If you’re going to neck, you should probably do it somewhere else, Dennis said. I can’t seem to leave this couch.

“The couch?” Andie said. “You’re tied to the couch?”

North looked around. “Who’s tied to the couch?”

“Dennis,” Andie said to him, exasperated.

I can’t seem to move away from it, Dennis said. I’m hoping that’s temporary. I don’t want to be a supernatural couch potato. Heh heh heh. He coughed then, asthmatic wheezing from beyond the grave, and Andie gave up.

“I have to take the kids lunch,” she said, standing up. “If I don’t see you again, it was a pleasure knowing you.”

“Andie, Dennis is dead,” North said, gently but firmly.

I’m not going anywhere, Dennis said, and Andie gave up on both of them and went to the kitchen.

Andie carried the lunch tray up to the nursery. Both kids were in bed, Alice with her Walkman and Rose Bunny, and Carter with a comic book.

“So,” Andie said. “About Dennis.”

“He came back?” Carter said.

“Yes. How’d you know?”

“Did he say who’d killed him?”

“No. He said it was just this thing that came out of the carpet.”

“Black cloud,” Alice said, and picked up her sandwich.

“Okay,” Carter said and went back to his comic book.

“Can I go talk to him?” Alice said, and Andie was tempted to let her, but with any luck Dennis would have found his way to the light by now, and Alice would have one fewer person on her chatting-with-the-dead list.

“Maybe later,” Andie said. “Eat your lunch.”

She went out onto the gallery and heard voices below, so she looked over the railing to see North below, talking to Southie, and went around the corner of the gallery and through the stone archway to the stairs so she could join them.

Something surged up out of the carpet, black and stinging, swirling into a solid mass of staring death’s-head, and she screamed and turned blindly to run only to see May rushing toward her, her face a skull as she screamed like a banshee, and Andie turned, screaming again, caught between the two horrors, and fell, hitting the rickety rail around the gallery with her shoulder, feeling it give way, reaching out and grasping only air, and then somebody caught her arm and dragged her back and the ghosts were gone and she was gasping on the carpet, looking at the gaping hole in the gallery railing, with Isolde bending over her, still holding on to her arm.

“Bastards,” Isolde said calmly.

“Yeah,” Andie said, shaking as she tried to sit up.

“What stopped you from going over?”

“You,” Andie said, thinking, JESUS CHRIST, WHAT WAS THAT??

“Nope, I got here at the end and caught your arm, but before that you were headed straight for that railing and then you turned away.”

“May.” Andie tried to calm down enough to think. “May was there.”

“Who was the other one?”

“I don’t know. This stuff just came out of the carpet. That’s what Dennis said. He said this thing came out of the carpet…”

Isolde reached down and picked up some of the black particles. “It’s dirt. Whatever it was just pulled up all the dirt in the carpets and threw it at you.”

“It was more than that, it was a shape, a skull,” Andie said, and then North ran through the arch and said, “What the hell?”

“They tried to kill her,” Isolde said as North pulled Andie up into his arms.

“What happened?” North said, looking into Andie’s eyes. “Are you all right?”

“Isolde grabbed me before I went through the rail,” Andie said, trying to sound normal, but wanting to hold on to him, just the same. “It’s the way May died. The ghosts killed May and now they’re coming after us. We have to get rid of them, North.” She looked at Isolde. “I want another séance. I want to pull them in so we can look at them, find out-”

“Harold’s gone,” Isolde said. “I can’t work without a spirit guide.”

“Well, give it a shot,” Andie said. “We’ll put Flo in the nursery with the kids-”

“Lydia,” Isolde said. “I need Flo. I need believers.”

“Okay, Lydia, and we’ll make it work this time.”

It’s never worked before.

Andie turned and saw May floating in front of the broken railing. “Thank you. I know you saved me.”

If there’d been someone there for me, I wouldn’t have died.

“I’m sorry, I really am, May, you got such a raw deal on this. But thank you for stopping me.”

Yeah, you owe me, May said, and then smiled her beautiful smile. You’re welcome.

“Can you be Isolde’s spirit guide at the séance?” Andie said.

“Wait a minute,” Isolde said.

You should ask Dennis, May said. He’d love that. He’s very career-minded.

“Dennis,” Andie said to Isolde. “Unless he’s left us.”

“I could do Dennis,” Isolde said, and Andie went downstairs to see if he’d gone toward the light yet.

Half an hour later, Lydia was upstairs hearing the Princess Alice story, and Andie, Isolde, Flo, Southie, and a reluctant North were at the table they’d dragged in from the Great Hall and put in front of Dennis’s couch which Dennis was refusing to leave.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Isolde said as she sat down across from the couch, looking even paler than usual.

It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? Dennis said.

“What?” Isolde said, looking around.

“That’s Dennis,” Andie said. “Are you sure you can do this?”

“Yes?” Isolde pushed her narrow glasses up the narrow bridge of her nose.

“Maybe they’ll be feeling guilty for killing Dennis,” Southie said.

They don’t give a rat’s ass, Dennis said.

“Watch the language,” Isolde said.

“What language?” Southie said.

“Dennis is grumpy,” Andie said.

“Do you want a permanent job, Dennis?” Isolde said.

No.

“He’s going toward the light as soon as we’re done here,” Andie said firmly.

No I’m not.

“Don’t be hasty about turning me down,” Isolde said. “It’s interesting work.”

I have a job. I’m researching ghosts.

“Well, you’ll meet a lot more with me,” Isolde said. “Think about it.”

It’s a moot point. I can’t leave this couch.

“Oh, suck it up, Dennis,” Isolde said. “You’re too old for a security blanket.”

I believe I would know if it were possible for me to establish a wider range.

“You’ve been a ghost for six hours, but you’re an expert,” Isolde snorted.

I was an expert before I was a ghost, Dennis snapped.

“Not that I don’t find this fascinating,” Andie said, “but we need to find out what it is that the ghosts left behind that’s keeping them here. Since Dennis had dibs on the couch, it’s not that, so let’s just leave the furniture out of it for now. We have to be looking for something smaller, a lock of hair maybe, the Victorians did a lot of mourning jewelry. Or… a finger or something.”

“A finger?” Southie said.

“Probably not. We need to find out what’s holding them here so we can burn it and send them on to… wherever.”

“Are they here?” Isolde said. “It doesn’t feel like they’re here.”

No, Dennis said. I’m the only one here.

“Then we’ll have to call them. Just remember, they’re killers. If things start getting dicey, I’m calling it quits for good on this one.”

“Now that is a sane idea,” North said.

“Sit down,” Isolde said, and he did. “Join hands. Breathe.”

The thing about those long slow breaths was that they were very peaceful. Andie relaxed into her chair a little more, but she watched for any movement in the air, any clue that there might-

This again? May said. You know, you could just ask me.

“Not you,” Andie said. “Them.”

What do you want?

“Is there something tying them here, some souvenir with a lock of hair or something that would keep them from being evicted?”