Silence stretched for a minute, then two. Just as Ben thought Samuels had refused to talk with them, he felt a cold breeze that raised his hackles.
“It’s Samuels,” Haley said. “He’s here, and I don’t think he’s happy about it. I’ll let you know what he says.”
“A man is dead because he bought a haunted stained-glass window from your estate. Who would kill for that and why?” Haley asked, but from the delay, Ben guessed that Samuels didn’t answer right away.
“The Collector, or The Oligarch. He doesn’t know their real names. Powerful crime bosses who coveted art, especially stained glass,” Haley repeated.
“Do you know what happened to the Tiffany dome from the Commodore Wilson hotel?”
Another pause, longer this time. “He wanted to bid, and they said they would kill him if he did,”Haley relayed.
“They?”
“The Collector and The Oligarch. He didn’t want to know who won. It touched off a Mob war,”Haley murmured.
“The angel statue, does it have magic?” Erik blurted.
Ben felt the cold weight of the ghost’s presence.
“It can amplify resonance,”Haley told Ben what the ghost said.
“Who haunts the window?” Haley asked and waited for an answer.
“Arkadi Mikhailov, the witch who originally commissioned it. The one who wrote the grimoire.”Haley looked distressed at the revelation as she repeated the information. She glanced at Erik and Ben, checking to see if they had other questions. Eriksensed that the ghost had probably answered out of boredom and was running out of patience. Both men shook their heads.
“Thank you for speaking with us. Go in peace,” Haley told the spirit.
Erik felt a shift in the energy, and knew the ghost was gone.
“I think that was a one-shot deal,” Haley told Ben and Erik. “He doesn’t want to hear from us again.”
They didn’t speak until Haley had sage-smudged the area and done a purification ritual. The ghost carried a darkness with it that made Ben want to bathe in holy water.
“What did you make of that?” Haley asked. Ben sensed she had some strong opinions but was waiting to hear theirs first.
“Creepy.” Ben spoke up first. “If I had walked into an empty house and got the sensations he was putting off, I’d have salted his ass or high-tailed it out of there.”
Erik nodded. “He wasn’t a good man, and he didn’t care. But we got what we came for, a couple of names we didn’t have before, and an answer about the window that got Peter Randolph killed.”
“Those two names, The Collector and The Oligarch, sounded like something out of an action movie,” Haley noted.
“Welcome to our lives,” Ben said with a sigh.
“Hey, it keeps things interesting,” Haley replied. “People who want to say nice things to ghosts and parted on good terms just think of them or leave flowers at their graves. They only come to me when it’s a difficult conversation.” She paused. “Although I’ve got to admit, the folks you look for are a bit more interesting than most.”
“Thank you,” Erik said. “I know ghosts with dark energy are more of a drain than usual. But it’s for a good cause, I swear.”
“If you can head off a Mob war before the fall festivals, I’m all in favor,” Haley said. “I just moved here, and I’d like to keep theplace intact. And I don’t scare off easily. Just call me whenever you need me.”
They thanked her profusely and paid extra for the session before heading out to the car.
“Do you think the stained glass has its own magic?” Ben asked as they drove home, nudging Erik out of his thoughts.
“If you had asked me before this, I would have said no,” Erik replied. “Now…I’m not sure. There are paintings and statues reputed to have magic, whether people call it that or credit divine intervention. Why not windows? Guess I need to do some research.”
“That name he gave us, the man in the haunted panel. It was Russian. Does that mean Bratva’s going to be involved?” Ben didn’t hide his worry.
“Maybe they were always going to turn up, and that just gave us an early warning,” Erik said. “Especially with someone who goes by ‘The Oligarch’ involved, I’m guessing there’s a long history.”
