by H. P. Bayne
Drea’s eyes widened. “The Forks? You’re going back there?”
“We have to,” Dez said. “The guy we’re dealing with will want the exchange somewhere he feels he has the upper hand. No cops to get in the way and his gang at his back. But we’ve got some aces up our sleeve too. Don’t worry.”
“We do appreciate everything you’ve done for Cal and for us, don’t get me wrong. But we don’t want you getting killed for it.”
“We’ll be fine.” Sully’s tone, while kind, was also firm, leaving no room for argument.
Drea and Neil said nothing more. Not on that subject anyway.
“I don’t want to sound like a scared kid after a horror movie,” Neil said. “But I’m really hoping you’ll stay the night here. Maybe you’ll see something that will help you figure out whether the threat to our family is over for sure. We already know we’re living on a property where my relative was murdered only recently. I couldn’t live with myself if it turned out my family was in danger and I didn’t do everything in my power to protect them. Will you stay? Please?”
Dez met Sully’s eye. Staying here was the last thing he wanted to do, and he imagined Sully felt the same. For Dez’s part, he and Eva had made plans for a quiet evening in since Kayleigh was having a sleepover at a friend’s.
He cast another glance at Neil and Drea. Neil was on the verge of panic, and the hand Drea was using to rub his shoulder shook a little.
Dez held back a sigh. So much for his plans for the evening.
“Give us a minute to talk,” Sully said. Standing, he nodded to Dez and led them toward the front door.
“You have plans tonight, don’t you?” Sully asked.
“How’d you guess?”
“The expression on your face leaves little doubt. Disappointment, not anxiety. I can stay here on my own if you want.”
Dez shook his head. “We don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with here—and not just in the paranormal sense. Until we know for sure the threat to the Wynnes is over, we need to treat this like they’re still in danger. Which means anyone around them would be a potential target too.” He sighed. “Let’s just do this. I can’t stand seeing Neil’s sad face. He looks like a kicked puppy.”
Sully uttered a low chuckle. “He does, doesn’t he?”
Dez dug out his cellphone. “Speaking of kicked puppies, that’s exactly what I’m going to be when I tell Eva.”
With a pat to Dez’s arm, Sully headed inside, leaving Dez to call Eva from the outside porch. He tapped her number in his contacts list, lowering himself onto the steps as the phone rang.
She picked up on the second ring. “You’re not coming, are you?”
“Sorry, babe. Something came up.”
“What?”
Leaving nothing out, Dez explained the situation. Eva was a police officer, but she was also well-versed in his and Sully’s misadventures. No reason to couch the truth with her, especially since she saw through him without fail.
“You’re lucky you’ve got an understanding wife,” she said when he’d finished filling her in on their day and the investigation.
“Don’t I know it.”
“What time are you going back to the Forks tomorrow?”
“The meet’s at noon at Ravenwood Hall. We’re aiming to be there an hour or two before, to make sure we’re set up and ready when they arrive.”
“Good plan. I’ll meet you at the riverbank at ten.”
Dez’s spine straightened as his eyes flashed wide. “What? No!”
“If you think I’m letting you walk into this without me at your back, you’re out of your mind, Snowman. I’m off tomorrow, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than kicking ass beside you.”
“You know how hot you sound right now?”
“Damn right I do. And I’m warning you, you try to leave without me, I’ll find a way over. And facing down a gang will seem like nothing compared with an angry wife.”
Dez chuckled. “I believe you.”
No sense arguing with her. Really no sense. Eva was as tough as they came, and he was perpetually ashamed for his desire to protect her. She didn’t need his protection, he well knew.
Not that he could help it.
They disconnected a few minutes later, and Dez returned to Sully and the Wynnes.
“Eva’s coming with us to the Forks tomorrow,” he informed Sully.
Sully studied him a moment as Dez sat, then patted him on the back—an attempt at comfort. Dez had never been good at concealing his thoughts or feelings.
“We could come along too,” Neil said. “He’s our son, after all.”
Dez smiled at him. He appreciated the gesture but took no time to turn it down. Dez was nervous enough with the people he was already going in with, and he knew all of them were experienced in a fight. Neil and Drea would not only be an unknown in terms of their ability to hold their own, they’d quickly become a liability if things should go downhill.
And as he faced the prospect of another night spent in a haunted house, downhill was exactly where Dez felt like he was headed.
14
Sully and Dez followed Neil and Drea to the guest rooms, both situated on the opposite side of the stairs from the family bedrooms.
Neil stalled in the hall outside the room he indicated for Sully, glaring at the locked door near the guest rooms.
Sully offered a sympathetic smile. “Still haven’t found a key, huh?”
“Driving me nuts.”
Dez appeared behind Neil from his room across the hall. “Have you considered kicking it in?”
“In this house?” Neil’s smile contained more than a hint of anxiety. “Wreck anything in here and Mildred isn’t likely to let me forget, is she?”
Sully considered the ghost’s behaviour, and the curtains in the master bedroom came to mind. “Mind if I try something?”
Neil shrugged. “Sure. What?”
Sully brushed past him and Dez and headed toward Neil and Drea’s room. He’d just moved past the stairs when Casey emerged from her bedroom. Her eyes widened as they locked onto him.
Her mouth opened and closed, then opened again. “Oh! Hey! I didn’t know … I mean—”
Neil stepped forward. “Sully and his brother Dez are staying the night. Hopefully they’ll see something to help them figure out what’s going on around here.”
Casey’s eyes had yet to return to a normal shape, and Neil’s statement didn’t seem to help. She said nothing before turning and beelining for the bathroom.
“Nice meeting you!” Dez called out as the bathroom door slammed shut.
A muffled response came from the other side, and Sully figured not even Casey could understand her reply.
Sully felt Dez’s eyes on him and glanced up only to be met with a smirk. Flushing, Sully continued toward the master bedroom, leaving Dez behind.
As before, Neil and Drea had kept the drapes drawn shut. Though darkness was falling outside, enough ambient light shone from the hallway for Sully to make out the shapes of things inside the bedroom. From here, it appeared empty of anything but furniture.
Though Dez and Neil followed to the door, they remained there as Sully entered the room and approached the window. Dim light, all that was left of the faded day, seeped through the gaps between the heavy drapes. Sully laid a hand on the first of the drapes, sucked in a breath and released it through his nose. Then he acted, moving fast, pulling each curtain as far as he could to expose the room from the outside.
He waited, searching the shadows in the corners for the veiled woman.
Nothing.
“You see anything?” Dez hissed from the doorway, voice low as if hoping the ghost wouldn’t hear him.
Sully gave it another ten seconds, one more long visual inspection before shaking his head. “No. Nothing.”
He turned and made his way back toward Dez and Neil.
A sound behind him had him spinning in place, in time to see the drapes yanked shut.
In the time it took Dez to express his shock, Neil had taken two steps back into the hallway, distancing himself from the windows.
“Now do you see?” Neil’s voice reflected all the fear currently twisting his face.
Sully did see, but not just the curtains. A shadowed figure stood in front of the bank of windows, the small, slender form of a women. She was posed as if facing him, setting herself up for battle should he again attempt to touch the drapes.
Sully had no intention of trying, but he had been hoping for this: this chance to communicate with the spirit of Mildred Wynne.
He reached back and patted Dez on the hand, then straightened the neck of his shirt as it was released. Freed of Dez’s grip, he took a couple of cautious steps into the bedroom.
“You’re Mildred, aren’t you? I’m Sullivan Gray. Most people call me Sully. I can see you but the others can’t. I know you aren’t big on people being in your house, especially strangers, but I’m hoping you’ll talk to me. I promise I won’t touch the curtains again.”
For some reason, something he said had the opposite effect from the one he wanted. Instead of opening the channel of communication, he’d somehow driven her back into the shadows. In the blink of an eye, she was gone.
“Great,” he muttered.
Dez’s voice sounded in his ear. “What happened?”
“She disappeared.”
“Why?”
Sully shrugged. “No idea. Might be she doesn’t trust me. Might be because she already got what she wanted when I promised not to touch the curtains again.”
Dez’s gaze shifted from Sully to the windows. “Yeah, well, I didn’t promise anything. Want me to open them, see if it brings her back?”
“No. She’ll see it the same way. I’m trying to gain her trust. If she thinks I’m not the kind of guy to keep my word, she might never communicate with me.”
Movement at the doorway had Sully turning to find Neil clutching the doorframe, grip hard enough to restrict the flow of blood in his fingers. “Do you think she knows who killed her?”
“Maybe, but it might be dependent on what she saw at the time of her death. If the killer came up behind her and knocked her down with one blow, she might not have seen anything—especially if he took off right away after.”
Neil peered at the floor, torment on his face. A question was there, one he didn’t want to ask. Sully waited, and Neil finally met his eye again.
“Was it Callum? Did he do it? I mean, if he was high on something, maybe …” He trailed off, the effect of the images he was picturing obvious in his expression.
Sully sought to end his torment. “No, I don’t think it was Callum. He remembers his last visit, so I don’t think he was screwed up on some substance at the time. I’m worried it might have been someone in the gang—maybe they came here looking to rob Mildred and went too far. Callum’s messed up, but I don’t get the impression he’s a murderer.”
Neil heaved a sigh and nodded. “Thank you. You have no idea … thank you.” He turned and headed off down the hall. “I’ll get you guys some towels and things. Do you need anything to sleep in? I might have an unused toothbrush somewhere.”
“We’re fine,” Dez said. “All the unexpected layovers we’ve had, I’m a pro at finger-brushing.”
As the evening wore on, the atmosphere in the house grew heavier until Sully decided he needed some air.
Leaving Dez, Neil and Drea in the family room watching television, he made his way through the kitchen and sunroom to the back of the house. He headed through the door in time to catch a panicked Casey toeing out a cigarette against the gravel. As she looked up at Sully through saucer eyes, recognition had her exhaling a noisy sigh of relief.
“Oh my God, you scared the crap out of me.”
Sully grinned knowingly. “Thought I was your dad or Drea, huh?”
“Please, don’t tell them.”
Sully sat on the topmost step and folded his arms atop his knees. “Okay, but maybe you should. You really think they won’t notice?”
Casey shrugged and toed at her discarded cigarette butt. “Haven’t so far. They don’t notice a whole lot, really. They’re okay as parents and everything, but they’ve been pretty busy worrying about Cal.”
“He’s been a handful.”
Casey’s eyes snapped onto Sully’s. “Did you and your brother really save him? I heard you telling Dad and Drea you did.”
Sully nodded. “Yeah, I guess we did.”
“Thanks.” Casey smiled. “Cal’s been a huge pain in the ass, but he’s a good brother.”
With a chuckle, Sully agreed. “I know the feeling.”
“You get along with your brother?”
“Yeah. We get along great. Luckily, because we’re around each other so much.”
Casey wandered over and plopped down next to Sully. “You don’t look like him at all.”
“I wouldn’t. Dez and I aren’t blood. His family took me in as a foster kid when I was seven. The situation became permanent. Best thing that ever happened to me.”
The weight of Casey’s stare made Sully a little uncomfortable but he fought not to break eye contact. She was searching for something, and he hoped he could help.
“What happened to your parents?” she asked.
God, there was a long, complicated and awful story. It proved impetus enough for him to glance away, and he found his eyes fixing on the edge of the maze, just visible in the lights from inside the house.
“Long story,” he said. “My mother was really young—your age, actually—and was forced to give me up to keep me safe. My biological father wasn’t in the picture. I spent a few years in some pretty bad homes before I ended up at the Braddocks’.”
Casey’s voice was soft when she next spoke. “My mom died. She got killed.”
“I know.” He felt her eyes on him met her gaze again.
“Can you see her?” she asked.
Sully shook his head, slowly. “No. I only see homicide victims.”
“I guess it’s good you can’t see her, then.”
Sully smiled. “It usually is, for everyone involved.”
Casey turned away, eyes travelling toward the backyard. “I never really got to know my mom. I was so little when she died. I think I have a couple of memories, but sometimes I wonder if it’s all made up. Like maybe I had a dream of her or something, and now my brain thinks it’s real.”
“Who’s to say dreams aren’t real? My adoptive dad was killed a few years ago. I dream about him a lot, and sometimes those dreams feel different, like a real visit, you know?”
Casey’s face broke into a sad smile. “Yeah. That’s what it feels like to me too. Like a visit.” She turned back to face Sully. “Are we in trouble?”
Sully frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The thing my dad saw, I heard you talking to them about it. It’s bad, isn’t it?”
This wasn’t a conversation Sully had hoped to have without input from Casey’s parents. “You heard all that, huh?”
“You called her a witch. Is she a witch?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t heard of them before this week. A friend of mind studies these things, and he’s the one who ID’d her for me based on your dad’s description.”
“But it’s like a banshee, right?”
“Maybe we should go in.”
Casey’s bottom lip jutted out as her brows lowered. “I’m not a little kid, you know. And I know what banshees are. I’m into this stuff. I get it, okay? I need to know what we’re dealing with.”
“I don’t know if—”
She cut him off. “Look, I’m not naive. I lost my mom as a kid. If my dad’s in danger, I need to try to protect him.”
Realizing where she was headed, Sully turned his upper body, allowing him to fully face her. “Listen to me. It’s
not your job to protect your dad. I get where you’re coming from. Believe me, I do. But there are things not in your control. That’s why I’m here. I’m trying to find out what the danger might be and where it’s coming from. Between Dez and me and your dad and Drea, we’ll be able to fight whatever it is.”
“I can fight it too. I’m not a kid.”
She was a kid, but Sully refrained from pointing it out. He saw it now, this need she had to grow up and be able to control her own world. He’d felt the same once, mired down in memories of abuse, struggling with ghosts that didn’t honour his personal space and railing against his brother’s overprotective nature. Casey might have started smoking to feel older and more in control.
“I’ll bet your dad’s pretty protective of you, isn’t he?”
Casey rolled her eyes. “Like you wouldn’t believe. He still treats me like a little kid. Part of me feels like we moved out here so they could get me away from my friends.”
“He worries about you. Partly because of Cal, probably. But I’ll bet a lot of it is to do with your mom. When you lose someone like that, you do everything in your power to protect the people you have left. I know I do. My brother, he’s horrible about it. He lost his little brother when they were young kids, and he nearly smothered me growing up, trying to protect me from everything. It’s his coping mechanism, I guess.”
“He doesn’t anymore, right?”
Sully chuckled. “Not as bad, but yeah, he still does it.”
Casey’s eyes flashed open, horror-stricken at the idea as only a teenager could be. “But you’re an adult!”
“So I keep telling him.”
Casey huffed out a breath. “It’s never going to end, is it? Dad’s always going to hover.”
Sully smiled. “Maybe. I know Dez still hovers a little, but I’ll tell you something. Part of growing up is coming to appreciate the hovering. It means they love you, and that’s a good thing, right?”
“I guess. Must be weird, doing what you do. Do you get scared?”