The Stroke of Winter(73)

“From what I heard, I think you received a spirit call.”

Tess gave Wyatt the side-eye. “Spirit call?”

Jane nodded. “They’re actually quite common,” she said. “Spirits—ghosts, if you will—somehow can use and manipulate electricity.”

Tess had actually heard of that before. “Okay.”

“And your landline is one of those perfect vehicles for communication from the other side,” Jane went on. “You said there was static on the call, right?”

“Right,” Tess said.

“And it sounded like they were talking from far away, even in a tunnel?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s a classic call from the other side,” Jane said. “Textbook.”

“But what are you saying? If it was my dad . . .”

“She’s not saying that, Tess,” Wyatt interjected. “Are you, Jane?”

“It’s possible,” she said. “Or it could’ve been someone else. It was a male, I’m assuming, right? And he knew your name?”

Tess’s eyes began filling up with tears. “That was my first thought,” she said. “It was my dad. I called my parents just now, and they didn’t answer. It went to voice mail.”

Nobody said anything for a moment.

Tess stood up and went back to the phone. She picked up the handset and dialed.

“Hi, Mom,” Eli said.

Tess took a deep breath, to steady herself. “Hi, sweetie!” she said, a little too brightly. “I’m just wondering if you’ve heard from Grandma and Papa today at all.”

“Uh, no,” he said. “Why?”

She looked at Wyatt and shook her head. “Oh, no reason. I’ve just been trying to call them and haven’t been able to get a hold of them all day.”

Eli chuckled. “Payback for all of the times they worried about you when you were a teenager,” he said.

“I guess you’re right,” Tess said, pushing her hair behind her ear. “Okay, honey, I’ll let you go. If you hear from them, call me. Okay?”

“Wait,” Eli said. “Are you actually worried? I mean, should I do something?”

“No, no,” Tess said, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering. “They’re probably just at a double feature or playing cards with friends or at a museum. There’s always something going on in their building.”

“Okay,” Eli said. “But call or text me when you hear from them, will you?”

“I will,” Tess said. “And you do the same. Hey—are you still planning to come up on the weekend?”

“Yeah,” he said. “If that’s still cool with you.”

Tess looked from Wyatt to Jane. “I hope it will be.”

She could almost feel her son’s confusion wafting through the phone.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing,” she said, quickly. “Just the renovations. But there’s a winter festival next weekend that you might like. There’s an ice bar on the lake!”

“For real?”

“For real. I went there today. It’s fun. They have firepits, too.”

“Firepits on frozen Lake Superior sound like a recipe for disaster, Mom,” Eli said. “What kind of genius thought that up?”

Tess couldn’t help but chuckle. “Those are on the shore, smart guy,” she said. “I love you, honey.”

“Love you, too, Mom.”

Just that little moment of normalcy, talking to her funny, adorable boy, calmed Tess from the inside out. She put down the phone and turned to Wyatt and Jane.

“He hasn’t heard from them, either,” she said. “But I’m not going to panic. We don’t know what that phone call was, really, or who was on the other end of the line. And if my parents were in any kind of trouble, if my dad was in the hospital or, God forbid, worse than that, my mom would have called me immediately.”

“That’s right,” Wyatt said.

“I say, let’s focus on the task at hand,” Tess said. “Eli is coming up here this weekend, and I don’t want my boy hearing any disembodied voices. Jane, what is this operation going to entail, and when will the rest of the crew get here?”





CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR



Just then, there was a knock at the door. Tess opened it to find Grant and Hunter standing there. She was expecting Grant, but Hunter was a surprise addition to the group.

“Hi, guys,” she said, opening the door wide. “Welcome back. Come on in.”

Tess gave Wyatt a worried glance. They had already determined that Grant and Hunter were the only two other people who might know about the paintings . . . and the only real-world explanation for what had been happening around the house. And now here they were, to help with the ghost hunting? It set off Tess’s radar.

The two of them tramped in, taking off their coats and boots. Both had brought shoes to wear inside—they knew the drill. Grant was carrying a heavy black hard-shelled case and set it on the kitchen table with a thud.

“Let it be known I am here under duress,” Hunter announced.

Tess couldn’t help but smile at his perturbed face. “You’re not a regular part of the ghost-hunting crew?”