course, Wiccans aren't supposed to be evil.
Actually, I can't believe I'm calling people who are practically strangers… but it was just so odd, too, having met you, seeing the article in the national paper… and then the book."
"Was there something particular in the book?" Lucian asked, looking at the others once again while he waited for the answer.
"Again, I'm sure all this has to do with the power of suggestion, of course. I mean, none of this can be real. But even my wife's family… supposed friends… are suggesting that I… well, they're reminding me that I was in Boston, and, I'll bet, making sure that she knows I was in Boston… never mind. There was a murder in Boston. Almost a month ago… on the last full moon. I realize I'm not making any sense. It's difficult to suddenly confide in and explain things to people who are… well, really strangers. But then… if I had to trust in having friends here… I think I'd be in a fair amount of trouble. If you're really coming here, I would appreciate the chance to talk with you again."
"Oh, we're really coming," Lucian murmured. "We'll see you by tomorrow afternoon."
"Tomorrow afternoon? You're coming so soon?"
"It's the day before Halloween," Lucian reminded the caller.
"Right, of course. You know, I was really ready just to walk away. Screw our careers. But Megan was afraid I'd wind up resenting the fact that we had to leave a great job and experience because she was having nightmares. Now I'm afraid she's convinced that I'm a monster myself."
Maggie was back in the room, holding the baby. She spoke very softly, looking at Lucian. "She's left him," she said.
Lucian nodded. "Finn, whatever the problem, don't let your wife walk anywhere alone in the dark."
"What?"
"Just keep an eye on her, no matter what the circumstances."
There was a long, drawn out pause from the other end. "Did I mention that there were… circumstances."
"Is your wife with you right now?"
"No."
"Watch out for her," Lucian said.
"At night. In the darkness… he needs to beware of the fog," Maggie whispered.
Lucian nodded. "The dark hours are when… well, you know, when most bad things happen. Don't let her be alone in the dark—or the fog. Take care tonight."
A sniff sounded over the phone. "I told you that I was ready to throw it all in. Get the hell out of here.
Megan thought I'd resent her for what it would do to our careers. And now… now, I'm not even sure that I could get her out of here."
Maggie stared at Sean. "Tell him that it wouldn't have mattered. He'd have wound up back there, one way or the other."
Lucian repeated Maggie's words. "If something really odd is going on, it probably wouldn't make any difference, whether you were there, or if you'd tried to leave. Circumstances might have conspired to get you back. But don't worry. We'll be there by morning. We're going to check into the old place right off the common. If you don't find us by early afternoon, we'll find you. Jade will have this cell. And, of course, yours is now with our caller ID."
"Right."
"We'll see you."
They rang off. Maggie took her seat again at the end of the table, cradling her now sleeping child. "This guy gets on the phone, and I'm immediately getting some really weird vibes." She paused, glancing quickly at Jade. "By the way, Aidan is just fine, sleeping soundly." She turned her attention back to Lucian. "I don't know whether to be afraid of him—or for him. I admit to being totally confused. I knew when you showed up with the luggage that it wasn't going to be an ordinary night playing cards—but neither did you suggest that you were aware something was going to happen—or is happening. You knew this guy was going to call; as soon as he did, I felt something very strange, and I haven't even got the intuition I once had. Still… it's so strange. I don't understand what's going on at all," she said. She hesitated. "There's a conflict there… in the man himself, I believe."
"Yes, there's something there. And yes, a tremendous conflict. But in what way… I don't know. It was the same. I knew it the moment I first saw him."
Lucian rose, and began idly pacing around the table. Maggie stared across the room at Jade, and Jade shrugged, shaking her head in a way that meant that she didn't really understand the situation at all either.
Jade felt a prickling at her nape; Lucian and Maggie had known one another a very long time. Jade knew that Maggie loved her husband, just as she believed with her whole heart that Lucian loved her. But there were times when Maggie and Lucian shared those strange instincts and Jade couldn't help but feel a little stab of jealousy. She would never have exactly the same little spark of knowledge that the two shared.
And yet, she loved Maggie as well. She was her best friend.
They were frequently visitors here, as were a number of their other close friends and associates, drawn together despite a few tremendous differences in their lives. It was a wonderful place for friends to get together—an old plantation on the way out from the city. The place had been in Maggie's family for years, just as a neighboring place had belonged to Sean's. It was delightfully big, and far from the bustle and populace of New Orleans. Not that anything odd was really taken note of in New Orleans, but the plantation still offered them all distance and a certain privacy that might not be guaranteed elsewhere.
"What's bothering me is that I can't quite touch it!" Lucian said, coming to a dead standstill and staring at the three of them as if they should understand. "I know… I know that something really horrible is about to occur… and I'm absolutely convinced that Finn Douglas is a major part of it, and I'm actually surprised that it took him so long to call. He's dealing with a lot of pride, and, of course, he's worried about his sense of sanity, maybe."
"Now I'm really lost," Maggie said, staring at Jade again, then at Lucian. "You're wired like a cat, know something is up, but have no idea what—yet, like me, you knew the minute you came into contact with this man there was something strange about him. You haven't really explained any of this, and it isn't like you. Let's begin with this—who is this Finn Douglas? The name sounds familiar."
"He's a local musician. He and his wife have done a number of the clubs around here. They're very good," Lucian said.
"I was interviewing them not long ago, and Lucian came along with me; we went to the club where they were playing," Jade explained.
"As I said, the minute I met the guy, I knew something was wrong," Lucian said. "But not what."
Maggie was quiet a long moment, staring at him. "Is he one of us… you, I mean?" Maggie asked, staring at Sean.
"No."
"You're certain?"
Lucian looked at her with irritation and reproach. "Of course, I'm certain."
"Sorry!" Maggie said quickly. She glanced at her husband with a wry smile.
Sean told them, "His adult record is as clean as a whistle. He had some trouble in high school, but nothing major. The guy is gifted, went through the university with a full scholarship in music. He and Megan Merrill were married while still studying. Megan writes music as well, but Finn is responsible for arrangements and their technical work. They were split up not long ago, and just got back together last month."
"How do you know all this?" Maggie asked her husband.
Sean shrugged. "Lucian asked me to check him out."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"There wasn't any reason at the time."
"Do you have anything on that murder in Boston?" Lucian asked Sean.
Being a cop offered Sean a great deal of information that might not be so available were he not. "The police have nothing as yet. They've interviewed family and friends. They know her movement up to the time when she left the bar she was at that evening, but after she left the bar… she simply vanished. Until she was discovered in the water. The amount of time she was submerged has certainly taken its toll; what trace evidence the crime scene detectives might have found has literally been washed away. I haven't been able to access the exact cause of death yet because the autopsy report hasn't been released to law enforcement yet."
"And you know all of this, too?" Maggie said, still staring at Sean.
"Hey!" Sean said softly. "I hadn't even put the two together until now. As far as I knew, Douglas was in New Orleans. The murder took place in Boston."
"Lucian—" Maggie began.
Lucian lifted a hand in a gesture of self-defense. "Maggie, I was going on pure intuition."
