The Ghost of Jeopardy Belle

by M. L. Bullock

  “That’s my baby’s toy. I had it in my room on my nightstand.”

  “That can’t be good,” Amy said dryly as she walked over to it and pointed her flashlight up at it. “I want to take some readings before we take it down. Hey, Rex, would you mind getting the EMF detector? It’s in my case right there.”

  “Sure.”

  I hovered in the doorway as they waved their equipment around the bear. They were apparently disappointed in the readings, and Amy declared it a mystery.

  “Someone, a living someone, could have done this, you know. Does anyone else have keys to this place?” Amy asked as she and Rex worked to get the bear down from the light with the ladder Jesse had brought from the kitchen. She handed the bear back to me, and I shook my head.

  “Who would do that? Nobody has keys to this place except Jesse and me. And he didn’t know anything about that bear, what it signifies or who it belonged to. That was my daughter’s toy. I keep it close, like I said, on my nightstand because…”

  “You don’t have to explain why you keep that.” Hannah touched my shoulder gently, and I clutched the bear to my chest. Amy set up a camera in the corner of the room and asked a few more questions, and then the five of us headed to the attic.

  Rex visibly shuddered as he approached the door. “Sheesh, it’s cold up here. Heat normally rises. Who’s got a thermometer?”

  Amy tapped on her phone and handed it to him. “You know I have every paranormal investigation app there is. Try this one.” She stepped inside and wandered around.

  Hannah seemed hesitant about joining us but eventually did. “It feels so different now. Not like the last time. I do feel like there is some sort of battle going on here. Young and old. That’s what I keep hearing, young and old.” She wandered around, staring at the walls, the ceilings and the many nooks and crannies in the attic. Then she squatted down in front of a familiar chest, the one that Loxley had discovered. She opened it and immediately rocked back on her heels. “Oh my. Such a sweet presence. Such a sweet girl. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. She never expected that he would hurt her. She loved him, and he turned on her. She never expected it.”

  I looked at Jesse, unsure how to process what was happening. Still clutching the bear, I hung back and listened. Rex leaned over to me and said, “This is a good thing. She’s tuning in. That means the spirits are talking to her.” I wanted to say to him, “I know what that means,” but I kept my mouth shut and my eyes open. I had learned from experience, both mine and Harper’s, that you could take nothing for granted in this attic.

  Hannah was on her feet and pacing around the attic. “He doesn’t like people being in here. He has a treasure somewhere here.” She waved at a wall and then kept pacing up and down the floor. “No, he doesn’t. His buried treasure is here. He says the girls were too nosy. They like to plunder and look through his things, but those are his treasures.” Hannah’s hand flew to her heart, and she gasped in surprise. “He inherited those treasures. When his brother left, he gave them to him. They are precious to him. He doesn’t want us here. We have to go! I think he’s coming!”

  Jesse put his arm around me protectively, and we all waited as if the boy would step into the room. Did they understand what this meant? The boy wasn’t the one who killed Mariana! It was his brother—it was most certainly Jameson—but the boy wasn’t leaving. Not without his treasure.

  “What is his name, Hannah? We need his name,” I reminded her in a whisper. But Hannah didn’t move. She stared at the window over the place where Jeopardy used to sleep. “Hannah?”

  “In the hallway. I’m hearing footsteps. Anyone else?” Amy retrieved her camera from somewhere and began filming the session. She nodded her head at Rex, and I strained to hear what they were talking about. It didn’t take but a few seconds. Yes, there were definitely footsteps, and they were walking toward the attic. I took a step back, and Jesse came with me. Amy, Rex and Hannah did not move. I expected the door to slam, as they did so frequently on this floor, but nothing happened. The footsteps stopped outside the door, and still we waited. It would be completely dark in here soon, and I didn’t fancy the idea of hanging out in this attic in the darkness. The room felt very different from the other day when Marisol and Jeopardy were playing their game. It had felt light and sunny, warm and inviting. Now, not so much.

  And that’s when I heard the whisper.

  Run, pie-face!

  Chapter Eighteen—Jerica

  “Jerica!” Jesse called me as I snatched him by the hand and ran out of the attic. As soon as my foot hit the top step of the staircase, I felt a blast of cold air. “Jerica, wait!” Jesse pulled me close.

  “We have to go. I heard Jeopardy’s voice. She told me to run. You didn’t hear her?” The rest of the team filtered out of the attic and joined us in the hallway. Jesse didn’t have a chance to answer me. One of the devices that Amy deployed in the nursery was making a whirring sound. As the three of them entered the room, Jesse held me tight.

  “We can get out of here if you want. They don’t need us here to do what they’re doing.”

  “No, I’m good.” I stepped back and tucked my hair behind my ear. “But we had to get out of there.” I could hear Hannah talking in the other room, and she wasn’t talking to Amy or Rex. She was speaking to the boy. The hair on the back of my neck pricked up, and I froze as I listened to her. I didn’t want to go into the nursery, not just yet. Jesse stood beside me as we heard her ask him to tell her his name.

  “It’s okay. We are not here to steal your treasure. We just want to know your name. We know your brother’s name. Tell us your name.” She whispered to Rex, “Do you have the audio recorder going?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’re not going to be here for much longer. You don’t want to be forgotten, do you? You deserve to be remembered. Tell us your name and we will leave.”

  They waited a few more minutes, and I heard Amy say, “Let’s play it back.” I walked to the doorway but didn’t go into the room. The atmosphere had shifted. It felt dark, even morose. I could plainly hear Hannah’s voice on the recorder but nothing else. I heard her sigh.

  “Any suggestions? He really doesn’t want to talk.” Rex sounded frustrated, which didn’t encourage me. What if all I was doing was making things worse? What if Ben Hartley had been right? This suddenly seemed like a bad idea.

  “Maybe we should try one of the other rooms. It looks like it’s going to be a long night,” Hannah answered, but she didn’t sound dissuaded.

  I was happy to leave them to their work because I was beginning to feel like I couldn’t breathe. The air was so thick up here. Surely I wasn’t the only one who noticed it. “Can we go downstairs? I’d like to get out of here for a little while.”

  Jesse agreed, and we walked down the stairs and left the paranormal investigators alone. Maybe they would have better luck without me around.

  I paced around in the Great Room. I didn’t want to leave Summerleigh; it would be irresponsible to leave people in here. I was the one who had suggested this, and I was going to see it through.

  “You need anything, Jerica?”

  Clutching the teddy bear, I shook my head. “No. I’m fine.” I stopped pacing and stood beside him. “Thanks, Jesse.” He hugged me briefly, and then it was his turn to pace the floor.

  Then I heard the scratching sound. At first, I thought it might be a mouse or a rat scratching at some wood, but that wasn’t quite it. And it was coming from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. I raised my eyebrows and looked at Jesse.

  “Yeah, I’m hearing it too,” he said. “Sounds like it’s coming from in there.”

  “Should we go tell them?”

  He shook his head and said, “No. I think we can handle this. Might just be a rodent.”

  “Okay.” We headed toward the hallway as the scratching continued. It wasn’t quite like a rodent, more like a smooth scratching sound. And it was coming from Addison and Loxley’s bedroom. I knew
that sound! I’d heard it before. Or at least Harper had. That was the sound of someone drawing with chalk on the floor.

  Loxley! As we stepped into the room, I smelled the faint scent of vanilla. Yes, Loxley! It felt so much better in this room than upstairs.

  “Look at that! Someone was just drawing in here. What does that say? You know I can’t read without my glasses.”

  “It looks like ‘Jacob.’ Loxley did this…she gave us the answer we needed. That’s his name—his name is Jacob!”

  As soon as I said that, a loud thud smashed above us. “We have to go up there. We have to tell them.” There was another thud, but not above us this time. The sound came from the wall. I didn’t run or flinch. I walked out of Loxley’s room, down the hallway and through the Great Room.

  I know your name now. You can’t stay here. You can’t torment us anymore, and you will not harm my daughter.

  Lightning illuminated the room in blue light. Thunder soon followed, and the house shook as if a sonic boom had crashed overhead. Jesse was right behind me, and we found the team in one of the other rooms.

  “I know his name, and I know what we have to do,” I said. I swallowed at the thought of facing off with this spirit again, but it had to be done. There was going to be peace in this house, one way or another. Time to let the ghosts of the past rest. Some part of me felt sorry for this boy, that he would inherit such a perverse treasure and that he would linger here long after his death to watch over it. Yes, I felt pity for him, and it grew stronger than my fear with every passing second. “Hannah, the boy’s name is Jacob. He has to be Jameson and Mariana’s younger brother. Loxley wrote his name on the floor downstairs.” Thunder rolled over us, and the floor began to creak. Was it just the old house settling, or was something more ominous about to happen?

  “That’s great,” she began as all the doors slammed shut at once. Even calm, cool and collected Amy jumped at the sound.

  “He’s here,” I said as I held onto Marisol’s bear with both hands.

  “It’s not going to be as simple as calling his name, not if he’s attached to something in that attic. We need to find his treasure and move it. If we get it out of the house, he’ll leave with it. We’re going to need a distraction, though. Are you ready for this, Jerica?” Hannah asked with sincere concern. What was she asking me?

  “Yes. What do we do?”

  Hannah sent Jesse, Rex and Amy to the attic to search for Jameson’s morbid collection. Jesse didn’t want to leave me, but I assured him everything would be okay. “I’m in good hands.”

  The door opened without a fight. But when we entered the room, it closed behind us. And during the time my attention went from the door to the room, everything had changed. This wasn’t an empty nursery anymore. There was a large, round blue carpet in the center of the floor. One large chair was positioned in front of the fireplace. Heavy blue curtains hung from the window, and there were three desks at the back of the room. I could see a large wooden toy box, a rocking horse and books that filled a bookcase I did not recognize.

  “Hannah?” I whispered as she took my hand. “What’s going on?”

  “Talk to him, Jerica. I can’t see what you’re seeing, but I can feel him.”

  Talking to him was the last thing I wanted to do. He looked like something out of a horror movie with his white skin and black eyes. I couldn’t see his face fully, but those horrible eyes were as plain as day. How do you reason with something like this? Just kill some time, Jerica. Give them time.

  “I know your name now.” The boy raised his head, and I swear I heard him growl. “My friend Loxley told me your name. She knows you. You used to play with her.”

  The rocking horse began to move back and forth, and the flames in the fireplace rose.

  “My name is Jerica, and you’re Jacob. I am not here to hurt you, Jacob.”

  “That’s good. Keep talking, Jerica.”

  The horse rocked faster, and the clock on the mantelpiece began to make a horrible sound. I glanced at it and could see the hour and minute hands spinning wildly, like an unseen hand was manipulating them.

  “Jacob, I know you want to stay here, but you can’t. You have to go. Your time here is over, Jacob.”

  The boy took a step toward me, and I thought I saw a shadow dart behind him. A tall shadow. I heard Hannah yelp in pain beside me, but I kept my focus. She was still holding my hand, and I squeezed hers. She squeezed back to reassure me she was okay.

  “Jacob, listen to me. I know that bad things happened in this house, that you saw bad things. I’m sorry that happened to you, but the bad things have to stop.” The rocking horse flew across the room and broke into many pieces. I caught my breath and turned loose of Hannah’s hand. I clutched Marisol’s bear as if it were a life preserver. “I’m sorry about Mariana and Jameson, but it wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault. I don’t know what happened to you, but I’m sorry.”

  The clock flew off the mantel and smashed on the floor, and a ball in the corner bounced furiously. The boy frowned and raised his face so that I could see him clearly. Yes, he was a terrifying sight, but at one time he had just been a boy. A boy who had been hurt by someone. A boy who had died here. The storm outside raged. Lightning smashed the darkness and illuminated the room in frantic flashes. But the thunder was strange, like it was happening in the house and not outside of it.

  Now what do I do? What should I say to this angry creature? “Jacob, please believe me. Your brother’s treasure is not yours to keep. You are not responsible for what he did; his crimes are not yours. I know you loved your brother, but what he did was wrong.”

  Leave here.

  “I will not leave. This is my house now, along with everything in it. You have to go. I’m setting you free, Jacob. You don’t have to stay and watch over Jameson’s treasure anymore.” He moved closer, but I stood my ground. “I promise you I’ll take care of it. I won’t let anything happen to it.”

  Hannah whispered beside me, “The energy is changing. He’s used a lot of his strength. Command him to leave now, Jerica.”

  She was right; I could feel his power waning. Yes, I could command him to go, but my sympathy for him still grew. I got on my knees to get at eye level with him. “Jacob, you have to leave Summerleigh now. You can’t stay here anymore. Go and take this treasure with you. It’s my treasure, and I want you to have it.” I held the stuffed animal out to him, my hands shaking, my heart pounding. Tears filled my eyes because I didn’t really want to part with it…and I wasn’t sure this was going to work. “It’s okay. You can have it.”

  Everything got still. Jacob stepped closer to me. He was so close now that he could reach out and touch me if he wanted to. But he didn’t. He touched the bear, and then he and the toy were gone. A quick flash of light filled the room, and then everything was as it had been. The room was empty and in need of repair.

  Hannah was weeping, and I took her hand. The place was quiet. No more knocks and bangs. Even the wind outside stopped blowing. Somehow, we had achieved our goal. Summerleigh was finally free.

  And so was I.

  Chapter Nineteen—Harper

  After the funeral, Addison and I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the kitchen in the parlor. Miss Augustine stayed for a little while, but of course she didn’t lift a finger. She did, however, fill her plate multiple times before unceremoniously leaving it on the kitchen table for me to wash.

  I gave Momma another one of the pills the doctor prescribed for her and once again told her that was the last one. I had to, or else she would want the whole bottle. I still didn’t trust that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Several times in the past few days she’d called me Jeopardy, and once I caught her talking to herself (or someone) on the second-floor landing. Addison stayed close to me, and as I promised her, I slept in her room that night. She questioned me about a few things, including Aunt Dot’s offer to come live with her, but agreed with me that the best thing to do now was to stay close to Momma.<
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  “Everyone is gone now, Harper. Daddy, Jeopardy and now Grandfather. Promise me you’ll never leave me.”

  “I promise you, Addison Lee. Wherever I go, you’ll go too. Okay?”

  I had a restless night that night but eventually fell asleep. After years of training, it was hard for me to sleep late; as usual, I got up before sunrise. I dressed quickly and went to the kitchen. I put on the percolator, mainly for myself because Addison didn’t drink coffee and I had a feeling that Momma would not want any this morning. She’d probably drown her sorrows in cheap wine again. At least her supply was running out, and there was no one to take her to the store or buy her more. We hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Dewey Landry, thankfully, and Momma sold her Chevy Master DeLuxe last week for some reason. God only knew what she’d done with the money. But if Aunt Dot proved right, we wouldn’t need to depend on Momma anymore. What would that be like, to have food in the house and new clothes to wear whenever we wanted them?

  “Harper?”

  I nearly jumped out of my skin. Ben Hartley was calling me from the window. “What are you doing out here, Ben?”

  “I thought you might want to go fishing. I’ve got the poles and stuff.”

  I was surprised to see him, what with everything that had passed between us earlier. I was kind of glad to see him…just not this early in the morning.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for church?” I asked as I unlocked the back door and opened the screen to let him in.

  “You going?”

  “No. I don’t go much anymore.”

  “Me either. I just thought we could fish. You know, like before. I’m sorry.”

  “You mean you’re sorry you said what you said?” I asked him with my hands on my hips. “We hardly know each other, Ben Hartley. Do you go around telling all the girls you love them?”

  “No. I’ve never done that. Just with you. But I won’t say it again, I promise. I want to be your friend at least. Please go fishing with me.”