by Hunter Shea
“And how did you find me?”
“He told me everything I needed to know. Then, it was just a matter of coming here and emailing the contact address on the website. Until a month ago, I was in North Carolina, so I wanted to be close in case you decided to meet. To tell you the truth, he seemed pretty insistent I meet you.”
Jessica rolled back until she was flush against the wall, her fists on her hips. Eddie noticed another girl staring at them from the concession stand. She waved at Jessica with a look of concern. Jessica waved her off. The girl nodded, but didn’t take her eyes off them.
Again, he was impressed. Jessica knew how to cover her bases.
Without looking at him, Jessica asked, “What was my father’s favorite hockey team?”
Eddie had a feeling this would happen and was glad he had been prepared. “The Islanders.”
“What town do I go to every year?”
“Shida, though your father told me it’s not a functioning town anymore. People in the area won’t even acknowledge that Shida ever existed.”
“What would he say to me every night before putting me to bed?”
Eddie looked at her and saw the anger and distrust had been replaced by hope. This was no longer Jessica Backman, the fearless ghost hunter. This was the little girl who lost her father well before his time in an event so tragic, so beyond normal human comprehension, that it must have left scars that could never heal.
He cleared his throat, and said softly, “I love you mucho much.”
“Stay right here.”
Eddie’s jaw tensed as he watched her skate away once again, this time to join her friend at the concession stand. They talked for several minutes and he noticed she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands a few times. When she returned, the tension in her body had eased and her eyes were red rimmed.
“Okay, Eddie Home. I’ll give you one chance. I don’t think my father is running a dating service from the other side, so I can only assume he sent you to help me—not that I need any help.”
She gave him a business card and a pen.
“Write down your cell number, social security number, date and city of birth and current address. I’ll call you later in the week. If it turns out you’re just a con man, I’ll fuck you up so bad, your own mother will deny ever having had you. If you’re who and what you say you are, I’ll put you to good use.”
Eddie held the pen, too taken aback to start writing. Girls in North Carolina and San Francisco did not talk like this. “My social, really? That’s kind of an odd thing to ask for.”
Jessica glared at him. He realized it was an asinine question, considering what he had just dumped on her. He wrote down all of the information and handed the card back to her.
She skated away without another word or even a glance in his direction.
Chapter Thirteen
Selena Leigh lay across her bed, listening to her iPod. She had just downloaded a few tracks from Bruno Mars and Katy Perry and was content with doing nothing for the rest of the night. The school year had been extended because of extra snow days that had to be taken in February, but teachers had nothing left to teach. So, there was no homework to contend with. A small victory. She daydreamed about Hank Farley, her current crush and the best-looking baseball player in the county, and was in a very happy place when there was a knock at her door.
“Can I come in?” her mother asked.
“Yeah.”
Her mother was dressed in her jogging outfit and looked as if she had just done a few miles. Her skin was shiny with sweat and the hair poking out from under her baseball cap was frizzy.
“Your father wanted me to remind you that he’s picking you up after school tomorrow, so please don’t forget and take the bus. You can’t be late for your dentist appointment.”
Selena paused her iPod and rolled onto her back. “I hate going to the dentist. Can I ask her not to scrape my teeth with those metal picks? Whenever she does that, it hurts and it makes me want to crawl out of my skin.”
Her mother sat on the edge of her bed and stroked her hair. “Unfortunately, that’s just something that has to be done. I feel the same way. I wonder why they haven’t invented softer, plastic tools yet. Don’t worry yourself too much about it. Thanks to genetics inherited from your father’s side, you, my dear, have perfect teeth. It’ll be over before you know it.”
Changing the subject, her mother asked, “What are you listening to?”
Before Selena could answer, she had popped one bud into her ear.
“Oh, I like him,” she said, swaying gently to the beat. Her mom had taken a liking to pop music right around the time she joined the gym. It was weird having a parent that listened to the same music as her and her friends, but it was also nice to have something in common.
While she listened to the rest of the song, Selena stared at the ceiling, thinking.
“Mom?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Is Dad still mad at me about the car? I swear, I was never down there.”
Her mom pulled her into a hug. “No, honey, he’s not mad at you at all. He’s just…confused. Anyway, it just gives him more excuses to spend time with his car.” She smiled but Selena could see the concern behind her eyes.
“Okay, kiddo, I have to hit the shower. Don’t stay up too late texting your friends. You’ll see them soon enough in school. Good night.”
She gave Selena a kiss on the top of her head.
“Good night.”
After her mother closed the door, Selena went over to her computer and logged on to Facebook. Five of her friends were on as well, and she started texting each. Her iPod blasted away in her ears as she also managed to read the latest issue of Cosmopolitan. Multitasking for her generation was a way of life and done as easily as counting to ten.
She lost herself in music, texts and articles on how to make your lips look plumper, and passed two hours without realizing it. She hummed to herself while typing to her best friend Julie about what they would do the coming Saturday, the first Saturday of summer vacation. They had to make it special. Julie’s older sister had just gotten her license and agreed to drive them to the beach. She typed a reminder in her phone to pick up some sunscreen.
It wasn’t a sound or a movement that broke her from her groove. It was more like a feeling, like the air in her room had suddenly changed, become thinner, the small space made even smaller.
Selena knew she wasn’t alone.
That could mean only one thing.
Ricky had sneaked in and was spying on her. He was such a pain in the ass. He was in sixth grade, but he wished he were in high school and never missed a chance to see what it was that high school kids did with their time.
She spun in her chair and yelled, “Ricky, get out!”
Except he wasn’t there. She removed her ear buds and walked over to her door.
It was still closed.
Knowing Ricky, he was hiding under the bed.
She dropped to her knees and whisked the comforter up, ready to scream at the obnoxious little turd.
There was nothing but a couple of shoeboxes and darkness.
“I must be losing my mind.”
She was about to go back to her computer when she heard a muffled thump. It came from her closet.
Selena eyed her field hockey stick resting against her bed. If the little bed wetter wanted to play games, she was up for it. Why not make him think she was going to smash his face in? Hopefully it would keep him out of her room, even if only for a week or so.
She tiptoed to her closet, one hand with the raised stick, the other ready to pull the door handle open.
She paused when she heard a slight rustling, as if he was shifting amidst the clutter.
Oh, this would be fun.
Selena’s left hand darted for the knob. She put on her most menacing face and pulled the field hockey stick up as high as she could.
Her overhead light flicked on and off and she felt something br
ush across the back of her neck, as if she had walked under a cobweb. She sensed someone right behind her, but the noises had come from the closet.
The knob twisted within her hand of its own accord and the door flung wide open.
There was someone in her closet.
The girl nestled amongst her clothes stared back at her, her eyes wide with shock, her mouth open in a silent scream.
She was the mirror image of Selena, only paler, with deep, dark eyes that were as unfathomable as the farthest reaches of space. The girl in the closet raised her hands in protest, her chest heaving as though she was shouting but no sounds escaped her throat.
Selena dropped the stick, trembling. She backed away on legs that had been stripped of all muscle and bone.
Her lips trembled as she sputtered, “No…no…no.” Her stomach dropped and she had to pee with an urgency she had never felt before. A jolt raced through her body when she collided with her chair. She grabbed its back to keep from falling, her gaze never leaving the phantasmagorical mirror image standing amidst her clothes and cheerleading uniforms.
The girl, Selena’s twin, also moved back farther into the closet, pushing dresses aside, a look of pure terror on her face.
Selena could scream, and she did.
She screamed until her entire family came bursting into her room, until the girl in the closet retreated to the dark recesses, back farther than the physical limits of the closet itself, fading into the nothing from whence she came.
Selena screamed until her throat was raw and blood flecked her panicked mother’s nightshirt.
Chapter Fourteen
Jessica Backman handed the manila envelope to Aunt Eve while a tornado of butterflies fluttered in her stomach. They sat on the back deck so the morning sun could warm them while they drank coffee. The birdbath in the yard was full of skittering, wet sparrows.
“I wanted you to read it first, so you can give me the thumbs-up or -down,” Jessica said.
Eve used a nail to tear an opening along the top flap. She was still a very pretty woman, her smooth, lightly tanned skin and short, blonde hair making her look at least ten years younger than a woman approaching her late forties. It was only when you were close and her guard was down that you could catch brief glimpses of the sorrow that always lurked in her eyes, sometimes hiding in the tiniest corners but never, ever, entirely gone.
“And who was the one who did the background check?” Eve asked before pulling out its contents.
“Swedey, the guy who does all of my web stuff. He’s one of those hacker geniuses who can find out anything about anybody. I gave him two full weeks to look up everything he could about Ed Home. I want to make sure this guy is on the level.”
Eve’s shoulders slumped, her face quizzical. “If you’re so uneasy about him, why even bother going through all this trouble?”
Jessica looked down at her coffee. “There were some things he said that kinda stuck with me.”
She offered no more in the way of an explanation. The background check was ten pages long and involved everything from Ed Home’s birth certificate right up to the present.
Eve raised an eyebrow but didn’t press. “This is going to take a few minutes.”
Jessica eyed the sparrows, stretched her arms and took a sip of coffee. “That’s okay. I have nothing but time today. It’s nice being out in the morning sun for a change.”
Because of her chosen profession, if she could call it that, sunlight was something she usually slept through, especially during the downtime between semesters. She felt an afternoon getting some vitamin D was in definite need.
Eve spent the next fifteen minutes reading and re-reading the report while Jessica closed her eyes and tilted her face to the sun. When Eve was finished, she placed her coffee mug atop the papers and folded her hands on the table.
“From what you said he told you, everything in there checks out. He is the great-grandson of D.D. Home, he did attend Duke University and he was at the Rhine Research Center over the past year. There’s nothing specific about his abilities, but there’s plenty mentioned about the other men in his family line. His parents are divorced and he currently lives in the Bronx. No criminal record, got all A’s and B’s in school, has no outstanding debt and volunteered at an animal shelter for three years, starting when he was fifteen. He sounds like the all-American boy. Being a New Yorker, that makes me suspicious. That and the fact that he found you after all of the pains we took to keep you anonymous.”
With a frown that brought out worry lines on her forehead, Jessica asked, “Does he have any money?”
Eve scanned through a few pages. “Not really, no.”
Guys looking to get close to her because of her money was always a concern. Eve made sure they lived normal lives and they never, ever mentioned to anyone that they had a net worth of over twenty million dollars. Jessica’s father had felt money like that would only bring out the vultures, which it did when he first won the lottery. He had vowed to keep things simple, and Eve followed suit after his death.
But the lottery win was not a private thing, especially since it was coupled with the death of her mother on the same day. There were articles about it in all the local papers, articles that someone could easily come by on an Internet search or in the library. Because of that, Jessica and Eve had to be vigilant at all times when new people tried to enter their lives. Jessica often wondered if distrust was the reason Eve remained single, even though she would have made a good man exceedingly happy.
Jessica said, “Well, at least he has no debt, so he won’t hit me up for a loan any time soon.” She smiled. “So, what do you say?”
Eve thought things over for a bit, patting the report. “When you look at the hard facts, I’d have to say yes. I guess it can’t hurt to see if he’s the real deal. Maybe he can help you. If he was at the Rhine Research Center for a year, he must either have some strange ability or at least a good working knowledge of the stuff you investigate. In an odd way, I’d feel better if you had a partner. Safety in numbers. Plus, there are these little things I call trust and faith, which I have in abundance when it comes to you.
“Although, I am curious about what he could have said to you to make you go through all this trouble. He didn’t threaten you, did he?”
Eve’s eyes took on the hardened edge of a warrior. One of her hands balled into a fist. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to protect Jessica and Liam. They were all survivors, and survivors knew how to look out for each other. God help the man, woman or beast who came between them with less than good intentions.
It was never spoken aloud, but Jessica suspected that Eve had been in love with her father. Losing him seemed to drain all hope of ever bonding with another man. Jessica was the last tie to her dad, and Eve was the only mother she had ever known. She sometimes wondered if there was another pair bound as close to one another as they were.
Jessica got up and kissed her on the cheek. “If he did, we’d be looking at pictures of him surrounded by a chalk outline. Thank you for loving me. I guess it can’t hurt to give him a shot. I have the perfect case to test him on.”
“The McCammons?”
Jessica nodded. “That place has been a thorn in my side for two months now. Maybe Mr. Eddie Home can pull it out.”
Eddie nearly hit the ceiling when Jessica called him back, a week and a half later than she had said she would. He had resolved himself to defeat and was thinking of what to do next when she called. The job he had gotten working in a health food store was far from glamorous enough to keep him in New York, but the thought of going back to San Francisco filled him with dread.
“I’m going to email you the address to the house I need you to meet me at. You can Google map them or whatever,” Jessica said. “Meet me there at seven sharp on Friday night. I already spoke to Tim and Kristen McCammon and got their permission to bring you on board. Rule number one, speak only when spoken to when we get there. They’re going through hell and I don’t wa
nt them thinking I’ve resorted to psychics to help them. Capice?”
“Can I make a quick correction?”
“As long as it’s quick.”
“I’m actually a psychic-medium. You kinda get the best of both worlds.” When Jessica didn’t respond, he gave a nervous snort.
Still silence.
“I’ll be on my best behavior,” he said.
“This place has a tendency to get pretty wild. Rule number two, if you run, you’re done. I don’t know how the presence in their house is going to react to you, so be prepared for anything.”
“What should I bring?”
“Yourself, a flashlight and a change of underwear.”
He thought he heard the start of a humorless chuckle as she disconnected the call.
Chapter Fifteen
They showed up at the same time in front of the McCammon house, a tidy Tudor in a neighborhood that required potential residents to have at least a couple of million in the bank. The town had once been home to the Kennedys before they became a political juggernaut and was still inhabited by the well-to-do. Jessica looked at Eddie Home’s battered, olive-colored Jeep in her rearview mirror as it pulled up behind hers. At least he had good taste in cars.
She popped the trunk and got out to unload her gear. Eddie stepped out, clad all in black.
