I glared at him.

"Not," I said, stiffly, "that it's any of your business. But yes, it appears that Tad is moving to San

Francisco."

Jesse didn't even have the decency to try to hide his grin.

Instead of letting him get to me, I picked up the tarot card Gina had sent me. It's funny, but it looked like the same one Cee Cee's aunt Pru had kept turning over when we'd been at her house. Had I made that happen? I wondered. Had it been because of me?

But I was certainly no great shakes as a conductor of souls. I mean, look how badly I'd messed up the whole thing with Doc's mom.

On the other hand, I had figured it out eventually. And along the way, I'd helped stop a murderer....

Maybe I wasn't quite as bad at this mediating thing as I thought.

I was sitting there in the middle of my bed, trying to figure out what I should do with the card – Pin it to my door? Or would that generate too many curious questions? Tape it up inside my locker? – when somebody banged on my bedroom door.

"Come in," I said.

The door swung open and Dopey stood there.

"Hey," he said. "Dinner's ready. Dad says for you to come downst – Hey." His normally idiotic

expression turned into a grin of malicious delight. "Is that a cat?"

I glanced at Spike. And swallowed.

"Um," I said. "Yeah. But listen, Dope – I mean, Brad. Please don't tell your – "

"You," Dopey said, "are … so … busted."