Laurel moved closer to the door. There was something familiar about the ideas, the rhythm of the prose.
“ ‘The percipients come to crave manifestations, and when they are not forthcoming, manufacture them, either by fraud or by RSPK. The poltergeist ultimately takes complete control of reality. And like drug addicts, the human percipients cut their ties to the world and in effect become addicted to the whims of the poltergeist.’ ”
Laurel walked in. Tyler and Katrina reclined on the same dusty divan, one propped up against the armrest on one end, the other propped up on the opposite side, their legs entwined in the middle. Tyler held a sheaf of printed-out pages in his hand.
Katrina dropped her hand holding the joint behind the couch to hide it, but Tyler didn’t bother to move.
Laurel strode forward and snatched the sheets out of his hand, scanning what looked like a professional article. The title of the article was “The Poltergeist Effect,” which was intriguing all on its own. Then Laurel froze at the name of the author.
Alaistair Leish.
“Where did you get this?” she demanded, looking up at Tyler.
He shrugged. “The Net, where else?” His eyes gleamed at her, catlike. “Just thought we should know something about what we’re getting into. Right, Dr. MacDonald?”
Laurel didn’t answer him for a moment; she was too riveted on the pages in front of her, on Leish’s name. The pages were from Leish’s long out-of-print book, The Lure of the Poltergeist. In all her research she had never come across this particular excerpt and analysis.
She looked up from the pages. “You found this on the Net.”
Tyler was watching her. “I thought you’d want us to do some research.”
“You know the rules, Tyler,” she said evenly. “We said specifically, no Internet.” He has an iPhone, of course, she thought, furious. I’m sure they both do. And then immediately realized—But he couldn’t print it, unless he brought a printer, too …
“I haven’t been on the Net since we got here,” he was protesting. “I looked that stuff up the first night you told us about the project. I swear, Sugar … I mean Dr. MacDonald,” he said in that buttery voice that probably had gotten him exactly what he wanted for all of his life. “You wouldn’t expect anyone to go out hunting or backpacking without knowing the lay of the land, would you?”
And all those innocent questions the other night about the difference between a ghost and a poltergeist. Total sham, she thought, but said none of that.
“What else do you know about Dr. Leish?” she asked instead.
“Who’s—,” Tyler started, and then seemed to realize what she was asking and glanced at the pages she was holding. “Oh, the—I don’t know anything about the guy, except that you mentioned him. It just sounded like he got it right.”
Laurel stared at him. “You just Googled ‘poltergeist’ and this is what happened to come up.” She held up the pages.
Tyler looked back at her. “Well, yeah. I mean … no, it wasn’t the first link. I read through a bunch of articles, but that one just kinda said it all.”
Laurel stood for a moment, looking at him, then turned and walked out with the pages.
Back in the house she found Brendan in the small downstairs library, in front of his laptop at a marble-topped table. She put the confiscated pages down on the table in front of him.
“What’s that?”
“Read it.”
Brendan looked at her oddly, then leaned back in the chair and read. After the first few sentences he said aloud, “What the … ?” and started to read faster; she could see his eyes skimming quickly through the paragraphs.
Laurel waited while he read it; she’d already been through the document several times on the veranda outside.
Brendan finally looked up. “Where did you get this?
“Tyler had it. He said he got it off the Net. I found him and Katrina with it. Getting stoned,” she added.
An almost comically dismayed expression crossed Brendan’s face, then he laughed. “Well, we didn’t say they couldn’t. Maybe it will be good for the experiment.”
That’s a whole other experiment, Laurel thought, but that’s not the point. “I never came across that article, did you?”
“No.”
“It’s not from Leish’s book. Tyler said he Googled ‘poltergeist’ and that’s what came up.” Brendan looked at her curiously. She lifted her hands. “He just happens to come up with a theory of Leish’s that neither of us has ever seen, and that’s the one he happens