by Val Crowe
Kennely chuckled.
But then someone was barreling up the stairs, and it was Philip. He charged through Kennely, and she disappeared in a puff of dark smoke.
I was startled, but I got myself together as quickly as I could. I took Philip by the shoulders. “Philip,” I said. “Come on. I know you’re in there.”
“Let go of me,” said Philip. “Who are you? Where’s Cheyenne?”
“You’re not Tex Sanford,” I said. “Your name is Philip Bentley. Come on, stay with me here. Come back to me.”
“Where is Cheyenne?” he said again.
“She’s outside,” I said, changing tacks.
“What?”
“Yeah,” I asid. “Just outside the house. Come on. Let’s go look for her together. I’ll show you right where she is.”
“Oh, you better show me,” said Philip.
“I will,” I said. “Come on.” I started out of the kitchen.
Philip was right on my heels. “When I see that bitch, I’m going to teach her a lesson for lying to me.”
“Did you find the gun?” I asked conversationally.
“No,” said Philip. “I can’t find anything in this house. Nothing’s where I left it. It’s like someone else moved in and redecorated. It’s pissing me off.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Well, maybe that’s for the best.” I opened the door to the house.
Philip furrowed his brow. “Wait. Are you sure she’s out there?”
“Positive,” I said. ‘Come on.”
“I’m not sure if—”
I seized his arm and tugged him over the threshold.
Philips body spasmed.
I tugged him down over the steps and onto the front lawn.
He let out a little cry.
I pulled him a few more steps. “Philip?”
“What the hell?” said Philip. “Where am I? What’s going on?”
I took a deep breath. Thank goodness that had worked.
* * *
“Look, we can’t afford to go back to that hotel,” Philip was saying.
We were all out in the garage. Wren was trembling.
“You can’t stay here,” I said. “At least, not at night. Spirits seemed to be stronger in the darkness for whatever reason. And the spirit of Tex had you down there looking for a gun.”
“There’s no gun in the house,” said Philip.
“Well, that’s good,” I said. “But are you sure?”
“We would know if there were firearms here,” said Wren.
“The gun used to kill Cheyenne was never found,” I said.
“Then how was her death ruled a suicide?” said Wren.
“I don’t know,” I said. “That’s all been reversed now, though. It wasn’t. Tex always said that the ghosts hid the gun. Maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe the ghosts did. Ghosts always want more violence to happen in a place. It strengthens the haunting. More energy to feed on. So, maybe they’ve kept the gun here so that they can give it to someone to do more damage.”
Philip’s face whitened. “I would never hurt Wren.”
“You wouldn’t mean to,” I said. “And maybe you’d be able to stop yourself. But maybe not. I’ve been under the influence of spirits before. They can make you do things you would never do. And this haunting here, it’s getting stronger. It was able to manifest an apparition that meant something to me. Something completely different than anything that happened at this house. It’s simply not safe.”
Philip rubbed his forehead. “But what the hell are you doing about this? Why aren’t you helping us?”
“I’m trying,” I said. “I just… I don’t know how to resolve the haunting yet. But I will figure it out, and I will get this place clear. I need more time.”
Philip put his hands in his pockets. “Wren, maybe you could go stay with your sister.”
“What?” said Wren. “They don’t have room for both of us.”
“No,” said Philip. “But they’d have room for you.”
“And then what would you do?” said Wren.
“Stay here,” said Philip. “It can’t make me hurt you if you’re not here.”
“That’s a terrible idea,” said Wren.
“It’s better than both of you staying here,” I said.
“But it could make you do things, Phil,” said Wren. “That terrifies me.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Philip. Except I could see from his expression that it terrified him too.
* * *
“You’re a private detective, huh?” said Aviana Rollins over the phone.
“That’s right,” I said.
“Funny thing. I googled you, and I couldn’t find a website or a yellow pages posting or anything.”
“I work from referrals,” I said. “Don’t really need to advertise.”
“Um… yeah,” said Aviana. “This is about the haunted house, right? You said it was about Cheyenne. You’re some sleazebag reporter trying to stir shit up again.”
“No,” I said. “That’s not it at all. I’ve been hired because Cheyenne hid something in the house, and we believe that it was the reason she was killed. I don’t know if you’re aware that Tex Sanford has been arrested for Cheyenne’s murder?”
“I saw the headlines,” she said. “And you’re not the first sleazebag reporter to call since. So, whatever it is you want, forget about it.’
“I’m not a reporter,” I said. “I’m trying to figure out what Cheyenne hid. I was hoping you might know.”
“I…” A long pause. “How would I have any idea.”
“It’s something she didn’t want Tex to have. Maybe something of value. Can you think of anything that she had recently acquired that might be of interest?”
“I think I want to meet you in person, Mr. Private Detective. If we’re going to talk about this, I want to look you in the eye.”
“You do know what it is she hid, don’t you?” I said.
“You going to meet me or not?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’d be happy to.” Except now, I was going to have to buy a suit.
Damn it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I wished Mads would show back up, but she still hadn’t, even when I’d called for her several times. I could have used her opinion on the suit that I bought. I didn’t get anything fancy. I went to a department store and bought a navy blue suit and a tie. I even got some shiny shoes too.
The only thing I forgot was dressy socks to go under the shoes. I had to make do with my regular socks.
I met Aviana in a coffee shop in the town where Virginia lived.
She was sitting in a corner booth when I arrived. I headed straight over.
“I took the liberty of ordering us some coffee,” she said. “Nothing fancy. Just the drip kind.”
“Fine,” I said.
“You got a business card?” she said.
I should maybe make up business cards or something, shouldn’t I? It might be easier to pretend to be a private detective sometimes. “Sorry,” I said.
She raised her eyebrows.
I sat down in the booth. “You still think I’m a reporter?”
“You haven’t done anything to convince me otherwise,” she said.
“Well, I’m not a reporter,” I said. “This is about trying to find whatever it was that Cheyenne hid. If it’s something of value, then her son should have it. If it’s something that could harm Tex Sanford, then I think that it should come to light.”
“Who hired you?”
“Kadan’s father,” I said. “You might not know this, but when Cheyenne was younger, she had a short-lived relationship with man named Wade Moore, and he’s the one who is the father of her child. He’s in Kadan’s life now, and he’s—”
“I remember Wade,” said Aviana.
I raised my eyebrows. “You met him?”
“Well, no,” said Aviana. “But Cheyenne talked about him, you know?”
“Really? You got any idea why she never told Wade about his so
n?”
“I think that she thought Wade wouldn’t want to know,” said Aviana. “She said he was a big partyer. Drank a lot. Plus, she strongly suspected he was still hung up on another girl. Some chick named Olivia.”
I winced.
Aviana’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “What? He married to that Olivia chick now?”
“No,” I said. “Nothing like that. I believe that the woman you’re talking about is also deceased, though.”
“Oh,” said Aviana. “Bad luck for Wade.”
“True enough,” I said. “Listen, if we could get back to the reason I called you here.”
“I called you here,” she said. “But, yeah, I might have an idea what Cheyenne might have hidden.”
“What?”
“Cash,” said Aviana. “She’d been part of a class action lawsuit for this medication she used to be on, and they won. Everyone got a payout. It was a good chunk of money too. Eight thousand dollars, if I remember correctly. I know that she never told Tex that she was participating in the class action suit. She didn’t want him to get his hands on any of the settlement money.”
“Because Tex was abusive.”
“Well…” Aviana sighed. “She never told me that, but I did suspect. Once or twice, I started to push her on it, but she shut me down. I knew that if I pushed too much, she’d cut me out of her life entirely, so I didn’t push. I tried to be there for her, be supportive. I hoped she’d leave him eventually.”
“But she didn’t.”
“Not in time, no.” Aviana shook her head.
We were both quiet for a moment.
“So, this settlement, it came in cash?”
“No, it was a check,” said Aviana. “I don’t know what she did with it. Maybe she hid the check itself from him.”
Huh. Maybe. I offered Aviana my hand. “Thank you for your time, Miss Rollins. I appreciate it.”
“If I see anything I said quoted in some trashy tabloid newspaper, I’m not going to be happy,” she said. “And I want you to know that karma is a real thing. And it’s a bitch.”
I nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.
* * *
“Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking,” I said to Wade over the phone. “She hid the check for the payout somewhere in the house. That’s why Tex wanted to know where it was.”
“Unless she cashed it and hid the actual cash,” said Wade.
“Could be,” I said. “But that doesn’t seem safe to me. If you have money, why not deposit it?”
“Maybe she didn’t have an account to put it in,” said Wade. “Besides, if she did, and she was trying to divorce Tex, he might have had a claim on it.”
“Okay, that’s a good point,” I said. “She must have been thinking about leaving him if she was hiding this money, don’t you think?”
“That’s why he killed her,” said Wade. “He could tell he was losing control of her.”
“I’ve been thinking too,” I said. “She wrote the word, ‘Safe,’ on the wall, and she did it after I said something about Kadan. I think she wanted me to find this money for Kadan. To help keep him safe.”
“That makes sense,” said Wade.
“Yeah, maybe that’s her unfinished business,” I said. “Maybe it’s Kadan. She needs to know that he has what he’s owed. That money should be his. We have to get it to him.”
“Where do we think the money is?” said Wade.
“No idea.”
I called Virginia to see if she knew about Cheyenne’s bank accounts. She said that Cheyenne had one account, a joint account with Tex, and nothing else.
It didn’t seem likely that Cheyenne would put the money in a joint account. Either she’d had a secret account, or she had hidden the cash.
The hidden cash seemed the most likely. It was somewhere in that house. I had to find it.
But where could she have hidden it? If Tex didn’t know, how was I supposed to find it? The new owners hadn’t found it either.
I was going to have to do the best that I could. I’d head over to the house as soon as possible.
I would have rather waited until the next day, but I knew that the Bentleys were in a bad situation over there. If I could find that cash and get it to Kadan, that might end the haunting right then. It would resolve things for Cheyenne and she would release her hold on the property. Then Wren could move back in and everything would be okay.
So, I headed over right away, even though it was getting dark.
* * *
When I got to the house, there was a light on upstairs, and I figured that Philip must still be there. Which was a good thing, because I didn’t have Philip’s cell phone number, so I hadn’t been able to call him and tell him I was on my way over. I realized, as I was walking up the front steps, that what I should have done was simply call Wren and tell her to call Philip or even have asked her for his number.
Oh, well.
Too late.
But I stepped onto the porch, I heard voices coming from within, and they sounded angry.
“How dare you say something like that?” said a woman.
Was this ghosts? Was that the ghost of Cheyenne?
“Oh, I don’t know, Wren,” said an angry male voice. “I don’t know what you expect me to think. You stayed late after work all those days—”
“I was working with the student council. I get a stipend for being a faculty advisor. You know this.”
“I know what you told me,” said the male voice.
“So, where did I get the extra pay, then, if I was sleeping with someone else? Where did that come from?”
“Just a regular bonus, maybe. It’s not my baby, and I don’t want anything to do with either of you.”
Okay. So, Wren was in the house, and that was probably Phil and they were having an argument that didn’t seem to mimic what the ghosts had argued about. But that didn’t mean that Philip wasn’t still being influenced by the spirit of Tex. If the ghosts thought they could get more mileage out of exacerbating existing conflicts within this marriage, they’d do it.
I didn’t knock. I just swung the door open and yelled, “It’s Deacon Garrison. I’m coming in!”
The voices stopped.
I shut the front door behind myself.
Nothing. Silence.
Huh. Okay, well, maybe they were embarrassed that I’d heard them fighting.
Or maybe I hadn’t heard any actual people fighting at all. Maybe the entire fight had been manufactured by the haunting to lure me upstairs to that room with the bright light. And I bet, if I went up there, nothing good would happen.
I swallowed hard, looking to the left and then looking to the right.
It was dark on either side, and I could barely make out any hints of the outlines of furniture. But even so, a creeping sense of dread began to wash through me, making me stiffen and shiver. I set my teeth.
Damn it. I had to go up to that room. If it was Wren and Philip actually up there, I had to stop this fight from happening. It could be deadly. I had no idea what Philip might do to Wren. I had to protect that woman—that pregnant woman.
And yet, I didn’t move.
I licked my lips and I willed myself to take a step toward the stairs.
I didn’t want to go up there. Hell, I didn’t want to be in this house. Everything instinctual in my body was on high alert, and it was telling me that there was danger here, that this was a bad place, and that I needed to get out of there.
I ignored it and began to ascend the stairs to the upper level.
A ghostly hint of light from that upper bedroom glowed at the top, an unnatural yellow color.
I continued my laborious climb, and I felt as if something below me was filling in the darkness with a knowing, jeering laugh. It had me right where it wanted. I was falling into its trap.
Idiot, I thought.
I looked over my shoulder, sure I would see something there in the darkness, some form of shadows and outlines jumbled together from t
he air. Something with red eyes and a gaping maw of a mouth.
Of course, there was nothing there.
Nothing I could see, anyway.
I took another step up into the house. I was being sucked inside now, sucked into whatever this structure was, and I couldn’t be sure it was going to let me go.
I paused. “Wren?” I called. “Philip?”
Silence.
“Hey, if you’re up there, answer me,” I yelled. I waited. “Please?” A note of desperation crept into my voice.
Man. Where the hell was Mads when I needed her? She still hadn’t come back after our conversation. Maybe it was an argument. A disagreement? “Mads?” I whispered. “You around?”
There was no response to that either.
I noticed that there was a small drip of paint that had dried on the wall. I put my finger over the round little blister there. I squared my shoulders. I continued to climb.
Finally, I reached the top of the steps.
I turned, and I could see that the door to the bedroom was closed. The light was coming from underneath the door. It mixed with the darkness, reaching out to me, calling to me.
I lurched toward the bedroom door, feeling nausea in the pit of my stomach. What did it want from me? Would it try to control me too?
I couldn’t let that happen.
My hand on the door knob.
I rattled it.
It was locked.
“Wren?” I called. “You in there?”
A muffled noise from within, like someone trying to yell when their mouth was covered.
“Wren!” I said, panic flooding me.
I shook the doorknob, trying to force it to turn.
It wouldn’t.
I put my shoulder against the door and tried to force it open.
Wood in the door frame splintered.
The door burst open.
Wren was on the bed. Philip was on top of her, straddling her. His hands were wrapped around her neck.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I let out a bellow of some kind. I didn’t know if I’d ever really made a noise like that before. I ran forward, and I grabbed Philip by the shoulders. I yanked on him.
He turned when I touched him, as if he hadn’t noticed that I was here before, so intent on strangling his wife had he been. Now, he looked annoyed rather than startled. He tried to shake me off.