Getting her phone number had been a flash of genius on my part.
“The rest of my family will be a harder sell, but most of them don’t even like me, so….” He trailed off with a shrug. “It’s fine. We do need to be careful what to say around her, though. She has a habit of misconstruing things to mean something other than what the speaker intended.”
“I’ve noticed she does that with you.”
Mack sighed, sounding done in already. “I’m not sure if it’s wishful thinking overpowering her ears, or what. But she only hears what she wants to until you put it so plainly she can’t take it any other way. I don’t expect much trouble, as we won’t be there long enough to stir up any. We’ll be in and out in a few days.”
“You say that, but we still haven’t looked at the other case.”
“Ah. Good point.” He pulled out his phone again, downloading the attached brief and looking it over with a sour grunt. “I stand corrected.”
“That doesn’t sound good. On a scale of one to ten?”
“Probably a six. I see now why Sylvia said to call in for backup if we need it. University of Louisiana at Lafayette has a ghost causing trouble in one of their dorms. It used to be friendly, the sort to just say hi and pull innocent pranks, but things have taken a wrong turn. One of the students was pushed down the stairs.”
“Uh oh. How bad?”
“Fortunately, not very. Sprained wrist, bruises, a light concussion. But still, it could have been very bad.”
I hummed, thinking it through. “Does that normally happen? Ghosts going from mischievous to bad?”
“No, that’s strange,” he said, still reading the case file. “When that happens, it means the ghost has taken a dislike to someone, or something’s radically changed. But it’s very rare, cher. Most of the time they stay true to their personalities.”
“So what’s your theory?”
“Something else has moved in.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It should. Never a good thing when it happens. Now, I say it’s probably going to be difficult for two reasons. First, we’re likely not dealing with just one ghost here, but two or more. Second, the dorm is three stories and it’s a big building.”
“Ouch. That’s a lot of ground to cover with just the two of us. Is there an area the ghost prefers to hang out?”
“Unfortunately not. I’m checking now, but witness statements place the ghost all around the building.”
“Yeah, no. I can tell straightaway that’s not going to work. Why don’t we do a preemptive strike and tell Sylvia right now we want backup on this one. Especially since people are getting hurt, we want someone on top of this sooner rather than later.”
Mack looked uncertain, biting at his lower lip. “You think we should?”
“Honey, she told us point blank to ask for help if we thought we needed it. And you don’t want to put the girls in danger by trying to do this on our own, right? Let’s use that good common sense Sylvia trusts we have and give her a head’s up we’d like support on this one.”
“Put like that…yeah.” He took in a breath and asked uncertainly, “You really don’t think they’ll mind?”
“I really, really don’t,” I assured him patiently. “And this is our first case out the gate. If we err on the side of caution, no one’s going to smack our wrist for it. But really, I don’t think two of us can handle a three-story building.”
“Yeah. No, you’re right. Okay, let me call Sylvia.”
I’d taken a second to connect both our phones to the car last night, so as the call rang, it came through the car speakers. She picked up in a single ring.
“I have literally a minute before I walk into a meeting, so make this quick.”
“Sylvia, we just read through the case file for the campus haunting,” I said, making this as concise as possible. “We both think it a bad idea to tackle a three-story building on our own.”
“I admit I had that concern. I was willing to let you try if you wanted, but I think another pair of agents should be in there at the very least.”
“Yeah, it’s too much ground to cover for just us. Can you request them?”
“I will, but I don’t know who I can immediately send there. You tackle the family case first. I’ll send you an update when I know who’ll meet you there.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“Keep me updated.” Click.
Mack let out a low breath. “You’re right, she really expected us to call in backup.”
“She’s got good sense, our boss. Fortunately.”
The phone rang again, and this time Mack looked at the phone with a sort of resigned smile. “Of course she’s calling. Hi, Maman.”
“Mack!” Mama Lafayette sounded thrilled down to her toes. “You’re coming! You naughty child, you should have told me so!”
“We literally got the call last night. We’ve been so busy getting on the road, I haven’t had a chance. I assume you heard from Edmée?”
“Yes, she just texted me. You’ll stay here?”
“No, likely not,” Mack said gently. “I have to stay at Edmée’s until I can figure out where that evil ghost is coming from. And after that, we need to work the next case. There’s another case at the university campus in Lafayette we’ll be working too. Mostly at night, but we can visit with you some during the day.”
“That’ll do. Of course, you’ll need to help Edmée and Cali first. Brandon’s coming?”
“Of course,” I assured her, finally finding a good spot to jump in. “It’ll be fun finally meeting you in person.”
“Oh, Brandon, I wasn’t aware you were listening in. Good, I’m so glad we can finally sit and have a proper chat with each other.”
“Yes ma’am, looking forward to it.”
Mack cleared his throat. “Mama, don’t you worry about buying me groceries. I’ll pick up things on the way in. I’ll be stopping at Whole Foods, so if there’s something you need, you text it to me and I’ll grab it along with everything else.”
“Bless you, mon angé, I was short on a few things but I haven’t had the time to get over there. You going to the Baton Rouge or the Lafayette one?”
“Baton Rouge.”
“Oh good. I’ll text you, but get me more of those gummies, I love those. And that yummy spaghetti sauce.”
“Sure.”
There was a distant call on her side of the phone. “Oh, my break’s over. I’ll get back to work. You come by and at least hug your mama, alright?”
“I wouldn’t dare do anything else,” Mack assured her with a smile on his face. “Bye, Mama.”
“You both drive safe now, you hear?” A blown kiss, then she hung up.
Part of this conversation confused me. “Is there a difference between the stores?”
“Baton Rouge is much larger and has things the other Whole Foods doesn’t. We always choose Baton Rouge’s if we have the time to go over there.”