Amelia and Graham both arrived about fifteen minutes later, just as Bradley was returning from dropping Father McEnerney back at his car. He said he’d tried again to bring the priest to the doctor, but he’d insisted on driving himself. After James filled the others in on everything they’d missed, he and Amelia went into James’s office to discuss their plans. Bradley disappeared into the back bedroom with a textbook under his arm. Graham sat down at one of the computer stations and opened his own training modules as Gabriella was wrapping up hers.

“This isn’t normal, is it?” he asked.

Gabriella looked up. “What isn’t normal?”

He laughed. “Well, all of it, I guess. But I mean the whole working outside the Foundation part. That’s not something we do regularly, right?”

“Not as far as I know,” she said. “This is the only time I’ve been part of it. Well, except for when Robin tried to kill me.”

“So only a mischief spirit and a murderer,” Graham said.

“Yeah, I guess. Why?”

“No reason,” he said, typing in his password, then looking back up. “It’s just weird that an organization that fights monsters would have such an intricate bureaucracy.”

“It is,” Gabriella admitted. “Like, there’s more paperwork for cleansing a ghost out of a house than I ever had in any of my other jobs.”

“My entire previous job was paperwork,” Graham said with a laugh. “And they never came close to what I see James and Bradley doing.”

Gabriella laughed. “It’s probably even more than we realize,” she said. “Like, the licensing to catch different kinds of entities? Is there a class D license for ghosts? They never even checked if I have my driver’s license though. They just put me in the van and wished me luck.”

Graham choked out a laugh. He was about to say something else when her phone rang. Gabriella pulled it out and saw ELLIOT on the screen.

“Right back,” she said, standing up and hurrying out of the room.

“Hi!” she greeted as she slipped out the back door.

“Hey, is this a bad time?” Elliot asked.

“No, I’m at work but I can talk for a second.”

“Great. I just wanted to see if you want to get dinner again later this week.”

“Yeah,” Gabriella said, glancing in the window to where James and Amelia were coming out of the office. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

“Awesome! Oh, this is embarrassing, but where do you work again? I can’t remember.”

Shit. James was looking out the window at her now, motioning for her to come back inside. She held up a finger and grimaced at him. “It’s… um, sorry,” she said to Elliot. “I actually have to go.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine. I just have to go.”

“Okay.”

His voice had changed. Not much, she knew he wasn’t unreasonable about her needing to work. But she thought he sounded a little uncertain. Maybe he was hurt? Like she was brushing him off?

Dammit.

“I’m working late, but can I text you later?” she asked, trying to salvage the conversation before things went wrong.

“Yeah, sounds good. If you want to.”

Dammit. “I do,” she said. “I’m sorry, I have to go. I’ll text you.”

“Talk to you then. Bye.”

She hung up and hurried inside, where James was still watching. “Quick team meeting,” he said. “We’re going to discuss the plan now, before we wrap up Bigfoot. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s fine.”

He clearly didn’t believe her, but was too busy to question it. So instead, she just followed him into the living room.

“We’re planning as we go today,” James said as Gabriella sat down with the others. “So unfortunately we’re missing out on Bradley’s PowerPoint prowess.”

Bradley scowled at him, but James kept going. “So we’ve basically got one chance to get rid of the mischief spirit over at Fairview Hills Cemetery without getting the Foundation involved any more than it already is,” he said. “It’s getting bad. This was bad enough,” he pointed to his face, “But I can’t in good conscience keep going if other people are getting hurt. We get one chance at it and if that doesn’t work, we go to the Foundation, and the family is just going to have to deal with their process. I don’t want it to come to that. No kid deserves to deal with the bureaucracy the Foundation throws at you.”

Gabriella tried to ignore the feel of her phone in her pocket. She was overthinking things. Elliot probably didn’t even notice she’d avoided the question. She’d imagined the disappointment in his voice. And she needed to focus on this very important work meeting instead of worrying about that.

“I’ll warn you now, we’re going to get some shit from the Foundation too,” James said. “Hopefully it’ll all fall on me, but we know that sometimes they go after team members too.”

“What will the Foundation do?” Graham asked.

“It depends,” James said. “Normally, they place all the blame on the captain for a mission gone wrong since we’re the ones in charge. But if another staffer’s actions play a major role, they will likely get some heat too.”

“Like how I’m in remedial firearms training again,” Amelia said.

Graham looked at her in surprise. “How did that possibly happen?”

Bradley gave her a pointed look and she grimaced. “I shot Bradley.”

Graham looked wide-eyed over at James, who waved him off. “It was a ketamine dart,” he said. “Bradley had a great afternoon. The rest of us, not so much.”

“Could we maybe get back to the case we’re actually working on?” Bradley demanded.

“Of course,” James said. “But I just need you all to know the stakes. We might be looking at disciplinary action along with Father McEnerney and Dr. Oliver. So let’s try our hardest to end it today.”

Gabriella shivered. Despite the light tone, James looked deadly serious. She didn’t know what the Foundation would do. He’d said they wouldn’t fire the whole team, but that didn’t mean they’d all be spared. Or that they’d be able to function afterward.

“Father McEnerney is going to come back here once he’s done at Urgent Care,” James continued. “He left the trap though, we have it over there.”

He gestured toward the hallway, where a large velvet bag was lying across the way. “It looks fairly easy to set up. But the hard part will be getting the mischief into it. There’s too much space inside the cemetery for us to catch it without further containment and it knows that. So we need to get it into the iron, then banish it.”

“Who’s going to go to the cemetery?” Madelyn asked.

“We take as few people as possible,” James said. “I’m thinking Amelia, Gabriella, and Bradley go. I’m uncomfortable having only two, especially after what happened with me and Gabriella. Mads, you’re on comm support with Graham. I’ll supervise from here unless anyone would prefer me to go with.”

Gabriella glanced at Amelia, who shook her head. “No,” she said. “I’ve got this.”

“Sounds good. Father McEnerney will probably want to go to the cemetery too, but he’s not going to be able to do anything physical, so plan on that.”

Amelia nodded. “I want us all in helmets,” she said. “If it’s throwing people around, I’m not risking a head injury. Especially when we’re outside of the Foundation’s permissions. Understood?”

Gabriella nodded, suddenly feeling a little nervous. This thing had thrown two grown men around like they were nothing, and now she was going to go banish it.

“We’re going to take a little time before we go,” James said. “Amelia and Graham are following up on the State Park in a few minutes and I want the whole team here when we leave for this one just in case shit goes down. So we wait until they get back. Any questions?”

Nobody said anything, so James dismissed them. As everyone was starting to walk away, Gabriella pulled out her phone and glanced at the screen. No new messages. Shit, she messed up, didn’t she?

“Gabs, what’s up?”

James sat down heavily on the couch beside her, and Gabriella groaned. “It’s nothing,” she said. “That guy, Elliot, I think I might’ve blown it.”

“No way, what happened?”

“I didn’t tell him about my work. I know he doesn’t believe in ghosts and he called to ask me out again and I mentioned I was at work. He asked what I did and I… I kind of panicked a little. I think I hurt his feelings when I tried to avoid answering and got off the phone quickly.”

“I’m sorry,” James said, and he sounded sincere. “Hopefully it’s not as bad as you’re thinking. Maybe he was flustered too?”

“Maybe.”

She wasn’t convinced, as much as she wanted to believe it. James gave her knee an affectionate shove. “I wish I had some advice for you,” he said.

“It’s fine.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Tell me to shut my stupid mouth next time?”

“Gabs.”

“No, I’m fine,” she said. “Thank you, though.”

He nodded, gave her knee a final squeeze, then got up and walked away.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 22