It took her about a half hour, but at last she had the piece on her computer, ready to play at any speed she desired. She turned up her speakers and clicked Play.
A depressing moan wailed across her speakers. Madeline’s heart raced as she listened to the various noises that accompanied it before and after the cry. There were sounds like whispers, and she thought she could make out words.
She slowed down the spot again and recorded it, then played with the speeds some more. At last, she was able to decipher not only the crying, but random mutterings like, “he took the knife” and “they told me not to go in there but, no I had to...” and “she only had the seeds of a dandelion in her pocket...”
Once she had the recording to her liking, she copied it to her hard drive and to two CDs. She would mail one to Audrey in the morning.
Satisfied she was done, she surfed over to the paranormal message board and posted the recording there.
Within minutes, Jake was on IM.
Jake75: That’s incredible.
Maddy666: I know... I couldn’t believe it myself.
Jake75: What else was there?
Maddy666: Natasha spoke to several people and passed along messages. Nothing out of the ordinary with regard to that.
Jake75: Do you even believe she’s for real?
Maddy666: Sure she is. She’s the best medium in town.
Jake75: How do you know she doesn’t just put on a show for her clients?
Maddy666: She wouldn’t. She doesn’t have to. If you were here, you would see for yourself.
Madeline waited for his response.
Jake75: Maybe one day I’ll have to come out there.
Madeline grinned as she typed.
Maddy666: I’m having an investigation at the Kelly Proctor house.
It would be great if you could come up for it.
Jake75: I’ll have to check my schedule. New England in the winter isn’t really appealing for this surfer boy.
Maddy666: You won’t freeze to death, I promise.
Jake75: I’ll hold you to that.
Maddy666: Well, check your schedule. I promise you, the Kelly Proctor house is full of activity.
Jake75: I’m intrigued.
They chatted a while longer until Jake had to sign off. Madeline stared at her screen for a few minutes.
Jake might actually come to Hermana.
Madeline clicked off her computer and went into the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of water and settled in front of the television. A reality show about weight loss was on, and as she watched the very large candidates working out on the machines, she decided to lie on the floor and do a few sit-ups.
If she was going to meet Jake, she would have to do something about her flabby body. He was so taut and trim—one look at her and he’d run screaming. She thought about what he might imagine she looked like. Her pictures on the Internet and on her books were mostly of her face. She was lucky to have a pretty face, one that looked younger than her 31 years, but her body was every inch over 30.
She paused in her sit-ups for a moment to marvel at one candidate’s weight loss of 17 pounds in a week.
She wished she could lose 17 pounds. Maybe she could by the time Jake arrived. Sit-ups led to push-ups and thoughts of calling Jessica, her personal trainer. She would definitely start hitting the gym on a more regular basis.
As she lay facedown on the floor after her 50th push-up, she realized she was getting horny. Maybe all the blood flowing through her was revving her up.
She sighed and returned to the computer.
This time she decided to cruise some porn sites.
She clicked on one of her favorite categories, couples on hidden cameras, and found her vibrator. A video clip of a couple by a swimming pool played as she turned on her vibrator and put it against her pussy. The gentle humming stirred her blood, and she sighed in relief as she let the whirring tease her.
As the man on the screen slid his thick, hard cock into the young, nubile woman on the deck chair, Madeline spread her legs and slid the vibrator into herself. She imagined the man and woman on the screen as her and Jake.
As the man thrust into the woman, Madeline moved the vibrator in and out of herself in time to his movement. What would Jake be like? She imagined him strong and forceful, taking her roughly as the man in the video took the woman.
As the sound of the woman’s pleasure echoed through the room, Madeline moved her vibrator faster. She spread her legs wider so she could feel the full penetration of the thick silicone. What she wouldn’t give to feel warm flesh instead. Jake’s warm flesh.
Her pleasure grew until at last, she could hold back no longer. With a cry, she came.
As the pleasure subsided, she got up and went to the kitchen to wash her vibrator. As she wiped a cloth along the phallic toy, she wondered how Jake would compare.
Chapter Four
Be prepared for the unexpected.
It had only been a couple of weeks since Madeline had last set foot in the Kelly Proctor house. She had arrived in the early afternoon today to prepare the house for the arrival of her Internet friends.
In the end, three other people were coming for the investigation that snowy weekend. Jake had started the ball rolling with his enthusiastic response, and soon Eric, Klaus and Diana were joining them. Jake was coming from the farthest-away state, California. But Florida, Pennsylvania and New York weren’t exactly down the street either.
Madeline was rather pleased that people from so far away wanted to join her in an investigation. She didn’t have to do a thing except ask. She offered nothing in return except the opportunity to hang out in a haunted house all weekend. They all found their own way to Hermana. They brought their own equipment and their own unique personalities.
When Madeline arrived at the house, Eric, Klaus and Diana were setting up.
Most of the gear had been dumped in the living room, and Diana was trying her best to straighten it all up by kicking it around impatiently. Madeline stood in the doorway, marvelling at the woman’s temper.
“Has Jake arrived yet?” Madeline asked Diana when she finally looked over at her.
“No, of course not. He’s always late,” Diana scoffed.
“You’ve met him?” Madeline asked.
“Oh, we go way back. I’ve known him since high school.”
“You don’t say. Maybe I should show you your rooms,” Madeline said as she walked them up the stairs to the second floor where there were several bedrooms.
“Everything is original,” Madeline said. “So we’re not allowed to eat or drink here.”
“What about my water bottle?” Diana asked.
“Please don’t. She was already reluctant to let so much media into the home.”
“Sure.” Diana smacked her gum and returned to testing her camera.
Madeline paced around the room, pretending to care what sort of equipment people were going to use or set up.
“I wouldn’t have cared before about things like food,” she said to Diana, “but now I care. This place’s been good to me.”
“Who? Kelly or Trinity?”
“Please,” Madeline said. “Don’t mock the spirits. They get pissed at people real easily.”
As Diana glared at her and was preparing to retort, a cup flew across the room and smashed to the floor.
“Holy shit,” Diana said. “What was that?”
“I told you.” Tremors slowly ebbed through Madeline. Hot and cold temperatures mixed and swirled along her body. She sank into a hot wave of sweet bliss. Suddenly she realized Diana was holding her under her shoulders.
“Whoa there, little missy. That’s enough dancing for you.”
Madeline put her hands to her head. “What happened?”
“You nearly fainted. You feeling okay?” she asked.
“Yes.” She straightened up and looked at the shattered china on the ground. “Please be careful how you speak and act around here. I mean it,” Madeline stre
ssed.
“Yes, ma’am.” Diana saluted, but Madeline saw her heart wasn’t in it. She was eyeing the mess on the floor. “So, how do they do that?” she asked as Madeline kneeled down to pick up the bigger pieces.
“Do what?”
“How do the owners make the dishes fly like that? It’s got to be a trick of some sort.” Diana ran over to one of the walls and ran her fingers along it. “There’s got to be wires or some sort of light mechanism that triggers something somewhere.”
Madeline stood up and laughed, carefully holding the broken pieces of china in her hand. “It’s not a trick, Diana. I’ve been here enough times, and I’ve searched here enough to know that anything you see and hear tonight is not rigged. I’m not saying it’s supernatural, but I can’t explain some of the things I’ve witnessed.”
“Well, I guess I’ll see for myself,” Diana said, her cockiness returning. She returned to her equipment. Madeline went over to Eric and Klaus.
“Do you need anything?” she asked.
“Not now. We’re good,” Eric said.
Klaus was fiddling with a camera lens. “We’re fine,” he agreed.
“I just wanted to remind you guys that there’s no eating or drinking in the house. It’s a historical monument. We have to use the kitchen.”
“Sure thing,” Eric said.
Madeline went to the front parlor and looked out the window. Jake was late. She wondered whether he was coming at all. She’d given him her cell phone number in case he got lost on the drive from Logan Airport in Boston.
She checked her messages, but there was nothing. She double-checked her text messages, but there was nothing new. Sighing, she went into the kitchen and checked her voice mail, but there weren’t any recent calls or messages.
Maybe he wasn’t going to come at all. Maybe he wasn’t even who he said he was. Who knew who was on the other side of that messenger? He could have been a girl, a teenager, an old woman... the pictures could have been photoshopped.
She was going to make herself nuts.
There was nothing more to do but go up to her room.
This time she was going to be staying in Edwin’s room. Edwin was the father who had been murdered in the house many years before. She had chosen it because it was the most private room. Most of the other rooms had several doors, and one had to walk through them to get around the house. But Edwin’s room was set back and even had a private bathroom.
She went into Edwin’s room and immediately felt the unwelcoming chill she always felt in here. How on earth am I ever going to sleep in such a creepy place? she wondered.
At least this room hadn’t been where any of the bodies had been found. Those rooms creeped her out even more.
She set to work opening her suitcase and putting her toiletries onto the glass shelf in the small bathroom. As she rinsed her toothbrush, she caught her face in the mirror. She looked worried, as though she had suffered a great disappointment.
How could she possibly meet Jake with a face like that?
She put away her toothbrush and returned to the mirror. Her eye makeup was smeared, and her glasses were smudged. Her hair was sticking out all over. She tried to remember if she had brushed it that morning and decided it probably wasn’t likely.
In her haste to pick out the perfect clothes, and to get to the house in time to make sure everything was going to go smoothly, she had forgotten to look at her own face.
She grabbed a piece of tissue and set to work blotting off the running eyeliner and smoothed out her eye shadow. Using her shirt, she wiped the smudges from her glasses.
There was no point in even looking for a hairbrush as she knew she hadn’t thought to pack one. She leaned over letting her hair fall, running her fingers through the tangles. When she flipped back up again, it stuck out in a ball of static.
Sighing, she smoothed it down with her hands, pulling it over her ears, and fixing the part in the middle. At last she deemed herself slightly more presentable and went back downstairs.
There was a flurry of activity coming from the front hallway, and a new low male voice boomed through the house.
“These little streets. It’s suicide going down those little roads. Yet at the same time quite a thrill.”
Jake chatted to Eric as he pulled off his dark blue ski jacket. Light clumps of snow fell from his hat as he tugged it off.
Madeline’s heart raced as she watched him shake his curly, black hair. When he was done, he looked up, his piercing blue eyes staring right at her.
“Madeline?” he asked, holding out his hand.
“Jake,” she said, stepping forward.
“It’s a joy to finally meet you,” he said.
Madeline nodded. She could have kicked herself, but she was well and truly tongue-tied. She couldn’t think of a word to say to this man. Here was Jake, in the flesh—in the tall, dark and handsome flesh, no less—and she was bumbling over her words like a star-struck teenager.
“Boy, nothing I’d like more than a hot shower and a nap,” Jake said. Madeline’s heart sank.
“I’m sorry, Jake. But we’ve been waiting for you. The tour guide is already overbooked and we have the medium coming...”
“Goddammit,” he said and took his bags. “Fine. Can I at least take a few minutes to change my clothes?”
“Of course,” Madeline said, cringing as he left the room.
Diana turned to her. “Don’t mind him. He’s always been a moody son of a bitch. Don’t want to disappoint you, but you’ll want to kill him by the end of it all.”
“Well, gee, that’s great, isn’t it?” Madeline said, more to herself than to Diana.
She heard Jake slamming around above them and muttering to himself. She realized he likely didn’t know what his room options were, and she hurried up the stairs to show him.
He had put his suitcase in the room where people often claimed to see visions hovering above their bed.
“Is this okay?” he asked, waving his hands around.
“Yes, it is. Look, I’m sorry, I know you’re probably...”
“It’s fine. Really, Madeline. I just really like my showers.”
“You must be a water sign,” Madeline joked.
“You’re right. A Scorpio,” Jake said. His eyes twinkled.
“I’m an Aquarius,” she said.
“I know. It’s on your profile,” Jake said. “I know a lot about you. Or at least who you want people on the web to think you are.”
“I know what you’re saying,” Madeline said as she sat on the bed. “I wondered if you were who you said you were.”
“I’m easy enough to prove. I’ve met tons of people at conferences and on hunts. I’m on TV all the time. You can find me somewhere somehow. Even when you don’t want to.” He winked.
Madeline laughed. “Fine. Get ready.”
“Shower?” he pleaded, putting his hands together in a praying position.
“No. No shower. We’re on a tight schedule,” she said as she left the room.
She returned to her own room to retrieve her extra set of batteries from her suitcase. She heard Eric and Diana talking.
“I don’t believe for a minute that this stuff is real. But I like to hang out with people who do,” Eric said.
“I’ve seen some weird stuff, but whether they’re ghosts, I don’t know. How can there be stuff after you’re dead? And how come only some people get to see them?” Diana said.
“I know. And why do you pick a particular spot? I mean like here, I guess the murders and stuff would draw them back. But some other haunted places? What’s the deal with them?”
Madeline entered the room. “I’m a skeptic too. I think it’s good to have a healthy dose of skepticism in this business. People take you more seriously.”
“Do you really think so?” Diana asked.
“I like to hope so. Especially for women. For me. This is still very much a male-oriented business,” Madeline said.
“I hear you, sister.
We have to be tough or idiots. So hard to be something in between.”
“And what about Jake?” Madeline asked.
“Oh, he’s a total skeptic. He’s also somewhat of a magician. He likes to play tricks.” Eric nodded.
“What do you mean?” asked Madeline.
“He’ll do stunts on TV. Basic reading mind and that sort of thing,” Diana explained.
“He was on a local cable show for a while. Back in wherever it is he’s from,” said Eric.
“Somewhere in California,” Diana said.
“Must be near the beach ’cause he always has a tan,” said Eric.
“He could use a tanning bed,” said Diana.
“But he talks about surfing all the time,” Madeline pointed out.
“So he definitely uses a tanning bed. If you’re surfing all the time, you’re wearing a wetsuit, so how are you getting a tan?” teased Diana.
“You’re exhausting.” Madeline chuckled. “Okay, let’s go.”
Everyone went into the front parlor. Jake sat across from Madeline, fiddling with a camera while everyone got settled.
The tour guide, Mrs. Ellen Timothy, entered the room. She was an elderly lady and wore an old-fashioned black dress with a white, full-length apron.
“Good evening, everyone. I understand you’re an investigative reporting team?” she asked.
“Yes,” came the reply.
Madeline looked around the room and smiled at what she saw. The team she had dreamed of was here now, in Hermana, in the Kelly Proctor house. She looked over at Jake, and he winked at her. Madeline felt her face flush and willed it to stop. She was still a bit taken aback by the fact he hadn’t apologized for being late. She should be used to it, she supposed. She had a few friends who were always late. She herself could be spotty.
But despite the weather, Jake had had two hours to drive from Boston and settle in. It couldn’t have taken that long.
The tour guide was relaying the story of Edwin, Trinity and Kelly Proctor. Edwin and Marguerite, his second wife, were found murdered decades ago in a mirror image of the Lizzie Borden murders that had happened in Fall River merely months before.
Aquarius: Haunted Heart Page 4
