Hauntings of the Heart

by Joselyn Vaughn

  “You mentioned that when you arrived.” She placed a domed cover over the pancakes. “The house was in rough shape. It’s been used hard since your family abandoned it.” She caught Gordon’s flinch out of the corner of her eye.

  “Why didn’t you upgrade the plumbing?” he asked, not dignifying her comment. “You added the fancy water pressure system.”

  “It was already here. The previous owners, I think.” Minnie hissed as she caught her finger on the edge of the hot griddle. What was he insinuating about her care of the house? She’d done as much as she could. “It took a couple thousand dollars to clean the house out. The basement was full of garbage. I haven’t even tackled the attic yet. Most of the windows were painted shut and the plaster was cracking and falling off the walls. It took three years to get it in good enough shape to rent out all the rooms.”

  Gordon stepped back and slid into the breakfast nook. His face had gone pale under his tan. “I shouldn’t have waited so long to come back,” he said to his coffee cup.

  “What kept you away?” Minnie asked, but the question was drowned out by an argument in the hallway. She didn’t get an answer. Perhaps that was best. Most likely she wouldn’t like his explanation anyway.

  “I swear all the equipment was off when we went to bed,” Elmer insisted.

  “Well, all the lights were on when I got up to pee at five.” Barbara entered the dining room off the kitchen, scolding Elmer over her shoulder. “I had to turn everything off. Even the camera was recording.”

  Minnie poured coffee into the insulated carafe and reached for the tray of pancakes. Gordon grabbed it for her and followed her into the dining room. Minnie wondered if this was how it would be if things had worked out the way they should have. Gordon always seemed to know what she needed and where he could help.

  Last night had obviously swirled her thoughts and perceptions of Gordon all around. She needed to get her head back on straight. Less sleep deprivation would certainly help. Minnie placed the carafe on the sideboard.

  “The camera?” Elmer frowned. “I know I turned it off after we discovered the leak in Gordon’s room.”

  “Are you sure?” Barbara approached the buffet of tea and juice Minnie had already laid out. She poured a glass of cranberry juice and passed it to Elmer, choosing orange for herself.

  Gordon put the pancakes in the middle of the buffet. “You know, I saw him do it.”

  Elmer’s and Barbara’s heads jerked to look at each other. “You’re sure it was off?” Barbara exclaimed.

  Elmer nodded, setting his juice on the table. “I methodically checked all the cameras and the recorders. Did you see what it was recording?”

  “The hallway. I left one camera outside our door, figuring it was safe enough there.”

  Minnie’s stomach leapt into her throat. Had they caught Edith tramping around last night? How was she ever going to explain this?

  “We have to review the recording.” Elmer put his hand on the back of a chair as if he was preparing to sit, but he never pulled the chair out.

  Elmer and Barbara stared at each other, then dashed upstairs.

  “I’ve got to see this.” Gordon hurried after them. “I thought I heard something last night. I wonder if it was a ghost, or my imagination.”

  Minnie followed more slowly, certain she was going to see Edith’s backside plastered across the screen. If only she’d thought of messing with their equipment in the middle of the night! That would have been even better than adjusting the air conditioning.

  She supposed it was good everything still worked; she didn’t need them filing an insurance claim for water damage right now. At least Gordon couldn’t claim anything lost. None of his personal belongings had been damaged; only his slippers were a little squishy. A few minutes in the dryer would take care of them. All that electronic equipment, though… Minnie felt a little queasy. Hopefully, Edith hadn’t broken anything when she’d stumbled into their room.

  She rounded the corner to Elmer and Barbara’s room. They had left the door open and were hunched over the desk they’d covered with laptops and cameras. She bumped into Gordon as she entered. He’d stopped inside the doorway.

  He caught her arm and steadied her. She recovered her balance, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he tucked her hand around into the crook of his elbow. She debated for a moment, then left it. If Elmer and Barbara had actually found something, if ghosts had been wandering her halls all this time, she could use some extra stability.

  “What happened?” she asked, trying not to clutch at Gordon’s shirt. The fabric felt soft, so tempting to smooth her fingers against it.

  “We have an hour of recording.” Elmer plunked some keys on the keyboard. “I don’t know what the other monitors picked up.”

  “What do you mean?” Minnie asked, staring at the grainy video of the second floor hallway. She’d thought they’d collected all their equipment. Other monitors? Her stomach quivered. She and Edith were going to be in so much trouble. They were going to be caught lurking the halls.

  The image flashed, then returned to the hallway. Elmer slumped back in his chair so hard the wheels rolled him back a foot. He threaded his fingers through his hair. “This is unbelievable!”

  “What?” Minnie looked from the screen to Elmer. All she’d seen was a flash on the screen, not a ghostly apparition wandering the halls or accelerating the rust in her plumbing. She could barely see herself closing the door at the end of the hall. Elmer didn’t seem to notice. Thankfully, the camera hadn’t caught Edith.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Barbara said, bending closer to the screen. “Look there.” She pointed to something Minnie thought was a shadow, but as she studied it more closely, no light source could have produced darkness at that spot. Minnie suspected Edith had made the shadow when she’d moved to Gordon’s room. Somehow she’d managed to avoid getting her picture taken.

  Gordon bent closer to the screen, but not so far he pulled away from Minnie. “That shadow? What caused it? And how did all your equipment turn on?”

  Minnie shook her head. Edith must have bumped the main power switch when she tripped last night. Good thing she had gone down the main stairs when she’d fled. If she had gone back to the rear stairs, they’d certainly know what they had captured. Edith’s figure was anything but ghostly.

  “We’ve never, and I mean never, had anything like this happen. It’s so wild.” Elmer waved his hands beside his head. “I’ve only heard about things like this.” Then he pointed at something else. According to the time on the screen, it was several minutes after she and Edith had gone back to her apartment.

  Barbara enlarged the image, but it didn’t make anything clearer for Minnie. “It’s like something or someone is trying to contact us,” she murmured.

  A shiver tickled Minnie’s spine. Was the Bower really haunted? She wasn’t interested in real ghosts and such, although she did like a good werewolf story. She liked them in that she believed they were entirely imaginary. She supposed the stories evolved out of something true, but actual werewolves didn’t exist. Neither did vampires, poltergeists, or ghosts.

  She gripped Gordon’s arm a little tighter. It was comforting to hold onto someone who was definitely real. Although he might be the reason the spirits were contacting them. Maybe they’d tell him to go home.

  “Then there’s the flash,” Elmer tapped the monitor. “We’ll need the rest of the team to do a thorough investigation.”

  “For what?” Minnie asked. Not that she’d turn down the business; in fact, she wanted them to come. She hoped sounding skeptical would encourage their investigation. “Don’t you have it all recorded?”

  Elmer spun his chair toward her. “We only have an hour of recording. What we’re seeing is off the charts.” He gestured to a place well above his head. “I can’t believe we’ve never heard of this place before. Usually when we have video like this, there are stories to go with them. Slamming doors, objects flying across the room.
Voices. History of tragedy.”

  Gordon shifted almost imperceptibly. The muscles under her hand tensed. What had touched his nerve?

  Elmer was nodding so hard Minnie thought he’d shake his teeth loose. “You didn’t mention anything.”

  Minnie shook her head. “No. Nothing crazy. I wouldn’t have bought the place if there was anything like that going on.” She liked to read a good paranormal story, not live it.

  “So this activity is new?” Elmer leaned forward.

  “I didn’t see anything on the screen but a shadow and some flashes.” Minnie pointed at the monitor.

  “Me either,” Gordon said.

  So she wasn’t the only sane one in the room. It didn’t make her feel much better that only Gordon agreed with her.

  “The flashes are something we rarely see,” Barbara explained. She pressed her glasses up on her nose and pulled her cardigan tighter around her waist.

  “We want to get the rest of the team down here. This is activity we definitely need to document,” Elmer said. “Can we reserve the whole place in a week?”

  “If we can document these occurrences more thoroughly, people will be flocking here,” Barbara added. Minnie liked that idea. Any increase to business would be good. People flocking in sounded great.

  “We can do an extensive investigation with our whole team,” Barbara said.

  Panic flooded over Minnie’s joy. The prospect of a full booking was great, but with three rooms out of commission, could she accommodate their whole group by next week? Mark would have to work around the clock to get all the rooms presentable. “How many members does your team have?” she asked.

  Barbara and Elmer shared a look, ticking off on their fingers the other members of their team. “It could be as many as ten, if everyone can come.”

  Ten? She wouldn’t have room for that many with all the suites operational. Naturally, she’d have the opportunity for a full house exactly when she needed it, and not be able to accommodate them.

  “Their spouses will want to come too,” Barbara added. She gestured to the room. “They’d love it here.”

  Minnie’s heart sank. This could be her only chance to save the Bower, but… “I’ll have to check my calendar,” she hedged. If she couldn’t accommodate them, they’d tell their friends it was a lousy place to stay. She doubted a phenomenal paranormal experience would make up for the lack of working toilets.

  Minnie headed for her office. She was pretty sure the Bower was available on the requested days, but she needed an excuse to get away from Gordon. All those memories from last night kept bombarding her. His touch, the sound of his voice, the stalwart comfort of his presence. He made everything that happened feel like yesterday. Their romance, their breakup, and all the pain afterward. Every time she turned around a different emotion assailed her. She needed space before she did something that would transform her entire wardrobe into unflattering orange prison jumpsuits.

  She scooted into her desk chair and powered up the computer. Her brain churned through scenarios where she might be able to house the whole investigative team. Could she convince Mark to patch the pipes and the holes, and let her turn on the high-pressure system for one weekend? She sighed. She didn’t have much faith in her powers of persuasion. If Mark didn’t think it was safe, he wouldn’t budge.

  The computer chugged through its boot routine when she noticed Gordon leaning in the doorway. He’d followed her? So much for escape.

  “Pretty wild, huh?” He made himself comfortable in the chair opposite her desk, easing back and crossing his ankle over his knee. “Do you think they’re serious?”

  Minnie shrugged and swirled her mouse around the pad. “It doesn’t matter to me whether the ghost hunters actually find something or not. I’ll have a full weekend booked. In case you haven’t noticed, things have been slow around here.”

  It hurt to admit her business wasn’t thriving, especially to Gordon. That she alone couldn’t make her dream all she expected it to be, that something was missing. She looked across her desk. After this morning, she might think her answer was sitting there. It was nice to have help under her roof. Mark was only a phone call away, but his family was his priority, the way it should be.

  “Barbara and Elmer were talking about next weekend.” Gordon shifted in his seat. “You can’t think you’re going to have this mess cleaned up by then.”

  He could read her too easily. She had to get him out of here as soon as possible. She was dangerously close to falling for him all over again, despite what he’d done to her. Her list of benefits to his departure grew every time she thought of it. She’d have another functioning room for the team to use. She could offer to rent the common areas to the investigators.

  And there’d be much less chance of her living the rest of her life with a broken heart.

  She tucked that thought away in the area of her mind she hoped dementia would attack first, and focused on what she needed to do for her business. Renting the common area wouldn’t earn her much more money, but maybe enough to help patch up the holes in Gordon’s old bedroom. Problem was, it would take her until next Christmas to put aside enough to replace all the pipes as Mark suggested. Maybe he’d have good news for her today. Seeing things in the daylight could change his evaluation.

  “We’ll do what we can,” she said at last. “Barbara and Elmer know the situation.” She wondered if they would decide to delay their next visit until the repairs were completed. If they did, she would be in trouble. She needed their bookings.

  Her computer screen finally displayed her registration schedule. It showed generous blanks for the next three weeks. Convenient for working on repairs, not so much for paying for them.

  Gordon shifted in his seat, and then looked over his shoulder to check the door. He got up, closed it and pulled his chair closer to the desk. “I’d like to help you out.”

  Great! He was leaving. One less headache to deal with. Paranormal activity was quite enough to have on top of the plumbing issues; she didn’t need Gordon too. One thing was going right today. She could only pray the rest of the day would follow.

  “I have a friend who owns a plumbing company.” Gordon propped his elbow on the arm of the chair. “She could bring her guys out and get the whole shebang done next week. She owes me a favor.”

  Minnie harrumphed. That was not the answer she wanted to hear. She picked up a pencil she had tossed on the table, and laid it on her notepad so the lines and the pencil met at ninety-degree angles, giving herself time to process what he was saying. She didn’t like the idea of Gordon calling in a favor for her. She’d rather he minded his own business. Allowing him access to her life and her heart only boded disaster. “She’d drop every job she had lined up and come here just because you asked?”

  She knew she sounded skeptical, but she was also well aware how the construction business worked. “Be there the first of the week” meant sometime before Friday at five. Besides, a well-run business couldn’t reschedule clients at the drop of a hat. Since the water no longer poured out of the walls, the Bower wasn’t a dire emergency. No one would completely upset their schedule as a favor for Gordon.

  Besides, she had Mark. He would take care of it. She trusted the friends Mark would suggest a whole lot more than she’d trust any promises from Gordon.

  “She would.” Gordon shifted toward Minnie. “Her crew could have the repairs done by Wednesday, giving Mark enough time to repair the drywall before the rest of the paranormal investigators arrive.”

  “I don’t know,” she sighed. Her lack of sleep was catching up with her. The headache that inevitably followed a night of tossing and turning flared behind her eyes. She didn’t want Gordon’s help, but he was making it sound so easy. He’d make a call, everything would be fixed, and she’d have to move on. “I’d rather…”

  “Rather what?” Gordon’s voice grew harsh. “Lose business because you don’t trust my judgment?”

  “The last thing I heard from you,
before you showed up on my doorstep fifty years later, was a lie. Forgive me if I don’t take what you say at face value.”

  “Fifty years—what?” Gordon jumped from his seat. “When you went to the Philippines? You abandoned me.”

  Minnie rolled her eyes. “Abandoned you?” She gripped the edge of her desk to keep from touching her stomach, kindling ghosts of the flutters she remembered so keenly. “I was all alone! At least I wrote to you. I didn’t run off and marry the first person I came across.” Then she shook her head. She flattened her palms against her desk, trying to suppress the waves of memory sweeping her away. “No. We’re not going to discuss it. It won’t change anything.”

  “Minnie,” Gordon pleaded. He leaned across her desk, his blue eyes piercing hers, as clear as the lake, like they’d always been. “We need to get it all out so we can move on.”

  Move on? Some things were best left exactly as they were. No need to make any changes. She clenched the arms of her chair for stability and rose to her feet. “I don’t have time right now to soothe your conscience. I have a business to run and a lot of things to take care of, as you well know.”

  “I’d like to help.”

  “And I’d like you to mind your own business,” she snapped. She grabbed her mouse and plopped back in her chair, willing Gordon to take the hint and leave. “I will handle it.”

  “When?” He still hovered next to her desk, and she itched to swat him away.

  “When I have the money to pay for it.” She clamped her mouth shut. That was the last thing she wanted him to know. Gordon had always had ready money. He didn’t know what it was like to struggle to make a living.

  Gordon’s lips quivered and she thought he might be laughing at her. Her grand plans foiled by lack of funds. A situation he’d never been in. “This is my house. I’d like to be involved.” He stabbed his finger against the glass surface of her desk.

  “Your house?” Minnie jumped from her seat and leapt nearly across the desk, her face inches from his. “No. Not anymore. You grew up here, but it’s mine now. You have no interest in it.” She didn’t need this provocation right now. She had to figure out the impossible: money from nothing.