“Wait here.” I dropped Roan’s hand and crossed to her.
“Are you okay, Mrs. Sullivan?”
She shivered, breaking her stare. “Yes, dear. I’m fine. Tell me. What’s going on?”
“They found another body. One Artie Smith. Did you know him?”
Fannie continued to stare longingly at the house. “No. I didn’t know him.” Her gaze cut to me. “Seems you’re here a lot when bodies are discovered.”
“Just a coincidence, I think.”
“Maybe it is.” She pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders and drifted off back toward her house. “Maybe it isn’t.”
I shivered myself as I rejoined Roan. Strange words she’d said. Almost as if Fannie accused me of the bodies being found. Well, one of them I did help with. But let’s face it, Artie was worthless when it came to anything substantial. Yes, he gave me Brownie’s name, but he couldn’t remember who killed him.
What good was one piece of information when I needed the whole picture?
I stayed at Roan’s that night, drifting into a dreamless and restful sleep. By the time I awoke the next morning, I was ready to track down Brownie and find out if what Kency had said was true or did Brownie know more than what she’d told the police?
Axel and Pepper had stayed at the inn. The four of us sat down to breakfast a few minutes after the regular guests had eaten.
Axel cut into an egg-white omelet and forked a wedge into his mouth. “I have a theory.”
“What’s that?” Roan said.
He pointed to the cellar. “That thing you’ve got trapped is what your spirit is referring to as the master.”
I nearly dropped the spoon of fruit I held. “What?”
“How can that be?” Roan said.
Axel swiped a napkin over his mouth. “Something tempted Blissful to the Jarvis house, right?”
“Right,” I said.
“That spirit mentioned the master.” Axel cut more omelet. “I think whatever is trapped in the cellar thinks you, Blissful, are its number one enemy.”
I shot a confused look to Roan. “But what about him? He’s the demonologist.”
“The thing in the cellar didn’t count on that,” Pepper chimed. “It only focused on Blissful.” She nodded toward Axel. “At least that’s what he thinks.”
Axel steepled his hands in front of his chin. “When I was down there, I sensed an overwhelming need to escape. If that’s what it wants and it has limited ability to communicate with other spirits, at least ones almost as evil as it is, then it could use them to do its bidding. It can’t escape, but it doesn’t need to if another spirit can do its evil work.”
I sank back in my chair on a huge exhale. This was not like anything I’d ever heard before. I gestured toward Roan. “But he comes from a long line of demonologists.”
“He doesn’t know how to use the power,” Axel said. “Yet.”
Roan and Axel exchanged a glance.
“So that thing down there has to be sealed in better.” I dropped my face in my hands. “Can we please have one problem at a time?”
Axel smiled kindly. “The first thing I suggest is opening the canister and seeing if the name Jinkins Hudson works.”
“No,” I protested. “That spirit is too powerful. We give it an opportunity to escape and it will. I know it.” I crossed my arms to heighten my stance. “Absolutely not.”
Axel blew out a breath as he relaxed into the chair. “So then you’ve got another option.”
I hitched a brow. “I know what you’re going to say.”
