No Ghouls Allowed by Victoria Laurie Page B

who was just taken away, what happened to him?”
    Daddy sighed. “We don’t really know, Mary Jane. He seems to be havin’ some kind of
     psychotic break.”
    I held his gaze stubbornly even as he laid a hand on my shoulder to gently remind
     me he wanted me to leave. “That was no psychotic break,” I said, knowing a possession
     when I saw one. “I’m assuming he was part of the construction crew that Christine
     hired?”
    “Yes,” Daddy said, but I thought his patience was beginning to wear thin. “He was
     part of Mike Scoffland’s crew.”
    “Did anyone else see what might have triggered the . . . uh . . . psychotic break?”
    “No. Well, no, I expect, except Mr. Scoffland.”
    “Can I talk to him?”
    “No,” Daddy said firmly, applying more pressure to my shoulder and trying to turn
     me away from the house.
    I shrugged out of his grasp and crossed my arms to show him I wasn’t going anywhere.
     “Daddy, I might be able to help that man, but I need to know specifically what happened
     inside that house, and if Mr. Scoffland can tell me what he witnessed, I might be
     able to help his crew member.”
    “You can’t help him, Mary Jane, and you can’t talk to Mike. Now please, go on home,
     all right?”
    I shook my head and refused to turn away. “Daddy, you need to listen to me. There’s
     something evil inside that house. Something spiritually evil. We had a bad encounter
     out here yesterday, and I tried to call Christine to warn her, but I never got ahold
     of her, and she hired another crew without knowing how dangerous it is.”
    Daddy’s eyes widened at my admission. “What kind of bad encounter?” he demanded.
    “It’s not important,” I told him, because it wasn’t right now. “I need to talk to
     Scoffland—”
    My argument with Daddy was cut off by the sound of his cell phone chirping. He pulled
     it out of his pocket, glanced at the display, and promptly answered it. After a moment
     his eyes got big and he gasped, “She’s what?!”
    I held my breath again, focused on Daddy’s shocked expression, willing him to blurt
     out a detail that might tell me what other bad thing had just happened.
    “Which hospital are y’all at?” Daddy said, and my anxiety increased. I had a bad feeling
     the call was about Christine. “Right, I’m on my way, June. You stay with her until
     I get there, all right?”
    Daddy hung up the phone and eyed me, then his car, as if he couldn’t decide whether
     to bolt to his vehicle or explain to me what’d happened.
    “Christine?” I asked him.
    “Yes,” he said, already turning away from me. I walked with him while he fished in
     his pocket for his keys. “She’s had some sort of panic attack. Mrs. Lindstrom found
     her on the lawn, struggling to breathe. Thank God June was out for her daily walk
     around the block.”
    As Daddy opened his car door, I gave his arm a squeeze. “She’ll be okay,” I assured
     him.
    For a brief moment he paused and there was something in his eyes, something I hadn’t
     seen since a few days before Mama had died. There was a sweet tenderness in the look
     he offered me, and he patted my hand gently and said, “Go back to Minerva’s, Mary
     Jane. I’ll call you in a bit.”
    I nodded, even though I had no intention of heading anywhere until I found out what’d
     happened inside the mansion. Once Daddy’s car was comfortably rolling down the drive,
     I turned on my heel and set my sights for Sheriff Kogan.
    He was over with one of the firefighters, patting him on the back as the man turned
     toward the truck, presumably to be on his way.
    Before I could reach the sheriff, however, I was stopped in midtrack by the most horrible
     bloodcurdling scream coming from deep within the house. Everyone turned to look through
     the open door, but I was the first to fly into action. Tearing up the steps and into
     the front hall, I headed for the back of the house, following much the same path that
     Heath,