Gail huffed and crossed her arms, but she didn’t argue.
Michael had to admit, he was taken aback. He’d never seen this side of Luke before. The Luke Rainer he knew was loud and arrogant and an absolute pain. This Luke was serious, mature, responsible, every bit as professional as any businessman or CEO Michael had ever met. It was weird.
“They sound like an old married couple,” Brink remarked from the trunk of the van. Michael had to agree with him. It was sort of uncomfortable. As uneasy as he felt, however, it was nothing compared to how Gavin appeared to be feeling. With a sheepish grin, his eyes shifted back and forth from Luke to Gail, then finally over to Michael and Kate. Michael didn’t really know what to do, so he just shrugged.
Kate, on the other hand, raised her eyebrows and mouthed, Awkward.
Unsure of what to say to break the tension inside the car (it was actually probably better that he didn’t say anything), Michael turned his attention to the scenic view outside his window. It was a great day. The trees were fiery and vibrant against the sky, which was the kind of deep blue you only saw when you were near the coast. Back in Texas, the leaves had just barely begun to change. In Maine, though, the trees were alive and dancing with a brilliant blend of reds, oranges, and yellows.
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” Kate asked. “I’ve always wanted to visit the Northeast.”
“You and me both, Beautiful,” Luke called back to Kate. “You don’t mind that, do you Mikey? That I call your girlfriend Beautiful?”
“No, no, I agree with you,” Michael grinned bashfully at Kate.
“Get a room,” Brink groaned.
“You two are so cute,” Gail said, twisting back around to see Michael, Kate, and Gavin. “You’re pretty lucky, Sinclair. Luke never lets me bring my boyfriends on investigations.”
“That’s because your boyfriends aren’t boyfriends. They’re flings,” Luke said. “I think I could take every single one of your so-called relationships, add them together, and they still wouldn’t equal the amount of time I spent with my first girlfriend. And by the way, that was in eighth grade and we dated for about two weeks.”
“Whatever,” Gail scoffed.
“Besides, Kate’s not just here as Mikey’s date. She’s a sensitive. And she knows what it’s like to die.”
“So, what you’re saying is if I go out and find a boyfriend who’s had an NDE, then you’ll let me bring him on the show.”
“Sure. Knock yourself out,” Luke said.
“What’s an NDE?” Michael asked.
To his surprise, it was not Luke, but Gavin who answered him. “It’s a Near Death Experience.” Michael and Kate both glanced at him, curiously. “I’ve been doing a lot of research after all the stuff that went down a few months ago,” he explained.
“Hmm. Sexy and smart,” Gail grinned.
Luke heaved a frustrated sigh. He seemed to realize he wasn’t going to win.
“So, are we actually going to be staying at Stanton Hall?” Kate asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Luke replied. “We’ll be there for three nights. There are a few areas that are still under renovation, but from what I understand, there are enough rooms available for each of us to have our own suite.”
“Sweet,” Kate and Gavin declared at the same time.
“Jinx! You owe me a Coke,” Kate exclaimed.
“Okay, Middle Schooler,” Gavin retorted. “Hey, Luke. Are we going to have dinner there or are we on our own?”
“Mrs. Drake is cooking for us tonight. She wanted to do something special to welcome us. I told her that wasn’t necessary, but she insisted. It’s good though, because it’ll give us a chance to settle and get familiar with the building. But tomorrow, when we take our tour and explore the area, we’ll mostly be dining out.”
“Will we be filming any of that?”
“Gavin, starting the second we set foot inside that house, we will be filming around the clock,” Luke replied.
“We’ll be filming you while you eat, while you sleep,” Gail rambled. “Heck, we’ll even be filming you while you’re in the bathroom.”
“Are you serious?” Kate’s eyebrows furrowed in blatant alarm.
“No,” Luke assured her. “Though Mikey, if you see a ghost in the bathroom, feel free to take a camera.”
“You know Luke, I know you saved my life and everything, but I think it’s best to keep some mystery between us,” Michael replied dryly.
Ten minutes later, Luke pulled off the main highway. The scenery around them changed from mostly forest to a small New England town. Coastal water began appearing on either side of the road. Michael noticed several small fishing docks and marinas, probably privately owned, that had been built on the water. There were a few boats out sailing around, but most were secured to the docks.
Kennebunkport itself was a charming town. Old-fashioned shops, bars, and boutiques lined the streets, and there were several people, dressed in fall attire, out strolling the sidewalks and enjoying the crisp, cool weather. It was like a scene straight out of an American fairy tale. Michael even spotted a white horse pulling a carriage and for a moment, he forgot that they were about to spend three days at one of the most haunted locations in the country.
What was that supposed to mean, anyway? The “most haunted” location? Did that mean that it had a lot of ghosts or was there just one ghost who liked to stir up trouble? Or maybe the one ghost was just a lot more active than most. Maybe it meant that every living person who went there had some sort of experience.
Or maybe it was just a really spooky old house that got the better of people’s vivid and willing imaginations, Michael thought as the van rounded a corner and a building that he presumed to be Stanton Hall Manor came into view.
It was a magnificent building; grand, gothic, and protected by a black iron gate, capped with medieval looking spears. Michael couldn’t tell at first glance, but Stanton Hall appeared to be at least three or four stories tall, complete with arches, balconies, towers, and five chimneys. Perhaps the most impressive feature, however, was the clock tower that stood at the center of the building.
“Wow,” Gavin breathed.
“It’s incredible,” Kate said.
Michael remained silent as Luke turned around to face them.
“Well, we’re here.”
Chapter 8
Kate had been fully prepared to leap out of the car and explore the house as soon as Luke parked and turned off the ignition. Ten minutes later, however, she and Michael were still stuck in the van while Gavin helped Luke and the rest of the crew unpack all the equipment. She wasn’t quite sure how it had happened, but one of the guys had stacked about three or four heavy (and really expensive-looking) cases of equipment on Gavin’s vacated seat next to her, blocking the only way out of the van for her and Michael.
“I kind of feel like we should try to get out and help,” Michael said.
“I sort of do too, but at the same time, I really don’t want to,” Kate confessed. “Besides, it’s not like we don’t have valid excuses for not helping. I’m a recent head trauma patient and you’re still recovering from a broken collarbone and a gunshot wound. Really, it would be wrong of them to expect us to help.”
After what seemed like an eternity, partly because of how anxious she was to see the inside of the house and partly because she really needed to stretch her legs, JT and Peter arrived to move the cases out of the way, freeing the way for Kate and Michael to finally slip out of the van.
“Alright guys, let’s get the cameras rolling,” Luke called over to Peter and Gavin.
“Already?” Michael asked.
“Come on, Mikey. You’ve seen the show. We always film a little introduction before we ring the doorbell,” Luke told him as Peter helped hook him up to a clip-on wireless microphone.
“We’re going to be standing out here all afternoon, aren’t we?” Michael muttered to Kate.
She laughed lightly, but secretly, she was thinking the sam
e thing. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to watch Luke and the gang in action. She’d always wanted to go behind the scenes. It was just that they’d been traveling all day and she was hungry, thirsty, sort of tired, and absolutely freezing. It turned out, not surprisingly, that Kennebunkport in the fall was a lot chillier than Dallas in the fall.
“Okay, are we rolling?” Luke asked JT and Peter, who were both filming him from different angles. Gail, meanwhile, zipped around the property, getting scenic shots that Kate knew they would use as transition between scenes. Peter, whom Gavin was shadowing for the time being, gave Luke a thumbs up.
Luke positioned himself directly in front of the manor’s massive windows and began walking forward. “We’re here at the infamous Stanton Hall Manor in Kennebunkport, Maine, just less than thirty miles south of Portland.” He paused. “How was that? Do we need to go again?”
“Yeah, you sort of sped up there at the end,” JT told him.
“What did we tell you about eating sugar straight out of the packets?” Peter teased. Kate giggled. Of the four of them, Peter was definitely the goofiest.
“Is that all he’s going to say?” Michael asked Kate as Luke started the take over again.
“A lot of the show’s narrative is voice-over,” she replied. Luke would surely go on to explain the history of the building to his viewers later, but Kate suspected he would do all that recording back at their studio in L. A.
Michael nodded before turning his attention onto the house. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and took a few steps toward the building, dry leaves crunching and crackling beneath his feet. Kate glanced around and watched him observing the manor with dark, focused eyes. She wondered for a moment what he was thinking about, but before she could dwell for too long, she realized just how handsome he looked in his jacket and scarf. His dark hair was messy and windswept, his eyebrows slightly furrowed in concentration, his eyes set and focused. In that moment, Kate was acutely aware of how intelligent, how compassionate, and how rare a find he was.
“See anything?” she asked, strolling over to him.
“Not yet,” he replied.
“Okay, I want to be sure to get a few shots with Mikey before we go inside, sort of introduce him, you know,” Luke was saying to his crew. “Let’s get Kate in there, too. We could use another girl on this show.”
“Really?!” Kate squealed. She couldn’t help it. She thought she’d been lucky enough just to be invited along. She never dreamed that she’d actually get to be on the show.
“Absolutely. You didn’t think you were just here to look pretty, did you? Now, let’s get you hooked up to a mic.”
“Do I have to say anything?” Michael asked.
Luke peered at Michael over the rims of his sunglasses. “Really, Mikey?”
Michael shrugged.
“Where do you want to set up?” JT asked Luke.
“Let’s move to the very front. I want a good head-on shot of the house.”
Kate and Michael followed Luke to the front staircase and stood next to him as the cameras began rolling once again. Staring into the lens, Kate suddenly felt awkward and very aware of every flaw in her hair, complexion, and outfit. She also felt like she needed to sneeze. She tried to push all of that out of her mind by concentrating on what Luke was saying.
“This week we’re joined by my good friends, Michael and Kate - hold up. Cut. Mikey, could you maybe take a few steps back? Maybe stand on the other side of Kate. I don’t want you making me look short.”
Michael obliged and Luke began his dialogue again.
“This week, we’re joined by my good friends, Michael and Kate. Michael is a psychic medium, who actually speaks to the - ”
“Wait,” Michael interrupted.
“What is it, Mikey?”
“Don’t tell people I’m a psychic medium. I’m not psychic.”
“Then what do you want me to call you?”
“I don’t know. The term ‘psychic medium’ just gives people all these ideas that I can do things that I - I just can’t.”
“Okay, well, I’ll think of something. Let’s go back!”
Filming a television show, Kate realized, was much more work than she’d ever really considered. She guessed she hadn’t really put all that much thought into it in the past. Of course, she’d known that filming took time and energy, but she’d never thought about just how long it could take to film one little scene.
By the time Luke was finally satisfied with their takes, Kate was so hungry, she thought she might keel over. Fortunately, she was fairly certain that these early scripted scenes were the only ones they’d have to shoot multiple times.
Armed with their video cameras and a boom microphone, the crew made their way up the stairs. Kate, Michael, and Gavin trailed behind as Luke knocked on the front door. A few moments later, a short woman dressed in nice slacks and a button-down blouse answered the door.
“Hi. Are you Carolyn?” Luke greeted her.
“I am,” she replied. Her demeanor was gracious and respectful, though Kate could tell that she still had reservations about allowing them to come in and film.
After introductions, Carolyn led them inside. All the while, the cameras kept rolling. But Kate forgot about everything, the cameras, the show, even Michael’s hand in hers, once she set foot in the magnificent lobby of Stanton Hall Manor. With glittering, antique chandeliers designed to emulate the sun, stars, and planets, stained-glass windows depicting exotic flowers and beams of light, intricate tiled designs of every color on every wall, even the glitz and glamour of Karen’s beautiful house paled in comparison of this splendid storybook mansion.
“Whoa,” Kate breathed.
“You know, I think that every place we investigate is pretty cool, but this is an awesome place,” Luke told Carolyn.
“We’ve been working hard to restore it,” Carolyn informed him.
“And I understand that you’re hoping to turn it into a bed and breakfast.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, best of luck with that. Hopefully, we can generate some good publicity for you,” Luke grinned, turning on his overly friendly, television persona. Though to be honest, Kate couldn’t see a whole lot of difference between that and his regular personality.
“Yes, well, that would be nice,” Carolyn replied stiffly, clasping her hands together. “Now then, I suppose you’ll want to know the history of the house.”
“Yes, ma’am. Anything you can tell us,” Luke replied. “But you know, usually when we do these interviews, we like to sort of change the scenery. Is there a room with a couch? Maybe a fireplace?”
Carolyn gave a curt nod.
“Come with me.”
~*~
They followed Mrs. Drake into an open room with velvet couches, luxurious drapes, and the largest fireplace that Kate had ever seen. It reminded her of a room straight out of a castle in a fairy tale.
After the guys had their equipment set up, Luke and Carolyn took a seat on the couch.
“This house was constructed in the late 1830s by Sterling Hall. Mr. Hall was the son of one of the wealthiest men in town, a Jeremiah Hall, who died very suddenly in 1832. Shortly after his father’s death, Sterling fell in love with Joanna Stanton, the daughter of a local fisherman. Now the story goes that Mr. Stanton didn’t trust Sterling. He didn’t believe that a man who could have any girl in town would want anything to do with a girl of such humble means.”
“He sounds very protective,” Luke noted.
“He was. Joanna was his treasure. But Sterling was a very determined man, and endlessly wealthy. He built this house to prove to her father that he was worthy of her. They married three months later.”
“So this house was a symbol of Sterling’s dedication and love for Joanna,” Luke said.
“Exactly.”
“Wow, that’s beautiful,” Gail said.
“Why do I get the feeling that this story doesn’t have a happy ending?” JT asked.
Because stories that result in a haunting rarely do, Kate thought to herself. Someone always dies. Someone is always left behind. Someone is always caught between worlds.
“You’re right, it doesn’t,” Carolyn replied. “A few years after they were married, Joanna fell ill. Sterling brought doctors in from as far away as Switzerland, hoping to save her. But despite his best efforts, Joanna passed away in this house, the very building Sterling had built for her. Devastated and on the edge of sanity, Sterling lived out the rest of his days alone.”
“Did he also die in this house?” Luke asked.
“Yes,” Carolyn answered.
“And is he the one who has been haunting this building?” Gail asked.
“Well, that’s what everyone else seems to think,” Carolyn answered with a wry grin. It was the first time since their arrival that Kate had seen the older woman smile.
“You don’t believe this place is haunted?” Peter asked.
“No, I do not.”
“That’s interesting,” Luke commented lightly. “And why don’t you think so?”
“I know that investigating these buildings and chasing these so-called ‘spirits’ are what you’ve built your careers on, and I do respect you for that. But these ghosts, these hauntings... I believe they are nothing but figments of some people’s overactive imaginations.”
Kate couldn’t help it. She glanced over at Gavin, who, she wasn’t surprised to find, was staring back at her. She knew they were both thinking about all the times he’d tried to convince her that she was just imagining the sounds and footprints she heard in the middle of the night. But he’d been wrong, and he fully acknowledged it.
“So, let me get this straight. You don’t believe in ghosts,” Luke said.
“No.”
“That’s fine, that’s fine. We’re accepting of all sorts here on Cemetery Tours,” Luke assured her. “I am curious about something, though. If you don’t believe in ghosts, then I’m guessing you think my friend Mikey here is a fraud, which brings me to my next question. If you believe all hauntings are made up, then why did you insist that he come with us on this investigation?”
Between Worlds (Cemetery Tours Book 2) Page 6