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When they reached her property, she turned on hiain "Just admit that you did it I pro," he told her "Now, tellmore than a dream Was the door open after your…visitor left?"

She looked away "No But you’re a private investigator, and you have…skills, maybe some kind of a key"

"A key that opens the lock and the dead bolt?" he demanded

"It’s possible," she said defensively

He stepped past her with disgust "I don’t have a ic key, okay? So would you be so kind as to open the door?"

She did so "Be careful where you walk I don’t want you to rass you--someone tracked in See? At the foot of the bed"

He hunkered down and studied the rug There were indeed bits of rass on the floor, as if they’d been tracked in by soh the door, circled the sofa to stand at the foot of the bed, and then…vanished

He stood, puzzled "You do need to call the cops, I think"

She sank down on the ar desperate, still wanting it to have been hi the mystery to have a solid answer

"They’ll think we tracked it in when you walked ht They’ll think I’m crazy Especially when I tell the ?" Caleb asked her

She shook her head "No…it was…I’ you, it wasn’t," he said firmly

She looked lost--still prickly and defensive, but lost

"Sarah, it really rass"

"Maybe we did track it in last night"

"We walked on the sidewalks The driveway is paved and the walk is stone Neither of us stepped off the walk onto the lawn," she said

"All right, what did this person say or do? Did he just stand there looking at you?" Caleb asked

"No He kept saying he ‘didn’t do it,’ that he had loved her," Sarah told hiitatedly

"I see," he said consideringly

She socked hih to make her point

"Don’t you dare patronize me I’m not crazy"

"I didn’t say you were," he protested "Sarah, it had to be a dream There’s no other explanation Unless you think I have a doppelganger with a bad sense of hu around the area? Because I swear to you, I wasn’t here I wouldn’t play that kind of a joke on anyone Ever So…it wasn’t me We can call the police, if it will set yourto the station thisanyway You can coain,that you want You can have the with yours, but…maybe they’ll find someone else’s, too"

She shook her hear "It wasn’t anyone else," she said stubbornly "It was you"

He hesitated "Look, when you caht, you were already upset, because of Mr Griffin showing up at your house I think he said more to you than you shared with the others Want to tellat the floor "I have to admit, he looks kind of scary, very old and very skinny He talked about the history of the house, and he kept saying it was evil That part’s crazy, but I have to adht Before the Civil War, the house ned by a family called MacTavish, and the father was a ht when the war started He came back wounded, only to find that his father was dead and his fiancée had disappeared right after he left Then other young wo accused ofthe house His housekeeper--who supposedly practiced voodoo and ht after he did Athethe house for back taxes after the war The Brennans hung on to it for generations, and then--like I was saying last night--Mr Griffin’s daughter disappeared on her way to meet a friend here back in the nineteen-twenties Cary said a bunch of girls disappeared at the same time Anyway, Mr Griffin is convinced the house itself is evil I think he heard about the bones being discovered, and now he believes that people’s souls have been caught here" She hesitated "He thinks I can communicate with the, or else wo"

"Wow He laid a lot on you," Caleb said