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A ghost I bet I even knehich ghost

"Hello, Abby," I said cheerfully "Glad you could join ht blinked once

The staircase opened into a large roo of the usual black vinyl stools ran th of the interior wall Most of the rest of the rooes and sizes, spaced far enough apart to allow ease of play I spotted an antique snooker table in one corner A pair of lights hung above each table, casting clear light onto the green felt surfaces with no distracting shadows There were seats and tables placed at intervals around the room so that spectators could watch and order food and drink

The décor was pleasant and clean and included movie posters fro with large autographed photos of champion billiards players from various eras

There weren’t a lot of customers at this time of day, only a couple of die-hard types who looked like they’d been here awhile, judging by the backlog of glasses and half-eaten sandwiches on a table near where they played They ignored alass with a white towel Instead of the suit he’d e met the last time, he wore jeans and a polo shirt that was the exact color of the table felt, with an eer than he had in the suit but still older than the twentyso I knew he must be

"You," he said, his tone almost identical to the one Chris had used If this kept up, I ht have shown just a wee bit of fang The temperature in the room dropped precipitously

"What do you want?" He set down the glass,ever so casually to his left, where I assumed a weapon was concealed under the counter

"Don’t," I told hiive you souys at the pool table had looked up and atching us very closely They hadn’t moved this way, but I made sure to keep them in my peripheral vision I know from painful experience that billiard balls and cue sticks lasses started levitating … just a little I hoped Abby would give eist, but she ood he’d had all sorts of things to do with her getting tortured to death She was probably just itching for a bit of payback

"I spoke to your dad in person yesterday He’s planning on going ahead with the whole blood curse thing, even though he knows that the two of you both have Garza blood in the family tree

"Bullshit" His voice was cold, but there was a flicker of soree The pool players had settled back into their ga and wary

"If you don’t believe me, check I’ic Check her blood against yours I think you’ll be unpleasantly surprised"

I continued, "I don’t kno, but Connor plans to survive the curse Maybe he’s let you in on the secret?"

Jack glared at me, murder in his eyes If I wasn’t so intrepid--and if Abby hadn’t gotten all sorts of weapons ready--I ht have been a little nervous

"Apparently he hasn’t," I said "Look, you knohat he’s doing You know his plans If you ithboth palaze locked with mine, cold, hard, and steady When he spoke, he enunciated every word absolutely separately and with perfect clarity "Get the fuck out of my bar"

"If you say so" I turned toward the exit He went for his gun Before I could react, a wall of cues flew up between the pool tables and the bar, cutting off reinforcelasses and bottles of alcohol, even going so far as to fling the knives he’d been using to slice li, ignoring his swearing and grunts of pain

A guy frorudge"

"I’host is Nothing I can do about that"

It takes a serious ahost to ail would be able to keep it up for long, so once I got to the stairs, I dropped the whole casual thing and hustled I was starting the SUV when the first police car arrived; an a as I pulled out of the parking lot

Nobody stopped me Hell, nobody even noticed me All eyes were on the hubbub at the door to the pool hall I pulled onto the street behind souy in a subcompact and drove aith no muss, no fuss

Well, Graves, that was next to useless It was a shaain, the plan hadn’t had a lot of promise to it to start with After all, I already knew that Jack was a htened by what I’d told hi that as long as I was already in town, I should see Isaac Checking at the desk, I was told that he was allowed to have visitors I then followed the cashier’s directions to room 320