“You can’t change it, Aunt Dot. No more than I can. All we can be is who we are. All we can do is play the roles that are assigned to us. We are not in control of our destinies.”
She hugged me up and whispered in my ear, “I hope you don’t believe that. I hope you never believe that. You have choices in life. I know things seem hopeless right now because you’re young and still living at home, but that’s not forever. It is gonna get better. As a matter of fact, I want you and Addison to come and live with me. I will make a home for us; we’ll make one together. And I have it on good authority that neither your mother nor I will ever have to worry about money again. Your grandfather was generous to us at least at his death. You girls can go to any college you want, be anything you want to be. I will make sure it happens for you. Just come with me.” Addison had joined us and leaned her head on Aunt Dot’s shoulder even though she was much taller than our aunt. It was an awkward but sweet picture. And then Loxley came running to us, and I scooped her up in my arms and held her tight. I smelled her fresh, clean hair and her naturally vanilla scent.
“She’ll never let me go, Aunt Dot. You know that.”
And then Momma started to cry. She was standing by Mr. Daughdrill’s coffin now, looking down at him holding his cold dead hand in hers. “Poppa, Poppa why did you leave me?” She cried and wailed and nearly fainted until someone helped her into the kitchen for a cup of coffee.
Soon, Miss Augustine barreled in my direction. “There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Harper Louise. Your mother is beside herself with grief. The least you could do is show some compassion. If you don’t come now, I don’t know what we’re going to do with her.”
Aunt Dot replied, “She’ll be right there, Augustine.”
Miss Augustine appeared to have a smart reply right on the tip of her tongue, but I waved my hand at her. “Tell Momma I’ll be right there.”
Aunt Dot held my hands and ignored Loxley’s whining. “You don’t have to do this, Harper. You do not owe her anything. She has it all wrong. She owes you everything.”
I sighed, and my soul felt like a heavy anchor. “Without me here, I don’t know what she’ll do. She won’t have anyone. She drinks all the time now. Until today, she wasn’t even talking to Miss Augustine. She doesn’t go to the movies anymore. And you know about the other things.”
My aunt’s eyes widened for a moment, and she nodded her head. “But you can’t fix it, Harper. Someone else will step up into your place. Someone else will have to pacify her. You’ve done enough. I’ve already lost one of you girls because I waited too long. I can’t lose another one. I love you all so much. Please come with me, Harper and Addison. Loxley wants to stay, and she wants her sisters with her.”
With all my heart, I wanted to say yes. A part of me said, Go now and pack your bag! But I couldn’t. Things had happened that I just didn’t understand, and I needed to understand them. I needed to know how those scissors made it to my grandfather’s house, for I felt sure it was no coincidence that he’d been stabbed to death with a pair of silver scissors. Had that spirit killed him? The little boy with the black eyes? And why did Momma act so strange when we got the news that Grandfather was dead? No, I couldn’t leave yet.
The other shoe hadn’t dropped yet. But it would. For now, I would stay with Momma. But knowing that I had options, that I had somewhere to go, set me free.
I would stay with her for a little while, but I would never again be her prisoner.
Never again.
Chapter Seventeen—Jerica
I rolled over in my bed and reached for Marisol’s stuffed animal. It wasn’t there. It must have fallen off the nightstand. I probably bumped it sometime during the night…I’ve been told I’m a wild sleeper. And I apparently snore. At some point, I’d have to search through my old albums to find a good picture of her and buy a nice frame, but I wasn’t ready to do that yet. It was easier to not remember those lost moments.
“Good morning, Marisol,” I whispered. The sunlight streamed into my room from the open window. Of course, I heard nothing and never would, but I couldn’t spend the morning wallowing in self-pity. Hannah and her friends were coming this afternoon, and I had a whole host of chores to get done before then. My head didn’t hurt too bad, and thinking about all the things that could have gone horribly wrong, I considered myself extremely lucky to have woken up this morning.
And then I thought about Harper. She had loved my daughter just like she was her own grandchild. At least I was still connected to Harper in some strange way. I never knew she’d had such a horrible upbringing, but it felt good to know she eventually had choices.
Poor Ben. I felt embarrassed for him, but he’d been young and in love…still, who tells someone that you love them at a funeral? He and Harper had apparently worked through that bit of awkwardness because he had been a dear friend of hers later in life, at least according to him. I still thought it was strange that she never spoke about him or mentioned him to me in the years that we’d known one another. I guess that proved relationships were complicated no matter what decade or century you were in.
I got busy tidying the house and doing mundane things like taking out the trash and mopping the kitchen floor, things I had neglected to do for the past week. How was I going to let the reconstruction crew back into the house knowing that I might put them in danger? I’d canceled work for today, but I couldn’t leave the guys hanging forever. Seriously, I had to put an end to this—get to the bottom of who this kid was and get him out of Summerleigh. Not just for me but for everyone.
Time flew by, and soon I had guests arriving at the house. I was happy that Jesse was there first. Renee wasn’t going to make it because she had some problem at the diner; since we didn’t have to wait for her, we quickly got into his latest finds. I’d allowed him to take John Jeffrey Belle’s research home, and by the looks of him, he’d pulled an all-nighter examining the material.
“This guy, this Jameson McIntyre, he was one troubled individual. It’s a good thing his father got him out of Desire before the law caught up with him because I’d say he was the obvious choice for a suspect. He had this weird fetish, Jerica. He liked cutting things.”
“You mean like stabbing people? I think there is a name for that.”
“Up until the murder of his sister, there’s nothing to indicate that Jameson McIntyre went around stabbing people, but he did like to keep souvenirs.” Jesse put the box on the table and dug out the journal we found in the Life board game, the one Jeopardy showed me. “See, I figured it out. These notations aren’t locations or clues to anything. They’re just a record of his sick victories. For instance, beside the name Claudette, you see the abbreviation HR? It stands for hair. He cut this girl’s hair. And over here, this abbreviation? RB? That stands for ribbon.”
“I can’t believe this. You’re right, he was sick. But I thought you said Jameson was much older than the boy we saw. I mean, why would his younger brother be popping up everywhere if it’s Jameson’s malicious spirit wreaking havoc on the other ghosts of Summerleigh?”
Jesse put the journal back into the box and closed it. “All good questions, and I have no answers. Maybe Hannah’s friends can help us. They should be here any minute. But thanks to John Jeffrey Belle, we have a lot more information than we did. He really took meticulous notes. Oh, I forgot…” He opened the box again and removed a small bundle. “Don’t read this now. But when you get a chance later, I think you should check it out. It might explain a few things.”
I accepted the packet of faded letters and ran my finger over the pale pink ribbon that tied them together. How could I resist diving into these now? I caught my breath when I saw the top envelope. It was addressed to Dorothy Daughdrill. I had no time to ask questions because there was a knock on the front door. No doubt it was Hannah, right on time as usual. I welcomed her crew in, and we shared with them the information that Jesse had just presented to me. I took a minute to deposit the envelo
pes in my nightstand drawer and raced back downstairs to lead the crew into Summerleigh.
“Wow, this place is amazing.” Rex took a minute to take in his surroundings. He clearly appreciated all the work we’d been doing in the house.
“It’s huge. How many square feet is this?” Amy asked.
“You know, I’m not really sure. With the upstairs and everything, probably close to 5,000. Maybe more. I know it’s a lot of house to cover, but most of the activity happens on the second floor and in and around the attic.”
“It’s a good thing too because I only have four cameras with me. I’ll make it work,” she said good-naturedly as she carried cases up the stairs. While Amy set up cameras on the second floor, I showed Hannah the collection of books we’d found, the ones that John Jeffrey Belle used to write down the clues he’d found about the Lady in White and her potential killer. According to the journals, John Belle had seen the ghosts on several occasions and tried to communicate with them but had no luck. Hannah pointed out that there wasn’t much in the way of paranormal investigation techniques in those days. Ghost hunting had not gone mainstream, and the chances that he could communicate directly with the spirits without some of these new devices were slim.
Jesse said, “It really frustrated him because he wanted to help Mariana McIntyre. He’d even considered holding a séance upstairs but didn’t get around to it as far as I could tell. He died unexpectedly, as you know.” Hannah nodded and began walking around the room, her favorite purse on her arm, as he continued, “From what John wrote, Mariana was a lot more active back when the Belles were here. And even then she wasn’t harming anyone.”
“She pushed Ann Belle down the stairs, Jesse.”
“You saw her push someone?” Rex asked with some surprise.
I thought about it a moment. “Not exactly. More like she scared her so badly that she fell down the stairs. Broke her arm, but it stopped her from beating on Jeopardy.”
Jesse said, “Mariana used to appear downstairs when the Belles first moved in here. She was often seen crying in the Great Room and said the name Jameson repeatedly. It’s almost like she was a residual haunt but eventually retreated to the upstairs. I guess that would also make her an intelligent haunt.”
“Sounds like you know a little bit about paranormal investigation,” Rex said, grinning at Jesse.
Jesse shook his head and said, “Only what I’ve seen on TV. I’ll leave that stuff to you guys.”
“Hey!” Amy called from upstairs. “Can you guys come up here a minute?”
Alarmed, we hurried up the stairs and followed Amy’s voice to the nursery. “What is it? Did you see something?” Hannah asked.
“No, but is that supposed to be here?”
I couldn’t believe it. Marisol’s purple bear was hanging from the broken light. Someone had tied a string around the toy’s neck and strung it up there. It couldn’t have been easy to do—the ceilings were eight feet tall.
“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 i
f 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.”
The Ghosts of Summerleigh Collection Page 25