by Ally Blue
Sam didn’t say anything else, and Bo didn’t ask.
They’d just started watching the tapes again when they heard the back door open. Footsteps and voices sounded through the hall. Sam schooled his face into a smile as the rest of the group trooped into the library.
“Man, oh man,” David said, wiping the sweat from his brow with his forearm. “It’s hotter than hell out there.”
“The barn wasn’t hot.” Andre grinned. “Nice and cool in there.”
“Bastard,” David answered mildly.
“So how’d it go?” Bo switched the tape off, rose to his feet and stretched. “Did anything happen?”
“Nope.” Amy flopped onto the sofa with a sigh. “We saw a few mice, a bird and the biggest spider in the history of the universe, but that’s it.”
“I’m sure you saw and felt nothing.” Cecile stood beside the door with crossed arms and a haughty expression, “but I know now that at least one spirit inhabits that washhouse. A slave, maybe, forced to scrub the master’s clothes day and night until her poor heart finally gave out.”
“I felt something.”
All eyes in the room locked onto David in surprise. “What did you sense, David?” Bo asked, his voice admirably even.
David sat in the big armchair and leaned forward, as if telling a story around the campfire. “At first, I thought it was nothing,” he began in a hushed tone. “Cobwebs or something like that, maybe, brushing my neck. But then I felt something like…like fingers. Pulling at my shirt. And I smelled something. Like lye soap.”
Amy’s blue eyes narrowed. “So, what you’re saying is—”
“Yes,” David interrupted. “I think… I think the spirit was trying to…to…” He gestured everyone closer. “I think she wanted to wash my clothes.”
“Oh, for…” Amy smacked him hard on the knee while everyone but Cecile howled with laughter. “David, honestly.”
David shrugged, utterly unapologetic.
Cecile did not appear to be amused. “Stupid prick,” she hissed, cheeks red and eyes flashing. “Don’t mock the spirit world. You wouldn’t like it when they got the last laugh.”
“All right, that’s enough.” Bo’s calm voice cut through the laughter and anger. “Let’s take a break for lunch. Then Sam and I will go investigate the outdoor kitchen, and y’all can fight over who gets to watch tapes. That work for everyone?”
“Suits me,” David said. “What’d y’all find on the tapes so far? Anything?”
Bo glanced at Sam. “Actually, there was a strange noise on the nursery tape just a few minutes before you got back inside. It was very unusual. Not a voice exactly, but more of a suggestion of a voice, if that makes sense. Don’t you think, Sam?”
Sam nodded his agreement. “It was pretty weird.”
Andre stroked his chin. “Hm. Maybe we ought to go ahead and set up the camera in there right now, get some video this afternoon?”
“Good idea,” Amy said. “As a matter of fact, Bo, maybe we should keep a camera running in there all the time. Between what happened last night and what you heard on the tape, I’d say we’ve got reason to believe that the nursery might be a particularly active part of this house. We don’t want to miss anything.”
“That’s true.” Bo bit his bottom lip in a way that caused a rush of heat through Sam’s groin. “Andre, you and David go on and set up the equipment in the nursery. Cecile, take stock of our supplies, make sure we’ve got tapes enough to keep the camera rolling twenty-four hours a day.” Cecile spluttered in protest. Bo ignored her and plowed on. “Each tape lasts six hours. Amy, you work out a schedule for changing the tapes.”
“What do you want me to do?” Sam asked when it became clear Bo was finished issuing instructions.
Bo gave him a warm smile that did nothing to reduce Sam’s already profound attraction to the man. “You can come help me make lunch.”
Amy’s sudden sharp frown made Sam feel vaguely uneasy, as if she could read his thoughts and found them distasteful. He wondered, as he had earlier, why she didn’t like Bo spending time with him. That she strongly disapproved, he didn’t doubt for a second, but the why of it eluded him. After all, he hadn’t told anyone he was gay, and he knew for a fact he hid it well.
Maybe not as well as you think, a quiet little voice whispered in his head. Maybe it’s all over your face, how much you want him.
Ignoring the voice and Amy’s frown and the warmth pulsing between his legs, Sam stood and smiled back at Bo. “I’d love to help cook. Tell me what to do, I’m all yours.”
“Okay, everybody, let’s get busy.” Bo flashed that dazzling smile again. “C’mon, Sam.”
Sam followed Bo toward the kitchen. Bo looked over his shoulder at him for a second, and Sam wondered if he imagined the banked fire in those dark eyes.
One turkey-and-Swiss sandwich and a plate of pasta salad later, Sam and Bo gathered their equipment and headed out back to explore the old outdoor kitchen. The heat smacked Sam in the face like a damp, sticky hand the minute he left the relative coolness of the back porch. Insects droned in the pines that clustered behind the outbuildings.
“Jesus, David wasn’t just kidding about it being hot out here.” Sam squinted up at the deep blue sky. The sun’s disc seemed to waver in the heat-shimmer. “Is it always like this down here?”
“In the summer? Pretty much, yeah.” Bo gave him a sidelong smile. “The upside is that the winters are relatively mild most years.”
“You mean there’s no snow?”
“Rarely.”
“Good. Fucking hate snow.”
Bo gave him a startled look, then burst out laughing. Sam laughed too. It felt good. He had to remind himself that it didn’t mean anything. Just two guys having a laugh.
The outdoor kitchen, a long, low brick building with massive chimneys on each end, was dim inside and wonderfully cool. Grimy windows broke the sunlight into a soft haze that failed to illuminate more than a few feet of the earth floor. Here and there, broken panes let in a single ray of fierce molten gold, all the brighter for the otherwise unrelieved gloom.
Sam switched on his flashlight and swept the beam around the room. Dust and cobwebs lay thick on every surface. In the far corner, something squeaked and scuttled across the floor.
“Mice,” Bo said, unnecessarily, as he turned the EMF detector on.
Switching the flashlight to his left hand, Sam thumbed on the video camera and started the tape rolling. “Why’s it such a mess in here? Didn’t Mr. Gentry open the outbuildings for tours?”
“No. He had plans to at some point, but as you can see, they’d need a lot of work before it would be safe to let the public in. He hadn’t gotten that far yet when he had to close the house.”
“Hm.” Sam panned around the room, stopping when Bo’s face came into frame. “What’re you getting on the EMF?”
“It’s a little lower than it is in the house. I’ve got one point two right now, pretty steady.” Bo glanced at the thermometer he held in his other hand. “Temp’s seventy-two degrees.”
“And that’s nice and cool compared to outside. Damn.”
“Yep. It’s probably pushing a hundred out there.” Bo started walking slowly around the perimeter of the room, his gaze fixed on the EMF detector. “Are you feeling anything, Sam?”
Nothing you want to know about. Sam licked his dry lips and tried not to stare at Bo’s ass. “Not like last night. I assume that’s what you meant.”
Bo glanced at Sam, the corners of his mouth curling up in a slight smile. His eyes flicked down and back up, glittering in the gloom, and suddenly Sam couldn’t breathe. If he’d gotten that look in a bar, he’d have turned on the charm and bought the man a drink.
He squashed the bright flare of hope before it could burn out of control. It’s your imagination, idiot, he scolded himself. This isn’t a pick-up joint, and Bo isn’t gay.
“Hm. That’s odd,” Bo said.
Sam swallowed and forced himself to fo
cus. Bo was walking in a small, slow circle, frowning at the EMF detector. “What’s odd?”
For a moment, Bo didn’t answer. Then he sighed and looked up. “The EMF spiked for just a second. But it’s gone back down now. Did you get anything on the camera?”
“No. And before you ask, I didn’t feel anything unusual either.”
Bo grinned. “You’re already reading my mind, Sam. That’s scary.”
Sam laughed. “I’ve been working on my psychic powers.”
“Oh, really?” Bo took a step closer, smiling into the camera. “So what am I thinking now?”
Sam gulped, keeping the camera up to hide his reaction. If he didn’t know better, he’d have sworn Bo was flirting with him. But that, he knew, was impossible. Maybe that’s just how he is with everyone. You don’t know him at all, really. Don’t start reading into things.
“Let’s see,” Sam said, lowering the camera and hoping Bo couldn’t see him blushing in the dimness. “You’re thinking that we should note exactly where the EMF spike occurred, and after we finish sweeping the room, we should see if we can make it spike again. Then, we should search this room and the surrounding area outside to see if there’s anything electronic that could’ve caused it. That right?”
Bo smiled. “Close enough. Let’s get to work.”
Investigating the old kitchen took much longer than Sam had thought it would. Every square inch had to be thoroughly documented with EMF, thermometer and videotape. Bo explained that electromagnetic fields generally fluctuated to some extent, even within a small area. Readings needed to be taken of the entire space, so they would have an average reading against which to measure any spikes.
Sam found himself fascinated by the whole thing. It was far more complicated and involved than he’d realized, and he loved it. Even though nothing happened after the single spike in EMF, he wasn’t disappointed. It was enough to be a part of the investigation, to know that whatever the outcome was, he’d played an important part in it.
He could even tell himself, with some degree of confidence in its truth, that being with Bo had nothing to do with how much he enjoyed investigating.
As afternoon melted into evening, the group gathered in the library to discuss the day’s events and plan for the night and the next day.
“Just please tell me,” David said as he plopped into an armchair, “that we can stay inside tomorrow.”
Bo grinned at him. “Does that mean you want to pull tape-watching duty?”
David wrinkled his nose. “Me and my big mouth.”
Bo laughed. “Don’t worry. We’re all going to take turns again.”
“So what did you and Sam find in the old kitchen today?” Amy asked. “Did anything happen?”
“Not really. There was a very brief spike in the EMF reading, but neither of us saw or felt anything.” Bo’s gaze cut to Sam. “I guess we’ll see if anything shows up on the tape or not.”
Sam kept quiet and hoped his attraction to Bo hadn’t somehow come through on camera.
“We got something on the tape from last night’s investigation,” Andre told them. “The upstairs one.”
Bo’s eyes sparkled. “What was it?”
“It looked like the beginnings of a mist forming,” Amy said. “But it wasn’t like any other mist I’ve ever seen. It was sort of hard to focus on.”
Andre nodded. “That’s as good a way to put it as any. It was almost like the light wouldn’t quite touch it, or something.”
Bo tugged absently on the end of his braid. “Let me see.”
Andre found the tape, popped it into the VCR and rewound to the place he’d marked. He hit play. The nursery sprang to life on screen, along with Amy and Andre’s faces. Bo’s voice sounded through Amy’s radio, Andre remarked on the sudden cold, and suddenly Sam saw it. A dense, swirling darkness which deflected the eye, making it difficult to look at. The air seemed to curve around it.
The hairs stood up on the back of Sam’s neck. Something about the way the darkness pulsed seemed purposeful. Alive, almost.
“Wow.” Bo stared at the screen, his face alight with excitement. “This is really amazing.”
“We marked it.” Amy tapped the screen with one slender finger. “This bit’s definitely going on the CD.”
“We mark all possible evidence and transfer it to CD,” Andre explained, evidently noticing Sam’s puzzlement. “That has to be done back in the office, since it’s so time intensive.”
“Plus the equipment’s a real bitch to haul into the field.” David grinned at Sam. “I’ll show you how to do all that when we get back.”
“Sounds great,” Sam said, smiling.
Cecile stood and smoothed her hands down the front of her skirt. “I’m going to my room, to rest for a while before dinner, if that’s all right?”
Bo nodded. “Of course.”
“Good riddance,” David muttered. Cecile stiffened and hurried away.
“David,” Bo said when she was out of earshot, “could you please at least try to be civil to her?”
“I’m trying, man, but she’s on my last nerve.” David shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe how she acted today.”
Bo chuckled. “Worse than last night?”
“Hell yeah. It was full-on communicating-with-the-dead shit this time. Christ, I can’t believe we have to work with that woman.”
Andre nudged David’s shoulder. “She faking?”
“I’d bet my left nut she is.”
“You don’t know that,” Amy said doubtfully. “Maybe she really can feel…you know. Something.”
David rolled his eyes. “The only thing she feels is a desperate need for attention.”
“We still have to work with her, so I’d appreciate it if everyone would please try to get along.” Bo’s expression was stern, but his eyes glinted with amusement. “I’m going to go get cleaned up before I start dinner. Y’all can get the equipment put up and check the camera in the nursery, if you don’t mind.”
Andre heaved himself to his feet. “C’mon, Sam, you and I can go do that right now.”
Sam got up and silently followed Andre out of the room. His arm brushed Bo’s as he passed, and their eyes met. Sam smiled briefly and kept moving, thanks to the lifelong habit of keeping his desires hidden, but the heat he thought he saw in Bo’s eyes made his breath come short.
Get a hold of yourself, Sam. You’re acting like a teenager with his first crush, seeing things that aren’t there. Just get the fuck over it.
“The old tape’s not up yet, is it?” Sam glanced at his watch as they climbed the stairs to the second floor. “It’s only four o’clock.”
“I know. It’ll be up about six-fifteen.”
“Then how can…”
“Wait.”
Andre strode down the hall without another word. Instead of going into the nursery, though, he veered into the little parlor opposite the stairwell. Sam followed him, puzzled. “Andre, what’s going on?”
“I wanted to talk to you privately.” Andre shut the door and leaned against it, arms crossed. “What did you feel in there last night? Because I have to tell you, whatever it was, I didn’t like it one bit.”
“Neither did I.” Sam drew a deep breath. “It felt like there was something…” He stopped, fumbling for the right words. “Like something was waiting, just out of sight. Something dangerous.”
“Exactly.”
“You ever had anything like that happen before?”
“I’ve felt things before. There was a theater we investigated in Mobile a couple of years ago. Every time we went in there, I felt like someone was watching me. But I’ve never felt anything like I did last night.” Andre’s expression was solemn. “I was scared. And I don’t scare easy.”
“Same here.” Sam ran a hand through his hair. “Any idea what it was?”
“Not a fucking clue.”
“Maybe we’ll get something on the tape.”
Andre let out a short, sharp laugh. “
You know, I don’t know whether to hope we do, or don’t.”
“No kidding.”
“Listen, Sam, you and I are gonna need to keep our eyes and ears peeled. We’re gonna have to pay close attention to everything. I don’t think anybody else can feel it like we can.”
Sam didn’t have to ask Andre’s opinion about Cecile. He agreed with David, and was certain Andre did too. “I told Bo about it earlier.”
“Yeah? What’d he say?”
“Nothing, really. He believed me, though. That’s enough for me. Not everybody would.”
Andre’s eyebrows went up. “Sounds like this isn’t your first paranormal experience.”
Sam almost denied it. He’d learned the hard way to keep his mouth shut when strange things happened to him. But this was a group that dealt with the paranormal for a living. And Andre had felt the same thing he had. He couldn’t have asked for a safer time and circumstance for telling the truth.
“I’ve had some weird things happen before. Seen things, heard things. Felt things, now and then. But I’ve never felt anything that scared me like that did last night.”
“Whatever this is, it’s dangerous.”
“I agree.”
Andre pushed away from the door and took a step toward Sam. “We could be risking our lives here. You willing to do that?”
Sam thought about it. Andre was right; their lives might be on the line. But he couldn’t deny his desire to know what it was he’d sensed the night before. It drew him irresistibly. “Yeah. I’ll risk it.”
Andre nodded. Looking into his eyes, Sam knew they understood each other. “Think I’ll grab a beer and sit out on the porch for a while. Want to join me?”
“Sure, that’d be great.” Sam followed Andre out the door again. “Oh, what about the tape? I’ll come up and change it at six if you tell me what I need to do.”
“There’s nothing to it. Just take the old tape out, pop a new one in and start it rolling, then get in front of the camera and state your name, the date and time. That’s it.”
“Isn’t the date and time on the camera?”