She still remembered reading Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot one night when she was all alone in her apartment. Not only had she slept with all the lights on, but she’d also clutched a bottle of garlic salt in one hand and her rosary in the other.
The kicker was, she had no idea where the garlic salt had come from, but it was now hidden in a secret place just in case she was ever dumb enough to read another novel that left her staring at the window to make sure blood-sucking vampires didn’t come for her.
Blowing out a breath, she concluded the only good thing about spending the weekend at the lake was she’d have the perfect excuse for cutting short her visit with Lucas and Bella on Sunday. Who could argue against her need for sleep after a girlie weekend?
Looking at it that way, a couple of sleepless nights was a small price to pay.
“Why are you packing a bag, Jordan?” Danny asked the next day, popping his head around her bedroom door.
“I’m spending the weekend at Santana Ranch,” she lied, hoping he didn’t catch the stammer in her voice.
He walked into the room and flopped down on the opposite side of the bed. “An entire weekend with Lucas Santana?” He laughed, shaking his head. “That ain’t happening anytime soon. Where are you really going?”
Shoot! She’d have to go to Plan B. That was the problem; there was no Plan B.
“That’s none of your business,” she said, hoping something would come to her quickly.
“You’re going to Sandy’s, aren’t you?”
She turned her back to him, pretending to rummage in her drawer so he wouldn’t see the surprise on her face. When she had recovered, she turned back, throwing her pajamas into the bag and cursing the fact that she was a worse liar then she’d thought. “Why would I go there?”
He slipped off the bed and scrambled around to her side of the room. Spinning her around, he studied her face. “Yep. You suck at lying. That’s why you were always the one Mom interrogated when she suspected trouble.”
“Okay, I’m going to Sandy’s,” she blurted. “But you can’t come. Really, Danny, it’s just going to be Sandy and me.”
His eyes widened. “The lake house? You’re kidding, right? How in the world are two sissy girls going to fix her ghost problem?”
Jordan huffed. “There’s no ghost problem, you nimrod. It’s only in Sandy’s mind.” She shoved her thumb and forefinger in front of his face. “She’s this close to letting the bank foreclose on her grandfather’s house, and I can’t let that happen. At least not without a fight.”
“Why can’t I come? I want to help, too.”
They both turned when they heard the front door open.
“Yoo-hoo. Where is everyone?” Rosie called out.
“We’re back here,” Jordan hollered, seconds before Rosie swung the bedroom door open and sauntered in.
“What’s with the overnight bag?”
“Jordan’s going out to the lake with Sandy and won’t let us go.”
“Us? When did it become plural?”
“Why not, Jordan?” Rosie asked, flopping down next to Danny and jamming the pillow behind her head.
Jordan explained Sandy’s dilemma again. “I’m going out there so she can see there’s nothing to be afraid of. We all know there are no such things as ghosts, but she’s still jittery.”
“Which is why we all ought to go,” Rosie said. “We could take our Friday night card game out there and keep her mind off things that go bump in the night.”
Danny high-fived Rosie. “Behind that dyed hair and those sexy eyes is one very smart lady.” He nailed Jordan with a lost-puppy-dog look. “So what do you say? We could pick up some pizzas and meet the two of you at the Globe tomorrow afternoon.”
Jordan quit packing, mulling their suggestion around in her head. In all truthfulness, it was probably not a bad idea to have a lot of people around at least until after their card game, when they would head back to Ranchero, leaving her and Sandy alone in the house. Sandy had mentioned Friday was the night she usually heard the pounding, and as much as Jordan didn’t want to believe in ghosts, having everyone out there for half the night might be comforting, just in case she was wrong.
“Okay. If Sandy agrees, we’ll meet out in the parking lot at five o’clock, and make it crunchy chicken sandwiches instead of a pizza. Wendy’s has them on sale for ninety-nine cents this weekend.” She closed the suitcase and set it on the floor, praying she wasn’t going to regret this decision.
“All right! A road trip, a deck of cards, and plenty of liquor.” Rosie paused, wrinkling her eyebrows. “There will be liquor, won’t there?”
“I’m picking up a bottle of Baileys, and if you guys bring a couple of six-packs of beer and a few Cokes, we should be good.”
“I gotta go tell Victor,” Danny said, already halfway to the front door. “He loves that old magnolia tree in Sandy’s front yard.”
The next day at work, Jordan glanced at her watch eighty thousand times. Her feelings about the trip to the lake house were extremely muddled. On the one hand, she did not believe in ghosts, so she knew she should have nothing to fear on that score. On the other hand, the house gave her the creeps anyway, although she didn’t quite know why. And on the third hand, she was comforted by the thought that there was safety in numbers, even though having the whole gang along for the evening could lead to complications. With these confused musings rattling in her head, Jordan found it hard to focus on her column, but eventually she was able to push them aside and actually do a little newspaper-related work.
She kept busy researching the free translation website for a suitable name for Bella’s Baked Steak and Gravy recipe, finally settling on Boeuf Cuit au Jus de Viande. She wondered how much longer she could get away with this charade of posting casserole recipes and slapping fancy names on them.
At five fifteen, she and Sandy couldn’t get out the door fast enough to make their way to the parking lot where everyone was waiting in Ray’s Suburban. Since she was staying out there until Sunday, Jordan decided to leave her car in the Globe parking lot and ride with her friend.
Grabbing a couple of chicken sandwiches from Rosie, they hopped in Sandy’s car and started the trek to the lake with the Suburban following close behind. Half an hour later they piled out of both cars and walked up the steps to Sandy’s front porch.
Once inside, Sandy turned up the thermostat while Ray and Michael dragged in the folding chairs from the garage and placed them around the kitchen table. Jordan couldn’t stop glancing toward the green curtains every few seconds. With everyone here, she wasn’t as nervous as she would have been if only she and Sandy had come, but she knew that something as innocent as a sudden movement could set her off. God forbid Danny and Victor tried a repeat of the drapes stunt they’d pulled the night of the séance.
All her misgivings evaporated as soon as the card game got underway, and the laughing and teasing took over. Watching Sandy interact with her friends, Jordan was pleased to see the evening had turned into a kind of a tranquilizer for the girl, decreasing her anxiety—at least for the moment.
At ten thirty when the last drop of Baileys was gone, they called it a night. By eleven everything was cleaned up and put away, and the Empire Apartments gang was on their way back to town. Watching the car roll down the gravel driveway, Jordan glanced quickly toward Sandy, already noticing the signs of panic returning to her face.
“Don’t worry about it,” she reassured her. “We’ll get through this, I promise.”
Sandy exhaled loudly, then walked over to her purse and pulled out a bottle. “My doctor prescribed sleeping pills. She didn’t want to, but after I explained why I needed them, she agreed to give me enough for two days. That’s why I only had one drink tonight.” She shook one of the pills into her hand and then handed the bottle to Jordan. “You can use the other one so you’ll get a good night’s sleep, too.”
Jordan laughed. The one and only time she’d taken an over-the-counter sleep aid, she
’d been like a zombie the entire next day. “No thanks, I’m good. Save that second one for tomorrow night, although I’m pretty sure you won’t need it.”
“Suit yourself.” Sandy swallowed the pill with a sip of water. “Are you ready for bed?”
“Absolutely. I’ve had a busy week, and I’m exhausted. I don’t think I’ll have any trouble getting to sleep.”
“I’ll stay in Grampa’s room, and you can take the full-size bed in the guest bedroom.”
“Sounds good.” Jordan yawned.
After hugging Sandy, she went to her room and changed into a T-shirt and running shorts. Within minutes she was fast asleep, dreaming of her last night with Alex and totally forgetting the house might be haunted.
Jordan rolled over and pulled the covers up to her neck, shivering. It was freezing in the house.
Then she heard it!
The sound of someone pounding was faint but definitely audible. As the scream bubbled up in her throat, she shot up in the bed, glancing all around the room.
“Whoever you are, go away,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.
The pounding stopped.
Slowly, she slid out of bed, eyes darting to all four corners of the room, waiting for the sound to return or for some kind of movement. When there was neither, she yanked off her T-shirt and shorts and quickly redressed in the jeans and sweater she’d worn earlier.
Inhaling deeply, she made her way to the door, then stood there with her hand on the knob for a few minutes before finally summoning enough courage to open it. Half expecting to see the room filled with moving objects and flickering lights like in the movies, she was almost disappointed when it looked exactly as she and Sandy had left it before they’d gone to bed.
The pounding started up again, startling her, and she jerked her hand up to cover her mouth.
There are no such things as ghosts, she repeated to herself over and over as she stood perfectly still, afraid to move.
“Is anyone out there?”
When there was no answer, she made her way to the master bedroom and slowly opened the door, ready to fight off any evil spirits if they were messing with Sandy.
But there were none.
Sandy was snoring softly in her drug-induced slumber, blissfully unaware the pounding had begun. Jordan did a quick sweep of the room to make sure she hadn’t missed any white-sheeted guests, then smacked her forehead for being so ignorant.
She decided not to wake her friend, not that she could, anyway. The last thing she wanted was to have Sandy freak out before they could figure out what was going on. Walking back into the living room with a renewed sense of bravado, she was determined to deal with the spirits once and for all.
Listening, she pinpointed the sound as coming from the kitchen. For a split second, the visual of a bunch of ghosts drinking Almond Balls flashed in front of her, and she stifled a giggle.
Get a grip, Jordan, she reprimanded herself.
When she walked into the kitchen, the pounding grew louder. Remembering how Lola had opened the windows to allow the ghosts to float out to wherever the hell ghosts go, Jordan ran to the back door and flung it open, gasping when the night air took her breath away.
“Be gone,” she said, just as Lola had at the séance. Then her eye caught a slight movement down at the dock, and all her bravado disappeared. She wrapped her arms across her chest to stop the shaking.
Stepping out onto the back porch, she stared down toward the water. Under the glow of the perfectly round full moon, the dock was outlined as if it were decorated with Christmas lights. She let out a whimper and sucked in a gigantic gulp of air when she realized what had caught her attention was only a white sheet of paper or something blowing around in front of the dock.
Laughing out loud, more in relief than anything else, she concluded the knocking noise must be Sandy’s grandfather’s boat hitting the side of the dock in the gusting winds. She turned and walked back inside, wrapping her arms around herself to keep out the chill. She was just about to close the door behind her when the pounding returned.
She twirled around, hoping to catch Danny and Victor and read them the riot act for scaring the bejesus out of her, but she froze as the realization hit hard. It wasn’t the boat rocking against the dock making the noise.
The pounding was coming from the middle of the lake.
CHAPTER 18
Jordan ran back into the house and locked the door behind her. With shaking hands, she quickly turned off the kitchen light, so no one could see inside. Sliding down to the floor out of sight, she took several calming breaths, trying to slow her racing heart. For a long time she sat there, wondering what to do next.
The good news was that the racket in the middle of the night definitely was not the work of lonely spirits waiting to enter the netherworld. She had no idea what it really was, but that didn’t matter. Now she could look her friend in the eye and tell her with confidence the house wasn’t haunted.
So why was she still acting like there was a boogeyman out there?
Finally brave enough to stand, she peered out the window at the calm water. When the pounding started again, she quickly slumped to the floor before remembering that whatever was making all that noise was too far away to hurt her.
She’d share her discovery with Sandy in the morning, and after lunch maybe they could take that tour around the lake Sandy had been promising and see for themselves if there was anything bobbing in the water.
On the other hand, she hadn’t really discovered anything except that the sound was coming from the lake, and she wasn’t even sure about that. Sandy would never believe there was something out there in the water banging into a floating object at the same time every week.
Who would? Jordan shook her head, knowing the only way her friend would ever feel comfortable living in her grandfather’s house was if they could pinpoint the exact cause of the noise. According to Sandy, the pounding only occurred at night, and only on Fridays. After thinking of a zillion reasons why she should go back to bed and discuss it with her friend in the morning, Jordan decided, terrified or not, she couldn’t wait. She would walk down to the dock and see for herself while it was happening.
Slowly, she stood up again and leaned against the door. She remembered Sandy going to the kitchen for a flashlight earlier when Ray had to run out to the car to get the cards. Rummaging through the drawers, she finally found it and checked to make sure it actually worked. After retrieving her coat from the hall closet, she opened the back door and walked out onto the porch.
The cool night air slapped her in the face, and she breathed in deeply. She could smell the unmistakable odor of rotting leaves and fish. Looking down at the dock, she was relieved to see nothing had changed during the time she’d huddled on the kitchen floor. She had no idea what she’d expected to be different and scolded herself for being so fearful.
Giving herself a quick pep talk, she summoned up the courage to start down the porch steps and made her way to the dock. Halfway there, the pounding stopped, and she came close to hauling her butt back to the house. Knowing this was the only way to help her friend, she forced her feet to keep moving forward.
Close to the dock, she pointed the flashlight beam across the wooden structure, slowly surveying the area. Just as Sandy had said, there was a boat suspended above the water on a lift and a Jet Ski in the next stall, also above the water.
When the pounding started up again, Jordan jerked around and flashed the light toward the center of the water. Lake Texoma was huge, with limited visibility across its expanse, but she was able to determine the noise was coming from the other side of the cove to her left. Though she could see all the way to the shoreline under the glow of the moon, her first glance didn’t pick up anything clanging together in the water.
Disappointed, she made another scan of the area. She had to find out something—anything—so Sandy could live out here without the fear of unwanted houseguests.
Making a spur-of-the-
moment decision she knew she would probably live to regret—assuming she did live—she turned the switch on the wooden column separating the boat from the Jet Ski. With a loud cranking sound, the lift holding the Jet Ski began to descend. When it was low enough, she jumped on before common sense had time to veto what the crazy side of her brain was already planning to do.
She thought back to her adolescent years when her family and their friends used to camp on Lake Amarillo in the Texas summer heat. Someone always brought Jet Skis, and she remembered how the keys would be stored in the front compartment. She wondered if Sandy’s grandfather had done the same. With adrenaline racing through her body, she opened the box below the steering column. A wave of disappointment, mixed with a flurry of relief, surged through her.
There was no key.
Leaning back, she closed her eyes. What was she thinking? Even if she could get it started, she’d freeze out there with the chilly water spray soaking her. Despite her jeans and jacket, the cold would be unbearable. And what if the Jet Ski stalled in the middle of the lake? Or worse, what if there really was something out there waiting for her?
She snorted, thinking Victor wasn’t the only melodramatic one at the Empire Apartments. What did she think was out there—the Loch Ness monster?
Sliding off the seat and jumping back on the dock, she flipped the switch to raise the ski back up, taking one final look across the water. On her way back to the house, Jordan resigned herself to the fact she might never discover the source of the pounding. She just hoped the screeching of the pulleys elevating the Jet Ski hadn’t awakened Sandy. Then she realized that the chance of that happening with Sandy happily in la-la land, thanks to the sleeping pill, was about as unlikely as a toddler refusing candy.
As soon as she entered the house, Jordan went straight to the master bedroom to make sure Sandy was okay. Seeing her friend sound asleep and totally oblivious to her close encounter with the Lake Texoma Creature, Jordan began to relax. They’d have a good laugh about all of it in the morning.
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