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  Once Greg was alone with Darci, he didn’t know where to begin. On the other hand, she was probably reading his mind. “You didn’t do that to Jack’s ear?” he said when she was seated.

  “No,” she answered as she drained her glass of ginger ale.

  He saw that she looked tired. Her file said that after what had happened with the witches she’d been hospitalized for exhaustion. After the fire in Alabama and whatever she’d done with Lincoln Aimes, the surveillance crew said she’d not gone outside her house for two weeks.

  Pouring her another glass of ginger ale, he handed it to her.

  “Would you please tell me what’s going on?” she asked.

  At that, Greg relaxed and took the seat across from her. Smiling, he said, “That’s exactly what I was going to ask you. How can you and Jack talk to each other…you know, without words?”

  “I don’t know,” she said softly, looking away. “I thought that I could hear only my husband and even he couldn’t hear my thoughts.”

  She looked about twenty years older than when she’d entered his office the first time today. Obviously, holding all those people downstairs had taken their toll on her. In a way he almost felt sorry for her. On the other hand, he was terrified of her. “Maybe you and Jack are soul mates,” he said, trying to make a joke.

  When she turned blazing eyes on him, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. What did she do to people who displeased her?

  But she just looked away. “No, we’re not soul mates. We’re—I don’t know why he can hear me and me him.” She looked back at Greg. “What’s he so angry about?”

  “His father—”

  “No,” Darci said, waving her hand. “I can feel his anger at his father—the man who’s missing, right?”

  Greg nodded.

  “That anger is superficial. There’s a deeper anger in him, though, and it sets my teeth on edge.”

  Greg had to take a drink to keep from making a sarcastic remark. What could scare a person who could do what she’d done this morning?

  “There’s something…no, someone from long ago. He is…protected.”

  Greg smiled. “More lives than a cat. He was in a car wreck that should have killed him, but he was miraculously thrown free and survived. His face had been smashed, but when it was fixed he was much better looking than he had been. He was a different person.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he was. She protected him and changed him.”

  “She?”

  “Yes. I feel that there’s a woman around him, surrounding him. She’s powerful and she’s…” Darci looked at Greg, smiling. “She’s jealous. She doesn’t like me at all.”

  Greg wanted to light candles and say prayers, but he made himself remain calm. His training hadn’t prepared him for discussions about jealous ghosts.

  “Has Jack ever had a lasting relationship?”

  Greg chuckled. “Never longer that a few months, but…”

  “But what?”

  “I think there was a woman a couple of years ago. I’m not sure because Jack was undercover so I didn’t see him often. When we did see each other, we talked only of business.”

  “She died, right?”

  “Yeah, in the same car wreck that nearly killed Jack.”

  Nodding, Darci sipped her drink for a moment. “No, she wouldn’t like for Jack to love anyone but her.”

  “By ‘she,’ you mean a ghost?”

  “In this case, maybe an EF. ‘Evil force,’ ” she added. “She either loves Jack with all her soul, or hates him enough to want revenge.”

  “I’ve known Jack all his life and I’d be willing to bet he’s never done anything bad to a woman.”

  “But who knows what happened a hundred or so years ago?”

  “Ah. Right. Hundred years ago.” Greg swallowed a few times and thought, Why me? Why had he been chosen by this young woman? But the answer to that question and to a lot of questions in his life was: Jack. Greg cleared his throat. “What was that about your car keys?”

  “They were humming,” Darci said cheerfully, holding them up. “Here, can you feel them?”

  Tentatively, as though he were being asked to hold a hot branding iron, Greg took the keys. He released his breath when he felt nothing. Raising his eyebrows, he looked at Darci in question.

  “I found that small key inside a little statue. I’ve always felt it had some importance to me, to what I’m trying to do.”

  Greg wanted to ask questions but he restrained himself.

  “You see, Mr. Ryerson, I’m trying to find out what happened to my husband. He was kidnapped…again.”

  As Greg watched her struggle to keep the tears back, he was quiet and waited.

  “I’m sure you know that my husband was kidnapped when he was a child. The experience so scarred him that when I met him, he was a driven man. I could feel his pain. So much had been taken from him that he was nearly empty inside, but he…”

  Breaking off, she looked away for a moment, then turned back to Greg. “I’m using what powers God gave me in an attempt to find my husband and his sister, but I’ve made little progress so far. Last year I met someone—”

  “Lincoln Aimes.”

  “Yes,” Darci said, smiling. “A lovely man, inside and out. Through Linc I met someone else, an old blind man who has since told me some things.”

  Greg waited for her to continue, hoping she’d tell him more, but she seemed to decide against it.

  “Let’s just say that I know that before I can find my husband and sister-in-law I need to find some other things.”

  “Things?”

  “Objects.” She held up the small key on her ring. “I found this key under very odd circumstances and I believe that it opens something that will help me find my husband.” She looked at Greg. “Today I knew you wanted me to help you find this Mr. Hallbrooke, and I could feel that this man Jack was related to him. Related by blood, not by caring.”

  “Yes,” Greg said. “There’s no love between them.”

  “She won’t allow him to love anyone,” Darci said as she looked back at her keys. “I want to help, but I don’t like that man Jack. He sends very ugly thoughts to me. I wanted to hurt him. I’m sorry for that, but as much as I wanted to hurt him, I couldn’t do it. I can’t reach him. I’m not used to that kind of force around someone.”

  “Sort of psychic-proof clothing, huh?”

  “More or less,” she said, smiling a bit. “I wanted nothing to do with him, but when I got outside and took my car keys out, they were humming.”

  “Humming?”

  “Vibrating, and the vibrations became stronger the closer I got to the building. I apologize for what happened down there, but those people weren’t going to allow me to follow the key up the stairs.”

  “I understand completely,” Greg said, then smiled for the first time when Darci laughed.

  “Wonder what they’ll say in their reports?” he asked, laughing with her, glad to see some humor in what he’d seen that morning. “So what happened to the key when you handed it to Jack?”

  “It hummed so loudly it was almost operatic.”

  “But he felt nothing?”

  “Nothing at all.”

  Getting up, Greg paced about the room. He knew where she was headed. She wanted to use Jack to do some witchcraft-voodoo thing with some key she’d found heaven only knew where.

  “I think, no, I know that this man Jack, your friend, can somehow lead me to something or someone who can help me find my husband and sister-in-law.”

  Greg wanted to ask a thousand questions, but the most important one was, Will Jack be safe? Car wrecks and gun battles were one thing, but black magic was another.

  Darci stood up. “Why don’t I go home and let you think about this? I’ll return tomorrow at three. Be sure and put me on your appointment book.”

  “After today I don’t think anyone will try to stop you from entering the building.”

  “Oh, they won’t remember th