Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

to indicate what’s behind it. Doesn’t look any different from all the other doors we passed to get here. Looks like a store-room to me. Do we go in?”
    JC looked at Kim. She drifted to one side and gestured at the door; and it swung slowly back to reveal the room beyond.
    “Heads up!” said Lissa. “That door opened on its own!”
    “That was Kim,” said JC. “Come on…”
    He started towards the open door, then stopped as he realised that Lissa was hanging back.
    “You’re not really thinking of going in there, are you?” said Lissa. “There could be anything in there. And in this theatre, anything covers a hell of a lot of ground!”
    “Kim brought me here,” said JC. “She must have her reasons…”
    But when he looked at Kim to confirm this, she wasn’t there. JC flinched as though he’d been hit. A cold handclosed around his heart and squeezed like it would never let go. It was actually harder for him to deal with Kim’s absence now that she was coming and going in his life. Lissa followed his gaze.
    “Am I to take it, from that wounded, tragic look on your face, that ghost girl isn’t with us any more?”
    “No,” said JC. “She disappeared. She does that.”
    “So that makes two of us who can’t see her,” said Lissa.
    JC ignored her, thinking hard as he studied the open door. “Why would she bring me here, then vanish? Unless there’s something…significant in this room. Something I need to see…She only appeared before when I was in danger. My guardian-angel ghost. Am I in danger here? Or do I need to see what’s in this room to avoid some future danger?”
    “He’s talking, but he’s not talking to me,” said Lissa.
    JC shot her a sudden grin. “I’m going in. To kick a few things around, start some trouble, see what I can stir up. You can stay out here if you want.”
    “Sweetie,” said Lissa, “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

    They both plunged through the doorway, ready for anything. They found themselves in a fairly large room, packed from wall to wall with row upon row of theatrical costumes, hanging on metal stands. Hundreds of the things, a massive peacock display of styles and colours. There was nothing else in the room, no tables or chairs, not even a mirror on the wall in which to admire one’snew costume. Bare, plastered walls, no window, only a single naked light bulb hanging down, filling the room with an unflattering, almost forensic light. JC looked at Lissa.
    “Do you have any idea what these costumes are doing here?”
    “Nothing to do with me, sweetie,” said Lissa. She looked the costumes over and sniffed loudly to show how unimpressed she was. “I have to say, I don’t like the look of them. There’s something…off about those costumes.”
    “Presumably Benjamin and Elizabeth ordered them, for the play.”
    “I hardly think so,” said Lissa. “Rehearsals aren’t due to start until after the renovations are completed. Why hire and ship in expensive costumes before the new paint’s even dry? Besides, the play is set very firmly, not to say remorselessly, in the present day. I mean, look at all this! There are enough costumes here for a dozen plays or one light opera revival! Everything from Shakespeare to Restoration comedy, Victorian formal wear to military uniforms. I don’t like this, JC. They shouldn’t be here…And I don’t think we should, either.”
    “Kim brought me here…”
    “So you keep saying! But I never saw a damned thing! Forget your ghostly girl-friend…Trust a ghost hunter to have a dead girl-friend, which now that I think about it, is decidedly icky…You’ll be telling me you sleep in a coffin next.”
    “Never on a first date,” said JC.
    “Oh, I feel so much safer now,” said Lissa.
    They shared a smile and looked around them. The costumes stared silently back.
    “There must be some good reason for us to be here,” JC said stubbornly. “And since the only things here are the costumes…I suppose we should inspect them. Maybe there’ll be a note in a pocket or something…”
    He stepped up to the first row, and briskly checked out the clothes, one at a time. Lissa moved reluctantly forward while making it very clear she didn’t want any part of it. She wouldn’t touch anything until she’d watched JC man-handle a whole bunch of them without suffering any ill effects. And then she sighed heavily and pulled out a costume here and there, looking it over carefully and checking the