“And… ?”
“And it was tubular! I could touch and be touched…” She went kind of dreamy before her expression faded. “Bummer is that you can’t stay in them for long, and when you get out of their bodies, you can’t function for a time. Possession takes every ounce of energy you have.”
“Did you go into a time loop because of it?”
“No. Another ghost was there to help me—it was Cassie from our party? She saved my bacon.”
I remembered the ’seventies housewife, and I nodded for Twyla to go on.
“Well, you know how Cassie’s megamotherly,” she said. “She had three kids who were at school the day she slit the old wrists. Usually, she’s depressed as hell, but she likes me well enough. So when I came out of the human’s body that night, she made sure I got to a nearby TV set.” She laughed. “The thing nearly exploded because of all the amps I was sucking from it!”
“Sounds like you weren’t so bored that time,” I said.
“No, but Cassie, like, said that if I ever did it again, she wouldn’t be around. So now I just like to go into dreams and be touched that way, like I said before.”
I wondered if Twyla had had a boyfriend when she died… or if she’d never had one and she regretted it, longed for what she’d missed.
“How did you do it?” I asked. “Possess, I mean?”
Twyla definitely wasn’t bored now. “You first pick someone who’s going to make it easy to let you in. Mine was a teenage girl who lived in my old neighborhood and listened to Black Sabbath all the time. I did it not long after I died.”
“You were curious.”
“Aren’t we all? I knew she was a metalhead wannabe, into the occult, stuff like that. So I, like, made contact one night, showing off my dark side in particular. It didn’t take me but a few days to talk her into trying out the let-me-be-you stuff. She was totally up for an adventure. From what I’d heard, I knew I had, oh, probably about an hour inside her, so we planned to go to her friend’s house, where I could be around people. I mentioned it to Cassie, and she’d never tried it, so she came along with us to watch.”
“How did you get inside the girl?”
“Like I said, easy.” Twyla looked annoyed by the question. “Like, you just slip in. It’s as simple as walking through a doorway, nimrod.”
“It’s simple because she was letting you in.”
“Yes, Jen, you’re really catching on fast.”
An eye roll and a sneer. I was moving up the ranks of approval, all right.
Now, I don’t know why I was so interested in the possession thing in the first place, but I had to say that, while Twyla had been talking, a bad idea had been taking shape in my mind, and it was fully formed now.
I kept thinking of Wendy, who watched ghost shows and didn’t seem to be that afraid of me. In time, how valuable would a willing host be to me in that mansion for opening the drawers and closets I wanted to get into during my investigation? Perish the thought, right?
Twyla was back to swinging her legs, her petticoats fluffing. “So?”
“So what?”
“Let’s go inside that mansion,” she said, waggling her eyebrows.
“I don’t think so.”
“Come on. I’m totally dying for action here.”
I held up a finger. “I’ve worked too hard on this case already for you to go in there and ‘have fun’ or whatever you had in mind.”
“A case. How official. Just listen to you—a regular Magnum, PI, except his mustache was prettier.”
I held a hand to my facial area. “I don’t have a must—”
“Psych!”
Twyla was laughing so hard that she fell off the wire. She recovered fast, though, flying upward to hover in front of me.
“Jen, you know I’m going in there with or without you.”
What could I do? Was this a time when I should be calling for elder ghosts like Louis or Randy so they could get Twyla under control?
She must’ve felt my vibes. “I’ll be good. I really, really promise.”
She seemed genuine. But I’d been about zero for fifty in the judgment category lately with Amanda Lee, and I didn’t want to be naive here, too.
“Just a peek?” Twyla said. Then she held three fingers to her temple in a Girl Scout salute. “On my honor, I do, like, realize how important this is to you, and I will not be a pain in your ass. I just want a look around, that’s all.”
I hesitated, then free-fell off the wire, charged up enough now to feel confident in my haunting abilities. “Okay. But if you screw around, I’m calling Cassie.”
Ding-ding-ding! I’d hit it, because Twyla looked like I’d twisted her ear. I had some leverage with this Cassie thing.
She waited for me to zoom toward the mansion’s chimney, then trailed me.
“I swear to God,” she said from behind me. “I can even help you. I can be your shotgun rider.”
So she’d watched a few Westerns. “Save it for Old Seth, Twyla. I don’t need help.”
With that, I plunged down the chimney, knowing she was right on my tail, and when we emerged into the luxurious sitting room, she found her so-called footing and gasped, looking around.
“This is bangin’!”
“Would you shut up?” I whispered.
“God, they can’t hear us. Are you kidding me?”
I gave her the I’m-telling-Cassie look and she zipped her lip. But she didn’t keep it zipped for as long as I would’ve liked.
When she spied the grand staircase, she squealed. “Oh my Ga-od! I’ve been in mansions before, but… A Gone With the Wind staircase. Be still, my heart.”
She slipped up and over the marble railing, sitting for a moment, then letting out a “Yee-haw!” and ghost-riding up to the second floor.
I was almost ready to tell her to get back down here when Gavin sauntered out of the upstairs left-hand hallway and began to descend the steps.
Lying stomach down on the railing, Twyla lifted her head, pointing to him, then making a lustful face.
Jesus.
When he was on his way to the downstairs right hallway, she spoke up.
“What a hunk!” she said, sliding back down, her petticoats huffing until she dismounted at the bottom. “No wonder you’re on this case. I’d, like, really enjoy sliding inside his head. That’s the one whose dreams you saw?”
“Yeah, but do you remember those dreams when Randy described them to you?”
Her mouth made an O shape.
Dragons, blood, a plastic mask with red tears. Very sexy.
Even so, I could feel that life force of his trailing behind him as he came out of the hallway and into the foyer, car keys in hand. He looked exhausted.
“He’s leaving,” Twyla said.
“Probably for work.” I saw from his wet hair that he’d showered. Had he popped a few antisleeping pills, too?
I followed him out the door with Twyla behind me, then waited for him to come out from the garage in his car and ride down the driveway. Even those few minutes made Twyla slightly restless. She kept fluffing her hair, like she was craving a mirror so she could correct her final cosmetic mistakes.
“So what’s next?” she asked.
“I track him to wherever he’s going, watch him, look for an opportunity to get what I need.”
“Ugh.” She got squirrely.
I sighed. “Bored now?”
“Totally. You know, I think I’m gonna dash. Nothing much is going on here, and the beach is close. Surfers, right?”
Thank God for ghost ADD. She’d lost interest because there were probably a million more hunks in wet suits nearby. Maybe one would fall asleep on the beach and she could dream-dig, getting those touches she adored.