As Robert wrapped up his shift the next day, he nodded at the door.
"Oh, look." he said. "It's your lover."
Winifred looked. Holtzmann stood on the other side of the street, and she was very much alone. They made eye contact, and she waved.
Winifred smiled in response, and spoke out of the corner of her mouth.
"Robert, stay. Stay."
"I'm tired, Winifred."
"Robert, do me a solid, and stay."
"Just sack up, man! It's a pretty girl, not the boogeyman!"
"How you doin?'" a new voice said, smoothly.
Holtzmann was in the building.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Holtzmann." said Winifred.
She caught Robert's eye over the ghostbuster's shoulder as he tried to weasel his way out.
"Robert was just saying how he'd like to-" she started.
"-go home." he finished. "And sleep. Goodbye, Jill. Love the glasses."
"Thanks." she said, adjusting them.
He left, the door closing behind him with a 'ding'. Holtzmann turned back, and something in her smile told Winifred she knew exactly what had just happened. Great. So, this was Jillian Holtzmann. She looked even more striking than she did on the tv. Her bright hair, and soft skin reduced everything around her to background.
Alright, Winifred, you are going to play it cool if it kills you, she thought.
"Just can't get good help these days." said Holtzmann.
Winifred closed the book she was holding with a snap, and pointed at her.
"This is true." she said. "Are the rest of you coming, or-?"
"Don't need 'em." said Holtzmann. "I mean, if the thing doesn't even have the guts to come out and face you, it's weak as hell. Probably can't even move things on this plane, but still, not good for the old ticker."
Winifred nodded, emphatically. "Indeed."
Holtzmann started walking around the bookstore, looking up the stacks.
"Say, do you got nonfiction here?" she asked.
"Not as much as fiction, but a respectable amount."
"I got a friend who'd really dig this place. So, Pickering, where'd you hear this ghost?"
"Well, I heard it strongest in the back, if you'll follow me."
"Oh, you take me anywhere you want, sweetie."
Don't get excited. She flirts with every female she comes across.
"Toronto?" asked Winifred. "Costco?"
Holtzmann drew level with her, and narrowed her eyes. Then she went ahead, as if she were above her.
"Best Buy?" Winifred added.
There was a brief silence as they walked down the hallway, a silence that Winifred felt the need to fill.
"You know, I was surprised by how cheap you are." she said.
Holtzmann put a hand over her heart.
"Excuuuse me?" she said, faux mortified.
"Yes. Have some self-respect." said Winifred, rolling with it. "But really, I see you ladies everywhere, but you still have affordable rates?"
"Well, you got it right there, Picker-ling. We're everywhere, so we can afford to be affordable. Gotta help out the little guy."
"That's nice."
"We thought so."
"Here we are."
They'd reached the back.
"No, wait." said Winifred.
She knelt in front of the safe.
"Here we are."
Holtzmann knelt beside her, and pulled out a little handheld device, with still tendrils coming from the handle. The tendrils lit up red when she turned it on, spinning, but staying together at the ends where their tips glowed blue. She stretched out her arm, slowly waving the device in front of them, over Winifred's head, then turning so she could scan around their backs.
"Nothing," she said, "but nothing don't mean nothing. C'mon, lets explore."
And so they walked all around the back room, the front room, the hallway, and the bathrooms. Winifred wouldn't know what to look for, even if the device did pick something up, but the longer it showed no obvious change, the more awkward she felt.
"Yo. Professor." said Holtzmann, making her look up from her reverie of shame. "Does this place have a basement?"
Oh, yeah. The basement they never used, because they never had enough backlog to justify it. The basement that gave them both the willies.
So, basically, a painfully obvious hidey-hole for a ghost.
Winifred felt the warmth of a blush creeping into her cheeks, and casually looked away as she spoke.
"Yes, we might have one of those." she said.
Holtzmann grinned at her embarrassment, and clapped her consolingly on the shoulder as she moved past her.
"Bet you ten quid it's down there." she said.
"No." said Winifred. "I'm poor. Also, this is America."
Winifred led her to the basement, which was a set of wooden stairs descending into a cold, pitch blackness. Winifred felt along the wall, and flipped the switch. The bare bulb flickered, and lit with a dim glow that didn't quite reach the corners of the basement.
"You'd better stay up here, Professor." said Holtzmann.
"No argument from me." said Winifred. "Where'd you get Professor from? Is it the tweed?"
"And the words." said Holtzmann, as she made her way down the stairs. "You use the formal ones. In a good way."
"Oh. Thank you."
Her nerves were cranking up the further Holtzmann descended.
"Don't die!" Winifred said, cheerfully.
"If I do, I'll be back to haunt ya."
"Then you'd be a reverse Ghostbuster. That's- that's the opposite of your job."
Holtzmann chuckled. She'd reached the bottom. She stretched the turning detector in front of her, and started walking around the room. Winifred's body was straight as a board the whole time. She was just waiting for the moment when the ghost would burst out of the floor, and make them both jump out of their skin.
But Holtzmann kept walking. And the detector kept not detecting.
Winifred caught a glimpse of Holtzmann biting her lip. She herself felt terrible. What if she thought Winifred was a creepy fan who'd called her for nothing? What if she thought she was crazy?
Holtzmann turned, awkwardly, to look at her.
"Eh," she said. "You got any more rooms I can look at?"
Kill me now, thought Winifred.
"No." said Winifred. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's going on."
Holtzmann looked at her for half a second longer than was needed, then nodded. Winifred felt relieved, sensing she'd just been sized up, and deemed truthful. Holtzmann started making her way back up the stairs. Winifred stood to the side so she could pass before she even got close.
"Don't worry about it, Giles." said Holtzmann. "It's a hundred percent likely that it's a wily little booger that likes to watch us chase our own tails."
She stopped when she was level with Winifred.
"I'm gonna get the rest of the gang, come back tomorrow, and do a deep scan." she said. "Sound good?"
Winifred shifted.
"I was going for more of a Remus Lupin vibe, but Giles works too, I guess." she said.
Holtzmann smiled, patted her shoulder again, and passed her.
Winifred looked back down into the basement. It was spectacularly empty. She reached along the wall, and turned off the light.
The moment the room was enveloped in darkness, she heard the hissing, tickling whisper again. She jumped back, clutching at her right ear, and turned around.
Holtzmann was still heading for the door. She'd obviously heard nothing.
Winifred turned back to the basement, still hearing the whispers despite her covered ear. She lifted her leg, closing the door with her shoe.