Unseen Voices

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

To Rosemary’s relief, there weren’t any last-minute looky-loos, no one who came breathlessly in at five minutes until six, only to leisurely flip through book after book without making any decisions. In fact, the last customer left the store at about a quarter ’til, which meant she conceivably could have closed up early…if it weren’t that she knew either CeeCee or Izzie would inevitably get wind of her unprofessional behavior and take her to task for it.

Sometimes, it was a real pain in the ass being the youngest sister in a family of psychics.

She dutifully locked up and turned on the alarm, then climbed into her Fiat, which had been parked out back behind the store and baking in the hot October sun all day, making the interior feel like a blast furnace. Rolling down the windows and maxing the air conditioning helped a little, but she couldn’t help grumbling to herself about the weather. All right, it was often pretty hot in SoCal at this time of year, but she still wished it would cool down. Her brain couldn’t quite wrap itself around the fact that Halloween was only three weeks away.

As she drove, she kept wondering if she’d really blown it here. Not only had she agreed to help someone she didn’t even know try to track down Colin’s missing footage, but she’d also been stupid enough to invite him over to the house. The far smarter thing to do would have been to offer to look through the stuff in the garage and then let Caleb know if she’d found anything. But since he was already expecting to meet her at the house, there wasn’t much she could do except follow through with her plan and hope he wasn’t a serial killer…or worse. She tried to comfort herself with the reminder that Michael’s demon-repelling wards were still in place on the house. Those same wards had protected him and Audrey from demon attack while they were living there, so Rosemary knew they would continue to do the same for her.

Not that she’d ever heard of a demon who looked anything like Caleb Dixon.

Once she pulled off the 210 Freeway at Hill Avenue and was waiting in the line of cars to turn right from the off-ramp, she called the number he’d given her. It picked up on the second ring.

“Rosemary?”

There was a faintly questioning tone to his voice, as if he’d guessed it must be her because he didn’t recognize the number but wasn’t sure. “Yes, it’s me,” she said. “The house is at 1295 East Mountain Street. I should be there in just a couple of minutes.”

“Probably at least ten or fifteen for me,” he told her, eliciting a vague feeling of relief. At least he wouldn’t be waiting on the front porch as she drove up. “I’m in Old Town right now.”

“No problem. I’ll see you when you get there.”

“Sounds good…and thanks.”

She made a noncommittal noise, since she didn’t know quite what else to do. Then it was her turn to go right on Hill and head up to the neighborhood of lovingly restored houses where Michael’s home was located. She dropped her cell phone back in her purse and bit her lip, knowing that she needed to call Audrey and let her know what she was up to. In fact, several times during the course of the afternoon she’d picked up the phone at the store, thinking she’d better make the call sooner or later, but she’d been interrupted on each of those occasions and had decided it could wait until after she was off work. Now, though, she was starting to wonder if she really needed to say anything at all, since it was very likely that she and Caleb wouldn’t find anything worth mentioning. Besides, Audrey had already hinted that Rosemary was free to have any company over that she liked, that she and Michael didn’t want to think their friend had any restrictions just because she was acting basically as a glorified house-sitter.

However, asking a date over wasn’t exactly the same thing as inviting some random stranger to the house to paw through a dead man’s belongings.

By that point, she was almost to the house, so she waited until she’d pulled into the garage and gotten out of the car before she grabbed her phone and forced herself to make the call. Rosemary hoped her friend would be available; it was almost six-thirty, a little early for dinner but not by much. And she really didn’t know much about the details of Audrey’s schedule, although it seemed that she was usually around whenever Rosemary called her after she got off work.

Luck seemed to be with her, because Audrey picked up just as Rosemary had finished unlocking the back door to the house. “Hey, Rosemary. Everything okay?”

The question wasn’t that strange — they hadn’t talked much for the past couple weeks, except the one time she’d called Audrey to see if it was okay to have a plumber come over to look at the slow drain in one of the upstairs bathrooms. Rosemary knew her friend was buried in her post-grad work and didn’t have a lot of time for chitchat. “No, it’s all fine,” she said hastily as she paused at the alarm panel next to the door and entered the code so it wouldn’t go off. “I mean, the house is fine. But I had this guy come in the store today asking about Project Demon Hunters and Colin, and the footage he’d shot but which never got aired, and I wanted to know if it was okay if we took a quick look in the boxes in the garage.”

These were probably questions she should have asked before she told Caleb to go ahead and come over, but Rosemary figured better late than never. Maybe his appearance had flustered her more than she’d thought.

“What guy?” Audrey asked, her voice sharpening. Clearly, she hadn’t been fooled by Rosemary’s overly casual tone.

“His name is Caleb Dixon. He says he’s an amateur filmmaker or something.”

“Hang on.”

A pause while Audrey called out to Michael, repeating Caleb’s name. There came a muffled reply of some sort, one that Rosemary couldn’t really hear clearly. Then Audrey came back on the phone, saying, “Michael hasn’t heard of him, but he admits that doesn’t mean much. He doesn’t pretend to keep up with all the people out there producing documentaries and short subjects, even the ones in his field. But he suggested that maybe you should check IMDB to see if this guy’s legit. If he is, well, Michael says it’s fine to look through Colin’s stuff. There’s really nothing there, though — just some of his books and folders from his file cabinet, that kind of thing. Stuff that didn’t have any sentimental value and was too heavy to ship to the U.K.”

“I figured,” Rosemary said. “But Caleb still seems interested. Maybe he’s trying to get some ideas for his next video or something.”

“I suppose.” Another pause, one where Audrey let out the faintest of sighs. “If he finds something he can use, more power to him. That stuff sure isn’t doing anyone else any good.”

That comment definitely sounded like permission to Rosemary. Or at least, she thought she could convince herself that Audrey had signed off on the whole thing. No harm, no foul.

It wasn’t as if she and Caleb were going to find anything anyway.

“Great, thanks,” Rosemary said. “How’s Tucson?”

“Pretty amazing, actually,” Audrey replied. “My coursework is really interesting, and the house is wonderful. I’m going to miss the swimming pool when we’re done here.”

Well, there was definitely enough room in the backyard here to install a pool at the Pasadena house, if she and Michael so desired, but maybe he wasn’t all that amenable to tearing up his nicely landscaped yard. Either way, that was their problem, not Rosemary’s. She’d asked the question out of politeness, but she realized she didn’t have much time to look up Caleb online before he got to the house.

“Sounds great,” she said. She was about to say, I’ll let you go, but then Audrey spoke again.

“Hang on — Michael wants to talk to you for a minute.”

He did? A small trickle of apprehension worked its way down the back of her neck. She sincerely hoped he wasn’t about to tell her that he’d decided he didn’t want her poking around in Colin’s stuff. If she had to call Caleb and let him know he couldn’t come over after all, she was going to feel like a real i***t.

“Hi, Rosemary,” came Michael’s voice.

“Hey, Michael,” she responded, trying to sound perky and not terribly concerned about the way he’d inserted himself into the conversation. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh?”

“I’m a little concerned about you pursuing anything Project Demon Hunters–related without assistance. Professional assistance, I mean,” Michael added, as though guessing she might be offended that he didn’t consider her own family — or possibly Caleb — to be any kind of useful help in this situation. “And while I know I could be in Southern California in a couple of hours if I had to, that still might not be enough if a real emergency comes up. That’s why I think you should get in touch with someone I’ve worked with on a couple of cases. His name is William Gordon, and he’s a minister at All Saints Church in Pasadena.”

Seriously? she thought. You want me to work with a minister? What part of the New Age Wicca stuff did you not get?

However, she didn’t have much time to indulge her irritation, since he kept going without giving her a chance to interject. “I know you’re probably raising your eyebrows right now. But Will knows what he’s doing, and you don’t have to worry about him trying to convert you or anything. He’s not the proselytizing sort. I’d just feel better knowing he’s there in a pinch.”

Since he paused to take a breath there, Rosemary said tartly, “Honestly, Michael?”

He chuckled. “Honestly.”

“There’s not going to be a ‘pinch,’” she told him. “You banished the demons. All’s quiet on the western front. Right?”

“Audrey and I banished a demon,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty more where he came from. And if you and this Caleb Dixon start poking around, trying to find Colin’s lost footage…well, it just has me a little worried.”

“That’s because you’re a worrier, Michael,” Rosemary said, and he chuckled again.

“True. But it’s saved my ass a few times, so I’m going to keep on worrying. Just please…let me give you Will Gordon’s number.”

Since he couldn’t see her, she figured it was safe to roll her eyes. However, she knew it was probably better to have him give her the contact information for this Will Gordon — some crusty old minister who’d probably shoot her the side-eye as soon as he found out she was a practicing pagan — and get it over with. That didn’t mean she had to call him. Like, ever.

“Sure,” she said as she headed over to the drawer where Michael kept his old take-out menus and a couple of pens. She got out one of each item and added, “Go ahead.”

Relief clear in his voice, Michael said, “Will’s number is 626-555-9478. I already told him I was giving you his contact info, so he won’t be too surprised to hear from you if it becomes necessary.”

“Okay,” she replied, knowing she was rapidly running out of time. Caleb would be here at any moment, and she still hadn’t had a chance to look him up on IMDB. “I’ve gotta go.”

“Take care,” Michael told her, then ended the call.

Scowling, Rosemary laid her phone on the kitchen counter and hurried off toward the library, where she’d left her laptop the night before. As she went, she tried to tell herself Michael meant well. That wasn’t the point. It was more the insinuation that she couldn’t handle things on her own. Hadn’t she already proved she was able to handle a crisis just fine? After all, she’d flown to Tucson to help him find Audrey, had gone with him into a snowy, nearly trackless wilderness in Colorado to get her friend away from the old mansion where the demon Belial had been hiding her. Those weren’t exactly the actions of a woman who had to call in the metaphysical cavalry every time the damn house creaked.