Well. That could wait. For now, Mel was here with her, and they had bottles of wine to look forward to, and a date with a Ouija board. That was always fun when Mel was around, ghosts or not.
The tramadol tasted sour on her tongue but she was glad to be taking one with her beef noodle soup. Not that she wanted to eat soup, but with her hands still wrapped in those bandages it wasn’t like she could enjoy a good cheeseburger like she wanted to. The little roadside diner smelled of burgers and bacon and the soup was filling, but it just wasn’t the same.
“I could cut you half of mine,” Mel offered. “And then feed it to you.”
“No, thank you.” Katie tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice but if she could barely wield a spoon for the next week then she might just break down and let Mel feed her a hamburger or two, bite by bite.
After all, what were friends for?
Mel drove them the rest of the way after that, with the music playing while they talked about everything from boyfriends and the Heritage Inn to American politics.
They didn’t stay on politics long. Mel knew less about it than Katie did.
They turned off the main road and onto the narrow lane that led into Twilight Ridge. Katie gave directions, not that it was hard to navigate around this town. Plus there was a sign now. Three days ago--no, four days counting the one she’d just spent in the hospital--she had put one up that pointed down the side street that led to the Inn.
“Not much here,” Mel muttered. “What do you do for fun in this place?”
“We’re a tourist town,” Katie said. “There’s antique shops and a historic graveyard and a working gristmill and...yeah. Not much else.”
“Please tell me there’s at least one bar in this town.”
Katie shook her head. “Nope. Sorry. If we want to get drunk we’re going to have to do it in the privacy of our rooms.”
“Mmm-hmm. I can think of lots of things that I want to do in the privacy of my room. Are any of your guests like super hot?”
“How should I know? Riley’s been taking care of check-ins. There was two yesterday, and there’s supposed to be two today. They’re all single guys, if that helps you any.”
“It just might. And ghost hunters, right? They’re ghost hunters?”
“One of them is, sure.”
“Good,” Mel cooed. “Because I want to show him my...Ouija.”
Katie smirked at the twist her friend put on that. Mel was obviously going to be showing this guy more than her Ouija board. He didn’t know what he was in for.
Not that he wouldn’t enjoy it. Having Mel staying with them might be good for business in more ways than one.
They pulled into the front parking lot of the Inn not long after that. There was now a small area around the back that Katie and Riley used for their rental car, basically just an area of the grass that was tramped down from their parking back there. Riley was going to get some crushed stone delivered to put in there soon and make it into a real driveway. After that the plan was to add on an attached garage and storage building. Such a handy man to have around.
She couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have found him.
“Come on,” she said to Mel. “I’ll help you bring your bags in.”
Mel was not a woman to travel light. She was a girlie-girl, in every sense of the word, and there were three suitcases plus an overnight bag plus the hard clamshell case of wine bottles to bring in. They managed it all in one trip though, laughing that Mel would sooner lose her makeup kit than those wine bottles, so Katie had better be careful carrying them!
They stopped just inside the door so Mel could take a look around the front room, and the common room off to the side with the television and game table for the guests, and then the dining area to the back just off the stairs that went up to the second floor and the guest rooms. She let out a whistle of appreciation as she came back around from her self-guided tour to Katie and the bags.
“Wow, chickie. Your description didn’t do this place justice. How’d you afford all this?”
“I have to admit it’s taken a bite out of our savings. Still, it was worth it. And the previous owner was a murdering psychopath, so that kind of lowered the asking price.”
“Ha! I’ll bet. I hear they practically had to give that house in Amityville away. You know, the one in the movies?” She picked up her share of the luggage and started off for the stairs. “Well, let’s not just sit here like bumps on a log. Show me to my room, you beautiful Innkeeper, you!”
Katie was fumbling to pick up the carryall and the wine case with her bandaged hands slipped through the handles, when Riley appeared through the cellar door behind the check-in counter.
“What in the hell are you doing?” he barked. Rushing out to her, he yanked the things she was carrying away from her. “Damn it, Katie, you were supposed to call me when you got out of the hospital so I could come and get you. You are not supposed to be carrying things! Why won’t you ever listen to me?”
His face was red, and his jaw was set, and he only did that when he was really, really angry. Katie let him take the baggage from her, trying to ignore the way it hurt her hands to have them snatched away like that.
“Riley, I’m sorry,” she said. Although, she wasn’t really sure what she was being sorry for. “Mel was there at the hospital so she just gave me a ride. I guess we forgot to call.”
“You guess? You guess?” His voice was rising, and now Katie could see a guest edging his way down the stairs and looking over at them with concern. “How can you forget something like that Katie, huh?”
“Riley, what’s wrong? You’re kind of scaring me right now.”
“Yeah, man,” Mel said to him. “You’re really being a dick right now. Do you want to maybe ask how she’s doing?”
“Well, obviously she’s doing well enough to carry your luggage, Mel! You want to talk to me about being scared?” he said to Katie, putting his face right up in hers. “How about not knowing where your girlfriend is hour after hour? How about that?”
Katie lowered her eyes from his, chewing on the inside of her lip. He was right, of course. She’d gotten so wrapped up in Mel being here that she’d forgotten to let him know what was going on. It was her fault. Kind of. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t mean to worry you. Um. Were there any problems today?”
“Oh, so you don’t think I can handle things here, either?” He turned on his heel and walked away from her. “Whatever. Mel I’m bringing these to your room, then I’m going to lie down for a while. I’ve been stressing out over everything and now I’ve got a splitting headache.”
Katie stared after him with her mouth hanging open. Why was he acting so mean? He never talked to her this way. Ever.
When she finally got up enough courage to look over at Mel she was fighting back tears. “Let’s go,” she managed to say. “Um. I think I might go check on Riley after I bring you to the room, if that’s okay?”
“Katie, does he do that a lot?”
“Do what?” she asked, trying to put on a brave face.
Mel wasn’t having any of it. “Talk down to you. Embarrass you for no reason. That doesn’t look like the man you told me about at all. I mean, I only met him once before but he seemed nice when I did.”
“Oh, he is. He is nice, Mel. Really. He must be tired, or something. Look, I’ll go talk to him and then we can have dinner together tonight and you’ll see. That wasn’t like him.”
Mel looked at her like she wanted to argue more, but she didn’t. Instead she just shrugged and followed Katie up the stairs. The guest who had been watching was still there, and he was watching Katie too. She could hardly stand it. Bad enough that her good friend Mel saw all that, but to have a complete stranger witness what had just happened made her feel about twelve inches tall.
“Are you okay?” he asked as they went walking past, and that just made it worse.
Katie nodded, not trusting her voice. The guy was young, and cute,
with this flyaway hair across his forehead and eyes that were big and expressive. She hurried past him rather than answer his question.
Mel took her time, however. “Just a little argument,” she told the man. “Nothing to worry about. Say. You look like a big, strong man. Would you mind terribly helping me with these bags down to my room?”
The guy smiled, standing up taller under the compliment. “Sure. Which one is yours?”
Mel didn’t know. “Hey. Which one is it, Katie?”
“Um. Four. Number four.”
“Right. Number four. Would you be a dear?” She actually batted her eyelashes at him.
She held out a bag to him, and the guy took it with a lopsided grin and then he was following along behind her like a puppy.
“Thank you so much. I’m Mel, by the way.”
“Gary,” he said, in a voice that was deep and strong. “Gary Wargo.”
Mel blew Katie a kiss over her shoulder, and somehow that made Katie feel like everything was all right. Her friend was picking up guys, and using it as a way to get her out of the conversation so she wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed anymore. Yup. That was Mel.
Katie waited for the two of them to be inside Mel’s room with the door closed--and tried not to think about what would be going on in there in just a few minutes. Then she went down to the room she shared with Riley. With a deep breath, she steadied herself, and opened the door.
“Riley? Hey, I--"
She pushed the door open wide.
Beside her, something heavy and made of glass shattered against the wall.
Chapter 8
Katie flinched and stumbled further into the room, realizing now that it was a decorative vase that had hit the wall. It was the one from their bedside table. Now it was nothing but several sharp pieces on the floor.
“Did you have to follow me?” Riley asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I was trying to get away from you for a few minutes.”
She gaped at him. “Riley, what is wrong with you? Did I...did I do something?”
“It’s always about you, isn’t it? We had to move out here, because of you. We’re stuck here until this place is up and on its feet, because of you. Oh, and let’s not forget that I’m now hiring myself out to fix a damned well in someone’s backyard, because you promised I would do it without ever asking me. Let’s not forget about that!”
She didn’t know what to say. She stammered something that might have been an apology and might have been an explanation and probably wasn’t either. She didn’t know what she was saying.
Her head was spinning by the time he threw his hands in the air, with a glare that would have melted rock. “Whatever, Katie. Do what you want. That’s what you’re going to do anyway.”
She made her way to the chair in the corner of the room so she could sit down. “Is that what this is about? Vera’s well? Riley, I honestly thought you’d want to help one of our neighbors. That was all. If you don’t want to do it, then don’t.”
“Oh, no. I don’t have a choice anymore, do I? Because we’re looking for a ghost in that well, because of you! Well, I went down there today, and I put a ladder down that well, and I looked. There’s nothing there, Katie. Not a damned thing. But hey, why should you care? I did it anyway, because of you. That’s all that matters, right?”
Now she got up again, and came over to him, reaching out for him and wanting to take him in her arms and try to make this all right.
He sprang up from the bed, his arms coming straight up.
Katie was sure he was going to hit her.
She put her arms up over her face, her heart racing, her mind screaming at her to run away and protect herself. This was Riley, another part of her said. This was Riley, and he would never hurt her.
Her heart was in her throat by the time she felt him kissing the top of her head.
“You made a mess over there, Katie. Clumsy to break that vase. Make sure you clean it up, okay?”
Then he was walking through the bedroom door, and he was gone.
Katie lowered her arms, and stared after him. Her hands were shaking and throbbing again. Riley was acting so strange. There was definitely something wrong.
She stood there, telling herself she hadn’t done anything. She got hurt, sure, but he had no right to treat her like this. Not for an accident. Not for a trip to the hospital. What the hell was wrong?
Wait a minute. Did he say that he went over to Vera Keats’ today? Yes. He did. He said he was down in the well. He was in that damned well and now his whole personality was changed. The Riley she knew was never mean to her. Something was causing it.
Something from the well.
She knew it! She knew that she wasn’t just imagining it. There was a ghost in that well. A ghost, and something evil.
Wait, wait, wait, she said to herself. The water is contaminated. Vera said so. Maybe that was all this was. Riley might just have some poison or something toxic in his system. Maybe he swallowed some of the water, or something.
But, no. Because she swallowed some of it herself. She was down in it long enough to get mild hypothermia. She tore her hands open so the water had even gotten into her bloodstream. She was fine. Could whatever was in the water affect Riley so strongly when it hadn’t affected her?
Well, she’d gone to the hospital and they’d treated her for her injuries. Riley hadn’t gone to a doctor.
Did that matter?
Ugh, she groaned. Her thoughts were going in circles. She needed to stop second guessing herself. She saw the ghost. The ghost talked to her. It was that simple.
She had to help Riley.
Katie rushed out of the room. She left the glass shards right where they were. She could pick them up later if she really wanted to. Right now she needed to go see Vera.
She needed to see what was in that well.
It was when she was about to knock on Vera Keats’ door that Katie realized this might be harder than she thought.
Her bandaged hands didn’t hurt as much as they had before, but she couldn’t bring herself to knock with them. The tramadol she had taken before walking over here had dulled the pain and now it was only a sort of itchy throb along her fingers, but still.
So she bent her elbow, and whapped the door three times that way.
Thankfully she didn’t have to knock again because Vera came to the door, smiling and happy to see her.
A quick flash of her dream came to her with Vera’s face warping and screaming and her hands stretched out towards her...
Shaking that away, Katie put on a smile of her own. That had been a dream. This was real. “Hi, Vera. I wanted to come by and say how sorry I am for all the trouble.”
“Oh, nonsense. You fell into my well. I should be the one apologizing to you. I’m sure you were only out there scoping it out for that boyfriend of yours. Such a handy man, isn’t he? Here, come on in and we can talk.”
“Yes. Riley is very handy.”
She thought about the way Riley had acted back at the Inn. That wasn’t him being handy. That had been terrifying.
Vera led her into the kitchen again, among all the cases of bottled water, and used a couple to get the tea kettle ready for them just like she had two days ago. Over in the corner, the empties had grown to two bags full now.
“Did Riley fix the well for you?” Katie asked her, deciding to work up to what she wanted to really ask.
“No, not yet. He went down inside of it to take a look and said he would be back tomorrow. He was talking about building a new cover for it and maybe having the water tested at a lab in Concord. They’ve got the facilities to do that there, apparently.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure what he thinks that will find. I told him I already did that, but he insisted.”
Katie folded her hands gingerly over the table. Vera didn’t want the water tested. Was that more proof that she knew what was down there? Maybe. She sipped her tea, trying to frame her next question to get at the heart of the matter.
&
nbsp; Something bumped into her foot.
Looking down, she saw the soccer ball again. It had rolled down the hall, into the kitchen...and taken a left turn to roll into her foot.
Katie bent down to it while Vera was distracted.
Bandaged hands on either side of the black and white sphere, she picked it up.
As she did, it began to unravel.
The stitching between the pads came apart as she tried to hold it together. The white hexagons and the black pentagons dropped one by one to the floor as she tried to catch them. The inside was an inflated bladder of air.
It swelled in her hands. She could feel the strain of the building pressure.
It popped, exploding with a bang that reverberated around the kitchen.
Blood, not air, sprayed everywhere. It covered Katie’s face and her clothes and spread across the kitchen table. She closed her eyes against it, but she could still feel it dripping from the ceiling, and soaking into her shirt, and dear God she wanted to scream but if she did it would get into her mouth and she didn’t dare breathe because it would be in her nose and--
“Oh, Katie,” Vera said in a voice that was far too calm, “I think you’re bleeding.”
She opened her eyes. The kitchen was just like it should be. Everything was clean and neat and in its place. Herself included. She took a breath, and looked down at her hands. At the floor. At the room around her.
The soccer ball was gone.
But, the tips of her bandages were still red with blood.
Flexing her fingers, she realized with relief that she felt fine. This wasn’t her blood. This was left over from holding the ball while it popped. It wasn’t her blood.
But she couldn’t tell Vera that.
“Uh, yeah, I guess I am bleeding,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I should probably get back to the Inn and take care of this.”
“Are you sure? I could maybe help you look at them here. My Martin was always getting into some scrape or other. Such a sports nut. His father pushed him, of course, but that’s what all good dads do, isn’t it?”
Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set Page 64
