Read Online The Haunting at Grays Harbor (The River Book 8) by Michael Richan - Free Book Online Page B

ahead,” Judith replied.
    He lifted the pitcher with his right hand, feeling a numbness
begin to creep into his skin from the contact. He slid the trivet out from
under it with his left hand, and quickly replaced the pitcher on the shelf. His
fingers on his right hand had gone to sleep, so he shook them.
    “I find that I can’t keep that Frozen Well on the bare wood
for long, or the wood rots prematurely,” Edith said. “Hence the trivet you’re
holding.”
    Steven looked at the cork trivet. It looked ordinary, like
the kind you’d buy in a three pack from any store. “You mean this isn’t an
object?” he asked.
    “No, it’s just a trivet!” she said, beginning to laugh. “You
thought it was something that works with a legend shelf? Oh my, that’s rich!”
    Steven turned to replace it, but stopped when he saw the
other objects on her shelves. They were all beautiful and unusual. He noticed a
vase, and under it was an intricately crocheted doily. Under another was a
delicate piece of lace, and another, a beautifully embroidered cloth. Then he
looked at the trivet he was holding. She’d never use something this ordinary
in this display shelf, he thought. She’s fucking with me.
    He dropped into the River, and the cork trivet in his hands
turned to glass, emanating a white light.
    “Now, that’s rude!” Judith exclaimed as he dropped out of the
flow. “Quite unacceptable. I’d like you to leave immediately!”
    “How much?” Steven asked. “For a week, or until I’m done with
it.”
    Judith sputtered, huffing and puffing. She looked like she
wanted to leap to her feet, but instead Steven noticed roiling under the
blanket covering her legs.
    “I’ll give you a thousand,” Steven said.
    “I won’t loan you that!” Judith said. “Put it back, and
leave!”
    “You will loan it to me,” Steven said, “as an apology
for lying to me.”
    “I’ve done no such thing!” she said, indignantly, raising her
nose into the air.
    “Another lie,” Steven said. He walked back to Judith, holding
the trivet. “You lied to me about my markings. You have a device here that
could have diagnosed them, but you didn’t share it with me. We both know why.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Judith said,
reaching down to straighten out the blanket on her legs. “It’s pure poppycock!
I have no device like that.”
    “I have to confess, I lied to you too,” Steven said. “About
Aka Manah. The reason he’s not a problem for me anymore is that I killed him.”
    Judith’s mouth dropped. “You did no such thing!” she said.
“Impossible!”
    “Impossible if I had listened to you. All your misdirection.
All of your lies. So listen,” Steven said, walking closer to her, brandishing
the trivet in her face. “I’m going to borrow this, and you’re going to loan it
to me. Got it?”
    “Stay away!” she said, and Steven noticed more movement under
the blanket, as though things were retracting away from him as he approached
her, the blanket settling to reveal that nothing was there.
    He sat on the day bed next to her and placed his hand on the
blanket a few feet from her body. He could only feel the cushion of the day bed
under it. He let a little of the sensation he felt when he killed the demon
return to his thinking, and heat quickly replaced the feeling of numbness in
his right hand as his markings flared. “If I was able to kill Aka Manah,”
Steven said, “I wonder what else I could do?”
    She had pulled back from him as far as the day bed would
allow, a terrified expression on her face. Her mouth moved, but Steven couldn’t
tell what she was saying.
    “I can’t hear you,” he said.
    Her mouth moved again, but still nothing came out.
    “Judith! Speak up!”
    “Take it!” she squeaked. “Just take it!”
    “It’s a loan,” Steven said. “A thousand dollars. I’ll return
it when I’m done.”
    “I don’t want it back,” she said so quietly he could barely
hear her, her