Page 27 of Dead Serious Case 5 Madame Vivienne
Although weird seems to be our new normal. Maybe it’s time to choose another word or else create a sliding scale of weirdness on a one-to-ten basis, one beingdeceased business as usualand ten beingholy fuck, what the hell is that?
As my usual scattered thoughts wander off on a conversational tangent all of their own, I almost miss the way Harrison’s complexion pales. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for someone who’s already the shade of semi-skimmed milk, but even his freckles seem to drain of colour, and then he sways.
Before I can reach him, Sam does, wrapping his arms around him to keep him on his feet.
“Whoa, steady there,” he rumbles in a low, soothing tone.
What is it with these northern men and their sexy accents and rumbly tones?
“Are you okay?” I ask Harrison.
He draws in a shaky breath as the colour returns to his cheeks. Seeming to get a grip on himself, he straightens up and pushes Sam’s hands away.
“I’m okay, thank you,” he says quietly as he smooths the front of his sweater and straightens his tie. He runs his hand over his wavy red hair to make sure it is still combed neatly into place.
“What happened?” Sam asks.
“It’s this place.” Harrison’s gaze sweeps over the room with its dusty wooden floor, sagging couch, and messy bookcases. “It packs quite a punch. It’s very potent.”
“But you’ve been here before and you didn’t react to it,” I reply in confusion.
“Only the once,” he clarifies. “During the eclipse. But with Chaos halfway out of the gateway, his presence overpowered everything else, blotting it all out. All I could focus on was him and the portal. Even after we closed it, the residual energy lingered, most likely for a few days, but I haven’t been back. I didn’t have any need to. But now…”
“Now?” I ask.
“What do you feel?” Sam interjects, his dark gaze intent and focused on Harrison’s still pale face.
“So much power here,” Harrison mutters. “So much…”
His voice trails away as it lands on the bloodstain on the floor. My heart aches every time I see it.
“Mr Hadley, the solicitor, said they’ve had someone in several times to clean it, but it just keeps coming back,” I tell them.
Sam stares at the stain. “That’s not normal.”
“When has anything about our lives in the last year been normal?” I remind him.
“What else did the solicitor say?”
“Why don’t we all sit down and I’ll tell you what I should have said yesterday before we cracked open Viv’s gin and took a little detour that went full-onLucy in the Sky with Diamonds?”
Harrison nods, sinking down onto the worn little sofa where Evangeline is perpetually parked while she knits.
In fact, I think with a tinge of worry,where are the ghosts?
There’s usually way more of them wandering around the main floor of the bookshop. It’s not the same kind of unsettling void it was during the eclipse, but it is a little too quiet for this place.
Sam takes a seat next to Harrison and for once Harrison doesn’t complain, which should be worrying in itself. He never passes up an opportunity to verbally nip at Sam. Sam likewise has lost that playful smirk he always has around Harrison and instead watches him in concern.
Danny and Chan have slid onto chairs by the sofa and Danny nods at me to continue.
“Okay.” I blow out a breath and try to decide where to start and how much to tell them. I don’t want to gossip about things that were deeply personal for Viv, but if Danny and I are going to have any chance of finding Viv’s son, solving her murder, and trying to free her and get her into the light, then we’re going to need all the help we can get.
I look at Chan, Sam, and Harrison, and I realise that, other than Danny and Dusty, there really is no one I trust more. They’ve come to mean more to me in the past year than just friends. They really are my family.
“As you may or may not be aware, Sam and Harrison, after Viv’s funeral, Danny and I were approached by a man from Hadley and Mason. Apparently, they’ve been in business for over two hundred and fifty years, and in that time they have represented the Crawshanks family as well as other families with… er… magical mojo.”
Harrison, Sam, and Chan just stare at me as I plough ahead. “Um, anyway, he told me that the bookshop has to be passed down the Crawshanks bloodline for as long as there is a living descendant.”