Black Creek Church looked especially old in the stark October sunlight. White paint flecked off the outside, and what remained had grayed over time. A bird’s nest poked out of a hole in the steeple where the wood had rotted away. Fallen leaves littered the small hills around the building, its front walk, and its parking lot. The only nice part of the building was the sign out front, which Pastor Keller could be seen repainting every two months or so: BLACKCREEKCHRISTIANCHURCHpainted on fresh white in dark blue and gold.
Behind the church, the graveyard stretched into softly rolling hills until it met the line of the woods. Headstones ranged from unmarked rocks to seven-foot-tall monuments topped with stone angels. The only ghosts you really find in a graveyard are the ones there to look for other members of their family. Parents standing over the graves of their children. Ancestors searching for descendants. The dead don’t hang around their own graves much; they have better places to be.
There were none here today. Too much firestarter activity in town.
We gathered at the edge of the graveyard near Black Creek Woods, our cars pulled off onto one of the dirt paths that wound through the graveyard.
“Okay,” Hal said, leaning against the trunk of a maple, face screwed up in concentration, “tell me if I’ve got this. There are demons in Addamsville, Hermit Forester actuallydidcommit the Firestarter Murders, and now he’s in a turf war with a guy called Ludwig. He blackmailed you like a low-rent mob boss to find Ludwig so his enforcer”—he motioned to Bach—“can do some cleanup on behalf of the family. Oh, and also, you’re the Ghost Whisperer. Is that about right?”
I stretched my legs out on the leaf-strewn ground and rested my head back against my own tree. “They’re not demons and I’m not the Ghost Whisperer, but sure, close enough. Good analogy there, Hal. Does anyone else have questions?”
Artemis, Sadie, and Grim stood to my right. Lorelei haunted the space between Grim and Hal, and Mads had placed herself between Hal and Bach. I was the only one within arm’s reach of Bach.
They’d all been staring at me for the last ten minutes, either too shocked or too overloaded to call me a liar.
Mads raised her hand, looking at Bach. “I’d ask why we should trust you, but Zora trusts you and we’re here to help her. So: What’s your plan? How do you kill him? Does it involve anyone else in Addamsville being put at risk?”
Bach shifted forward. “You don’t kill him; you can only subdue him. I don’t have much of a plan right now. The plandepends on where Ludwig is, and the risk depends on how much of a fight he puts up.”
Sadie choked. “Excuse me?You don’t have a plan?”
Bach actually had the audacity to look sheepish. I rolled my eyes. “Ihave a plan,” I said. “Because I think I know where he is. I’ll need Sadie’s help to confirm it, but I think Ludwig will be at the junkyard.”
“You needme?”
“The junkyard?” Artemis said at the same time.
“Think about it. Ludwig was trying to get rid of me, because he knows I can help Bach and Forester find him. I escaped, and now he doesn’t know where I am. But he knows where mycaris.”
Sadie’s head swiveled around on her neck like a possessed doll. “He’s going to do something to the Chevelle?”
“Everyone in town knows we love that car,” I said. “And they know it was Mom’s car. It was her weapon of choice. If he wants to draw me out, he’ll hold the Chevelle hostage. He’s had to have seen enough of Buster Gates to know I’d never leave Mom’s car with that pig. No offense, Lorelei.”
Lorelei gave a wispy shrug, then said, her eyes huge and round, “But if Ludwig wanted you gone, he could have killed you at the motel.”
“He doesn’t want you dead,” Bach said, and everyone turned to him again, like animals constantly aware of apredator in their midst. Bach let out a long sigh. “If he did, yes, he would have burned you on the spot. Don’t be surprised if he makes a second try to win you over.”
“So, hypothetical,” Sadie said. “We find out he’s at the junkyard with the Chevelle. He’s got to be smart enough to lay some kind of trap.”
“Right. Whether he’s at the junkyard or not, he’s going to know that I can find him, and he’s at least smart enough to make a trap. That’s why we don’t go in. We draw himout.” I pushed myself up and brushed off my pants. “He told me what he wants. Grimshaw House. He wants to find Hildegard. He thinks her entrance is there.”
Bach made a noise. “Ah. He thinks if he owns the house, it will reveal something to him. So he’s trying to drive Sammy out so he can get the deed from us.”
“Why would ownership show him anything?” I asked.
“Possession is important to our kind. When we own something, it becomes part of us, and we perceive the world differently through that ownership of the thing. In this case, Hildegard made the Grimshaw will the necessary document to prove ownership; only the owner can find its secrets.”
Sadie looked at Grim, who was staring off into the distance.
“Okay.” My head spun. “Okay. So he wants Grimshaw House, and he knows you and Forester have ownership of it. Ifhe thinks something is going to happen to Grimshaw House, he’ll try to stop it.”
“Something like what?” Sadie asked.
I glanced at Bach. “Something like fire.”
The words rattled in my chest. Even suggesting setting a fire had my nerves on edge. “Not to burn Grimshaw House,” I went on, “just a bluff. Enough to make him think you are. He comes to find you, you take him out, we get the Chevelle.”
Bach crossed his arms and didn’t say anything. The others looked between us, waiting.
