always, and even that doesn’t mean every other telepath you encounter would be able to. And there are lots of people whose thoughts I’ll never hear. Really lots, in fact, since my range appears to be very narrow.”
“But you’re worried about how well your walls are working here. Or not working.”
“Well, they’re not working the way they’re supposed to. As tightly buttoned up as I thought I was, I shouldn’t be picking up your thoughts, but they keep slipping through. I shouldn’t be seeing spirits—and they’re everywhere. This really is a very haunted town.”
“Most of the ghost hunters who come here tell us that, but the locals generally seem to humor them rather than believe them.”
“I’m not surprised. What most
ghost hunters
tend to view as evidence is pretty damned thin. Once you get involved in the real thing, though, it stops being about proof and starts being about how you can control your abilities and use them productively.”
“So you build walls.”
Jessie nodded. “We build walls.”
“So why aren’t your walls holding things out?”
“That is the question. Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. Yet, anyway.” She hesitated, then said, “Emma, have there been any murders in Baron Hollow?”
Emma started visibly. “What, recently? Not that I know of. You know there’ve been killings over the years—hence some of ourbetter-known ghosts. But crimes like murder don’t really happen in Baron Hollow, not these days.” She frowned. “Why do you ask?”
“Just…curious. Thought I might be able to help out the police chief if there were any local unsolved homicides. Who is the police chief, anyway? Anybody I knew?”
“He’s closer to Victor’s age than yours, I think. Dan Maitland.”
“Doesn’t sound familiar.”
“And he’s not crazy about ghost hunters, who we see a lot of and who he has to be polite to because they’re paying tourists. And he’s also not very fond of any kind of nonpolice investigators. So it might not be smart to tell him you’re basically a private investigator who’s also psychic.”
“I don’t plan to tell anybody that,” Jessie responded lightly. “Do me a favor, and keep it to yourself. In spite of the fleeting idea I might be able to help the local cops, I didn’t really come here for a busman’s holiday.”
Exactly why did you come? How do you mean to go about closing those doors on the past? And what are your nightmares about? Those parties you say you don’t really remember? Or something else?
But Emma didn’t ask out loud, and Jessie pretended that more thoughts from her sister hadn’t slipped through walls designed to hold them out.
THERE WASN’T A lot to do in Baron Hollow on a Sunday, and Jessie was too restless to stay at Rayburn House, so she went out for another walk after lunch. She knew that virtually all the downtown businesses, excepting a couple of restaurants routinely open sincebreakfast, opened up shortly after church let out, but were seldom busy, and she wanted to explore a bit in less crowded conditions than those she had experienced the day before.
As she strolled, pausing now and then to study the contents of a storefront window, she told herself that she neither expected nor wanted to encounter another spirit. Her walls, after all, were as solid as she could possibly make them, and at least half her concentration was fixed on keeping them that way.
At the same time, what the spirit had told her yesterday was also very much on her mind. A killer? Here? Jessie had been with Haven too long not to have learned that killers could be found in the most unlikely of places, often hiding in plain sight in unsuspecting little towns just like Baron Hollow, tourist towns, and her knowledge of that made it all the more worrisome.
And despite Maggie’s instructions for her to concentrate on why she had come here, Jessie was nagged by the possibility of a killer hunting in this small town, and nagged
“But you’re worried about how well your walls are working here. Or not working.”
“Well, they’re not working the way they’re supposed to. As tightly buttoned up as I thought I was, I shouldn’t be picking up your thoughts, but they keep slipping through. I shouldn’t be seeing spirits—and they’re everywhere. This really is a very haunted town.”
“Most of the ghost hunters who come here tell us that, but the locals generally seem to humor them rather than believe them.”
“I’m not surprised. What most
ghost hunters
tend to view as evidence is pretty damned thin. Once you get involved in the real thing, though, it stops being about proof and starts being about how you can control your abilities and use them productively.”
“So you build walls.”
Jessie nodded. “We build walls.”
“So why aren’t your walls holding things out?”
“That is the question. Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. Yet, anyway.” She hesitated, then said, “Emma, have there been any murders in Baron Hollow?”
Emma started visibly. “What, recently? Not that I know of. You know there’ve been killings over the years—hence some of ourbetter-known ghosts. But crimes like murder don’t really happen in Baron Hollow, not these days.” She frowned. “Why do you ask?”
“Just…curious. Thought I might be able to help out the police chief if there were any local unsolved homicides. Who is the police chief, anyway? Anybody I knew?”
“He’s closer to Victor’s age than yours, I think. Dan Maitland.”
“Doesn’t sound familiar.”
“And he’s not crazy about ghost hunters, who we see a lot of and who he has to be polite to because they’re paying tourists. And he’s also not very fond of any kind of nonpolice investigators. So it might not be smart to tell him you’re basically a private investigator who’s also psychic.”
“I don’t plan to tell anybody that,” Jessie responded lightly. “Do me a favor, and keep it to yourself. In spite of the fleeting idea I might be able to help the local cops, I didn’t really come here for a busman’s holiday.”
Exactly why did you come? How do you mean to go about closing those doors on the past? And what are your nightmares about? Those parties you say you don’t really remember? Or something else?
But Emma didn’t ask out loud, and Jessie pretended that more thoughts from her sister hadn’t slipped through walls designed to hold them out.
THERE WASN’T A lot to do in Baron Hollow on a Sunday, and Jessie was too restless to stay at Rayburn House, so she went out for another walk after lunch. She knew that virtually all the downtown businesses, excepting a couple of restaurants routinely open sincebreakfast, opened up shortly after church let out, but were seldom busy, and she wanted to explore a bit in less crowded conditions than those she had experienced the day before.
As she strolled, pausing now and then to study the contents of a storefront window, she told herself that she neither expected nor wanted to encounter another spirit. Her walls, after all, were as solid as she could possibly make them, and at least half her concentration was fixed on keeping them that way.
At the same time, what the spirit had told her yesterday was also very much on her mind. A killer? Here? Jessie had been with Haven too long not to have learned that killers could be found in the most unlikely of places, often hiding in plain sight in unsuspecting little towns just like Baron Hollow, tourist towns, and her knowledge of that made it all the more worrisome.
And despite Maggie’s instructions for her to concentrate on why she had come here, Jessie was nagged by the possibility of a killer hunting in this small town, and nagged
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