Medium Rare: (Intermix) Read Free

holding her breath too long. After a moment, the light elongated again, new features appearing in the face. Instead of the blue jumpsuit, the man now wore a tuxedo. The face was long and narrow, the hair parted at the side, nose slightly bulbous, narrow mouth spread in a faint smile. He raised an eyebrow. “Better?”
    “I suppose. Who are you now?”
    “George Sanders as Addison DeWitt. Won an Academy Award for
All About Eve
, one of the greatest motion pictures of all time. Your generation has forgotten him. Typical.” He had a pronounced British accent.
    “All right.” Rose flexed her fingers, letting the spread drop. “So who are you really? And why are you here? And when will you go away?”
    “To begin with your last question, I’ll go away after we’ve had our little talk.” George whatever-he-was reached into his pocket and extracted a cigarette in a cigarette holder. It was already lighted. He inhaled deeply and blew a cloud of smoke at the ceiling.
    “Don’t smoke in here,” Rose said automatically.
    George gave her a patronizing smile. “I hardly think this smoke will bother you.”
    “So what are you—a ghost?”
    George frowned slightly. “In a manner of speaking. I suppose it’s easiest if you think of me that way.”
    “Are you haunting this house? Did you die here?”
    He blew another cloud of smoke. “I died elsewhere. A very long time ago. And as for haunting this house, no. If you leave this house, so will I. I suppose you could say I’m haunting you.”
    Rose’s throat clenched tight for a moment. She swallowed hard. “I don’t understand. What do I have to do with it? I’ve never seen you before.”
    “Caroline named you her heir. Therefore, you’ve inherited me along with all her other worldly and . . . otherworldly goods.” He gave her another half smile.
    Her pulse picked up again, hammering in her ears. “Could you stop being clever for a few moments and just explain this to me? Simply? Starting with your name, which I’ve now asked you for three times?”
    “Skag.” George—Skag—materialized an ashtray in one hand. “My name is Skag, or it can be for our purposes.”
    “All right, Skag.” Rose sighed. “How exactly have I inherited you? You mean you’re going to haunt any house I live in from now on?”
    “As I said, you’re Caroline’s heir. That means she had reason to believe that you’d inherited the family talent. Given that we’re having this conversation, which means you can see and communicate with me, I’d say she was right on the money.”
    “The family talent,” she repeated. All of a sudden she felt more curious than frightened. “What family talent? Beyond a fantastic recipe for green salsa that Granny Ramos makes for the Fourth of July, I’m not aware that my family is particularly talented.”
    “Not that family,” Skag drawled. “I know nothing of that family. The Riordans are, however, legendary for their talents in contacting the Other Side. They’re perhaps the most accomplished mediums of the modern age. Certainly they’re within the top ten.”
    She stared up at him. “Okay. That makes no sense at all.”
    Skag sighed, grinding out his cigarette. “All of this would be much easier if Deirdre had at least given you the basic facts instead of just dropping you here without any introduction.”
    “Deirdre? You mean my mother? My mother knows you?”
    “Your mother grew up in this house. She knows me quite well, in fact.”
    Which perhaps explained Ma’s weird toast and her efforts to get Rose to leave. She felt a quick pinch of anger.
Should have warned me, Ma.
“Why are you talking to me, then? Sounds like Ma’s the next in line.”
    “Deirdre has chosen to remove herself from the Riordan family business. I’m quite sure she’d decline any interaction with me.”
    But she hadn’t had any problem sending in her daughter.
We’re going go have a very interesting conversation one of these days.
“So how exactly are