The Other Side - J. D. Robb [163]
Unable to get a word in edgewise—even if she could think of a word to give—M.J. continued up the walk, separating the keys on her ring until she found the right one for the front door. As usual, the key to the dead bolt worked perfectly, and she’d developed a confidence that the sisters would let her in using the old skeleton key, so she was shocked when it didn’t budge.
“Oh God,” she muttered—a prayer as panic and dread shot through her like adrenaline. A quick look at Ryan’s face, and she knew what she had to do. “I am so very sorry, Ryan. I shouldn’t have lied to you.”
“About what?”
She shook her head. Better to show than tell.
She started to beat on the door with her fist. “Mother! Open the door. Is Jimmy in there with you? Mother! Please? Let us in.”
Another glance up, and she could see the horror and confusion on his face like he couldn’t deal with the loss of his son and the loss of her mind at the same time.
“Mother! Please.”
“I’m sorry, darling. I tried.” Adeline came through the door to join them on the porch. “Odelia tried. But Imogene’s been dead longer than both of us. She has the most power.”
“What? The longer you’re dead, the more powerful you get?”
“What?” asked Ryan.
“Apparently. It seems the longer it takes you to find what you’re looking for, the more power you get to help you find it.”
“So Imogene is the one holding the house up, because without the house she—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ryan grabbed her arm. “What’s happening to you?”
Obviously he couldn’t see her mother.
“Mother? Would you mind?”
And clearly she didn’t, as Ryan’s eyes shifted from her face to over her shoulder, they grew larger and larger; his lips parted, and the pulse at the base of his throat began to pound rapidly. Then when Odelia took form behind him and said, “I’m here, too,” he jumped three feet and threw his back against the door.
“Holy shit!”
“I know, I know, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you, but I didn’t think you’d believe me, number one. And number two, I was hoping I could help them leave before Jimmy ended up like that kid in The Sixth Sense. Now I see I only made him more curious and more determined to show you they were real and . . . and since she isn’t here and I can’t get into the house, I’m assuming this has something to do with Imogene.”
“Who’s Imogene?”
“She’s our sister, dear,” Odelia told him as Adeline addressed her daughter.
“He found the old coal chute on the side of the house and pried it open with a metal pipe of some kind he’d brought from home. I don’t know if she was unaware of it or if she allowed it, but she went down into the cellar to light his way out when he lost his flashlight. He . . . he was excited to see us. I mean, once he’d seen Imogene, there was no point in us remaining a secret, was there?”
“I guess not. But why won’t she let us in? Why didn’t you send Jimmy home?”
“I thought we were going to. He wasn’t afraid. He was laughing and . . . he’s a charming child. We’re all very fond of him.” She saw that this was little comfort to Ryan and went on. “He asked to see some of Ruffie’s toys.”
“Roofie? You drugged him?” Ryan wasn’t afraid anymore. He was enraged.
“No, no. Rufus. Imogene’s son, dear.” Odelia tried to calm him. “He passed as a child.”
“There’s a kid ghost in there, too?”
“Oh, no. We’re convinced he passed to the Other Side without delay. Children nearly always do, they say.”
“They who?”
She giggled and shrugged. “They who make the rules, I suppose.”
“So you let Imogene take him upstairs to see the toys.” M.J. was feeling sick to her stomach. “Then what happened?”
“We heard Ryan calling for him,” Adeline said. “So Odelia and I went upstairs to tell him it was time to go home. But . . . ”
“Go on. But what?”
“Imogene was rocking him in the chair, like she used to rock Ruffie when he was sick and couldn’t breathe. She ignored us, like she couldn’t hear us, when we told