Spookshow 11: Spiritualist & Medium

Book excerpt: Reluctant psychic Billie Culpepper is baffled when she discovers an old arrest charge against her late mother, issued just days before she disappeared. When no further details are found, Billie turns to her occult allies for a glimpse into her mother's troubled past. 1994 As a single mom in a small town, Mary Agnes Culpepper is spinning a lot of plates at once. She waits tables at a local bar while establishing her career as a spiritual medium, and struggles to provide a stable home for her daughter. This proves to be difficult when something sinister slithers through one's family tree. When 8-year-old Billie begins to see people no one else can, Mary fears her only child has inherited the family curse. Her fears are doubled when her daughter is left injured from a malevolent force that visits her in the night. Adding to Mary's worries is a new client that she suspects is being abused by her violent partner and the unexpected return of Billie's father. Frank Riddel has a habit of disrupting Mary's life and now he's back once again. Claiming to be a changed man, he wants them to be a family again, but Mary suspects an ulterior motive behind his sudden return. It isn't long before the spinning plates fall one by one, and the fate of Mary Agnes Culpepper, spiritualist and medium, takes its last, inevitable turn.