“I put you on speaker so my friend Henry can hear you, Mrs. Robinson. He’s helping me,” I told her. “How can I know for sure if I’m next?” I asked. If Kirsten were around, she’d be able to see my aura. But we couldn’t drive down to Chicago just for that.

“Well, it’s a good thing you brought me all those oils, because technically you bought them, and they’re your possessions. So I can do some work tonight once the sun goes down and let you know in the morning.”

The morning. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep at all without an answer.

“What about breaking the curse?” Henry asked with eager eyes fixed on my phone. He was tightly gripping the steering wheel even though he hadn’t released the parking brake yet.

“That’s Henry,” I clarified for Mrs. Robinson’s sake. “Mrs. Robinson? This is my friend Henry. Henry, this is Mrs. Robinson, my”—I hesitated, unsure of exactly what Mrs. Robinson was besides a treasured mentor—“friend from Florida. My sister said we’d have to lure the spirits out of the girl who has the curse on her as a first step in breaking it,” I said.

“Sounds about right,” Mrs. Robinson agreed.

I asked, “How would I do that? I mean, how could I possibly get them out of her soul and then keep them from going back in?”

Mrs. Robinson paused for a moment, and I could hear what sounded like Wheel of Fortune in the background on her television. “You can draw them out by tempting them with a better host. Think about what they like to do, and who would be good at it.”

“Either someone powerful and good at bullying people into doing things, or someone super trustworthy,” Henry mused. Oddly enough, when he put it that way, I guessed Violet had probably once been more of the latter and had become better at bullying people over time. In fact, when we’d first played the game with her, she hadn’t really pressured us at all. She’d made it sound like it would be fun.

“Then what? Is there something we have to chant? Some kind of ritual we have to perform?” I asked. I didn’t know much about the practice of voodoo, but I knew enough to hope that Mrs. Robinson’s recommendations didn’t include any kind of animal sacrifice or blood. I also didn’t much like the idea of the spirits fleeing Mischa’s body and then roaming freely around town. My assumption was that we were going to have to somehow either destroy them or capture them.

“Well, you’ve got to decide who your bait’s going to be and figure out how to get them close to the afflicted person. Real close. Same room, just a few feet away. In fact, touching would be best. The spirits aren’t going to want to travel far. No, they’re not,” Mrs. Robinson told me. “When you figure that part out, call me back, and I’ll tell you what to do.”