Margo's phone was just past the fireplace on the floor, in front of one of those doors.
He disconnected and knelt down beside Margo's phone. Why was it here…and where was Margo?
The floor creaked behind him and to his left. He turned as his heart leapt into his throat. "Margo?"
A woman laughed. Something moved close by. Matt held up his phone as he threw the beam of light around the room. "Who's there? Margo? This isn't funny."
More laughter and something brushed past his face. He stood and took a step back. He could either take off back through the dinning room to the kitchen or he could mow through whatever or who ever this was and go through the front door.
More laughter. But this time he recognized it and his chest tightened.
Oh no. How could I have beens so stupid to fall for this?
But before he could make up his mind, something very hard, and very solid slammed into his chest. Matt thought he saw an all too familiar face reflected in the beam of his flashlight before he was struck again across the face. He gasped when he lost his footing and was thrown back. He expected to hit the wall—
Only he didn't. Instead he continued falling until he abruptly stopped.
And the lights went out.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Chloe hit the ground running and didn't stop until lunch. In fact, through the readings, Chloe never bothered to look at a watch or a clock. She had her phone in her purse, sound and vibration off. She had to concentrate for each client because that's the way she rolled.
Which was difficult to do because she kept thinking of Matt. And they weren't all romantic thoughts. They were dark thoughts, as in she saw black. And she periodically broke out into a sweat even though it was cool in the room.
When she checked her phone for messages she was surprised there wasn't one from Matt. It was just past noon and luckily Kevin had scheduled her an hour off. She had four more hour-long sessions before she was done for the day and from the look of Kevin when he stepped into her reading room, the retail part of the place had kicked his butt.
He had two big bags of Chinese and a 2-liter of Ginger ale.
"You look tired already," she said as he pulled the small boxes from the bags.
"I'm toast. At least you get to sit down." He stuck his tongue out. "Oh you got a last minute booking. She paid up front."
"Och…" Chloe slumped her shoulders. "I'm supposed to leave at five."
"It's okay. She said she'd be here early so if your four ends before time, she'll go right in. Oh don't give me that look."
Chloe ran her fingers through her unruly hair. "Has Matt called the store phone?"
"Not that I know of. No messages on your phone?"
"None. Which is just damn weird. He said he'd be done around lunch for a while. I sort of hoped he'd stop by."
"Maybe they got busy at the house?" Kevin grabbed sets of chopsticks and handed one to Chloe. "You getting any vibes on him?"
"Well I'm not sure. I mean, when I think about him I get a blank screen. Like a TV that's not turned on. And then I start sweating and my heart races."
"You know…it is okay if
you
call
him
?"
She grabbed up her phone and hit the number he'd given her. It went straight to voicemail so she left a quick message. "I think he's got it turned off."
"Voicemail?"
"Yeah."
"So just call again later. You've got a break at two."
The Chinese was good but the time to eat it and enjoy just wasn't long enough. Her anxiety got worse as an overwhelming feeling of darkness continued clouding all of her thoughts of Matt. She was happy when two o'clock showed up. After the customer left she grabbed her phone. She had three calls from a number she didn't know, one from her sister, and one Sheriff Harhmon. She returned the Sheriff's first and got his voice mail. She left a message, letting him know she was free after five. But when she started to return the mystery caller, her client walked in.
Chloe smiled, put her phone away, and started again.
At four thirty-three, after her client left, she grabbed the phone again before the last minute appointment showed up. She returned the mystery number and noticed there was a new number and message. She ignored the new message as someone answered the phone.
"Chloe?"
"Phil?" She was sure that's whose voice this was.
"Yes! God I'm glad you called back."
"Hey it's okay. I'm doing readings all day so I have the phone turned off. What is it?"
"Have you seen or talked to Matt today?"
Her heart fell into her stomach. "No. He hasn't called. And I keep getting his voicemail."
Phil paused. "Are you getting any kind of vibe about him?"
She knew it took a lot for Phil to ask her that question. He already confessed to her he was a skeptic. And she appreciated it. She just hoped he listened to what she had to say as she told him about the feeling she got when she thought of him. "What about Margo?"
"She said she hasn't seen him. He was supposed to meet her outside for the radio interviews but never showed up. His room was locked up but he wasn't in it. She did the radio interviews without him but she didn't call me until she got back and he still wasn't there. She'd assumed he'd gone to stay with you."
Okay.
Now
she was panicked. "If she assumed that, why didn't she call me? She has my number because Kevin said he gave it to her. What about Matt's phone? Can't someone trace it?"
"As far as we can tell it's off, which means no GPS. I have no idea why she didn't call you. She's been calling Sheriff Harhmon, freaking out because Matt's ex is in Roswell. Not that I think that's what's wrong—"
"You do know she tried to kill him, right?" Her own voice quivered.
"Yeah I got the story. Do I believe it, no. I'll tell you about it once we find him. Call me the moment you hear from him and I'll call you if I hear anything."
She disconnected, a little pissed off at her next client as she stepped in the room since Chloe rather be out looking for Matt.
The client was tall and blond, with a very pretty face. She wore a perfect fitting leather jacket over a soft brown sweater and jeans. When she sat down she looked directly at Chloe. "I need your help."
"Well, that's why I'm here. The way I usually start is—"
"You don't understand. My ex-boyfriend is missing. And you have to help me find him."
That was a new one, not the standard question she was asked. "Well I'll do what I can—"
"Chloe." She reached out and grabbed Chloe's hand. "I'm Sarah Fitzpatrick. I used to date Matthew Hunt."
Sarah.
The
Sarah?
Oh hell—
Chloe tried to pull her hand back, but Sarah had one hell of a Kung-Fu grip. "Let me go."
"I can see Margo's been at work about me to you. Or maybe it was Matt with his delusions. They're not his fault, you know. He's just gullible to believe anything that woman says."
Chloe frowned. "What are you taking about?"
"You're a psychic, Chloe. Read me if you can. I never touched Matt. I never tried to kill him. Margo successfully framed me to make it look like I tried. She's good, she's really good. And she's devious enough to get what she wants."
"Framed—" Chloe relaxed and stopped tugging at her hand. "What do you mean framed you? How do you know that?"
"Because Carmin finally told me what Margo did, and she told me at great personal risk."
Carmin. That had been the name of the friend Matt said Sarah was jealous of. "But I thought you didn't like Carmin."
"Jesus…" she released Chloe's hand. "That's exactly what Margo wanted everyone to believe. Carmin and Margo were friends—well they were more than friends but Carmin broke it off when Margo started getting really possessive of Matt. She was scared of Margo. So when Carmin's friendship with Matt got closer, Margo chased her off with threats. It took me two years to find her and she finally confessed to me all the things that woman did to Matt to make him think I was trying to kill him."
Chloe wasn't sure she believed what she was hearing, but her psychic alarm wasn't going off when she touched the woman. It only went off when she thought of Matt.
"Look I can tell you what you need to know later, but right now we have to find Matt."
"No one knows where he is."
"No…not true. I'll bet Margo knows, and no you can't convince me she's not responsible because I know she is. The other person is you."
"Me?"
"You have a connection to him, right? That's what Phil told me. So that means you can sense him."
"Phil told you?" Her voice rose a bit. "He didn't tell me he was talking to you."
"Given your present attitude toward me, do you really think it would be a good idea if he started the conversation with,
I've been talking to Sarah
?"
Going against everything Chloe had been told in the past two days, her immediate instinct was to trust this woman. She was pretty sure she was falling in love with Matt, and she wanted to believe him, but what if what he knew about Sarah wasn't true? "This is all just too convenient, you know? I mean, I don't like Margo—she's sort of a controlling bitch. But to have you come in here and say it was never you it was all her is just too—"
"Lifetime Television?"
Chloe tried not to laugh…but she did.
Sarah leaned forward but didn't try to take Chloe's hand again. "Just listen to me. After Matt and I broke up, I went my own way. In fact I have that entire year documented that I never returned to Baltimore. I was just as surprised as anyone to be approached by the BPD, telling me I had been under suspicion for attempted murder against Matthew Hunt. I was floored and upset. I loved and still love Matt, Chloe. I would never hurt him. I'm sure you've sensed by now how unique he is. He's warm, kind and he's real. You're not going to find another guy as sincere as him in your lifetime."
She sat in stunned silence, listening. Everything…everything this woman said rang that bell of truth inside of her. No veils, no hidden agendas.
"When I produced solid alibis for the accidents, there wasn't anything the D.A. Could do. I never left New Orleans that entire time. Then I found out he'd filed a restraining order against me." Her eyes were red rimmed as she looked down at the deck of cards between them and then cut them. "He wouldn't see me, or talk to me. So I decided I would one day clear my name with him and I would put Margo where she belongs. In jail."
"So you represented that first psychic against their show?"
"Yes. I hated doing it because even though my motives were to start fighting back against Margo, I knew Matt was going to get hurt by the blowback. And since I wasn't allowed around Matt, I never saw him so I could warn him. But I saw Margo and I personally promised her I'd show her up for the lying socio-path she is."
Socio-path? Chloe hated that word. It classified Margo as a person who had no remorse, no caring for other's lives. "I don't think she's that."
"I'm not sure. I think she really loves Matt. And she's always wanted him for herself."
Chloe agreed. She took the cards in her hand and set down a spread. "Darkness. Despair. Loneliness. Ah…."
"What? Why are you staring at that card?"
"Because the card means passage, like a doorway," Chloe looked up from the spread. "A door. All day long I've had a door on my mind."
"Any particular door?"
"Well…it reminded me of those doors in the Barrett House. The ones by the fireplace—" Chloe grabbed Sarah's arm. "Call them back and tell them to look behind the door. Please!"
Sarah pulled her phone out of her bag and thumbed the surface. She put it to her ear and looked at Chloe. "Hello Phil—listen to me. Have the police look behind the door. By the fireplace…yeah….because that's what Chloe saw in the cards I think. Just look there now…"
Chloe looked at her phone and remembered the new number and voice mail. She hit the play button and put it to her ear.
All the color drained from her face as Sarah hung up her own phone and looked at her. "Oh my God…what is it? Chloe?"
She held the phone out between them and replayed the message. The voice was disguised through some kind of modulator, but it was unmistakably a woman.
If you want Matthew to survive, you'll cancel off the show and disappear. Otherwise, Ghost Hunt ends tonight.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Leaving Kevin behind to lock up the store, the two piled into Chloe's car. She tore out of the parking lot and onto the main street. "Call him back…I need to know if they found him."
"Look, Phil will call us if they do. He's just as worried as we are. And if he's not there, the Sheriff took a missing persons report so he's got people looking for him." Sarah put her hands to her forehead and brushed her hair back. "This is just stupid behavior. If she hurts him, her career's over. If she hurts him and he knows it's her, does she really think he's not going to press charges or accuse her?"