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He leans back, a finger rising to his lips. At first I think he’s shushing me because he heard something. Then I realize he’s just thinking.
“Dr. Cirillo?”
No answer. He sits there, looking at me but not looking at me, finger still resting there.
“Davos?”
That snaps him out of it. He rocks forward, finger falling from his lips. “I don’t know what happened to you, Nicola. After hearing about Anton’s prank here in the sitting room, I would guess that the stair incident was also him.”
My reaction must show, because he says, “You disagree. That doesn’t sound like something he’d do?”
“It doesn’t. But I’m also struggling to accept that what happened in here was Anton. I would be more comfortable qualifying it, saying that the doll prankcouldhave been Anton.”
His soft sigh says I’m splitting hairs. Maybe I am.
“Do you think it was someone other than Anton?” Cirillo asks. “A different ghost?”
“What? No.”
“So it’s an if-then statement.” He smiles, pleased at himself for making a coding reference. “Ifit was a ghost,thenit was Anton.”
“Yes.”
“But on the stairs…?”
“My mom had a friend who fell down the stairs and broke her neck. I never goof around on the stairs, and Anton knew that. He’d taken a tumble once himself as a child. Lost a tooth. He would not have tried to spook me on the stairs.”
“If not Anton, then…”
I lean back. “If not Anton, then I just tripped. Or my shirt caught on that splinter.”
“So again,if ghost, then Anton.But the bathroom rug?”
I tug over a throw pillow and hold it on my lap. “Absolutely not Anton.”
“So a second ghost, which defies the last equation. If there are two ghosts, then neither incident was necessarily Anton.”
“Couldthere be a second ghost?” I say. “Is that what’s blocking you?”
He’s quiet. Then he says, softly, “Whatever I sensed didn’t feel like an ordinary ghost. Something…” He sits back abruptly. “I don’t know what it was. You said the house has no history of hauntings?”
“Nothing.”
He nods slowly. “I didn’t sense anything when I arrived either.”
“But that changed last night?”
He doesn’t reply.
“What do we do?” I say. “Leave?”
“No.” The word comes quick and harsh, and after it, he stops and rubs his mouth. “Yes, of course we would stop if you felt unsafe. You’re the one who narrowly avoided two dangerous falls.”
I lean forward, the throw pillow clutched against my stomach. “Is it significant that no one else has experienced anything?”
He says nothing. Itissignificant. My gut says so.
“Jin thought he heard Anton’s laugh,” I say. “You sensed some unknown whatever blocking you. But I’m the only one with real experiences, and definitely the only one with dangerous experiences.”
