The House on Prytania (Royal Street #2)(11)
Author: Karen White

 

We each devoured the first few forkfuls of food on our plates, then grinned at each other like kindred spirits. “Nothing like a healthy appetite, right?” she said. “Are you a runner, too?”

 

I nodded, my mouth already full with my next bite. After swallowing it down with water, I said, “I’ve been a runner since I joined the track-and-field team in high school. But now I have to run because Jolene loves to bake, and she’s really good at it.”

 

Her lips turned up in a lopsided grin. “Yeah, I know. Beau’s brought some of her creations home. Let’s just say they’re worth running that extra mile. Or two.”

 

“True.” I leaned forward. “So, you were saying about the phone ringing in your apartment . . .”

 

“Right.” She swallowed another bite before continuing. “So, while I faked being asleep, I could hear Beau picking up the earpiece. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t sleepwalking, since I’ve never seen him do it before, but he was definitely having a two-way conversation.” She paused. “With Adele.”

 

“His mother.”

 

Sam nodded.

 

“Who has probably been dead for over twenty years. On a phone that probably hasn’t actually worked for at least a century.”

 

“Right.” She tilted her head, studying me. “Why aren’t you acting very surprised?”

 

“Because it happened before—the night he was sick and slept on my couch. I heard him on the unplugged landline phone then, and I was pretty sure he was talking to his mother.”

 

She pulled her eyebrows together. “And you didn’t think this was worth mentioning?”

 

I managed to maintain my neutral expression as I recalled his exact words. “I thought he was sleepwalking. When I asked him about it the next day, he claimed he wasn’t a sleepwalker, so I left it at that.”

 

Sam put her fork down and folded her hands on the edge of the table. “Nola—can I be honest?”

 

“Of course.” My breakfast settled uneasily in my stomach, threatening to come back up.

 

“It’s no secret to you or me that Beau has psychic abilities. Like your stepmother, Melanie. He always holds her up as being the real thing, which I’m sure you know. She’s one in a million, according to Beau, which is why we still do our debunking podcast.”

 

I relaxed a little. “I know. He’s mentioned that. Why are you telling me this?”

 

“Because I thought that once Sunny came back home, Adele could rest in peace. But she’s still here. That night—after the phone call—Beau fell back asleep but I was wide-awake. I went into the room with the phone and switched on a lamp to read. That’s when I saw a set of wet footprints on the floor next to the wall by the phone. I’d seen them before occasionally but had always brushed them off as something explainable. But this time . . .”

 

“I know. I’ve seen them, too,” I said. “When I knew him in Charleston. So did Melanie. And a couple of times since I’ve been here.”

 

“Right. Me, too. I assumed she was hanging around to remind Beau to keep looking for his sister. But Sunny’s back now. So why is Adele still here?”

 

The server reappeared to take our empty plates. After he’d left, I said, “There must be a reason why she’s still here. According to Melanie, there’s always a reason.”

 

“And Beau won’t talk to Adele about it,” Sam said. “He’ll answer the phone, but it’s only to let her know that he’s fine on his own, and then he hangs up.” Sam chewed on her thumbnail, but quickly dropped her hand when she spotted me watching.

 

“I know. It’s because he’s still too angry with her for leaving him. And he doesn’t want to actively channel her because he’s afraid of who else will come in. He hasn’t had enough experience to regulate who he allows in, so he tries to block out everyone.”

 

Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “He told you that?”

 

Not exactly. I nodded, not wanting to go into detail about the midnight conversation I’d overheard between Beau and Adele. “So we’re at an impasse.”

 

“Not necessarily.”

 

Her tone reminded me too much of Melanie when she decided to do something despite everyone—including my dad—telling her not to. “What do you mean?”

 

“That you and I need to take matters into our own hands and go right to the source. Otherwise, Adele will never find peace, and neither will Beau.”

 

I stared back at her. “Unless you have psychic powers that I’m not aware of, neither one of us can go right to the source.”

 

“True. But we know someone who can.” She gave me a meaningful look.

 

I glanced around the room as if to find answers from the other diners or the paneled ceiling. My head swung back to Sam when I realized whom she meant. “Melanie?”

 

“Exactly. Isn’t she coming to visit next week? It shouldn’t take her very long to figure it out and send Adele home, right?”

 

I shook my head vigorously. “No. Absolutely not. I moved to New Orleans to prove to my family that I could survive on my own, without their help. Even with something like this. If I ask just once for anything, they’ll assume that it’s okay to jump into my business at any time. It’s just how they are. I know they love me, but . . .” I stopped, not sure how to explain.

 

She looked deflated. “Not even . . . ?”

 

“Nope.”

 

Sam sat back against her seat, her shoulders slumped. “Fine. I get it. And from what Beau has told me about you, I’m not completely surprised.” Her mouth turned up in a quick smile. “I meant that in a good way.”

 

“Thanks. I think.”

 

“That’s why I came up with a plan B, in case you said no.”

 

“A plan B?

 

She paused, taking a deep breath. “If we go on the theory that Adele and Beau’s grandfather are still here to protect Beau because he won’t drop his digging into the Broussard family, then we’ll need to find out the truth before the Broussards even know that someone’s poking around and they start looking at Beau. And the only way to do that is to use the only key to their front door that we have.”

 

A twinge of uneasiness tickled my spine. “We have a key?”

 

Sam’s light brown eyes considered me for a moment. “Michael Hebert.”