was looking at messages on her tablet. “I so appreciate you going with me. And I think Pop liked having you there too.”
“He’s pretty sweet,” she said.
“I told him you thought he was adorable. Pretty sure he’s got a serious crush on you.” Jake smiled in the dim light—a flash of teeth and the shadow of a dimple.
“The feeling’s mutual. I think he misses your mom a lot. Getting him a dog is a really good idea.”
He shot her a quick look. “You talked to him about her?”
“Sort of. Anyway, I can tell he really appreciates having you nearby, but I think a dog would give him something else to do besides poke at bees’ nests.”
“He and Doug Horner are supposed to go golfing next week—that’s who called the ambulance today. Dr. Horner was dropping off some golf clubs and found Pop in not-so-good shape. I can ask him if he knows of an older dog in need of adoption that would be good for my dad.”
“Good idea. Oh, wow, I just got a text from Helga. It says, ‘Volt or Elantra.’ I guess that means Baxter has narrowed down the brake lights of the car you saw last night.”
Jake nodded. “That’s good. Sounds like she and Joe Cap are on it.”
“That reminds me—do you mind if we swing by the theater so I can just check and make sure everything’s all right, all things considered? We left in kind of a hurry.”
“Sure.”
Jake wasn’t about to admit it to anyone, but he wasn’t all that excited about going into the theater at night. He wasn’t afraid, exactly…he just didn’t really want to be faced with whatever crazy supernatural thing was going on in there.
But all the way back on the drive, he’d been calculating ways to convince Vivien she should go over to his house for a while—after all, it was still earlyish—instead of dropping her off at her house. Now this detour would give him more time to consider his options, but that also meant they had to face the unpleasant reminder of whatever was happening at the theater.
Once they arrived, he parked in front and they went in the main door.
“We’re ba-aack,” Vivien called, leaving Jake bemused as she pushed through the swinging doors that led to the house.
Was she really talking to the ghost—or whatever it was?
All right. It was a ghost or some sort of haunting. He guessed he had to admit that at least.
“We’re here,” she said, jogging up the stairs onto the stage. He followed at a more leisurely pace, looking around to see if anything else had changed since they left to meet Pop at the hospital.
“No need to be upset, all right?” she went on, speaking to the house at large as if she were delivering lines from a show. “We’ve come to the conclusion that you exist, that you’re here—no question.
“I don’t know why you’re angry. I hope it’s not because I want to open the theater again, because that’s going to really put us at odds, and I was hoping we could just get along. I mean, every theater should have a phantom, right? I don’t really want to bring in a priest or, I dunno, a medium, or whoever exorcises ghosts—unless you’re trying to tell me something—”
Her voice trailed off as a great blast of light exploded from the stage, highlighting her as if it were an extraterrestrial’s spaceship hovering above and beyond. A great roaring noise accompanied the burst of light, filling the space, vibrating through Jake’s body.
The blue-white light poured from the stage, surrounding Vivien like a blazing, illuminated shower. She stood there, unmoving, and for a minute he thought she was somehow trapped or paralyzed—or being absorbed into the great, raging light.
He ran down the aisle to the stage, shouting her name over the tumultuous roaring that filled the theater. Wind whipped up from nowhere, and he fought against it, trying to get to the stage…but it held him back, pushed at him like a hurricane throwing tiny, sharp, icy knives at him as he fought to get closer.
“Stop!” she cried, her voice cutting through the storm. “Enough! That’s enough! We’re here to help—now stop this!”
To Jake’s utter shock, it listened. The roaring fury ceased with hardly a whimper. The light fizzled into a small white circle, then popped dark like a burned-out bulb. The wind died. The air warmed.
“Vivien!” Jake cried, stumbling toward the stage after his sudden release from the rush that had forced