I lit the sage and left the room with Ruth trailing behind. “You going to mumble some words?”
“Nah. Just going through the motions,” I said. “This stuff doesn’t really work anyway.”
“It doesn’t?” Ruth said, perplexed. “I always thought it did. It’s what my mom taught me.”
“Against something small it might, but you get a big baddie and you’d better have a priest in here instead of this stuff.” I pinched my brow. “And sometimes that doesn’t help either.”
We moved through the house at a fairly quick pace. After all, I was looking for a computer. There wasn’t anything that was actually going to haunt Truck, at least as far as I was aware, that was.
We did a brisk sweep of the living room. Ruth kept her eyes peeled on the furnishings while I pretended to run the sage over the walls. Well, I wasn’t actually pretending, I was doing it, but I was mostly looking for Xavier’s computer.
Living room, den, hallway, powder room, all were clear. We reached what looked like Truck’s bedroom—a much more normal room than Xavier’s, if I might add, with light blue walls and cherry furniture.
A laptop lay directly on the cream-colored duvet, but it didn’t have the skull and crossbones sticker.
“Anyone can peel a decal,” Ruth said, nosing toward the computer.
“Agreed.”
I glanced down the hall. No sign of Truck. I nodded to Ruth.
“I’ll keep watch,” she said.
I flipped open the top and waited while the username popped up.Truckaliciouswas the user.
“These guys do think highly of themselves, don’t they?”
I closed it and started opening drawers. “You looking, Ruth?”
“Still clear.”
I brushed through underwear, shirts, shocks, shorts—nothing. I crossed to his closet and pulled the door. It was neat, well organized and empty of a stolen computer.
“Any luck?”
I shook my head. “None.”
“His office is through the adjoining door.”
I followed Ruth to the next room and took the sage from her. While I smudged the walls, she snooped through the desk. “It’s locked.”
“We’ll see about that.”
I plopped the box on top and peeled back the lid. “Susan? Susan?” I whispered.
A ghostly head drifted up from the pile of water balloons. “Like, it’s totally cramped in here. And the water? It’s way stale. Like, gag me with a spoon.”
“Okay,” I whispered. “I’ll get you out soon, but I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything. All I’ve got is time.”
“Can you unlock the doors on this desk?”
“Let me see.” Her head disappeared below until all I could see was the very crown of her teased and Aqua Net rock-hard hair. She popped back up. “It’s unlocked.”
“Great. Thanks.” I closed the lid.
“That’s a neat trick,” Ruth said. “I need to get myself a helpful ghost. What I wouldn’t be able to accomplish. I could bake three pies all at the same time.”
