"In a way, yes," Steven said. "Do you know what's going on here?"

"What, in the house?" Evie asked.

"Yes, the house," Steven said. "The bangings. The attacks on your son and mother."

"No, I don't," she said. "Why don't you tell me?"

"But you know something is wrong, don't you?" Steven asked. "You have the gift. You can tell something is off."

"Listen," Evie said, "the only reason I'm even talking with you is her," nodding to her mother. "She's scared out of her mind. I think you two are the reason."

"We're not the reason," Roy said. "Whatever is here, it was going on before we showed up. We're helping because June asked us to."

"Because you brought her a book," Evie said.

"Yes," Roy said.

"How much did you charge my mother for whatever she's holding?" Evie asked.

"Charge?" Steven said. "That's not what we're doing here. We've been all over the Sound running down answers to the problem here, and we haven't asked June for a dime. And don't intend to."

"Then why are you here?" Evie asked, becoming agitated.

"We've already told you," Roy said. "To help."

Evie turned to June. "Why now?"

"They brought me the book of your great-grandfather," June said, "so I knew they had the gift, like your father. If Mark were here, we wouldn't be going through this. He'd put a stop to it. So I asked them to try."

"What I don't think my mother has told you," Evie said, turning back to Steven, "is that the bangings have been following us for years. And she holds me responsible."

"That's not true," June said. "I don't blame you. I just wish you'd help get rid of it, that's all. I know you could if you wanted to."

"She used to pressure my father this way, too," Evie said to Steven and Roy. "Anything she didn't like, she'd grind on him until he gave in and fixed whatever she wanted fixed."

"Look," Roy said, "I've had a look at what's here, what's causing the bangings. You're in a lot of danger."

"Are we?" Evie asked, sarcastically. "Tell me, what do you think is the problem? What have you seen?"

"We saw one of the ent.i.ties hold a knife to your mother's throat," Roy said.

"That was because of you," Evie said. "You caused that."

"So you do know what is going on," Steven said.

"No," Evie said, "I want to hear it from you. From the heroes come to save the day."

"There are three ent.i.ties," Roy said. "One of them is major. They're all fighting for something. We don't know what, yet. But we do know you're the door, you're the reason they're here."

"And what do you propose?" Evie said. "You want to exorcise me? Is that it? You want to exorcise the house?"

"No," Steven said, "that's why we wanted to talk to you, to find out why they're here."

"And then exorcise the house," Evie said.

"Maybe," Roy said. "Depends on what we find."

"Why don't you just exorcise it now?" Evie said. "Go ahead. I'll wait in here."

"We don't know yet if an exorcism is the right way to go," Roy said. He reached inside his jacket pocket and shook the jar. He could feel the rosemary sprig within it bouncing against the gla.s.s. Hurry up and work! he thought.

"This is a waste of time," Evie said. She turned to June. "Would you please let me handle things my own way? They're just meddling, they don't know what's going on here, and they likely never will. Tell them to go away, we don't need them here."

"I will not!" June said. "I'm tired of living with it, Evie. I want something done about it. Steven and Roy are welcome here anytime as far as I'm concerned." She turned to Steven. "Please don't let Evie dissuade you. I and Robbie need your help, even if she doesn't."

"Keep Robbie out of this," Evie said.

"He's already involved!" June said. "He's scared out of his wits. He sleeps in my room half the time. I wish you'd let me send him over to Uncle Bill's place for a couple of nights, so we could both get a decent night's sleep!"

"Please, more drama, mother," Evie said.

"It's true!" June said. "He's scared, and you want to pretend he isn't. Let me take him over to Bill's."

"No," Evie said, "that's not going to happen. He's perfectly fine here."

Roy shook the rosemary sprig in the gla.s.s jar again, irritated that it wasn't working.

"Perhaps we could talk to Robbie?" Steven asked.

"Absolutely not," Evie said.

"Why not?" June asked.

"Because I don't want him to," Evie said. "There's no reason for him to meet these two."

June sat back in her chair and let out a sigh. Steven could tell she was used to having this argument with Evie, and never won it.

"Well, I guess that's it then," Steven said, turning to leave.

"Bye," Evie said.

"Wait!" June said. "Don't go. We do need your help, even if Evie doesn't think so."

"We'll have to see about that," Roy said to June. "We'll be in touch." He followed Steven out the kitchen door and back to their car. He pulled the gla.s.s jar out of his coat pocket and looked at it. "Worthless," he said.

"We must have done it wrong," Steven said. "What was it supposed to do, exactly?"

"Make her trust us," Roy said. "Maybe you read it wrong? The instructions?"

"Or maybe," Steven said, getting into the car, "she knew it was there and countered it somehow."

"That seems more likely," Roy said.

"Winning her over is looking more and more like a bad strategy," Steven said. "So what do we do next? Seems like a dead end."

"I want to come back and talk with June after Evie leaves," Roy said. "There's a few things that came out of that conversation that we need to follow up on."

They returned a couple of hours later. Evie's car was no longer in the driveway. Steven phoned June and told to have the token ready when they arrived.

"Sorry about that," June said, inviting them both to sit. "She's strong willed."

"No need to apologize," Steven said.

"June," Roy said, "we're not going to get the information we need from Evie, that's obvious. I was wondering if there was anyone else who might be able to help us understand what's happening here. You mentioned an Uncle?"

"Yes, Bill," June said, "Mark's brother. He lives in Madrona. He and Mark were very close. He used to be close to Evie, too, but when she had her falling out with Mark, she stopped seeing Bill, too."

"You wanted to take Robbie over to Bill's?" Steven asked.

"Yes," June said, "Robbie loves Bill, they get along great. I was thinking if he could just get out of this house for a while, maybe he could have a decent night's sleep."

"But it's not the house, is it?" Roy asked. "Evie said it's been going on for a while now."

"Well," June said, "before we moved here, there was an occasional strange thing that would happen now and again, but life is full of occasional strange things. It's only been since we moved here that they're happening so regularly."

"Would you mind if we spoke to Bill?" Steven asked. "If he was close to Mark, he may know something that could help us. And, I'm not sure where else to turn at the moment."

"Oh I'm sure Bill will help," June said. "Let me get my address book."

She returned with the book clasped between her fingers. "Could one of you look it up please? It's impossible to do with my palms held together like this."

Steven took the address book from her fingers and flipped through it. The cover was a 3D picture of a rose bush, and every page contained a line drawing of a different flower.

"Last name Williamson?" Steven asked.

"Yes," June said. "Bill Williamson."

Steven flipped pages until he found the entry, then took out his phone and typed in the address and number.

"Is Bill gifted?" Roy asked June.

"I don't think so," June said. "But he knew Mark was. They were very close. Worked together at times."

"Would you mind calling him, to introduce us?" Steven asked. "Might be easier than us dropping in on him out of the blue."

"Of course," she said, rising to get her phone. Steven dialed for her. She talked with Bill for a while, then hung up.

"OK," she said, "he's expecting you. I hope he can help."

They drove straight to Bill's house, which was about fifteen minutes away. The neighborhood Bill lived in was upscale, with many hundred-year-old mansions that had been, in most cases, restored. Parking was tight on 35th street in front of Bill's house.

"This is the kind of neighborhood," Roy said, as they walked to the front of the house, "where they sue first and talk later."

"We're not going to try to bulls.h.i.t this guy, are we?" Steven asked. "We're going to be straight with him?"

"Let's find out exactly how much he knew about his brother before we decide how open we should be."

They stepped up to the door and knocked. The door opened to reveal a tall, muscular man with dark grey hair and large hands.

"You must be the people June called about," he said. "Come in."

After introductions Bill brought them into his living room and asked them to sit. "Would you care for anything to drink?" he asked.

"Not for me," Steven said.

"I'm fine, thanks," Roy said.

"Very well then," Bill said, sitting down with them, "what can I do for you?"

"We've been a.s.sisting June," Steven said. "She asked us to help her. The house they're living is makes a lot of banging noises, and it scares Robbie."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Bill said.

"June told us you knew her husband, Mark," Roy said. "She said you two were close. Is that true?"

"Yes," Bill said, "it is."

"So you knew of his gift?" Roy asked.

"I did," Bill said.

"Are you gifted?" Roy asked.

"Fortunately, no," Bill said.

"Fortunately?" Steven asked. "You're glad you don't have it?"

"The gift wound up being a terrible thing for that family," Bill said. "Normally I wouldn't discuss these types of things with outsiders, but June asked me to, so I will. I feel the gift was almost a curse to Mark and Evelyn."

"How so?" Steven asked. He had his hands in his jacket pocket, gripping the planchette like a stress toy.

"Well, for Mark, it wasn't so bad," Bill said. "He'd help people with lost objects, an occasional ghost sighting, that kind of thing. I went with him a couple of times, saw his gift in action. It was the real thing. He'd talk to me about it and how he used it. But when Evie came along with the gift, it all went sour. At first he was training her, but she was a pretty rebellious kid, and eventually he stopped teaching her because she was using what she learned to behave badly. There were weeks, months when he'd never see her, they'd completely lose contact with her. And he told me he thought she was dabbling in things that were the opposite of what he was teaching her."

"How did he know that?" Roy asked.