The Wayland Manor Haunting (Gulf Coast Paranormal Season Two Series Book 1)

by M. L. Bullock

  No wonder Big Brother was so crazy about her. I texted her back: When did you start painting again? Spooky and beautiful.

  Just this morning. This image has been in my head for a few days. You guys took on a new case, huh?

  I didn’t bother denying it. What was the point?

  Yeah. New case. Lots to unpack. Now put this away and focus on you and Midas and the baby. I added a smiley at the end of my sentence, as a friendly reminder.

  All three of us are doing fine. The morning sickness stopped, and now I want to eat everything. I did not sign up for this. LOL

  Portion control as much as you can, but don’t starve yourself. You’re so active, you do more now than I ever did when I was pregnant. Thanks for the artwork. This will help.

  One of Cassidy’s favorite pastimes was running. She loved a good marathon. She would never be overweight, but pregnancy changes a woman’s body in strange ways. I followed up my last text with: Paranormal investigation is my exercise. There was a silence between us, and I finally asked the question I had been dying to know.

  How is he?

  I could see the dots on the screen where Cassidy would begin to write and then delete her answer. Then the same thing happened again.

  Raw. It’s still raw. Like it happened yesterday.

  I’m sending lots of positive energy your way, Cassidy. Love you, Little Sister. It was fun to call her that. That’s what Midas called me.

  Love you too, Sierra Kay. Going to see the necropolis today. TTYL. Love you. One more thing before I go. This new place, things are not what they seem. There is a lot of hidden history. Do me a favor.

  What’s the favor?

  Cover the mirrors. See my drawing? There’s one in the closet. They are moving around through the mirrors. We’ve seen this before.

  Right. I will check it out tonight.

  Bye!

  Bye!

  Just in the nick of time too. Emily was cranky, Mrs. McBride was quiet and worried about her friend, and Joshua was unloading the dishwasher for his mother. I reminded him that he had about an hour before he had to interview the two newbies at the office.

  “Got it. Let me get a shower. I didn’t manage to do that before we came over. Mom, you sure you don’t want to tag along tonight?” He liked teasing his mother about this, but he’d better look out. Joshua did not realize that Mrs. McBride was far more open to the paranormal than he imagined. She might just show up with a digital recorder and say, “Take me too.”

  “I’ll pass. Emily and I have a date with some princesses, and Grandpa is going to make banana splits for dessert. Oh, shoot. I’d better call and remind him to stop by the store on his way home.”

  “Sounds like a fun night. We will probably be late coming in. You want us to pick up Emily before we go home or wait until later in the morning? I can’t remember when you have your nail appointment.” Why was I even asking? We spent half our time here already. Joshua left the rest of the dishwasher to me and went straight to the shower.

  “Y’all come after you sleep, Sierra. She’ll be fine. My nail appointment isn’t until 11. Why isn’t he picking up?” She frowned slightly as she listened to the phone ring. Then her face went pale as she stared at the screen.

  Since it was on speaker, I could hear the shocking truth for myself. I heard two voices arguing with one another. Muffled yet familiar voices—a man and a woman. Joshua walked out of the kitchen whistling, and I didn’t dare call him back. He didn’t need to hear this. Emily fussed on my hip. I gave her a wooden spoon to hold as I stalled to see how this would all play out.

  Finally, my father-in-law answered the phone. Who did the other voice belong to? Was that Gloria?

  “Hey, Brad? What’s going on?” Mrs. McBride asked. “Brad? Are you with Gloria? What’s going on? Is she okay?”

  “Tell her!” I heard Gloria demand, and then the line went dead. Mrs. McBride immediately called again, but this time, it went to voicemail.

  Too late for you, Brad. You are busted. Stone-cold busted.

  Mrs. McBride clutched the side of the sink, and I put the baby on the floor. Emily immediately began looking for something to whack with her spoon. Unfortunately for Bozo, he was the closest and slowest. He yelped and ran after just one love tap.

  “How could he do this? How? I had no idea any of this was happening. None. I am at a loss for words, Sierra. How could he? Oh, please don’t tell Joshua. Please. Maybe there is some sort of explanation.” She tried reasoning away the obvious—not that I could blame her.

  I worked hard to not roll my eyes at that lame excuse, but I managed it. “Maybe. I mean, I hope so. Let’s have a cup of coffee. What do you say? I can clean Emily up and put her down for her nap.”

  “Yeah, that sounds great. Just give me a minute to catch my breath. Actually, give me a few minutes.”

  I paused a moment before hugging her hopefully. She wasn’t too receptive to my hug; she felt as if she might break if I held her too tight. “I wish I knew what to say.”

  “Me too. That must have been what she was trying to do earlier. She wanted to tell me, but she didn’t. She was my friend, Sierra. Why would they do this?”

  “Don’t play into their mind games. Protect yourself, Mrs. McBride. Get the answers first. No bullshit answers, either. You make him tell you the truth. Oh, crap. I think I hear his truck pulling into the driveway. Do you want me to stay here with you?”

  Appointment, my foot. He must have been right up the road at Gloria’s place.

  “I’d rather talk to him in private if you don’t mind. This is all so surreal.”

  “Okay, we’ll go and give you guys some privacy. Come on, Emily. Yes, you can take your spoon but don’t whack Mommy. No! Ow! I said don’t hit Mommy.” She grinned and drooled with delight. I hurried out of the kitchen with Emily on my hip. We went to Joshua’s old bedroom, now the guest room, and closed the door. My poor, oblivious husband had no idea his world was about to be rocked beyond recognition. He was soaped up in the shower, singing some country song. Damn it! Why was he being so seductive at a time like this? If Emily wasn’t so cranky, I’d sneak in there with him. Get lost in his soapy arms. Explore his natural physique with my expert fingers.

  Still clutching her spoon, Emily waddled over to the bed, and I helped her crawl up in it. I turned on the television, which was conveniently tuned to the cartoon channel. Oh, I hated the sponge guy. She lay down, holding her spoon like a doll. Give her a minute and she would be out like a light. Her eyelids were slightly red, like they always were when she was fighting sleep. She yawned, and I lay down behind her. She cuddled up on her pillow and got still.

  She was fast asleep in minutes.

  The voices in the kitchen were elevated. Mr. McBride wasn’t going to tell his wife the truth, not in a million years. It was easy to hear through these paper-thin walls.

  I didn’t want to think about what would happen when Joshua came out of the shower? He’d try to be all up in the middle of it. I’d better create a diversion. Not that I needed convincing to do that.

  I shed my clothes quick, fast and in a hurry just as Joshua was finishing up. His blond hair was drenched, and his blue eyes sparkled merrily. And here I was, naked as a jaybird and ready to play. We only had the bathroom since Emily was in the other room, but that’s all we needed. We had gotten pretty good at sexing in the shower.

  “Now, what was that song you were singing, cowboy? How about showing me those moves again. You know I’m your biggest fan.”

  “Are you? Well, step inside and close the door.”

  I did just that with a “Yee haw!”

  Chapter Four—Joshua

  My wife’s sweet surprise was just what I needed to get motivated for tonight’s investigation. Not that I really needed any motivation—how long since I had been in the field? Just the other day, I took a drive to the Leaf Academy. I can’t say why. It was the case that broke us all, in one way or another. I didn’t even tell Sierra because I didn’t want t
o worry her. I could not get that place out of my mind.

  To my horror, the building had not yet been leveled. And to make matters worse, there was a new FOR SALE sign out front. Wow, talk about going back on her word. After Jocelyn’s murder, the owner promised she would raze the place. Who in the world would want to buy that place? Images of Jocelyn’s thin body falling off the building and twisting as she fell played in my head repeatedly.

  In the beginning, I had some misgivings about continuing Gulf Coast Paranormal without Midas and Cassidy, but Sierra was right. She was right most of the time. But in this case, I agreed with her a hundred percent. Gulf Coast Paranormal existed to help people, and we needed to continue our mission.

  It really didn’t matter to me who sat in the captain’s chair—as long as it wasn’t Pete or Sara. My wife was big on teamwork and had a gift for delegating tasks. Me? I was more of a troubleshooter—a hands-on kind of guy—but Sierra Kay couldn’t do this without me, and I couldn’t stop her.

  I was hoping to talk with my dad before I left, just to remind him about that golfing trip we were taking next weekend, but to my surprise he was nowhere to be found. I could have sworn that I heard him pulling into the driveway when I was getting into the shower.

  I got dressed and left with Sierra and Emily napping in my old bedroom. Mom was in her room with the door closed. I heard her crying, and that was a rare thing. My mom didn’t cry at the drop of a hat and never without a good reason. What was going on?

  I prayed that the reason for her tears today was not my dad. I had my suspicions recently, suspicions I didn’t dare utter even to my wife, and it looked like what I feared was coming true. This wouldn’t be the first time that Dad had been unfaithful. But it’d been a long time since the last affair.

  As far as I knew.

  Dad and His Traveling Pants. Man, I hated a cheater. It was a wonder that Si Si and I made it through our troubles, but we had managed it, thanks to a lot of therapy and patience. Sierra was not like Dad, who had been a serial cheater. I was a huge flirt but not a cheater. Most of the time, Dad treated Mom right and made her happy, but he got in these weird moods. During those moods, he just seemed unhappy with everything and everyone. And most of the time, that everything and everyone was us.

  I hated it for Mom, but as I told her when I was back in high school, she should’ve left him then.

  I couldn’t think about this right now. I was pulling up to the office and spotted two vehicles parked out front. Cool. They were already there. That was good. Showed up on time? Ten points.

  I couldn’t believe how frequently people forgot show up for work. Even when we were just doing this as volunteers, Sierra and I never bailed on Midas. You can’t change your mind without notice.

  “Hey, you guys must be waiting on me. Been here long?”

  The younger man hung back a little, but the older gentleman spoke up first. I say older, but he was probably only around forty. “It’s no problem. I’ve driven by here at least a dozen times, and I never noticed this place until today. My name is Carmen. You’re Joshua McBride, right?”

  “Yeah, and you must be Rayvon,” I said to the kid.

  “Yeah, that’s me. But only my mom calls me Rayvon. I prefer Jericho.”

  Carmen said, “Nice to meet you, Joshua. I’ve followed your work. Good stuff, man.”

  What that meant, I had no idea, but it was all good. It’s not like I was some big celebrity. The only people excited about spooky people are other spooky people. Words of wisdom from Midas Demopolis. Huh, I did miss him.

  I shook both their hands and opened the door and flipped on some lights. “Great, guys. We’ll just chat in here.” I hadn’t considered how I would conduct these interviews. I know how my wife would do it. Formally, behind closed doors. But here we were, just three guys shooting the breeze.

  That’s how I’d like it to be. Let’s face it, I was a bit more laid-back than my wife. We had only one paying position open. Ideally, that spot would go to someone who could perform a range of duties, from running technical equipment to reviewing footage to actually doing some amazing paranormal investigation. We didn’t ask for much, did we?

  At first, I thought this would be like shooting fish in a barrel, but the process had not been so easy. There were lots of people out there who had their own way of doing things and had no interest whatsoever in learning how we wanted the investigations to go. The Midas Demopolis method of investigation was going to continue. We were going to take the jobs that nobody else wanted, we would do them with a good attitude, and we would put the customers’ privacy and safety first.

  Always.

  It was weird to discover how many people sign up to do this sort of thing without being actual believers. Investigations like the ones we did were not safe proving grounds for a first encounter with spirits, demons and elementals—all of which were rare but very real.

  We couldn’t hire someone like that. We just couldn’t afford to—not after Jocelyn, and that wasn’t even her fault. I slid the laptop bag on the table beside me and settled down into the chair. I tried not to think about the situation that was unfolding at home. What I would come home to, I had no idea. It probably would not be great. But for the moment, I would focus on the here and now.

  “Tell me about yourself, Jericho. What made you want to come today?” If I had to guess his age without looking at his driver’s license, I would say he was barely twenty-one, but he had the bearing of someone older. Yeah, he was an old soul. But then again, guessing someone’s age had never been my strong suit. That had gotten me into trouble a lot in high school. At least with the girls.

  “I have always been open to this kind of thing. I grew up in a family that is deeply religious but also very spiritual. I feel blessed to have had that kind of upbringing. I began using my abilities in my grandfather’s church, but I wasn’t ready for any of it. Especially not failure. Eventually I had to step back and really assess what I wanted to do with my life. After some time, I got back into house cleansings and the like. I heard about what you guys did at the Dixie House. That little boy, the one you found alive, he was a relative of mine.”

  “Sounds heavy, man. So, what happened? Did the religious folks run you out of the church?” Carmen sneered as he scribbled on the wrinkled application I handed him. For some reason, I couldn’t find his paperwork, and it wasn’t in my laptop bag. I powered up the computer and put on my glasses. That was a new development but one I couldn’t put off any longer. Further proof that Joshua McBride was getting old.

  Jericho sounded aggravated by the insinuation. “No, it wasn’t like that. My church and family were very receptive to my work.”

  Carmen grimaced slightly and offered a halfhearted apology. “Sorry, man. Just curious. What kind of work do you do?”

  “I’m a healer. That’s not my job—I work at a grocery store. Night manager. But that’s about to go away because the store is closing. Walmart is moving into the neighborhood. I haven’t decided if I’m going to apply there or not, but like I said, healing is where my passion is and I’m ready to give it a shot. I’d like to eventually do that full time, but I’m willing to start at the bottom.”

  I was really interested in what Jericho was saying. I’d never thought much about healing being a skill that could be used in paranormal investigation, but I was open to hearing new ideas.

  “Tell me more, Jericho. How would you use your ability to heal on an investigation? And how does your healing manifest?”

  He smiled, and it was the kind of smile that brightened up everything around him. Yeah, I liked this kid’s energy. He was open and honest—so far, so good.

  “Wow, I’ve never been asked to describe it. It’s kind of a steady tug. It’s not coming and going unless I am asleep. I’m always feeling and sensing and moving and pushing the energy around. That’s all healing is—forcing out the negative and pouring in light. Broken souls need fixing, or at least to be directed to where they can find their permanent
healing.”

  Carmen didn’t seem impressed at all. “What kind of healing can a dead person need? Or are you talking about healing for the living? I’m a little confused.”

  Dude, no sense in being a bully. Minus ten points. How could anyone be confused about that? It made perfect sense to me, but I let Jericho continue his thought.

  “I think the dead need healing more than the living. When you’re alive, you have tons of resources. People around you, family, friends, therapists. When you are dead and you’re lost, you kind of have to figure things out on your own. Eventually you will, but it might take some time. And time is…well…it doesn’t run the same for them. The dead, I mean. You have to help them snap out of it. Unhealed dead people create havoc in homes. They divide families, sometimes intentionally, sometimes on purpose. But the fact of the matter is we can help them. I can contribute, and I want to do that.”

  “You said before that you stepped back from healing. You didn’t say why. What happened?”

  Jericho’s brown eyes widened as I drilled down with my questioning. “I couldn’t help someone that needed me. I couldn’t heal her. I still don’t know why. I’d like to figure it out.”

  The air crackled around us. Carmen watched our exchange but kept his thoughts to himself. By the expression on Jericho’s face and the tone of his voice, I could sense the gravity of the situation. Anyone who was a part of Gulf Coast Paranormal the night that Jocelyn Graves was shoved off a roof knew exactly what he was experiencing. It still shook Midas.

  I didn’t offer any advice because what did I know? There would maybe be a time when that would be appropriate, but now was not that time. Instead, I handed him the keys and said, “Over there is the storage room, where we keep all of our gear. Go in there and bring me back three pieces of equipment. I need to know that you understand the basics.”

  Jericho didn’t look too pleased with my test, but he took the keys. “Alright. What do you want me to bring back?”