Suddenly Psychic (Glimmer Lake #1)(75)

“But you think he’s still…” Lily’s gaze moved around the room. “…hanging around?”

Val took a deep breath. “Gordon Russell was known to be kind of controlling.”

Understatement of the decade. Robin said, “We’ve removed most of his things from the house and they’re in storage now, but the third floor and the attic are still kind of… cold.”

Monica said simply, “There’s something not right.”

“Uh-huh.” Lily nodded. “And you think it’s his ghost?”

“Is that” —Val narrowed her eyes— “too weird?”

Lily opened her mouth. Closed it. “I don’t know. I guess not. Something other than biology animates us, I know that. I’ve seen too many cases where even when a person is still living, I can touch them and know that they’re already gone. Many people in comas or vegetative states are like that. But others aren’t. And I don’t know how to explain the difference, but I can always tell.”

Robin asked, “Is Helen—?”

“She’s still here.” Lily’s smile was sweet. “She became much more content when all the children and grandchildren arrived. She loves your father especially. She’s tired. I can feel that. But she’s working through things in her mind. That’s why she’s in and out so much.”

Monica raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you might have a little bit of the slight psychic-ness we’re talking about.”

Lily shrugged. “I’d call it intuition. I don’t really look much past that. I’m sensitive to my patients. It’s part of what allows me to help them and their families during this transition.”

“Okay,” Val said. “So I guess what we’re asking is, what would you do if you felt like someone’s spirit… wasn’t very excited about moving on?”

“You want my advice on how to banish a ghost?”

“Yes,” Robin said. “I know it doesn’t exactly fall within your job description, but that is exactly what we’re asking for help with.”

Lily looked thoughtful. “You know… I actually do have an idea.”





“Do you really think this is going to work?” Mark asked under his breath.

“I have no idea, but Lily said it’s worked for her in the past, so who knows?”

Mark nodded and closed the door to the attic, pouring the salt in a thick line at the baseboard. “Okay, so Monica and Val are already up here?”

Robin shivered. “Yeah. Sheesh, it’s cold.”

Monica peeked her head over the railing as they climbed the steps. “That’s because we opened the window. It’s not just the ghost.” She looked at Mark. “You brought it?”

Mark took the knife Gordon had used to kill Billy Grimmer from his jacket pocket. “Yeah. I’m not gonna lie, I felt weird stuffing a knife I know was used to kill someone under the seat of my truck.”

Val said, “It’s not exactly like you’re hiding evidence of a crime or anything. Everyone involved in it has been dead for decades; it’s barely even a cold case.”

They reached the top of the stairs, and Robin wrapped her sweater around herself. It was midnight and the attic was freezing. Freezing and dark. Everyone in the house—save for the nursing staff and Uncle Raymond, who was sitting with Grandma Helen—was sleeping.

Val and Monica had uncovered the table and placed four chairs around it. They’d lit white candles and placed them around the room. The air smelled like frost and pine. The earthy smell had dissipated, but it wasn’t entirely gone.

“You know what I was thinking about the other day?” Monica asked. “Gordon killed Billy Grimmer and nothing happened to him. Seriously. Not legally. Not personally. Not even karma caught up with him. It’s kind of depressing. He killed a man and married the woman that guy loved. He got to have a successful business and a family and everything.”

“He died young,” Mark said. “I guess there’s that.”

“Sixty-five isn’t that young,” Val said.

“It’s not that old either,” Robin said. “Think about it. That’s only twenty years from now.”

Val made a face. “Good point. Sixty-five is very young.”

“Did he have any friends?” Monica asked. “There’s all sorts of stuff in town named for the Russells.”

“No, he just gave people lots of money,” Robin said.

“Maybe it was penance,” Mark said. “Maybe deep down he knew he was living another man’s life and it was a life he’d killed for.” His eyes lit on the yellow plastic gun on the table. “Ooh, is that a salt gun?”

Robin felt something move in the room, but she couldn’t tell if it was supernatural or a gust of wind from the open window.

“Yeah, I brought it from the house,” Val said. “And I think I bought out the boxes of kosher salt at the market.”

“I brought some holy water from the church.” Monica held up a water bottle. “Just in case.”

Mark looked around the room. “Okay, so I salted the door, and you got the corners of the room, right? But not the window?”

“No, we want to give him some place to leave,” Val said. “So we’re hoping that Lily’s advice and then the sage will do the trick.”