by H. P. Bayne
“I think you might be wrong about that. Dark, evil entities are very much drawn to two things: weakness and goodness. They exist to corrupt and overpower. Those who are weak or susceptible make perfect targets, but people who are truly good … they’re a real challenge. Darkness and light chase each other in the spirit world just as night chases day. The co-exist because they have to, but there is and will always be a power struggle between them. Look at it as angels versus demons if you want, but the two sides have been at war for an eternity. It might be before the night is over, you will be called upon to wage a war. And make no mistake: you are better prepared to fight it than you realize.”
Sully sighed. There were moments in life he wished he’d been gifted with something far simpler than psychic abilities. He could have been an electrical engineer by now, maybe a zoologist or an architect. Instead he was solving crimes based on the presence of ghosts and figuring out how to rid the world of an evil spirit.
His brand of private investigation wasn’t the sort of thing you described on a resume.
“There’s another problem,” Dez said. “This isn’t just any house this thing is hunkered down in. It’s the house where our dad died. This demon or whatever, it’s using the history here against us. When fights get personal, emotion distracts you and leaves you open to attack.”
“Makes you miss things and mess things up,” Raiya said. “I get it. Listen, no one’s saying you need to do this. You can walk away.”
“No, I can’t.” The words had come out of Sully before he even realized he was about to say them.
“Why not?”
Surprisingly, it was Dez who answered. “There’s a little girl who needs help. We think if we can find a way to release her mother from this place and help her find her daughter, the two of them can cross over together.”
“One problem,” Raiya said. “You said the dark entity in the house seems to influence people, turn them bad. You also said Sully went up to the third-floor room after Lilian showed him a vision of herself going there. I don’t think there’s much question she was guiding him to the room. What you need to ask yourselves is why.”
The answer seemed pretty clear to Sully. “I think it might be where Miriam was killed.”
“Look beyond that. If the entity corrupts people, how do you know it hasn’t corrupted Lilian? How do you know she wasn’t baiting you there so the thing could do what it did? Lilian could be as nasty as so many others who have set foot in that house. If so, she’s the last spirit you want little Miriam around.”
11
Sully stared at the darkened roof of the SUV, looking without really seeing. His mind was elsewhere, puzzling through what options he had for getting rid of the presence in the house.
They’d ended the conversation with Raiya about ten minutes ago. While Sully had come away with a few answers and possibilities, he’d also found himself more confused than ever.
“Raiya’s right,” Dez said. “If Lilian’s as dark as everyone else around here, we can’t hand Miriam over to her.”
“I know.”
“So what the hell do we do?”
Sully lifted his head. Lilian was behind the vehicle, standing back far enough to allow her to watch him. She was either waiting for him to make a move to help or, he acknowledged with reluctance, acting as prison warden for the nameless entity.
Sully returned his head to the reclined rear of the back seat. “I need to communicate with her.”
“How?”
“Won’t be hard to find her. She’s right outside the vehicle.”
As expected, Dez’s head shot up, and he stared out each of the windows as if he might see something. “Where?”
“Behind the SUV. Watching us.”
Dez glanced over but just as quickly returned his attention to Sully. He propped himself up on an elbow. “Hold on. We’ve been talking about how Lilian might be under this thing’s control. Until we know for sure, we can’t take the chance.”
Sully rolled onto his side to mirror Dez’s position. “But how do we find out? I’ll need to talk to her, Dez. It’s the only way.”
“You can’t trust her.”
“I know. That’s why I’ve got you.”
“And what am I supposed to do, exactly?”
“Same as always. Keep an eye on me while I’m under. If I start doing something not good, pull me out or hold me back.”
Dez sighed, the sound of tension and resignation. “When do you want to do this?”
“Sooner rather than later.”
The phone’s ringing had Dez physically jumping and meant sooner would have to come later. He pulled the phone back out of the cupholder.
“It’s Jacob,” he announced, tapping at the screen and again placing the phone between them. He leaned toward the phone on the floor. “Leonard? It’s Dez. You’re on speaker. Sully’s here with me.”
“I got your message,” he said. “Sorry I couldn’t take the call right away. I was speaking with Lowell. They’re about to send the jurors back to their hotel for the night.”
“No closer to a verdict then?” Dez asked.
“I think they’re closer, all right. They’ve asked a couple of questions so far today, including a request to review portions of testimony—including Sullivan’s. The way I read it is they’re assuring themselves they’re going the right direction. The evidence they’re asking to rehear is from people who specifically pointed a finger at Lowell as a killer.”
“So he’s getting anxious?” Dez asked.
“Understandably.”
“Good.”
“I won’t comment further,” Leo said. “He’s my client, after all. What were you phoning about?”
Sully had a couple of questions on the agenda, and neither was particularly pleasant. He opted to start with the easiest part.
“We found a wedding album in the attic. Your mother’s full name was Lilian Phoebe Liddle. Do you know any Liddles?”
“Liddle …. No, I can’t say I do. As I mentioned, we weren’t in contact with any of my mother’s people.”
“Would you know of a way you could find out about them?”
“I wouldn’t even know where to start. Wedding guest list maybe, if you can find one—although I believe my father said something once about a very small wedding. Or there might be some documentation to do with the wedding that would list the parents. Wedding certificate maybe?”
Sully guessed anything along those lines, if it existed, would be in the attic—a place to which he was loath to return.
“Would your father have kept a list of staff members anywhere?” Dez asked. “A ledger maybe?”
Sully’s lips twitched upward. Naturally, Dez was also wanting to avoid another trip to the attic.
“You’re thinking about the groundskeeper, aren’t you?” Leo asked.
“You said your mother ran off with him. We’ll need to trace him if we’re going to find out what happened to her.”
Leo was quiet for a few seconds. “I don’t know, I’m afraid. If there was anything like a ledger, it would have been kept in my father’s office on the main floor. But I’m sure when my father moved out, he would have either destroyed those sorts of records or taken them with him. He was careful about things like that.”
“But he left the wedding album,” Dez noted.
“I’m sure you can imagine why.”
No arguing that point. From what Sully had seen, Garver had left behind the things she might have used the most and been most attached to.
Sully wondered if he’d also left her body.
“Did your father leave you any of his stuff?” Dez asked. “Maybe it contains some of the info we need.”
“He did, but I never saw anything like that. Mostly, what I ended up with of his were legal files, clients he passed along to me when he retired. I suspect he destroyed many of his own things. He wasn’t one for holding onto the past.”
“Great,” Dez muttered.
Leo gave
it a beat before providing a suggestion. “Listen, I remember when Lowell and Kindra moved in, they told me they relocated some of my family’s things to the attic and basement. Anything from the upper floors went to the attic, I understand. Main floor stuff went to the basement. Kindra called to ask if I wanted to go through any of it before they got rid of it. They’d been doing a few renos at the time so needed it out of the way. As my father’s office was on the main floor, anything left behind would have gone to the basement.”
Sully eyed Dez. The expression of horror was exactly what he’d expected to find.
“Basement, huh?” Sully said. “Any idea where?”
“I never did go to look through things, I’m afraid. Frankly, I didn’t want anything much to do with my father’s things. I’d already taken what I wanted from the house when I moved out at eighteen. I haven’t been back since, save for necessary visits on holidays. I saw more than enough of him at the office. I had no desire to socialize with him.”
“Fair enough,” Sully said. “Door to the basement is toward the back of the house, right?”
“Hallway between the kitchen and the rear entrance.”
Sully hummed in the back of his throat. He wasn’t sure he could manage another word right now. If the idea of the attic had been bad, the basement was even worse. Dez had dared him to go down there once when they were kids. He remembered it being dark, even with the lights on. He’d felt incredibly dizzy, the sensation of being surrounded by strong energy, as if he’d accidentally wandered into a hurricane.
It was the last place he wanted to be in a house already filled with negativity.
“Thanks,” Dez said. “We’ll discuss it.” His expression suggested he was about to launch into one of the most difficult topics.
“There’s something else we found out,” Dez said. “I don’t know if you’re aware, but there’s a ghost around the groundskeeper’s cottage. A woman.”
“I wasn’t aware. Who is it?”
Sully took the reins. “I’m sorry to have to tell you, but it’s your mother. I first saw her years ago, when I was a kid. I’ve seen her again today. Once we found the wedding album with the photo, I knew.”
“But you said you only see the ghosts of homicide victims,” Leo said.
Sully nodded though Leo wasn’t there to see. “That’s right.”
“You’re telling me my mother was murdered?”
“Yeah,” Sully said. “That’s what I’m telling you.”
“What happened to her?”
Sully peered out the window. She was still there, still so close. “I don’t know. She’s in a white dress, and she’s covered in blood and dirt. Her hair is loose and straggly, mostly covering her face. I can see enough of her features, though, to know. It’s definitely her in the photo with your father.”
“And you think he killed her?”
“We don’t know yet,” Dez said. “It’s one of the things we need to find out.”
“It stands to reason if the groundskeeper disappeared at the same time as my mother, my father killed him too,” Leo added.
The thought had occurred to Sully. He was glad Leo had spared him having to say it. “I’m sorry. I know it’s a lot to process.”
“Honestly, we don’t have any answers yet,” Dez said. “What we do know is solving what happened to them might help them to move on.”
“Is there something I can do from my end?”
“Finding us a relative of your mother’s or a friend of hers might be a good start,” Dez said. “Maybe she talked to someone before she died. It could be someone out there has some knowledge they haven’t shared.”
“I’ll do my best,” Leo said. “But I really don’t even know where to start. Anyway, I’m unlikely to get to it tonight. I’m exhausted, as I’m sure you must be. Why don’t you try to get some sleep, and we can pick this up again in the morning?”
Sully wasn’t quite done. “When you were a kid here, where were your bedrooms?”
The answer was no surprise, yet it sent a chill through Sully.
“The third floor.”
Dez jumped so his knee collided with Sully’s leg. “The third floor? Where?”
“We were on opposite ends of the hall. My father’s insistence. He said we should each have our own space. We each had a bedroom and our own playroom.”
Sully dropped his head into a hand to massage his temples. “Miriam’s was on the right-hand side, wasn’t it?”
“When facing the hall from the stairs, yes.”
Dez leaned toward the phone as if ensuring what he was about to say would be clearly heard. “Dude, how the hell did you sleep up there?”
“Why?”
“It’s creepy as all hell. I mean, the whole house is a nightmare, but the third floor, man—they could spend a whole hour on one of those ghost hunting shows just on that floor alone.”
“I remember thinking the house was haunted, but honestly, it wasn’t my main concern. I was fearful all the time, but it was mainly due to my father and his temper. When you’re afraid of living people, there isn’t always room to be scared of the dead besides.”
Sully begged to differ, but then, the dead had always been far more palpable to him than to most others.
“And the third floor really didn’t bother you any more than the rest of the house?” Sully asked.
“If anything, I preferred it up there. If my parents were fighting, they were usually downstairs. Being up there was like being in another world. We could pretend no one else was around, that we were all alone in the house and safe. Mind you, we never went up into the attic.”
“Why not?” The question had shot out of Dez like a punch.
“You’ve seen it,” Leo said. “You want to talk creepy, take a look up there.”
Dez rubbed at his neck. “Listen, there’s one more thing we might have to ask you to do at some point. Given the way Sully works, we’ll probably need you to come back here eventually, maybe soon. If Miriam’s attached to you, it might be the only way we can connect her and her mother.”
Leo didn’t answer for a moment. Sully gave him the time to think.
“I’ll come once the storm breaks,” he said.
“You said you’re tired.”
“Not too tired to help my sister or find out what happened to my mother.”
Sully jumped on it before anyone got too committed to the idea. “Let’s wait on it for now. I don’t want to bring her here until I’m completely sure she’ll be safe. The last thing I want is to expose her to anything negative. She’s been through enough.”
Leo was silent for so long Sully wondered whether he’d heard. When he cleared his throat a moment later, Sully realized he’d been fighting emotion.
“I understand,” Leo said, voice deep and heavy. “Thank you. Please call me if you need anything else. I really do appreciate this. I don’t speak about it often, but I’ve frequently had the feeling I’m being watched. It never occurred to me it was Miriam. If I can help you in any way to bring her peace, I want to do it.”
They ended the call there, leaving Sully and Dez alone once again.
“So basement, huh?” Dez said.
Sully looked up from the phone. Dez’s eyes were fixed on him, wide with pupils dilated. Sully understood the unspoken words, but he wasn’t sure he had any strength to spare.
“Basement,” he said.
“You sure there’s a point? Whole thing could be for nothing if there’s nothing down there but dust and rats.”
Sully noted Dez avoided adding “ghosts” to the mix.
“We could wait until morning,” Sully suggested. “Chances are we’re going to be around here for a while before they reopen the roads, anyway.”
Dez’s lifted brows read hope, but they lowered quickly. “No. The house is almost as bad in the day as at night. It doesn’t get any less evil because the sun comes up.” He heaved a breath. “Anyway, we’ve got a job to do. We’re not kids anymore. We can hack this,
right?”
Dez was obviously seeking affirmation. Sully did his best to provide it.
“Yeah,” he said. “Sure.”
Dez frowned. Sully frowned back.
“Sorry,” Sully said. “Let’s go check it out.”
“Now?”
“You said we’ve got a job to do, and you’re right.”
“And you came back at me with, ‘Yeah, sure.’ ” Dez made Sully’s words sound like he was saying yes to fries even though the restaurant had run out of gravy.
Sully’s nerves were shot, the tension inside his body so bad, he didn’t even find Dez amusing anymore. He laughed anyway, not because he was moved to, but because Dez needed to hear it. Laughing about Dez’s anxieties was normal, and God, they needed normal.
Dez stared at him for a couple of seconds before a rumble of laughter bubbled from his own chest. Suddenly, Sully’s faked levity was no longer so false.
Finally, Dez spoke.
“Basement.”
Sully nodded. “Basement.”
Easing out a breath from between pursed lips, Dez reached over and shut off the vehicle.
12
The house was silent.
Like a tomb.
Dez mentally kicked himself for the internal analogy and made his way toward the kitchen.
The boots stayed on, as did the coat. The keys to his SUV rested in his coat pocket, the fingers of his right hand entwined around them. One easy move and he could have them out, the button clicked to unlock it and let them back in. A tiny box of glass, steel and rubber, but right now, walking through this house, the SUV represented salvation.
Years had passed, so Dez couldn’t be sure any longer about the placement of objects in the house. But he thought he recalled a closet near the rear entryway, containing a couple of flashlights. Summer storms could cause power outages, and Lowell and Kindra would have needed to see the pool in the dark to snap the cover on.
Dez pulled open the closet and scanned the interior. A lot had changed, but this much hadn’t. The flashlights, three of them, remained where they had been years ago. He pulled down two, clicking them to assure himself they still worked, before handing one to Sully.