“You know about the fate of my family, of course. My mother. My father. My beloved brother.”

I nodded.

“They are all dead,” she said. “So I know.”

“Know what?”

“I know,” she said, her voice a low cackle, “that the dead never speak to me.”

Somewhere, way in the background, I heard hospital machines beeping.

“Not once,” she went on. “All those deaths, all those years, all those ghosts. But they never speak to me. You want to roll your eyes at the old lady hearing voices? I understand that too. But as I’ve learned, we can’t explain everything. Not yet anyway. I know what I heard. I heard your father. I heard him warn me about Luther.”

I just sat there.

“And now Luther is back, isn’t he? So maybe, just maybe, I’m not so crazy.”

Silence. For a few moments we just stayed there, not moving. Finally I spoke.

“Is that why you Photoshopped his head on that Nazi picture?” I asked.

“Trick photography. Yes.”

“You wanted to see my reaction? To see if I knew Luther?”

“Yes.”

“Did you think that, what, I was working with him?”

“I didn’t know. But he was there. You said that he took your father away.”

“He did,” I said. “But Dad rescued Luther, right?”

“Yes.”

“So why would this Luther guy want to hurt him?”

“Things go wrong, Mickey.” She looked at Spoon. The implication was obvious. “Just because you do right doesn’t mean that wrong won’t still find you.”

I felt a tear in my eye. “So what do I do now?”

“You’re already doing it. You have your assignment.”

“What, you mean this guy Ema met online?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“She will need to discover the truth. You have to help her.”

“Okay.”

“And, Mickey? We don’t always make the rescue.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your search. It may not end well.”

“Why do you—?”

The door behind us opened. As the nurse started to come in, Lizzy Sobek moved with a speed that defied her age. She blew through the door, muttering an excuse-me to the confused nurse, and vanished down the corridor. I started toward it, but the nurse blocked my exit.

“Excuse me,” she said to me, “but who was that?”

“Just another nurse,” I said, and pushed past her.

When I reached the corridor, I looked left, then right. Nothing.

The Bat Lady was gone.

CHAPTER 17

The next day, Ema and I were at our usual outcast lunch table. I was about to fill her in on Bat Lady’s visit when I saw Ema’s eyes widen and leave mine.

“What?”

Ema didn’t reply. She was looking over my shoulder, and judging from the expression on her face, some horror movie zombie was slowly approaching me from behind, ready to pounce and sink his teeth into my flesh.

I slowly turned to see what had caused Ema’s terror.