“I must say you two have an interesting relationship,” Jane said.
Sara glanced her way. “How so?”
“You act more like brother and sister,” Jane finished.
“Because he is like my little brother.” Sara stared at Jane a second. “Oh. You thought…. Oh, hell, no.” Sara began to laugh in earnest now.
“What?” Jake asked.
Sara shook her head.
Jane was thoroughly embarrassed now. She stood to leave.
“Come on, let me in on the joke,” Jake said.
Sara waved her hand to Jane. “No. I’m sorry. Please sit back down.”
Jane remained in place.
“Truly. I’m sorry for my bad behavior. Actually by the time I’d met Jake, I was married and pregnant with my first born,” Sara explained.
“What has that got to do with anything?” Jake said, clearly in the dark.
Jane wasn’t about to explain it to him.
“She thought we were a couple, numbnuts,” Sara told him.
“A couple of what?” Jake asked.
Sara shook her head. “You’re hopeless.”
“I wanted to know what you would like to drink with your lunch?” Jane interrupted. “I have milk, iced tea, Coke, and beer. I’ve made some sandwiches and I have chips set out.”
“That’s very nice of you,” Jake said. “I’ll have a Coke.”
“I’ll have an iced tea. Thank you,” Sara said.
“They’re on the table whenever you’re ready.” Jane left the room.
“Ow, would you quit hitting me? I swear, every time I see you I leave with bruises all over my arms,” Jake said.
“She thought we were lovers, dick head.”
Jane stopped dead in her tracks and backed up while she waited for Jake’s reply.
“Why would she think that?” Jake asked.
“Gee, I don’t know shit for brains. Could it be because she has the hots for you? Her taste in men is seriously lacking,” Sara shot back.
Jane cringed.
“Hey,” Jake said.
“You know, it is about time for you to get back on the horse and ride,” Sara said.
“Shut up.”
“Natalie wouldn’t want you to be alone forever,” Sara said tenderly.
Jane couldn’t leave now if the house were on fire. Who’s Natalie?
“I date,” Jake said defensively.
“Really? What’s her name?”
“Well there’s no one in my life right now, but I have been on a few dates. It’s not my fault they don’t go anywhere.”
“I’m not so sure about that. What about that girl, what was her name? The one with the stinky feet,” Sara said.
“Gloria. What about her?”
“You stopped seeing her because her feet smelled bad. I hate to tell ya, but so do mine. I thank everything that’s holy that Brian isn’t that picky or we never would have married.”
“They were really bad,” Jake answered.
“Look, you can’t compare every woman to your deceased wife. Since she passed, it’s like you’ve raised her up on some pedestal and forgotten all her faults. She was not a saint by any means, thank God.
“That would have bored you to tears. Come on, it’s been four years now. I think it’s time to lose all those unrealistic expectations and get on with your life. Even if for no other reason than to make Natalie happy so she can quit worrying about you.”
“I hate that you can talk to her and I can’t,” Jake said.
“If you could, you’d never move on. Now let’s go eat. I’m starving.”
NINETEEN
Jane tiptoed down the hall. Once she turned the corner, she all-out sprinted to the kitchen and yanked open the refrigerator door. She felt like a teenager about to get caught for breaking curfew. She grabbed the iced tea pitcher with one hand and a can of Coke with the other before practically tossing them on the counter. Just when she reached for the glasses, she heard her guests enter the room.
“Oh, hi,” Jane’s words came out breathless. She concentrated on regulating her voice before she spoke again. “Just take a seat. Your drinks are coming right up.” Mentally she slapped her head, she sounded like a damn waitress.
“You really didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” Sara said.
Jake scooted his chair under the table. “Well, I for one am glad you did. This looks amazing.” He picked up half a sandwich and took a huge bite. “Mmm, perfect,” he said around a mouthful.
“Sara, I’m sorry but I didn’t think to ask if you ate meat. If there’s anything you don’t like, just take it off. I won’t be offended. Really.” Jane filled the glasses with ice.
Sara picked up half a sandwich and inspected it.
“It’s turkey, provolone, bacon, lettuce and tomato on sourdough toast. Is that okay? I could make you some soup instead,” Jane said.
“Are you kidding? Turkey Club is my favorite sandwich.” Sara took a dainty bite.
Jane heaved a sigh of relief as she carried the drinks to the table. “Help yourselves to the potato or corn chips.” She scooped a handful of chips onto her plate before she started on her sandwich. After swallowing her first bite, she noticed Jake was already finished.
“Can I make you another, Jake?”
“Oh no. I’m happier than a pig in… I mean a kid at Disneyland.” He patted his stomach. “I just eat fast. It’s a bad habit from living on the ranch. If you don’t grab it and eat it immediately, someone might take it from you. It’s kind of an unwritten rule.”
“You mean someone will actually take food off your plate?” Jane asked.
“Hell yeah, sometimes out of your hand if you aren’t quick enough.”
“You’re all a bunch of animals on the Rocking S,” Sara said.
“Rocking S?” Jane asked.
“That’s our brand, the rocking S for Spaulding. The ranch has been in the family over a hundred years,” Jake said.
“Is it all men?” Jane asked.
“Yup.” Jake put a handful of Fritos on his plate before he grabbed more from the bowl and shoved them in his mouth.
“No. Poor Mrs. O’Brien has to put up with all their crap,” Sara said.
“That woman has no problem keeping the boys in line. Don’t feel sorry for her.” Jake turned to Jane. “She raised me and my brothers after our mother passed. She’s never shy about doling out a whooping. Let me tell you.”
Jane laughed. “Did you get in trouble often?”
“Not as often as I should have,” Jake informed her.
“Yeah, he let his little brothers take the fall. That’s why.” Sara drank from her iced tea.
“Like hell I did. I was just smart enough not to get caught,” Jake said.
“How many kids do you have, Sara?” Jane asked.
“Three girls.” Sara smiled proudly.
“Talk about animals,” Jake said.
Sara slugged his arm.
“Stop that. I’m going to have a big enough bruise as it is.” He rubbed the spot.
“You should have thought about that before you denigrated my little angels,” Sara spat out.
“Pfft. Even you can’t say that with a straight face.” Jake turned to Jane. “The oldest is going to be a stripper, the middle child a drug addict, and the youngest is a budding serial killer.”
Sara addressed Jane. “Janine is sixteen and going through that testing stage. You know the one, where she comes downstairs dressed like a hooker knowing full well I’ll make her go back up and change.”
“Then she puts the clothes in her backpack and changes at school,” Jake said.
“Marie is thirteen and a bit of a hypochondriac, so she’s always asking for a Tylenol to ease her suffering,” Sara explained. “Last week it was because her prostrate was acting up.”
Jane laughed.
“And Suzanna is eight. She flushed her goldfish down the toilet because she was setting it free.” Sara pinned Jake with an evil gla
re. “She’ll end up working for Greenpeace.”
“Oh, sure. Today a fish, tomorrow the neighbor’s cat. She’ll throw that sucker in the well to see if it can swim,” Jake finished.
“Keep it up, Jackson,” Sara warned.
“Who’s Jackson?” Jane asked.
Sara hooked her thumb toward Jake. “His full name is Jackson Everett Spaulding the third. That’s what his mama would yell when he was in real trouble. I just shortened it to get my point across.”
“I told you that in confidence,” Jake fired back.
“Like hell you did. You were stumbling down drunk or you never would have told me at all.”
“Same thing,” he said.
“Whatever. The bottom line is that nobody calls my kids names but me.”
“Fine. I’ll try to remember that.” Jake pointed to the fruit bowl on his right. “You mind?”
“Help yourself,” Jane said.
He grabbed an apple and sunk his teeth in.
“Are you sure I can’t make you another sandwich?” Jane asked.
Jake shook his head and swallowed. “No, this will suit me just fine.”
Sara brushed the crumbs off her hands over her plate. “That was great, Jane. Thanks.”
“Can I get you dessert? I have ice cream. Do you like drumsticks?” Jane asked.
Sara’s eyes went wide. “Really? I haven’t had one of those in years.”
Jane stood. “Jake, you want one?”
He plopped the apple core onto his plate and wiped his hands on the napkin. “I wouldn’t say no.”
“Be right back.” Jane jumped out of her seat and walked over to the freezer.
“You’re going to get fat if you keep eating like that,” Sara whispered.
“Will not,” Jake whispered back.
Jane closed the door and stared at them. They looked back like a couple of kids who got their hands stuck in the cookie jar. “I take it back, you guys do act like siblings.” She handed out the ice creams and joined them. The room remained quiet while they devoured their desserts.
When everyone was finished, Jane cleared the table and returned. “So what’s the plan?”
“We need to go to the house and do a walk-through, but we can do that anytime,” Sara said.
“Do you want to do that now?” Jane asked.
“I think we should wait until after dark,” Jake said to Sara before he turned to Jane across from him. “Do you still have all your cameras and equipment set up?”
“Yes. In fact, I don’t think Danny shut anything down before we left. We were in a hurry to get Tim out of there,” Jane answered.
“Can we log into the feed from your computer?” Jake asked.
“Sure.”
“I say we do that first and see what’s been going on,” Jake said.
“Good idea,” Sara said.
Jane picked up a kitchen chair so she’d have something to sit on. Jake relieved her of it and carried it back to the office. She sat dead center so she could use the keyboard while the others scooted their chairs close to view the screen.
Time crawled as Jane clicked from monitor to monitor with nothing happening. Finally they noticed movement in the hall on the third floor; a toy dump truck appeared to be running back and forth on the carpet as if an unseen child were playing with it.
“Where did that truck come from?” Jake asked.
“I think I saw one like it in the playroom on the same floor,” Jane answered.
While they watched, an electric fire truck rolled out of an open doorway, a police car followed with flashing red lights and began to circle the non-electric dump truck. Not long after, a porcelain doll walked out along with a Raggedy Ann, they followed the other toys like a parade all marching in a circle.
A sudden chill raced the length of Jane’s body, goose bumps soon followed. She tried to ignore them and act like a seasoned investigator in front of her guests, who seemed to be taking it all in stride.
“Amazing,” Sara said. “You mentioned on the phone that you had researched the residence. How many children have died on the property?”
“I found records for two, both children of the first matriarch, Elizabeth “Bess” MacDougall. But when we interviewed the current residents, they told us they saw four children in that hall. A boy and girl playing ball and two children dressed in Halloween costumes. They didn’t join the others, they simply watched,” Jane said.
“Interesting,” Sara said.
“Look.” Jake pointed to the screen where a black cloud formed.
They remained silent as they watched it grow legs and arms. Before long, a complete shadow figure stood at the end of the hall. The toys stopped moving, the dolls fell over.
“It appears that whoever was playing in that hall got scared away,” Sara said.
“Look at the left side of the screen,” Jake said.
“Wow,” Sara said.
A white figure glided down the hall toward the shadow man. It was a woman dressed in a long white nineteenth century gown with a full skirt and an ungodly small waist. The sleeves that gathered just above her elbows were adorned with large white bows and fringed with lace.
The collar stood at attention and the heart-shaped yoke showed a smidgen of cleavage. A delicate floral choker encircled her slender neck. Her dark hair was done up on her head, her expression stoic.
She had no feet.
Instead she floated toward the evil intruder, showing no fear.
“Ooooh, mama bear does not take kindly to the boogeyman scaring her children,” Sara said.
Excitement filled Jane as she waited to see what Bess would do. Could do. The ghostly apparition got within inches of the dark entity, her eyes flashed brightly once and he disappeared.
“Don’t tell me he’s afraid of her,” Jane said.
“I’m sure it’s more likely he’d done what he set out to do, scare the little ones. He knows he can’t intimidate her so he didn’t bother trying,” Jake said.
“I’d have to agree. Fear is what gives demons power so they will instill it where they can. With no living souls on the premises, he has to make do with the spirits who react to his presence,” Sara added.
TWENTY
“So you agree it’s a demon?” Jane asked.
“More likely than not,” Jake answered. “You were right to call us. Not that a demon needs fear in order to materialize, like how a ghost or poltergeist gets their fix. They don’t need to draw energy from the living at all. Both will create cold spots by pulling energy where they can, but where one needs it, the other simply enjoys the extra boost. It makes them stronger.”
“Like how water is a great spiritual conductor,” Sara said. “If there was water on the property, this demon would be much stronger than he already is.”
“It’s like a shot of adrenaline for the demon,” Jake said.
“You called it a He,” Jane said.
“Just a figure of speech, I should have said It. Demons have never been in human form, so they can’t be a he or a she,” Sara clarified.
“I say we check out the rest of the video feeds to see if we can find any more activity,” Jake suggested.
Jane clicked on the screen and pulled up the room with the stuffed animals. The one they called the zoo. She sped through the footage.
“Stop,” Sara said. “Rewind.”
Jane did as she was told and hit play.
“Holy cow. I didn’t know that was even possible,” Jane said.
“It’s a first for me,” Jake added.
“I knew I sensed something in that room,” Jane said.
“Good call,” Sara added.
Jane stared at the screen and watched as a woman sat cross-legged in the middle of the rug. She looked to Jane like the stereotypical hippie, long straight hair parted in the middle, head band, several strands of beads around her neck, and hip hugger, bell bottom jeans. She was petting the top of a lion’s mane. He lay alongside her like a pet.
�
�Amazing,” Jake said with awe.
A Bengal tiger made its way toward her other hand and nudged it like a regular house cat begging for attention.
“I never would have believed this if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I mean, I’ve heard of ghost dogs and cats hanging around for their owners, but this is just unbelievable,” Jane said.
“It’s cool all right, but not the first time I’ve come across animals,” Sara said. “For example, I’ve seen spirit guides. Mine is a white wolf. He appears whenever I or someone I love is in danger.”
“That’s right. I remember you telling me about the time Janine broke her arm. You were standing at the kitchen sink and he appeared at the window looking straight at you. Then your phone rang, it was the school,” Jake said.
Sara nodded.
“You said your gift was psychometry, but do you possess other gifts as well?” Jane asked.
“You mean like being able to see ghosts with the naked eye?”
“Yes, like that,” Jane said.
“Not really. Jake has me beat in that department.” Sara glanced over at him.
“What do you mean?” Jane looked first to Jake, then at Sara for an explanation.
“I just mean he has more gifts than I,” Sara amended.
“You’re being evasive,” Jane said.
“Well for one thing, he’s also a criminal when it comes to the computer,” Sara finished.
“I am not,” Jake said.
“Right.” Sara leaned in toward Jane as if telling a secret. “He can hack into any government database you name.”
“Sara!”
Jane glanced at Jake to her right. “Really?”
Jake stared back.
Jane put her hands up. “Your secret is safe with me. I promise.”
He glared at Sara before turning to Jane. “Pretty much.”
“Why would you want to do something like that?” Jane was truly interested, she guessed that was the only reason he was answering her questions.
“Not for nefarious reasons, I assure you. There are just times when you need information that can’t be obtained through a Google search.”
“What information would that be? I mean, who are you trying to gain this information on exactly?” Jane asked.
Spirits 04-Spirits of Seacliff Manor Page 13
