Case One ~ The Deceit (Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter Book 1)

by Lori Zaremba

  Trudy hurried over to where Leslie was giving Patrick harsh directions as to the best way to clean up broken glass and wine, using some not-so-kind adjectives. Paul rushed over to the pair.

  “Leave it.” He urged the group toward the table. “It’s time for dinner.” Paul glanced up and asked, “Has anyone seen Jason?”

  Trudy looked around and realized she hadn’t seen him since he disappeared from the dining room a while ago.

  She handed Paul her empty flute. “I’ll go track him down.” She passed one of Jason’s men in the foyer, who thought he might be out in the garage. She started to head that way but stopped when she heard a faint banging in the opposite direction. Trudy moved slowly, trying to determine where the sound was coming from. She heard chatter and realized it was feedback from a two-way radio. Tiptoeing down the center hallway, she found the device lying discarded on an antique table. She could tell by the person calling from the other end that the radio belonged to Jason.

  She heard the pounding again and a man bellowing, discerning the sounds were coming from the basement. Making her way quickly to the door, she grabbed the doorknob, and an electrical shock zapped her fingers and ran up her arm. “Ouch!”

  She could hear Jason through the thick wood. “Open the freakin’ door!” he shouted.

  “No shit. I’m trying!” She looked around for something to cover the knob and saw a velvet coaster beneath a lamp. She grabbed the coaster, glad to see it had a rubber back.

  She placed it on the knob and tested it gently. When she didn’t feel any electrical currents, she clutched it with both hands and pulled.

  She pulled, yanked, and swore like a truck driver until the stubborn door finally flew open, sending her flying backward and landing not-so-gently on her ass.

  Jason stood there, slightly pale and shaken. “It’s about time!” Trudy looked up at him, incredulous. She opened her mouth to give a scathing reply, but the light behind him switched on. “Now the goddamn light comes on.” Jason reached over and switched it off, slamming the door shut with another curse. He ran a shaky hand through his hair before turning and coming over to assist Trudy, who was awkwardly trying to get to her feet. Once steady on her high heels, she pushed his hands away.

  “What happened here?” She put the coaster back under the lamp then picked up his radio and offered it to him.

  “I was heading back to the dining room, and I heard someone speaking over here.” He fidgeted with the radio before continuing. “I saw the light to the basement switch on through the crack there.” He pointed to the threshold. “I thought Beverly might have gone down the steps and figured she might need help with something. I opened the door and headed down to the basement, and just as I got to the bottom of the stairs, the lights switched off, and then the door shut and locked. I’ve been down there for thirty minutes, banging on the damn door.” He spun around, as if trying to make sense of what happened.

  “Isn’t that camera on?” Trudy looked at the camera that faced the basement door. He nodded and picked up the device to speak to his guy on the other end.

  Trudy could hear their conversation and understood that the camera had stopped working for a while, and that was why Jason’s employee was trying to reach him via radio to let him know, but now the camera was back on and working fine.

  “So, you’re already playing games, are ya?” she whispered to the thin air, looking around but not expecting a response.

  Jason made his way over to her. She could tell he was still a little rattled and wondered what he wasn’t telling her.

  “Did you notice anything else while you were down there?”

  “No,” he answered a little too quickly and looked nervously at the door.

  “So, let’s go over this again. You—”

  Jason put his hand up to stop the interrogation. “I saw the light and went to the basement. Door slams, light goes out, I’m screwed.”

  “Did—”

  Jason interrupted her again. “We’d better get back before we miss dinner.” Before she could ask anything else, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along to the dining room where everyone gathered.

  Dinner was fabulous. They enjoyed good company, as the Johnsons also invited some friends who were brave enough to see the house. Trudy noticed that one gentleman, Dr. Vincent De Luca, while very fascinated by whatever Dana was telling him, couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Leslie the entire evening. She would be asking Leslie about that later.

  The food was spectacular, in Trudy’s opinion. They enjoyed an arugula salad with shaved parmesan and walnuts followed by sweet potato gnocchi with a brown butter and sage sauce that had Trudy’s eyes rolling back in her head.

  “Oh, it’s so good!” Trudy exclaimed at one point, making the lively group around the table howl with laughter.

  She caught Jason staring at her as he swirled the wine in his glass, his eyes hooded and a lingering smile on his lips. She snapped out of her food orgasm and wondered about the man. He seemed to be more composed now. She hid a guilty little smile. The resident ghosts seemed to be messing with him. Trudy figured Leslie would be the one, as the other non-believer. She couldn’t help but find satisfaction in Jason being the guinea pig, and she knew something else must have happened in the basement that had him so rattled. She also knew he wasn’t going to tell her.

  Maybe he got groped? She felt another smile lift the corners of her lips.

  She sobered when she realized he was still watching her.

  Trudy continued her musings. His story sounded pretty similar to hers. However, she didn’t recall if he had said whether he was married. Great detective work, Hicks, she scolded herself.

  The main course was served to interrupt her thoughts with the intoxicating aroma of roasted meat and garlic, and for dessert, they had coffee and Paul’s “almost” famous chocolate hazelnut cheesecake. The group enjoyed a moment of cheesecake bliss.

  “I love you,” Patrick said to Paul and Beverly from the far end of the table, lifting his coffee cup in a salute.

  “I second that!” Ryan bellowed, showing the table his now-empty plate.

  Everyone joined in applauding and praising the couple. It was one of the loveliest evenings Trudy could remember. Looking once again across the table at Jason, she noticed he was listening to his two-way radio.

  “I’ll go check it out,” Trudy heard him say as he excused himself.

  “Is everything all right?” Paul started to rise from the dinner table.

  “Everything is fine. Sit and relax. I have to go and check one of the cameras.” Jason slipped from the room.

  Trudy caught up to him at the base of the stairs. “What’s going on?”

  He looked at her warily. “One of the cameras on the third floor caught the door of your room slamming shut.”

  “Oh, I left it open for the dog when I came down to dinner.”

  “Jasmine?” He raised a questioning brow as he referred to the golden retriever who was sound asleep under the dining table.

  “No.” She bit her lip and tried not to laugh at his puzzled expression. “I left it open for the other dog that was whining and scratching at my door.”

  “Oh, I see, the imaginary one,” he quipped, climbing the stairs two at a time. Trudy was almost at a sprint to keep up, careful not to slip in her high heels. They finally reached the third floor. The air was so thick that Trudy could barely move her legs and felt the hair on the back of her neck rising in warning.

  “Shhh. Did you hear that?” A door slammed from inside her room.

  “What the hell was that?” Jason said as he reached for the door, looking down at her.

  “It’s probably just a little mouse,” she said, causing him to frown down at her before slowly turning the knob.

  They entered the room as quietly as possible, and a blast of frigid air struck them. Jason reached over to flip the switch for the light. Everything was normal. They quickly searched the room for any signs of a disturbance. The room was
just as she left it, and the door to the bathroom was open as before. She couldn’t figure out what made the slamming noise that they heard.

  “Uh, were you typing an email earlier?” Jason asked, looking at her laptop.

  “Oh, yeah, to my mom. I forgot.”

  “You better take a look at this.”

  Trudy looked at the screen and saw her email was still up. She had written, “Hi, Mom. We’re at the house. All is well. Please…” That was where she stopped when she’d been interrupted by a phone call, and that was where it looked like the email went wild with

  “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.”

  The two letters repeated the whole way down the page. “How is that possible?” she questioned.

  “Maybe your keys are stuck.” He bent down to get a better look at the keys then tapped them to see if they were sticking.

  “Please, there’s nothing wrong with the keys. Someone was playing.”

  “Who?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking about a human.”

  “You think a ghost did this?” Humor danced around his mouth as he tried to keep from smiling.

  “Well, it certainly could be a possibility, and it is the reason we’re here.”

  “Not we, you. I’m here to look at things rationally.”

  “Rationally…really?” She was irritated, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at him. “What was rational about the events that led us into this room? And for the love of God, what was rational about what happened to you in the basement?”

  Jason sat on the bed, elbows on his knees, and looked down at the floor. “I don’t know, but I plan to find out.”

  She looked at him for a moment and could almost feel his confusion. He was a bit lost in all this chaos.

  She sat beside him and mimicked his pose. Trudy elbowed him on the arm, and the simple touch sent a thrill racing through her body. “I guess we have our work cut out for us.”

  His gaze settled on her half-smile. “At least it won’t be boring.”

  Her heart did a somersault. “Yeah, I don’t do well with boring.”

  Feeling brazen, she leaned over and planted a quick kiss on his mouth. His eyes widened in surprise, and Trudy jumped up, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Let’s go, Mr. Young. They’re probably wondering what’s happened to us.” She was halfway out the door.

  Jason grabbed her hand before she could reach the hall and spun her around. His lips claimed hers before she could grasp what was happening. Trudy felt his hand on the small of her back molding her to him, while his other hand gently held her head. She felt a thrill like never before, and just as her knees started to give out, he released her.

  “Better hurry, Gertrude. Wouldn’t want anyone to think you were trying to take advantage of me in this here grand bedroom.” He smiled into her eyes, and once again she was lost. She shook her head to clear it and get some control of her senses.

  “We better go, or I’ll be taking advantage of you.” She laughed, and he did too. She loved the sound of it. She glanced over her shoulder. “I hope that damned camera of yours was turned off.”

  As they headed out the door, Jason walking just behind her, he grimaced when he saw the red light on the camera on and grunted, “Oh, shit.”

  By the time they reached the second floor, she was feeling a bit silly for her impulsiveness but then thought about the kiss. Inwardly groaning, she realized she liked it way too much.

  Jason followed behind Trudy. “So much for staying out of her way,” she heard him mumble before giving an “all clear” over the two-way radio to his crew.

  Tyler replied with laughter in his voice. “Ten-four, boss.” Trudy suspected the boys were having a hell of a good discussion over the footage in Trudy’s room.

  She paused at the head of the stairs and kicked off her shoes. “I almost fell going down those steps earlier. I’m not doing it again.”

  “Would you like me to carry you?” A devil-may-care grin spread across Jason’s handsome face, and she caught him admiring her backside when she bent to pick up her shoes.

  “Aren’t you sweet? I—” Trudy was interrupted by Jasmine’s angry barking coming from the foyer below.

  Meeting Jason’s surprised eyes, Trudy hurried to see what had the dog so upset.

  She heard Leslie yell, “Jasmine!” before hearing a woman scream and glass break.

  “What the hell?” Trudy’s foot hit the first step. Over the ornate railing, she saw Holly sitting on the floor with a tray of broken glasses next to her, and further down the hall, Jasmine was barking excitedly at the closed basement door.

  Ryan came to Holly’s side, looking her over. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. I think something or someone pushed me down.”

  Trudy arrived to kneel on the other side of Holly, whose eyes were wide with fright, a shimmer of tears glistening on her cheeks.

  “Patrick!” Trudy called as she and Ryan assisted Holly to her feet. “Lock Jasmine in the control room. There’s glass everywhere, and while you’re in there, grab one of the meters.”

  Patrick took Jasmine’s collar and led her away from the basement door.

  “Do you think it was a ghost?” Holly squeaked fearfully.

  Trudy met Ryan’s eyes over Holly’s head.

  “Are you all right?” Beverly wrapped her arms through Holly’s and sat with her on a settee in the corner of the front drawing room while Ryan poured her a glass of water from a carafe on a table nearby.

  Trudy noticed the guests were saying their farewells. She observed Leslie pulling on a wool coat and strolling with the handsome Dr. Vincent out the front door.

  The room was suddenly and oddly silent. Trudy felt the familiar tingling of her scalp as goose bumps rose on her arms, and her eyes met Dana’s.

  “Someone’s here,” Dana said softly, her face pale and her eyes glassy.

  “Who?” Paul asked, looking up from where he was sweeping the glass from the marble floor.

  “Vanessa…oh, there’s a dog.” Dana swayed precariously, and Trudy and Jason rushed to steady her.

  Patrick approached, turning on the K-2 meter. “Sorry that took so long. All the batteries were dead.”

  Trudy looked down at the EMF readings, and the numbers appeared to be in a normal range.

  She stepped closer to Dana. “Is she gone?”

  Shrugging and shaking her head, Dana said, “She—”

  Jason’s radio blared over Dana’s answer.

  “There’s movement on the second-floor landing,” his guy alerted from the other end.

  Jason turned in that direction, and just as his foot hit the lobby with Trudy right behind him, an explosive blast from what sounded like a firearm ricocheted off the walls.

  Trudy leaped on Jason’s back as he was ducking for cover and brought him to the ground behind a large planter for protection, shielding him with her body.

  Her gaze found Ryan’s across the foyer. He knelt with his weapon drawn and took cover behind the wall.

  “Where did that come from?” Ryan yelled.

  Shaking her head because she didn’t know, Trudy shouted, “Dana, what was that? Are we clear?”

  They waited for the psychic to nod before lowering their guard.

  “Hicks, you can get off me now,” Jason grumbled from underneath her.

  She glanced over at Ryan and saw the grin he tried to hide. “Sorry, old habits.” Trudy climbed to her feet and held her hand out to help him up.

  Jason was full of nervous adrenaline. “What the hell was that?”

  Trudy picked up the meter from the floor and grinned. “Oh, probably just some damn raccoons.”

  He grimaced at her, but his eyes said, “Screw you,” which brought a bubble of laughter from her as Jason muttered, “Glad you’re enjoying this, Hicks,” before he padded angrily away.

  Chaos ensued as Holly hollered that she wanted to go home, and the Johnsons were beside
themselves. Leslie came in through the door like the hounds of hell were after her, demanding to know what caused the big noise.

  Trudy sighed. It took Dana and her a good half hour to calm everyone down. Jason went out to the garage to see what they caught on the cameras.

  “I hope we’re not opening a can of worms by having you here,” Beverly said tearfully, blowing her nose loudly in a tissue that Leslie handed her.

  “They’re going to be more aggressive, especially if they know they can communicate with us.” Dana sat beside Beverly and took her hand. “They want us to know the truth.”

  Paul knelt to be eye level with his wife. “That’s what we want as well—the truth.”

  Beverly tearfully threw herself into his arms, and once again Trudy had to look away from the raw emotion she saw there.

  Ryan approached her as he and Holly were saying their good-byes. “I’m serious, Trudy. After my shift tomorrow, I’m yours for a few days. I want to get to the bottom of this.”

  Grateful now for his help, Trudy reached out and hugged him and Holly goodnight.

  Several hours later, after she and her team helped the Johnsons clean up and the couple was on their way to their other home, Trudy wearily climbed the stairs to the third floor.

  The first thing she did when she entered the bedroom was walk directly to the camera and switch it off.

  Slipping between the soft sheets, her thoughts should have been on the strange, unexplained anomalies that had occurred all evening, but she could only think about one in particular.

  Trudy fell to sleep reflecting on that sweet, toe-curling kiss.

  Chapter 4

  “You did what?” Leslie crossed her arms, appearing half amused, half annoyed. Trudy was assembling the new infrared camera she brought, so only half paid attention to Leslie leaning against the door. Trudy was dressed casually as usual in her oldest, most comfortable jeans and a faded t-shirt with the Pittsburgh Penguins logo on it. Her hair was pulled back from her face with a hair band, and cheater lenses sat low on her nose.

  She looked up at Leslie over her glasses. “I kissed him.”