Free Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff Page B

the window?”
    â€œWell, you know, behind the window. I saw him from the front lawn.”
    â€œSo the house is haunted?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWell. Thank you for keeping me in the loop, Mr. Foster.” He glanced down at the Rolex surrounding one huge wrist. “I’d like both scenes the girls are in shot this afternoon, so you’d best get moving. You may tell Peter I won’t be available to take his calls.”
    Given that Peter had been in a good mood when Tony’d left the shoot, Peter didn’t know about the girls. He’d be calling, that was a certainty. And beside the point. “Boss, I don’t think you understand. Haunted houses are dangerous.”
    â€œIn what way?”
    He was kidding, right? “In the dead-people-walking-around way! People die in them.”
    â€œNo, people have died in them. Not the same thing. Have you any reason for your fear or are you basing your theory on bad movies and the world according to Stephen King? Have these ghosts done anything that might be considered threatening?”
    â€œThey put paint on Lee’s tux.”
    â€œAnnoying, Mr. Foster, not threatening. Anything else?”
    â€œGhosts stay around for a reason. Usually because they’re pissed off about something.”
    â€œLike being murdered?”
    â€œYeah, like being murdered. And they want vengeance.”
    â€œSo they put paint on Mr. Nicholas’ tux?”
    â€œYes! No. That wasn’t vengeance, that was . . . I don’t know what that was, but the point is we can’t keep shooting in a haunted house.”
    â€œBecause something might happen?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou might get hit every time you cross the street. Do you spend the rest of your life standing on the sidewalk?”
    â€œWell, no, but . . .
    â€œI’ve paid for the use of this house until the end of the week. If you have nothing substantial to base your fears on . . .” CB waited pointedly until Tony shook his head. “. . . I will not disrupt my shooting schedule because you have a bad feeling and dead people are hanging about the set.”
    Was the man listening to himself? “Having dead people hanging about the set isn’t normal!”
    â€œNormal?” His lip curled. “Being beaten in the ratings by half a dozen so-called real people eating earthworms isn’t normal, Mr. Foster. And dead people have got to be less trouble than one of Mason’s ridiculous fan clubs.”
    Tony had to admit that was valid. One last card to play. “Your daughters . . .”
    â€œAre looking forward to this and I will not disappoint them. They’ve spoken of nothing else for the last ten days.”
    â€œBut . . .”
    â€œI will not disappoint them. Do I make myself clear?”
    â€œCrystal.” He’d rather risk his daughters’ lives than their wrath. Or at least he’d rather risk his daughters being stroked with paint than their wrath and Tony had to admit he could understand where the boss was coming from with that. Maybe he had overreacted.
    Once you turn to the weird side, forever will it dominate your destiny .
    So the house is haunted. If I’m the only one who knows, does it matter?
    â€œIs there anything else, Mr. Foster?”
    Apparently not. “No, sir. I’ll just get the girls.”
    The girls were standing by the front door, eyes wide and locked on Amy. Who was on the phone. Nothing unusual about that.
    â€œWhy don’t you two wait for me by my car; I’ll be right out.”
    They nodded and ran.
    â€œWhat did you do to them?” he demanded as Amy hung up. “And can you teach it to me?”
    â€œI merely looked at them like this . . .”
    â€œThat’s pretty damned scary on its own.”
    â€œ. . . and told them if they didn’t get their grubby hands off my phone I’d put a spell on them so that they’d wet the bed at every sleepover they