“What? We’re about ten minutes away. Give us the rest of the plan.”
“Once we’re all together, we’ll reassess and go from there. Keep in mind that there might be old wells and other dangers we aren’t aware of, guys. And Cassidy, it’s like taking a walk in the woods, only we’re looking for monsters. We won’t be armed with weapons, just with electronics.”
“That’s comforting,” she said. “I know it sounds unbelievable, but I know for a fact that Aurelia and Cope saw something. I saw it too. That black owl could certainly be classified as a monster. Hope you have some monster repellent too.”
Sierra snickered beside Cassidy and elbowed her. If Josh was trying to get Cassidy’s goat, he failed. He sure didn’t know that just a few minutes ago she’d delivered a serious knee to the groin to a guy who tried to accost her. Josh didn’t know who he was messing with. He cast an evil eye at Sierra over his shoulder but didn’t say anything else.
I pulled the vehicle off the highway and onto Kali Oka Road. It was a two-lane highway with thick woods off each side, but the county kept the forest clipped back a good twenty feet. That at least was something.
“Okay, the road we’re looking for should be right up ahead, on the right. Keep your eyes open, guys. Ranger says we should be able to spot it from the road even though it’s not paved.”
“Hey! That’s Ranger’s truck. Why is he out here?”
The truck was on the side of the road, but there was no sign of Ranger. Josh said, “Just pull in behind him. Given his condition, I can guarantee he’s somewhere nearby. Why would he come back down here?”
I slid the SUV in behind the truck, and just a few seconds later Pete and Sara pulled in behind us. Ease up, Midas. It’s over. Looks like you’re the odd man out.
“Geesh,” Sierra whispered behind me, “what a lot of nerve.”
“Come on, guys. We have a job to do. Let’s find Ranger and get started on this investigation. No drama.”
“You got it, boss.” Josh hopped out and grabbed a small duffel bag. He and Sierra didn’t waste any time sorting through the electronics.
I popped the back and waved Cassidy over. “You ready to jump in with both feet?”
“I’m game. What cha got for me?”
“This is called a K2 meter. It lets us know if there are fluctuations in the electromagnetic field.” I switched on the device and pointed at the green light. “When things are normal, you’ll see the green light. If there are changes detected, the light will bounce up to orange and even red. I’ve got some that also give off a digital reading, but I think this will work for now. Get you acclimated to the equipment. When we walk in, we’ll sweep around and get a feel for the place. Some places naturally have an elevated field, and if that’s the case here, we want to know about it. How are you feeling, Cassidy?”
“I’m wondering what the hell I’m doing traipsing around the woods with a group of ghost hunters.”
I cracked another smile. “I can see why you’d be asking yourself that. But just a word of caution, these guys prefer to be called paranormal investigators.”
With wide eyes she said, “I’m glad you warned me. Okay, so we wait fifteen minutes and go in, or do we look for Mr. Shaw first?”
The GCP team gathered around me and waited to hear my answer. “Josh and Sierra will go in first. Pete and Sara will follow after fifteen, and then we’ll go in. That will give Cassidy and me time to look around for Ranger. How’s that sound?”
“Fine with me,” Sara said with a sweet smile. “Let’s take a look at that map again. If I remember correctly, there’s an abandoned barn around here somewhere. I marked it up on the small map. Come on, Cassidy. I’ll give you a crash course in map reading.”
Cassidy followed Sara to her white sedan. Pete didn’t stick around; he jogged down the side of the road to check in the nearest ditch for any sign of Ranger. Sierra eyeballed me as she cracked her gum. “You think that’s a good idea?”
I shut the back and frowned at her. “I’m not worried about Cassidy…she can handle herself. And you need to get a life, Little Sister.” She was very much like a little sister to me, so much so that I was willing to kick Josh’s ass if need be. Sierra had a big heart, too big at times, and she often said things most of us were already thinking but were too polite to say. Sometimes I had to rein her in.
“Roger that, captain.” She clicked the stopwatch on her phone. “See you in thirty minutes. Turn your walkie on and quit staring at the Doublemint Twins.”
“What? They are hardly twins.”
“Whatever. Bye.”
Sierra and Josh left holding hands. I joined Pete in the search for Ranger. I hoped he man was okay.
Chapter Twelve—Cassidy
“Sierra to base.”
Sara’s well-manicured nails wrapped around the black walkie-talkie. “This is base. Go ahead, Sierra.”
“Five minutes. No sign of the client. K2 is even Steven. Temp is 58F.”
“Great. Check back in five. Radio silence, please.”
“All right.”
She tapped the antenna of the walkie-talkie to her chin. “I hope she remembers to take pictures. Did she take her camera?” she asked Midas. It was the first time she’d spoken to him this afternoon.
“Yes, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a backup. You have yours?”
Sara cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you kidding? I’m no rookie.” She cast a stinging look of disdain in my direction and strolled back to her car in her stylish brown boots and began searching her back seat, presumably for her camera.
“Am I missing something?” I couldn’t help but ask. The uncomfortable feeling kept rising. I’d had enough weirdness for one day.
Nobody answered me. Midas glared after Sara, but it was Peter who broke the silence.
“Cassidy, have you always been interested in the supernatural? Seems like we all have our own stories to tell. All of us have either seen something or lost someone. They say the loss of a loved one in a tragic way makes you more sensitive to the spirit world. I think that might be true.”
“You’re an ass, Pete. You’re joking about her sister? She doesn’t know she’s lost her.” I could see Midas’ muscles ripple under his shirt. He wore a navy blue sweater, the thin, fitted kind that had three buttons at the top.
“I’m sorry, Cassidy. I swear to you I’m not a heartless beast.”
“How could you not know?” Sara scolded him. “She told us about her the other night.”
“I had my headphones on half the time, cueing up video and photographs. Shoot. I’m really sorry, Cassie.”
That was the last straw. I was about to tell him how I really felt about his “joke.” I took a deep breath and said, “My name is Cassidy, and…”
The walkie-talkie squawked, and I heard Sierra’s voice, “Hey! Y’all need to get in here, now!”
Immediately everyone began running toward the narrow pathway. Midas snatched the walkie. “Sierra! What’s up?”
“Someone’s out here—stalking us.”
“Can you see who it is? Is it Ranger?”
“Definitely not! Footsteps are too fast for someone so sick.” Her whisper sent a shiver down my spine. “I’m taking pictures…should we keep pushing in toward the house?”
“Yes, keep going. We’re double-timing your way. Stay on the path, Sierra. Don’t get lost. Follow your GPS. It should lead you right to it.”
“Okay.”
“Midas! Let’s flank whoever this is!” Pete said, his anger rising.
Midas looked at me as if to say, “Are you going to be all right?”
Sara said, “Go and help Sierra. Cassidy and I will follow.”
Immediately Midas took off to the left and Peter to the right. They flanked the narrow road and scurried through the woods to see if they could detect the intruder.
Sara handed me her audio recorder. “Hold this! I’m grabbing some photos. We’re going to run, Cassidy. I hope you can keep up.”
/> “Sure, I used to run marathons.” I didn’t want to seem like a wimp. Now didn’t seem like the time to tell her that I hadn’t trained in over six months. “But why are we running? Are they in danger, do you think? Maybe it’s just a homeless person.”
“The element of surprise! Hit record and come on! Get your ass in gear, girl!”
I pressed the record button, gritted my teeth and took off after her. We ran down the leaf-littered path; the afternoon sunlight was casting lean shadows in a few spots now. We’d be out of sun soon. Then we’d be running through the woods in the dark. Was it supposed to be this cold out here?
I wish I held the temperature thingy instead, but I didn’t.
“You feel that, Cassidy? The cold?” She bounded over a log in front of me, and I followed her. “Not unusual for the woods, but this is more than that,” she said breathlessly. “I think it might mean we’ve got supernatural activity out here.”
“You think?” I asked sincerely.
She paused her running. Her pretty cheeks were pink and healthy-looking. She’d worn her long hair in a ponytail today, and she wore blue jeans that fit her perfectly.
“Yeah, I do. I think it’s time you get your feet wet, rookie. Use the audio recorder. Ask a few questions.”
“Um, what? What kind of questions?”
“Ask a question like, ‘Are there any spirits around me that want to talk?’”
I repeated what she said. I spun around slowly and looked around the forest, but there wasn’t a sound. Not even bird sounds or a squirrel rattling through the leaves. And it didn’t just sound dead; it felt dead.
“Do you feel that, Cassidy?”
“Yes. It feels…empty.”
“That’s what you want on an investigation. If the place is empty of living things, that means other things are near. Keep talking.”
I shivered at her words. “Are you Aurelia Davis, the wife of Bernard? If so, what are you doing out here?” I watched the K2 going wild. Sara gave me a thumbs-up and began snapping photos like a fiend. I kept going. “Are you Cope, Bernard Davis’ slave?” I thought I heard a whisper, so I kept going. “What are you doing here?”
The audio recorder began to beep. “Oh my God! You got something, Cassidy!” The walkie-talkie squawked again.
“We’re okay. Where are you guys?”
“We’ll be there in a minute.”
I followed Sara, unbelieving that I had actually caught something.
When we reached the group, I was out of breath. A clear sign that I’d let myself go too long without proper exercise. The sun hadn’t set yet, but purple shadows were edging up from the ground. Sierra said, “So he was here, but I don’t see any footprints. Josh, you got your flashlight, sweetie?” She accepted a mini flashlight from Joshua and began searching the ground. “Someone was definitely here, though. Lots of leaves.”
“Yeah, I’m not seeing any footprints over here either.”
“Tell me what this guy was doing. Was he threatening you? Did he have a weapon?” Midas stood with one hand on his chin and the other on his hip as he listened to Joshua relate their encounter.
“Sierra thought she heard someone, and we called out a few times thinking maybe it was Ranger out here, but he never answered. Whoever he was, he got real still and didn’t come out in the open. I could only see his outline a few times. He stayed behind the trees there, but the strange-ass thing was he ran from that side to this side and we don’t know how he did it.”
“Did you take some photos, Sierra?” Sara asked as she flipped through her own drive.
“Yes, mother,” Sierra said sarcastically, “but I got nothing to show for it.” She skimmed through the pictures with a frustrated expression. “I’ll have to take another look back at HQ.”
Midas broke out his flashlight. “Let’s do one more sweep for footprints, and then we’ll review the photos together back at home base. You know you can’t see much on those tiny screens. You guys see any rubbish that might indicate we’re in someone’s camp?”
Peter said, “I saw one Wal-Mart bag tied to a tree on the road. That means there’s at least one homeless person back here—or there was once.”
“Okay, use caution. If you see…” Midas was speaking, but I wasn’t listening. I heard something, something the others hadn’t heard yet. It was the sound of an owl.
“Shh…you hear that?”
Everyone got still. We instinctively made a circle, each of us looking around for whatever might be approaching. I heard the sound again, but it was further away now. It was definitely an owl.
“Was that an owl?” Sierra asked me.
“I think so. But it sounds like a regular, living owl, not Aurelia’s demon-bird.”
“Shoot,” Sierra said. “Well, maybe Josh and I should head in that direction?”
Midas nodded, and the two traveled north. “I want to go this way,” I said to Sara. “Want to take a walk?”
Sara shrugged. “Sure, whatever you think.” Midas didn’t stop us; he and Peter continued searching for whoever it was that Sierra and Joshua encountered.
Cassidy…
“Did you call my name, Sara?”
“No, but I heard a whisper.” We both got very still, like two redheaded statues in a forgotten forest.
I heard nothing else and whispered to Sara, “It’s this way.”
“What’s this way? What are we looking for?”
I didn’t answer her. The compulsion had me in its clutches—the same compulsion I’d felt when I painted the portrait of Aurelia Davis. In fact, I felt it so strongly that I could hardly breathe. I began to run, forgetting about the cramps in my side and the investigator who trailed behind me. I wasn’t far from it now. Just one more fence, another copse of trees, another hillside…I could hear Sara calling my name, but I couldn’t answer her. I was a moth, and this place, Oak Grove, was the flame. I had to go. I had to see. I had to know.
Soon the only thing separating me from the house was a rusty wire fence. I could easily climb this thing or poke my way through it. But as I put my leg through I heard another voice say, “Go back!” Surprised, I fell back on the ground. Suddenly, towering over me on the opposite side of the fence was a black shadow with no face. But it wasn’t just any shadow, it was a familiar one. It was Cope!
“Go back!” he growled at me. Then he vanished like someone had turned out the light. I stared at the shimmering air, unable to move.
“Cassidy! You can’t run off like that, girl. What if you’d gotten hurt out here? That’s not how a paranormal investigator works on this team. We don’t take off into the woods to…oh my God! Is that the plantation? I had no idea we were so close. You could have just said something.”
“Yes. That’s it,” I said as I got up off the ground. I shook leaves off my sweater and waited. She began to snap photos of the house.
“Wow, that’s some neat place. I imagine with the original wings on the house it was something to see. A pretty country jewel.” Click, click, click.
“Oh, no. It was never that.”
“Hey! Cassidy, come here. Do you see that guy? Who is that standing on the porch? Man, he’s tall. Probably seven feet tall. That has to be an illusion. I wonder if he knows who owns the house…” She scrunched her brows and then had an idea. “Sir! Hey! Can we talk to you a second?”
He didn’t move. It was plainly a black man in a ragged t-shirt and blue pants. He looked out of place, and that was putting it mildly. And then I heard the voice again, although his mouth didn’t move. “Get out…leave here.”
That man was the shadow that met me at the fence and disappeared! That man wasn’t a man, he was a ghost!
“Hey, mister!” Sara kept calling to him. She was looking for a way through the fence.
“Sara,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder, “that’s not who you think it is. That’s a…” And as soon as I began to speak the words, the man vanished. He didn’t fade away, he didn’t run away. He vanished. And he
didn’t want us here.
And I alone knew what it was we were dealing with. It was the man Aurelia cared for so much, the one she’d asked to kill her, to deliver her to death so she could escape the daily pain at Bernard’s hands. I was wrong when I believed he was chasing Aurelia through the woods.
He wasn’t chasing her, he was protecting her. And from the looks of it, he protected her to this day.
And we were not wanted here.
Chapter Thirteen—Cassidy
I blew off the team meeting. I gave Sierra a quick interview, so they’d have my testimony on record, and also handed over the audio files and all the equipment I’d handled. These guys dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s, that was for sure. Each item had to be signed back in and charged up.
I felt tired, more tired than I had in a long time. I needed to hide now. Away from people, away from the supernatural. I needed to be normal and do normal things, like empty my dishwasher, have the locks changed and sweep my dusty floors. I needed to do those things, not chase ghosts, at least for a few hours. When it was all said and done, when the dishwasher was unloaded and I’d worked on a clothing stain for ten minutes and the garbage had been taken out, I felt better. I loved my loft. It was my sanctuary. The wide open spaces worked for me. I loved the bare windows and the sparse furniture. I didn’t need a lot of things. Just a comfortable bed and a decent desk chair. And plenty of easels.
I toyed with the idea of looking up some of those black owls online, but it was eight o’clock and I was yawning nonstop. I decided to put an end to my day. Since the locksmith couldn’t come until tomorrow, I slid a chair under the door to keep Mike out and flopped down on my down comforter—so nice to be in my bed. Never had I been so happy to be in my soft pajamas. An alert on my phone let me know I had a message.
The Ghosts of Kali Oka Road (Gulf Coast Paranormal Book 1) Page 8