McCann's Manor (29 page)

Adams fixed John with a sincere stare, “Was she having trouble breathing before that?"

"Well, now that you mention it, maybe she was. She kept swallowing and she seemed to be having difficulty speaking,” John said.

"Hmm—well if I had to venture a guess, I'd say someone choked her, or she tried to strangle herself, maybe?” Adams said.

"That isn't
possible
—Liz wouldn't try to kill herself, and there was no one else here except Kim. They're the best of friends—” he stopped short, rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"What?” Adams asked.

John shook his head. “Nothing, Mark. You don't believe in ghosts, do you?"

"Ghosts?” he said, raising one eyebrow. “Well, everyone around here knows
this place
is haunted. If you're asking me to believe a ghost tried to strangle her, I'd have to say that is
some ghost
, John."

"Yeah,” John replied. “Well, thanks again, Mark. I'll go to town and get this prescription filled and I will stay here with the girls tonight, just to make sure everything is all right."

"Good idea. See you in the morning. I'll be at home for the rest of the day if you need me,” he said as he opened the door and walked out, closing it behind himself.

"See you in the morning,” John said to the door.
Strangulation ...
Liz said Tarrh had choked her in the dream. “Hell of a dream,” he mused as he walked back to the living room.

"What was that?” Joel asked.

John came to sit on the sofa at Liz's feet, patted her leg. “Don't worry. I will stay here tonight to make certain Tarrh won't have another shot at you."

Liz opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again when no words came out. Her throat hurt and she rubbed it but found it didn't really comfort her much.

John looked at Joel. “You remember when she told us about the dream, she said Tarrh choked her?"

"Yes?” Joel said.

"Well, Mark said the only time he ever saw anything quite like this was when old Luke Peters bought the farm last year,” John said.

"Luke Peters?” Kim asked.

"Yeah,” he said, “friend of his, Jack Michaels, got a little steamed up and choked poor Luke over a baseball game. Some other friends separated them before Michaels could complete the job and Luke went home in a huff. Later that evening, Luke died at home alone of asphyxiation because his windpipe was blocked by the latent swelling."

Liz shot him a glance.

"You
did say
Tarrh choked you and you thought you had died, didn't you?” John asked.

Liz looked at the floor, nodded her head slowly.

"Okay, well, I'm going to the kitchen to make something cold to drink. Anyone else want tea? Juice?” Kim asked. She needed a moment to herself to think.

Liz looked at Kim, signed a big
J
in the air, to indicate she wanted juice. Joel stood, followed Kim to the kitchen, “I'll help."

"I'm going to go get this prescription. Knowing the local drugstore, I may have to go all the way into Austin to have it filled, so I had better go ahead and get on the road,” John called after them.

Liz reached for his hand, looked at him in concern.

He patted her hand, held it in his. “Don't worry,” he assured her, “it will be all right. I'm not so afraid to stay here now. You and Kim might need me."

She smiled at him, sighed.

"Is there anything else you'd like me to bring when I come back?” he asked.

She pulled the pen out of his shirt pocket, took the pad of paper off the table, wrote:
vanilla ice cream
and
cherry Jell-O
, handed the pad to him.

He smiled at her. “All right, sweetie. Anything else?"

She mouthed the word.
'no.'

He looked deep into her eyes a minute, cupped her chin and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “You rest that throat of yours; I miss your voice."

She smiled, nodded.

"See you in a little bit,” he said.

She leaned back on the sofa, tried to get comfortable. The injection Dr. Adams had given her made her sleepy, and she dreaded sleep, but she knew it would do her no good to fight it. She gave John a little wave and blew him a kiss, whispered, “Be careful."

He smiled, nodded, then walked over to Joel when he and Kim re-entered the room, asked, “Joel, can you stay here until I get back?"

Joel looked at his watch, nodded. “I'll have to cancel some appointments, but I
should
be able to do that."

John breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I would just feel better if you were here while I'm gone."

Joel nodded, “You can count on me,” he assured John.

"All right, I'll return as soon as possible,” he said and left the room.

Kim and Joel sat in the living room conversing quietly as Liz slept curled up on the oversized sofa. “So,” Joel began, “do you really believe this episode is the result of her being choked in a dream?"

Kim eyed Liz, shrugged, replied, “I don't know what to think, since she and I didn't really get the chance to discuss anything. I know she was upset, but she tried to act like it was nothing."

"I have to be frank with you; from what I can tell, there's nothing in Tarrh's writings that would indicate anything we can do to combat his presence here. It's almost like some of the manuscripts, with the
real
information about him, are missing. Basically, I haven't seen anything in any of the other writings that would shed any light on the matter, either,” he said.

Kim stared at Joel blankly. “What you're saying is this whole translation thing has been a waste of time?"

Joel stared at the floor and rubbed the back of his neck wearily. “I'm not sure it's a total waste of time, but unless there's something more we've yet to find, we are nowhere near learning enough to send Tarrh back where he belongs."

"But you said—"

"I know. I was trying to be positive, Kim, but in view of all that has happened we may not have enough time to finish all the translations before he makes his next move on Liz. Liz herself told us he has no intention of being sent back, and I have no more idea how to deal with him now than I did when we first started."

"That is a contingency I'm not prepared to accept. We have to find out everything Liz has learned and we have to talk to Ben McCann. I'm sure between the two of them—” Kim began.

Joel shook his head, stood and paced the floor. “Do you understand how tenuous Liz's position is? Tarrh has her in his clutches. Why he's even waiting to make his move, I can only guess. As for Benjamin, you can no more be assured the spirit you conjure up is truly Ben McCann than you could be sure Tarrh has made any true statements to Liz."

"So, what are you saying?"

"My counsel on this one would be for you and her to pack up your things and leave this place; go while both of you can still get out,” he advised.

Kim eyed him suspiciously, frowned and said, “That doesn't sound like you, Joel. Are you sure you are telling me everything?"

"What? You think I'm hiding some great revelation I've gleaned from Tarrh's manuscripts? I'll tell you what I
am
hiding; I'm hiding the fact this whole thing is starting to get under my skin. It is giving me the willies coming here and immersing myself up to my armpits in black magic and out-and-out evil, day in and day out,” he said as he raised his voice, blinked at her fiercely.

Kim nodded, stood and crossed to stand in front of him. “I see. Well, maybe you should stop coming, then. We thought because you're a man of God, you would be able to handle the stress. Maybe we were wrong. You need to do what you feel is best for you,” she said.

He took a deep breath and clenched his fists. “It isn't just that
I
am afraid of this, Kim. I have this impending feeling of doom for
all of us
; we may be about to get in over our heads, and we need to stop poking our noses in where we don't belong."

"Well,” she said, “like I said, if you feel you can no longer come here and help, I understand and I'm sure the others would, as well. Liz and I are already in this too deep to pull out now; we
hav
e to see it to completion."

"Why?"

"Have you ever met Betty Tatum?"

"No, I haven't, but I imagine even she would understand if you walked away from this right here and now,” he argued.

Kim nodded. “Yes, I agree she would understand, but she would never know any peace for the rest of her life. Joel, she's an old woman; she isn't going to be here that much longer and her mind needs to be set at ease before she leaves this plane."

Joel sighed heavily, stared again at the floor. “Do you really believe we can do anything to help her?” he asked.

"We have to. We're the only ones who can."

He looked at her intently, pursed his lips and threw his hands up in the air. “What do you want me to do?"

She studied his face and smiled compassionately. “Joel, if you
really feel
this is a bad idea for you, I want you to leave. I don't want you to continue coming here and working on something you think is doomed."

He shrugged. “I can't leave the rest of you here without my help, no matter
how
I feel about it. I would never forgive myself if something bad happened to the three of you and I had abandoned you. So, what do you want me to do?” he asked again.

"Well, if you think there is something Tarrh wrote that wasn't in the Crescent room, what we have to do is find it,” she said.

"How do you propose we do that?” he asked.

"Did the floor plan you found in Tarrh's manuscript have any hints about the hidden passages?"

A slow smile spread on his face. “Oh,” he said, “you think McCann hid one of the manuscripts?"

"Or
someone
, yes; maybe,” she answered.

"Well, let's have a look at it, shall we? I didn't really spend much time studying the diagrams and notations on them. Could be they have hints about the secret passages, if McCann actually built this house exactly like Tarrh's."

She smiled. “Thanks, Joel."

"Do you think we should leave her?"

"We can check back on her every few minutes. She's sleeping so peacefully, I think it should be all right,” she said. “Besides, John will be back soon and he can sit with her."

"Maybe we should wait for him to return. He would be rather upset with us if we let anything happen to her,” Joel said.

She sat back down, smiled. “I would be pretty upset with us myself. You're right; we should wait."

Joel walked to the sofa, looked closely at Liz, watched her breathing a few moments and stroked the cat curled up beside her. “Did Mark say the shot he gave her was going to make her sleep?"

"I don't recall his saying, but she was awake until very late last night. Could be the shot made her relax just enough for the late hours she's been keeping to catch up to her,” Kim said.

He checked her pulse and looked at the color of her fingernails, continued to watch her.

"What is it, Joel? Do you think something is wrong?"

"Everything
seems
okay, but maybe I should give Mark a call just to make sure. She was without any visible sign of life for quite a while there,” he said.

"You're scaring me, Joel,” Kim scolded uneasily.

"I don't mean to scare you; just want to play it safe,” he said.

She nodded, pointed at the phone. “Then
do
call him, please."

Joel dialed a number, spoke in hushed tones into the phone, “Yes, this is Father Joel Murchison. I need to speak with Mark immediately. Thank you ... Hello, Mark, it's Joel. Well, all right, I
think
, but we just wanted to double check with you. She has been sleeping since shortly after you left. Is that to be expected? I mean, she seems pretty heavily sedated. I see ... yes, the pulse is strong and her fingernails are nice and pink. No, no more pale than usual; she has a very fair complexion. All right. Yes, we can do that. Thank you, Mark. Yes, I will. Goodbye."

"Well?” Kim asked.

"He said we should wake her if she doesn't wake on her own within the next hour,” he explained. “He said it is not unusual for the injection to make her sleep, especially if she has been under a lot of stress; and she has been, has she not?"

Kim nodded, watched Joel walk back across the floor and sit in the chair opposite her. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the little white Peke follow Joel's movements as well. Was it her imagination, or was Ghost actually wary of the young priest? Funny, she hadn't noticed him taking any particular notice of Joel before. Ghost studied Joel a moment, then laid his head on his paws, heaving a huge sigh as he let out a soft, throaty growl then looked up at her, his big black eyes seeming to frown at her.

"What is it, boy?” she asked.

"What?” Joel asked.

"Oh, nothing; I guess he's just worried about Liz. She's the reason he came to be part of this household, you know,” Kim mused.

"No, really?"

She soft-focused on Joel, tried to perceive his aura. Aural readings weren't her strong suit, but she could tell enough to know there was a conflict building inside the priest. She had the distinct feeling something wasn't as it should be. She had sensed some kind of energy shift while he was on the phone; ever so slight, but it was there, all the same. She might not have picked up on it at all, but Ghost had and now she wondered.

"Kimberly?” he said, his voice booming louder than normal in the still room.

Kim jumped, “What?"

"I had the feeling you were about to tell me how the dog came to live with you and Elizabeth,” he said.

She eyed him carefully a moment. Kimberly? Elizabeth? When had he started calling them Kimberly and Elizabeth? She said, “Yes, well, he was a stray and Liz asked if we could keep him. I never really cared much for small dogs and I honestly only wanted to find his owners or someone who would take him in.” She shrugged. “It wasn't meant to be, though, because Liz loved him and they
conned
me into letting him stay."

Ghost snuffled, raised his head and peered at Kim, then at Joel and back at Kim.

"Look at that!” Joel said. “He knows you are talking about him."