Free Stone and a Hard Place by R. L. King

back in the Jaguar and heading back down the twisting road toward Los Gatos. “You were supposed to tell her everything was fine . Why did you—”
    “Because it wasn’t,” Stone said flatly.
    “What do you mean, it wasn’t?”
    “There’s something going on in that house. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know whether it’s supernatural or mundane. But I do know it’s there. And I’d like to figure out what it is.”
    Langley let out a loud sigh. “Look,” he said, clearly trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. “This isn’t what I brought you up there for. She’s a sweet old lady, and she’s really suggestible about that kind of thing. If I’d thought you were going to fill her head with all this horseshit about evil spirits—”
    “I didn’t say a word about ‘evil spirits,’ Tommy, nor will I.” Stone still refused to get defensive. “Look yourself. I know how you feel about her. I understand. I liked her the moment I met her. I think she’s a lot more clever and a lot less dotty than you give her credit for, and I respect her enough to believe her when she claims to have heard something. And now you’ve given me a puzzle, and as long as she’s willing to go on with it, I’m not giving up until I solve it.”
    Another loud sigh. “I forgot about that,” Langley said, resigned. “You and your damned puzzles. Are you sure you didn’t have cats in your family tree somewhere? This curiosity thing of yours is going to get you in trouble one of these days.”
    They continued bickering the rest of the way down the hill. Neither of them paid more than a passing glance toward Ethan, who hadn’t spoken since they’d left Adelaide’s house and who now sat silently in the back seat.
    They reached San Jose, and Stone dropped Langley off at his house. “At least promise me this,” Langley said as he got out. “If you want to go up there again, call me first and let me go along. Okay?”
    Stone shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what you want. You’ll probably find my next steps pretty boring, though. I intend to get hold of some actual equipment that works and see if I can pick up any readings. That kind of thing can take hours, and usually turns up no usable results.”
    “That’s okay. I’ll bring a book. I know you mean well, Alastair, but a lot of the stuff you spend your days with your nose buried in is pretty freaky for your average everyday citizen. I just want to make sure you don’t end up giving her a heart attack with something you think is perfectly normal.”

    Back in the car, with Ethan now riding shotgun, Stone glanced over at him. “You’ve been quiet tonight. Anything wrong?”
    Ethan shook his head. “No, not really. Like I said, kind of an upset stomach.”
    “You’re sure that’s all it is? I still find it hard to believe that you didn’t feel anything in that library. I haven’t felt something that strong in quite some time.”
    “What do you think it is?”
    Stone took a deep breath and let it out. “I have no idea. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s centered on the library. The feeling was strong, but diffuse. It’s clearly connected with the house somehow, but it seems odd that she’d only start picking up on it now. That either means it’s only recently arrived, it’s been there all along and something or someone’s disturbed it, or something’s changed with Adelaide to make her notice it now when she never did before. Or possibly that it’s been gathering power, and only now has enough to be able to affect things around it.”
    “Any guesses about which?”
    “Not yet. Like I told Tommy, I want to get in there and get a better look. Which means I’m going to have to come up with some more convincing looking data-gathering gear, so he can amuse himself watching the lights flash and the meters move around while I’m actually getting a look at things magically.” He shrugged. “Anyway, none of this is helping you with your lessons.