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“All the same”—I spied a sign that pointed to 27 and was greatly relieved to follow its winding ramp—“I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do when Lu and Dave get home. And you are really lucky they’re out of town right now. ”

“Thanks for getting me, though. I know you didn’t have to. And I’m sorry about the car. ” He leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes. This was a man prepared to be yelled at. He was too pitiful for words.

“What are you—? Hey, put your seat belt on. ”

He reached around himself and dragged the belt into place, fastening it by his left hip.

“What are you doing up here? Not just the Bend, but here—Tennessee. You’re supposed to be dead; and I’ve got to tell you, this isn’t the best of all possible places you could choose to lie low. People remember folks like you, you know. ”

He didn’t say anything until we were on the bridge, headed out of town. I’d promised him a ride to the airport, and that was where I was taking him.

“I did it because you wouldn’t talk to me. ”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I didn’t. I waited, and he kept on talking.

“I needed to know some things, and I thought you could help me. But you wouldn’t talk to me, and I could only think of one other person who might know something. ”

“Who?”

“Her name’s Kitty. She’s been in the Bend for twenty years, so I figured she’d still be there if I came up for a visit. She’s kind of like you. She sees things. ”

The thought of that made me uncomfortable. “And that’s why she’s in the Bend?”

He shook his head. “Oh no—she’s in the Bend because she killed her sister’s two children. She thought they were possessed by the devil, so she drugged them and shut them in the garage with the car running and they died from the gas. That’s why she’s there. But also, she sees things. ”

“Huh. ”

“I met her when I was in the Bend after…well, a long time ago. I thought she could maybe tell me something if you wouldn’t. ”

“What did you want to know about?”

“My mother. ”

“Oh. ” We both quit talking then. It took me a minute to work out all the sides of his quest, and when I did I felt like a heel.

Back in the swamp, Avery had implied very strongly that Malachi’s mother, Rachel, was dead. He’d all but said that she was the entity who roamed Pine Breeze, looking for her husband’s lover—my own mother. I couldn’t remember if he’d said it outright or if he’d only hinted, but either way Malachi wouldn’t have bought it without some investigation.

I couldn’t blame him, there. I’d want to know, too. I’d want someone to check it out for me, especially if I happened to be related to somebody who had a knack for chatting with the dead. And if that relative was uncooperative, I could certainly understand why he might reach for a surrogate psychic—even if it was someone like Kitty.

“I thought maybe,” he went on, rolling his forehead on the glass and leaving a crescent smudge of sweat and dirt, “maybe you could go up there to the old hospital and see if it’s her. You could tell me if she’s there. I need to know. ”

There was no delicate way to handle the truth, but I gave him my own opinion as gently as I could. “You know that I’ve been there, and I met the…the ghost. ” I didn’t have a better word for the vicious presence there, so I assigned it one he’d recognize. “The ghost mistook me for my mother, and then it got mad at me. It chased me away like it hated me, personally. I don’t think that it wants to hear from me again, whoever it once was; and I think that the odds are good that Avery was telling the truth. He had no reason to lie. ”

“My mother didn’t believe in ghosts. ”

“Lots of people don’t, and then they become one. I’ve found that the experience broadens their thinking somewhat. ”

We drove on in silence for another mile.

“I don’t know if you’re aware or not,” I finally broached. “But Pine Breeze was torn down last year. ”

“It was?”

“Yes. It’s gone—completely leveled. The paper said that nothing’s left but a few foundations, some stone walls, and the dirt roads that ran between them. For what it’s worth, I bet that whatever walked the Pine Breeze dormitories has probably gone too. ”

“Why?”

“There’s nothing left to haunt. If it was Rachel, then she probably left when they demolished the place. ” I used her name because I couldn’t bring myself to call the thing at Pine Breeze his mother.