“What do you know about Ben and Harper? I mean, what’s their connection? I get the feeling that for Ben, she was the one that got away. Am I right?”
He smiled slyly. “I’ll tell you all about it tonight. Pick you up at seven?”
“Sure, you can pick me up, but wouldn’t you rather I just meet you there? I would hate for you to come all this way when you live so close to the restaurant,” I said as I locked the back door.
“I’m not sure how the dating scene is in Virginia, Jerica Poole, but here in Mississippi it is customary for a gentleman to pick up a lady,” he replied with a playful wink.
“Oh, it’s a date-date,” I said softly as my stomach flip-flopped from either nerves or excitement.
Jesse leaned back against the sink and crossed his arms. That was his move when he was unsure about something like my choice of stain or my idea for the new spindles on the staircase. “If you think it’s better that we don’t call it a date, I’ll understand. Or if you want to cancel, I’ll understand that too.”
By the tone of his voice, I knew neither was true at all. And I didn’t want to cancel. “I’m not canceling anything, Jesse Clarke. I’ll be ready at seven o’clock, but I’d better go pay the guys. Will you make sure nobody is left upstairs? I thought I heard someone stomping around up there earlier.”
“Sure, I’ll do a walk-through, pack up the equipment and lock up the place.”
“Great,” I said with an awkward smile. “I’ll see you later.”
I tried not to skip out of the kitchen like a silly teenager.
Chapter Two—Jerica
Ben never arrived at the cottage; I hadn’t really expected him to, but I worried about him nonetheless. I didn’t see any extra cars in my driveway, but Summerleigh was a big place. At least there were a lot of woods around here to hide a vehicle. I walked to Jeopardy’s monument between Summerleigh and the cottage but didn’t see Ben anywhere. Not on the bench under the oak tree and not strolling the graveled walkways. I’d replaced the previous obscure marker with something more appropriate. The new monument read, “Jeopardy Belle, Beloved Daughter of John Jeffrey Belle. Together Always.” Rumor had it that Ann Belle had placed the former stone there in memory of her lost daughter, but I couldn’t be sure. I believed the ghost of Jeopardy Belle visited here from time to time, though her body now rested next to her sisters. Once in a while, I thought I heard her young, raspy voice, a voice I would know almost as well as my own or Marisol’s. But I never saw her.
After walking to the potting shed and down the path a bit, I decided that Ben had most certainly left, and I hurried back to my cottage to get ready for my first official date with Jesse Clarke.
Me? Dating again? I couldn’t believe it. While my hair dried, I ransacked my closet for something appropriate. Should I stick with blue jeans or wear a dress? I settled on the latter. I’d bought a few dresses from a boutique in Lucedale, and now I had the chance to take one off the hanger. The dress was made of a soft material, mossy green with a scoop neck and cap sleeves. I had strong arms, and after all the work we’d been doing, I was proud of how toned they looked.
The phone downstairs rang, which was so rare that I had to think about what it was I was hearing. I hurried downstairs to answer it. “Hello?”
“Hello, Jerica? This is Hannah Ray. Do you remember me?” Of course I remembered Renee’s friend, the psychic who helped us connect with Ann and John Jeffrey Belle. During the process of helping find justice for Jeopardy Belle, I discovered that my daughter was close by. In fact, it was Hannah who let me know that Marisol lingered near me often and listened to me whenever I spoke to her. After setting things right for Harper, contacting Marisol was all I could think about. Talking to my baby again seemed like a dream come true, but the past few months I had dragged my heels about contacting Hannah. Renee had brought her up to me once or twice, but I hesitated. I guessed a part of me was afraid that if I did communicate with Marisol, she would leave me forever. Didn’t I want her to be at peace and happy? Yes, but I had to admit that I was selfish enough to want to keep Marisol close to me. Yes, I could admit that, even if only to myself.
“Of course, Hannah. Glad to hear from you. I’ve been meaning to call you, but…”
“Jerica, I have to warn you,” she blurted out. “There’s a shifting occurring at Summerleigh. I can feel it, and I’m hearing disturbing things, to put it bluntly. Very disturbing. Have you been experiencing any activity there?”
“I haven’t seen any ghosts, if that’s what you’re asking. I think Jeopardy and John Jeffrey Belle are at peace now, Hannah. You said it yourself. I haven’t seen any sign of them.”
“It’s not about the Belles…” Her voice crackled on the phone.
“What? I can’t hear you, Hannah. Are you on your cell phone?”
“It’s really important that you listen to me, Jer… I don’t know what’s causing this disturbance, the renovations or something else, but things are stirred up. Spiritual things. I am concerned that—”
And then the phone went dead.
I stared at the receiver of the old-fashioned Princess phone and clicked the button up and down, but there was no sound. Not even a dial tone. I hung the phone up and picked it up again, but still nothing. The knock at the door pulled me away from the strangeness of the moment. It was Jesse. I recognized his knock. He always knocked three times, and it was always a firm, confident knock. Strange that I would know that.
Opening the door with a forced smile, I said, “Hey, Jesse. Come in. I was just on the phone with Hannah, but the line died. Give me just a second.” I picked up the phone again and this time got a dial tone. Whatever happened, the phone company had apparently corrected it quickly. I flipped through the little phone book next to the phone, searching for Hannah’s number, and dialed her back. She quickly answered.
“Jerica, thank goodness. I was just about to drive over there. I thought…never mind. Do me a favor, stay out of Summerleigh tonight. Don’t go in until I get there.”
I turned my back to Jesse to hide my growing apprehension. “I’m not going to be here, Hannah. I have a date with Jesse. Is there something I should know about? What’s going on? Tell me plainly, please.”
“I will, but I have the feeling that I need to talk to you face-to-face. Are you gonna be home later tonight, or should I come in the morning?”
“Morning works for me. How about around nine o’clock? Come to my place, the caretaker’s cottage.”
“Sounds great, but remember what I told you. Please, stay out of the house tonight.”
“Okay.” She hung up the phone, and I put the receiver down.
“What’s up?”
I turned to face him and forced another smile, despite the fact that the hair on my arms stood up a mile high. It was then that I noticed he was carrying a bouquet of wildflowers, which were my absolute favorite. “Hey, are those for me?”
He gave me a curious look. I knew he wanted to know about my phone call, but I wasn’t going to go there. I’d already set our date off on the wrong foot by running back to the phone to call Hannah. Why make it worse?
“Nope. I found them outside.”
“Are you for real?”
“Of course not. I bought them for you. Unless you don’t want them. I guess I could give them to someone else.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I said as I grinned back at him. And then I asked playfully, “How is it that you, master carpenter and five-star hash slinger, are still single? Is it because you like to play guitar on your first date?”
“I see my cousin has been bragging about my musical skills. I’m not the best guitar player in George County, but I enjoy playing even if I do hit a wrong note every now and then.”
I laughed, happy to think about something besides that phone call. “I’m sure Renee’s exaggerating. I bet you are a stellar performer.” I accepted the flowers and went to put them in the sink, but Jesse caught my hand and gently pulled me back.
; “I might be rushing this, but I’ve been thinking about it all day. Hell, I’ve been thinking about it for months. I’d like to kiss you, Jerica.” He was so close to me I could smell his skin. It smelled clean and had a touch of cedar to it. His hand was warm in mine, and he looked a sight in his gray dress pants and charcoal gray dress shirt.
Clutching the flowers, I looked up at him. “What have you been thinking about?” I asked as I stepped a little closer to him. There were only a few inches between us now.
In a husky voice, he pulled me closer and whispered, “This.” And then his soft lips were on mine. It wasn’t quite a chaste kiss, but he didn’t push himself on me. It was sweet and warm and a kiss that I would probably be thinking about long after this night was over.
Without moving away, I bowed my head a little. I just couldn’t meet his eyes yet. I didn’t want him to see how much I enjoyed it. “I have to admit I’ve thought about it too.”
He asked even more softly, “Should we do it again?”
“If we do it again, I’m not sure we will actually make it to dinner. And I think… I think…” And then I caught a glimmer of light out of the corner of my eye. “What is that?” I pulled away from Jesse and walked to the window. The light flashed through the window again, but it wasn’t coming from my house or the yard.
The light was low and steady now. And it was coming from the attic of Summerleigh.
Chapter Three—Jerica
“You did the walk-through, right? There weren’t any lights on when you left, were there?” I asked Jesse, keeping my eyes on the light that was pulsating in the attic. The colors changed subtly, first white, then blue, and then the light took on a strange purple hue and turned white again. It was almost as if some disco ball spun around up there.
A weird, otherworldly disco ball.
“Yeah, like I always do.” He was beside me now, both of us staring at the attic window. “I’d better go check that out. It’s possible that I missed one, but I don’t know what the hell could make that kind of light. Maybe one of the guys is having a joke on us, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve seen any light when I pulled up. Might be that we have an intruder.”
Or it might be something else. No way was that a burglar. Then I remembered Hannah’s admonition. Stay out of the house tonight. Jesse walked to the front door as if he had every intention of going up there this very minute to see who might be plundering around in the attic.
“Wait. When Hannah called, she warned me that there was a strange energy at Summerleigh tonight. She warned me not to go inside. She’s coming over tomorrow to talk to me about what she knows.”
“What? What do you mean she warned you?”
“That was her on the phone when you came in. She wanted me to stay out of the house until she could go with me. There’s something happening, Jesse. She was pretty adamant that I stay out of there.” I chewed my bottom lip and twisted a strand of hair around my finger as I talked.
“I would never call Hannah a thief or a criminal, but it seems awful convenient that she would ask you to stay out of the house and now we see a strange light in the attic. If you don’t want to go inside, that’s okay, but I should go check it out. I mean, I am the general contractor on this job.”
Was he pulling rank on me? I was never going to go for that. “If you go, I go.” I grabbed my keys and turned off the lights. “It’s probably just some…” No. I had no explanation for it. “I don’t know.” I really didn’t know, but I was about to break my promise to Hannah. I locked the caretaker’s cottage, and we walked past Jesse’s truck down the gravel path to the back door of Summerleigh. Walking into the house through this door always felt like an intrusion, but the front porch still needed some work in a few places. So for safety’s sake, this was the best option.
Before Jesse could take out his key, I put mine in the lock and turned it. The new lock was silent as the grave, and the new door didn’t squeak or make a sound. Without turning on any lights, we eased the door shut and hurried through the kitchen and into the parlor. I held Jesse’s hand as we waited to hear evidence of an intruder. We didn’t have long to wait. Footsteps raced up the second-floor stairs, and I could hear someone running down the hall.
Those weren’t the footsteps of a man or woman. Those were the footsteps of a child. We paused at the bottom of the stairs.
“Why don’t you stay down here?” Jesse suggested. “Just in case.”
“In case what? If there’s really someone here, I want to know about it.”
“Let’s move quietly, then. Take off your shoes.”
I kicked off my high heels and quietly set them out of the way. Together, Jesse and I climbed the stairs, pausing after every squeak the old floors made. We’d replaced some of the wood, but most of the staircase was actually in good shape. We stopped at the landing and waited again. We heard nothing now. Whoever was up there had to know we were coming because they didn’t make a sound. And we have no weapons! Still holding hands, we stood on the top-floor landing. The long hallway stretched in front of us, but sure enough, there was a low light shining from beneath the attic door. There was movement in the light, as if someone were silently walking back and forth. I clutched Jesse’s hand tighter, and he glanced at me reassuringly with a finger to his lips.
This was wrong. It felt wrong. There was such a heaviness in Summerleigh now; it felt much heavier than earlier. The place had felt off for days, as if someone were watching every move I made. But now it was like the entire focus of the house was on Jesse and me, and that focus was deadly.
With faux bravado, I blurted out, “Who’s there?” To my shock, the movement stopped and the light faded. Jesse released my hand and eased down the hall, leaving me behind. His dress shoes were quiet, but the grit on the floor made a light crunching sound beneath them.
Ugh. I wish I could wash my feet before I put my shoes back on. The doors to all the rooms were open, and blackness poured out from all of them. But I wasn’t fooled by the apparent emptiness. We were not alone. I could feel the presence of someone else here. Someone who wanted to remain hidden. Someone who didn’t believe we belonged here. I didn’t dare call out again since the element of surprise was no longer on our side. We hurried to the door and I reached for it, but Jesse shook his head. He leaned his ear against the wood and listened.
Nothing. We heard nothing at all.
I put my hand on the old-fashioned doorknob and turned it with the slowest of movements, but the door wouldn’t budge. Because my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could see Jesse’s face clearly. He shot me a curious look, so I removed my hand and he gave it a try. No luck. It was as if it were locked from the inside. And there was no key to it. Who had locked the door? He turned the chipped enamel knob again, rattling it furiously now. The sound echoed through the empty hallway.
“We know you’re in there. Open this door,” Jesse said authoritatively as he knocked on it.
Nobody answered. But then I heard the sound of a long, heavy breath in my ear. And with the breath came the moving of air. Every door on the top hallway began to slam shut. Not together, as you might expect if a blast of wind blew through the house. No. They closed hard, slamming shut one at a time until there were no doors left open. And suddenly the attic door swung wide open and Jesse nearly fell into it. I ran after him and we stood in the attic room, our hearts pounding as we looked around wildly, but there was no one and nothing to see. Nothing except some trunks, a half-dozen stacked crates, an old wooden rocking horse with an angry face, a rusty birdcage and a turn-of-the-century mannequin. There was more junk in here than I remembered from the last time I’d been up here, and certainly more than when Jeopardy Belle claimed this place and dubbed it her castle room.
“Hello? Who’s in here? We saw your light. Don’t hide from us.” Still not a word, but then my left hand felt cold as if some unseen person had grabbed it. I caught my breath and lifted my hand to look at it. Now my entire arm was cold—no, it was freezing. “Jesse.
Something’s touching me. I can feel it.”
With a worried expression, he said, “I better get you out of here. Come on, let’s go. I’ve got a flashlight in the truck. I can come back and…” His words trailed off as he stared down the hallway.
My eyes followed his, but at first I didn’t see what he was looking at. Then the strange light reappeared, illuminating the little figure. Yes, I could see him now. The little boy from my dream, the one Harper saw.
The light vanished, and only the boy remained. He wore knee britches and a fitted jacket with black socks and boots. His hair was black and combed carefully to the side. His face was pale, but his eyes…oh, his eyes were horrible and as black as two endless wells. And then he opened his mouth as if to scream, only no sound came out. His mouth was so wide, and it was black too. There was no doubt that what we were seeing was not a human child. This creature was a ghost, a phantom.
As I stared unblinkingly, I noticed that he did not move a muscle but stared back, his head bent down a little further now.
His dark eyes focused on me. He wanted me to die. He wanted Horrible Things to happen to me. I clutched Jesse’s hand again and felt him grabbing at mine. As long as we were together, if we stayed together, we would be okay. I wanted to believe that, but the thing was not moving. His head bent even lower and he squatted on his haunches as if he would pounce on us like a wild animal. Suddenly all of the doors began slamming, opening and shutting furiously. The movement was so violent I feared they would fall off the hinges. What if he tore the place apart and brought Summerleigh down upon our heads?
From somewhere deep within me, a scream erupted. “No! Stop it!” And suddenly, he vanished.
The attic door swung silently closed and we were alone again, but the air crackled still. My cry had stopped him, but I did not believe he would be gone forever. We had to go, and we had to go now. Hannah Ray had been right. We should never have come here.
The Ghost of Jeopardy Belle (The Ghosts of Summerleigh Book 2) Page 2
