CHAPTER 1
It all started when Cordelia called to give me the bad news about my job.
“I found out how Game of Thrones ended. I can’t tell you any spoilers, though.” Cordelia’s voice broke on the end of the phone and I could hear snuffling sounds.
Game of Thrones ended ages ago, but Cordelia was always behind with TV shows. She hadn’t even started watching Killing Eve yet. “Cordelia, are you crying? It’s only a TV show, after all.”
“No, of course not.” Cordelia’s tone was decidedly snappy. “Anyway, you cried when Amy and Rory left. We’re not all Doctor Who fans, you know.”
She had me there. At any rate, Cordelia was typically months, if not years, behind the times.
“Misty! Are you still there?”
“Sorry, Cordelia. I was thinking.” I gently pushed my cat, Merlin, away with my toe. Merlin didn’t like me speaking on the phone given she was an attention junkie.
“Are you alone?”
I groaned out loud. I knew that Cordelia was asking if John Smith was still around. He had turned up unexpectedly the other week and then had left again just as suddenly. He worked for some secret government organisation. I always thought of him as someone like Mulder of The X-Files. Of course, Cordelia didn’t know that, with it being a secret organisation and all, so she thought he was a less than satisfactory boyfriend. Truth be told, he wasn’t my boyfriend at all. I’m sure he didn’t think of me in that way. “Yes.” My reply was a little curt.
“Misty…”
I cut her off. “Please don’t start on that again, Cordelia. I know you don’t like him, but …”
Cordelia in turn interrupted me. “No, no. It’s just that I have some bad news. I’ve only just got home from Keith’s house, and he confirmed that Skinny is cutting your hours back as of next week.”
I had known this was coming. Cordelia had all the inside gossip, courtesy of her dating Keith, our boss, Editor In Chief of Ghoulzette, the paranormal magazine for which I was an underpaid journalist. I sighed. “Just as well you’d already warned me.”
“I know, but I’m sure it doesn’t make it any easier. Skinny is, well, not a nice person.”
I agreed. I wasn’t quite as upset as I would have been under normal circumstances, because I had recently received a job offer from John’s secret organisation. There were three little problems with that. One, just before the men made the offer, I had received a mysterious text that said ‘Job offer could prove fatal.’ Two, the men had left after they had made the offer and I hadn’t heard a word since. Three, I had no idea how much it paid, or even if it did. Surely they couldn’t expect it to be voluntary. The greater good is all very well, but I had a mortgage to consider.
“What are you going to do?”
“Look around for another job, I suppose.” I would have to find another job if I didn’t hear about the secret organisation job offer soon.
“Full time or part time? I’d miss you if you left the magazine.”
I sighed again. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
Cordelia let out a shriek. I wondered for a moment if she’d misheard me. “I forgot to tell you. Just after you left work today, a man came to the office and asked for you.”
I was intrigued. “Who was he?”
“He wouldn’t give his name. He was very cute.”
I thought about the two men who worked with John. They were okay looking, but I wouldn’t call them very cute. “Describe him.”
“He had a slight accent, English perhaps. Tall, dark, and handsome, the usual cliché.”
My blood ran cold. Douglas. A member of the Black Lodge, a man who had not prevented a nasty old woman from arranging my murder. Surely Douglas wouldn’t be in Australia, seeking me out. It made no sense. And if, on the other hand, the mysterious man was a member of John’s organisation, he would not be likely to contact me at my work. They knew where I lived.
“Anyway, in some good news,” Cordelia continued, “Skinny is sending me to a little town called Hillgrove this weekend to write up a big feature on ghosts. The magazine’s paying for me to stay in a motel overnight.”
I knew Hillgrove, a tiny town just north of Armidale, where I had gone to university. “Hillgrove doesn’t have any motels, Cordelia. There should be a lot of ghosts there though. There were several massacres in the area back in the day.”
Cordelia groaned. “The motel’s in the city of Armidale, silly. It’s only a fifty minute or so drive away from Hillgrove. Anyway, come with me.”
I bit my lip. “I don’t know, Cordelia.”
“Look, it’s free accommodation, and I don’t want to go alone. Anyway, it’s not as if I’ve ever asked you to do any favours for me.”
“Oh no? How about the time you made me drive to Perth with you to steal your ex’s dog? It took five days to drive there, and five days to drive back, and the very minute we got back, you found out that your ex was so distraught that we had to drive the dog straight back to him.”
Cordelia shrugged. “She was my dog too.”
“Yes, but that horrible favour I did for you back then lasted about three weeks.”
Cordelia laughed. “You have a point, but please come, Misty, please, please.”
