Fire on the Ramparts (Sugar Hill Book 2)

by M. L. Bullock

  “Where are you?”

  “Um, on the Ramparts. Right off the main road.”

  “I’m on the way.”

  I could hear the fear in her voice. All was not well. “Is there something wrong at Sugar Hill?”

  “Yes, I heard a crashing sound upstairs, and my dining room is freezing. I can’t go back in there.”

  “Go outside right now and stay there. We’re coming to you.”

  “All right, but hurry up. I’m sitting in my car.”

  “Okay, be there in a few minutes.” I stared at Becker, but before I could tell him anything, our fearless leader and Megan walked up. I didn’t point out that Mike had pink lipstick on his neck.

  “I’ll let you tell him the good news,” Beck said.

  “What are you two doing out here? Getting a head start?” Mike didn’t hide his aggravation.

  “We saw something that looked like a ball of fire. Over there. But it’s gone now.”

  “Where? In the ruins?” Mike pointed toward the old foundation where we’d fixed the camera.

  “Yeah, but that’s not all. Avery is having a problem at the house. She wants us to come over there and investigate. She’s got a cold spot and some bangs. Seems like we stirred up something.”

  “Oh Lord. What now, Jessica?”

  “Nothing. I haven’t done anything, Megan.”

  Mike slid his MHP hat off his head and back on. It was his go-to move when he was aggravated. “We can’t abandon this spot. I’ve already told the channel we’d be out here tonight—they will be expecting some footage.”

  “Yeah, but it is Sugar Hill. You know that’s the real prize here. Why not let me and Beck go over there? You can keep James, Megan and the other guy.”

  “Fine, but be thorough. And no going rogue, Jess. If you sense something or see something, keep it to yourself. At least until we can all go over the evidence. No spontaneous reporting to the client.”

  “I had no other plans, Mike.”

  “I mean it, no more going rogue.”

  “I didn’t go rogue! You make it sound like I did it on purpose so they could find the bodies. I guess you think I stuffed them in there too? Are we really going to stand out here and argue in the woods?” His criticism hurt my feelings more than I cared to admit.

  The leaves crunched behind me, and I heard Megan talking on her cell phone. “Great. See you then!” she said. Then she hung up and beamed at us. “Hey, guys, Summer just called me. She’s coming out to do an interview tonight. Has some cool details to share about the Ramparts. And she’s so photogenic. This will definitely make good television.” She had a proud grin on her face, but I was more than puzzled. Why would Summer suddenly want to come out here? I was keenly aware that we’d gotten ourselves in the middle of some type of familial struggle, but I couldn’t figure it all out. I wondered if the others had any clue.

  “That’s strange timing. Jessica just got a call from Avery. She’s heading back to Sugar Hill with Becker.”

  Becker huffed and said, “Come on.” His voice was kind of whiny, like a teenager’s. “We need to spend some time investigating this location. We’ve got the equipment up, and our time is limited. I’d rather stay here.”

  “Only because Summer is coming out,” I said disapprovingly. Was he deliberately trying to keep us from investigating the house? “Look, you do what you want, but I have to go. Avery needs help.”

  “Jess, what did I just say about going rogue?”

  “Guys! Cut it out. I’ll go with Jess, and you and Becker stay here, do the interview and conduct the investigation as we planned. Chances are it’s just Avery’s nerves or something. I mean, that’s to be expected when people find skeletons in your basement. We’ll check it out and come back when we’re through.”

  “Well, you won’t be disappointed here,” I said. “We’ve already seen a fireball. Check the footage. I recorded it.” I felt relieved that Megan supported my decision. I was eager to help Avery, if I could. If we could.

  Megan smiled and slid her arm in mine. And why are we suddenly BFFs? Because she and Mike made up?

  “All right, you two, but be careful. Grab some gear and get going.”

  “Roger that,” Megan said with a perky smile, and we scrambled into the van to grab the usual toys. Then she slid behind the wheel of the truck. It smelled like musky cameramen, but they didn’t give us a hard time when we evicted them. It was time to go to work anyway. Just as we turned onto the sloping driveway of Sugar Hill, she asked me, “What do you think is going on here, Jessica?”

  “To put it bluntly, I think it’s what the old folks would call a reckoning.” Fortunately she did not ask me to explain myself. I wasn’t sure I could, but it was as good a description as I could muster.

  “Great. Sounds promising.” She put the truck in park and said, “Since Miss Dufresne reached out to you, I think it’s best if you take the lead in the conversation. I’ll hang back and back you up.”

  “There she is.” I grabbed the small duffel bag and met Avery at the back of her Lexus. I’d watched her on the news. Not religiously, because I wasn’t a big fan of the news, but I’d seen her enough to know she didn’t get shaken easily. And now here she was, shaken to the core.

  She took a deep breath. “Okay, full disclosure. Ever since I moved here, there’s been weird crap happening.”

  “Weird crap?” Megan asked. So much for letting me take the lead.

  “Yeah, weird.” Avery paused her pacing. She had her hands on her hips and was obviously disturbed. Her usually neat hair was not so neat now, she didn’t have any shoes on and she was visibly trembling.

  “Okay, Avery. Well, we’re here,” I stepped in. “Why don’t we go back inside? You don’t have shoes on, and Megan and I are here now. Do you feel safe doing that, or should we sit in the truck for a few minutes?”

  She chewed on her thumbnail and sighed loudly. “God, I’m being such a wimp. I called you because a black shadow from the dining room gathered up and stood in front of me. It called me Susanna. Something really bad is going to happen, and I don’t know what to do.”

  “Hey, it’s okay, Avery. You aren’t alone now.” I didn’t touch her. Avery was a sensitive, like me, and from what I’d gathered in the short time I’d known her, she didn’t have a clue about managing it.

  “All right, let’s go in.” We walked inside, and immediately I got the distinct impression, for the third time, that whatever was here didn’t want me to know it was here. Like he—no, they—didn’t want me to see them.

  Without saying anything to Megan or Avery, I began to talk to the spirits. “I know you are here, and so does Avery. There’s no sense in hiding now.” Megan stared at me and then snapped to attention. She grabbed the duffel bag and foraged for her investigative tools. She held an EMF reader and began sweeping it around. She handed me the EVP recorder, but I didn’t use it yet. I couldn’t move too quickly because I didn’t want to frighten Avery even more.

  The spirit didn’t answer, and after a minute or two of pacing the foyer I asked, “You know who’s here, don’t you, Avery? Tell us, please, so we can help you.”

  She didn’t answer me right away. She was listening to the house creak and pop in the humidity.

  “This might be the only way,” I added.

  “Well, I don’t guess I have anything to lose at this point.”

  I could tell she was about to blow my mind.

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Avery

  “Jessica, the truth is that this ring I wear…wait. You can’t record this, Megan!” She frowned at me, but I wasn’t going to budge. She nodded and begrudgingly put her video equipment away. I raised my hand and wiggled my ring finger, ignoring the surge of warmth it emitted. “I’m the matrone, the symbolic leader of my family. That’s what this ring is supposed to signify, but it’s more than that. It attracts a spirit—a spirit that is looking for his soul mate.”

  “So that ring is like a power object? Who is this ghost?” Me
gan was immediately intrigued.

  “Ambrose. His name is Ambrose.” Eyes were on me. I could feel them staring, bearing into me. And not just living human eyes. I swallowed and continued, “He was Chase Dufresne’s cousin and the lover of Chase’s wife, Susanna Dufresne, although it’s a bit more complicated than that. I think it’s him. He’s the one haunting me.”

  Jessica’s pretty face scrunched up in disgust. “Why would you wear that ring? Take it off, Avery.” She reached for it, but I shook my head.

  “It won’t come off. I’ve tried everything except have it cut off. I just can’t bring myself to do that. I guess I’ll have to. That might be the only way to get rid of him.” Jessica held my hand, closed her eyes briefly and then released me. If she sensed anything, she didn’t tell me. “He—I don’t want to say his name too often because he can hear me—he believes the wearer of his ring is his soul mate. It belonged to Susanna. Her mother put a kind of curse on it.”

  Megan laughed. “Are you sure? So this ghost believes you are Susanna? Is this a true story or just a family legend?”

  “I don’t know what he believes. But the story is true, and I have recorded family history to back it up. According to my great-great-grandmother Margaret, many Dufresne husbands have died under suspicious circumstances. Or at the very least gone mad.”

  Suddenly I understood what was happening to Jamie. It was the curse working on him. It was Ambrose trying to keep us apart. That had to be it. Why else would Jamie’s personality flip so wildly? And where was he? God, I hoped he was all right.

  “This spirit is very…possessive. So much so that he’s a danger to the people around me. I can’t have that.”

  Megan leaned against the wall, her arms crossed stiffly in front of her. Her expression made me even more nervous. I wondered what was eating her.

  I continued, “He was the lover of Susanna Dufresne; he seduced her into betraying her husband and even had her declare that she was his soul mate. He was murdered during the fire on the Ramparts. I don’t know who set the fire, not for sure, but some of the women and girls in my family have seen him. They call him the Lovely Man.”

  “Could it be a familiar spirit?” Jessica pondered aloud.

  “Like from the Bible?” asked Megan as she tinkered with her handheld devices.

  “I guess, but the existence of these beings has been recorded in many places. They’re entities that are attached to the family, usually through spells or curses. Some are nasty, evil spirits, and others are less dangerous. One such case I’ve studied features a ghost that consistently appears in family photos, but…”

  “But what?” I asked as Jessica strolled around and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. She stared up the stairs as if she could see something we couldn’t. Maybe she could.

  Without even taking her eyes off the door, she answered me in a flat voice, “The ring disturbs me. We have to find a way to… Can anyone else hear that?”

  The room fell silent. I didn’t hear anything at first, until I walked to the bottom of the stairs. At the first boom I practically jumped out of my skin. It was the unmistakable sound of a door slamming. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from, maybe the Angel Gallery.

  “Turn out the lights, Jessica,” Megan said. “I think we need to go up.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at the dining room. “But what I saw was in there. Shouldn’t we start in there?” I heard the sound too, but I was stalling. Even though I had experienced more than my share of ghostly encounters at Sugar Hill, this felt different. The presence in the house felt heavy, dark and determined to reach me. I couldn’t fathom the change, except perhaps that the opening of the basement and the revelation that two women had been walled up and left to die here had fueled whatever already called this place home.

  As if to answer me, more slamming and scratching echoed above us.

  “Fine, but why are we turning out the lights?” Megan had lost her mind if she thought I wanted to investigate in the dark.

  “Trust me,” she said as she pulled a flashlight out of her pocket and flicked it on. “They like the dark. We’ll get more of a response if we limit the amount of light we use.”

  “Great,” I whispered.

  Another door on the second floor, farther away, now slammed shut. Someone was trying to avoid us—or lure us onward. I had a suspicion that it was a dead someone and not a member of the housekeeping staff.

  Together the three of us started walking up the stairs, and I began preparing myself for what we might find. “It could be one of the housekeepers. Dinah pretty much does whatever the hell she wants. I never know where she’s going to turn up.”

  Megan paused on the steps. “Are you saying you don’t want us to go up there? We don’t have to. We just want to help.”

  “No. Let’s do this.”

  As we reached the top of the wide wooden staircase, she stopped and peered into the darkness. “Jessica, what are you feeling? Anything?” Her voice sounded confident, and I took comfort in that.

  “Not much yet. What about you, Avery?”

  “Yes…someone is here, but I don’t know who.”

  “Are you okay to move forward?” Jessica handed me a flashlight. I pushed the rubber button on the end and shined the bright LED light in front of me.

  “I’m ready. I think it’s coming from the Angel Gallery. Let’s go.” I took a deep breath and flicked off the hall light.

  It was now or never.

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Summer

  “Make a choice, Summer,” Danforth’s voice boomed through the phone. “You either get rid of her now or you don’t. Let me just make you aware of what’s at stake here. If you don’t get her out of the way tonight, you’ll never have our support again. This was your idea, and now it’s time to deliver. I’m putting my neck on the line for you—for the family. Show us you are the true matrone. Get rid of her!” I’d hung up the phone without answering him. What else was there to say?

  I tapped on the steering wheel nervously, wondering what the hell to do next. If I called Reed I’d have to explain to him how I’d lobbied the board for a vote of no confidence in Avery. How in the beginning I wanted to take what was mine!

  Until I got to know Avery. Until I believed in her. Until I knew exactly what it would cost to change the status quo. I wasn’t willing to pay the price, was I?

  Yes, I still dreamed of Ambrose and wanted him, wanted to be his, even though he had not chosen me—I wanted that more than my next breath. But not enough to murder.

  With no plan, I decided to follow my instincts. I’d go to the Ramparts. I’d talk to Becker; maybe somehow I could convince him to do the dirty work for me.

  You can’t do that, Summer! You’d still be guilty!

  It was as if Aunt Anne were in the car with me. I grabbed my flashlight and scurried down the well-hidden path that would lead me to the My Haunted Plantation crew. I couldn’t explain it, but I had to go. I had to be there. I lied to myself and said it was because of Becker, but that wasn’t it. Not in the least. It was because Ambrose was going to be there. And I needed to know why. Why had he rejected me? Why had he cast me aside for Avery?

  A day of reckoning was coming to Ambrose. He must pay for what he’d done.

  Yes, what he’s done to us all, Summer. He is an evil man to love us and leave us so.

  I paused on the sandy pathway. Who said that? Why was I hearing a woman’s voice out here? And how did she know my name?

  “Hello?” I called, half expecting someone to answer.

  “Hey, Summer! We’re over here.”

  I saw Becker down the path a bit, and I jogged toward him. I glanced over my shoulder once but saw nothing. No women stalking me and calling me by name.

  “Thought you’d changed your mind. It’s really good of you to come out and offer your insights. It’s going to help us a lot. I am glad I suggested it—and if you don’t mind too much, could you mention that to Mike? I’d like him to know that this was my idea
. It’ll give me a little street cred.”

  “What?” I asked, staring up at him.

  “Are you okay? Did you get stoned on the way here or something? You look out of it.”

  “I’m not sure what’s going on with me. I’m hearing voices. Someone called my name.”

  “That’s cool. Let me get my audio recorder. Maybe we can pick it up again.”

  “No, let’s go to the Ramparts. I have to see him—I mean see the place.”

  “All right, we’ve had some action already. Camera Three picked up a strange fire burst that came up from the ground. We’ve checked it out, and it’s not gas or anything flammable. Just good old air around here.”

  “Yeah, fire bursts are bad.” I wore my Keds, blue jeans and a thick jacket, but I was still freaking cold. “Put your arm around me, Becker. I’m freezing.”

  “Sure, but I have to warn you, you’re putting yourself in danger. Doing it in the woods is on my bucket list.”

  I stopped walking and waved my flashlight in his face. No, he wasn’t Ambrose, no trace of him there. “I’m sorry to tell you that you are out of luck tonight. I’m not here just to give an interview. I am hoping you can help me reach out to one particular ghost. His name is Ambrose. He died in the Ramparts fire about two hundred years ago.”

  He smiled playfully. “Oh, so that’s who you were dreaming about last night. And I was jealous of a ghost. What a dumbass!”

  I didn’t joke around with him but just kept walking. Soon I could see the lights of the black MHP van in the distance. We were getting close. Then suddenly Handsome Cheever stepped out into the pathway, his hat pulled down so far over his eyes that I was surprised he could see us at all.

  “Don’t go, Miss Summer. Don’t go, please.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Handsome. Get lost.”

  “I know what you’re going to do, and it won’t work. He won’t take you; he’s already chosen Avery. You have to let him go, ma’am, or he is going to kill you. Kill you dead.”

  “What?” Becker shook his head. “Who’s going to kill Summer? I’ll kick his ass!”