Free Case of Imagination by Jane Tesh

much better.”
    ”Let me have another look.” The cut was more of a scrape and didn’t look as deep as I’d first thought. “Keep the ice on it for a while, and then I’ll bandage it. Does it hurt?”
    “A little.”
    “I can take you to the emergency room if they’ve got one here.”
    “No, I’m okay.”
    “I’ve got some aspirin in my overnight bag.”
    “That might be good.”
    I found the aspirin bottle. Jerry took two pills and leaned back on the sofa. I pulled a chair closer.
    “Tell me again what happened,” I said.
    “I cleaned this room a while. Then I ate something. I thought I heard some noise in the attic, but I couldn’t get the door open. When I started back down the stairs, I saw this girl outside, and that’s when I fell. I remember I tried to grab the railing, but it broke off in my hand.”
    I hated to think of him lying here all day. “When was this?”
    “Some time around three, I guess.”
    “Tell me about this girl.”
    “She was outside by the trees.” He rubbed his eyes. “I just caught a glimpse. I thought she was a ghost.”
    “Probably just a neighbor.”
    “From where? The next pasture?”
    “Okay, so she was a ghost. Happy now?”
    “Thrilled.” His eyes were clearer. “And how was your day?”
    “Not to take anything away from your adventure, but I feel as if I’ve fallen down a flight of stairs, too. Want to know why I haven’t had any messages? Reid’s been erasing them.”
    “What?”
    “Intercepting them, taking them for his own, and then destroying the evidence.”
    “I hope you hit him in the eye.”
    “I tried. But he won’t have Madeline Maclin to push around any more. I’ve moved out.”
    “Good,” Jerry said. “It’s about time. Did you bring any food with you? I’m starving.”
    “Just some Baxter’s Barbecue.”
    “You are my new best friend.”
    “I’m your only best friend.”
    He smiled, and again I felt that odd quiver inside. Did he want more than friendship? Did I?
    At the moment, all we wanted was barbecue and fries. I bandaged the scrape. Then I unpacked our food. Uncle Val didn’t have a microwave, but everything heated up in the stove. We took our feast out to the porch. We sat in the rocking chairs and watched the sun gleaming over the meadow.
    “This girl I saw,” he said, “she was beautiful.”
    “Of course she was.”
    “I must have been distracted.”
    “Sounds like it. You don’t suppose your uncle was cooking up magic mushrooms in this house?”
    “I think he was a mad scientist, and his experiments have gotten loose.”
    “Well, why don’t I have a look in this attic?”
    I went up the stairs, being careful to step over the loose one, and on up the smaller flight of steps leading to the attic. The door wouldn’t budge. I knocked. “Anybody home?” I listened, but there wasn’t a sound.
    I went back to the porch. “I think the girl must have been one of your fairy-tale ladies—which reminds me. Olivia tried to hire me today to find out why you want to keep this house.”
    “I told her. I wanted a place to hold séances.”
    “This is what you plan to do with your life?”
    “For now.” He looked out across the meadow. “She was that interested, huh?”
    “She was her usual intense self.”
    Jerry put his barbecue sandwich down. “I wonder.”
    “What?”
    “Nothing,” he said. “Maybe she does care about me. I mean, if she went to all the trouble to find you and hire you.”
    I didn’t like the way this conversation was heading. “Finding me is no problem. I’m nearly always at Baxter’s.”
    “She can be really sweet.”
    I couldn’t tell anything from his expression. I had to ask him. “Do you love her?”
    “Maybe. I really missed her.”
    I kept my gaze on the golden fields. “You think the two of you have a future?”
    He didn’t answer for a while. When I looked back at him, he shook his head. “You know her as well as I do, Mac. Would she ever want to live out here in the