The request jolted Jack. "What? I mean, of course I'll help but-"
"It's what Charlie wants. He wants to stay here."
"He does?" Had Lyle lost it? "How do you know?"
"He told me."
"Really."
Lyle laughed. "You should see your face, man! You think the cheese has slid off my cracker, don't you." He looked around. "Charlie? Look who's come to see you. Say hello!"
Jack listened, expecting a trick, but heard nothing. He did notice Charlie's coffin begin to move. He watched it rise into the air, stop with its base four feet off the floor, do a 360-degree turn, then lower back to the carpet.
"Pretty good," Jack said. "How'd you work it?"
"It's not a trick, Jack." He walked over to the seance table and pointed to the Tarot deck sitting there. "The night after Charlie died I was sitting here, mourning him, when the tarot deck flipped itself over, fanned itself out, and the Hermit card rose in the air and hung right in front of my face. The Hermit. That was Charlie's card. That was what he'd started calling himself."
And then the deck did just as Lyle had described, leaving the Hermit card floating not six inches from Jack's nose.
Jack snatched the card out of the air, inspecting it for invisible thread. He found none.
"Got to hand it to you, Lyle. That's excellent."
"Not a trick. I swear, Jack." He had tears in his eyes. "Charlie's back. I mean, he never really left. Come look."
He took Jack's arm and led him into what had been Charlie's control room. It was nearly empty. "When the police started digging around in the basement, I figured it was only a matter of time before they moved upstairs to check things out. I remembered what had happened to Madame Pomerol after they searched her place and didn't want that happening here. So I started dismantling Charlie's equipment. Just as well, since we won't be needing it."
Jack heard a chime and turned. The old temple bell that Charlie had carried around to collect the envelopes on Jack's first visit was floating toward him through the air.
"I have powers in this house, Jack, and I'm going to use them. I'm dropping the Ifasen role and just playing myself. Charlie will still be backing me up-but only on the condition that we give value for value. So that's what we'll do. No tricks, no bullshit."
A deck of tarot cards lifted off the round seance table and sprayed itself at Jack.
Lyle laughed. "The Kenton brothers are still a team, Jack. But now we're the real deal. The only real deal in town."