The sigil in Krissy’s closet came off the wall with the nail polish remover he’d bought to remove Penny’s manicure. James’s eyes were watering by the time the image faded to the point of non-existent. But it wasn’t one of the more difficult ones he’d ever dealt with. An hour of scrubbing (painting over wasn’t an option. Not that James was going to cut corners in any case, but he especially wasn’t going to when it was his nieces and cousin in danger) and some standard cleansings around the house, and it was as done as it could possibly get. He was out of there in ninety minutes flat.

He was working the night shift again, so once the house was clean, he headed to Lancaster to let Celia know they could go back now. Once again, he got there to see Penny laying in the swing on Gran’s porch, this time reading about hauntings in Boston Harbor.

“Hey, Pen,” he said as he came up the stairs, narrowly missing a flower pot filled with tired looking blossoms.

“Can we go to Georges’ Island?” she asked, looking up from her book.

“That’s your mom’s call,” he said. “Is she here?”

“She’s inside with Nana.”

Based on the music coming from the backyard, Auntie Jules was actually in the garden, but he’d go look for Celia inside in a second. “How are you doing?” James asked. “How’s school starting out?”

Penny scoffed, sitting up and putting her book down on the cushion. “I hate it.”

“You hate it?” James asked, sitting down on the swing beside her. “Why?”

Penny groaned. “It’s so stupid,” she said. “We started rehearsals for the musical and Ava’s being such a bitch.”

James blinked at her. “Pen?” he prompted sternly.

“Sorry,” she muttered, her eyes darting around for any sign that a grownup with authority over her had heard what she said. “But she’s being so mean to me. She stole my backpack while I was working with the chorus teacher and it had my homework in it. So I couldn’t do my homework and Mrs. Perez got mad at me. She said it was available online, so I had no excuse not to do it. And when I got my bag back it was wet. Hauntings of Cambridge was in there and I’ve been trying to dry it out, but it’s all wrinkled.”

“Is Ava the one you were having trouble with last year?”

“Yeah. She’s still mad about the musical. And she was seriously gonna get her mom involved? And it’s so awkward because we’re in middle school now. So why should her mom be, like, yelling at the chorus teacher for giving me the role or whatever?”

Her mom, who had dropped off homework that was available to the kids online. “I’m sorry, Pen,” James said uselessly. “Did you talk to your mom about it?”

“No,” she said.

“You should. I’m sure she wants to know.”

“She’s too busy. I’d feel bad.”

“Don’t,” he said. “She wants to know when you’re having problems.”

Penny nodded, then picked her book back up. “I hope things settle down as the year gets started,” James said. 

“Yeah.”

“James!” he heard Auntie Jules call, now from somewhere inside the house. “Sweetie, is that you?”

“Coming!” he called.

He clapped Penny on the shoulder, and she smiled slightly. Then he went into the house to update them.

***

James did have work that night, so after having dinner at Auntie Jules’s insistence, he was back at Headquarters. Celia and the girls were going to go back to the house tomorrow night – likely with Auntie Jules – and James was scheduled to babysit again the next night anyway. But for now, he was currently walking into work with an enormous bag full of leftovers for anyone who happened to be there. 

Gabriella, Bradley, and Madelyn were in the living room when James walked in. “I brought food,” he said, plopping it down on the kitchen counter. “My aunt says hi to everyone.”

“Auntie Jules?” Gabriella asked.

“Yeah, I went over after I cleansed the house.”

“Did she pack baked ziti?” she asked hopefully as Bradley glared at him.

“You went to the house and cleansed it without backup?”

“Yeah, that was a legitimate fuckup and I’m sorry. Will you forgive me if I tell you there’s cherry pie? Here, it’s amazing.”

Bradley was still scowling, but he took the slice of pie James scooped out for him. “Madelyn,” James said as he spooned baked ziti onto plates. “You have to try this.”

She shook her head, and he noticed she was looking a little queasy from her now-usual spot on the couch. “I’m all set,” she said.

“I’ll save you some,” James said, then rooted in the bag some more. “You too, Bradley. This stuff’s way better than the one I made the other day. Mads, there’s tomato soup and…sourdough bread?”

“Was she clearing out the fridge?” Gabriella asked as she took her own ziti. 

“Probably,” James replied. “Madelyn, do you want some soup?”

She thought for a second. “Actually, yeah, that’d be great,” she said. “Hang on, I can get it.”

“Nah, it’ll take me two seconds.”

The soup was in a deli container, so he poured it into one of their old, chipped bowls, and put it in the microwave. His aunt had even packed butter pads, clearly swiped from one of the diners nearby. James had thought he couldn’t eat anything else after having dinner at the house, but the cherry pie did look really good. So he brought Madelyn her food, then cut himself a slice and joined the others in the living room.

“So the house should be settled,” James said. “I spent an hour scrubbing the wall with nail polish remover and the sigil is completely gone. I did all the standard things, and I’ll keep an eye on it.”

“Are they going back today?” Gabriella asked.

“Tomorrow. I’m babysitting the day after, so I’ll be there anyway to check on everything.”

They updated him on the cases they’d been working on today. Viscoloid was all but done and they’d started another trip to the state forest and yet another case at Market Basket. Gabriella hadn’t gotten a chance to work on LeRoux’s case at all, but she had some theories about it that she wanted to consider.

“It’s the auto shop,” she said. “Not Daphne’s. So that means something happened out in the field. LeRoux marked the possibility of checking for missing persons in shorthand in the margin of her notes. The records for missing persons during that time period aren’t really complete. Or-” she corrected herself around a mouthful of ziti. “They don’t really exist digitally. But my guess is something happened out there. It seems to be what LeRoux was leading up to in her notes and the fact that there was any energy at all in the bay when Amelia went to do readings at the auto shop points to it still being there. Whatever it is.”

“You think it’s a body,” James said.

“I absolutely think it’s a body.”

James blew out a breath. “You do have a way with century-old skeletons, Gabs. Tell you what,” he said. “I have a meeting with McGovern in a couple hours. I’ll talk to him about it and see if there’s anything the Foundation can do to help us access whatever missing persons information is out there.”

Bradley gave a skeptical little laugh at that. James had to agree, but still. “Eat your pie,” he said, then turned back to Gabriella. “If we can manage it in the near future, would you want to spend some quality time at the historical society looking up old missing persons cases?”

Her face lit up, and he watched with amusement as she tried and failed to force her enthusiasm down. “Yes!” she said. “Um, yeah. Whenever you think I should.”

“Let’s keep an eye on the schedule for this week,” James said. “We’ll get you there and get you into the archives for any remaining information floating around in there. It’d be good to wrap this one up.”

***

Madelyn was scheduled with James through the evening shift. So by the time his meeting with McGovern was about to start, it was just the two of them at the small computer bank. James was preparing his updates for McGovern while Madelyn filled out some paperwork for her upcoming training. Fang was supervising them as she rolled in a small pile of catnip Madelyn had set out for her.

“Did she call you yet?” Madelyn asked as James was sorting through his notes.

“What, Daphne?” he asked. “No, she said she would if anything showed up at the shop.”

“No,” she said with a laugh. “The delivery woman.”

“Oh,” Now James’s face was hot. “No, she hasn’t.”

“Not yet,” Madelyn corrected.

He shrugged, spotting the scrap of paper he’d been searching for just as Fang made a beeline for it. “I hope she does,” he admitted, as he picked up the paper. “But seriously, I’m like the worst potential boyfriend in the world right now. I barely have time to eat and sleep, let alone go on dates with someone. I constantly forget to return calls and I always smell like weird cryptids, even when I shower.”

“Yeah, but you deserve to be happy.”

“I am happy.”

Not a lie, but he also couldn’t act like he hadn’t been looking at his phone more frequently ever since scribbling his number on that receipt.

Madelyn was watching him expectantly, so it was time to get the focus off of himself. “I know I shouldn’t know and shouldn’t say anything as your boss,” James said. “But you deserve it too.”

She smiled. “You knew?”

“I live with him.”

“Fair.”

“So..?”

Madelyn laughed. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But it’s nice.”

“Good.”

“When’s your meeting?”

James glanced at his watch. “Oh, um, three minutes ago. Let me know if anything comes up.”

He hurried into the office and took an additional three minutes to get everything open. When he got the call going, McGovern was there, focused on something off screen.

“I know,” McGovern said to whoever was in the room with him. “Let me finish this and I’ll talk to them.”

He looked back at the screen. “Captain, hello.”

“Sorry,” James said.

“No problem. Alright, update me.”

James went through the cases for the past few days as McGovern nodded along, his eyes occasionally going to something off screen. “Excellent,” he said. “Excellent progress on the old case. I know it’s difficult to find the time but you’re doing admirably.”

James could tell when the other person left the room, because McGovern’s stance relaxed, just a little. Once he finished his update and McGovern pleasantly assured him that the Foundation would be no help at all researching those missing persons cases, he stopped and looked at James in silence.

“And how about the other one?”

James ran mentally through the cases. “That’s all of them,” he said.

“I mean whatever case it is that you’re working off the books.”

His heart dropped, but he tried to keep his face neutral. “Sir-”

McGovern shook his head. “I know,” he said. “But every single team is working off the books on something, Captain. Is everyone safe?”

“We’re not working off the books, sir.”

McGovern disappeared off screen, his window going black before James could say anything else. But before he could do any troubleshooting or panicking, his cell phone rang with McGovern’s cell phone number.

“Captain McManus, every single team is working out-of-bounds right now,” McGovern said as soon as James picked up. “I understand you not wanting to say anything on an official line and that’s fine. Once things are settled here, we will be able to take on more new cases and organize things more efficiently. Now, is everyone safe?”

“Yes,” James admitted.

“And are you using Foundation equipment?”

“No,” James lied.

He probably knew it was a lie, but didn’t push. “We’re in the process now,” McGovern said. “And it’s going to be hard, and it’s going to be a mess while we work through it. But eventually things will ease up and there’ll be enough staff and enough processes in place that nothing needs to happen out of bounds.”

“You really believe that?”

“I do,” McGovern said.

“Sure,” James said, his tone too dismissive to be sensible.

“It’ll be cleaner soon,” McGovern said. “But I wanted to assure you of that and make sure everyone was safe. I need to go, I have another meeting.”

James glanced at the clock. It was nearly eight. “Alright,” he said.

“I’ve been made liaison of the Rhode Island teams too,” McGovern said.

There was a hint of pride in his voice. “Congratulations,” James said. “Are they paying you more now that you’re doing that too?”

The bitterness was clear in his voice, and obviously McGovern heard it too. And from the beat of silence, he could tell McGovern was trying to hold back his own frustration. But after the events of the past few days, James didn’t care. “No,” he said after a few seconds. “No, but I can be a team player for a little while. It’ll be worth it when this is all over.”

James sincerely doubted that.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 19