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He gazed back at the bar Everyone was staring at the loudly They could all hear "Penny--you’re right Murders and suicides The wo around the staircase You knohat? It isn’t going toto circulate forever"

"I’ve seen the woman in white," Penny said stubbornly

"Penny, you drank half the wine cellar that night," he reminded her

"Nevertheless, this is important Yes, we’ll have stories, no matter what But you said yourself that you were suspicious that so’ Hoill you ever know, or prove anything?"

"Penny, I a occurrences on my own"

"Matt, where’s your patriotism?"

"What?" he said incredulously

"The house is so iets hurt?"

He almost smiled It was a new line of attack

Fro his throat "You know, Matt, things haven’t been that great I could really use the work"

"Right You knoe’re not all rich, kind of faiti

"Matt, ood," Carter told hi," Penny’s voice said from over the phone wire "Give Ms Tre You don’t have to come anywhere near the house if you don’t want to while she’s in it But first, you go over right now and get her out of that ra"

"Hey!"

Carter could obviously hear Penny He owned the rarin "Hell, all right"

"Matt, honestly, you don’t even have to be involved, I’ll do everything, I swear! Dammit, Matt, you’re the one who called Ada now?"

"Because I expected Ada like a broken record, his te I up

Mae grinned like a kid with a candy bar "This is so cool--Melody House is getting real live ghost busters"

"They’re not ghost busters, Mae," Matt said

"I’ve got to go to that seance!" Mae said firle word of that conversation," Matt said ruefully

A circle of nods answered hi my cell phone," heto bite the bullet, give that girl a call and convince her that she is welcome here?"

"Soon But not frolasses back down over his eyes, and strode to the door, taking his hat fro on the wall He twisted his jaw; he didn’t believe in ghosts, spirits, haunts, or the goddamned Easter bunny, and he sure as hell didn’t believe in premonitions

Still, he didn’t like this

He shook his head, speaking with his back to the others

"There’s an awful lot that’s bad in that place’s past," he said

He walked back into the sunshine of the day, letting the door slam behind him

There was silence in his wake for several seconds

"He’s going to let it happen, Mae, don’t worry, you’ll get to go to a real live seance," Clint assured the wo after Matt Stone

"Yeah, well, it’s not the whole thing with the house that makes him so hostile," Mae said quietly

"He just never should have reed

"Redhead, too," David Jenneror dead, it’s always people that haunt the living!" Mae said sagely, offering a sad shake of her head Then she brightened, sounding like a girl about to head for her first dance "And you bet your butts, gentlehost!"

"Mae, if you see a ghost, the point is, it’s not ‘live,’" Clint said dryly "But what the hell? Things could get darned interesting around here"

Thirtyto the voice on her cell phone

"You want ize, right?"

Darcy actually pulled the cell phone away from her ear to stare at it, despite the fact that on an intellectual level, she knew she couldn’t see her es" Adam, far away in London, was quiet for a minute "Darcy, I have a vested interest in the house I’ll explain when I get back into the country" He sighed softly "Darcy, there’s no one like you I need you Please don’t sound as if I’ve asked you to "

Darcy winced She knew that there was so about Melody House that Adam hadn’t shared with her yet Had to be She was often certain herself that Adam, despite his own apparent wealth, was funded as well by another source--possibly governone in and out of a nus in previous cases This was different He really wanted in For personal reasons, so it see to share, as yet

"Adam, if this was so important, you should have been here"

"I know But I had to be in London"