I raise my eyebrows in surprise. He laughs at my response. Yep, that’s Ellory for sure. “Uh, no.”
Avory shakes his head, though his amusement is obvious. As is that indulgent, familiar love in the way he watches Ellory.
“So?” Avory asks.
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
I’m a little surprised when both of their smiles fade. Neither laughs, though I expected it.
“Why?” Ellory asks.
“I’ve recently been toying with the idea that Malin is haunted. Literally haunted. Not just in the descriptive way we tend to say people are mentally harboring memories from a traumatic experience.”
“Why do you think that?” Avory asks.
“He’s told me outright that he’s haunted by his past. Thathenever leaves him alone. So many things he’s told me, I’ve taken to interpreting as metaphorical. Primarily, he tells me I bring him peace. When people say that, it’s like calling someone their home, right? I bring him inner peace.”
“But what if your presence literally silences a ghost?” Ellory says quietly.
I nod. “There’s more than that. Have you noticed the way he looks away or looks around his surroundings? It’s not in observation. He looks someplace specifically. Or he avoids looking at a specific place.”
“Oh my god,” Ellory mutters.
“The way his shoulders tense, the way he curls in on himself… It’s all very reminiscent of a person being yelled at. Disciplined.”
Ellory is beginning to look distressed.
I lean forward. “On numerous occasions, after I’ve left the room and returned, he has his hands covering his ears as if he’s trying to prevent himself from hearing something.”
“I feel stupid,” Ellory says, closing his eyes.
“So you do believe in ghosts.”
He and Avory exchange a look. “Kind of,” Ellory says. “I don’t see or hear them. But sometimes, I can…feelthem. A target I’ve killed. There are times when I feel their spirit, and I have to tell them they don’t have permission to follow me home. There are some places I feel them more, like when we visited the megachurch warehouse. They lingered there.”
“I don’t share that ability,” Avory says, shaking his head. “I don’t know that I believe one way or the other, to be honest.”
“What if he’s actually haunted?” I ask. “What if all the times he’s said something that we’ve interpreted differently, he’s actually telling us in literal terms?”
Ellory shakes his head. Guilt is written all over his face. “That means he’s struggled with Johnston’s ghost for ten years,” he mutters. “And we’ve done nothing to help him.”
“What do you propose we do?” Avory asks me.
“I accidentally clicked on a pop-up ad,” I say, frowning. “One of those pain-in-the-ass things that get in the way of the actual link you’re trying for.” Both of them nod in understanding. No onelikes pop-up ads. “While I don’t intend to use one of those, I’m thinking that we get in touch with someone who can help us?”
“Please tell me you’re not suggesting a priest or some shit?” Avory asks.
I snort. “I think that would only cause him more trauma, given where his abuse took place and under what pretense. But no, I’m thinking maybe someone like a psychic medium.IfJohnston’s ghost is still hanging around and you’ve been able to sense spirits of your targets in the past, that means he’s hiding from everyone except Malin. But I doubt he’ll be able to hide from a psychic medium. They should at least be able to tell us if that’s the case or if we’re way off track.”
“He doesn’t hide from everyone,” Avory says, his head tilted to the side. “I’ve seen Okello point at something that no one sees around Malin many times. I think we’ve all just written it off as a three-year-old being a kid.”
“Imaginary friends,” Ellory says.
Avory and I nod.
“Okay, let’s find one,” Ellory says.
“We can’t bring them here,” Avory says, glancing at the house and the trees surrounding us. “Let’s say that there are spirits here that just… linger. There are a lot of secrets on this property that we don’t want ghosts to repeat. I feel stupid saying this out loud.”
