Chapter 14: Differential Diagnosis

The first thing Mara said when she saw Callum was, "Where's your toolbag?" "Hostile tree." Mara shut the hatch of her gray car and crossed the Lincoln Park lot with one hard case. Fog had dampened her canvas cap and silvered her jacket. She looked past him at the ghost beside the van. "You left it there?" "The tree had a stronger claim." "Take off your shirt." Callum glanced at the golfers emerging from the mist. "You have a gift for making public places worse." "Inside." The ghost opened the van's side door. "Try not to bleed on the upholstery. He will call it a material irregularity." Mara climbed in after him. Callum sat on the bunk and pulled his shirt over his head. His right shoulder objected halfway through. A broad purple bruise covered the joint where the iron had passed through the ghost and marked him in return.…