by Gerri Hill
“Odd. So what’s on the other side?” she asked in a whisper.
She turned, glancing at the outside-facing wall, seeing streams of light sneaking inside from breaks and cracks in the boards that covered the windows. Nothing big enough to allow entry from the outside.
She went back to the entryway, stopping up short. She’d left the front door open. It was now closed. She immediately opened it again, letting in more light. She glanced into the den where Paige had looked but decided to skip that for now. She walked along the edge of the staircase, refusing to look up. Instead, she walked along the base of it. There was a small door under the staircase—a storage closet. Her hand was trembling as she opened it.
The inside was empty. She closed the door quietly and continued on. She came to another closed door. This one was not locked. It opened into a large room. It appeared to be a formal dining room as a massive table took up nearly half of the space. It was an interior room with no windows, making it pitch-black inside. Her flashlight did little to push at the shadows. At the far end was another door. It too was closed. She headed toward it even as the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She touched the doorknob but couldn’t bring herself to open it. She feared that…what? That something was waiting for her on the other side?
Suddenly she was surrounded by cold air.
“Open it.”
She whipped her head around, not knowing if the words were echoing in the room…or in her mind.
Just as quickly, the cold air vanished, replaced again by the stale, warm air of the closed-up house. She stared at the knob, still afraid to open it. Her palm was sweating and the flashlight felt slippery in her hand. She paused to wipe her palm on her jeans, then took a deep breath before pushing the door open.
It was simply an empty room. Another interior room, but much smaller than the dining room. With the flashlight, she scanned the walls. They were bare, as was the floor. She guessed the room to be no bigger than eight feet wide, maybe ten feet deep. A large closet, perhaps. Nothing looked disturbed, although there were scrape marks gouged in the wooden floor. She bent down, running her fingers over them. They were smooth and worn, evidence of something repeatedly being scraped across the area.
She heard a noise behind her and she turned her head, just in time to see the door swinging shut. She jumped up, stopping it before it closed. Her hand was shaking—her whole body was shaking—and she went back into the dining room, thankful that door was still open. As she was about to leave, the door to the small room slammed shut. She swore her heart stopped beating as she stared at it in disbelief. Her fear got the best of her and she nearly ran from the room.
“Up here.”
Her eyes followed the length of the staircase, but she didn’t move. The front door was closed again.
“Come play.”
“Jesus…God,” she murmured, again not knowing if the words were spoken out loud or only in her mind. She was shocked to find herself heading up the darkened staircase. On the sixth step, she heard it. Running. She looked behind her, then hugged the wall as running footsteps pounded on the stairs. As before, she felt a breeze as they passed. She took two more steps up, expecting to feel cold air at any moment. Instead, it was screaming she heard. A high-pitched child’s voice.
“Daddy, no. Daddy, no. Daddy, no.”
She heard a slap, and her face stung as if she’d been the recipient. Another scream and she stared at the top of the landing as she saw the railings bend against the weight of something.
“No, Daddy!”
CJ heard the crash and breaking of bones, and she leaned over the railing, expecting to find a body lying on the floor. Lizzie’s words came back to her. “One of the little girls fell from the second-floor landing.”
She shook her head, trying to convince herself she’d not just heard that, trying to convince herself it was only her imagination. The cold air that surrounded her told her otherwise.
“Come play with us.”
The light was bouncing along the stairs, her hand was shaking so. Even then, she managed to take another two steps up. She felt hands on her back, urging her on. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. She was having a hard time breathing.
“Up here.”
Her lips trembled as she tried to speak. “Who…who are you?”
Child’s laughter was the only reply. Suddenly the laughter stopped, replaced with crying. That too stopped as quickly as it had begun. She felt like she was in a trance as she took the final two steps to the landing. It was brighter up there, the windows on the second floor not being boarded up like those below. It was almost with a sense of relief that she went to a window, looking out on the unkempt grounds, the weeds having overtaken what shrubs remained, the woods encroaching ever closer to the house. She looked at the floor, seeing smudge marks in the dust, as if someone else had been standing at the window before her.
She turned quickly, feeling eyes on her. She knew without a doubt she was not alone.
“Who’s there?” she asked, staring down the dark hallway, trying to see through the shadows.
She felt a wisp of cold air and a soft hand brush her cheek. She pulled away from it.
“Goodbye for now.”
CJ blinked several times, shaking her head, trying to chase the words from her mind.
“Come back soon.”
CJ looked around, convinced the words were spoken out loud, not just in her mind. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and she nearly screamed when the front door opened. But it was only Ice standing in the threshold.
“CJ?”
“Up…up here,” she said, finding her voice. She took several deep breaths, no longer feeling like she was being watched. No longer feeling like she wasn’t alone up on the second floor. She was. How she knew that, she couldn’t be certain. But whatever had been there…if anything had really been there…it was gone. She relaxed. It was just a house again.
“You okay?”
She nodded. She turned her flashlight off, then retraced her steps, albeit much faster than her trip up. The first time she’d been in the house, she’d been terrified. Now? Someone…something…was trying to talk to her. Terrified didn’t begin to cover it.
“Billy called. They’re on their way. Should be here within the hour.”
“Okay. Good.” She took a deep breath. “You find anything?”
“Some missing boards on a few windows. Not big enough for entry. A lot of the windows are broken,” he said. “I did find one oddity. There’s a window in the back that was broken from the inside.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You sure?”
He nodded. “Glass is on the porch.” Ice tilted his head as he studied her. “You okay?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“What happened? You see the ghost?” he teased.
She followed him out onto the porch, the sun hiding behind the tall pines in the back, casting shadows in the front. She leaned against one of the wooden pillars and closed her eyes for a moment.
“CJ?”
When she opened them, Ice was watching her intently, his smile long gone. She nodded.
“There’s something in the house.”
He took a step away from her. “What…what are you talking about?”
She started to tell him what had happened, what she’d heard, but stopped. She decided to wait for Paige and Billy. It was a story she didn’t want to have to tell more than once.
“Let’s wait.”
“Wait?”
“I want a drink,” she said, heading for her truck. “Where are they meeting us?”
“At the hotel.”
“Good. Then let’s find a bar. I could use a shot of tequila,” she said.
Ice hurried after her. “What do you mean, something’s in the house?”
“Either that or I’m losing my goddamn mind,” she muttered as she got into the truck.
Chapter Twenty-One
After Ice’s cryptic phone call urgin
g them to hurry—CJ was apparently “freaked out” after being inside the house again—Paige bravely drove five miles over the speed limit, something she rarely did. When they exited the highway, they bypassed the hotel, instead heading to the local bar Ice had given them directions to, three blocks away.
“Wonder what happened,” Billy said.
“I imagine it was similar to the first time,” Paige said.
She parked beside CJ’s truck. It was late afternoon, too early for the after-work crowd. There were only three other vehicles in the parking lot. She really didn’t know what state of mind she’d find CJ in, but the calm, lazy smile she was greeted with wasn’t it. The four empty beer bottles and two shot glasses could have something to do with it.
“Better go easy on the tequila, tiger,” she said.
“Oh, man, am I glad to see you.” CJ glanced at Billy. “You too, Billy Boy,” she added.
“Sure.”
They pulled out chairs and joined them at the table. Ice was strangely quiet, just picking at the label on his beer bottle. Paige met CJ’s gaze across the table, realizing just how much she’d missed her. The look in CJ’s eyes said the same.
“So I understand you went to the house,” she said. CJ’s expression changed immediately.
“Yeah. I went inside the damn house again,” CJ said. “Baldy here checked the outside. He found a broken window.”
“A lot of the windows were broken,” Billy reminded them.
“Not from the inside out,” Ice said.
“Did you see where someone could have gotten inside?”
“Nope.”
Paige looked at CJ. “What happened?”
CJ swallowed nervously. “Something’s…something is in there,” she said quietly. “It—she—talked to me.”
Ice sat up straighter. “Come on, man. Don’t do this to me.”
“Sorry, baldy. I wish to hell I hadn’t heard anything,” CJ said. She met Paige’s eyes. “Doors closing on their own. I heard a child begging her daddy not to hit her. Then he pushed her—or she fell—over the railing, second floor.” CJ took a drink of her beer. “Felt the cold again. Felt hands touching me. And it talked to me. ‘Come play with us.’”
“Seriously?” Billy asked.
“You think I’m making this shit up?” CJ snapped at him. She then took a deep breath. “I started in the kitchen. There was a locked door at the far end. I don’t know if it was a closet or another room or what. Locked tight. So I went back to the entryway. The front door was closed. I opened it again. Past the stairs, there’s a large dining room. The door was closed, but it wasn’t locked. An interior room. Pitch-black. Against the far wall was a door. It was closed too.” She paused, taking another sip of beer. “That’s when I felt…well, felt like I wasn’t alone. I touched the doorknob but was afraid to turn it. That’s when I felt cold air and a voice said ‘open it.’”
“Jesus,” Ice whispered.
“No shit,” CJ said as she tried to smile. “Anyway, I opened it. It was another interior room. A large closet, maybe,” she said. “It was empty. Some odd marks on the floor caught my attention. While I was squatting down looking at them, the door started closing. I caught it before it shut. I got the hell out of there. When I was leaving the dining room, I heard the door slam shut behind me.”
“Okay, I’m going to need a beer,” Billy said. He looked at Paige. “You?”
“Yes, please.”
“Make it another round,” Ice said.
They were silent while Billy went to the bar. CJ met her gaze and gave her a weak smile. Paige returned it but said nothing.
“Nice and cold,” Billy said, setting a beer in front of each of them.
“Thank you,” Paige said. She looked again at CJ. “What happened next?”
“I went back to the entryway. The front door was closed again. I went upstairs.”
“Why the hell would you go upstairs again?” Billy asked.
“Because it told me to,” CJ said.
“Jesus,” Ice muttered again.
“It was like before. I heard running on the stairs. That’s when I heard the child crying, begging her daddy not to hit her. I heard the screams, I heard the slaps. It was like it was happening right in front of me,” CJ said, her voice quiet and calm. “I could see the boards at the top of the railing bend, heard the scream as she fell. Heard her hit the ground below.”
Paige noticed Billy’s hand was shaking as he took a drink. Ice had a death grip on his beer bottle. CJ had yet to take a drink.
“I was going to turn around and get the hell out, but that voice,” CJ said. “I don’t know if I heard it or if it was just in my mind. She kept saying ‘up here’ and ‘come play with us.’”
“A child’s voice?”
“Not so much a child. A young girl,” CJ said. “I went up to the second-floor landing. Up there, the windows aren’t boarded up. At the first window, there were prints—smudge marks—on the floor where someone had been standing, looking out.”
“Jesus…man,” Ice murmured.
“Then it was like…like she knew Ice was about to open the door. I felt a touch on my face and she said ‘goodbye for now.’ Then before Ice opened the door, she said ‘come back soon.’” CJ finally picked up her beer bottle and took a long drink. “When Ice opened the door, I nearly screamed like a girl,” CJ said with a shaky laugh.
“Okay, let’s talk this out logically,” Paige said.
“Logically? I’m hearing goddamn ghosts,” CJ said loudly. “How can we talk logically?”
Paige smiled, trying not to take offense to CJ’s outburst. “Well, everyone said the house was haunted. Why wouldn’t we hear—see—things out of the ordinary?”
“You really believe it’s haunted?” Billy asked.
“What does haunted mean?” Paige asked. “Are we talking about what we read in stories or scary movies? Or are we talking about real life? There are people who devote their lives to filming and recording apparitions and images,” she said.
“Ghost hunters,” CJ supplied.
“Yes. Some people have the gift of seeing—feeling—the presence of…well, spirits, if you will,” she said. Then she smiled. “Although I don’t know that I would exactly call it a gift.”
“You got that right, baby,” CJ said, some of her normal swagger returning.
“That’s all well and good, but what the hell does it have to do with our cold case?” Ice said. “I mean, the house wasn’t even supposed to be a player in this.”
“Maybe the boys are in the house,” CJ said.
“Fourteen years ago, they checked the house,” he said. “There were no breaches, nothing disturbed. No evidence that anyone had been in the house in years.”
“And I go back to a point I made earlier,” CJ said. “How well did they check the house? It’s supposed to be haunted. You think they went through every nook and cranny?” She shook her head. “I think they just did a drive-by.”
“You don’t know that,” Ice said.
“Yeah? Then why is there a locked door in the kitchen? Fourteen years ago, you’re looking for missing boys, wouldn’t a locked door demand that someone open it?”
“She has a point,” Billy said.
CJ turned to Billy. “Like you. You checked the kitchen, right? Did you find the locked door?”
He shook his head. “I just kinda looked around. Nothing looked disturbed.”
“Exactly. And my guess is they did the same thing fourteen years ago. It’s locked up. It’s dusty. There are spiderwebs. And nothing looked disturbed.” CJ looked at her. “Did you find anything in Midland?”
“We found that Herbert Krause was never there.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Edie showed up, she was alone. No one ever saw her husband. They were told they’d divorced.”
“Didn’t interview her mother, though,” Billy added. “Nursing home with dementia. We didn’t see the point.”
“So now
what?” CJ asked.
“Howley’s running a search again, but he doesn’t think anything will pop up. We already know his Social Security number hasn’t had any hits on it since they allegedly left Cleveland for Midland,” she said.
“So he just disappeared?” Ice asked.
“Looks that way.”
“I think we need to officially talk to Edith Krause,” CJ said.
“I agree,” Paige said. “Based on what Lizzie said about her being pretty much a recluse, I did mention to Howley about possibly getting a warrant. If we do, we can interview her at the sheriff’s office.”
“Good idea.” CJ slid her bottle to the middle of the table. “And now I’m starving. Are you guys hungry?”
“Please don’t subject me to another steak house,” Paige said. “How about Chinese?”
“I hate Chinese,” Ice groaned. “How about Mexican?”
“I’m in,” CJ said.
“Me too,” Billy agreed.
Paige nodded. “Mexican it is.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
CJ closed the door, then leaned against it, a smile playing on her face. Paige stood in the center of the room, her pressed slacks still looking as immaculate as if she’d just put them on.
“I missed you.”
Paige smiled. “Did you?”
“We didn’t have a proper goodbye, remember?” She shoved off the door, going toward her. “Didn’t really have a proper hello.”
Paige lifted her arms, circling CJ’s neck and pulling her close. Her kiss was slow and very thorough, hinting at what was to come.
“I missed you too,” Paige murmured as her lips trailed to CJ’s ear. “Billy knows about us, by the way.”
CJ laughed. “Good. Because so does Ice.”
Paige pulled back slightly. “Is it a problem?”
“No. He suspected. He came right out and asked. I didn’t want to lie to him.”
Paige nodded. “It’s almost a relief that they know. And I’m sure they’re discussing it right now.”
CJ pulled the blouse from Paige’s waistband, touching warm skin. “I’m just thankful we don’t have adjoining rooms again.” She unbuttoned the blouse quickly and shoved it off, but Paige stilled her hands as she was about to unclasp her bra.