The dog is big, but its bark is like the cat’s meow—it sounds like an echo coming from far away. It’s friendly. Shelly winds her hair around its neck like a leash and walks it back to the house. The dog is harder to smuggle inside. Shelly crosses her fingers and opens the door as quietly as possible. The smell of roasting meat hits her right away. The dog sniffs the air curiously, tail wagging.

Grandma isn’t in the kitchen, though—Mrs. Potts is. She turns and smiles at Shelly. “Your grandma asked me to come over and cook dinner,” she says. “Jenny asked her to take a look at a case. We’ll all have dinner together. Pot roast should be done in a couple hours. How was school, dear?”

Shelly is grateful Grandma’s not home but mad, too—mad Grandma didn’t tell her, mad she’s been left out again.

“It was fine,” she says, keeping a firm hold of the dog. With Mrs. Potts standing right there she can’t exactly tell the dog he can’t eat anymore.

It licks her cheek, its tongue icy on her skin like getting hit with a splash of cold water. Shelly has to grit her teeth to keep from reacting so Mrs. Potts doesn’t think something strange is going on.

“How long until Grandma’s home?”

“Not long,” says Mrs. Potts. “Would you like me to—”

“Homework!” Shelly says, and heads toward her room, tugging the dog along with her.

When she gets to her room, Estelle is sitting on the bed with the cat in her lap. Shelly pulls the dog inside and shuts the door.

“A dog is still not a crossword puzzle.” Estelle lets the cat off her lap and gets to her feet so the dog can sniff her hand. “You’re going to crowd us out of your room, kid, make it hard to stay. If you’re bringing more ghosts in, could you at least bring me someone I could talk to? Someone who can hold up their end of the conversation.”

“I’ll think about it.” Shelly kicks a pile of clothes aside on the way to her bed then throws herself onto it.

The dog and the cat and even Estelle are like a test. Can Grandma tell she’s been gathering ghosts? Will she say something? If so, when? What’s the limit? Will she come and clear the dead from Shelly’s bedroom even though Shelly wants them?