Finders Keepers

CHAPTER TEN

THE WOMAN WHO HAD been calling herself Cassandra pulled off her veil and cursed as the door closed behind Ken.

‘I think we’re all right,’ she told Amanda. ‘I kept my mind completely blank all the time that girl was in the room.’

Amanda reminded herself that she wasn’t Amanda. ‘Why?’

‘She can read minds,’ Serena said. ‘But I blocked her from getting into mine.’

‘You can do that?’

‘I learned how when I studied hypnosis,’ Serena Hancock informed her. ‘You concentrate on a little phrase called a mantra. Some people do this for meditating, to clear the mind. It can work when you’re around mindreaders too. When I was student-teacher in her class I was able to hide my thoughts from her.’ She started towards the kitchen. ‘I’m going to fix myself a Martini. Do you want one?’

Amanda shuddered. ‘No, thanks.’ She followed Serena into the kitchen. ‘You can’t really make contact with spirits, can you?’

Serena stared at her. ‘Are you being funny? Of course not! You know that.’

Margaret would know that, Amanda thought. ‘Oh, sure, but I was just wondering. Maybe, after doing this for a while, you might have developed the gift.’

Serena began mixing her drink. ‘It doesn’t work like that. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. It’s too bad though. If I could connect with dead people, I wouldn’t need Ken. I hope he’s not going to be a problem. I think he really wants to help Stevie. He seems like the caring type.’

‘Yeah, Ken’s like that,’ Amanda said. Once again Serena looked at her oddly, and Amanda tried to recover. ‘I mean, that’s how he’s been acting here.’ Mentally, she scolded herself. She had to remember who Serena thought she was. It wasn’t easy. She was still reeling from the revelations of the evening before.

‘Don’t you want anything to drink?’ Serena asked.

‘Just water,’ Amanda said. ‘I. um. I’m on a diet. Excuse me, I’m going to wash my hands.’

It was just an excuse to be alone in the bathroom for a few minutes. She put the lid down on the toilet and sat there.

She had to admit, Serena had designed a very clever scheme. Fortunately, when Amanda had learned who Serena was the night before, the shock had left her speechless and she was able to learn a lot about the plan by just listening to Serena talk about it.

She gathered that Margaret and Serena were friends from back in the days when they’d studied to become teachers at the same university. Teachers didn’t make much money, and Serena wanted a lot more than she earned. And it appeared that Serena was still obsessed with getting her hands on a winning lottery ticket.

From what Amanda had figured out, Serena had learned about Stevie’s plight from another friend, Jane, who taught at a different school. Stevie was in Jane’s class, and he’d confided in his teacher. Jane was so moved and saddened by the story, she’d mentioned it in passing in a conversation with Serena. And Serena — without telling Jane, of course — came up with a plan.

Having done some of her student teaching at Meadowbrook in the gifted class, she’d learned about their special gifts. She knew what Ken could do, and she thought he’d be able to get in touch with Stevie’s father. So she set herself up as a medium, contacted Stevie and Ken, and enlisted Margaret to help her out by acting like a satisfied client. This would hopefully convince Ken that ‘Cassandra’ was a legitimate medium. And as payment, Margaret would get a cut of the money from the lottery ticket.

What Amanda hadn’t figured out yet was how Serena would find out the location of the lottery ticket before Ken told Stevie. And she was afraid to ask because she was sure Margaret already knew.

She was also curious about Dahlia’s role in all this. But she didn’t even have to ask about that. When she returned to the living room, the Martini seemed to have put Serena in a talkative mood.

‘This is going even better than I expected,’ Serena mused. ‘We really lucked out when Dahlia showed up. That was a good idea you had.’

What idea was that? Amanda wondered. ‘You think so?’ she asked carefully.

‘Obviously — Dahlia would never have turned up if she hadn’t read the ad you put about me in the newspaper.’ Serena laughed. ‘What a crackpot. She really believes she had these other lives. And she’s so gullible! She’s falling for everything I’ve told her.’

Amanda got it. Dahlia was giving the whole scam more credibility.

‘Ken is totally sympathetic to Stevie,’ Serena continued. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to tell him I sense that he has a special connection with the spirit world. I’ll ask him to help me locate Stevie’s father.’

She yawned and set down her empty glass. ‘I can’t keep my eyes open.’

‘I’m tired too,’ Amanda said quickly. ‘I guess I’d better be going home.’

‘By the way,’ Serena said, ‘you were better tonight. But you need to be a little more emotional about your mother, the way you were last Friday.’

‘OK,’ Amanda said.

‘Oh, and I need you to do me a favour.’ Serena went to a desk and took a piece of paper from a drawer. ‘Go to the pharmacy tomorrow and get this prescription filled.’

‘What is it?’ Amanda asked, taking the paper.

Serena rolled her eyes. ‘What do you think?’ She walked Amanda to the door. ‘See you tomorrow. And try to be a little more pathetic, OK?’

On the way to the bus stop, Amanda paused under a street light and tried to read the prescription. The handwriting wasn’t easy to read, but she could tell it was one of those medical words that didn’t mean anything in regular English. Beziterol or Besiteral — something like that. She had no idea what it was for.

Thank goodness for the Internet. As soon as she was back in Margaret’s apartment she sat down at Margaret’s laptop and went online. On her third attempt at deciphering the word, she hit the jackpot.

The search engine had taken her to a dictionary of drugs. She skipped over the chemical words, and came to a definition of Besiterol that she could understand.

‘A highly potent and fast-acting insomnia medication. To be used with extreme caution.’

Amanda didn’t think Serena had insomnia. She’d been falling asleep tonight after one Martini. And then it clicked — Amanda knew how Serena was going to get the lottery-ticket location before Ken gave the information to Stevie. Somehow she’d get this medicine into Stevie, and he’d fall asleep while Ken talked to his father. And if Ken didn’t willingly offer Serena the information, she could always hypnotize him to get it.

Amanda didn’t know what amazed her more — Serena’s evil mind, or her own brilliance at figuring it all out. And those classmates of hers thought she was worthless! Well, she’d show them what she could do.

Now she was glad she hadn’t been able to tell Ken that she’d snatched Margaret’s body. They’d all be surprised and impressed with Amanda when she exposed this nasty scheme all by herself.