Quinton grimaced, shaking his head. "That's freaky.”
"It's deadly. Whichever of them controls it killed Mark. I don't think he or she is going to be content to stop now that they know what they can do—and I'm sure the killer knows by now.”
Quinton nodded and rested his elbows on the table as I went on. "The poltergeist's been raising havoc with everyone connected to it, but it doesn't have endless power. I've been thinking about the activity pattern and it appears that the poltergeist burns energy every time it does anything. If it's been doing a lot—like flinging tables around and breaking people's ribs—it seems to deplete its energy and have to wait for it to recharge a little. That's what it's doing right now. Once the power is at peak, someone else is going to die and this thing will pull on the energy of everyone that feeds it when it goes after that victim. It draws off me, too, and I almost feel complicit in the harm that's already been done. I feel like I ought to stop it, but it's not my job— it's up to Solis to arrest the killer. But Solis is not going to arrest a ghost. He doesn't think in those terms, but there's no evidence linking the method to the murderer. No clues that he'll accept or that a court would, either. Well, there's Mark's keys, but no one knows where they are. The killer must have them, but how do I or Solis get to them?”
Quinton finished his beer and signaled for another round. "Why do you have to?" he asked, digging in his ever-present backpack for his wallet.
I let the waitress take my glass, then leaned forward again, pushing his wallet back into the bag. "You are not paying to listen to me talk this out. Look, this ghost is not going to fade away. It may get weaker if its collective stops believing in it—or if they're killed—but it has plenty of other power to draw on and its master is a psycho who's already done a lot of harm. This thing is not going to stop. And I don't know anyone else who can go after it but me.
"But I don't know how. I've tried to learn some way to follow it, but I can't figure it out. I don't know what to do when I catch it, or how to catch it in the first place. I seem to be stuck with the job of figuring out who controls the thing—which is the same as solving the crime I'm not even supposed to be investigating—and of convincing Solis of the murderer's identity. The real murderer, not the ghost.”
Quinton made a scoffing noise. "Why? Why are you stuck with doing this job for them? They can't understand that a ghost did it, but why does it matter? So long as it stops.”
"The family of the dead guy might not agree.”
"I'm not callous, but they're not going to buy this story and it's not up to you to sell it. You have to consider your own position first— 'cause you can't help anyone if you're dead. It's already taken potshots at you—those bookends you told me about could have knocked your head off. Whoever controls it is crazy and isn't too good at sharing his toys. Since the thing has another power source, at some point—even if it means weakening the thing a little—the killer is going to start picking off the competition—everyone who has a connection to the poltergeist and everyone who's a threat. When it does, you'll be on that list, and the more trouble you make for the guy, the closer you'll be to the top. So your sense of duty is a little backward here. You need to be free of this ghost and that needs to be done before it does any more harm to anyone. That's the important thing." He paused for more beer, then went on.
"You're fixated on a path to a possible solution, not on solving the problem. You're thinking of saving other people from the monster, not of getting rid of the monster for everyone's sake, including yours. That's what you need to be working for. It seems to me that you'll be able to find this ghost-thing hanging around its controller or its next victims. If you're going to keep it from being used, you need to separate the killer from control of the ghost. Once you've got the controller removed, it'll be easier to break the ghost. It's like unplugging the power before you start messing with the machinery. It may not be perfectly safe, but the other way is a lot worse.
"It's pretty obvious from what we saw on those early recordings that the ghost isn't very clever on its own and doesn't make decisions for itself. It gets a lot of its smarts from the group that contributes to it. If it's cut off from that, it'll get pretty dumb and be a lot easier to take out. If you can keep the controller distracted from the ghost, the ghost won't have that source of smarts or viciousness.”
I stopped him, studying him a moment in amazement. "How do you know this?”
"Just compiling the information and following the logic thread to the end. I don't usually do it out loud, though, so I probably sound like a moron.”
"You sound brilliant.”
He grinned. "I like that. Tell me that again sometime.”
"OK. Now, go on being brilliant a little longer. I think I'm getting this part.”
"All right." Another sip of beer was required before he could continue. "If you can approach the ghost while the killer is busy, you can isolate it from the rest of the system—the others aren't going to be much trouble, since they don't use it for anything most of the time.”
"They don't use it at all and they're being encouraged to forget.”
"Good. Once it's isolated, I think the system will just fall apart. It may take a while, but it will. It shows all the signs of being an inherently unstable system and the laws of physics say that unstable systems degrade once the feedback that keeps them artificially stable is removed. So you isolate the entity—scoop it up like in a Leyden jar— and take away the input. The charge just sits in the jar until it is discharged or dissipates on its own.”
For some reason I had a sudden vision of Chaos chasing her toys in the mayonnaise jar at home.
"Wait," I said. "A Leyden jar's a kind of. . battery, right?”
"More like a capacitor. Stores the electricity in coupled plates as an electrostatic charge. There's no current flow in a capacitor, which is why the dissipation is slow but the discharge is fast. Batteries store the electricity in a chemical bond that requires a current and is constantly discharging. Doesn't matter, though—it's just an allusion. You wouldn't really use a Leyden jar to catch a ghost.”
But I was thinking maybe I could. I was thinking about silvered mirrors stopping the flow of Grey energy and the slowing property of glass, and I wondered if I could find a bottle to put this particular genie into until its controller was brought to heel.
"Excuse me, Quinton—I have to make a phone call. I'll be right back.”
I rushed outside, forgetting the lateness of the hour, and called the Danzigers. Mara answered, sounding out of sorts.
"It's rotten late, so this had best be good.”
"Mara, it's Harper. I'm sorry for the hour.”
"Oh," she answered, yawning, "I thought you were the dean—the mans useless as a chocolate teapot and an insomniac to boot. What's come up?”
I told her my idea. She made interested noises in between yawns.
"Brilliant! Come for breakfast in the morning and I'll see what Ben and I can turn up." She punctuated her good-byes with another yawn.
I returned to the table caught between the pleasure of Quinton's company mixed with the possibility of a problem solved and the sense of another still hanging like a sword. And I didn't remember that I should have called Will that night until the opportunity was past.
CHAPTER 25
Saturday began with a jerk and the clarity of knowledge that bursts to the forefront of the mind like a bubble. There was another source of information about interacting with the poltergeist. As soon as I had completed my morning routine, I made a phone call and arranged another meeting. Then I drove to the Danzigers' for breakfast.