“Before you ask, I’m not the academic here. I can’t tell you what’s speaking.”

“Is it getting louder because I’m actively trying to listen?”

“You wish.”

She really did. She turned to the door. “Jamal—something is coming. You don’t need to come out—but you need to tell us why you think Azoria did what she did. What did she order you to do?”

There was a longer pause, and when it was broken, it was broken by Mrs. Erickson. “He says...he says they were ordered to watch me. From before I was born. They didn’t expect that I would be able to see them because no one else could. But something changed for the children—either here or in my home. Azoria couldn’t see them when they were in my home. She might not have been able to see them at all once they’d left this place.

“They didn’t know that at the time. They discovered it later, when she came to our house—before I was born.” Mrs. Erickson frowned. “My parents considered her their benefactor; they were happy to see her, if a bit embarrassed; she was a grand lady and they were servants. But she came to visit from time to time. That stopped before I would have seen her, but the point Jamal is making, or trying to make, is this: she couldn’t see them.

“He thinks she did look. They could hide from her—they can hide from me—but Jamal became bolder in those years. He’d take more risks. He eventually just stood in front of her and let her know exactly what he thought of her. She didn’t react. He says the only time she did is when he walked right through her; she stopped then, looking around. She whispered because she didn’t want to alarm my parents.

“But her words then weren’t commands. There’s something about this place that seems to give her power.

“The children weren’t drawn to this building until tonight; they just couldn’t leave my house. But they did talk to me, they did interact inasmuch as they could. They were still children then.” They were still children now. They were the age they had been when they died. “When they realized that she couldn’t see them and couldn’t...force them to obey, they chose to continue to watch. They meant to protect me or offer warning if it became necessary.

“They didn’t know what they had been ordered to look for. I don’t think she intended that I see them at all. But they saw her, and she was aware of their presence, when she came to paint the portrait of my family.” Mrs. Erickson’s brows rose.