Page 19 of Ghostmaker

Cope wasn’t going to fall for anything to do with Crawford. “How do we know this person really saw him? How do we know she’s not a spy sent from Crawford to wreak havoc on us?”

“She said that she could be sued just for coming into the shop, thanks to the non-disclosure agreement Crawford asked her to sign.”

“He made clients sign an NDA?” What the hell kind of psychic was this man? “What the actual fuck?”

“Wait, it gets better.” Carson’s eyes glowed.

“How the hell could this possibly get better?” Cope supposed Crawford packing and getting out of town would be better, but he wasn’t going to count on that happening any time soon.

“She came into the office in disguise.” Carson reminded Cope of a little kid at Christmas.

“What kind of disguise? Like a wig and a long trench coat?” Visions of I Love Lucy reruns danced through his mind.

Carson shook his head. “Come with me, you’ve got to see this for yourself. I’ve stashed her in Ten’s reading room because it’s the biggest.” He opened the door and peeked into the hallway once again, motioning Cope to follow him.

Cope felt like he was in some sort of deranged spy movie with Carson checking for enemies around every corner. When they reached Ten’s reading room, Carson knocked on the door in a strange pattern.

“What’s the password?” Ten whispered loudly from the other side of the closed door.

“Jurassic Park,” Carson said.

Ten opened the door and stuck his head into the hall. He looked both ways before opening the door.

What Cope saw took his breath away. He blinked several times to make sure he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing and not having a hallucination courtesy of the five cups of coffee. Sitting at the far end of Ten’s table was a T-Rex. “Hi, I’m Cope and you are?” He was ninety percent certain he was being punked. Jude or maybe Ronan had sent this guy in costume to brighten his day. The only things missing were the T-Rex’s song and the box of chocolates Jude usually sent along with this sort of thing.

“Is he safe to speak with?” a scared-sounding woman asked from inside the costume.

“Yes, Christie, Cope is one of us. Anything you reveal to him will never leave this room,” Carson assured her.

“Okay.” The T-rex stood up. Its giant, grinning face bobbled as the woman reached behind herself to unzip the suit. Seconds later, Cope was faced with a young dark-haired woman who looked absolutely terrified. “I’m Christie St. Thomas.”

“Hi, Christie.” Cope took a seat at the opposite end of the table. He didn’t want to spook the young woman. “Carson told me that you had a free session yesterday with-”

“Don’t say his name!” Carson half-shouted, making Christie jump.

“Sure,” Cope agreed, thinking this entire situation was banana crackers. “You met with the new psychic who was offering free readings yesterday.”

“Yes. I thought it would be fun. I’ve been seeing my boyfriend, Hank, for six months now and I was dying to know if he was going to pop the question.”

“What was his answer?” Cope could see that Hank was planning a grand gesture for the fall. She would say yes and they’d marry on New Year’s Eve on a cruise ship somewhere in the Caribbean.

“He skipped over my question altogether and asked me about my mother.”

“Your mother?” Cope was stunned that Crawford, with all of his gifts, hadn’t been able to give Christie a simple yes or no answer.

“You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you. I hardly believe it myself.” Christie shook her head. “This man started bombarding me with questions about my mother and our estrangement. I felt I had to give him the answers and when I was speaking to him, all I could see in my mind was a magician pulling a string of handkerchiefs out of his pocket. Each of the hankies represented another piece of information he was pulling from my head.” Christie paused. “Here’s the craziest part of all. I found myself wanting to tell him every last detail about my mother. I was enjoying telling this total stranger about our troubled relationship.”

What Cope had felt yesterday had been the real deal. Crawford had been trying to compel him into giving over the Devereaux death spell. Thankfully, he’d been strong enough to resist Crawford’s pull.

“You believe me, right?” Christie looked from Ten to Carson to Cope.

“Something similar happened to us yesterday,” Cope confirmed.

“The reason that I came here today was because my mother called me this morning with a crazy story about how someone showed up at her house last night ringing the doorbell repeatedly around 11:30 P.M. Mom didn’t answer the door, which seemed to make the caller ring the bell even harder. My mother was so scared that she hid in the closet and called the police. When they arrived minutes later, the person ringing the doorbell was gone.”

Cope had never heard a crazier or more terrifying story in his life. Judging by the looks on Carson and Ten’s faces, neither had they. “What do you think happened?”

“I think that nutjob psychic had someone show up at my mother’s house last night.” Christie teared up. She dashed the back of her hands against her wet eyes. “My mother was a drunk and used to beat me when I was a kid. I was taken away from her when I was ten and was raised by an aunt. Even though I’m in my twenties, I still haven’t forgiven her for what she put me through.”