He was silent.

  I didn’t rub it in. I’m a classy dame like that.

  I steered Henner to another one of the little card stands and filled him in on what Cain and I had been talking about. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the kind of clams to throw around to buy this thing back.”

  “So... you’re going to steal it?” he whispered, frowning.

  “Well, is taking back a stolen thing really stealing?”

  Henner was a bit more reasonable about the whole heist angle, though he did quirk an eyebrow at me. “I doubt very much that the people organizing this will feel the same way. See those guys milling around in the tuxes?”

  I followed the jerk of his head, watching one of the guys he’d pointed out from the corner of my eye, so it wasn’t obvious I was gawking. They were big fellas, nice suits, a little too tight through the neck and shoulders. They were also the only ones without dates or someone with them, and they were watching the crowd, not looking at the cards or even the décor.

  “Security,” Henner breathed. His lips brushed the shell of my ear, and I shivered. “Human security, but still. It’s still a complication.”

  He had me there. Security, yeah, I expected as much. Especially with a bunch of bigwigs who were used to getting their own way.

  But it added an extra layer of problem. Neither Henner nor I were big flashy supernaturals, like witches or vampires. No one was summoning a lightning storm, or using their super strength to rip a wall down. But we’d still have to be real sneaky, because even outside of Haven Hollow, we didn’t want too many people asking questions that might make folks’ life in Haven Hollow hard.

  But we did have Henner’s Technomancy. He might not have been able to brew a potion or toss a hex like his witch grandmother, but Henner wasn’t exactly a slouch, either. He had a connection with machines. They listened to him, worked for him. If he asked the cameras not to record us, they wouldn’t.

  I was honestly feeling a bit giddy, like I’d had a double shot of the giggle water. It was fizzing in my veins, making me feel light and bubbly.

  I gave Henner’s arm a squeeze, shooting him a conspiratorial smile. “Think you’re up for the job, Mister Tayir?”

  He grinned back at me. “Always.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Now, the smartest move was to wait for the auction to start and let it distract everyone real nice.

  When everyone was politely informed that the auction would be starting soon, Henner and I made our way into the darkened auditorium.

  By day, the theater must have been one of them VIP kind of places, because the seats were more like little couches with tables between them, with a place to hang up jackets and everything. There wasn’t any screen at the front, though, just a raised platform. Though, I could see the brackets on the wall where the screen would have hung, so they must have just taken it down for the auction, to make everything look a bit more hoity-toity.

  Everyone was taking their seats, murmuring quietly in the dim light of the theater. The only real light was up at the front on the raised platform, where I assumed the goods would be brought out. Or would they even bring them out? Would people just bid on little note cards, not even getting a peep at what was for sale until they’d ponied up the dough?

  I couldn’t imagine spending that kind of cash on anything I hadn’t clapped eyes on, but maybe that was a rich person thing.

  What we should be doing is figuring out who’s responsible for this dog and pony show and making them answer to the law, Cain said.

  Now, Cain, that’s not what we came here for. All we did come here for was—

  Yeah, yeah, I know.

  While people were getting settled, I nudged Cain, and he slipped away from me, poking his head out straight through one of the doors to take a peek into the hallway. The ring on my finger cooled at the distance.

  That was one keen thing about dealing with everyday humans, even the rich kind; none of them could see ghosts. Cain was a whole lot more useful as a spy when no one could lay eyes on him. Still, I was glad he spent most of his time in Haven Hollow, where he could sort of interact with folks. Not being able to be seen or heard by anyone but your poltergeist ex who killed you was absolute baloney, truly just the pits.

  Hallway’s clear, Cain whispered back to me. The guards are all heading to the back rooms, other than the couple up front there.

  Henner was playing with his phone when I turned to him. A glance at his screen made me blink because it wasn’t a text or anything like that. He had a view from what looked like a camera feed, and he was swiping through the feeds, choosing the angle he wanted. He came to what was probably the storage room of the theater, but instead of towering piles of popcorn and candy, there were big wooden crates.

  “There we go.” Henner gave me a smirk, and it was all I could do not to plant one on him right then and there. All that stopped me was that the shade of lipstick I was wearing wouldn’t look good with his complexion.

  Lucky for us, everyone was too busy looking important and staring at the front of the room to notice us slipping back out the door and into the deserted lobby.

  Once we got there, Cain floated back over to me from where he’d been sticking his head through all the curtained doorways. Those are mostly other theaters, but there’s a hallway back through that one.

  My hand slipped into Henner’s without me even noticing, but he hadn’t shaken me off or anything, so I gave it a squeeze. “Hallway it is.”

  Here was the thing; the second we slipped through those red velvet curtains, we were officially being snoops. We wouldn’t be where we were supposed to be, and we’d be sneaking around where we didn’t have any business sneaking. In a place where extremely expensive and perhaps not fully legally obtained items were being held. Somehow, I doubted that the person organizing all this was the kind to politely ask us to leave or to call the coppers. They would probably be thinking more along the lines of: kill first and ask questions later.

  There was some real danger here. I wasn’t done with my second kick at the can by a long shot, and Henner’s magic was really useful, but it wouldn’t stop a bullet. So we’re going to have to be careful.

  Lucky for us, we had our invisible partner drifting along ahead of us to scout the way. Cain poked his head through any passing doors, and I didn’t know if he was scouting or if he just couldn’t shake off the copper urge to snoop.

  The hallway didn’t exactly have a lot of places to hide, being stark white and long and straight. No curtained windows, or floor length paintings hanging on the walls. It was almost like it had been designed for people to wheel barrels of garbage and stuff to clean the theaters, which after the careful opulence of the theater itself, was honestly kind of a let down.

  I did kick my heels off the second we stepped off the carpet and picked them up. Those kind of shoes had exactly one job; to make my gams look fabulous. They weren’t meant for sneaking or being comfy. Actually, they made me sound like a horse tap-dancing on the hard tile, so stockinged feet it was. At least the floor wasn’t sticky like most movie theaters.

  My breath was burning in my throat like I’d run a mile instead of creeping four feet. My heart felt like it was trying to dance the Charleston and managed to keep throwing an elbow into my ribs. I was shocked if I’d be able to hear anything over the pulse of it in my ears.

  I heard the footsteps a half a second before Cain came flying back to us.

  Security, he barked. Move.

  My skin went cold and my knees went watery. There wasn’t anywhere to hide in the hallway itself. We hadn’t even gotten to see the idol yet! Good Lord, but we couldn’t get pinched when we’d gotten so close.

  There were doors off the hall, so Henner and I dove for the closest one. I was fumbling for one of my hair bobs, ready to put my lock picking skills up against a modern lock. I’d managed to jimmy open my jewelry box once, when I’d lost the key. It couldn’t be that much different, could it?

  The bad news was the door had a keypad lock, with nothing for me to pick. The good news was, that kind of thing was a snap for Henner. He just passed his hand over the numbers, and the door clicked open for us.

  I didn’t have time to tell him just how swell I thought he was. We dove inside, and Henner eased the door shut just as the far door down at the end of the hall opened and two fellas stepped out.

  The room we were now in was dark, except for the faint light of a computer’s screen saver. Some kind of office, if you could call it that. More like a closet with a desk wedged into it. Henner and I barely fit, all squished between the edge of the desk and the door. We huddled there, pressed against the door, straining to listen as the footsteps approached. I didn’t even dare to breathe, and my lungs started to ache from the pressure.

  The people passing didn’t seem to be in any kind of a hurry, and I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Maybe it was good, because I figured they’d be running if they thought someone had snuck in. But maybe it was bad, because they knew they had us trapped, that there was no way out of the little room we were in, and they had all the time in the world to mosey on up to us, letting every footstep ring out like a nail on the proverbial coffin.

  My head was pressed against Henner’s chest, and the thump of his heart was the only thing keeping me from panicking. Cain hovered nearby, opening and closing his fists like he was going to take a swing at anyone who came through the door, which would have been sweet if he didn’t need my fists to do it.

  I closed my eyes, trying to think up some kind of story that would convince whoever was out there that we were harmless. Maybe I could pull Henner’s head down and smooch him—make it look like we were just two eager lovers trying to find us a bit of privacy. That always seemed to do it in the movies. Or maybe Henner could make it seem like the door malfunctioned and locked us in while we were looking for the lady’s room.

  I tossed idea after idea into my mental trash can as the footsteps pulled even with the door. How long was the stupid hallway, anyway? How could it take so long for two mooks to walk down it when it had seemed so short before? A drop of sweat beaded and ran down the back of my neck, feeling like someone dragging an ice cube over my skin.

  My heart raced, my lungs begged for air, and I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the beeps of the code being entered—waiting for the sounds that meant we were sunk. I gripped my heels a little too tight, wondering if I’d be able to clobber anyone coming through the door with three-inch open-toed shoes.

  The footsteps kept going, though. Just passed us right on by. Somewhere, I heard a door open and close, and everything was quiet again.

  I could hardly believe it. One eye squinted open, and I lifted my head off Henner’s chest to turn and watch the door like it was a snake that might still bite me.

  Cain stuck his head through the door, his form wavering like a heat mirage in the desert. It’s clear. You can stop hugging now.

  I jumped back, embarrassed. I wasn’t the kind of dame to hide behind a fella like that, clinging to him like some dumb Dora. It did make me feel better that Henner had been holding me just as tight as I’d been hanging onto him. And he hadn’t pushed me away. In fact, even after I stepped back, it took a second for his hand to slide away from my waist.

  The sheer cloth of my top turned the touch into an almost all over caress, and I had to get a grip on myself.

  Pressed up in the dark against a gorgeous fella, with imminent danger outside and the threat of getting caught. Who wouldn’t be a little warm and tingly after that? Being alive again, well, the truth was that I was eager to touch and be touched. Sometimes I felt like I was starving for it.

  Still, time and place, and this was sadly neither. Though I did let my hands slide down Henner’s chest a little before I straightened my clothes out. By the flash of his teeth, I caught in the dark as he grinned, he didn’t mind all that much.

  Cain pointedly cleared his throat, and I shot him a look as I eased the door open. But he was as good as his word, and the hallway was clear.

  Reluctantly, I slipped out the door with Henner on my heels. We crept down the hallway as quickly and quietly as we could manage, and made it to the big swinging double doors of the storage room. And that was when everything all turned into horse feathers.

  Cain nipped through the door, returning almost as fast with a curse that should have peeled the paint right off the walls. There are four guards in there. All of them are armed, and they don’t look like they’re going anywhere any time soon.

  Well, shoot. Is there any way around them? Another door?

  Panic tinged my words. We couldn’t just stand out in the hallway forever. Someone would come soon, even if just to start grabbing stuff for the auction. We were sitting ducks out in the open, and I still hadn’t come up with a good excuse for us to be hanging around back here.

  Cain shook his head, his expression grim. There’s a loading door, but you’d have to boost yourself up four feet outside even to reach it. Not to mention it probably sounds like a dozen paint cans going down the stairs when you open it. And there are some things in there other than the crates with the stuff for the auction, but there aren’t good for hiding behind. No way you’re getting in there without being spotted.

  I bit my thumb, trying to think. We had to move fast. The longer we stood around, the more likely it was we’d get caught. Cain could come and go as he pleased, but he couldn’t get the idol for us. He wasn’t a poltergeist, and without the rage that goes with it, there wasn’t much he could do to affect the material world.

  Not that I ever wanted Cain to go poltergeist on me. Seeing what Frank could do was enough for me. Poltergeists were, in a word, terrifying.

  Henner had his back pressed against the wall, and he chewed on his lip as he scrolled through his phone. “I could set off the fire alarm? That would clear people out.”

  “It would,” I agreed. “But they might take the stuff with them, or go out the back door with it. And when they didn’t find any fire, they’d know for sure that something was up. They might cancel the whole deal.”

  Okay, think, Darla. There had to be a way to still pull this off. There were a lot of people counting on me. I couldn’t let the Erepto Clan fall to infighting, and I didn’t want to lose my job. To potentially lose Cain. He might be a grump and a wet blanket, but I was used to having him around. And I didn’t want him to go on to the wherever world. I wanted him to stay right where he was—with me.

  “Alright, here’s the plan,” I said, as Cain and Henner leaned in to listen.

  “Henner’s going to pop the alarm. Some of the guards will have to help get all the people out. Can’t have them running all over and getting into things, right? Meanwhile, we go in. Cain, you try to overshadow one of the guards. I know, it’s not copacetic, but we’re in trouble here.”

  Cain closed his mouth on whatever protest he was about to make, but was still clearly not happy.

  “That will even up the odds a bit.” I glanced between them. “Then we bail out the back and make for the car. No theatrics. This is a smash and grab.”

  Cain was scowling, and Henner let out a slow breath and nodded.

  Was it a great plan? No. In fact, it was terrible. The likelihood of one of us getting shot was a lot higher than I was comfortable with. But we didn’t have many options. I was a medium, and a part time gumshoe. I wasn’t some skilled thief.

  Still, with our combined powers, we should have been able to pull it off.

  We would have.

  Except that was when Magda Erepto showed up.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Magda didn’t look much like she had when I’d last seen her.

  Gone was the carefree teenager hanging off the back of a motorcycle. She was still young, but she looked more like she had when I’d first summoned her. Scowling, grim, and frustrated, like I’d dragged her away from an important appointment.

  But her hair wasn’t pulled back into a severe, no-nonsense bun. It floated around her head like she was underwater, flaring and twisting in ways hair shouldn’t have been able to. She focused on me almost immediately, and there was something off about her eyes. The pupils were too long, too thin to be human.

  “I can sense it.” She tilted her head to one side in an oddly animal gesture. “I know it’s here.”

  My mouth went dry, and I had to struggle to swallow. Something about this felt off, dangerous even.

  Henner glanced between me and the ghost hovering in the hallway. Henner could see ghosts just as surely as I could. In fact, he’d been one of the only humans who could see me when I was still in my ghost form.

  His shoulders were tense, but he was obviously waiting to see what I would do, and I realized that I’d never really told him the specifics of the case I was working, and yet he’d agreed to come with me anyway, and boy Henner was swell, and I needed to tell him that more often.

  Cain was tense, his hand hovering over his belt where his service weapon used to hang when he was still alive. There was still an impression of a gun there, but it wasn’t real, and it couldn’t do anything. Ghosts couldn’t hurt each other, thank goodness.

  Magda’s eyes further narrowed, her face pulling taut. I thought for a second that she’d hiss at me, which was kind of a weird thing to expect from a person.

  “I spent my entire life looking after the clan, the family. And look at what’s happened now! They couldn’t hold it together even a day past my death.” Magda’s lips skimmed back off her teeth, which now looked a little too long and sharp for anything that fit a human mouth. “Now I’m even spending my death taking care of them.”

  She drifted closer to me, until our noses were almost touching, and even knowing there wasn’t anything she could do to me, I still had to fight the urge to take a step back from her. Something wasn’t right, here.

  Her voice came out in more of a hiss of air than anything else. “Where is it?”

  I couldn’t have made words come out of my mouth if I’d wanted to, but I did glance at the double doors we were standing in front of, just a reflexive twitch. That was enough for the furious ghost woman. She turned and stared for a moment before drifting through the door like a seriously cheesed off fog bank.