He moved carefully, loafers rolling with each step. When he reached the door, he considered. Then he stepped through.
The door led into a hallway of closed and numbered doors. Offices? Apartments? He couldn't tell. He took a few steps, listening for sounds of life from behind those doors. Silence.
When his phone buzzed, he quickly took it out and saw Patrick's name. Gabriel hit Ignore and stepped to one door. No peephole. A keyed lock. No deadbolt. He slipped a thin glove from his pocket and tried the knob. It turned.
His phone vibrated again. A text from Patrick.
Urgent. About Liv.
Gabriel released the doorkn
ob and retreated. He closed the door, making sure it would still open. Then he called Patrick.
"What about Olivia?" he said when the bocan answered.
"Hello to you, too, Gabriel."
"What about Olivia?"
"I need you to calm down."
"And I need you to tell me what this is about, or I will grow steadily less calm, culminating in angry."
"Mmm, I think you're already there."
"Culminating in vengefully angry. What is--?"
"I've misplaced her."
"Mis--?"
"We came to the cemetery to summon the ghost of Christina Moore."
"What?"
"Everything was going fine, until Liv, well, vanished."
"Are you still at the cemetery?"
Patrick exhaled, as if relieved that Gabriel hadn't started ranting. He felt like ranting--at Patrick, at Olivia, at himself even for jumping to the conclusion she was blowing him off earlier. Yes, she had been, but it'd been trickery rather than rejection, and he'd been having far too much fun sulking to realize that. But shouting and snarling wouldn't get Olivia back. Directions would.
Patrick confirmed that yes, he was still there, and Gabriel strode from the building, wondering what his chances were of summoning a taxi faster than he could get to his car. In this neighborhood, not good.
"It's a vision trance, isn't it?" Gabriel said as he walked. "She brought you for backup, meaning she wouldn't wander off. Not far, anyway."
"Yes, it seems to be a vision. She was following the ghost of Christina Moore, and then, gone. Both of them."
"It's not Ms. Moore."
"Maybe, but it definitely looked like her, and it was a ghost, so I'm going with the most obvious solution. Considering we were trying to summon Christina--"
"Ms. Moore is not a ghost."
A pause. "She's alive?"
"No, I'm saying that this hasn't been her ghost. It's a pixie."
"Pixie? No, Gabriel. We're dealing with a ghost. All the evidence--"