“That was nice of her,” Michael said, helping himself to a strawberry one.
“She’s a nice lady. Even if she is a skeptic,” Luke said.
“Did she say how many we’re allowed to have?” Kate asked.
“I think they’re all for us,” Gail answered her.
“Good. Then I’m having another,” Kate announced and reached for a chocolate cupcake. “I need to make sure I have plenty of energy, you know, for the investigation tonight.”
“Well, that covers tonight. What’s your excuse for the past twenty-four and a half years?” Gavin smirked.
“Hey, I eat... sort of healthy,” Kate said. “I mean, yeah, I had fried clams and onion rings and pizza today, but this is sort of like a vacation, so it doesn’t really count.”
“I wish I could find a woman who liked to eat like that,” Peter remarked.
“Um... I guess that warrants a thank you?” Kate laughed.
“It does,” Peter assured her. “Michael’s a lucky man.”
“Yeah,” Kate teased, nudging Michael with her shoulder. “So you’d better be good to me or I’ll start eating salad.”
“I will be good to you, no matter what you eat,” Michael promised her.
“Oh, you two better cut that lovey-dovey stuff out. Remember, that’s not allowed here,” Gail threw a dirty look in Luke’s direction.
“I know you’re trying to piss me off, but it’s not going to work because I am too excited about tonight,” Luke said. “Okay, so here’s what’s going to happen. As soon as Marian gets here with the necklace, we’re going to do a short segment in the hall, then we’re going to take the party into the master bedroom. I already checked with Carolyn, and she said that was fine.”
“Will she and Emily be joining us?” Gavin asked.
“No. She’s turning in early and Emily has homework,” Gail said.
“Probably for the best. Emily is already scared of the ghosts. If this investigation is as eventful as I’m hoping it will be, it will be traumatizing for all of us,” Luke added.
“Oh, please don’t hope that,” Michael deadpanned.
Luke just laughed at him.
When the doorbell rang a few minutes later, all four members of the Cemetery Tours crew were out of the room in the blink of an eye. Gavin followed close behind, still licking chocolate frosting off his fingers.
“Do you think this is a good idea?” Michael asked Kate once they were alone. He didn’t want to say anything to her, but his thoughts kept drifting back to the ghost that had been watching them down by the grave.
“Oh sure, they’ll be fine. They use trigger objects all the time on the show.”
“Yeah, but do you think it’s still a good idea for us to be involved?”
“I think so. Why? Are you having second thoughts?”
“No, not really. I just...” he trailed off.
“What?” Kate asked, taking both his hands.
“I just hope Luke knows what he’s doing.”
“I think he does. After all, this is his job,” Kate said. “You know, he’s kind of like a pilot.”
“How so?” Michael asked.
“A pilot doesn’t take off if he believes there’s a chance the plane could crash. I figure that if Luke thought there was even the slightest chance of something bad or dangerous happening, then he wouldn’t go through with whatever he was planning, because he’d be endangering himself just as much as his crew,” Kate explained.
Michael wanted to ask if she remembered a little incident involving a Bridal Barn and a homicidal preacher’s daughter, but he decided against it. None of them could have seen that coming. It was highly unlikely they’d run into any sort of similar situation at Stanton Hall.
At least, that was what Michael was going to tell himself.
Chapter 17
Kate had been wondering how Luke expected to fit eight people into one room for the EVP session with Sterling and the necklace. She should have known, given the size of the rest of the manor, that she needn’t have worried. The enormous master bedroom, as Carolyn had told them earlier, was still in the process of being renovated. Although it was by no means as aesthetically pleasing as the rest of the house, its deteriorating condition did lend the tiniest bit of charm. With the peeling wallpaper, boarded up windows, old dusty books and papers scattered on the floor, and bricks and floorboards piled in the corner, it was the perfect setting for a ghostly interview.
“Okay, we’re going to set up the main camera here,” Luke instructed, pointing to a spot at the foot of the worn and faded four-poster king-sized bed. “Peter, JT, Gavin, I want one of you to have a camera on the necklace at all times. The other two, be on the lookout for any movements, mists, light anomalies, basically anything unusual. We’re going to be turning off all the lights and shooting in night vision, so you’ll have to keep an eye on your camera screens to know what you’re looking at. Mikey, Kate, I think you know your assignments. I want all your senses on high alert.”
“We’re going to be in the dark?” Michael asked.
“Yeah. That’s how we do all of our investigations.”
“Will there be any candles this time? Because if it’s going to be pitch black in here, I won’t be able to see the ghosts any easier than you can.”
“Look at one of the screens on the camera. Someone will let you watch over their shoulder.”
“That won’t make a difference,” Michael said. “I see the same thing as everybody else on camera.”
“Really?” Kate asked. “But cameras have captured images of ghosts before. They have a whole show on the Biography Channel that features people who’ve caught ghosts on film.”
“It does happen occasionally, and I can’t explain why it does, it probably has something to do with energy, angles, and lighting, but this is the one instance where it works the same for me as it does for everyone else. But,” he added. “I’ll still be able to hear him if he decides to talk to us this time.”
“Good. Then keep your ears open. Kate, this means I’ll need you to be extra vigilant,” Luke said.
“Okay,” she agreed. She still wasn’t one hundred percent certain that she was as ‘sensitive’ as Luke would have the rest of the world believe, but it was nice to feel like she had a purpose in the group.
“Can you see them too?” Marian Davis asked her.
“No, but sometimes I just... know when they’re here,” she replied, hoping she didn’t sound like a fraud or a gloater. “It’s not a reliable skill by any means.”
“You’ve been pretty spot-on for as long as I’ve known you,” Luke assured her.
“Thanks,” she grinned.
Neither she nor Michael really had anything to do while the Cemetery Tours crew set the scene for the EVP session, so they stood back in the corner of the room and observed. Fortunately, it didn’t take Luke and his team very long. Less than ten minutes later, Peter, JT, and Gavin each had a camera in hand and Luke, Gail, and Marian had all seated themselves on the edge of the bed in the center of the room. They placed the box containing the necklace in the middle of the old mattress. Finally, Peter flipped the light switch and the entire room went completely dark.
At first, Kate was a little unnerved by the consuming and impenetrable darkness, but then, Gavin opened the small screen on his camera, illuminating his face and his shoulders.
She felt around for Michael’s hand, and when she finally found it, she leaned in and whispered, “Let’s go stand next to Gavin.”
Michael agreed, and very carefully, they made their way blindly across the room to where Gavin stood. Watching the scene through the camera, Kate realized, was a whole lot like watching an episode on a miniature movie screen.
“Alright. Everyone ready?” Luke asked.
“Go,” JT said. Peter and Gavin echoed his affirmation.
“We’re here in the master bedroom of Stanton Hall Manor. This was Joanna and Sterling’s bedroom. This is where they actually slept. More sign
ificantly, perhaps, is the fact that this is also where they both died. This room has had more reports of paranormal activity than any other room in this entire building. Now, we’ve brought Marian and her necklace in here, hoping that their presence might help stir up some of that activity, since we haven’t had a lot of interaction with either Sterling or Joanna. Are you ready for this, Marian?” Luke asked, sounding a lot like a kid about to ride his favorite roller coaster.
“I’m ready,” she answered with the same amount of enthusiasm.
“Alright then!” Luke exclaimed, and pressed the record button on his digital recorder. “Hi there, Sterling, Joanna. It’s us again, from last night. I hope you’re around, because we have something to show you. Woah. Did it just get colder in here?”
“I felt it,” Gail agreed.
“Me too,” JT said.
They weren’t the only ones. Kate felt the chilling rush also. Could a ghost have arrived already? Instinctively, she turned to look at Michael, but then she remembered that he was as incapacitated by the dark as the rest of them.
“Sterling? Joanna? Are you there?”
Beside her, she felt Michael stiffen.
“It’s Sterling. He’s here,” he confirmed.
“You hear him?” Luke asked.
“He wants to know what we’re doing in his bedroom.”
“We just came here to talk to you, Sterling. And maybe to help you,” Luke answered.
Kate heard Michael draw in a shaky breath. “He says he doesn’t need our help.”
“Okay, I can respect that. But you know, a lot of times, we don’t realize we need help until the right person shows up to provide it.”
Just then, the image on Gavin’s camera dissolved into fuzzy lines of jagged static, and a loud THUMP reverberated through the room. Kate didn’t have to be a sensitive to know that Luke had just made Sterling very upset.
“Luke, my entire screen just went gray,” Peter said.
“Mine did too,” Gavin reported.
Luke just kept pushing.
“Sterling, we’re not going to go away. Now, we’ve heard a lot about how you’ve been causing trouble for some of the workers here. A lot of people are pretty scared of you.”
Another loud noise, this time a STOMP and the shuffling of papers. Kate jumped and tightened her grip on Michael’s hand.
“He says he’s aggravated,” Michael translated. “Luke, maybe we shouldn’t - ”
“You’re aggravated. Hate to break it to you, Sterling, but a lot of people are aggravated.” Sterling must have said something then, because Kate felt Michael flinch, but Luke never gave him the chance to relay the message. “Believe it or not, we’re not here to make you angry. We just want to talk to you.”
Beside her, Kate heard Michael take a deep breath. Was he suddenly experiencing the same queasy feeling that had just befallen her? It wasn’t awful, but it was enough to make her want to lie down and rest her head on something soft. Was that Sterling making her feel that way? She couldn’t be sure. The last time a spirit had affected her, she’d felt dizzy and a little light-headed, but never sick. Was it the ghost? Or was the sickening amount of junk food she’d consumed earlier finally catching up to her?
“He says there’s nothing to talk about,” Michael said. “We’re all trespassers here, and he wants us to leave immediately.”
“Trespassers? That’s a pretty strong word there, Sterling. We’re not trespassers. We’re guests. Carolyn Drake asked us to come here. You know Carolyn, don’t you? The nice lady who owns this place? You’re pretty lucky she doesn’t believe in you, or she might have called in someone a lot less understanding than we are.”
“Why is he doing this?” Kate whispered to Michael. “Why is Luke being so aggressive?”
“Isn’t this just how he is?” Michael asked, sounding ill and exhausted.
“Maybe you’ll recognize this, Sterling. Huh? Does this necklace look familiar to you?” As he asked the question, Luke grabbed a flashlight, flipped it on, and cast the beam onto the sparkling blood-colored gems. “Is this the necklace you gave to Joanna?”
Kate heard Michael wince again.
“He wants to know where you got it. Luke... I think maybe we should - ”
“You gave it away, remember? To Joanna’s cousin Sarah. This is her great, great, great granddaughter, Marian. She owns the necklace no - ”
But before he could get the words out, a blood-curdling scream rang out from the darkness, scaring Kate so badly that she shrieked too.
With trembling hands, Luke turned the flashlight on Marian, who was curled up in a ball, quivering and sobbing, on the bed.
“What just happened?” JT asked.
“Marian, are you alright?” Luke asked urgently, resting his hand on her shoulder.
“No... No... He came at me... I could feel him. It was the worst... the worst feeling...” she wept.
“This is my fault,” Luke said. “Mikey tried to warn me, but I kept pushing. I’m so sorry, Marian.”
“I thought he was going to kill me,” she whimpered.
“Well, hopefully, he’s gone now. Gee, never thought I’d say that,” Luke said. “Kate, would you mind hitting the lights?”
Kate barely heard him. Michael’s palm had suddenly gone cold and clammy, and she could feel him swaying, struggling to stay upright.
“Kate, is everything okay?” Gail asked.
She never got the chance to answer. Half a second later, Michael collapsed.
“Michael!” Kate gasped.
Quickly, Gavin ran to turn the lights back on.
Thankfully, Michael hadn’t passed out. He was kneeling, however, with his arm and head pressed to the old, rickety footboard of the bed. All the color had drained from his face, and he was taking deep, slow breaths.
“What’s the matter?” Luke asked.
“It was Sterling,” Kate answered. “He made him sick.”
“You gonna be okay, Mikey?” Luke asked, leaning over to look at him. “Do we need to get you a trash can or something?”
Michael just closed his eyes and shook his head. Kate was glad that he didn’t seem to think so, but she was beginning to worry that maybe it wasn’t the ghost affecting them at all. No one else in the room seemed to feel sick. Maybe it was the clams.
Then she noticed Peter and Marian, both looking just as pale and sickly, and Kate felt oddly relieved. Strange as it may have been, she’d much rather have a ghost make her ill than succumb to something like food poisoning. She truly couldn’t imagine anything worse.
“Wait a minute. Where’s the necklace?” Gail asked.
Everyone, even Michael, turned their attention to the empty jewelry box on the bed.
“Marian, do you have it?” Luke asked.
She meekly shook her head.
“Maybe you hit it? Or kicked it? You know, during all the commotion?” Gail asked.
“I don’t think so,” Marian answered.
“Well, everyone look around. It’s got to be here,”
Luke said. “Mikey, you can just stay where you are. Don’t want you fainting, or worse, puking.”
“Thanks, Luke,” Michael muttered. Kate was relieved. He was already sounding more like himself.
“So, did you get any sort of look at him? At all?” Luke asked.
“No.”
“Oh well. Next time.”
“There’s going to be a next time?” Michael asked, sounding perplexed.
“Of course. What, do you think we came all this way for one EVP session? Mikey, we’re just getting started.”
“Oh, yay.”
They searched the room for half an hour, but still, there was no trace of the necklace.
“Do you think he took it?” Gail asked.
“Who? Sterling?” Peter asked.
“No, the mailman. Of course Sterling!”
“Can he do that?” Kate asked.
“Trevor trashed our apartment last year,” Gavin reminded her.
“Well, wherever it is, it’s definitely not here,” Luke said. “Marian, I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. I feel like this is my fault.”
“Of course it’s not your fault,” Luke said. “We’re the ones who brought you here. We should be apologizing to you. And buying you a new necklace.”
But Marian shook her head. “That necklace is irreplaceable. I’m just hoping that it shows up.”
Kate was surprised by how well Marian was handling the loss of a precious family heirloom. Then again, she was also exhausted, physically and mentally, from their encounter with Sterling. Maybe she simply didn’t have the energy to be upset.
Once they finally decided to call it a night, Kate walked with Michael back to his room.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah. I think I just need to get some rest.”
“Then you go do that.” Kate said, rising up on her toes to give him a gentle kiss. After they’d said their goodnights, Kate retreated to the Emerald Room. After such a stressful day, a long, hot, soothing shower was in order. As exciting as it could be, fraternizing with spirits was draining and, as previous experience had taught her, could even be a little dangerous.
She just hoped that Luke hadn’t pushed Sterling too far.
Since her very first EVP session with Luke, to the night Michael had told her about his gift, she’d believed that the world of ghosts was a mystical one, full of wondrous possibilities, and she’d persistently plagued Michael, trying to make him embrace her viewpoint. Now, she felt foolish and naive for her complete and utter disrespect for the harsh realities of life and loss, death and despair, and for the first time that trip, Kate found herself hoping they would have no further encounters with the ghost of Sterling Hall.
Between Worlds (Cemetery Tours Book 2) Page 13
