Shadows Fall

by Denise A. Agnew

  The man grunted again. “I’ll leave right now, then.”

  Lenora gasped in indignation. “Charles, don’t be a jerk. If you want to leave, go wait in the car for me. It’ll be hours, though.”

  Oddly enough, his wife’s disapproval took a little piss out of his vinegar. “Never mind. I’ll stay.”

  “Let’s try a session in here,” Darcy said. Her expression said she’d give him one more chance.

  They settled around the room. Melissa perched on the very edge of the metal bed.

  Leonora chimed in. “Did you wish to show yourself on the camera? Now is the time to try it again.”

  “We want to understand you.” Darcy moved closer to the center of the room. “Please come forward.”

  Melissa heard a stirring, a rattle to her left. She swung the flashlight that direction. “Did anyone hear that rattle?”

  No one else had, so Melissa decided it must have been her imagination.

  After they completed another session, they returned to the rotunda for bathroom breaks and water. Melissa and Henrietta went with Darcy to command central.

  Piers looked up as they walked in. “I’m sorry for sending you on a wild goose chase.”

  “What do you mean?” Darcy asked.

  Piers looked disgruntled. “The black mass I thought I saw? I ran the tape back and it isn’t there.”

  * * *

  Roarke’s group moved toward the rec center, and he lagged at the back of the group when he saw the dark shape from the corner of his eye. It darted into his vision and out so quickly he didn’t know if it was shadow or ghost. It didn’t take more than a second; the dark form was there at the corner of the building and then it wasn’t. Frustrated, he almost kept the sighting to himself.

  Roarke pointed the thermal imager toward where he’d seen the shape. No heat signature. “I saw something at the corner of the building.”

  Magnus and the others stopped. Magnus walked back to him. “What did you see?”

  “Dark shape. Toward this side of the building.” Roarke gestured toward the south corner of the recreation center. “But it could have been anything. Nothing on the thermal.”

  Magnus nodded. “Keep your eyes open. You might see more.”

  Jana stayed close to Roarke, which drove him bonkers. He wanted to tell her point-blank to get the hell off his ass, but he couldn’t do that in this situation without causing discomfort for everyone involved.

  “The Reverend Favis Stillwell will clean this place out.” Jana spoke loud enough anyone in the group could hear. “Rid it of the demons.”

  “What makes him think they’re demons?” Magnus asked.

  “He knows these things.” Jana sounded convinced.

  Roarke almost—almost —let out a sound of disbelief, but held himself back. No reason to snark at the woman. He didn’t care about her religious beliefs one way or the other.

  “What about you, Roarke?” Magnus said just before they reached the recreation center doors. “Do you believe there are demons infesting this place?”

  The question held Roarke suspended for a second. His experiences here certainly gave him pause. Tranquil View had altered his thoughts on the paranormal. “No.”

  “Pretty definitive.” Bradley walked along at Roarke’s right. He’d been quiet until now.

  Roarke felt Jana staring at him and decided to ignore the glare. “But if there is anywhere that has demons, it’s got to be the basement.”

  Bradley stopped at the recreation doors, hand gripping the push bar. “Why is that?”

  “It’s an uncomfortable place.” Roarke shrugged.

  Magnus laughed. “Okay, we’ll be sure to stay down there long enough to see demons.”

  Everyone but Jana laughed. “Demons aren’t amusing.”

  Magnus put on a straight face. “Well, it depends on if you believe in them.”

  “You don’t?” she asked as if she found that impossible to believe.

  “Do I think there are some rotters in the spirit world? Yes. I’m not sure there’s any evidence they can be called demons. When they were alive, they were probably nasty, too. A true diabolical inhuman is extremely rare in my opinion. Hollywood tries to make you think there’s one around every corner.”

  Roarke liked Magnus’s way of thinking. They entered the recreation center but didn’t turn on lights. Magnus held a digital video recorder and scanned the room with it. The couple with them had a digital camera and other equipment with them.

  “Let’s get baseline readings in here for EMF and the temperature,” Magnus said.

  After they’d surveyed the room, they settled in the middle of the large room for an EVP session.

  Magnus lowered his bulk onto the floor in a circle with the others. “Roarke, would you like to try asking some questions?”

  Roarke hesitated, but decided instead of sounding like a complete pussy, he’d ask a sensible question. “What did you do in the military?”

  Jana’s voice came out of the semi-darkness. “How do you know the ghosts in here are from the military?”

  “I don’t.” Roarke continued with, “Are you here because you’re ill? Because you have the Spanish flu? Or were you here before then in the 1800’s?”

  “What the hell is the Spanish flu?” Bradley asked.

  Amazed the man didn’t know, Roarke explained. “It was only one of the worst epidemics the world has known. It flourished from 1918 to 1920. Millions of people around the world died. Some estimates say over six hundred thousand died in the United States.”

  Bradley groaned softly. “Damn. That’s right. I’d forgotten all about that.”

  “Quite a few died right here at Tranquil View Asylum from what I understand,” Magnus said.

  “Oh, my lord.” Jana’s hushed exclamation came out of the darkness. “Really?”

  “You work for Steele Company,” Roarke said. “They had to know that, didn’t they?”

  She pouted. “I never heard anyone say they did.” Jana took a deep breath. “I don’t think the ghosts are soldiers. Like I said, they’re evil. Demons.”

  “I believe evil is a real possibility,” Magnus said.

  “You’re a scientific man?” Roarke asked.

  Magnus scratched his beard. “I have a doctorate in chemistry, but twenty-five years ago my dead mother rang me up.”

  “You’re kidding?” a rotund man in the circle asked.

  The man’s wife sat cross-legged and leaned forward in excitement. “I’ve heard of things like that happening before.”

  “What happened?” Bradley asked.

  Magnus cleared his throat, and his normally jovial face turned dead serious. “She was killed in a car accident, but before I heard about it, she called me. There was a lot of static on the phone, but I’ll never forget what she said. She said, ‘Magnus, there is more to be found in heaven and earth than you know or understand. You should study things you don’t understand. I love you son.’ Before I could say a damned thing she hung up. Less than an hour later I got the phone call that she’d been killed an hour before the phone call.”

  Roarke knew his question wouldn’t win him brownie points but he didn’t care. “You couldn’t have mixed up the time?”

  Magnus didn’t appear to take offense. “My sister was with me, and she looked at the clock. We tried calling her back and didn’t get an answer. She was already dead.”

  Bradley’s voice came out of the darkness. “Geez.”

  “Still,” Magnus said, “I’m not convinced about demons.”

  A whisper came from the room, a sound like disgust or disbelief. Roarke assumed someone in the room made the noise.

  “Who made that noise?” Magnus asked.

  No one owned up to it.

  Before they could get move another muscle, Jana screamed. Roarke reached for a weapon he didn’t have.

  “What the frig?” Bradley asked.

  “There!” Jana pointed. “Something touched me on the back. It’s standing over
there.”

  Roarke swung the thermal imagers in that direction. He did it on instinct. He didn’t think he’d see anything, but, in a flash—a moment—he did. A heat signature the size of a man floated by the camera, near the doorway they’d entered and then winked out as if it had never been.

  “There,” Roarke said. “I’ve got it.”

  Everyone popped to their feet and Magnus looked at the thermal imager. “Nothing there now.”

  Roarke scanned the room, certain someone played a trick on them. But who? Everyone in the room was in his sight. “Damn it. It’s gone.”

  “Now would be a good time to try for more EVPs.” Magnus sounded cheerful again, as if encountering possible paranormal activity turned him into one happy fellow.

  Jana came to Roarke’s side and clutched his left biceps. “It touched me.”

  What the hell did he say to that? Roarke didn’t want to create a scene, but he also didn’t want this woman clinging to him like she was his girlfriend. In a flash he knew if Melissa had done the same thing, it wouldn’t have bothered him. Roarke gently pulled away.

  Magnus scanned the room again, taking a reading with the EMF meter. “The reading here is higher than in the rest of the room.”

  Roarke moved even farther away from Jana. “It could be a coincidence.”

  “Could be.” Magnus’s agreeable tone said Roarke’s skepticism didn’t disconcert him. “Or not.”

  Magnus’s walkie-talkie squeaked.

  “Magnus?” Pippa’s voice asked. “Are you ready to switch out areas?”

  Magnus placed his equipment on a table on one side of the room. “Not quite. We have some activity here we need to check out. We’ll head down to the basement as soon as we finish here.”

  Magnus signed off.

  “That’s it?” The man with his wife asked.

  Magnus reattached his walkie-talkie to his belt. “No. We do an EVP session. Then we head to the basement.”

  Roarke’s enthusiasm rose. Flashlight in one hand and thermal imager in the other, he walked the room. “Why did you touch Jana? Who are you?” Roarke paused, hoping the digital recorders in the room would catch a voice. “I don’t think you’re here. I think this whole psychic, paranormal stuff is a bunch of crap.”

  Utter stillness covered the room. Roarke felt and heard nothing. He saw nothing. It wasn’t even creepy in here, as it had been in the basement for him that time. God, what he wouldn’t do to understand what had happened to him there.

  “Why do you remain here when you could move on?” Roarke he asked.

  “Is there anyone in the room who knows you?” Magnus’s question surprised Roarke.

  “Roarke.”

  The voice came from thin air, female and soft and distinctive. Roarke jolted with shock and looked around at the women in the room.

  “Who said that?” Jana asked.

  “Play back one of our recorders,” Magnus said. “We’ll see if we hear it again.”

  “You all heard that?” Roarke was astonished.

  Everyone nodded or answered. Roarke’s amazement went up a notch. Bradley rolled his voice recorder back until they went back beyond the point where the female voice had called Roarke’s name. Everyone leaned in close.

  “Roarke.”

  Clear. Absolute. The voice couldn’t be denied.

  “It can’t be,” Roarke said.

  “It is.” Magnus smiled. “Don’t worry. You’re not going barking mad. We all hear it.”

  “It definitely isn’t me,” Jana said again.

  Roarke forced the words past his tight throat as amazement tangled with grief. “It’s my mother.”

  Chapter 24

  Melissa stood outside the front of Tranquil View with Roarke, unsure how the rest of the night would proceed. Roarke’s face was easy to see in the entry lights, and his breath puffed out in the winter night. Darcy had asked the teams to come back to the rotunda, and that’s when Melissa had learned Roarke had heard his mother say his name. They’d retreated outside to discuss it, but so far, hadn’t said a word.

  “You can stop investigating now,” she said, “if you’re upset.”

  He turned toward her. “No. I want to take this as far as it will go. There’s no reason to stop now.” His face twisted into impatience as he gestured with his hands. “You and I both think she’s dead. That’s her voice on the tape, Melissa. Magnus said it’s one of the best EVPs he’s ever heard. And it’s the first time he’s been on an investigation where someone could identify the voice. I guarantee anyone who knows my mother would recognize her voice.”

  “The question is, do I go with the rest of the team into the basement?” He drew her close and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Remember what I felt down there? I don’t want to feel like that ever again. But if it will help me understand what happened to my mother, I will.”

  Darcy walked through the open doors. “Hey guys. Sorry to interrupt, but we’re done for the night.”

  Dark circles ringed Darcy’s eyes. She looked exhausted.

  “You okay?” Melissa asked her. “You look awful.”

  Darcy gave a weak smile. “I’m always like this at investigations. Some buildings really take it out of me. “We’re quitting because we have a bit of a mutiny. Several people want to go home after only about four hours. Jana’s happy to know they aren’t demanding their money back, but they aren’t coming back tomorrow night. Lenora is coming back on her own tomorrow night.”

  “And you don’t want to continue the investigation without them?” Melissa asked.

  Darcy looked at her watch. “I would, but we’ve had too much of a disruption. We’ll get some sleep and review the evidence tomorrow. We’ll start about seven tomorrow night if you guys want to come back. Also, Piers has a few things I think you should see and hear if you can bear with us a few moments.”

  Roarke and Melissa agreed and went back into the building after the guests had left. The group entered command central where Piers worked. Piers worked the computer and looked up at the group surrounding him. “I’ve got the voice saying your name Roarke, and the thermal reading you saw. Nothing else yet, but we’ll go over all the evidence tomorrow.”

  Piers showed them the file with the image in the one room. The thermal signature came and went in a zip, but couldn’t be mistaken.

  “Maybe that’s the thing that touched me.” Jana crossed her arms and smiled, as if she’d proven a point.

  “The shape isn’t distinctly human.” Darcy turned to Melissa and Roarke. “But what else could have made that signature and be that large?”

  “Sure as hell isn’t an animal. A bloody bear would have to be in the room with you to make an image that large,” Magnus said.

  “Fantastic evidence.” Henrietta nodded enthusiastically.

  Piers brought up the digital voice files. In moments, he’d produced the female voice calling Roarke’s name.

  “It’s so clear,” Yvette said.

  Pippa slipped her camera over her head and laid it down on a table. “Clearest I’ve ever heard.”

  “Roarke, are you sure it’s your mother?” Jana asked, her voice sharp. “I mean, it could be a ghost pretending to be your mother.”

  “It isn’t.” Melissa felt a wave of certainty pulse through her. Darcy pinned her with a questioning look, so Melissa continued before more questions could fly. “I just have a deep feeling that it’s his mother.”

  Darcy nodded. “We don’t work off psychic impressions, but I’m not saying they aren’t valid. We just can’t use that for evidence.” Melissa swallowed hard, half wishing she hadn’t spoken up. Jana gave her a smug look.

  They wrapped up, and Melissa ached as if she’d spent many hours laboring. The investigation had sucked a lot out of her. She knew one thing for certain. It was an overwhelming notion that might tear her away from Roarke if she pressed the issue. She hadn’t wanted to say anything else in front of the group, afraid he wouldn’t appreciate her giving out this kind of inf
ormation

  “Roarke, I have something to tell you that can’t wait,” Melissa said to him as everyone left. “I didn’t want anyone to hear this.”

  Roarke frowned down at her. “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re going to think its nuts, but it can’t wait.” Melissa’s heart thumped loudly in her ears as she took the plunge. “I’ve had a few psychic impressions over my life, but most of them are intuition and hunch. Things most people have. This is much stronger than that.” She touched his arm.

  Roarke’s deep frown came with a hard question. “What?”

  “I know where your mother is,” Melissa said.

  Roarke froze. Melissa felt his muscles tighten. When he spoke, his voice was harsh and deep. “How could you possibly know that?”

  She closed her eyes and impressions flew at her hard and fast. “In the woods. I see tall pines, pine needles, stacks of wood.”

  “She was murdered?” Roarke asked.

  “Not exactly.”

  “What do you mean not exactly?” Roarke’s voice sounded impatient.

  Melissa’s eyes snapped open, and he moved one step back from her. The slight rejection hurt like hell, but she pushed through it. “The darkness in this place is heavy. Thick with intelligence. It conspires to control living beings from beyond.”

  His frown grew bigger, if that was possible. “I don’t know if I can buy all of that.”

  “Do you trust me?” Her throat felt dry and tight.

  He took a deep breath and nodded. “Go on.”

  “I think danger comes from a horrific evil that was born here in 1888, when the place was built. One that lives and breathes in this building. The forces for evil here are strong. They always have been. Over the years they’ve wavered. Whenever something new happens, such as Steele Company turning the place into condominiums ... the force gathers strength from the upheaval and finds fuel from human emotions. Weak minds are its favorite fuel. Your mother was strong, but her mental illness made certain the evil could influence her at some point. She wasn’t murdered by anyone. She committed suicide.”

  Roarke stiffened and tears welled and trickled from both his eyes. “Jesus.” He wiped at his face with both palms. “Jesus. Don’t say that.”