“Especially if things don’t settle down by the time the festival gets into full swing,” Erik replied. “And after the autumn festival, there’s Halloween, then Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, and they all have lots of special events. Right now, Cape May is about as quiet as it gets until January.”
“It would be good if we didn’t have ghosts and mobsters causing trouble,” Ben concluded. “Hey, no pressure, right?”
“Yeah, right. Tomorrow, let’s go see Monty and get his read on the ghost problem,” Erik suggested. “I’ll close the store since Susan is still taking time off. With luck, if there are mobsters watching us, they’re less likely to jump us in broad daylight.”
“But not impossible.”
“No, but I think they’ll bide their time until they think we know something valuable,” Erik said. “And I wouldn’t put it pastHendricks to keep the plainclothes tail on us, just in case. Not sure how I feel about it, but maybe it’ll come in handy.”
“We should probably ask Monty about those ghost tracks as well,” Ben said.
“And there’s something I want to see at the cemetery,” Erik added. “I found out where Grant Samuels, the Wildwood collector who sold the haunted window, is buried. Turns out he owned a carved stone angel created by Tiffany back in the 1930s, and had a headstone commissioned more recently that holds to the designs that the real Tiffany studio used back in the day.”
Ben looked at him. “The same Tiffany that did windows also made tombstones?”
“Yep. There are even some at Arlington National Cemetery,” Erik replied. “The company did hundreds of them before the original firm closed in the 1930s. Very Art Deco. The designers like lilies.”
“What do you think we might find at Samuel’s gravesite?” Ben asked.
“Dunno. Just a hunch. Might be nothing; but might as well do a side quest while we’re out.”
Ben chuckled at the gaming reference. “Works for me. This afternoon, I think we should call Cassidy and Sorren and fill them in on the haunted window,” Ben said. “Even if we can’t get the glass to them right away, they can be making arrangements to pass it on to their safehouse.”
“I agree,” Erik said. “And we can run some of the other names by them as well. I’m sure they have a whole different set of sources than what we can run through the databases.”
“Until we’re ready for that call, I’m going to keep researching,” Ben said. “With the bad weather, there haven’t been immediate requests for showing rental properties, and this is the slow time of the year for new tenants. Jenny has the office covered until things pick up. I’m hoping that by the time thestorms ease off, we’ll have dealt with the ghost problem and kept the mobsters at bay.”
“We can hope,” Erik agreed. “I’m catching up on paperwork, since no one’s stopping in to buy.”
After sundown, Erik closed the shop early and settled in at the table with Ben for their call to Cassidy.
“I texted earlier to make sure now would be a good time,” he told Ben. “It’s dark outside, so Sorren can join us.”
Cassidy Kincaide picked up on the first ring. “Hi Erik and Ben. I’ve got Sorren with me as well as Teag and Rowan. I’m hoping that one of us can help you with your questions.”
Cassidy owned Trifles and Folly, an antique and curio shop in Charleston, much like the store Erik had bought. He discovered after the purchase that his store and Cassidy’s had an intertwined history, and worked with coalitions like the Alliance and the Briggs Society that united mortals and immortals in getting rid of cursed or dangerously haunted objects and stopping supernatural threats.
Like Erik, Cassidy was a psychometric. Teag’s weaver witch magic enabled him to weave spells and protections into cloth. Rowan was a powerful witch as well. Sorren was a 600-year-old vampire who had helped Cassidy’s ancestors found the store several hundred years ago and also helped to found Trinkets.
“We’ve got two issues, and while I don’t think they’re related, I’m not ruling it out,” Erik said. “The severe thunderstorms we’re getting seem to have energized ghosts that aren’t usually problems, and I’m afraid that if it keeps up, some of them will turn violent. We’ve also got a haunted Tiffany window that’s gotten its prior owners murdered by the Mob, and a missingTiffany stained-glass dome that’s attracting the wrong kind of attention.”
“You guys never do anything by halves,” Cassidy said. “Wow. Where do you want to start?”
Erik and Ben took turns describing the ghost incidents they had handled, as well as what they had learned from Haley, Monty, and Jon.
“If the storm energy is just making the ghosts more visible for a while, that’s one thing,” Ben said, “but we’re worried about it feeding into anger and vengeance and becoming a danger. We’re working with the local coven and a couple of mediums, but Cape May has a lot of ghosts if they all decide to go psycho at once.”
Cassidy chuckled. “Being from Charleston, I understand. We have a pretty high ghost-to-living people ratio too. How much longer is the bad weather supposed to last?”
“None of the weather people agree,” Erik chimed in. “This is always storm season, and it varies year to year, but we’ve got a pretty severe streak predicted. I don’t know if the ghosts will steadily gain energy as the storms get more powerful, but that could become a problem.”
“Most of the spirits aren’t going to be strong enough to channel energy like that,” Rowan told them. “For the weaker ghosts who haven’t retained a clear sense of self, they aren’t likely to gain more abilities than just becoming more visible.”
“We get enough hurricanes here in Charleston, we’ve had experience with the problem,” Cassidy added.
“You’re right to be concerned about the more sentient spirits,” Rowan continued. “Fortunately, not every ghost wants to go vengeful. They might use the energy boost to try to cross over for good. But the few who have a lot of unresolved issues or died traumatically definitely could become dangerous. I can send your friendly neighborhood witch variations on protectionspells, as well as some of the banishments and exorcisms for the mediums if you want.”
“Yes, please,” Erik said. “I’d feel better having a few more tools at hand.”
