Ghoul Interrupted (15 page)

Mrs. Lujan nodded, but she didn’t say anything more.

I turned to Heath. “Your dad says you should check on your house. He thinks there might be a plumbing issue.”

“Plumbing issue?”

My brow furrowed. “Plumbing and electrical,” I said. “I keep seeing sparks and water.”

Heath groaned. “That’s never good. I’ll call my lazy cousin and schedule a meeting at the house. He’s got some explaining to do about why it’s taking so long anyway.”

“Never hire family,” Gilley said.

With that, Mrs. Lujan got up. “Let’s go, you three,” she said. “I have some tough phone calls to make if I’m going to get access to the library to look up the history of this black hawk demon.”

When we got back in the Durango, Mrs. Lujan called her brothers. She started with Vernon, making sure to let him know that she was coming to Milton and Beverly’s funeral and that he couldn’t keep her away. Their discussion quickly grew heated. I could hear his raised voice through the receiver and then the call ended so abruptly that I knew he’d hung up on her. Undaunted, Heath’s mother called her other brother, and that conversation was a bit more civil.

From what I could determine, Rex was going to meet us at Heath’s house along with his son, Ray, who I understood was the elusive cousin Heath was trying to pin down for the completion of the construction on the house.

I was a little anxious to see where Heath lived. He had a good eye for architecture and I wasn’t disappointed when we wound our way through the hills to the west side of Santa Fe into a sparsely populated neighborhood with terrific views. Nearly at the top of one large hill Heath made a right turn into the drive and we arrived at a dark brown stucco adobe-style home with a big picture window next to the entrance and a beautiful antique-looking front door complete with large brass knocker.

“Nice!” Gil whispered, echoing my thoughts exactly.

We got out just as another vehicle pulled in behind us. I recognized Rex, but the young wiry man on the driver’s side was new to me. “Cuz!” he said, clasping Heath’s hand and pulling Heath toward him in that manly half hug, half handshake that guys do. “How’s Hollywood, bro?”

“Wouldn’t know, bro,” Heath told him. “I’ve been in Europe for the past couple of months.”

The younger man stepped back and made a gesture with his hands to indicate he was impressed. “Whoa, dude! Europe? Like with the kings and queens and shit?”

“Language, Raymond,” Heath’s mother said, but she added a wink to let him know she was only half serious.

“Hey, Aunt Serena,” he said contritely, stepping up to give his aunt a hug. “Heard you been in Phoenix.”

“I have,” she said to him, stepping back to look him up and down. “But I’m back now. And while Heath is away, working on his television show, he’s going to put me in charge of making this place livable. Won’t that be
fun
?”

I had the distinct impression that while it would most likely be great fun for Mrs. Lujan, it was
not
going to be fun for Ray.

“Oh,” Ray said, barely catching himself before saying something that would get him in trouble. “Sure, Auntie. That sounds great. Hey, Heath, why don’t I show you what I’ve done so far?”

Heath turned to Gilley and me. We’d been left out of all the exchanges. “Want to come inside?”

“I’d love to,” I said.

Ray turned to look at me and caught himself again. “Oh, man! Where are my manners?” he said, thrusting his hand at me. “Hi, I’m Ray Whitefeather. You must be the
chiquita
my cousin keeps talking about in his e-mails, eh?”

“Uh . . . ,” I said, caught off guard while watching Heath’s face turn red.

“Why, hello!” said Gilley, practically pushing me out of the way to take Ray’s hand. “I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that I’m Gilley. But you can call me Gil.”

Ray’s eyes widened a little as he moved from attempting to shake my hand to Gilley’s. “Hey, Gil,” he said. “Nice to meet you. How do you know these guys?”

Gilley’s face registered a bit of shock. “I’m on the cable show with your cousin,” he said, as if he was trying to remind Ray of something he should already know.

“Ah,” said Ray, clearly trying to let go of Gilley’s palm, which was busy pumping his up and down.

“Let’s go inside!” I said, if only to end the awkward moment.

Heath turned and led the way, stopping by the security panel to punch in his code. When the panel continued to beep its warning, Heath turned to Ray and said, “What’d you do to it?”

“Sorry, bro,” Ray said, stepping forward quickly to punch in a series of numbers. “I had to change it ’cause I could never remember your code and I’ve got some tools in here I don’t want to get stolen.”

While Heath’s and Ray’s backs were turned, I grabbed Gil by the shoulder and whispered, “Behave!”

“He’s cute!” Gil responded just as quietly. “Do you think he’s single?”

“Hands off, Gil,” I warned. I was pretty sure that Ray was as straight as they came and would only be offended, even possibly angered, by Gilley’s advances.

Heath held the door open for us and we all went in. The interior was dark except for the light from the windows, but I could still tell the space held terrific promise.

Large and airy, the interior had wonderful flow, and even though it’d been gutted down to the studs, it still looked to be in great shape structurally. Heath and his cousin talked progress—or lack thereof—and Gilley and I took the opportunity to snoop around.

The home had a good-sized living room, which also flowed right into the dining room and the kitchen, with an island separating it from the eating area. Some of the appliances had been delivered but were clearly not in place yet, and Gil and I saw patches of work that had been started, but not completed. Around the corner of the kitchen was a separate bedroom that seemed large enough to be the master suite or a big spare bedroom. “I like this,” I said, feeling out the energy of the place. “I think when it’s done, Heath is really gonna dig it here.”

“Could you see yourself living here with him?” Gil asked me quietly.

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Oh, come on, M. J.! Haven’t you fantasized about you and Heath and a baby or two?”

“No!” I yelled loud enough for Heath to call out to me to see if I was all right. “Fine!” I assured him, then rounded on Gilley. “We’re not
there
yet.”

Gilley just cocked a skeptical eyebrow.

“We’re not even close to
there
yet.”

Gil folded his arms and continued with the raised eyebrow.

“I mean, we just started dating!”

Gil threw in a toe tap or two just for good measure.

“Oh!” I growled. “Whatever, Gil! Sometimes you’re impossible.”

I then moved out of the room to head upstairs. When Gil tried to follow me, I glared at him and he backed off. “Maybe I’ll check out the backyard,” he said.

I made my way to the top floor and over to the bedroom facing the front yard. Heath’s mother and his uncle were out there talking, and because the window pane was fairly thin, I had no trouble hearing their conversation.

“. . . the girl’s a medium like Heath,” Mrs. Lujan was saying. “When we went to Milton’s cabin, she saw what happened to him.”

“Pena says it was a mountain lion,” Rex said. “He’s got a hunting party out looking for it.”

“It wasn’t a mountain lion, Rex!” Mrs. Lujan snapped. “It was a demon.”

“A demon?” Rex repeated, and then he began to laugh. “What mind games have Heath and his girlfriend been playing on you, Serena?”

“No games!” she insisted. “I saw the girl with my own eyes, Rex! She went into a trance and she didn’t even flinch when I pinched her! I know she saw what happened to Milton that night, and it wasn’t natural.”

Rex’s body language suggested he didn’t believe any of it. “Why would a demon attack Milton?”

“It’s the enemy of the sky spirit,” his sister replied. “The black hawk. It’s come to take its revenge on the Whitefeathers.”

“You’ve been filling your head with too many old Indian fairy tales,” said her brother. “I talked to Cruz before we came here. He says the coroner is ruling it a cougar attack, which fits with what he says he saw at the cabin. Milt had a deer carcass hung from a tree, which he was going to clean the next morning. Cruz says it must have attracted the cougar and that’s what got Milt.”

“Why won’t you listen to me, Rex?” Mrs. Lujan asked. “Our brother was murdered by the spirit of the black hawk and you need to warn the others! Bev could’ve been attacked by it too!” According to what Heath and I discovered at the accident site, Mrs. Lujan was more on target than she realized.

Rex, however, wasn’t swayed, and he became visibly angry. “Oh, now Bev was killed by this spirit demon too?” he mocked. “I thought she drove off the road and hit a tree?”

“It could’ve been in the road, Rex. It could’ve caused her to lose control and hit that tree.”

Rex waved an impatient hand at his sister. “Oh, stop it, Serena!” he snapped. “This is crazy talk! Bev wasn’t even a Whitefeather by blood! She married into it and divorced herself away from it! You’re going to tell me this demon doesn’t know the difference?”

“I want access to the library, Rex,” Mrs. Lujan said, folding her own arms across her chest and trying to stare her brother down. “I want to see if there’s anything in the histories that can explain it.”

Rex’s cell phone rang and he rudely turned away from his sister to answer it. He finished the call after only three “Yeah’s,” then swiveled around to his sister again and stepped forward to hover menacingly over her. “That was Vernon,” he said. “Beverly’s body is ready for burial. The ceremonies are being held tomorrow. You and your son can come, but only until the ceremony ends. Then you need to leave the Pueblo.”

“How generous of you,” Mrs. Lujan snapped, her face angry and determined.

“It’s your own fault, Serena. You turned your back on your husband and the rest of us twenty-five years ago. Don’t act surprised that we don’t want to welcome you back with open arms just because you remembered some old Indian tale.”

“So, just because I got caught and you didn’t, you think you can pass judgment on me?”

My eyebrows shot up. Was Mrs. Lujan referring to an affair her brother had?

“How dare you!” Rex growled, looking around as if afraid that someone would overhear. “I owned up to my responsibilities, Serena! You just wiped your hands of us, stole the family urn, and walked away.”

I bit my lip. These two really knew how to sling the arrows.

I could tell that Heath’s mom was about to fire off another accusation, but then she appeared to collect herself and in an instant her expression softened. “Rex—,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm, but he shrugged her off.

“I’m done talking about this, Serena. Hear me?
Done.
”

“M. J.?” Heath suddenly said behind me.

I jumped. “Hey! Didn’t hear you come upstairs.”

Heath smiled and peered over my shoulder at his mother and his uncle. “Don’t tell me,” he said. “Uncle Rex isn’t buying our theory that a demon killed Uncle Milt and Aunt Bev.”

“He’s going with mountain lion and car accident,” I told him. “And he’s not open to letting you or your mom into the library.”

Heath wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “Figures. My uncles can all be pretty stubborn. Milton was cool, though. He would’ve believed us.”

Abruptly we heard Rex bark something like, “I’m not listening to this anymore!” before stalking off to his truck.

I was surprised that he’d gotten so angry, but Heath didn’t seem to react. “He’ll go back and tell Vernon that Mom’s gone crazy again,” he said with a sigh.

“Again?”

“Uncle Vern and Uncle Rex both think Mom was nuts for leaving my dad. Even though he broke her jaw, they think she should have stayed with him.”

“Do you remember your dad?”

Heath shook his head and his chin rubbed against my neck. “No. He died when I was only two. I did really love my stepdad, though. Frank was awesome, and I know my mom really misses him.”

I could feel Frank’s presence again, and there was a tightening around my heart. “He had a heart attack?”

“Yep,” Heath said. “He started getting chest pains in the morning and called my mom around noon. She met him at the hospital right before he was wheeled into surgery. They got to see each other and say all the important stuff before he went under. He died on the table three hours later. The doctors said the damage was too bad to repair.”

“I’m so sorry.”

I felt Heath’s shoulders rise and fall. “What’re you gonna do?”

The smell of burning wood filled my nose. “Do you smell something burning?” I asked, pulling out of his grasp and sniffing the air.

Heath sniffed too. “No.”

I lifted my chin higher and walked around the room, sniffing every corner, but the smell had all but vanished. “Weird,” I said, coming to a stop in front of the alarm control panel. I remembered again why we were here in the first place. “Did you talk to your cousin about the electrical and plumbing issues?”

Heath scratched his head. “He swears the electrician was out last week and checked over all the wiring. His guy says the wiring’s good. As for the plumbing, Ray says that he’s waiting on a part before he can install the dishwasher, but otherwise, all the pipes are sound.”

I frowned. What I’d seen in my head didn’t match what Heath was telling me. I sniffed the air again. No smoke. “Huh,” I said.

“Let’s check the house,” Heath said, seeing that I was still nervous about the smell.

We took the next ten minutes to check every room, but neither of us could find any hint of something burning. All the light switches looked sound, and there weren’t any frayed or exposed wires anywhere, so it was hard to figure out why I’d smelled what I’d smelled.

Gilley joined us just as we were checking out the garage. “Your uncle and cousin are gone,” he told Heath. “And your mom’s waiting in the car. She looks really hungry.”