by H. P. Bayne
For that, Sully looked to Harry. The ghost led the way, taking a few steps into the space and stopping at a spot between the sofa and the coffee table. Once there, he extended a finger, pointing down.
Sully joined Harry, extending his index finger to mark the spot for Dez.
“So what now?” Dez asked. “We can’t just start pulling up the floor.”
“Why not?”
“Well, first off, someone lives here.” Dez grimaced. “Crap.”
“What?” Sully asked.
Dez closed the distance to him, allowing for a hushed response.
“How are we supposed to break it to Andie she’s been working out over the body of a murder victim?”
5
The answer, Dez decided, was to get Andie out of here for the time being.
Not only, he reasoned to Sully, would it enable them to work without upsetting her, but it would keep her out of harm’s way. Once Lowell found out Thackeray’s body had been unearthed, Andie, as the home’s lone tenant, could become a target.
“We need to convince her to stay with someone for a couple of weeks,” Dez said. “Preferably somewhere Lowell won’t be able to find her.”
“You heard what Paul said,” Sully said. “Given their money and influence, the Circle more or less runs the city. There aren’t a lot of places a person can hide. That’s why Terrence Waters and I both holed up in The Forks. I think the only way she’ll really be safe is if this goes public. Once it’s out there the body of the former renter was found in the basement, that should give her some measure of protection.
“It might not come back at Lowell right away—I mean, Thackeray was pretty universally despised, given the conviction—but it will put eyes on him as the owner. And if we can convince her to give a few interviews, it will put Andie in the public eye too. That should be plenty to keep Lowell from moving on anything where she’s concerned.”
“I like it,” Dez said. “What I don’t like is trying to figure out a way to convince her to leave.”
“Maybe we just keep it simple,” Sully said. “We tell her the truth.”
Dez’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Like, how much of it?”
“Not all, obviously. Just enough. Honestly, I don’t think it will take much. She’s already pretty freaked out.”
It made sense to Dez, put like that, so he followed Sully up the stairs and back into the living room. Andie was sitting on the edge of her chair, hands clamped between her knees and lips pressed together as she fixed them with wide eyes.
“Anything?” she asked.
Dez took the spot on the couch farthest from Andie, leaving the closer side for Sully. Sully leaned forward and spoke softly. When he did that, Dez would have believed just about anything coming out of his mouth.
“Andie,” Sully began. “I’ve had a look around. There are three spirits here. Be—”
Andie cut in, voice a squeak. “Three? There are three of them?”
Sully nodded, then continued with what Dez assumed he’d started to say. “Believe me when I tell you they don’t mean you any harm. They’re good people, all of them. But they’re trapped here.”
A sheen building in Andie’s eyes suggested she was on the verge of tears. Dez guessed it was more out of terror than sympathy. “Can you get them to leave?”
“I can,” Sully said. “But there’s something I need to do for them first. I don’t think you’re going to like it, but it’s necessary. And I’m only telling you this because it’s going to come out, probably in a big way. I want you to be prepared.”
“For what?”
“One of them—the man you described seeing—showed me a spot in the basement. I believe the body of one of the ghosts is buried in that spot.”
Andie blanched. Her breaths came too fast, not deep enough to fully reach her lungs. A moment later, her upper body teetered.
Dez leapt from his spot and gained her side, easing her head down between her knees. “Breathe, ma’am,” he said. “As deep as you can. It’s okay.”
He held her there gently for a minute or two, only letting her sit back up once her breathing had returned to normal. This time, when he met her eyes, her tears had spilled over, several drops trailing down her cheeks.
“Where?” she asked, the question coming out choked.
“Where, what?” Dez asked.
“The body? Where is it?”
“Kind of between the couch and the coffee table,” Sully said. “Under the area rug. At least, that’s what the ghost showed me.”
“Oh, God,” she said. “I’ve been working out there. I do cardio kickboxing. I’ve been jumping all over a dead body.”
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t think he cares all that much,” Sully said. “From what I can tell, he stays mainly in the spare room.”
“Really? Wow, that explains it. It’s always so cold in there, and no one who stays in that room ever has a good sleep.” Her shoulders hunched a little closer to her ears, and she sat forward a little, nearer to Sully. “None of them are mad at me, are they?”
Sully looked up, in the direction of the staircase, before returning his gaze to Andie. “No one’s mad at you. If anything, they’re grateful to you for letting us in here to help.”
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “But I don’t think I can stay here while there’s a dead body downstairs.”
Dez resisted the grin. Problem solved.
“We get it,” he said. “Listen, my friend and I are going to have to tear some stuff up down there, see if we can find the body. Once we’re sure something’s actually there, we’ll have to get the police in here to take over. It might be a while your place is off-limits.”
“Honestly, I don’t care,” she said. “I don’t even know if I can live here anymore.”
“Do us one favour,” Dez said. “If you do start looking for somewhere else to live, please don’t say anything to your landlord just yet. And don’t tell anyone about what we told you. If you want to say some ghost hunters are poking around the place, fine, but don’t say anything about the body. Not until you hear from us again. I don’t think it will be long. Probably later today or tomorrow.”
Andie nodded. “Okay. Deal.” Her eyes dropped to her lap for a few seconds, and when she looked back up, her expression was sad. “I know I called you here because I was scared, but I actually do want you to help them. The ghosts, I mean. I wouldn’t want anyone I cared about trapped here like that. It isn’t fair, especially if someone murdered one of them and buried them here. If my calling you means you can help them find peace, then something good will come out of this—even if I have to find someplace new to live.”
Andie took all of ten minutes to pack a bag—insisting they remain immediately on hand in the upstairs hall while she did so. The ghosts weren’t a threat to her, but they were no less terrifying.
If anyone could understand that, it was Dez. All these years and he’d never completely adjusted to the idea of sharing his space with spirits.
They trailed Andie to the door, where she handed Sully her phone number and placed a set of keys in Dez’s hand.
“My spare set,” she said. “So you can come and go as needed. I’d rather not have to drive over to let you in and lock up again every time.” She eyed Sully. “My number for if you need to get ahold of me about anything to do with the ghosts.”
Dez jingled the keys. “We’ll hold onto them for now, but we’ll probably have to hand them over to the police soon. You can get them back at the station later.”
“Mr. Braddock can do that,” Andie said. “I think I’m done with all of this.”
She started for the car but turned back to face Dez and Sully. “Oh no! My damage deposit. Once Mr. Braddock sees the basement all torn up—”
Sully cut in with an answer. “Any decent landlord will overlook it, considering you’d be helping to solve a crime.”
That seemed to satisfy Andie. Dez stood in the doorway, watching as she got into her car and drov
e off. When Dez turned back into the house, Sully was no longer behind him.
The sound of the backdoor opening had Dez jogging through the house to find Sully. He spotted him walking, hood up to conceal his face, through the backyard toward a shed.
Dez quickened his pace to regain Sully’s side. “What are you doing?”
“Garden shed,” Sully said. “I thought maybe we could find something to use in the basement.”
“We’re doing that now, huh?” Dez asked. He struggled to ignore the roiling in his gut at the thought of unearthing a corpse.
“If we’re going to get this sorted out before Christmas, like you said, better do it sooner than later, right?”
Dez grumbled something so incomprehensible even he couldn’t understand it.
The shed was locked, but Dez located a small key on the ring that fit. Inside, they located a pile of gardening tools, and they pulled out a shovel, a spade and an axe.
“Hopefully none of the neighbours are watching,” Dez said. “We probably look like we’re the ones angling to bury a body.”
Sully didn’t respond but for a low chuckle that emerged from beneath the hood. Then he led the way back into the house, spade in one hand, axe in the other.
Dez relocked the shed and trotted to catch up to Sully.
“By the way,” Dez said. “What you said about ‘any decent landlord’ and all that? You weren’t describing Lowell.”
Sully held the back door open for Dez. “Nope. Hate to say it, but Andie’s not getting her damage deposit back.”
They pushed the TV out of the way and pulled the carpet aside to see what they were dealing with. Dez had been hoping they wouldn’t have to chop through the laminate, and he decided, based on what he saw, they could pull it up easily enough.
Starting at the wall, Dez levered the baseboard away to reveal the edges of the flooring. He then wedged the blade of the axe into the groove and pulled, prying the wide boards up one by one.
He’d just started to expose a layer of underlay when a further problem revealed itself: a ringing doorbell.
Dez’s head shot up, and he clamped eyes on Sully. “Who the hell’s that?”
Sully didn’t reply, instead dropping his spade and leading the way to the stairs. He’d gone as far as the living room window, Dez immediately behind him, when he drew back sharply.
“Damn it,” Sully muttered.
Dez stepped forward to try to see what it was Sully had spotted but was stopped by a hand on his chest.
“The ghost hunters Andie said she called,” Sully said. “I think they’re here.”
“Crap,” Dez said. “Can we just ignore them?”
“At least one of them isn’t the sort of person to just give up.”
Dez succeeded in moving past Sully just far enough to get a look outside. A young woman stood on the walkway, peering up at the house. Long, glossy black hair. Dark, almond-shaped eyes. Beautiful features. No mistaking it.
“Ara,” Dez said. “Damn. I hadn’t even considered that possibility.”
“Neither had I.” Sully glanced from the window up to Dez’s face as the bell rang again. “How much you want to bet the person ringing the doorbell is Emory Davis?”
“Damn,” Dez said again. “What should we do?”
“Give me a second to get to the basement,” Sully said. “Then answer the door. Tell them Andie had to step out for a bit and to come back another day or something like that. I don’t want Ara and Emory sneaking around the place. If someone gets suspicious and calls the police before we find anything in the basement, we’re sunk.”
“This will be the second time Ara’s found me in a haunted location,” Dez said. “She’s going to start thinking I’m nuts or something.”
“She’s a practicing Wiccan who has her own ghost-hunting YouTube channel,” Sully said. “I’m pretty sure she’ll be willing to overlook it.”
Sully hightailed it to the basement, leaving Dez to follow through with door-answering duties.
He approached the door, pausing just this side of the entryway. The front door contained a large glass pane with a few clear patches through which residents and visitors could see each other, and he wanted to take a second to get his head screwed on straight. If he was unable to convince Ara to leave, the situation would get tricky fast.
He took a breath and released it, then turned into the entryway and pulled open the door. He recognized Emory, standing with the assistance of a cane on the front stoop. But it was to Ara his eyes went. She’d been on the walkway, phone in hand as if to dial Andie. With the appearance of Dez at the door, her eyes had snapped onto his and the phone stilled in her hand, fingers held frozen over the screen.
“Dez?” she said, lips turning up in a stunned smile. “What are you doing here?”
Dez joined the couple outside, seeking to keep them out of the house at all costs. “Bit hard to explain.” He looked for an out by revisiting her own question on her. “What about you? What brings you here?”
“The lady who lives here called us to investigate her place. She described a haunting and said she’d seen a full-bodied apparition. We wanted to try to document it for our channel.”
Dez bit back the comments forming in his brain. He was pretty sure Andie had been looking for help in getting the ghosts to cross over, not simply for added proof of their existence. While Ara and Emory’s brand of aid might help convince Andie she wasn’t crazy, they wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about ending the haunting. If anything, they’d make it worse by meddling in something they didn’t understand. Dez thought about Betty, Thackeray and Harry trapped in the house, each the victim of a homicide. They didn’t need people wandering around in here asking for signs of their existence—at least, not people who wouldn’t be able to help them at the end of the day. That’s what he and Sully were here for.
Not that he could share that with these two.
Maybe Ara recognized Dez’s skepticism because she changed the subject momentarily. “You remember Emory, right? I know you helped find him. You and your friends. I didn’t get the chance to thank you. I wanted to, but it felt weird somehow, reaching out to you after.”
“You didn’t need to feel weird,” Dez said. “And it’s cool. I was happy to be able to help.”
Emory bestowed his own grateful smile on Dez. “What she said. I owe you and your friends my life. Oliver, especially. Can you pass that along to him, or better yet, arrange a meeting? I’d love to be able to thank him in person. I wasn’t exactly at my best at the time, obviously.”
“I’ll let him know,” Dez said. He didn’t say anything about the proposed meeting, hoping Emory would eventually forget about the idea. “How’s the leg?”
“Getting better. They had to put a rod and a bunch of pins through it, and I’m going to need physio for a while yet. But they finally cleared me from having to use a walker, and I can manage stairs again without feeling like I’ve run a marathon. It’ll get better, they tell me. Seems like a long time coming.”
“Glad to hear you’re making progress. It’s good to see you up and about.”
“So what are you doing here?” Emory asked. “Do you know Andie?”
“Not really,” Dez said. He considered it briefly, and decided partial honesty was the best policy. “I knew the people who used to live here. I mentioned it to Andie, and the ghost she described sounded like one of the family members.”
“Who used to live here?” Ara asked.
There was no sense making anything up. Any ghost hunter worth his or her salt would investigate a house’s past. She’d figure it out soon enough, with or without his help.
“The Schusters,” he said. “Betty, her husband Harry and their son, Thackeray. I think you probably met Betty. She was—”
“Sully’s boss,” Ara supplied. “I remember. “I… I didn’t know this was their place.”
Emory glanced between Dez and Ara. “You mean Sully Gray? Your last boyfriend?”
A
ra nodded. Dez watched to see what Emory’s response would be, wondering whether he would react jealously or sympathetically. Emory passed Dez’s unspoken test by limping down the steps and drawing Ara into a gentle half-hug.
“We don’t have to take this job,” he said.
Ara met his eye. “No, I want to.”
Dez decided he’d better cut in fast. “Um, I know you guys had an appointment here, but I’m actually in the middle of something here.”
That had their attention. “What, exactly?” Emory asked.
“I can’t say much about it yet,” Dez said. “But it’s to do with the Schusters.”
“They never did arrest anyone for what happened to Betty, did they?” Ara asked.
Emory was out of the loop again. “What happened?”
“She was murdered,” Ara said. “Shot to death at the bar she managed, where Sully worked.” She looked back at Dez. “Is that what you’re investigating?”
“Partly,” he said.
“What’s the other part?” Emory asked.
“Like I said, I can’t really discuss the case just yet.”
“And we can’t come in to do some filming?”
“Not a good idea,” Dez said. “Andie’s left us with the house so she’s not here anyway. I’ve got a friend who’s a psychic, and he’s looking around the place now.”
“But that would be perfect!” Ara said. “We could totally do something with that, following a psychic around the house and all that.”
“He doesn’t like people knowing what he does,” Dez said. Or who he is, for that matter. “Believe me, he wouldn’t be up for being filmed. Besides, if this goes the way I think it will go, it will turn into an active police investigation. You guys being in the middle of this isn’t a good idea.”
Ara appeared crestfallen, but Emory nodded as Dez finished speaking. “I get it,” he said. “We already got in trouble over everything that happened with our trespassing at Loons Hollow. If we piss off the cops again, we could end up with our channel being shut down. I’d still love to hear how you make out with all this, though. Any way you can keep us in the loop?”