Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

And see how well we’re doing…Getting right to the heart of the matter, without interruptions. I don’t trust Benjamin and Elizabeth any more than you do. It’s obvious they’re hiding secrets, things they won’t talk about except with each other. That’s why I sent them off with Happy.”
    “Because he’s a telepath?” murmured Lissa, her face so close to JC’s now that he could feel her warm breath on her face. Her perfume, rich and flowery, filled his head.
    “If only it were that easy,” said JC, steadily. “No, Happy doesn’t read the minds of the living if he can help it. He has enough trouble keeping other people’s thoughts outside his head so he can hear himself think. No, that’s not it. He’s…surprisingly easy to talk to, and confide in. You’d be surprised how many people will lettheir guard down and open up when faced with someone clearly so much more battered and broken than they.”
    “Well then,” said Lissa, the brief puffs of air in the two syllables hitting him right in the mouth. “No ulterior motives? No other reason for wanting to be here alone, with me?”
    JC took a single step backwards, separating them. “Don’t you point those bosoms at me, sweetie. I have a girl-friend.”
    “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
    “She’d know,” said JC. “And so would I. It took me a long time to find the love of my life, my Kim; and I won’t do anything that might risk losing her again.”
    “I don’t see her around anywhere,” said Lissa. “Is she a part of your team? Why isn’t she here now?”
    “How do you know she isn’t?” said JC. “Kim’s dead.”
    Lissa’s smile disappeared. “Okay; that’s quite spooky.”
    “Yes,” said JC. “It is.”
    Lissa looked at him steadily. “Why do you always wear sunglasses? It’s not a style thing, is it?”
    “No,” said JC.
    “There’s something not quite right about your eyes,” said Lissa. “I could tell that from the first moment I met you. Take off your shades, JC. Let me look into your eyes.”
    “Really not a good idea, Lissa…”
    “Please. I need to see, to be sure…Do it for me, JC.”
    And without quite knowing why, JC reached up and removed his sunglasses. He expected Lissa to cry out and turn away. Everyone else did. His eyes weren’t humaneyes any more. But Lissa stood there, very still, staring back into his fiercely blazing eyes, apparently unaffected by a Gorgon gaze that had sent other people running for their lives and their sanity.
    “Oh, wow…” said Lissa, very quietly. “I had no idea…”
    The golden light from JC’s altered eyes bathed her face in sunshine, and she wasn’t in the least dazed or distressed. She looked more…dazzled. Her face soaked up the light, and she didn’t once blink or wince or look aside. She bathed in the golden glow, smiling happily, her eyes full of a simple, unaffected wonder.
    “What do you see, Lissa?” said JC.
    “It’s like looking into Heaven,” said Lissa, softly. And then she turned her head away, but not before JC caught a glimpse of a terrible sadness in her eyes. She walked away, her arms tightly crossed, hugging herself, then stopped abruptly and looked out over the auditorium.
    “This is why actors love the stage,” she said, without looking around. “Because it’s always here for us when we need it.”
    JC put his sunglasses back on. He wasn’t sure what had just happened. He could have gone after Lissa, but he didn’t. Because you don’t have to be a telepath to know when people need their space. Still, there was a lot more to this eager young actress than met the eye.
    “There’s something different about you, Lissa,” he said.
    “Got that right,” said Lissa, still not looking around. “Really. You have no idea.”
    “You haven’t told me the whole truth about why you’re here, have you?”
    Lissa laughed, briefly. “A girl has to have some secrets, sweetie.”
    “What do you think really happened to your uncle Alistair?” JC asked bluntly.
    Lissa looked out over the empty rows of seats, and when she finally spoke, her voice was unaccountably weary. “Oh, I’m pretty sure he’s dead. Like dear Benjamin and Elizabeth said. And I think they’re probably the only ones left now who know the whole story. What really happened. I’m here…because I want the truth to come out. All of it.”
    JC considered the matter for a moment. “Why would Benjamin and Elizabeth tell us Alistair was dead, that he died in