Brenda teared up from the mere mention of Adam disappearing again. Just the thought of losing Adam again was devastating. It was the not knowing…not knowing if Adam was dead or alive or kidnapped or injured or assaulted or cut up. Any of those scenarios could play out when a child is missing. There are no guarantees. Your child is fair game if he is out in the elements alone. They could not afford to have that scenario play out again, and the more they talked about it, the more Carter was going to ensure that the cameras were installed as early as the next day.
. . .
Carter made good on his promise when he took a half day off from work and stopped into a small electronics store that was referred to him by a coworker. They were very reputable and known for their video monitoring cameras, and actually installed them the same day, guaranteed. Carter was sold on everything they said, and he stuck with the one-year warranty because the clerk said, “I wouldn’t do it” when Carter asked him if he thought the extended warranty was a good idea. Honesty went far with Carter.
Since installation was the same day if ordered before noon, Carter was able to set up a 6 o’clock installation that night. The plan was for Brenda to take Adam out for dinner, while Carter oversaw the installation.
The plan was set in motion as soon as Brenda and Adam were backing out of the driveway. Within 15 minutes, the installation van pulled into the driveway and the installer began the installation process. He arranged it so that the camera would be installed in one corner of Adam’s bedroom with audio and video available through their computer. So if they heard Adam speaking, then they could just log in and view audio and video of the conversation.
They knew they were not going to find anyone besides Adam in the room, but they wanted to see if he was talking to someone. It would be one thing if he was just doing a task and talking to himself. However, if he was looking in the air and talking as if someone was there, then that’s an entirely different story.
The installation of the cameras went smoothly and the entire system was installed in less than an hour. It was tested and all systems were a go. By the time Brenda and Adam returned home, the installer was long gone. They did not want Adam to be tipped off about anything having to do with the camera as that would greatly reduce the credibility and usefulness of what they were trying to do. Now all they had to do was wait until the next time Adam started talking in his bedroom to nobody in particular. Carter and Brenda would no longer have to hold their breath and not make a peep outside Adam’s door. The laptop would gain them access to Adam’s room, and they would be able to see and hear everything from the comfort of their own bedroom, unbeknownst to Adam.
While Adam was in the living room watching television, Carter summoned Brenda into their bedroom because his enthusiasm for the camera did not allow his patience to hold off until bedtime. He wanted to show Brenda what he had and how it worked, and moments later he was logging into the program that runs the surveillance.
“Come over here. Come over here.” Carter was very excited.
“Wow. They got that done fast,” Brenda replied as the sign-in was activated and the curser was spinning.
Within minutes, they were both staring at the inside of Adam’s room. Carter looked on in awe, and whipped his head around to make sure Brenda was excited as well.
“Look at this,” said Carter. He showed Brenda his ability to move the camera eye around so he could check out different parts of the room. He could also zoom in if he needed to.
“This is unbelievable!” she said. “I’m thrilled we have this, especially with all of the weird incidents going on with Adam. Plus, it’s so hard to investigate. It’s just one of those things that you have to catch in the moment, and when they don’t know what’s happening. That’s really the only way to get true results. Otherwise, there’s no information you can trust.”
“You’re right,” said Carter. “The only way for us to get an accurate answer is by keeping Adam in the dark. Hey, if his safety means sacrificing his privacy, I mean, he’s six years old. He doesn’t exactly need privacy.”
Once Brenda sat in the driver’s seat, she began taking the controls and learning everything she could to operate this complex system. “This is so cool,” she said. She looked back at Carter for his reaction, then returned to the camera. She began circulating the camera, moving the lens and angles around, experimenting with everything a camera can do. Carter grabbed the little booklet that came with the camera to check on features and warranty and anything else having to do with the camera. Brenda continued to play with the numerous features, some she didn’t even know existed. They had come a long way with camera technology.
There was laughter coming out of Adam in the living room. All they needed to do was put SpongeBob on the tube and they had a babysitter. Adam could sit there and watch it all day if given the opportunity, and he would even forget to eat. Laughter continued, Carter studied, and Brenda played. She played with the camera angles, brightness and contrast. She zoomed in on Adams bed and then moved the camera lens over to the bureau, and then over to the closet. Then she started over again, moving the camera from one side of the room to the other. She returned to the bed, and then returned to the closet.
Brenda stopped the camera right where it was at the closet. That damn closet was where things happened. She didn’t want to alarm Carter, so she nonchalantly said, “Hmm…that was strange.”
“What’s up?” asked Carter, still staring at the booklet.
“I…don’t…know yet…could be nothing,” said Brenda, her eyes trained on the computer screen.
Carter was so focused on his task at hand that he didn’t read into the alarms she was setting off. “We’ll check into it further a bit later,” said Carter, “when Adam goes to bed.”
“Yeah, but I’m just a little bit more curious than you, so I’m gonna keep doing what I’m…doing. Oh my God! I saw...oh I don’t know…looked like a flash of some sort. It was very weird, though, like a streak across the room. That was the second time. Maybe it’s just the camera.”
“Could be a reflection,” said Carter. “I was reading about how sometimes the camera will…”
“Carter,” Brenda interrupted. “Every so often I’m seeing this streak, almost like an orb, but it doesn’t last. It comes and goes…very unusual.”
Carter finally lost his concentration due to the number of interruptions. It was enough, however, for him to take a look to see what was going on. He wanted to see what Brenda was seeing. He moved right up next to her as she was lying down on her stomach with an eye on Adam’s room.
“Okay,” said Carter. “Let me take a look at this so called streak that you keep seeing. It might be the camera angle with the way the light reflects off the…”
That’s where Carter’s assessment ended. He saw the streak that Brenda had been telling him about. Her assessment happened to be correct. It was unusual and it was strange.
“I’m so weirded out right now,” said Brenda. “Damn, Carter…I’m shaking. I’m actually shaking!”
“What the hell…was that?” he asked.
It happened a second time for Carter, but this time the streak slowed and three orbs resulted. They came out of nowhere as if someone was blowing bubbles into the room. Just then, the bedroom door opened and their son Adam entered the room as if he had been summoned. Upon entering the room, Adam stopped in his tracks and looked in the direction of the closet, and that was where the orb and streaks were occurring.
“Let’s get him the hell outta there,” said Brenda.
“No,” said Carter. “Let’s wait. It almost seemed as if Adam was drawn into the room. Did you see the way he entered? I mean, the whole reason I set this up was to capture what we could not capture on the other side of the door. He doe
sn’t know that we’re watching, so he won’t be deterred from talking. Only this time, we’ll be a fly on the wall.”
“This almost seems wrong,” said Brenda.
“Screw wrong,” said Carter. “We’re not voyeurs in that sense. This is our son and his well-being is at stake here. We need to get to the bottom of this and figure out what’s driving him to do the things he’s doing. We have to take matters into our own hands, like Evan did.”
“You’re right,” said Brenda. “There it is again!” She quickly pointed to the screen.
What they saw again was a slow streak crossing the room to where Adam was standing, and it stopped in front of him and scrambled into a thin cloud. Adam was not even alarmed. He must have been so used to this paranormal activity that it had become normal activity to his eyes and mind. He just stood there watching it hover before him, and then he began to speak.
“Where did they set up cameras?” asked Adam.
Whatever it was had formed and dissipated to the point where the camera was no longer picking it up, but Adam continued the conversation. It was a one-sided conversation because the camera was unable to pick up audio from the second party involved. It was almost as if Adam was having a conversation with himself. They could’ve been on the other side of the door and received the same information, but at least they could see the one-sided conversation and know that there had been some sort of spirit in the room communicating with him. As unsettling as this was as parents, they felt it was a giant leap forward.
Carter and Brenda could do nothing but watch. They couldn’t even talk about it because they did not want to talk over potential words coming out of their son’s mouth. They listened closely to pick up what he was saying. The audio was better than it was on the other side of the door, but they were still not hearing his conversation clearly.
There were some audio issues and it didn’t help that he was speaking low and the verbal replies were nonexistent. They were hearing bits and pieces of Adam’s statements, and he began mentioning the night he had visited the cemetery. The conversation again returned to his grandparents who were buried there, and Adam was asking why he made him go there. He had never gone there before, and never even knew them.
“I don’t know why you made me go there,” said Adam. “Please don’t make me go again, Martin. I don’t like that place.” Adam’s voice ended in a high pitched squeal and he began to cry. There was a noise that sounded like wind swooping in from the window, and there was a sound of something dropping to the floor, and suddenly the noise and the crying stopped.
“Ho-ly shit!” said Brenda. “The son of a bitch is back!”
“Son of a bitch is right!” said Carter. “I thought Martin was gone for good.”
“We’ve got to get Adam out of there,” said Brenda.
Carter got to his feet as well, and they went charging into the hall and ran to Adam’s bedroom door and ripped it open. Adam was no longer standing by the door, but had moved to the bed and was calmly sitting on the edge of it.
“Adam,” said Carter. “Come on with me.”
He grabbed his son underneath both of his shoulders, lifted him up and ran from the room. Brenda closed the bedroom door behind them and they returned to their own bedroom.
“What are you doing?” asked Adam. “Why did you put cameras in my bedroom?”
“Who told you we put cameras in your bedroom?” asked Brenda.
Adam looked at his parents and said nothing.
“Come on, Adam,” said Carter. “We know who told you that…because we saw you on camera. You can tell us the truth now, especially since we already know.”
Adam again looked at his parents and finally realized that he had to give it up. He was looking at the laptop and saw what they could see. The hidden camera trick was not a secret anymore. It didn’t even last a night as far as secrecy, but they got more information from it already than they ever imagined they’d get, and they were sure they’d get more.
“Martin told me about the camera,” said Adam.
It was still hard for Carter and Brenda to hear because it confirmed their worst fears. Martin was back in the picture, but at least he appeared to be a separate entity from the body of their son. That was the silver lining in all of this.
CHAPTER 18
Evan was needed. He had so many red flags, but now he was needed. He once told Carter that he had done some spiritual and paranormal work during his time on the force, so that would be a good place to start. He had his issues, but he had lost his wife and child to a hit-and-run driver. Who wouldn’t have issues?
The inclusion of Evan was an idea Carter and Brenda didn’t see eye to eye on, however. There were too many things that had come up in Evan’s past for Brenda to entrust him into her circle. Carter tried to paint him as a grieving widower who also lost his son and had spent his entire life serving the community.
This dilemma resulted in an agreement where Carter could have him come over and Brenda would not have to partake in any conversations. If Evan appeared at their door or in their kitchen unannounced, she would just walk the other way as if she was busy doing something. They did know one thing, though. They knew that they would not have to wait too long.
Although two days later was longer than they thought, Evan stopped by one evening after dinner. He didn’t knock on the front door, so the next thing they knew, Evan was standing in their kitchen.
“Oh, hey Evan,” said Carter. He wanted to get off on a good foot with Evan so he could find out more about his paranormal investigations from his days on the force.
“I just wanted to stop by as I was walking the dog…say hello and ask how Adam is doing. It’s been a while and I wanted to make sure you’re all okay.”
“Thank you,” said Carter. Brenda rolled her eyes and walked away.
Carter took Evan into the living room and they sat down to talk. However, Skippy had to do something that would force a walking chat. They made their way down the street, and Evan began asking about Adam.
“Adam’s doing…okay I guess, but not great.”
“Have you figured things out?” asked Evan.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” said Carter, “but we’ve got a long way to go.”
“Well, at least you started, I guess,” said Evan. “If you’d like me to talk to him, I’d be happy to do so.”
“You really like to help people. I mean, you were one of the first searchers out there. You pretty much directed the search party.”
“That’s the cop in me. Been like that my whole life.”
“Have you worked with kids before?” Carter asked.
“Sometimes, but I had a pretty long history with the department. I’ve run the gamut from desk work to traffic cop to beat cop. I’ve seen a lot of things over the years, stepped in a lot of shit along the way, and ran into people from all walks of life. When you ask if I’ve worked with kids before…the answer is…I’ve worked with everybody before, and a lot. No way to avoid it.”
There was a chill in the air as springtime had yet to convince winter of its approach. There was a moderate amount of traffic after the rush hour as stragglers piled up on the roadway. They were about two streets away when Carter just let it fly.
“Where do you live, Evan?”
“Where do I live?”
“Yeah, where do you live?”
“Oh, just around the corner.”
“I see. Any street in particular? I’ve never even been to your house.”
Evan slowed to a stop when Skippy found a tree he preferred. Up went his leg and the watering began. As Carter watched the dark spot on the tree increase in size, Evan app
eared to be thinking of how to respond, and finally managed “I’m over on Acorn Street. One of these days, we’ll get over there…just not thrilled to show it off, is all. We talked about that.”
Carter had to stop himself from saying something indicating that his house was perfectly fine. He wanted to get him to admit something. He actually did finally admit where he lived. That street name matched up with the street he had been to, so that statement went a long way with Carter.
Some trust was created during this walk. However, he had to tread carefully with the other issues due to their sensitivity. He wasn’t about to come right out and accuse him of anything. Hey Evan, why didn’t you tell us that you had a young son who also died in that crash? Why do you only talk about your wife dying? We don’t understand why you do that? Did your son not mean as much to you? He tabled that discussion until he could come up with a more feasible way to reveal those particulars.
Evan got to the end of the street and told Carter that he wasn’t feeling well and was going to go home and turn in early. Carter accepted the hint and didn’t want to push it. Besides, he had gotten something out of him tonight. He got honesty, and he thought that might actually go a long way with Brenda as well. Evan went his way and Carter went his way, and they both called it a night.
When Carter told Brenda that Evan gave up his street name and it was the same street he had visited the night he followed him home, she was pleasantly surprised.
“Maybe he’s more adjusted than we give him credit for,” she said.
“It didn’t hurt him,” said Carter. “However, we have some more work to do.”
They heard a scream outside the house, and it sounded like it was coming from the Oldman’s residence. It sounded like Victoria’s scream. They had never heard her scream, but they had heard her talk, and the scream sounded like it would come from her voice. They both looked at each other and ran next door, and Carter pounded on the door.
Desert Son Trilogy: Desert Son, Wayward Soul, Spiritual Intervention (Books 1-3) Page 60
